As the needs of our students evolve, the Center for Service and Action (CSA) is preparing to welcome back our Lions with renewed energy and excitement. When Loyola Marymount University returns to in-person programming and engagement opportunities this fall, CSA will offer both in-person and virtual options for students to commit to service and justice. And, after a nationwide search, Patrick Furlong ‘06 has been named CSA’s director.
The service of faith and promotion of justice has been a major component of LMU’s mission to create “people who are with and for others” and is a hallmark of a Jesuit education. In the 1970s, the then leader of the Jesuits stood in front of many influential Jesuit school alumni in Spain and essentially said that if all their education has done has made their lives better and more comfortable, then the Jesuits had failed to educate them properly. He talked about being people for others and how that is what Jesuit education is about.
“And now, some 50 years later, when we look at what is happening now, we see traces of that in our work to be anti-racist university,” said Furlong. “This work is important because it exposes you to the complexity of the world, both the joy and opportunity in a community as well as the injustice and challenge. I think our engagement with one another forces us to reflect on our talents, abilities, and training and ask how, years after we have left LMU, we will use that to make the world a better and more just place?”
The team in CSA has worked very hard over the past year to meet students where they are in the virtual space with service and advocacy opportunities. As LMU returns to an in-person environment, the team is focused on diversifying its programs and offerings and continuing to offer some virtual engagement options. One example is for Alternative Breaks trips, the team is planning several in-person opportunities but remains committed to offering at least one virtual option for students to participate. The community-based learning program is working with faculty who have integrated service components into their coursework to provide in-person and virtual opportunities appropriate for the learning environment.
One CSA program that’s made significant strides over the past year is the Food Pantry. This program has helped so many students who were facing food insecurities by expanding options available in the pantry to more healthy and fresh produce over the past year. The Food Pantry is eager for students to be in-person this fall and for the opportunity to continue to help those who face food insecurities and educate the campus community about food insecurity. Outreach will be one of its most essential components this fall. It includes using a new Food Pantry Instagram account to follow for the latest items available in the pantry and recipes to make with food found inside.
When new students arrive on campus next month, CSA is excited to help each Lion understand why LMU is such a special place. To accomplish that, staff are specifically looking at creating programs for first-year, sophomore and transfer students to get started with service and advocacy opportunities on-campus and in the local community. One of the first opportunities for new students is to attend the annual ServeLA event, where first-year students are introduced to a nonprofit partner doing great work in L.A. It’s a chance for students to connect and explore opportunities at L.A. nonprofits that they might be interested in serving with. CSA will also have recruitment for Alternative Breaks and opportunities to attend the largest national social justice conference in Washington, D.C. One of the best ways for students to get involved with service is by visiting the CSA office in St. Robert’s Annex.
For Furlong, the idea of getting people comfortable with navigating complexity and doing it with a lens of curiosity is at the core of his work as director of CSA. “I would say one thing I value personally and professionally is curiosity and I think it has the potential to be the root of so much that is good in our world,” said Furlong. “Out of it arises intellectual hunger for knowledge, empathy, and a willingness to see yourself as part of something bigger than we can even conceive and at the same time worthy to be at the table. So, I hope students learn to engage the world in and beyond themselves through their work with us, and in doing so find community, the type of community that inspires us to be better members of it.”
The LMU student perspective is one Furlong can closely relate to. As an LMU alumnus, he recalls feeling like a bit of a mess when he came to LMU, and it was people like Cristina Cuellar, who now leads one of CSA’s community partners, who was a student manager at the time and great friend and mentor. Furlong jokes with her that she was one of the CSA staff who loved him despite himself. “I think the radical love I was a recipient of formulated my educational philosophy around cura personalis and finding ways to be present and supportive of our students,” said Furlong. “CSA was also a place that empowered me. I was fortunate to participate in the first-ever Alternative Breaks trips and to lead trips each year after that. I had never left the U.S. before, it just wasn’t the world I grew up in, and suddenly I am leading these incredible social justice trips to different places in the world. And then my best friend and I were given a chance to create Magis, a service organization that exists today. All of these experiences in CSA inspired me to work in South America for a few years after graduation and to work in the nonprofit space in LA before I came back to LMU.”
Furlong has experienced the potential impact of CSA firsthand as a student, an alum, and now as a leader. He takes each of these experiences with him every day and is very intentional on recognizing that, like him, each student has their own unique path and experience. “As an educator who is deeply committed to the Jesuit notions of justice and cura personalis, I have a chance to make sure they know that I am here for them and excited to accompany them on their journey.”
Furlong’s journey would not be possible without the lasting impact of Pam Rector in creating CSA and her radical pursuit of community. “I think I can speak for our staff and so many alums around the world when I say Pam is in each of our hearts to comfort us, but she also challenges us: Pam chose community at all costs,” said Furlong. “I had never seen Sacred Heart Chapel filled beyond capacity until the day of her funeral and I think that speaks to who she was to so many. And so, Pam lives on, pushing us to choose community. Fight for justice. Be mission-driven. When Pam was sick, she had our CSA staff focus on gratitude. Think about that: In the midst of pain, she chose gratitude. That’s the spirit of the woman who founded this office and I look forward to having our center one day named after her and to have a new student ask, ‘So, who was Pam Rector, anyway?’ and be able to say, oh, let me tell you.”