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In Challenging Times
The coronavirus pandemic has restricted the hands-on
service for people in need that is the hallmark of the
Jesuit High School community service program. Jesuit’s
director of community service, Andy Wood ’92, and the
students have explored ways to be ‘Men for Others’ during
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the students talked about their service experiences during
April.
Jake Hagan ’20 This cemetery is very
important to me as I have visited my family
members here for as long as I can remember,
including my grandmother who passed away
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able to provide information for this initiative
in order to remember her life, as well as to
remember the lives of many other people,
was gratifying. There were many graves that
had weeds and grass grown over the names
and dates, evidence these people had not
been visited recently. Some had most of the
gravestone covered, and with death dates
as far back as the ‘60s, so there is a good
chance these people had not been visited in
possibly 20 years or more. I was able to help
these people be remembered and made their
information and stories live on.
Viet Ho ’21 From what I have
observed so far, even though
these children might come from
low-income and migrant backgrounds,
they are extremely eager
students and quickly able to learn
and gain knowledge. It makes me
truly happy to be a part of these
student's academic foundations,
and it brings me great joy that
they value their education. I have
tutored a 4th grade boy and his
younger sister, a 2nd grader, so far,
and I could tell from the start that
both were extremely bright and
wanted to learn.
6 JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2020
Dr. Lucy Guerra On a wonderful note, I received
nearly 60 cards made by Jesuit students for
medical staff and patients which I took to (TGH)
today when I went to work. One of them I delivered
to an elderly gentleman in the ICU who was a Jesuit
graduate from a high school in France. He was on
oxygen so he could not really talk but his eyes lit
up. He wrote it on a clipboard and showed it to me.
He is doing very well and this just made my entire
month :-). It has been very hard, but this was a
great moment for me at least. The nurse and I were
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Nico Machado '21 Franco Machado '21
Danny O’Leary ’22 I have never tutored
before, so this experience has been completely
new. I can now better appreciate
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educate us. Yisell just arrived in the U.S. less
than a month ago from Mexico. She spoke
no English. Even though she was a middle
schooler, I was shocked at how much homework
she was assigned. We got completely
through her reading comprehension. … It
was very hard for her to do homework
in a completely different language. Then,
over two days, we got through 7 pages of
her math homework. I taught Yisell mean,
median, and mode (promedio, mediano,
moda). We got through half of her science
homework (total 14 pages) too. What made
it harder were initial connection issues and
long-distance delay in communication.
I found myself frequently consulting my
Several Jesuit students are
helping capture data on
gravestones for genealogical
research to honor our ancestors
and loved ones before the
gravestone deteriorates. Photos
of gravestones are added to a
GPS-linked cemetery database.
Many Jesuit students have been engaged in virtual tutoring of migrant children, working through the
challenges of not being able to meet in person to assist young migrant students in need with their
schoolwork.
Brothers Nico Machado ’21 and Frankie Machado ’21 helped
initiate Jesuit students writing letters of gratitude and support
for health care workers and patients. Their mother, Dr. Lucy
Guerra, then shared those letters with staff and patients at
Tampa General Hospital, and Dr. Guerra shared this story about
delivering those letters.