A new campus minister, Catherine Kirwan-Avila, A.C.J., has taken on the role of Appalachian Experience (APEX) coordinator this year, a role that had previously been held by the same person for 14 years.
Kirwan-Avila, known as Sr. Catherine around campus, came across the position after returning from studying theology and Ignatian spirituality in Spain. As part of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus congregation, she said St. Joe’s aligned with her own values and beliefs.
“To be able to be in an Ignatian and Jesuit school is something that I thought was a perfect fit,” Kirwan-Avila said. “Campus ministry was something new for me but also something that felt like a fit with a lot of different pieces.”
Although Kirwan-Avila said she had never worked as a campus minister, her time with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and Habitat for Humanity has given her foundational experience to take on APEX.
“I know firsthand the impact that an immersion experience and service work in general can have,” Kirwan-Avila said. “They were experiences for me that were super formative. [I have] a deep appreciation for what that can be and what one can discover about themselves, about the world, about community, about solidarity in service through those experiences.”
Kirwan-Avila said her time as APEX coordinator so far has been a learning experience. She said she has received plenty of support from other campus ministers, as well as AJ Simon ’17, coordinator of graduate and extended studies, who was an APEX coordinator as an undergraduate and has been involved in the logistics and planning of APEX this year.
“We have a very good team, both an APEX team and a campus ministry team, and so with that there’s a lot of support,” Kirwan-Avila said.
Kirwan-Avila said she is grateful to have the help of everyone involved, especially the four student coordinators, Jess Arnold ’20, Anne Donnelly ’20, Michael Olsakowski ’20 and Regina Dongilli ’20.
The student coordinators said they were surprised by the announcement that Matt Fullmer, former director of APEX, took on a new role in the university as associate director for community relations in the Kinney Center.
“We were all caught off guard, and we all grew pretty close to Matt being leaders last year, but at the same time we’re super happy for him and the opportunity that presented itself to him this year,” Arnold said. “But it’s a new chapter in APEX and I think we’re all embracing that and making it our own this year.”
The new coordinator is not the only change to the program this year. Kirwan-Avila and the student coordinators have worked to adjust the timeline. Sign-ups for the trip are on Oct. 22, around the same time they usually are. In the past, the reveal event, in which participants learn their site locations and group leaders, occurred in November. Now, the event has been pushed back to January.
“One of the things that we’ve been doing is dedicating this entire first semester to leader formation, which feels like a huge opportunity to really get to dedicate lots of time and energy to that community of 36 leaders,” Kirwan-Avila said. “The second semester will be dedicated 100 percent to the site specific groups, do some education on the Appalachian region and on what it is that they’ll be doing there.”
According to Arnold, this change is meant to create more of a “holistic APEX community,” rather than simply 18 individual groups. This goal will involve two APEX community events in the fall to allow participants to get to know each other and all the leaders before breaking off into their site groups.
The student coordinators said they are hopeful that this change will be positive for the program.
“There was an opening for change with Fullmer [leaving],” Olsakowski said. “We all put our heads together and thought of a way to not only help the program, but how to change it to affect its longevity for the positive.”
While Kirwan-Avila said she has brought her own style to the program, she has been trying to maintain the work Fullmer did to make the program what is is.
“I really want to make sure that all the good that’s been built up has been maintained and flourishes,” Kirwan-Avila said.
While preserving the program is important, the student coordinators said they are excited about the opportunity for change.
“The way we were looking at it was that Matt Fullmer gave 14 years to the program, and we’re thinking about what could happen in the next 14 years with Sister Catherine,” Donnelly said.
