Mary Ashley:
CLASS OF 1977
Benet Hill AcademyClass of 1977
Colorado springs, CO
Mary's Story
Life
Dear Class of '77:
I had a wonderful time reconnecting with so many of you at our reunion earlier this month. Below is a brief summary of my life experiences. I hope that you will feel free to contact me if you or your children want more information about any of these organizations or activities.
In 1977, I began studies at UC Boulder, which included a semester in Mexico. My attendance was made possible by my reception of a Regents' Scholarship, which required that I maintain a 4.0 GPA. After an intense four years (I got one "B" my senior year, and yes, they did take away my funding!), I graduated with a B.A in Psychology.
In 1979, Colorado sponsored my internship at Eldorado Heights Center, a home for adolescent girls. It was there that I decided to seek an MSW degree. To prepare myself, I worked on a suicide prevention hotline, and as a summer counselor for homeless youth in Hermosa Beach, CA.
UCLA only took two young 20-somethings into its MSW program in 1981, and for some reason (the rigors of the Regents' Scholarship?), I was one of them. I supported myself as a counselor for developmentally disabled adults in Inglewood, CA; and had school internships working with girls at a county lock-up facility, Dorothy Kirby Center,in East LA; and assisting paraplegic and quadraplegic veterans at the Long Beach VA. I most enjoyed, however, the two summers I spent assisting the Society of the Holy Child Jesus to run day camps in two Tijuana shantytowns.
After UCLA, I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps:Southwest (JVC:SW), which placed me in San Francisco with 9 other volunteers, from whence I commuted to Catholic Charities' Families in Transition (FIT) program in East Palo Alto. That year (1983-84), the JVC values of spirituality, social justice, community, and simple living became my values, and I settled into my adult identity. During the next 8 years, I moved through increasingly responsible positions as we developed FIT into an innovative ...Expand for more
multi-service center. In 1989, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce awarded FIT its Tall Tree Award for "most outstanding area organization."
Many of you know that I married my senior prom date, Steve Meyer, 10 years later. In 1991, siblings Joe (then 6) and Jeanette (then 2)came to live with us, and in 1993, we saw the judge and became a "forever family." The kids are part of the close-knit Lacabanne-Jouanicot clan from Pau, France.
From 1992-1997, I was Director of Client Services at Support Network for Battered Women (SNBW) in Mountain View, CA. This included a half-year as Acting Executive Director. At SNBW, I witnessed the extent of domestic violence, as our agency provided phone counseling to over 6,000 different women, and saw more than 1,500 different women for in-person counseling, each year.
In 1997, I returned to the JVC:SW as Executive Director and spent 5 marvelous years training and supporting annual groups of 85-100 full-time volunteers who were exploring the values that had stirred me years earlier.
In 2002, our JVC office put on a conference seeking a more adequate integration of Catholic moral theology into young adult ministry. Energized by that conference, I left the JVC and obtained, through the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, an MA degree in Theology with a concentration in "Ethics and Social Theory." Throughout this MA program, I have pursued an interest in Christian environmental ethics. My thesis, for example, evaluated traditional Catholic moral reasoning in relation to the UNs' four future climate change scenarios.
Beginning in Fall 2008, I will be pursuing doctoral studies at the GTU, and continuing my exploration of social and environmental ethics. Currently, I am supporting these studies with work as Director for Camp Sunburst, a therapeutic summer camp serving children living with HIV/AIDS. Each camp session holds its own magic--contact me if you can be one of our volunteer counselors!
Register for Free to view all details!
Reunions
