More Than Service Hours
“What kind of man is needed today by the Church, by the world? A man who is a Man for Others.” - Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J.
Without a doubt, one’s experience at a Jesuit school involves the phrase Men for Others. This phrase was first introduced by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, at the 10th International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe in Valencia, Spain, in 1973. At the time, he admitted that Jesuit education had failed to prepare graduates “in the promotion of justice and the liberation of the oppressed” (Arrupe, 1973). He called for a renewed commitment to social justice rooted in the Gospel. Fr. Arrupe describes a Man for Others as someone who uses his talents, education, and privilege in service rather than selfish ambition.
One of the tenets of the Strake Jesuit Grad at Grad is “Committed to Doing Justice.” Our students recognize selfless service to others as more fulfilling than individual success. They are aware of others’ needs and develop a sense of compassion. Fr. Arrupe explains that one cannot separate faith, charity, and justice. Loving God must lead to love of neighbor, and Christians should not only seek personal holiness but also work to reform unjust social structures that harm human dignity. Our students recognize this, and some have even gone further by developing nonprofits that uphold human dignity and foster meaningful relationships with others.
cannot separate faith, charity, and justice. Loving God must lead to love of neighbor, and Christians should not only seek personal holiness but also work to reform unjust social structures that harm human dignity. Our students recognize this, and some have even gone further by developing nonprofits that uphold human dignity and foster meaningful relationships with others.
Next Step Shoes
When Oliver Tsao ’26 was a freshman, he volunteered in the clothing pantry at Emergency Aid Coalition (EAC) in Houston with his family. Homeless and underserved individuals at EAC had to complete an intake survey requesting certain items from the shelter, and Oliver was tasked with pulling the requested items from the donated items for each person. He was able to fulfill a majority of the requests: shirts, pants, socks, underwear, and a hygiene kit. However, there was one item he was consistently unable to provide: shoes. He went home later that day, thinking about the lack of shoes at the shelter and how hard it would be to lack something that feels like a basic necessity. Thus, Next Step Shoes was born.
He began to reach out to friends and family, asking for shoes they no longer needed, and collected over 100 pairs to donate to EAC. To his surprise, a majority of the shoes had been distributed within a month. For Oliver, the partnership with EAC taught him that people are generous and want to help, that people outgrow shoes, and, in general, that people are happy to clean out their closets and share shoes they no longer need, especially when they are helping others at the same time. He also realized that a middleman is sometimes necessary to make everything happen. Oliver started emailing and partnering with schools and organizations that are looking to do good, while also making the donation process convenient.
“I feel like my efforts with Next Step Shoes are the embodiment of my Jesuit education in action… Service is not just about helping others; it is creating a community of resilience, creativity, and persistence,” Oliver says.
One of the great parts about the Next Step Shoes model is that it is simple and portable. Oliver only needs email, signs, and boxes to start a drive. He is heading to Washington University in St. Louis in the fall and plans to hold shoe drives to support his new community there. Back home in Houston, his sister is on the Board of Directors of the organization and will continue local operations. To date, Oliver has collected and donated over 6,000 pairs of shoes. Next Step Shoes has opened the door for Oliver, introducing him to people dedicated to making a difference in the lives of underserved Houstonians at many nonprofit organizations across the city. Often, when he walks out of his front door or returns home from school, he finds a bag of shoes on the front porch that friends and family have dropped off.
“It sounds a little strange, but I am really glad that when people think of used shoes, they think of me.”
Math Made Simple
When Keshav Harpavat ’27 launched Math Made Simple in his freshman year, he imagined the organization as a for-profit tutoring business, but that trajectory didn’t last long. At the end of the fall semester, he volunteered with Catholic Charities to donate toys to displaced Afghan refugees. While playing and interacting with kids from across the globe, he realized they shared something that transcended language: math. He realized that 1+1 wasn’t just an equation; it was a universal learning experience. Keshav reinvented Math Made Simple from a business into a nonprofit, bridging math with underserved migrants with the twofold goal of educating and connecting.
To help reinforce the relationship between tutors and mentees, Keshav drew inspiration from the Strake Jesuit Father-Son Retreat. Reminiscing on how he and his father had grown closer, he hoped to translate similar elements from his experience to the organization – namely, the retreat’s simple yet thought-provoking questions. As Keshav remembers it, the time spent quietly processing your own thoughts, emotions, or memories, then intimately and openly discussing them with a counterpart, formed bonds that allowed people to grow authentically with each other. These questions are at the heart of Math Made Simple’s programs, allowing tutors to develop deeper relationships with mentees and creating a more welcoming, collaborative environment.
The organization has grown rapidly as it continues to work with refugee and migrant centers and has mentored over 250 students in the Houston area alone. In addition to this, they have also tutored students online from across the world. With this growth, Math Made Simple has recruited over 50 mentors, many of whom are SJ students, who volunteer not just for service hours, but for the meaningful relationships they have developed with students.
The steady growth culminated in a trip to South Africa with Matthew Mamera ’27 and Braden Tollar ’27 over spring break to bring Math Made Simple’s mentorship programs to international communities worldwide. In preparation for the trip, Keshav sought advice from Mr. Joe Seiter, S.J., and Fr. Jeff Johnson, S.J. He learned about the Church’s teaching on a unified humanity, in which different ethnicities, societies, and belief systems are all under one God. "We didn’t want to foster a binary mentor-mentee system; instead, we wanted to focus more on cultivating a diverse community – unified relationships in which participants learn, grow, and understand each other,” Keshav says. The three students embodied the spirit of being Men for Others as they built connections, served a community far from home, and laid the foundation for their sustainable mentorship programs.
“The goal is not just growth in math, but in personhood and community.”
Men for Others
Ultimately, these stories illustrate that being a Man for Others is not simply an ideal discussed in the classroom, but a way of living rooted in faith, compassion, and action. Inspired by their Jesuit education, our students have recognized the dignity of every person and responded with creativity, empathy, and service. Their work reminds us that the true measure of success is not what we achieve for ourselves, but how we use our gifts to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Back
Without a doubt, one’s experience at a Jesuit school involves the phrase Men for Others. This phrase was first introduced by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, at the 10th International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe in Valencia, Spain, in 1973. At the time, he admitted that Jesuit education had failed to prepare graduates “in the promotion of justice and the liberation of the oppressed” (Arrupe, 1973). He called for a renewed commitment to social justice rooted in the Gospel. Fr. Arrupe describes a Man for Others as someone who uses his talents, education, and privilege in service rather than selfish ambition.
One of the tenets of the Strake Jesuit Grad at Grad is “Committed to Doing Justice.” Our students recognize selfless service to others as more fulfilling than individual success. They are aware of others’ needs and develop a sense of compassion. Fr. Arrupe explains that one cannot separate faith, charity, and justice. Loving God must lead to love of neighbor, and Christians should not only seek personal holiness but also work to reform unjust social structures that harm human dignity. Our students recognize this, and some have even gone further by developing nonprofits that uphold human dignity and foster meaningful relationships with others.
cannot separate faith, charity, and justice. Loving God must lead to love of neighbor, and Christians should not only seek personal holiness but also work to reform unjust social structures that harm human dignity. Our students recognize this, and some have even gone further by developing nonprofits that uphold human dignity and foster meaningful relationships with others.
Next Step Shoes
When Oliver Tsao ’26 was a freshman, he volunteered in the clothing pantry at Emergency Aid Coalition (EAC) in Houston with his family. Homeless and underserved individuals at EAC had to complete an intake survey requesting certain items from the shelter, and Oliver was tasked with pulling the requested items from the donated items for each person. He was able to fulfill a majority of the requests: shirts, pants, socks, underwear, and a hygiene kit. However, there was one item he was consistently unable to provide: shoes. He went home later that day, thinking about the lack of shoes at the shelter and how hard it would be to lack something that feels like a basic necessity. Thus, Next Step Shoes was born.
He began to reach out to friends and family, asking for shoes they no longer needed, and collected over 100 pairs to donate to EAC. To his surprise, a majority of the shoes had been distributed within a month. For Oliver, the partnership with EAC taught him that people are generous and want to help, that people outgrow shoes, and, in general, that people are happy to clean out their closets and share shoes they no longer need, especially when they are helping others at the same time. He also realized that a middleman is sometimes necessary to make everything happen. Oliver started emailing and partnering with schools and organizations that are looking to do good, while also making the donation process convenient.
“I feel like my efforts with Next Step Shoes are the embodiment of my Jesuit education in action… Service is not just about helping others; it is creating a community of resilience, creativity, and persistence,” Oliver says.
One of the great parts about the Next Step Shoes model is that it is simple and portable. Oliver only needs email, signs, and boxes to start a drive. He is heading to Washington University in St. Louis in the fall and plans to hold shoe drives to support his new community there. Back home in Houston, his sister is on the Board of Directors of the organization and will continue local operations. To date, Oliver has collected and donated over 6,000 pairs of shoes. Next Step Shoes has opened the door for Oliver, introducing him to people dedicated to making a difference in the lives of underserved Houstonians at many nonprofit organizations across the city. Often, when he walks out of his front door or returns home from school, he finds a bag of shoes on the front porch that friends and family have dropped off.
“It sounds a little strange, but I am really glad that when people think of used shoes, they think of me.”
Math Made Simple
When Keshav Harpavat ’27 launched Math Made Simple in his freshman year, he imagined the organization as a for-profit tutoring business, but that trajectory didn’t last long. At the end of the fall semester, he volunteered with Catholic Charities to donate toys to displaced Afghan refugees. While playing and interacting with kids from across the globe, he realized they shared something that transcended language: math. He realized that 1+1 wasn’t just an equation; it was a universal learning experience. Keshav reinvented Math Made Simple from a business into a nonprofit, bridging math with underserved migrants with the twofold goal of educating and connecting.
To help reinforce the relationship between tutors and mentees, Keshav drew inspiration from the Strake Jesuit Father-Son Retreat. Reminiscing on how he and his father had grown closer, he hoped to translate similar elements from his experience to the organization – namely, the retreat’s simple yet thought-provoking questions. As Keshav remembers it, the time spent quietly processing your own thoughts, emotions, or memories, then intimately and openly discussing them with a counterpart, formed bonds that allowed people to grow authentically with each other. These questions are at the heart of Math Made Simple’s programs, allowing tutors to develop deeper relationships with mentees and creating a more welcoming, collaborative environment.
The organization has grown rapidly as it continues to work with refugee and migrant centers and has mentored over 250 students in the Houston area alone. In addition to this, they have also tutored students online from across the world. With this growth, Math Made Simple has recruited over 50 mentors, many of whom are SJ students, who volunteer not just for service hours, but for the meaningful relationships they have developed with students.
The steady growth culminated in a trip to South Africa with Matthew Mamera ’27 and Braden Tollar ’27 over spring break to bring Math Made Simple’s mentorship programs to international communities worldwide. In preparation for the trip, Keshav sought advice from Mr. Joe Seiter, S.J., and Fr. Jeff Johnson, S.J. He learned about the Church’s teaching on a unified humanity, in which different ethnicities, societies, and belief systems are all under one God. "We didn’t want to foster a binary mentor-mentee system; instead, we wanted to focus more on cultivating a diverse community – unified relationships in which participants learn, grow, and understand each other,” Keshav says. The three students embodied the spirit of being Men for Others as they built connections, served a community far from home, and laid the foundation for their sustainable mentorship programs.
“The goal is not just growth in math, but in personhood and community.”
Men for Others
Ultimately, these stories illustrate that being a Man for Others is not simply an ideal discussed in the classroom, but a way of living rooted in faith, compassion, and action. Inspired by their Jesuit education, our students have recognized the dignity of every person and responded with creativity, empathy, and service. Their work reminds us that the true measure of success is not what we achieve for ourselves, but how we use our gifts to love our neighbors as ourselves.
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