After traveling around the world, the Rev. Tom Simonds, S.J., director of Creighton University’s secondary education department, decided he feels most at home at Creighton.
The university is much smaller than most other Jesuit colleges and has a more intimate community. He has made life-long friendships at Creighton, and small class sizes allow Simonds to know his students and enjoy working with them.
Simonds grew up in Littleton, Colo. and Grand Island, Neb. He graduated from Creighton in 1987 with a double major in psychology and theology.
Although a priest once suggested to Simonds when he was in high school that he should consider a vocation in the priesthood, he didn’t take those suggestions seriously until he was a junior in college.
Simonds credits his decision to join the Jesuit order to his positive encounters with the Jesuits on campus.
Simonds didn’t look at other religious orders because he was so impressed with the Jesuits who became his spiritual masters at Creighton. He chose the Jesuits rather than becoming a diocesan priest because the ministry of most diocesan priests almost exclusively involves sacramental ministry. On the other hand, the Jesuit order allows him to administer the sacraments and pursue education.
“I knew the Jesuits and I liked what I saw,” he said.
Simonds quickly joined an on-campus discernment group for young men interested in the priesthood.
“The discernment group at Creighton provides an opportunity for young men to explore an interest in priesthood and religious life,” Simonds said. “I was a member of the discernment group back in the late ’80s when I was a student at Creighton. The group continues to meet here on Creighton’s campus and is a great opportunity for fellowship and discernment about religious vocation.”
The summer before his senior year of college, Simonds visited the Jesuit novitiate in St. Paul, Minn. The novitiate became his new home one year later.
As part of his training in the Society of Jesus, Simonds traveled to Israel, Poland, Germany, Northern Ireland, the Czech Republic and Mexico.
As a Jesuit scholastic, Simonds visited Krakow, Prague and Berlin during the transition of Central Europe from communism to democracy and a free market economy.
Simonds’ journey to the Holy Land particularly impressed him. He had the opportunity to visit the same places Jesus walked, and his hotel was right across the street from the Mount of Olives.
Simonds, a connoisseur of fine dining, recalled the many Mediterranean foods, particularly hummus and baklava, he ate in the Holy Land.
Simonds also lived in several different American cities after completing a master’s degree in Boston and a doctorate in San Francisco. For five years, he served as a high school principal on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Education, in addition to serving the Church as a Jesuit, is Simonds’ greatest passions in life. He believes these two vocations are intimately connected.
“Jesuits send so many of our men to work in education because we believe we can make a difference in the world by helping students to be transformed through an encounter with Christ and his teachings,” Simonds said. “While not every student in a Jesuit school is Christian, we believe that Christ has something of value to say to everyone.”
Although Simonds loves to travel and see the world, he feels most at home at Creighton.
Omaha, Simonds said, has many advantages of big cities. He can go to Creighton basketball games and concerts at the Qwest Center by foot. The university’s close distance to downtown Omaha allows Simonds to feed his passion for going to the symphony, opera and theater.
In his free time, Simonds enjoys working out at the Kiewit Fitness Center and reading the works of spiritual masters like Thomas Merton. His favorite movies are Pixar features such as “Cars.”
Since joining the Jesuits, he has traveled around the world, been of service to others and guided scores of students in their spiritual and intellectual formation.