written by Sam Schreier
Some folks may remember me from my time working at the SVDP Family Success Center (FSC) or as a practicum student at Ozanam Inn.
I was born here in Louisville and raised across the river in Southern Indiana. I joined the army after high school and was shipped to Fort Leonard-Wood for Basic Training and completed my training to become an Army Second Class Engineer Diver at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City Beach Florida in 2012.
I was stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, and in my three years there I was sent all over the South Pacific and Southeast Asia on missions with the Corps of Engineers, the Department of Prisoner of war/Missing in Action Accounting Agency, and the State Department.
Sometimes I was on teams that completed underwater construction missions to repair breakwaters and piers, other times I was helping recover service members who had perished in plane, helicopter, or boat crashes in past conflicts such as World War II or Vietnam.
I appreciated my time in the service and wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. I saw some great places and worked with some amazing people.
After completing my time in service I decided to come back to the area and get my undergraduate degree. In December of 2018 I graduated from the University of Louisville with my bachelor’s degree in social work.
After graduation I was selected to participate in a year-long fellowship program with a disaster response organization called Team Rubicon, and I went to Houston, TX, to help rebuild homes that were affected by Hurricane Harvey. I was a volunteer coordinator for that year and facilitated the rebuilding of 65 homes in 2019. I accepted a job to continue working in a similar capacity at Team Rubicon in Houston, but the pandemic hit a month after I started that role, so I shifted to a role on their development team.
In my two years on the development team at Team Rubicon I specialized in strategic partnerships and grants.
During my time away I always knew I wanted to come back to Louisville at some point, and it was my hope that I could work here for this organization with a mission that means a whole lot to me.
Ever since I finished my practicum here I would always tell people that asked about my plans for the future that I wasn’t sure what I’d end up doing, but I knew I was going to be in Louisville at some point and at the least volunteering for St. Vincent de Paul Louisville. So it should come as no surprise that I jumped at the opportunity to come back here to work in a capacity to support this mission, and work with some wonderful folks.
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