Holy Grounds, a coffee stand set up by student government, has now graced the Jesuit community with its presence and opened on Wednesday April 16th.
Holy Grounds is located in the Knight Lobby concessions and is open on Wednesday and Friday mornings from 7:15 to 7:45. At the stand, students can purchase lattes, chai, and coffee along with some light snacks, like croissants and cookies.
This stand is fully student run and every coffee is made by student volunteers. When it first opened the stand was run by student government students, but it will be open to NHS students and then on to any student who volunteers soon. The only requirement is that students must have a food handlers license.
Despite this coffee stand being new to the Jesuit community, this idea has been in the works for a while. At a Metro League student government conference, student government heard about other schools having a student lead coffee stand and decided to try it out.
“We just got inspired by other schools,” stated senior Ingrid Schimdt. “We realized jesuit doesn't have anything like that and we don't have any caffeine in the vending machines so we decided to create a place for students to get coffee in the morning.
Student government members, Ingrid Schmidt and Mimi Thompson, have been working hard for months to get this stand up and running. They began by writing a proposal which was followed by a series of meetings with the Jesuit administration team. Schmidt and Thompson then had to work together with varying members of faculty and staff to make sure that every aspect of the coffee stand was set up correctly and would run smoothly.
Holy Grounds is now officially up and running and ready for customers. Even though Holy Grounds take place before the first bell rings all school rules still apply. All food and beverage purchased from this coffee stand is to be consumed either in Knight lobby, outside, Gedrose, or the Holman Family Student Union. No coffee stand items are to be had in the hallways.
The Holy Ground workers are trying their best to keep student prices low with drink prices ranging from three to four dollars. Currently all of the money earned at the stand is working towards going back to buying supplies so the stand can continue to run.
This stand has been loved by many students. Students have been stopping by in the mornings to get an early morning pick me up
Senior Lauren Howerton reflected on her drink.
”My chai was so good! I was expecting it to be kind of watery but it was actually very good and I will be repurchasing it very soon.”
To become a part of the Holy Grounds work team, contact Ingrid Schmidt or Mimi Thompson to get involved.
One reason to volunteer: time spent volunteering can work towards service hours for freshman service and also NHS hours for students in National Honor Society.
However, this begs the question, why do certain events on campus become eligible for NHS hours and others do not?
At Jesuit, there are many ways to earn service hours for National Honor Society. The most well known is the time spent as a volunteer tutor in the CLARC but one can also earn hours by helping set up for certain all school masses, and working the annual blood drive. But since the grand opening of Holy Grounds, students can now earn hours as a worker.
When asked what the thought process consisted on for deciding that Holy Grounds is eligible for NHS hours, Mr. Paul Klausenburger, the leader of NHS said, “well I think it’s a service for the school right? I think that you get some students trying out some sort of entrepreneurial spirit, if the NHS can help them do that, then that’s a good thing.”
With this, the original question still stands:. What about other activities on campus that can still be qualified as service?
“I have to take these things on a case by case basis. I don't have a hard line drawn for what qualifies for service,” Mr. Klausenbruger said.
