Wearing her grandfather’s World War II dog tags, she continues his mission as a part of the United Service Organizations’ (USO) efforts to give back to military families.

“This is what fuels me to continue doing what I do,” a USO volunteer said in the video. “I thrive when I talk about the USO. It’s my way of serving my country.”

Under this year’s Mission Week theme of “homeland”, students began their own missions to do the same for local communities.  They watched videos featuring volunteers from organization like the USO with their homerooms. The videos gave insight into a different social issue for each grade level.

Sophomore Tommy Licata and his homeroom watched “Without a Home”, where football players from the St. Louis Rams experienced what it was like to be homeless for a day.

“It was crazy to see the dynamic of what it’s like to live life on the streets,” Licata said. “I’ll definitely have a better understanding now of the people we are helping this week and why we are helping them.”

Homerooms were then asked to come with with a long-term way to help that they could post on social media. Licata and his homeroom in 212 decided to start a money jar, where they would be able to donate change throughout the rest of the year.

“We should always be thinking about other people,” Licata said. “This little thing will hopefully help us continue the goal of mission week into the rest of the year.”

The videos were a part of STUGO’s goal of making mission week more local, believing that doing so would be more effective.

“In past mission weeks, students were donating money without knowing much about where it was going,” senior student body secretary Sam Radetic said. “Helping organizations at home makes things more personal and lets you connect more.

While the school will continue to support St. Matthew the Apostle Parish and the Jesuit missions in Belize, each grade selected another social issue to focus on this year during Mission week. Freshmen and sophomores chose to fight poverty, working with Bridge of Hope. Juniors chose to focus on birthright, and seniors USO Missouri.

 “Every student government has their own thing that they do for Mission Week each year,” Radetic said. “I’m glad homeland is ours, and hopefully we will be able to leave a lasting impact with it.”