FOCUS Missionaries
Class of 2023 (5 Missionaries)
Benita Bheemisetty ‘23 (2023-2025)
Serving at University of Washington.
Where I serve
The Lord has called me to the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington! I am excited to serve at this university and encounter students amidst the busyness of school and the city.
My Story
I am blessed to have grown up with parents who are Catholic and who taught me many things about the faith. But I also was not taught the many truths of the Church that I know now and my vision of who God was was distorted. I knew my faith was important, and I continued to pursue it as best as I could. In high school, I was shown a glimpse of the great love and mercy God has for me during confession and Eucharistic Adoration. It was there I was hooked, searching ever more for the God who I knew to be true. But the life I was leading was not a place where God could easily be integrated; I cared more about my academic success than God.
God pursued me all the way to UC Berkeley, where I entered college with big dreams and hopes for a new start. I still wanted to pursue my faith, and I encountered Catholics tabling during the first week of school handing out rosaries. That night, I went to my first event at Newman and encountered Christ again in the Eucharist. As I kept coming back, I met some of my best friends now who are also on mission, and we continued to run to Christ together throughout our four years. I learned so much more about my faith in college, was able to grow as a person and fall more in love with the God who at one time I thought was unreachable.
If it weren’t for the FOCUS missionaries who walked with me and pursued me in friendship from the beginning of college, I would have never been able to become who I am today, let alone a missionary. Their joyfulness and active pursuit of God showed me how I can also be like them, and I learned how to pray, how to pursue others in authentic friendship and trust God in all things. Now, I will be able to do the same for other college students who are seeking meaning in life and a home, and I can invite them into the greatest love story ever written.
Christine Oh ‘23 (2023-2025)
Serving at Cal State Long Beach.
Where We serve
After graduating from UC Berkeley this past May, my fiancé Francis Xavier and I are now off to our next adventure! It is with great joy to share that we are doing full-time mission at California State University, Long Beach! We are so excited to meet, love, and walk with students on their personal journey towards communion with Christ and His Church.
Our Story
Though I was baptized and raised Catholic, I held great anger and resentment towards Christ and His Church from a young age of 10 years old. It was rooted in a broken family life that made me believe that there was absolutely no way that God could be “that” good, merciful, or loving. My life dramatically changed when I first came face-to-face with the Holy Eucharist in adoration. I found myself having a very honest conversation with Jesus, telling Him how furious I was at Him. I was shocked when I stopped talking and all I could hear back was the voice of Love. My child, I love you. That night, by the grace of Jesus, I realized that the Lord was not only legitimate, but totally in love with His children that He breathes life into each day. It felt like every distortion I had about Jesus was destructed. I look back at my 14-year-old self, who sincerely believed that darkness, sin, and suffering was her home, her comfortable place…and now say with conviction and peace that death does not have the final word. His Love always prevails. Immediately following this amazing encounter with Jesus, I entered high school with a great conviction that if Jesus is real, He must be at the center of my life. My youth minister helped me grow a sacramental life in high school with intentional discipleship. It grew my missionary zeal for souls, especially as I prepared to go to college. Just like my patron saint St. Catherine of Siena, I wanted to set the world ablaze. I want people to meet the Best Person I have ever met. At Berkeley, Jesus gifted me the FOCUS missionaries, who taught me how to pray a Holy Hour, be an intentional friend, lead a Bible study, and most of all, fall more in love with the Holy Eucharist. Their intentional friendship and discipleship for me helped me to discover so much life and joy in living in my identity as a beloved daughter of God. Being His was enough.
People, especially college students, are hungry for life. They are hungry for love (just like you and me), desperate to experience something, or Someone, greater than themselves. In their yearning for belonging, freedom, and purpose, they are thirsting for even a single drop of the blood of Jesus. My personal thirst on mission is to bring these souls, including mine and yours, to our Lover, who will unveil His goodness to His children and take care of them. I am thankful for the story Jesus has written for me, and the FOCUS missionaries at Berkeley that have loved me to the depths. And now it is my turn! The blazing fire in my soul to radically change the world, to introduce people to Jesus, and to show them the face of Love starts in California. I am in need of an army to keep this fire alive.
Will you, solely guided by the Holy Spirit, consider being generous in prayerfully and financially supporting me?
Francis Xavier Limpin ‘23 (2023-2025)
Serving at Cal State Long Beach.
Where I serve
This coming year, God has called my fiancée, Christine, and me to serve at Cal State Long Beach! We’re so excited to help these students cultivate their relationship with the Lord!
My Story
I knew that I wanted to pursue my faith deeper as I entered my first year at UC Berkeley, however I didn’t anticipate the way God wanted to transform me from the inside out with this desire. During this first year, I met our campus’s FOCUS missionaries, who witnessed to me what it truly meant to have an intimate relationship with Christ. I came to a deeper understanding that my identity flows from my relationship with the Father — that living as His beloved son is the only way to make a sincere gift of myself to others. I was convicted to grow deeper and deeper in love with Christ, becoming more and more like him.
I soon realized that this conviction isn’t meant to be contained — God was calling me to share the good news of His love and His desire to be in communion with His beloved children. He revealed His plan for Christine and I was to serve through FOCUS and we are joyfully responding to His call!
Joe Dardaine ‘23 (2023-2025)
Serving at Cal State Northridge.
Where I serve
This coming year I’ll be serving at Cal State University Northridge!! I’m extremely excited to be one of the first male missionaries on this campus and look forward to meeting the community there. As a California native, I’m excited to stay in the LA area for more surfing and sharing of the mission! On campus I’ll be leading bible studies, hosting events, going hiking with students, and other fun activities. Go Matadors!
My Story
As a cradle Catholic who was involved in the church throughout my life, I found that my way of practicing the faith was simply through going to Sunday mass to meet the checklist for heavens entrance. In my junior year of college, I transferred to UC Berkeley (Go Bears!). I had started to realize when moving into the Bay Area that my time as a transfer would be brief leaving little time for friendships. To my surprise, the missionaries at the local Newman center were excited to meet me and walk through my life with me. Going into the second semester at Cal, I was in bible study and discipleship finding a deep love for the Lord that went deeper compared what I had before.
Growing in the faith was a gift that was also tested that summer when a close friend of mine passed away. Through the prayers and goodness of Jesus, I was able to find peace during this heavy and stressful time while also having a group of people to lean back on. I had discovered what FOCUS was fighting for with authentic friendships, and seeing how that plus a growing love for Jesus had saved my time in college.
Leading a bible study my last year at Berkeley lead me to appreciate and understand the great commission. and Having received so much, I opened my heart to giving two years on mission and was able to say yes to a new chapter in my life.
Michael Cabrera ‘23 (2023-2025)
Serving at San Diego State University.
Where I serve
I will be serving at San Diego State University this coming Fall. When discerning mission, I had strong desires to be placed in California, so I couldn’t me more excited for the the mission He is preparing for me in San Diego. California is where I grew up, so I am passionate about being on mission in my home state!
My Story
Growing up, I easily grew numb to the radical truths of Catholicism that were taught to me by my parents and my teachers. Unable to fathom the deep love that Jesus wanted to give me everyday, I let prayer and the Sacraments become mere motions that never pentrated deeper than the surface of my heart. The Lord began to reach my heart ever more slightly in high school where I began to realize that He desired personal relationship with me, but even then I still found myself obsessed with my own academic success. I knew God loved me, but I still placed my identity in the things I could accomplish.
When I decided to go to UC Berkeley for college, I was transplanted from a sheltered Catholic school world to a school and a city that were both much different from where I grew up. But it was in this most unlikely of places, that the Lord encountered me the most. In the back of a Mediteranean restaurant in the Northside of Berkeley, I was asked if I wanted Jesus to be the center of my life. And ever since that reluctant and small ‘yes’ I started to see God in everything. More and more I began to realize just how deeply he was pursuing me. Jesus encountered me the most in the relationships He brought into my life, be it my family who have sacrificed so much for me, my best friends who I have the blessing of being on mission with, or the missionaries who invested in me throughout college.
In college, I came to know the truth that every moment of my life – all the messiness and joy and pain and goodness – was beautiful and sacred beyond my own comprehension simply because I am beloved by Him. He wants my entire heart. I want nothing more than to help other young people encounter the Gospel and realize these truths about themselves.
Class of 2018 (2 Missionaries)
Leanne Jarvis ‘18 (2018-2020)
Where I serve
This year I am serving as the Team Director at the University of Northern Iowa. As a FOCUS expansion campus, we are working alongside the existing campus ministry to broaden efforts on campus to bring souls to Christ. It is with great joy that I have said yes to live the missionary vocation of the Church. Read the story of how God led me here below!
"Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass." EVANGELII NUNTIANDI 14
My Story
I entered college at UC Berkeley seeking to live a great story of success, academically on the path toward medical school, and athletically on Cal's cross country and track teams. As I poured myself into these pursuits, I began to recognize a growing dissatisfaction and unrest inside myself. I started asking the questions "Who am I?" and "For what purpose have I been made?" These questions were not being answered through the channels of school and running. Rather, they moved me to see the Catholic faith in which I was raised in a different light. It was not just about the prayers and teachings I learned as a child, but it was where I could find my true identity. I was drawn to the humble joy and loving friendship I encountered in the FOCUS missionaries present at the Berkeley Newman Center. They knew who they were and for what they were living, and it was so attractive. I wanted what they had. Through their friendship and deep investment in me, I began to see who I was in God's eyes rather than through the lens of the world's empty promises.
When my identity as a Division 1 athlete came crumbling down due to repetitive injuries, I was embraced by our loving Father who showed me that the only true identity I had was in relationship with him as a beloved daughter.
During my senior year of college, as I discerned the next steps in my life, I was once again invited by the Lord to let go of an area I had been placing my identity: as a pre-med student. After much discernment, God made it clear that He was not asking me to spend the years immediately after college providing physical healing through a career in medicine. Rather, He was inviting me to recognize the great need on college campuses for the spiritual healing that only He can provide. It is my greatest desire to lead students to our true healer, the source of love himself, and because of this desire, I became a FOCUS missionary.
I spend my time on campus investing deeply in students in order to lead them to live freely in their true identities as beloved sons and daughters of the Father. I witnessed hearts beautifully transformed last year while serving at the University of Colorado, and I'm so excited for the radical plans the Lord has in store this year for UNI.
Phillip Wullschleger ‘18 (2018-2020?)
Served as a FOCUS Missionary at MIT (Boston, MA).
Sara Billman ‘17 (2017-2019?)
Served as a FOCUS Missionary in Colorado.
Nicole Manalo ‘16 (2016-2018)
Served for 2 years as a FOCUS Missionary at USC.
Alison (Jarvis) De Lima Fernandes ‘15 (2015-2016?)
Served as a FOCUS Missionary in Washington after Cal.
Christ in the City
Claire Ganton ‘23 (2023-2024)
Serving in Philadelphia ministering to the homeless after Cal.
A Simple House
Lina Gannon ‘21 (2021-2022)
Served in Kansas, MO ministering to inner city poor and homeless after Cal.
Jesuit Volunteer Corp
Jessica Yescas ‘18
Volunteered for a year with JVC in Oregon.
Lilian Vasquez ‘18
Volunteered with JVC in the Northwest after Cal.
Jonathan Young ‘16
Volunteered with JVC in Scranton, PA.
Amber McChesney-Young
Volunteered with JVC in Houston, TX in 2008.
Volunteering in Africa
Rose Paneno ‘17
Volunteered for a year in Africa with Catholic Medical Mission Board and in 2022, volunteered in Peru.
Heidi Ayran ‘15
Volunteered in Africa after college (possibly with Engineers without Borders).
The Culture Project
Olivia Buak ‘19 (2019-2023?)
Serves as a “The Culture Project” missionary in the Bay Area, then Pittsburgh missionary, and later Junior Development Officer, after Cal.
Exploring the Religious Life
Matt Grehm ‘21
Entered priestly formation for the Diocese of Sacrament in 2022. He is currently studying at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park in their Propaedeutic Program. He received an BS and MS in engineering at Cal.
Thuy Nguyen ‘21
Entered the postulency with the cloistered Dominican Nuns in Menlo Park in 2022.
Zach Pedraza ‘21
Entered priestly formation with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in 2021.
Liam Robles ‘21
In 2023, he isexploring priesthood with Pro Ecclesia Sancta, a new Peruvian order influenced by Ignatian spirituality and devoted to the Sacred Heart.
Joseph Simbre ‘20
Entered formation with Divine Word Missionaries in 2022. Joseph served on SMT with our Exec Committee while at UC Berkeley. After college, he helped his family take care of his grandfather for year and then joined Divine Word Missionaries. He is currently in Divine Word College in Iowa discerning his vocation and learning more about the Divine Word Missionaries.
Br. Xavier Marie (Ting) Wu ‘19
Ting graduated from Cal in 2019 with a Bioengineering degree. He grew up in Beijing, China, and went to high school in Laredo, TX. In his free time he enjoys playing basketball, rock-climbing, and sketching. He earned a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley. At Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Parish, he was on a Fall Retreat team and lead various Bible Studies. During his time in Berkeley, he met the Dominicans and began attending daily Mass at St. Albert’s Priory. It was there that he learned about the Order’s charism and was drawn to our common life, prayer, study, and preaching. He finds inspiration in the passage from Song of Songs 8:6-7, in which love is described as a burning flame. He explains, “It is a perfect image of Christ’s burning love for us.” In 2019, he joined the Dominican novitiate in SF and became Br. Xavier Marie. He made his first profession in September 2020.
Zac Dehkordi ‘19
Zac applied and was accepted into formation with the Dominicans. God however had other plans for him. While working the summer in Denver before his postulency began, love struck his heart. The rest is history. He is now happily married. serving God as a holy husband.
Alex Huber ‘18
Alex is exploring priesthood with the Holy Protection of Mary, Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix, in 2023.
Steven Olujic ‘17
Joined the priestly formation for the SF Archdiocese at St. Patrick’s Seminary in 2017. He has subsequently discerned his calling elsewhere.