David Lester '94 - New Director of Christian Service

Central Catholic is excited to announce David Lester ‘94 as the new Director of Christian Service. His transition to this role, which took place at the start of second semester, comes after teaching theology at Central Catholic since January of 2021.

For the past year, the responsibilities of the Christian Service Office have been carried out by Kathleen Gianotti, Associate Director of Campus Ministry and Christian Service, and DeAndre Smith ‘17, Christian Service Coordinator. Both Kathleen and DeAndre have been working tirelessly to coordinate with local partner organizations, get students signed up for projects, manage chaperones, and ensure that students complete their service requirements. All of their hard work and dedication has contributed to a successful year and a smooth transition for David as he takes over the role of Director.

David, a graduate of Central Catholic, begins this new role with a passion for service and a deep commitment to community engagement. While service wasn’t, as he puts it, his “top priority” in high school, many of the seeds were planted while he was a student at Central Catholic. “Looking back at my high school self, I wouldn’t necessarily say this is the path I was on,” he shares. Yet he still remained active in clubs, such as Friends of the Earth, that held these values of service and engagement.

David graduated from Central Catholic in 1994 and went on to attend the University of Oregon and study Psychology and Asian Studies. It wasn’t until after college, when he joined a long-term volunteer program, that his passion for service really took off.

“I signed up to be a Jesuit Volunteer,” David shares, “and was placed in California, working for the St. Vincent de Paul Society as an emergency services case worker.” That experience as a Jesuit Volunteer and living out their core values of spirituality, simple living, community, and social justice opened his eyes to the realities of the world and the need to be engaged with people who are marginalized.

He continued his involvement with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) after his volunteer year ended and worked for their midwest office. “I went around to colleges and universities from Ohio to Colorado, recruiting people to do post-graduate volunteer work and coordinating volunteers across the cities,” he explains. 

After a year working at the JVC midwest office, he returned to California to attend the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, where he earned his Master of Divinity degree. He then moved to Seattle and taught theology at a local grade school before taking a job at Seattle Preparatory School as their Service Director and theology teacher.

He eventually moved back to Portland and landed a job at the University of Portland, working in residence life and teaching theology. David then transitioned to working in parish ministry service outreach at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Vancouver, and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Camas. In January of 2021, he was hired at Central Catholic as a Theology teacher.

His journey after high school and beyond demonstrates the impact of service in one’s life. David explains, “Like a lot of people who graduate from college, I wasn’t exactly sure what my career was going to look like. Being a volunteer and engaging in service really set the course for who I would become as a person.”

Looking Forward: Vision and Goals for Service at Central Catholic

David steps into the role of Director of Christian Service at a unique time. After two years of dealing with the ramifications of the pandemic, there is still much uncertainty and limitations with in-person service opportunities.

“It makes it more challenging to have that direct service, that meaningful encounter with people who may be outside of our normal sphere,“ David explains. “Part of my role is figuring out how we can provide opportunities for the students to engage in service through the conditions of the pandemic.”

One way he aims to increase opportunities is to establish more connections within the community. “Some of the larger plans I have are to build new relationships with the community of Central Catholic and the broader Portland area nonprofits, so that we have a strong relationship and our students can benefit from being a part of that.” With more connections made, he hopes that they might provide more opportunities for students to have transformative experiences. “I really want the service experiences to be as meaningful as possible for the students of Central Catholic,” he says. 

David also plans to emphasize areas of engagement and assign a specific focus for each class. Currently, there are several areas of engagement that are tied to the various service opportunities, including: environmental stewardship; houselessness and hunger; health, education, and faith formation; and diversity, equity and inclusion. “I want to try to tie those to different years, so that freshmen have a focus of service and they follow the same theme, and sophomores would have a theme, and so on,” he explains. 

Additionally, David has a goal of bringing the full aspects of service to the program. “Oftentimes, service is just focused on charity work,” he says. “I want to make sure that justice work is also an opportunity for our students to engage, so they see the importance of all aspects of service.”

When looking toward the year ahead and beyond, he shares a lot of excitement for the transformational experiences students will have. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to have an impact on the students’ lives and hopefully through that, guide our students to have a larger impact on the Portland community and the world at large,” David shares. 

Ultimately, he hopes to provide opportunities for students to make a positive impact, and in turn, think about and understand that impact. He reflects back on the role that service had when he was a student: “Thinking back to myself as a student here…those opportunities may have been planted deep inside of me and presented themselves later. I hope that all of our students have the opportunity to explore that side of them and see that connection with the broad scope of humanity, called as a Catholic institution to play a positive role in the world.”