Jacob van Cleef '16

“I began the Villanova Sentry to better inform people on various issues,” says van Cleef. “I wanted to give voices to people who don’t normally have voices. The topics that we cover showcase places and people that normally don’t get covered in the media. I wanted to pop the bubble that keeps people uninformed on college campuses.”

Throughout his life, van Cleef credits the differences he observed—differences between the wealthy and the not, the white and the not, and between men and women and Christians and non Christians—as influential in his passion for social justice. “Social justice issues are important to me because it is unfair for people to be worse off or treated differently just for being born into a different situation,” he says.

This month we catch up with van Cleef, who was highlighted in the Villanovan in March, to see what he’s been up to since leaving graduating from the Academy just two years ago.

At Villanova, I act for the student theater group on campus; I have been in four shows so far. I’m part of Villanovan University Student Labor Action Movement, the local part of United Students Against Sweatshops. Staying involved with social justice is important to me, so I’m also involved with the Association for Change and Transformation, a group that works on spreading awareness of different issues, and Power, an interfaith action group that tries to promote equity in Philadelphia. This year, in addition to founding the Villanova Sentry, I wrote about income inequality for a literary magazine called Forum.

The motto resonates in my life through the work that I do. I write to inform and argue about issues that affect those who do not have power and resources like I do. I try to work not only for others but with others every day.

This summer, I’ll be in Portland working for Environment Oregon, an environmental nonprofit. Next year, I will be the editor-in-chief of Forum, so I plan for that to be a broad social justice literary magazine to complement the Villanova Sentry, which covers current events. I’ve also been writing poetry, so I’ll be part of Villanova’s Poetry Society as well.

After college? I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I know I will never stop my social justice work.