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Description / Mission
VOICE is the student advisory board for the Center for Social Concerns (CSC). VOICE seeks to:
Apply now to serve on the 2013-2014 VOICE CSC Student Advisory Board!
Application deadline is Friday, April 19, 11:59 p.m.
Applicants who serve on VOICE are students selected by the existing advisory board. VOICE meets regularly on its own and attends weekly CSC staff meetings. For more information, please contact any of the current members listed below. They welcome suggestions, questions, and comments.
Huili Chen
hchen6@nd.edu
Class of 2014
Hometown: Guiyang, China
Majors: Computer Science
Huili is a sophomore student coming from a mountainous province in Southwestern China. She is excited to spend her second year serving the CSC as a member of VOICE. Huili likes sharing stories about teaching music class in a rural elementary school in her hometown, playing ping-pong on a cement ping-pong table with her students, and selling self-designed mugs to raise money for the school at her high school. On her first year at Notre Dame, she enjoyed her two eye-opening Appalachia seminars and her Urban Plunge experience in Portland. Last summer (2012), she spent two weeks with other four ND students in two villages of her not-so-developed hometown and helped local ethnic minority people preserve their culture. Huili can be found on the second floor of Pasquerilla East Hall. She is more than happy to listen to your stories and share hers. If you are up for it, please send her an e-mail to have some coffee and food.
Annie DeMott
Class of 2013
Hometown: Holland Michigan
Major: Theology
Annie is a senior from Holland Michigan studying theology with education, schooling and society as a minor. A member of the Voices of Faith gospel choir, Annie loves singing and music. She also enjoys outdoor adventures, speaking Spanish, playing with children and cooking different ethnic foods. Grateful to her family for instilling the values of faith and service to others in her, Annie has participated in many events and programs offered by the CSC throughout her time at Notre Dame. The most memorable of these was the summer she spent working at the Finca del Niño in Trujillo, Honduras. She is particularly interested in education and labor rights issues that affect the Latino community in the U.S. and in Latin America. Last year, she took a leave of absence to study abroad with Santa Clara’s La Casa de Solidaridad in El Salvador. Inspired by the example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and Oscar Romero, Annie deeply believes the message, “be faithful in small things, for in them your strength lies.”
Carl David Jones II
cjones18@nd.edu
Class of 2013
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Major: Accountancy
David is a senior hailing from St. Louis, Missouri. Discovering the Center for Social Concerns early in his freshman year, he has not looked back. Pursuing a Catholic Social Tradition minor, David participated in Urban Plunge during the winter of 2010 and then travelled to Chicago for the Organizing, Power, and Hope Seminar during the winter of 2011. He also took part in the Student-Athlete Tuscaloosa Service Project during fall break 2011. A three-year member of the cheerleading team for Notre Dame, David cheers year-round for football, volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s basketball. In April of 2012, David had the honor to cheer the Lady Irish during their run to the Women’s Basketball Final Four in Denver, Colorado. David also served as a captain of the team during the 2011–2012 year and is a two-year member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council. An Accounting major, David interned for Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, two summers ago in St. Louis, Missouri and in the summer of 2012 worked in New York City as an analyst for Citibank in their transaction banking business. David brings to VOICE not only a passion for service and helping the poor, but also a business background that can integrate the two worlds together.
Mia Lillis
mlillis@nd.edu
Class of 2014
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Major: Philosophy
Mia is a junior political science and philosophy major who hails from Austin, Texas. In addition to pursuing these majors and a Business-Economics minor, Mia is also involved with Students for Environmental Action, is a member of the Core Council, is active in her dorm, and enjoys her job working at the Alliance for Catholic Education. Mia is particularly interested in studying Educational Theory, as she believes that a strong educational system is the foundation for a cohesive and harmonious society. In her free time, Mia enjoys reading, rock climbing, playing her guitar, and taking on any challenges that come her way. Mia can usually be found either in the CSC or hanging out in the hallways of Cavanaugh. By working with VOICE, Mia hopes to make the campus experience for all students as rich and fulfilling as possible, especially with regards to the service and/or social action dimension of student's lives.
Abby McCrary
amccrary@nd.edu
Class of 2013
Hometown: Midland, Texas
Major: Anthropology, Peace Studies
Perpetually surrounded by more books than she is capable of reading at one time, Abby McCrary hails from Texas and became involved with the Center for Social Concerns her freshman year. She adores being an anthropology major, as well as breathe-in hugs, thunderstorms, falling leaves, tea, and writing letters. She has participated in a number of CSC seminars, and dreams of days living on a farm in New York where she did her SSLP the summer after freshman year, and her time in India through ISSLP the following. After spending a semester in Uganda, Abby has yet to make significant headway in discerning what she wants to do with her life, but is drawn to issues of human rights, international development, and sustainability. In the meantime, she finds comfort in reading, music, cooking, yoga, and talking about herself in the third person.
Christina Mondi
Class of 2014
Hometown: Hamiltion, Ohio
Major: Psychology
Minors: Catholic Social Tradition and Science, Technology, and Values
Christina is a Psychology major with a fondness for all things random and adventurous. During her time at Notre Dame, she has mastered the art of the cash register, scuba-dived in the snow, and held a human brain. Christina has participated in the Summer Service Learning Program (SSLP) at the Astor Home for Children, Urban Plunge, CRS advocacy, and tutoring. She also works as a Research Assistant in Community-Based Learning and Moral Education in the CSC. When she’s not in Geddes Hall, Christina can be found crunching numbers at the Development & Psychopathology Lab, midnight-baking in Farley’s kitchen, or hanging out with her friends at the LOGAN Center. She is grateful for all the people she’s not-so-coincidentally (providentially?) run into along the way, from her peers in the CSC, to the full timers at Burger King. She is excited to serve on VOICE and would love to chat over something caffeinated with anyone who has ideas and stories to tell.
Colin O’Neill
coneill7@nd.edu
Class of 2013
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Major: American Studies
After an exciting summer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia through the CSC’s International Summer Service Learning Program, Colin is excited to be back at Notre Dame as a second-year member of VOICE. Passionate about urban education reform, Colin explores the issue through the intersection of his minors in Education, Schooling and Society and Poverty Studies. When not working with the CSC, you can probably find Colin on stage, either as a member of PEMCo. (Notre Dame’s student-run musical theater company) or off-campus at the Robinson Community Learning Center, where he works as a tutor and teaching assistant for the Robinson Shakespeare Company. In his spare time Colin is a huge Chicago sports fan and loves reading contemporary non-fiction and 20th Century American lit. During his senior year, Colin will be hard at work researching and writing a senior thesis on cultural and social representations of HIV/AIDS in America, while helping himself and others “be the change” through a campus-wide commitment to social justice.
Jon Schommer
jschomme@nd.edu
Class of 2013
Hometown: Plainfield, Indiana
Major: Civil Engineering and Program of Liberal Studies
Jon Schommer is a junior in the five-year Engineering-Arts and Letters Program studying Civil Engineering and the Program of Liberal Studies. He enjoys spending his days at Notre Dame working at the rock climbing wall, playing guitar for Four:7 Catholic Fellowship, fixing bikes at the Notre Dame Bike Shop, attending mass in various dorms, and attending Peace Fellowship meetings. You may also find him slacklining on Knott Knoll (outside his dorm of residence), zooming across campus on his bicycle, doing many hours of homework in Geddes, eating Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream in La Fun, going to First Friday at the South Bend Catholic Worker, or attending Professor Dinners at the Peace House. He has been involved with the CSC in two Summer Service Learning Programs the past two summers; the first in South Dakota working at St. Joseph's Indian School and St. Francis House, the second in West Virginia working at Nazareth Farm. Jon enjoys reading and loves pondering the words of Jesus, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and Wendell Berry. He is also very interested in making new friends, poetry, music (rock and roll, folk, blues), building things, food, experiencing nature, and seeing Christ in others.
Evan Thompson
ethomps5@nd.edu
Class of 2013
Hometown: Washington, Illinois
Major: Philosophy
Evan is a senior from Washington, Illinois living in Knott Hall. While studying political science, philosophy, and poverty studies, he has become interested in the intersection of public policy and poverty, as well as Catholicism’s role in both. He has spent most of his years at the CSC working with ND Votes, the Poverty Studies minor, and the Higgins Labor Studies Program, spending time with some of the greatest people at Notre Dame. After learning about the Catholic Worker while participating in an Urban Plunge in South Bend, Evan has become extensively involved at the house, volunteering at Our Lady of the Road every week and participating in their community dinners. He enjoys discussing sports, especially his Miami Dolphins (just ask Bill Purcell about Evan’s shoes), politics, philosophy, and the Catholic Worker Movement. You can find him in Knott Hall, working in NDH, or the second floor of the CSC. Evan is very excited to be a part of VOICE this year and can’t wait to start making the CSC an even better place to be on campus.
Francis Vu
fvu@nd.edu
Class of 2015
Hometown: Mission Viejo, CA
Major: Theology
Born and raised in Southern California, Francis unexpectedly found his way over to Notre Dame. He feels incredibly blessed to attend school here, his second home and a place where opportunities allow him to reach his fullest potential. He is pursuing a major in theology along with a supplemental major in Spanish. On campus, Francis can be found hanging out at Keough and Geddes, exploring the arts at DPAC, or singing with the Folk Choir. He also enjoys walking around campus, learning about everything and anything, spending time with friends, watching movies, sharing stories, and having a good laugh. Aside from his community-based learning Spanish course, VOICE will be his first major involvement in the CSC. Francis hopes that serving on the committee will lead to greater participation in the programs offered by the CSC. He cannot wait for all that lies ahead in the coming year.
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