Jesuit Volunteer Corps

alumni feature, healthcare

Nurse Practitioner Heals Others While Navigating a Broken Healthcare System

By Michael Bennett

(Cleveland 2001-02)

I can trace my interest in healthcare about as far back as I can remember. Health and healing has been the strongest common thread throughout my life—from visiting the nursing homes my father operated during my childhood, to later volunteering in similar facilities as a member of Sursum Corda during my undergraduate studies at LMU. This experience was an integral impetus to pursue service as a JV at a community mental health agency.

After my service year, I accepted an offer to continue employment, becoming the agency's first Patient Advocate. I could not help but recognize injustices and disparities within the healthcare system, as well as the toxic influence of capitalism on the care of our planet and fellow human beings. This recognition was rooted firmly in the four values, the seeds of which were planted early on, but were watered and fertilized during JVC.

Later on, my service year inspired me to pursue further education to maximize my potential impact, which began with a permaculture and ecovillage design course, continued with a market gardener training program which fostered my broader health-focused vision, and determined my next steps . During the next leg of my journey, I lived and worked in an intergenerational community with a group of elders, and served developmentally disabled adults while studying nursing.  In 2009, I became legally recognized as what I always had been - a nurse - and subsequently worked and volunteered as such in a variety of settings. Eventually, I became a nurse practitioner working primarily in geriatrics and in integrative medicine, and currently work as an adult/gerontology NP at a large hospital system in primary care and in their interdisciplinary geriatric assessment program.

"Even now, I find myself leaning into the four values in the work I pursue, the continued education I seek out, and in communities that I help to build and strengthen."

Michael Bennett (Cleveland 2001-02)

My JV experience continues to nurture my vision for the future of the healthcare system. My family and I now own and operate a 122 permaculture farmstead called Resilient Acres in Chardon, OH where we are incubating a variety of health-focused initiatives, including a farm clinic operated by Resilient Health Network, Inc. – a non-profit I founded, an agricultural cooperative creating opportunities for landless regenerative farmers, and health oriented classes that empower people to promote enrich and sustain resilient human and environmental health.

The JVC lifestyle is all about living simply on a modest stipend, engaging with a spiritual director, trying to find common ground with a group of very different people, and working towards justice on a daily basis. Even now, I find myself leaning into the four values in the work I pursue, the continued education I seek out, and in communities that I help to build and strengthen.

Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett is a Nurse Practitioner Specialist in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He graduated with honors in 2012 and has more than 7 years of diverse experiences including as a Jesuit Volunteer in Cleveland from 2001-02.

Read More

  • fjv, alumni feature, social justice

    People are sometimes afraid to adopt a plant-based eating pattern out of fear they’ll feel deprived. But veganism is not about deprivation. Rather, veganism is about abundance: abundant compassion, abundant culinary discovery, abundant health, the preservation of our only home, and the prevailing of our values.

    Read More

  • fjv, alumni feature, community

    Nicole and I agree that, as we each look back on the different things we’ve been part of in our 50-plus years, Jesuit Volunteer Corps stands out. The fun part of JVC for me was traveling around the West for parties with other communities. It was my own community, though, that prompted me to grow more in that one year than in any other single year in my life.

    Read More

  • alumni feature, fjv

    If the values of JVC continue to resonate with you as you contemplate your next steps, then I encourage you to think about participating in the CLA program! It has been a truly transformative and life-giving experience for me.

    Read More

  • love stories, alumni feature, fjv

    My community, my roommates, my best friends have taught me to both share and receive unconditional love. We have a built a life together in New York City.

    Read More

  • fjv, alumni feature, community

    Community has taught me about myself and exposed me to new perspectives. We can talk about hard things in community. Conversations get deeper, problems can get worked out, walls can come down. It's never perfect, it's rarely easy, but it is enriching. I would not be the person I am today without living in intentional communities.

    Read More