Santa Clara University

Program Staff

Greetings and welcome to the Casa de la Solidaridad web site. We encourage you to explore the possibility of studying with us in El Salvador. The experience will be one you surely will never forget!

Peace,
Kevin, Trena Yonkers-Talz
Daughters Sophia, Grace, and Hannah

---

Co-Directors

L-R: Hannah, Trena, Sophie, Kevin, Grace

Trena Yonkers-Talz, M.Ed., M.S.
Co-Director, Casa de la Solidaridad
Trena is very proud of the fact that she grew up on a goat farm in Hastings, Michigan. Trena's academic interests lie in college student development theory and theology from a liberationist / feminist perspective. She studied accounting as an undergrad at Grandvalley State University and received her M.S. in College Student Personnel Services from Miami University and a M.Ed. in Religious Education from Boston College. She has a passion for running and baking cookies. She enjoys being a mom and loves seeing the joy Sophia, Grace, and Hannah bring to others.

Kevin Yonkers-Talz, M.Ed., M.S.
Co-Director, Casa de la Solidaridad
Kevin loves being a father and dreads the day his daughters start dating. He is passionate about working with college students and working with people living in poverty. Kevin's academic interests lie in economics, human development, and theology. He studied economics and psychology at Fairfield University and received his M.S. in College Student Personnel Services from Miami University. He then studied Religious Education with an emphasis on liberation theology at Boston College. He loves playing basketball. 

After studying at Boston College, Trena and Kevin worked with Jesuit Volunteers: International in Belize, Central America for 2 years. They have been on the faculty of Santa Clara University and working with the Casa program since 1999.

Romero Scholarship Program Staff

Griselda Reyes (left)

Griselda Reyes
Community Facilitator, Romero Scholarship Student Program
Griselda has worked with the Casa for three years. Once a scholarship student herself, she now works full time with the Casa supporting young scholarship students studying at the UCA. She has a wealth of experience working with Casa students and scholarship students and we are pleased she has joined the staff. Griselda has also studied in the United States at Santa Clara University for one year through an exchange program.

She says, "I am very grateful to have this new experience of working with the Oscar Romero Program. It really is a gift from God that I am able to learn and enjoy time with the young men and women becario students and to work with this new program. Through it all, I can see the gifts God has given each of us to share and to bring alive the feelings and values of solidarity that we have acquired from our own experiences and families.

The feelings of social consciousness that are going to be raised from their own experiences with the poor. I believe that the community should start deep from within our own selves and only needs a healthy space in order to develop."

Community Facilitators

L-R: Emory Lynch, Colin Smith, Katy Erker

Emory Lynch
Community Facilitator
Emory grew up in Houston with her three older brothers and incredibly supportive parents.  She studied Religious Studies and History at Santa Clara University, and spent a profoundly formative semester in fall 2005 studying with the Casa.  Her passions include the empowerment of womyn and marginalized individuals, dancing, community, experiencing diverse and new cultures, mountains and spinning around with children.  After her time with the Casa, Emory plans to pursue her Master's in Theological Studies, concentrating in liberation theologies of womyn, the LGBT community, and the poor.  She also looks forward to planting a garden.

Catherine Erker
Community Facilitator
Katy comes from a big Catholic family in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the youngest of the five children of Mary Pat and Gerard. In June of 2008, she graduated from Santa Clara University with a major in Sociology and a double-minor in Women’s and Gender Studies and Spanish Studies. Katy learned about liberation when she spent a formative and powerful semester studying with the Casa in the fall of 2006. She is passionate about LGBT Rights, being in community and loves playing outside. After her time with the Casa, Katy plans to volunteer on the U.S./Mexico border and to learn from the University of Life. If that entails graduate school as well, Katy will probably be found in law school in the fall of 2010.



Colin Smith
Community Facilitator
Raised by a rocking family in the Midwest, Colin loves to hike, swim, and run around barefoot. After spending spring 2007 at the Casa, Colin graduated from Boston College, where he studied English and social rhetoric. He hopes to enter public policy school in 2010. Colin really digs distance running, coffee, immigration & border issues, public health, media, guacamole, and enacting social change through the medium of dance as portrayed in the feature film Hairspray.

Becarios

Lidia, Francisca, Lupita, and Zarita
Lidia, Francisca, Zarita and Lupita comprise one of the most important teams on staff. They serve the Casa & becario students in a variety of ways: as support people, as educators about the lives of average Salvadorans, and as cooks. Lidia has worked as a cook with the Jesuits for over 17 years. Elba Ramos, the housekeeper who was murdered with the Jesuits, taught Lidia how to cook. Each semester, students reflect on the immense importance of these three women have on their experience. We are grateful they are on staff.

Support Staff

L to R: Guadalupe Montalvo, Francisca Martínez Arias, Lidia Ramirez de Mejía, Zara Ríos