"I’m a visceral person. It’s better for me not to sit on a finance council meeting or something – but if you need diapers for your kids or a new pair of boots for the winter, then I will be there." — Joan Engler (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Community Service Award: For Her, There’s No Question of Helping
Boston College employee Joan Engler has been named winner of the University’s annual Community Service Award
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When priests from the Jesuit Refugee Service asked members of St. Ignatius Parish to consider giving assistance to displaced families from Africa who had been relocated to the Boston area, Boston College employee Joan Engler knew she couldn’t say no.“We are all a family,” says Engler, a senior research analyst for prospect development in the University Advancement office.
For the past nine months, Engler has stepped in to provide child care, medical care assistance, help with shopping, transportation, budget advice, recreation opportunities and even a Thanksgiving Day dinner to a mother and three children from the Congo who have been living in Dorchester and trying to make the substantial transition to the family’s new American lifestyle.
In appreciation of her mentoring efforts with the refugee family — as well as a lifetime of service to others — Engler has been named winner of the University’s annual Community Service Award. The 34-year employee will receive the honor from University President William P. Leahy, SJ, at a recognition dinner in the Murray Room of the Yawkey Athletic Center on May 26.
Engler says that service to others has been a part of her life since she was a child growing up in Brighton. “My mother died when I was 10 and my father’s sister came to help raise us. She was the most giving person you could imagine. She brought all of us up that way.”
After graduation from UMass-Boston, Engler married James Engler, a 1971 Boston College alumnus who was serving in the Peace Corps in Africa. The couple spent the first year of their marriage working in a school in Ghana.
When James returned to BC for graduate studies, Joan took a job in the former science library in Devlin Hall, and then switched to the School of Nursing library on a part-time basis as her family started to grow. She also served as a reference librarian in O’Neill Library before moving to the University Advancement division.
“Fortunately, I was able to work around family issues and stay at BC,” she says. But the busy job and family schedule didn’t stop her from volunteering for a slew of worthy causes: youth soccer coach in West Roxbury for 12 years; dozens of school events when her children were younger; numerous social and service functions at St. Ignatius; and for the past 20 years, fund-raising and meal service work for Rosie’s Place, a Boston shelter for poor and homeless women.
“I’m not Betty Crocker,” she laughs, “and our house is probably going to get condemned, but those things just don’t interest me. I’m a visceral person. It’s better for me not to sit on a finance council meeting or something – but if you need diapers for your kids or a new pair of boots for the winter, then I will be there.”
Engler says her recent work with the African refugee family has been especially rewarding. “The problems these people have to face are much greater than you may think,” she says. “Sadly, the facilities, staff and money from social service agencies are just not available and Catholic Charities is just overwhelmed.
“The needs of this particular family are so great,” Engler continues. “The mother grew up in Rwanda and was orphaned by the time she was 13. The family has been burned out of their house. You can’t imagine what they have been through.”
The woman’s husband is waiting to receive clearance to leave a refugee camp in Rwanda and join the family in Boston, Engler says.
“The family can barely speak English and even the winter – the darkness and the cold – killed them,” Engler adds. “It has become a huge commitment, but I have really come to enjoy it.”
Engler’s passion for service runs through her family. In addition to his Peace Corps stint, her husband has volunteered as a Boy Scout leader for many years; daughter Emily worked for Volunteers in Service to America for two years and is currently involved in charitable fund-raising projects in Boston; and son Matthew taught for two years at Boston’s Jesuit-run Nativity School.
“Once you start doing this type of thing how can you not help?” Engler asks. “I enjoy it. I personally get a lot of fulfillment from it – not always – but it certainly makes me feel that I am more connected to what we should be doing.
“I am very fortunate to have worked at BC and had St. Ignatius Parish to help reinforce and support that opportunity,” she says. “I have been very lucky.”
Reid Oslin can be reached at reid.oslin.1@bc.edu