Some St. Thomas seniors won’t be entering the work force after graduating but will be giving back to the community through volunteer work.

Seniors Matt Pazderka, Nicole Neverman, Kelsey Schimmel and Irma Montes will travel to other states for a year of service.

Pazderka, a biology major entering the Northwest Jesuit Volunteer Corps, said he wants to make sure he’s going into medicine for the right reasons.

“In college it’s all about you, you, you and making sure that you are prepared for the real world,” Pazderka said. “I really want to make sure that I know why I’m going to med school and really focus on the serving others aspect of it.”

Pazderka will work at the Matt Talbot Center in downtown Seattle at an addiction treatment clinic. He said he also will do odd jobs and run a field trip program Fridays for people at the clinic.

Neverman also will join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, either in San Diego or Boston. A theology and psychology double major, Neverman said there are multiple reasons she chose the corps.

“One is that I am a fully capable person, and I feel like I’ve been very blessed in my life, and so I want to do something that is very people-centered and service-centered,” she said.

Neverman will find out her placement by the end of the week. If she is placed in San Diego, she would work as a family support counselor or as a case worker at a transitional housing center. If placed in Boston, she would be a programmer at a women’s shelter.

Schimmel, a social work major and Catholic Studies minor, will head to Texas State University as a full-time missionary for Saint Paul’s Outreach. She considered continuing her schooling, but said it didn’t seem like the right time.

“I felt that the Lord was calling me to take some time to really serve him and to focus on serving him,” Schimmel said. “Reaching out to college students is something he’s brought into my life at St. Thomas through Saint Paul’s Outreach.”

Schimmel will work as a missionary at the Texas State campus “doing outreach work with the students in order to build relationships … in order to awaken and mature their faith,” she said.

Montes will head to Denver to serve with a year-long missionary team for an emerging program called Christ in the City.

She chose this program because it “allows you to serve, but also forms you.”

Montes won’t have a daily schedule since it is the first time Christ in the City will have year-long missionaries, but she said her work could involve “working with the elderly, homeless or children.”

Others’ reactions

Schimmel said her parents “were more shocked that I was going to Texas than anything, but they’ve seen me become more and more involved in the organization, they’ve seen me have a real passion to give to others, and so it didn’t come as a surprise that I was going to do some type of service work.”

For Pazderka, the corps was a family affair as both his parents served in the past.

“They’ve spoken so highly of doing it, they’ve essentially been priming me to do this ever since I was a kid,” he said. “So when I decided to do it, they were so supportive.”

Neverman said her parents have gotten used to her being “the kind of kid in the family that does weird stuff like this.”

Although she said it took some explaining because her parents “are very concerned about loans and where I’m going to live and establish my career,” she said her parents are supportive.

Montes said her mother “obviously wants me to graduate and get a job” but still supports her decision.

The students all begin their work in August. Pazderka said he is excited to see what the future holds.

“I’m super pumped. It’s a little nerve-wracking, leaving St. Thomas and not knowing when I’ll have the chance to get back,” he said. “It’s definitely become essentially a second home for me over the past four years, so I’m nervous to leave that but at the same time very excited.”

Neverman said, “After spending 13 years of [my] life in education and learning things and getting excited about things and being exposed to things, I’m so ready to just do, to apply what I’ve learned and to be somewhere, to be serving, to be of use.”

For Schimmel, it’s the same type of work but in a completely new environment.

“I’ve done this kind of outreach work for a little bit of time now at St. Thomas,” she said. “I’m just so excited to get a fresh look at this and to be in a different place.”

Lizzy Schmitt can be reached at schm9587@stthomas.edu.