Alumni (old)
Alumni Spotlight: Siobhan P. Carey '07
“At the heart of my high school education was the idea of being a woman for others, which I really think has led me to where I am now,” reflects Siobhan P. Carey ’07, who recently left a fast-paced career in the corporate world to follow her passion for teaching yoga.
This spring, Carey will partner with the Africa Yoga Project (AYP) on a volunteer service trip to Nairobi, Kenya, where she will host workshops and support the training of new yoga teachers. “My trip to Kenya is designed as a way to be of service to others,” she says. “Being a yoga teacher allows me to serve others in my own way in my daily life.”
The AYP educates and empowers youth in the communities of East Africa by expanding employability with the transformational practice of yoga. The organization creates opportunities for young people to become self-sustaining leaders in their communities. Since 2007, AYP has helped more than 200 individuals, trained as teachers, earn a living wage by teaching yoga.
Working in Kenya with individuals from all over the world, Carey will assist with a 200-hour teacher-training program and travel to teach community classes at local schools, orphanages and prisons.
Teaching yoga wasn’t the obvious career choice for Carey, who studied philosophy, political science and economics at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, Carey landed a demanding job in finance and marketing that kept her busy, but not fully invested in her work. During this time, she relied on her yoga practice, which began in high school, to find balance and engagement.
“Yoga was an outlet to get upside down and out of my own head,” she explains.
In 2014, Carey started to think about the next steps of her career and decided to make her passion for yoga her life’s work. “I really wanted to do something that didn’t feel like work,” she says. “Every free moment I had I was filling with practicing yoga, reading about yoga or researching trainings.” She began teacher training in San Francisco and in 2016 started teaching yoga full time.
“I just could not ignore my enthusiasm for yoga any longer,” Carey says.
In teaching, Carey found a fulfillment that the corporate world didn’t offer. “What I’ve found in teaching is a real connection to my work,” she says. “What I love most about teaching yoga is connecting with my students and empowering them.”
Carey traces back her own experience of being empowered as a student at Loyola. She remembers the dedication of teachers who made themselves available for questions on homework or prep work before tests. “I had teachers like Dr. Lange who really saw me as a student and connected to what I needed so that I could reach my potential,” she remembers. “Dr. Lange was a tough teacher, but she truly cared about her students working hard and doing well. I try to channel this mentality in my own teaching, and I definitely would not be the teacher I am today if I hadn’t had strong teachers helping me along the way.”
Loyola’s motto women and men for others and the Jesuit ideal of seeking magis continues to resonate in her work. “As a yoga teacher, my daily life is about supporting and serving my students and community,” she says. “This flows through in every class I teach and really inspired me to get involved with the Africa Yoga Project.”
Carey recalls a yoga workshop in which one of the main teachings was Be up to something bigger than yourself. “It was the moment when my yoga education and my Jesuit education came together in a way that just made so much sense,” she says. “Loyola was such a great place because it challenged me in so many different ways—spiritually, mentally and physically—to be my best self every single day. Loyola really asked a lot of me.”
Before she departs for Kenya in April, Carey will be fundraising for scholarships and food programs and raising awareness through local events, including a donation-based yoga class at Loyola Academy on Saturday, February 4.
“I stay connected to Loyola Academy because I believe strongly in the value of a Jesuit education,” Carey says. “It provided me with such a strong and well-rounded education that prepared me for college and my adult life.”
To learn more about Carey’s trip to Kenya, please click here.
To learn more about the Africa Yoga Project, watch this video.
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