Growing up in India, the Rev. Paul Coelho, S.J., never thought he would end up living in the United States.

While now he lives in Nebraska, teaches and works at Creighton, he took a winding path to get here.

Coelho spent the beginning of his life in India going to school and working. He attended a Jesuit high school and college where he studied psychology. One month after his 19th birthday, Coelho became a Jesuit.

“I attended an all-boys high school run by the Jesuits of the Gujarat province in India, and it was during those formative years that I also first considered the idea of becoming a Jesuit,” Coelho said.

After being a Jesuit for only four years, Coelho volunteered to spend some time in northeast India. There he worked for the recently established Kohima Mission with only eight Jesuits. He was told the conditions would be rough and there would be very few, if any similarities to his life in western India. Despite these words, which would be discouraging for some, Coelho spent a summer with the Naga tribes where he worked and decided to stay.

“The language, culture, food habits and lifestyle of the people were so totally different,” Coelho said. “Yet when the heart is set on something, I guess one finds the reasons and the courage to stay. I stayed.”

In 1999, Coelho experienced a dramatic change in scenery. He moved to Milwaukee where he earned his doctorate degree from Marquette University. He worked for a while at the Wisconsin Province before moving to South Dakota, where he worked on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

“They were so excited to have me there!” Coelho said. “They said, ‘we finally have an Indian on the reservation!'”

After three years in residence on the reservation, Coelho began work at a Jesuit Middle School in Omaha and taught graduate school at Creighton. His responsibilities grew as the years went on, and now Coelho teaches in the education department as a graduate school instructor and outside the department as an RSP professor. He can be found at the Creighton Center for Service and Justice office and works part-time for the Jesuit Province office in Wisconsin.

When he is not working inside the classroom, Coelho provides words of encouragement for people as he travels, preaches and goes on retreats. He also visits young men who are thinking about becoming Jesuits and offers advice.

“Each person I meet is different,” Coelho said. “Some know that God is calling them to become priests, some need clarification and some simply need direction.”

Coelho said he is not certain where he will be in 10 years, but he says he is certain it will be a surprise.

“One recurring theme in my life is that it is full of surprises,” he said. “I think I am going to do something, and then it turns out God’s plans for me are different.”