Where ASC Serves

Alum Service Corps volunteers serve in the five domestic high schools of the Missouri Province.  Their service experience is shaped by the unique environments of each of the participating schools, but ASC volunteers find common purpose in the Jesuit mission that binds the schools together.

De Smet Jesuit High School
De Smet Jesuit High School has been part of the Alum Service Corp (ASC) program of the Missouri Province since 1992.  Fourteen full-time teachers on the De Smet faculty began their teaching careers as Alum Service Corp volunteers.  At De Smet, ASC volunteers are normally classroom teachers, usually with one less class than a full-time teacher.  Volunteers have taught in every academic area based on their academic backgrounds. In addition to teaching, most ASC volunteers are involved in the co-curricular life of the school as club moderators and coaches.  They also assist by leading retreats and supervising service activities.  They are actively involved in the school’s professional development program for staff members, especially the program for new teachers.  In essence, ASC volunteers are treated as any other member of the faculty, with the same responsibilities and duties.  Volunteers are supported by working closely with mentor teachers, department chairs and the Assistant Principal for Staff Development.

Rockhurst High School
Rockhurst High School is proud and honored to be part of the Alum Service Corp program since its inception. Service is important to the ASC program and essential to the Ignatian culture at Rockhurst High School. ASC faculty participate fully in the life of the Rockhurst school community. Possible areas of service include classroom teaching (usually two classes in their area of expertise), co-curriculars in their area of interest and skill, community service projects, and pastoral activities, e.g., retreats and liturgy planning.  ASC faculty are included in the new teacher mentor program and the Ignatian Formation program required of all teachers in their first two years at Rockhurst. This year’s ASC faculty teach Spanish, theology and computer essentials.  They also coach football, cross country, soccer, and track and assist in student government. Housing is provided on the high school campus in Xavier Hall.

Regis Jesuit High School
Alum Service Corps volunteers have served at Regis Jesuit since the program began in1991. Traditionally, volunteers have done part-time teaching in their area of competence?sometimes team-teaching a course with a veteran teacher who serves as a mentor. They often teach courses in computer literacy. Besides their demanding teaching duties, ASC volunteers support the school community through a variety of responsibilities such as coaching, moderating clubs, pastoral and retreat services, community service, mentoring individual students, and working as prefects and substitute teachers. Like other new teachers at Regis, ASC volunteers find support from colleagues, mentors, administrators and the Jesuit community.

Regis ASC volunteers live in a nearby condominium and enjoy their free time outside of school socializing with colleagues and with the Jesuit community for a weekly Mass and dinner. Along with the two volunteers at Regis this year, there are six ASC alumni working as full-time teachers in the school.

Regis Jesuit has been transformed in recent years to include a Girls Division. While the ASC has not been active in the Girls Division to this point, current volunteers do work with sports and club activities that are coeducational. The school looks forward to the future expansion of the program to include placements in both divisions, especially as our new female graduates finish college and look for meaningful ways to be of service in gratitude for their Jesuit education.

Arrupe Jesuit High School
Alum Service Corps volunteers join in the mission of Arrupe Jesuit High School. Following the Cristo Rey model, Arrupe Jesuit serves the economically disadvantaged and the racially and culturally diverse youth of Denver’s central city neighborhoods.  ASC volunteers participate fully in the life of the school through classroom teaching, tutoring individual students, driving the school bus, coaching sports, moderating clubs, yearbook, newspaper, community service projects, retreats, etc.  Teaching opportunities (depending on the volunteer’s background) include: computer applications, public speaking, pre-algebra, study skills, and team-teaching with an experienced faculty member in any subject. 

Arrupe volunteers live in a small house across the street from school and join the local Jesuit community each week for Mass and dinner.  Arrupe volunteers do not need to be bilingual (English-Spanish).

ASC volunteers participate in Arrupe’s mission by making Jesuit education accessible to young people who would not otherwise have this opportunity.  The school is small (275 boys and girls), so volunteers get to know the students well and help them navigate the challenges of growing up in impoverished neighborhoods.  ASC Volunteers at Arrupe have the unique opportunity of helping a new Jesuit high school (founded in 2003) to build on the tradition of St. Ignatius that has animated Jesuit education for centuries.

St. Louis University High School
St. Louis University High is currently enjoying its 18th year as an ASC service site. In the classroom, ASC volunteers are assigned no more than two sections in their subject area, and receive excellent mentoring from accomplished veteran teachers. In general, volunteers coming to SLUH should be self-starters and flexible, excited to act upon their own initiative, as the job description in the classroom organically corresponds with the needs of an individual school year.

For the current school year, the two ASC volunteers are teaching English Literature, Global History, and helping out in a Chinese language class. There are eight former ASC-volunteers on the faculty and staff, offering ample opportunities for mentoring. ASC volunteers at SLUH have the distinction of overseeing the Fr. Hagan Rec Room, a hang-out space for students with over 20 billiard and ping pong tables, foosball, bumper pool, and shuffle board.

As at other schools in the province, ASC volunteers have the opportunity to take on leadership responsibilities in coaching and other co-curricular activities. They are also expected to help lead retreats and other pastoral activities coordinated through Campus Ministry.

The most memorable element of the ASC experience at SLUH is the weekly gathering with the Jesuit community, who live next door, for Mass, social hour, and dinner. It is at these weekly sessions, which take precedent over any other extra-curricular involvement, that the unique mission of ASC is most evident. ASC at SLUH is a ministry of service and presence and the weekly gathering with the Jesuit community offers a unique opportunity to refresh and refocus.