Anna Quast

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Hello! My name is Anna Quast, and I am from Torrance, CA. Before BSVM, I attended the University of Notre Dame for four wonderful years. At ND, I studied Neuroscience and Behavior, so as you can imagine, I am fascinated by anything brain or nervous system-related. I was also very active in the Notre Dame Bands, especially the marching band! I was a proud member of the piccolo section, and I also participated in the hockey band as well as other ensembles.

Aside from playing music on the piccolo or flute, you can always find me humming a song or listening to pretty much any genre of music! I also love taking long walks or hikes, going to the beach, and baking all kinds of goodies. I’m still working on the art of baking bread, but I’m usually confident with the dessert classics!

While I’ve loved Southern CA and Notre Dame, I am very excited to call Richmond my home for the coming year with BSVM! I was drawn to BSVM for its values, especially its five pillars—growing spiritually, practicing God’s justice, living simply, developing community, and learning through service with others. I was introduced to the beauty of daily life, living in a community, and mutually transformative relationships a summer ago with the L’Arche community in Greater Washington, D.C. The commitments to mutuality and community I developed drove me to consider a year of service where I could be intentional about growing personally, relationally, and spiritually. BSVM presented me with the opportunity to live in community, learn more about myself, and build relationships at home, at my service site, and in the neighborhood, I live in!

With that said, one of my biggest hopes for this year is to cultivate radical compassion in my daily interactions with my housemates, my neighbors, and the individuals I meet through Bon Secours Hospice, seeing the face of God in all whom I encounter.