Every year the Chynn Family graciously offers a generous scholarship to the student who can write an essay about Compassion. This year’s winner, Jaden wrote of his family and his education at OLMC. Congratulations Jaden! Please read it below!
Compassion means having feelings of concern for the suffering and misfortunes experienced by other people. In other words, it means feeling sorry for people who are suffering and going through tough times with family or personal issues. Having compassion makes you a caring, helpful, concerned and sensitive to the needs of others. Being compassionate also means listening and understanding what that person is going through in terms of what they are experiencing in life. For example, if a friend was going through personal issues with family, friends, etc., having compassion means listening to what the friend has to say and being able to provide a listening ear and providing support in terms of lending hand. This means caring or extending help for people who are going through some difficulties in life. People who are not compassionate do not care for the feeling of others and often times ignore what they see because they are too focused on themselves. 
Being compassionate involves having a moral choice of doing something to help people who are suffering and need help. It means being able to recognize what is right from wrong and being able to know what is the right thing for that person. As a human being, it is our moral obligation to make sure people are not being taken advantage of and if we have the means to help, we should offer help to the best we can because these people are not capable of helping themselves. Being helpful to others proves that we should not only be thinking about ourselves but also making the choice to help others in need. The teachings of Jesus help us identify what is a moral choice. It is about loving others as we love ourselves so if we love ourselves by living comfortably in a house and having food to eat, we should also make sure other people experience the same and not to go hungry and be homeless. The Ten Commandments also guides us on how to make moral choices by respecting not only God but also ourselves and others.
Pope Francis is the person I consider to show compassion to others. In all his speeches traveling to many countries, Pope Francis would always encourage the politicians who make laws that benefit the poor people and the oppressed. He is showing us great examples not to be indifferent and to do things not just to serve our own best interest but for the good of all people. He is very brave for challenging the leaders of the various countries to think about the common good. He talks about doing our best to preserve the environment for the future of this planet and for those who live near coastal waters who are endangered of flooding due to climate change. He appeals to the leaders of many nations to think about allowing people from war torn countries to come so they too can live a peaceful life. He denounces human trafficking as there are people who take advantage of people’s suffering and manipulate their situation. These people are innocent, victims of war and not educated. They can easily be fooled with promise of food and shelter yet they are being exploited to become slaves and prostitutes. As leader of the Catholic Church, he took responsibility of disciplining those who were charged with sex abuse scandals by setting up a committee and talking with victims about what happened and how can they stop it. He has done many things to help, support the community, and others. Pope Francis is a good role model for others because the way he accomplished things, makes people want to become like him and to follow his ways in life.
My education at Mount Carmel allowed me to become compassionate. The religion classes gave me an understanding of what it is to be compassionate through the examples of Jesus Christ and his teachings and also seeing it first hand from the people around me who showed compassion and provided support. The teachers have taught me compassion by helping students like me who struggle with understanding the subject. My classmates showed compassion by summarizing what I missed when I was out of school and they help me with homework, problems, etc. This school has taught me to become a good person to myself, my family, and others. The community service programs help me become more aware and sensitive how others live. Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is suffering but through the church activities – soup kitchen, Turkey drive, Christmas gifts to the children of Siena House, Medical Mission, fundraising for RJ. These activities that we do in school and the teachings help me to understand the meaning of compassion and the need for it to live by.
In high school, I will promise to do the best I can to be successful in my studies and to make my parents proud and show my appreciation to their hard work. I will continue to participate as an altar server to provide service to the church. I will participate in different volunteer programs that benefit the poor, It may not be a grand gesture but just bringing in food items for the Office of the Social Concern is a way to start. I will participate more in volunteer and community service programs to help the needy. I would like to visit the Philippines more often because that is the one place where I saw kids on the street who were hungry and I felt good when I saw them smile when I bought them food. My Mom and I send old clothes & toys we don’t use anymore and give them away to the poor towns in the Philippines.