A desire to serve, a love of history and positive word of mouth.
Those were the factors that piqued Saint John’s University senior Ethan Riddle’s interest in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps.
The BVC is a service opportunity offered to recent graduates of SJU. According to its mission, “grounded in Benedictine values and spirituality, the BVC provides a unique encounter with the Catholic monastic tradition, the multitude of needs expressed in religious communities around the world and the challenge to commit one’s talents to meeting those needs.”
Since its founding in 2003, the BVC has sent around 334 volunteers to Benedictine monasteries around the world. Participants spend a year supporting those communities in their work, prayer and common life. Riddle is one of 11 students who make up this year’s cohort – the 21st in the program’s history.
He will spend the next year working with middle school students with an aptitude for music at the Santa Maria de Montserrat Monastery in Barcelona, Spain.
“I’ve had some friends who’ve done this in the past, and hearing about their experience first drew me toward it,” said Riddle, who will graduate next month with a degree in peace studies and hopes to eventually attend medical school. “I wanted to find a way to give back, and as I’m working on applications for medical school, it’s pretty clear volunteer experience like this is something they really look at.
“I’ve also been really interested in the Catalonia region (of Spain, where Barcelona is located) for a while now. I didn’t know (the BVC) offered a program there until my friend told me about it, and that really appealed to me. That region was so important during the Spanish Civil War (in the 1930s), and the way it’s been able to maintain its own identity within Spain and Europe as a whole is fascinating.”
Being involved has been an important part of Riddle’s SJU experience. As an actor, he’s been part of several shows put on by the theater department and he’s been a resident assistant in the dorms the past three years. He’s also been a volunteer at the St. Cloud Hospital and has been part of several campus organizations.
“It seems like society as a whole has such an individualized mindset these days,” he said. “It’s every person for himself and I don’t think that kind of thinking is going to get us where we want to be as a national or global society.
“I want to find ways to do my part. To do work that benefits others and isn’t strictly in my own interest.”
That’s also what motivated fellow senior Cole Brown to get involved in the program. The accounting major will spend the next year at the Prince of Peace Abbey in Nairobi, Kenya – in part, working with kids from troubled backgrounds.
“I wanted the chance to travel the world, do some self-growth and volunteer,” he said. “This is such a unique opportunity to do all three at the same time. That’s exactly what I’m looking for at this time in my life.”
Brown, who came to SJU to play football and spent last season as a part-time assistant coach for the Johnnies, hopes to draw on that experience during his time in Kenya.
“With football last season, I was working with the scout team,” he said. “That meant connecting with the younger guys – making them feel welcome and like they belong. I’ll be working with younger kids from different backgrounds now. But hopefully some of that will still feel similar.”
Here is a complete look at who’s part of this year’s cohort and where they are headed:
· Jonathan Hill – Abadia de Jesucristo Crucificado, Esquipulas, Guatemala
· Ethan Engh – Abadia de Jesucristo Crucificado, Esquipulas, Guatemala
· Jake Scheck – Benedictine Monastery of Tabgha, Israel
· Jacob Lipke – Benedictine Monastery of Tabgha, Israel
· Henry Braun – Colegio Sant’ Anselmo, Rome, Italy
· Andrew Jurek – Colegio Sant’ Anselmo, Rome, Italy
· William Musser – Abadia de San Antonio Abad, Humacao, Puerto Rico
· Joseph Stoddart – Abadia de San Antonio Abad, Humacao, Puerto Rico
· Ethan Riddle – Santa Maria de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain
· Cameron Klick – Santa Maria de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain
· Cole Brown – Prince of Peace Abbey, Nairobi, Kenya