I am so grateful for the opportunity to stay involved with the Augustinian Volunteers as a member of the Advisory Board and by being part of the annual orientation for new volunteers. Through my involvement as an alumna, I am able to stay connected to the Augustinian Volunteer and broader Augustinian community, and to find ways to integrate my AV experience into my life and career now. My experience with the AVs was very formative and transformative. The values and lessons I learned during my AV year, particularly the values of hospitality and community, have become very influential in my life, so I am glad to be able to contribute to making the AV experience possible for others. It is inspiring to meet the new volunteers each year, and to see their energy and commitment. It is also exciting to see the AV program evolve and grow, while remaining rooted in its Augustinian values and mission.

It feels good to give back, especially to those who gave so much to me.   More importantly, I believe the world would be a better place with more Augustinian Volunteer alumni. Haven’t you ever thought you are a better roommate, better professional, manager, spouse, human being because of what you learned and experienced as a volunteer?  Of course you have, because you are. The world would be a better place with more Augustinian Volunteer alumni.

Well for that to happen, we all need to pitch in and keep the dream alive. I started really small by giving up a beer at the bar and setting up an automatic payment of $5 a month to the Augustinian Volunteers. Each month, I see the payment go out and it feels good to give back! For you, maybe it’s a Starbucks coffee, a cab ride, a night out, cooking a meal versus take out. The amount doesn’t matter, please just give back and I promise, it will make you feel good too.

As an Augustinian Volunteer I learned deeply from building relationships within my volunteer community and the community I served. Since leaving the AVs I moved to Hawaii and now Texas. However distant, my community from Peru and I have been blessed to reunite almost every year! Staying connected with them allows me to challenge myself to live out the values I committed to when I said yes to volunteering. I also do my best to stay connected to Alumni news and have been a peer mentor. Doing so allows me the opportunity to connect with and support new volunteers who make the choice to share in the joy and challenges of being and AV.

Coming right off of a year of service, I feel like the things I have learned from being an Augustinian Volunteer are both fresh in my mind and therefore contrast more drastically with the life I am leading now. That is not to say that one cannot live a life focused on community and service and faith after a year of service, but staying involved with the Augustinian Volunteers even after my year of service has allowed me to keep present the aspects of the program that have molded me into a individual focused on relationships and giving. And those values, I have realized, are inseparable from the life I want to create for myself and for others. Whether it’s grabbing lunch with a fellow alum in the area, or reaching out to the current Augustinian Volunteers in their cities across the country and the world, or helping to spread the word about this formative program, staying involved with the Augustinian Volunteers has reminded me of just how very proud I am to belong to an organization that has given so much to me and, in turn, continues to allow me to give so much back.