Our Campus Celebrity this week is the one and only Grace Donnelly. She is most known around campus for her dedication to service and social justice, and her beautiful red hair. Grace is a Peace, Justice, and Human Rights major with a minor in Sociology.
As part of her commitment to service, Grace is an Arrupe Scholar and serves as one of the co-chairs for the Fair Trade committee in Students for Social Justice. “We are working on getting a fair trade resolution passed in which John Carroll would commit to engaging in ethical consumption on campus,” said Grace about her ongoing fair trade projects.
Grace has had a lot of opportunities to expand her involvement with service during her time at John Carroll. She participates in weekly service through CSSA and is currently volunteering at Fatima Preschool. “I love being able to go back to Fatima. The kids are adorable!” said Grace.
Not only has Grace been able to serve the surrounding local community, but she has also traveled the word on immersion trips in order to serve international communities. She traveled to Nicaragua and El Salvador with the JCU immersions program, which are both focused on being in solidarity with the people.
This summer, Grace interned through the Shepherd Consortium on Poverty this summer at LIFT-DC. “I worked as an advocate in LIFT’s southeast office. It was an amazing hands-on experience in which I got to build relationships with LIFT’s members. This experience allowed me to learn about issues in poverty related to housing, unemployment, healthcare, and public benefits in DC,” said Grace.
Grace truly embodies the notion that, as John Carroll students, we are men and women for others. She hopes to bring this commitment to service to her future life endeavors. “My internship honestly confused me more in decisions related to post graduation…in a good way! This experience impressed upon me the importance and value of my education here at John Carroll. I want to be able to use this education to positively impact others and challenge injustice in our society,” Grace explained.
Outside of her impressive involvement with service, Grace is also a proud member of Kappa Delta sorority. “I love being able to have a strong sisterhood to always fall back on,” said Grace. This fall, Grace served as a recruitment councilor for formal sorority recruitment. This meant that she had to disaffiliate from her sorority in order to give the potential new members an unbiased view of Greek Life.
“Honesty, most of my favorite memories are with my Kappa Delta sisters. At the end of recruitment, we got to go back to our chapters. That had to be one of the best memories. I was so happy to be back home with my best friends, sisters, and especially my little, Mary Frances,” Grace said.
Grace has made a huge difference on the John Carroll campus with her amazing commitment to social justice and service (along with her infectious positivity and smile), and I’m sure she will one day set the world on fire with her passion for helping others.Â