Juan Hinojosa (Ph.D. ’84) works with the poor in Bolivia. Judith Kay (Ph.D. ’88) teaches religion and social ethics and recently wrote a book on the death penalty. Their GTU experiences have served as a compass as their careers developed, equipping them to build bridges between their studies and the world’s needs.

In the early seventies, Hinojosa managed a successful wholesale jewelry corporation in San Anselmo, California. But he wanted something more. “I always knew ultimately that I was going to get into something connected to church and Christ and mission,” Hinojosa says. “And the GTU loomed large.”

Drawn by the GTU’s depth of faculty, he began a master’s degree in theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in 1975, where professors Don Gelpi and Sandra Schneiders mentored him. He took advantage of the GTU’s pioneering interdisciplinary curriculum to become its first Ph.D. graduate in Christian spirituality. But his sights were set on getting his hands dirty.

“It never was my desire to be an academician,” he explains. “My orientation was more pastoral and practical.” He began training Catholic lay people for mission. “Lay vocation and mission,” he says, “are really about the interface with the world, society, and culture.”

Hinojosa started several programs for spiritual development nationwide and taught at the Oblate School of Theology, St. Edward’s University, and St. Norbert’s College. But he found his true calling when he started Solidarity Bridge (www.solidaritybridge.org) in 1998, a Catholic organization that allows medical and business professionals and educators to contribute their expertise and resources to the very poor.

Like many GTU alumni, he found a way to make a tangible difference by leading the way, in his words, “at the cutting edge of new things that ought to be happening but tend not to.” Solidarity Bridge is currently working on a fair trade clothing venture, helping co-ops in Bolivia and other Latin American countries sell polo shirts and sweaters to companies and schools. Hinojosa is also pleased about the volunteer organization’s partnership with Medtronic Corporation on a pacemaker project.

“The GTU gave me the ecumenical dimension of being with folks from all kinds of communions,” Hinojosa says. “It enriched me, and became a core element of my consciousness.”

Unlike Hinojosa, Judith Kay wanted to have a life in the academy, and the GTU gave her a platform to do it. A religion professor at the University of Puget Sound in Washington since 1992, she recently wrote Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty (2005), which examines Americans' deep-seated beliefs about crime and punishment.

"Like most Americans, I thought that murderers were outsiders who violated our moral code. But during my research, I learned that both murderers and the state tell the same story to justify their use of violence.”

While Kay was pursuing her master's degree in ethics at Pacific School of Religion in the 1970s, her best friend was counseling death row prisoners. It was from her that Kay first grasped what really happens during executions. "I decided that I couldn't just sit on the sidelines," she says. Her book draws from her work with one prisoner who was executed in 2001, as well as interviews with murder victims' families, abolitionists, lawyers, and academics. Kay currently serves on the steering committee of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

As a doctoral student in ethics, Kay found a role model in the late William Spohn, former professor of moral philosophy at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and the husband of Martha Stortz, professor of theology and ethics at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.

"Bill was always direct and rigorous. He insisted on theoretical clarity, while conveying his compassion and deep faith. Today, when I teach, I try to run my seminars like he ran his."

Berkeley was the perfect place for Kay to incorporate study and practice. She got involved with the GTU’s Center for Ethics and Social Policy and led Arab-Israeli cultural sharing events and workshops about racism and anti-Semitism. She relished the scholarly rigor of a weekly seminar with acclaimed UC Berkeley professor Robert Bellah.

At the University of Puget Sound, Kay has developed curriculum to address anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and has been a seminar fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"The GTU gave me an academic identity while nurturing my desire to be an ethicist involved in changing the world," Kay says. "Seeking to eliminate both anti-Semitism and capital punishment are going to be my primary passions for a while.

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