Every Brophy student has gone through the experience: they need to get some service hours done, they procrastinate, and then they spend 14 consecutive days visiting their service site in a rush to get their hours in. Rafe Carag ’25, however, took that experience and continued to work at his preferred service site, Andre House, for around 16-20 hours a week.
Carag did indeed work for 14 days straight (excluding Fridays because they’re closed) at Andre House to get his summer Ignatian Capstone hours done. After he was done, however, he was invited by a post-grad core staff member to help out earlier on Sundays. After the summer, the summer interns (typically Holy Cross or Diocese Seminarians) leave, and a spot opened up.
Carag quickly grew to love the place and its mission. “For me, it was about seeing the personalism that they embody—that open door… everyone that walks through our doors is open for being a human,” said Carag. “It doesn’t matter what they’ve done on the street. It doesn’t matter that they’re homeless. It doesn’t matter if they’re housed, volunteer guest staff, whatever person that walks through their door, [we see] them as a real person and [give] them the dignity that they deserve.”
Carag went around 4 days a week and 18-22 hours a week his junior year. Both semesters, he used his 4th period free period to continue to volunteer there.
Before his senior year, the core program of Andre House was temporarily dismantled, so Carag took on more responsibilities, such as helping run dinner service. When new staff came in, he transitioned to a hospitality role, serving as a liaison and helping welcome and settle in volunteers.
Now, Carag incorporates Andre House into the Romero Project, the Senior honors religion course. The Romero Project has its students do an internship during their 7th period. He volunteers Saturday through Monday, no matter what, and then depending on when his 7th period is, Carag will volunteer on those days.
Carag plans to continue to do service over the summer, and even into college when he attends Arizona State University where he will study Anthropology. It may not be Andre House, though, because of location.
“Even if I’m not at Andre House… I would like to continue to do service,” Carag said.
Carag said that his time at Brophy, while not extraordinary, has been meaningful. “I went to a public middle school… where it can be harder to notice the individual student and help them grow,” Carag said. Brophy, on the other hand, was a place where teachers invested in and challenged individual students.
Going into his sophomore year, Carag planned on regular English. His freshman English teacher, Mr. Sundberg, however, pushed him to apply, and Carag ended up on the honors track. The same happened his junior year, where Ms. Ordelly challenged him to take AP Language.
Carag has given back to Brophy in his own way. In this year’s edition of the yearbook, Carag helped Finnegan Klocke ’25 in the cover design of the yearbook, specifically with the spray paint.
“I used to work at Ace Hardware my sophomore year and into the junior summer, and by the end of it I was helping run the spray paint department,” Carag said. Carag used his spray paint expertise to help Klocke ensure that the spray paint looked realistic and authentic, although Carag gives Klocke credit for majority of the work.
