Adrienne Tygenhof ’06 came to Loyola Marymount University and discovered her calling was to social justice. Her call was born out of her experiences with the Center for Service and Action (CSA).

“Being active with the Center for Service and Action changed the direction of my life,” Tygenhof says. “LMU’s mission of social justice became my own personal mission.”

Tygenhof, a political science graduate, says that her most memorable CSA trip was the Alternative Break on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. She worked as a fifth grade teaching assistant in addition to learning about the Navajo culture. Tygenhof was most moved, she says, by the disparities she saw between her own life and that of a young Navajo girl she befriended named Mariah.

“Mariah symbolized the hope of the poor and the experience deepened my commitment to learn more about social justice and the roots of poverty,” Tygenhof says. “I also learned the service of being fully present to someone I would not have otherwise encountered in my life”

This past summer, Tygenhof deepened her understanding of social justice by earning a master’s degree in comparative ethnic conflict from Queens University, Northern Ireland as a Fulbright scholar. The one-year program aims to help students understand the causes, consequences and solutions to ethnic conflict across the globe. Additionally, Tygenhof interned at a cross-community peace building organization that researchs ways that societies in conflict try to come to terms with their past.

“I was excited to see the diversity of people brought together to dialogue about peace,” Tygenhof says. “It wasn’t unthinkable to see a former hunger striker working alongside an English military veteran.”

Currently, Tygenhof is the volunteer and outreach coordinator for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington Office of Migration and Refugee Services. The organization is the largest refugee social service provider in Northern Virginia, serving clients from all over the globe, including Somalia, Vietnam, Tibet, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Columbia, Haiti and Russia. Her responsibilities also include educating local parishes about refugees and lobbying the government to expand refugee rights.

Tygenhof plans to continue working on immigration and refugees for the diocese during the next two years, after which she hopes to pursue development work at the grassroots level in West Africa. Her ultimate goal is to work for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

“Answering Christ’s call to justice is what motivates me,” Tygenhof says. “My understanding of Catholicism teaches me to care for those who are less fortunate and move those in the margins of society into the center of my life.”