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September 1, 2007 - Clarion Herald
Young Pioneers: They came, they helped and stayed
Not all young professionals have abandoned New Orleans. Several came here as volunteers who wanted to help after the storm and saw the passion of the city and its people. They have since committed to stay and be part of the rebuilding effort. We profile several of our young heroes who fell in love with our Crescent City and knew there was no other place they would rather be.
Marco Balducci
Age: 30
Hometown: Born in Jackson, Miss., and reared in Tampa, Fla.
Previous job: Recently graduated from the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco Law School.
Current job: Immigration attorney for Catholic Charities’ Hispanic Apostolate Community Services.
How did you get to New Orleans? “I was interested in working with immigrants and I am also Catholic, and it was important to be excited about working with a Catholic organization where your work is an extension of a broader spiritual mission. I worked with Habitat for Humanity assisting in house-gutting in St. Bernard Parish right after I took the bar exam. After I graduated from law school, I was intrigued with the possibility of returning south. I called the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Clinic, and they said there was this gig open in New Orleans.”
Why did you decide to stay? “I’ve chosen to be here, but I would also like to include the caveat that I’m not sure if this is where I’m meant to be long term. What drew me here is that this city was at a critical point and is a challenging place to live. I help clients who are facing deportation. Some of them have defenses, and others don’t. If they are found and unable to prove lawful status, they generally will be detained. Two workers told me that in the one or two years they have been here they have never been to the French Quarter or the CBD. They’ve just kept a low profile. That’s what you think of when you think of people living in the shadows.”
What are your hopes for this region and what are the biggest challenges facing this area? “New Orleans is a city where there is celebration and sadness. Problems have a long history, and Katrina added an important chapter to that. Education is a big issue, and so is wealth disparity. I think this is just a continuation of the struggle that’s been going on for awhile. I hope Catholic Charities has been an important presence. We have a lot of motivated, bright and good people, and that gives me hope. There are definitely signs of hope. New Orleans is a city again, and the crowds are getting bigger at Jazzfest and other events.”
Stella O’Rourke
Age: 25
Hometown: North English, Iowa
Previous job: Graduate assistant at St. Ambrose University in Davenport where she was studying organizational leadership.
Current job: Hired in June as director of marketing for Christopher Homes, Inc., Archdiocese of New Orleans.
What brought you to New Orleans? She came twice – January ’06 and ’07 – as a chaperon to 12 undergraduate students on a service project working on yards, painting and cleaning out apartments at Christopher Homes properties. “To be able to be part of that experience was tremendous…The hardest thing was cleaning residents’ apartments. It wasn’t just stuff. Here we were throwing away peoples’ lives.”
Why did you decide to stay? “The spirit of the people. We could not get over the fact that someone could go through something so horrific (as Katrina) and thank people just for being here. That was my first encounter with the New Orleans experience. I got caught up in it. New Orleans is not just a tourist city. It’s more than Mardi Gras. It’s peoples’ lives.”
What are your hopes for the region and challenges you think the area faces? “That Katrina can become a thing of the past for the area as a whole; that people can put it behind them. Everybody talks about Katrina and still feels the effects. As more and more people come home, I hope it can become a memory, not a day-to-day reality. I’d also like to see people get some sense of their former communities back.” Lack of street signs, she said, also is challenging.
Keith Dorsey
Age: 37
Hometown: Chicago
Previous job: Electrical engineer in the auto industry
Current job: Electrician for Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Avondale
How did you get to New Orleans? “Actually, I always wanted to come and just quite didn’t make it for some reason or another. When I did come I saw that, man, I was missing a lot. There’s a good culture here. I first came down in April (2006) and was perusing other jobs. I had to choose between Maryland and New Orleans, and a friend of mine said I would prefer New Orleans. I was leaning toward who paid me the most money, and I ended up down here. I’m glad the other job didn’t come through.”
Why did you decide to stay? “When I first came down I was sleeping in my SUV right across the street from the Catholic church in Bridge City (Holy Guardian Angels). I ended up attending some of the church functions. Then I heard about Xavier University and how it was the only historically African American-Catholic university in the country. I’m now planning to attend classes and hope to get my pharmacy degree.”
What are your hopes for this region and what are the biggest challenges facing this area? “In any stage of growth people need to find a new direction. That’s not to say the old direction was terrible, but people just need a point of change where you take on a new focus. With the devastation, we also have a chance of coming up with new forms of community. I don’t know about education and politics because I’ve only been here a short while. But I’m all for private schools. When it comes to education, people need to be able to send their kids wherever they like.”
Laura Mattingly
Age: 28
Hometown: Bardstown, Ky.
Previous ministry: A teacher of 2- and 3-year-olds at the Holy Family Parish Early Child Development Center in Louisville, Ky.
Current ministry: She’s a pre-candidate for the Dominican Sisters Congregation of St. Mary in New Orleans and in residence at the Dominican Community in Rosaryville. In June, Laura was named assistant to Archdiocesan Band Program Director Dominican Sister Mary Hilary Simpson, who also is vocation director of the St. Mary’s Dominicans. This summer, Laura helped Sister Hilary with youth and band camp.
How did you get to New Orleans? After the storm in late July-August 2006, Laura was part of a week-long “Mission of Hope” service trip with 15 other young adults contemplating religious life organized by an order of Dominican sisters from Kansas. The St. Mary’s Dominicans hosted the group at Rosaryville. In 105-degree heat, she scraped sewage and paint, hung drywall, cleaned concrete, etc., at Resurrection of Our Lord parish in New Orleans East. “We came to work, and it was some serious work, probably the hardest work I had ever done in my life. I learned how to use a belt sander for the first time. The most inspiring thing was that the building we were working on was going to be the center of life in the parish.”
Why did you decide to stay? “When I was driving away from Rosaryville (after the trip), I felt an incredible sense of loss and a call to stay. This is where I belonged. The feeling was so strong.” The mission experience, she said, affirmed her decision to join St. Mary’s Dominican Congregation. She found the local sisters to be a vibrant and loving congregation. In February 2007, Sister Hilary visited Laura’s parents in Kentucky and, in March, Laura returned to Rosaryville to attend a young persons’ discernment retreat. By June 2007, she resigned from teaching to explore religiouslife. “I felt there was a greater purpose for me to help God’s people.”
How will you use your talents to help this region: Laura will begin youth ministry certification courses in Baton Rouge this semester. “I hope to do school and parish work to introduce more Dominican spirituality to let young people understand what it is. If you rebuild a parish (youth program), the parish will flourish.”
Alli DeJong
Age: 22
Hometown: Chicago
Previous job: Graduated in May with an economics degree from the University of Notre Dame
Current job: Development assistant, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
How did you get to New Orleans? “I came in March 2006 for an environmental justice seminar with Notre Dame. After that, I spent all last summer living in the 9th Ward and working with Common Ground and running a distribution center at St. Mary of the Angels. I was living in a tent inside the school. There was no air conditioning. But I’d rather have August in New Orleans than February in Chicago. I’m the first person in my family to leave the Midwest. My parents understand, but they’re not very comfortable with me being 1,000 miles away and the (potential for) hurricanes here. They encouraged me in my job search, ‘Don’t you want to try Atlanta or Austin?’ They all thought I was insane. But I picked this city and found a job.”
Why did you decide to stay? “Nothing in my life had meant anything before I came down here. That’s kind of what it came down to. It’s hard to talk about it without getting all engrossed in social justice issues. New Orleans became a symbol of the failures of this administration to care about anyone other than themselves. This is the first place that I loved, and it loved me back. It’s the only place I’ve ever been to where total strangers ask you how you’re doing and actually want to know and wait for you to tell them.”
What are your hopes for this region and what are the biggest challenges facing this area? “Everyone knows that New Orleans is up against a myriad of challenges, from improving public education and health care to curbing violent crime. However, if there’s one thing that the social sciences can teach us is that all of these issues are interconnected – tackling the criminal justice system and locking up more people won’t do a thing unless we simultaneously work to end systemic poverty. And working to end poverty won’t do a thing unless we all understand that we are all just a tragic accident away from poverty ourselves, and that the government’s role is to protect us if and when that should happen. Creating a more just and equal city won’t happen unless someone is able to stand up and make people less afraid of tackling all of these big issues at once. This is a town that doesn’t like change very much, but to start seeing some progress we’re going to have to re-envision the very way we perceive how government can act and function.”
Pilar Ruiz
Age: 24
Home: Sacramento, Calif.
Previous job: A lay social worker from 2005-06 for the Mercy Sisters order at a health care clinic in Laredo, Texas.
Current job: Spanish-speaking lead client advocate for ACCESS Pregnancy and Referral Center in Metairie.
How did you get to New Orleans? A college friend from Seattle living in New Orleans evacuated and relayed her story. “I knew I wanted to come down and help.” She made her way to New Orleans on Aug. 5, 2006, after her job in Laredo had ended. With a degree in social work, she first joined Tulane University as a social worker volunteer interviewing community organizers, and then Common Ground health clinic acting mostly as a Spanish translator. “They felt like they needed someone who was local, could speak Spanish and was a social worker who knew healthcare issues. My nickname at the clinic was ‘Triple Threat.” She also worked at the Louisiana Public Health Institute before being hired at ACCESS Pregnancy in November 2006.
Why did you decide to stay? “I figured I could get a job pretty easily because I was needed, and I didn’t feel like I was done. It’s something completely different than I ever thought I would do. I never pictured myself in the south. But, immediately when I got off the plane, I started doing things to immerse myself in the culture. Once I got the ACCESS job, I knew it was something I wanted to do, and I’m going to stick around to do this. It’s been a really great opportunity to expand my knowledge and practices.”
What do you notice as the challenges of the area? “Lack of housing is definitely one of the stresses I see many experience, and the contrast of neighborhoods from those that are depressed to those that are vibrant. I try to help promote the city.”
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