Ignatian Volunteers Mary Ashcroft and Eva Malanyaon are retired nurse administrators from Mount Sinai Hospital who serve as wellness nurses at the Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem. Eva is in her third year of service with IVC and Mary her second. Both women have expressed that volunteering in IVC has been a life changing experience.
Mary shared, “I never worked with teenagers or children of any age prior joining IVC. My nursing career was spent running the transplant unit and supervising the nurses. I never realized how fulfilling working with children could be.” Eva offered a similar sentiment that “volunteering at Cristo Rey is a privilege and way for me to serve God through my relationships with the students. There is so much misinformation students have about health issues and I feel blessed to be able to provide accurate information and teach them about wellness and taking care of themselves.”
Cristo Rey President, Fr. Joe Parkes, SJ, noted that, “Together, Mary and Eva provide a full time nursing presence at Cristo Rey that we could not otherwise afford to provide. Mary and Eva are women of faith striving to live out the Gospel message in a rather extraordinary way during their retirement”.