My Vincentian Journey: I Just Really Dig Human Dignity
Beginning My Vincentian Journey
I think this face says it all.
That’s a picture of me and Pope Francis outside of Catholic Campus Ministry at Premiere DePaul, the summer before my freshman year of college. While I was excited by the possibilities, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about — or even aware of — all of the major changes to come.
I also wasn’t sure how I felt about going back to what was, at least in my mind, ‘Catholic school.’ From kindergarten through 8th grade, I attended St. Louis de Montfort for grammar school. While I was sad to see that the school closed within a few years after my 8th grade graduation, I thought that those 9 formative years at a Catholic institution were enough for me.
When I toured the University and learned it was not only a Catholic university, but the largest in the country, I was still a little cynical. But I would soon learn that Vincentian values would actually become something that would guide not only my time at DePaul, but also the goals I have for my future.
During my freshman year, I served on the Office of Religious Diversity’s EDGE Team. From various members of (what was then) University Ministry (and what is now the Division of Mission and Ministry), I learned more about Vincentian heritage and got involved with service.
I spent a morning at the Elizabeth Ann Seton Food Pantry & Soup Kitchen, volunteered at the Pacific Garden Mission on Vincentian Service Day, and became interested in providing support for people experiencing homelessness.
For their project, two other members of my EDGE Team started a women’s prayer and service group called Women of Spirit. I joined them to distribute bags of toiletries and nonperishable food items to people experiencing homelessness around the Loop.
We Form Each Other
Throughout my freshman year, I began to notice just how much the Vincentian mission informed course topics, activities and events, and even the interests and activism of students on campus. While I initially chose DePaul because it just felt right to me, I began to truly embrace the commitment to social justice and recognition of human dignity that underpin the Vincentian mission through the friendships I developed.
But like Louise, I needed some help to get there. While I’m sure that he would humbly deny the comparison, my ‘spiritual advisor’ would have to be my friend Maciej, Meet Me at the Mission Student Assistant extraordinaire.
My friendship with Maciej is sort of an unusual one. He was actually my Orientation Leader — yes, the same occasion when I took that smirky picture with Pope Francis! And by my junior year, we actually became roommates.
After Orientation, I lost touch with Maciej until I encountered him chatting with my new friend Hannah one day. Maciej had served as Hannah’s Orientation Leader too — and I would soon learn that pretty much everyone knows him. During the winter, we shared a class together and really started becoming friends from there. (I mean, how could I not befriend someone whose Star Wars t-shirt collection bests even my own?)
By sophomore year, Hannah and I became roommates and Maciej invited us to attend some Meet Me at the Mission events. At this point, I was no longer skeptical and had started volunteering with the Learning Imagination for Fun Education program through the DePaul Community Service Association, working with 4th and 5th grade students on math skills at the Visitation School. Clearly, something about the Vincentian mission was getting to me, I just couldn’t put my finger on it yet. With Maciej’s encouragement, Hannah and I joined the Vincentians for Mardi Gras and shared a meal with the Daughters of Charity.
By spring 2019, I had also started working at Special Collections and Archives in the University Library. Working with archival materials related to the Congregation of the Mission and members of the Catholic Left, I really gained an appreciation for the amazing impact that Vincentians had made all over the world.
I was excited by and grateful for Maciej’s ability to welcome me into this community of people who cared so deeply for each other and the welfare of all people. That was something that I wanted to share with other students as well. I had the opportunity to do so by following in Maciej’s footsteps and becoming an Orientation Leader myself. As an Orientation Leader, I got to share with new students how awesome the Vincentians are and dispel some of their skepticism — which I’m not too proud to say was somewhat reminiscent of my own when I was a freshman.
While Maciej acted as my ‘spiritual advisor,’ I would be remiss not to mention my friend and roommate Hannah (three years strong!) as someone who has helped to form my Vincentian heart. While I supported social justice causes in mind before college, I didn’t really think about how I could use my career to make a difference, speak out, or take any substantial action. Hannah always has. Like Maciej, she is someone who cares so deeply about everyone she meets, never loses faith in them, and is endlessly passionate about making the world a better place.
Hannah volunteered on grassroots campaigns and attended an ACLU camp in high school — at a time when my biggest worry was probably finding out my ACT score! As an 18 year old, she also became the youngest elected official in Cook County — or so we believe — when she successfully ran for her township’s library board. Both she and I are very ambitious and always push and encourage each other to follow our dreams and be more empathetic, mindful, and kind versions of ourselves.
Hannah and Maciej have been my constant reminder that surrounding yourself with good people can make you a better person. Interestingly, they are both pursuing careers in academia — he in mathematics and she in political theory. They’ve both been amazing teachers in life for me, so I’m very much looking forward to the impact they are sure to make on their students.
What the World Needs
My time at DePaul also opened my eyes to appreciate the goodness of the people I encountered on campus as well as to recognize the needs of others beyond it. Some of the most transformative experiences that awakened this in me came from my ability to finally embrace my passion and pursue my education and career in history.
As I continued to gain broad perspectives on the past through training in historical research, public history practice, museum studies, and archaeology, I was constantly reminded just how many people — too often those who are women, people of color, queer, working-class, and disabled — have been systemically denied the opportunity to find their place. I’ve learned that the problem has real consequences when it comes to representation within the heritage fields and the resilience and relevance of them.
For instance, one of these experiences included the opportunity to study abroad in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There was perhaps no better way to instill the value of a human life than to be in places of such immense devastation, destruction, and death.
Meeting with atomic bomb sufferer Emiko Okada, who recently passed away in April 2021, was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. It was so striking to see someone who had experienced so much loss and violence still commit her life to advancing peace. This study abroad program, focusing on the atomic bombings in history, memory, and discourse provided a jumping off point for the kinds of issues and events I want to examine in my career.
I have been very fortunate to be able to carry out my commitment to social justice through many of my professional development opportunities. For instance, one of my projects at Special Collections and Archives pre-pandemic was to help produce and distribute copies from the Anthony Rayson zine collection for people who are incarcerated. Many of the zines in the collection include legal guidance, scholarship about incarceration, and explore the freedom struggle and liberation of people of color.
Through my fellowship at the DePaul Art Museum, I helped to prepare a land acknowledgment statement for the museum as well as contribute to the three-year Latinx Initiative to expand the canon beyond white artists. I am perhaps most proud of the work I’ve done as an intern with the National Park Service Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education. Primarily focusing on the places where women of color traveled, protested, and made history, I have begun to advance the recognition of human dignity under the office’s tagline, Telling All Americans’ Stories. While it might not seem like a significant contribution, my supervisor put it in a way that really struck me. It was something like this:
“If I don’t see myself, I won’t feel like I belong. If I don’t see you, I won’t feel like you belong. We won’t care about each other’s history and heritage, or want to take care of and contribute to it.”
Because stories provide a powerful way to help people see themselves and each other, I am pursuing a career as a public historian. In the fall, I will begin the Heritage Studies and Public History master’s program at the University of Minnesota. I specifically chose this program because of its focus on race and Indigeneity, community-based practice, and commitment to social justice.
Like many other members of the DePaul community, I have been invested in the Movement for Black Lives and racial justice remains top of mind as one of the most pressing issues we are constantly facing in the United States. Yet, the spa shooting in Atlanta on March 16 shook me, as a Chinese American woman, in a way that was really unexpected. While I had already committed to the master’s program at the end of February, the surge in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic and this violent event confirmed for me that I was doing the right thing.
Hate and violence continue to be unleashed in the United States and around the world because people cannot recognize the respect and human dignity that everyone shares. I intend to carry out the Vincentian mission by leveraging what we know about the past to advance social change.
When we can demonstrate and understand how discrimination on the basis of race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability developed and is perpetuated, we are one step closer to dismantling those issues. While I am not claiming that learning about the experiences of other people is the be all-end all, it does provide a means to critically engage with our past, recognize how it informs our present, and encourage civic participation.
So, maybe that picture didn’t say it all. It was only just the beginning, and I truly can’t even say it all here in writing. As I reflect now on my past and growth as a Vincentian leader, I am sad to leave DePaul, but I am also so heartened to know that Vincentian values are my values and I will bring them with me in everything I do.
