Jaesen Evangelista

Jaesen Evangelista recently graduated from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with a degree in biology pre-med. She is a former member of the St. Joseph Worker Program in Orange, California, where she served at the Mission Hospital Family Resource Center with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange. She has a passion for mental health equity and inclusion, cultural awareness, environmentalism, and the mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

By this Author

From left: Nina Dorsett, Emily Michaelis, Sr. Louise Ann Micek, Emma Shay, and I are pictured in a selfie. We ate at a restaurant in downtown San Diego after our service with migrants to reflect about our experiences. (Courtesy of Sisters of St. Joseph)

To be part of womankind is to be limitless

Notes from the Field - I recently ended my year of service. I wanted to dedicate my final blog post to the fundamental life lesson I will carry with me from my year of service. I'd like to talk about women.

Balboa Beach, California, the place I go to care for my mental health (Jaesen Evangelista)

My true journey: I am doing a year of service, and I have depression

Notes from the Field - You don't have to be perfect to do a year of service. You don't have to be tired anymore from trying to convince everyone that everything is always OK. All you have to be is you, the real and honest you.

From left: St. Joseph Sr. Louise Ann Micek, Jaesen Evangelista, Emily Michaelis, Emma Shay, Nina Dorsett and Cindy Emenalo. In San Diego, we organized donated clothes for the refugees staying at the migrant hotel.

Why is a butterfly a symbol of migration?

Notes from the Field - Like a monarch butterfly, a migrant travels far and wide to escape a harsh reality in search of a safe place. And both are beautiful.

My family in 2006. From left: Osmundo Evangelista Jr. (my papa), holding Jenalyn Evangelista (my baby sister); Joseph Evangelista (my older brother); and Maria Ignacio (my mom), holding me. (Courtesy of Jaesen Evangelista)

What does it mean to live a legacy?

Notes from the Field - I can cook Filipino food (though it's not as tasty as his). I can play mahjong (though not as well as he did). But it is in the community and the service I embrace that my papa lives on in me.

Retreat participants of the St. Joseph Worker Program of Orange, California, received shells representing the Camino de Santiago as a sign that we are pilgrims on our faith journey. (Courtesy of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange)

A pilgrimage lesson offers a path to purpose

Notes from the Field - A recent college grad finds new motivation for the service she has always embraced, thanks to a retreat with the St. Joseph Worker Program and a story about an atheist along the Camino.