Home | Volunteer | MercyWorks | Program Overview | Meet Our Alumni

Meet Our Alumni

The MercyWorks program is in its tenth year and boasts 112 alumni to date. We are always pleased to learn where they are now, especially as they continue to bear witness to God’s call to serve the world around them and live out the MercyWorks values.

59 MercyWorks alumni have accepted positions as paid staff at Mercy Home following their volunteer year. Four have accepted half-time positions following their volunteer year. Six have worked in supervisory positions at Mercy Home.

22 of our alumni accepted other positions in the social services or education fields after their volunteer year concluded.

77 of our alumni have entered graduate programs for social work, medicine, counseling psychology, non-profit management, education, law, public policy, social justice, theology, business, library science public health or art. Two people have completed dual degree programs.

Nora served as a Youth Care Worker in Walgreen Home during her MercyWorks year from 2002-2003.  She loved working with the young ladies of Mercy Home so much that she earned a job in the School Resources Department where she worked for several more years.  During that time, she decided that social work was a true passion for her, and returned to school part-time to earn her Masters in Social Work.  Upon completing her MSW at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Nora became the supervisor in Mercy Home’s AfterCare program, where she now gets to work with former residents on their goals since leaving Mercy Home.  Nora expressed that she feels the MercyWorks program helped to define her path as a young professional, and she still holds the values of the program as core values in her life.

Jonathan Duff

Johnathan Duff was a youth care worker in the Bosco Home during his MercyWorks year in 2006-2007. After staying on one year as the Education Coordinator of the Speh and Noha Homes, Johnathan pursued his Master’s degree in Sport & Performance Psychology at the University of Denver. Johnathan said “coaching the Mercy youth in the IIAA league really opened my eyes to the power of sport as a therapeutic tool.” In Fall of 2009, Johnathan received the Association for Applied Sport Psychology’s Student Diversity Award for his work instilling prosocial values through basketball to inner city high school students in Denver. In Fall of 2010  Johnathan began pursuing a PhD in Psychology and a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Miami.

Matt Raffol graduated from Boston College after studying management, economics, and psychology.  As a 2009-2010 MercyWorks volunteer, he served as a youth care worker in the Bosco Home with young men ages 11-17.  Inspired and challenged by his experiences at Mercy Home, Matt decided to continue a career in social work.  In the year that followed, he worked in residential treatment with adolescents at the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, and interned with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  Currently, he attends the graduate School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and lives in intentional community as a Resident Assistant in the Franciscan Outreach Association’s full-time volunteer program.

 

Any time you have a chance to make kids like the ones at Mercy Home happy, you want to make the most of it.
NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte

Mentor a Child

It’s fun. It doesn’t take much time. And it makes a lifetime of difference to a Mercy Home child.

more

Aaron’s Story

It’s been about 20 years since Aaron Lindgren first knocked on Mercy Home’s front door.

more

A Solution

Our work impacts the community

662

children were served last year

24,000

children were served throughout our history