Last Tuesday, the Convent & Stuart Hall junior classes went to St. Mary’s Cathedral for the service retreat. In the evening on Monday, everyone gathered at the cathedral for the service taking place the next day. In addition to the pizza and fun activities, the students heard from Father John Ardis, who was the pastor of St. Mary’s from 2018 to 2024. Fr. John encouraged the students to think about global issues and why they matter to us. SHHS biology and sports science teacher Ms. Falvey said, “it was cool that students got asked questions about topics outside of just the high school or San Francisco community and made them think about the issues on a broader scale. We don’t always get to step back with your small community and see the issues out in the world.”

In part of answering thinking about the things Father Ardis said, the students were put in an activity where they paired up. In this, one person would share, without interruption, while the other listened. After two minutes, the other person would share and the roles would switch. Ms. Falvey also commented on this by saying, “it was special that the students did these listening and talking exercises as a part of the discussions.” Additionally, spending the night at the cathedral bonded lots of people closer and created memories among the class. 

In the morning, the students were split into groups based on where we would do our service for the day. Several groups went to the food bank warehouse and packed groceries for people who can’t leave their houses while another group walked around the Tenderloin. The Food Bank group (pictured above) prepared 778 bags, which totaled over 9 tons of groceries. I was in that group and the experience, while having a fun time with friends by packing bags, also helped me see that everyone who was there, both a part of our school community and outside volunteers, had the same goal of helping people. Ms. MacGarva, who worked at the food bank, said, “it was great to do some service together at the food bank. It’s a small thing to do to help a lot of people. It puts into perspective how working only 2 hours can help over 800 families in my community.” A group also worked with Glide Memorial Church, which is an organization which is grounded in acting in imperatives of liberation, unconditional love, self, systemic, and world transformation. Glide actively works to dismantle all forms of structural racism and internalized and externalized oppression. Lastly, a group worked with Faithful Fools, another organization aiming to help advocate for people in need. Faithful Fools helps inspire people to realize their self value and worth. Junior Daniel Montejano, who participated in the Faithful Fools group, said, “I thought it was an enlightening experience and changed my perspective on what the Tenderloin is thought to be like or assumed to be. There is a lot of diversity among some of the struggling neighborhoods.” This diversity that Daniel shared about is what organizations such as Faithful Fools and Glide are hoping to eliminate. He also said that, “the people I saw are people just like us” which made him further realize that we are all equal and it is important to help the people in need.