Gonzaga College High School requires each and every student to participate in service and accumulate a certain number of hours each semester. Serving the community has always been part of the mission at Gonzaga, but in the past few years, the service requirement has often been altered. This year Gonzaga seniors were told to complete three service opportunities per semester as the requirement.
“We think it is important that every single student graduates Gonzaga with the opportunity to serve the poor,” said Ms. Danielle Flood, associate director of campus ministry. “It is something that all Jesuit schools have in common.”
Serving the community is part of the Jesuit education that is built into the mission of the school. Each student must do service in order to fully achieve what it means to be educated in this setting. It is not uncommon to discover that students find this service to be a burden; however, there are some students that look at the requirement and laugh.
Senior Ramit Parshad is one of those students who never has to worry about the requirement.
“I do service not only because of the requirement but because I feel that service to humanity brings me closer to God as a ‘man for others,” Parshad said.
For him, serving others is second nature and he has carried this commitment all throughout his life.
“The first time I did ‘service’ was in elementary school. I used to hold the door for my peers after school as they were getting out,” Parshad said. “Nobody told me to do that, and I did not know what service was, but I always wanted to help my peers.”
Since elementary school, Parshad has recognized a passion for helping and serving his peers. Gonzaga never influenced him to do service.
“Instead, it strengthened my desire,” Pashad said.
Throughout his life, he has been dedicated to doing service, and he looks at the three service requirements not as work but as opportunities.
Senior Joey Ries has a similar perspective on the service requirements at Gonzaga. Ries consistently does service for a program called the “Sunshine Project”. The program’s mission is to inspire individuals with intellectual disabilities and give them confidence and creativity to help them succeed. They provide educational and creative activities for these young adults in order to enrich their lives. Ries has committed to helping this organization and these people as much as he could; however, he did not always have this passion.
“Gonzaga influenced me to do service through the requirement,” Ries said.
The service requirement at Gonzaga is what first introduced him to service. Ries had previously never had any experience doing service nor the inclination; however, once he began working with this organization, his perspective on serving others changed.
“Doing service makes me feel amazing because I know I am making a positive and real contribution to my community,” Ries said.
Service builds communities, friendships and experiences, and these exemplary students know how much it has done for them.
“I realized that every time I participate in a service opportunity, it fills my heart with happiness, which then opens my brain to explore new ideas and do better academically,” Parshad said.
Carol Corgan • Feb 7, 2023 at 4:24 am
Sam–Nice article!Thank you.