Milford resident Christine Walsh will join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC)

Hamilton College senior will work at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

Clinton, NY (04/14/2021) — Milford resident and Hamilton College senior Christine Walsh will join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) in Tucson, Ariz., after graduation. JVC is an organization of lay volunteers who devote a year or more to community service in poor communities.

Walsh, who is interested in food sovereignty, will be at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona as an abundant harvest coordinator specialist. She'll be overseeing a growers' cooperative of about 150 farmers participating in weekly farmers' markets for low-income families.

While looking into applying to JVC, she realized her uncle had also been in the program years ago at a housing agency in New York. Walsh considered other fellowships, but decided that direct service was most meaningful to her. She was particularly drawn to the JVC's core values: Ignatian (Jesuit) spirituality, social justice, community, and simple living.

"Service is a very humbling opportunity, but more than that, it allows you to connect with people on a deeper level," Walsh said. "Service is one of the greatest acts of love."

Walsh is looking forward to the spiritual component of the program: weekly spirituality nights, weekly mass, and four retreats during the year. She's also eager to meet the other students with whom she'll be residing. "Living in the Co-op last semester really restored my desire to be in community," she said. "If you want to build community in society or in different pockets you are a part of, it definitely starts in the home. When you can practice those acts of self-care and care for others on a daily basis, you're more readily able to do so in your daily life."

Walsh, who completed her Hamilton degree requirements in the fall of 2020, is currently back in her hometown of Milford. Having previously worked for City Hall, she is now serving as a community development block grant assistant and is substitute teaching at her local middle school.

"I was grateful for my time at Hamilton because community was one of the biggest things that drew me there," Walsh said. "But I am definitely glad to be taking these next few steps and discerning what my future path may be." She said she is considering nonprofit work, teaching, or museum education after her time with JVC.

Walsh is a graduate of Sacred Heart Academy.

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