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Management major Ankit Desai ’16 never saw his call to serve coming. During his first year at Siena a friend told him about a Habitat for Humanity trip to South Carolina. They were interested in going, Ankit was definitely not.
“I immediately thought to myself, ‘good luck with that’. But I got strung along to go with her. My big mouth, I thought.”
What seemed like a rash in-the-moment decision, turned out to be the defining moment in his Siena experience. During his trip to Marion County, South Carolina, Desai’s eyes were opened to the importance of service and the impact that it has on the people being served. What he didn’t expect, was the lasting impact that it would have on his life.
“From this experience, I knew I needed to get out and see the world, and for some reason, I felt so much more fulfilled helping other people. I needed to get out of my comfort zone because there were many more lessons I needed to learn that I couldn’t receive in a classroom.”
Desai did just that. As a junior he continued to follow his passion to serve by traveling to the St. Francis Inn, a soup kitchen in Philadelphia. There, he worked in the kitchen preparing meals for the community members of the Kensington neighborhood that visited the Inn, and he was a server in the dining room.
“At the end of that week, I knew I had to go back. So a year later, senior year, I led the trip down there again and I had the pleasure of seeing a whole new group of people change from that experience. Watching such progress in a human being in a matter of a week was really magical to me.”
Desai has seen the importance of carrying out the Franciscan tradition in our relationships with others, responding to their needs and being an agent of change in the world.
“Everyone probably had a hero growing up: Superman, Batman, Mother Teresa. We all wanted to be like them. But their superpowers weren’t what made them heroes, it was their passion to help people, the acts of kindness that they formed unconditionally. We all have the ability to make someone else’s day.”
Congratulations to Ankit Desai and the Siena College class of 2016! Live photos and video of the Commencement ceremony are available on commencementfeed.siena.edu. Share your best photos, congratulations, and best wishes on social media by tagging them #Siena2016.
