One theme I have repeatedly encountered during these past three years of Jesuit life is that of experiencing “more than expected.”  I’ve prayed more deeply than I could have imagined, come to know people more closely than I ever intended, and traveled more places than I thought possible.  This pattern of exceeding expectations is my understanding of the magis about which St. Ignatius speaks so passionately.  It is also how I best understand one of the mantras often repeated around Hopeworks ‘N Camden: “Be Big!”

I spent my summer at Hopeworks, a tiny place bursting with big dreams.  The organization has more applicants than it does positions, more trainees than computers, more staff members than desks, more conferences than rooms in which to hold them.  In short, there are more obstacles than there are easy solutions at Hopeworks, which is exactly how life functions in the rest of Camden, one of the nation’s poorest, most violent, and least educated cities.

My job at Hopeworks was to guide a team of youths in mapping a nearby cemetery and to tutor teens individually in reading and writing.  True to form, the trainees provided a sense of the magis in giving me a more powerful experience than I ever could have imagined.  I expected that some team members might feel uncomfortable about walking around a graveyard, but I never dreamed that the brother of one of our youths would be buried there, shot dead at sixteen.  I guessed that the teenagers in tutoring might open up while recording autobiographical essays, but I was stunned when one whispered that his father had been incarcerated eight times.  I anticipated that trainees would be unfamiliar with the concept of my current assignment, graduate school, but I was caught unprepared when one youth couldn’t comprehend that I had actually attended college.  She was trying so hard to earn a GED while raising her son that even a bachelor’s degree seemed unfathomable. 

But if the hardships at Hopeworks were extreme, so were the successes.  Trainees’ reading abilities grew significantly over the summer.  Youths embraced the home-like atmosphere, caring for each other as well as the space they occupied.  Teens charged with plotting graves did so with an impressive work ethic and attention to detail.  Team members met professional cartographers from New York and Philadelphia, addressed an international conference in Washington, and earned profiles in several newspapers.  My summer at Hopeworks reminded me that while I might be surprised by the immense adversities faced by youths in Camden, I should never underestimate God’s ability to help them rise up and overcome such obstacles.  Remember, “Be Big!”