Megan Zarnitz: Magis Award Winner
Nov 5, 2018
Megan Zarnitz's passion for working with immigrants began when she was at Xavier studying for her degree in Social Work. She went on the University's first service-learning trip to Ghana, where she lived with a host family and worked as a volunteer at a local non-profit while studying the history and culture of the region.
The trip was transformational, giving her the opportunity to get to know people from another country and culture and setting her on a path she is still traveling. She served as Director of Refugee Resettlement for Catholic Charities, leading a 12-person team and serving more than 350 refugees who have come to Cincinnati seeking a better life.
Now she works at Cincinnati Children's Hospital as a Neuroscience Social Worker.
"These experiences changed the way I look at the world," she says of her Ghana trip. "They taught me a lot of compassion and empathy for people's experiences different from my own. 'Men and women for others' has stuck with me and how I do the work I do."
It's why Megan Zarnitz was the most recent recipient of the Magis Award, which recognizes a young alumnus who has achieved a high degree of excellence and embodies Jesuit morals and ethical values.
"These experiences changed the way I look at the world. They taught me a lot of compassion and empathy for people's experiences different from my own. 'Men and women for others' has stuck with me and how I do the work I do."
Since graduating from Xavier in 2007, Zarnitz, a native of Sidney, Ohio, has earned a master's degree in International Social Work from Boston College. She has had a mix of diverse experiences serving local and global clients, beginning her career as a case manager for the homeless with AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati. She has also worked as a transitional housing manager and medical case manager for Caracole serving HIV-positive clients, and with Habitat for Humanity in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on advocacy development.
Zarnitz is also active in the community, serving on the board of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and the Young Non-Profit Professionals Network. Previously, she served as an International Peer Mentor at Xavier and as a refugee tutor in Cincinnati. She joined Catholic Charities in 2015.
"It truly was an honor to win the Magis Award. Having graduated with peers who have gone on to do such amazing and important work made it a truly humbling experience," she says.
"Xavier instilled in me a sense of urgency regarding the work of being men and women for others. Through my social work courses and Academic Service Learning Semester, the world begins feeling like a smaller place and you realize that as global citizens, we have much more in common with each other than we have different. My time at Xavier and the professors who I worked with prepared me to approach complex issues and those experiencing much suffering with dignity, compassion and professionalism."
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