Jesuit magazine (4-11).indd - The New Orleans Province of the ...

6
Formation
The Southern Jesuit Spring 2011
Andrew R.
Kirschman, S.J., 37,
grew up participating in
the life of Transfiguration
Parish in the north
county suburbs of St.
Louis, Missouri. Drew
particularly loved playing
sports, serving Mass,
Boy Scouts and Friday
night fish frys.
He went on to attend high school at St. Louis
Preparatory Seminary, but when the diocesan
school closed he transferred to Vianney High
School where his activities included cross-country,
basketball, track, student council and theater.
Throughout his high school years, he worked
at St. Justin Martyr Parish helping with maintenance
work, grass cutting and preparations of
the school and church grounds for the upcoming
school year. He also spent a few weeks each
summer doing volunteer work, serving one summer
on a Native American reservation in South
Dakota and another summer in Harlem, New
York, at a children’s bible camp.
As a seminarian in the St. Louis Archdiocese
at Cardinal Glennon Seminary, Drew
attended Saint Louis University and earned a
bachelor’s degree in philosophy and letters. After
graduating from the university and the seminary,
he worked for three years at Chaminade
Preparatory High School in St. Louis, teaching
theology, coaching cross-country, basketball and
track, and organizing a service program for the
middle school.
Upon entering the Jesuit novitiate in 2000 in
St. Paul, Minnesota, he earned a master’s degree
in public policy and urban affairs at Saint Louis
University.
He completed his regency at the
Universidad Centroamericana in San Salvador,
El Salvador. During his first year there he helped
in the law school while learning Spanish, and
for the next two years he taught sociology and
political science, worked with the youth group
at Las Palmas Parish and participated in its
sacramental life.
Drew completed theology studies at the Jesuit
School of Theology at Santa Clara University
where his apostolic work included ministering
to those incarcerated at juvenile and women’s
correctional facilities. He was ordained to the
diaconate last fall, and he received his master’s
of divinity this spring.
For the past three years Drew has also assisted
with the formation of the Alum Service
Corps (ASC), a volunteer program in Missouri
Province high schools, as leader of its summer
boot camp and as spiritual guide of alum retreats
throughout the year.
Drew has been missioned to Arrupe Jesuit
High School in Denver for the coming fall
where he will teach, assist in the recruitment
and admission of new students and participate
in the ongoing Ignatian formation of students,
faculty and staff. In addition, he will seek to
build relationships with the Latino community
in the Denver area for future initiatives and will
continue his work with the ASC.
Drew will celebrate Masses of Thanksgiving
at St. Francis Xavier (College) Church in St.
Louis on Sunday, June 12 at 10:30 a.m. and at
St. John the Evangelist Church in St. Louis on
Sunday, June 19 at 10:30 a.m.
Joseph W. Laramie,
S.J., 33, grew up in
Sacred Heart Parish in
Florissant, Missouri. He
first considered a religious
vocation during his years
at St. Louis University
High School where he
was inspired by the
example of the Jesuits
who taught there and by
his experience as a retreat leader for the school’s
first Kairos retreat.
He completed undergraduate work at Saint
Louis University while a seminarian at the St.
Louis Archdiocese Cardinal Glennon Seminary.
Majoring in philosophy and letters, he
befriended the Jesuit scholastics who were his
classmates and was drawn by their goodness,
holiness and brotherhood.
After graduating from the university in
2000, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in St. Paul,
Minnesota. The highlight of his novitiate was
his long experiment at Rockhurst High School in
Kansas City where he assisted teachers, taught
classes and helped with service projects and
retreats.