Let's just say I've never thought of myself as a minimalist — and that's what I thought simplicity was: a lack of resources and physical...

Right before starting my GSV year, I could not tell you what simplicity meant, much less how I could apply it to my life. All I could do...

“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” -Charles Spurgeon I didn’t have much growing up and I still...

As I help prepare for end-of-the-year activities like senior team-building day, senior retreat and graduation, I feel as though I am...

I am incredibly grateful to have been fully vaccinated for just over a month now. To all those who worked tirelessly to make numerous...

"Get out from your house, from your cave, from your car, from the place you feel safe, from the place that you are. Get out and go run...

When I wake up every morning, I check my phone immediately, battling between returning to a dreamy haze and needing to get ready for the...

One tradition for Good Shepherd Volunteers at Collier High School is Collier Chats, lighthearted conversations with co-workers throughout...

The smallest hint of green in a patch of thick, brown soil. The puddles of melted snow bridging across the roads. The de-layering and...

As I reflect back on the first half of my volunteer year, I am struck by how the tenets have kept me rooted when the pandemic has turned...

A task Collier High School students in studio arts undertake in a typical year involves painting the high school windows with a poem and...

The opportunity to work alongside students through Model U.N. and to dive into the Collier community excited me, especially as many clubs...

Sighs of relief, heartfelt reflections and buckets of hope ushered in the first few hours of 2021. On social media, I glimpsed what many...

Despite the recognition and experience of deep suffering, I truly believe we are a people of hope. Looking back on different seasons of...

"Down the hill" is a phrase I frequently use to distinguish my work as a volunteer in Collier High School and in the Collier Transition...

I spent one of my first weekends as a volunteer in New Jersey surrounded by markers, colored pencils and posterboard and making too many...

Our first activity during orientation and retreat week involved creating vision board collages about who we are and why we are here. The...

I always really liked the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” I elaborated on this a little once...

[This post was originally delivered as a speech by Martina Penalosa at the 2019 Good Shepherd Volunteers Spring Benefit] A year,...

As a Good Shepherd Volunteer at Collier High School, my days are filled with cold mornings, substitute teaching, quiet lunch duties, and...