by Sarah Rose:

It is a pleasure to introduce you to Stephen Loya, our 2024 Catholic Community Connection Summer Fellow in the Human Resource Department of Cleveland Catholic Charities.

Stephen is a student at John Carroll University majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Data Science. He will graduate from JCU in December of 2025. Stephen stated that he was very excited about the opportunity to work for the Diocese of Cleveland, as he is very involved in his Catholic faith. He is very interested in working in Information Technology (IT) in the future and enjoyed the opportunity to utilize some of those skills during his fellowship with the Human Resources Department.

Working in the HR Department, Stephen was heavily focused on helping Catholic Charities move their paper documentation to a digital format, which will allow them to better keep records. He scanned numerous documents into Microsoft Teams and utilized many other Microsoft tools during his time at work. He also applied his knowledge of computer science where he could in his day-to-day tasks. Additionally, Stephen fulfilled standard HR roles including contacting employee referrals, checking references, and other various tasks.

Most notably, Stephen helped to update the Human Resource Sharepoint website and created the skeleton of the site that can easily be fleshed out by the department now that his fellowship is complete. He very much enjoyed his time with Catholic Charities and especially loved working in such a supportive environment where so many coworkers were willing to help him learn and made him feel incredibly comfortable. He shared that this was the nicest group of people he had ever worked with.

Stephen says that his supervisor (Nadia Gibbons) provided him with all of the instructions on what he needs to do for his position. She was always available to help and he never felt pressured or judged when he had a question or was unsure of his role. She also helped guide him in learning how a professional workplace functions.