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The Impact of a Year of Service

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fter college, Jonathan Bettle accepted an During his BSVM
internship with Doctors Without Borders year, Jonathan served
in New York City. He knew he wanted to as a patient advocate
go to nursing school but was not sure where in the Emergency
to apply. As the internship was coming to Department at Bon
a close, he received an email from the Bon Secours Volunteer Secours Hospital Baltimore and quickly expanded
Ministry announcing an opening within the BSVM 2008–09 his responsibilities to provide resources and help any
cohort. Jonathan immediately applied. In hindsight, he says, way he could. “Bon Secours does Kingdom work set
“I felt something very clairvoyant about the call to respond.” against a lot of brokenness and extreme poverty,” says
Jonathan. “I learned to navigate that environment
Jonathan graduated from the University of Dayton, and be a loving minister of presence and hospitality.”
a Catholic, Marianist university deeply connected to the
mission of service. While still a student, he attended a ‘‘ There is an inherent worth and dignity in
presentation about a year of service and met a representative every person that comes across your path.
from the Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry. He recalls, Every patient is worth caring for and
“It was the only program offering a health care opportunity deserves your utmost best.”
that was clinical. I must have signed up for their email list. Jonathan’s BSVM experience forever changed his life.
It turned out to be quite a blessing, because it brought me to He has been a nurse for more than 10 years, currently
Baltimore, where there were many nursing schools and new serving at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
opportunities, and I was able to live in community, which He is a deacon in his Church and raising his family
as a young Christian was very important to me.” in Baltimore City.

Jonathan with his wife, Courtney,
and sons Ellis and Desmond.

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