The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
– Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India

Not very many people know that after graduating from the University of California at Davis, I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for two years. In 1986-87, I was a math tutor and librarian for a boarding school run by the Order of the Jesuits in St. Mary’s, Alaska, which is in the rural part of Western Alaska. The following year, I served as a newspaper editor for a prisoners rights union run by a Jesuit priest in San Francisco. Those two years widened my view of the world on so many levels.

Jesuit Volunteers get ready for the school year at St. Mary’s, AK, Fall 1986.

Sled dog race on the Andreafski River, Winter 1987.

Tutoring my students in math.

A stunning sunset over the Andreafski River in the dead of winter, 4pm local time.

When I reached out to the JVC: Northwest to let them know about my novel, they kindly asked me to write a blog about how my book and my life today were informed by my years in the JVC. The blog got published this month, and I wanted to share it.

You can read the blog post here.

Fundraising with my JVC colleague, Susan Brown, and our director, Paul Kominsky, a Jesuit priest at the time and defense attorney, San Francisco, Spring 1988.

My protesting days….

I leave you with this: Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. – Howard Zinn, historian, playwright, and social activist.