Jason E. Brauninger, SJ, 34, grew up in St. Rose, Louisiana. The family was active in their parish, St. Charles Borromeo, where Brauninger attended Catholic grade school and served as an altar boy. During high school, he served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, and after graduating from St. Charles Catholic High School in 2000, he earned a bachelor’s degree in fire science engineering and technology at Eastern Kentucky University. While prepared for a career as a fire, arson and explosion investigator, Brauninger’s heart was elsewhere. When he was just 7, Brauninger had first thought of becoming a priest, and that feeling resurfaced when he was a senior in college. He researched the Society of Jesus and started communicating with a Jesuit vocation director. After graduation Brauninger continued to discern his vocation, spending several months working for Boys Hope in New Orleans. In 2005, he entered the Jesuits and, as a novice, built houses in Belize City for Hand in Hand Ministries. His experience as a novice was also formative because, while praying the Spiritual Exercises, he heard Jesus say that he should become a nurse. So, missioned next to Saint Louis University, Brauninger took the traditional philosophy course load while also completing an accelerated one-year bachelor’s degree in nursing. Missioned next to Denver, he worked for St. Anthony Hospital’s cardiac telemetry unit and emergency department for three years while also teaching clinical nursing to Regis University students and completing medical mission trips to Nepal and Haiti. For the last three years, he studied at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree and a master’s degree in theology while working part time for Tufts Medical Center’s emergency department. He served as a deacon at St. Peter Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while also serving on the board of Regis University. After ordination, Brauninger will serve as parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans. His first Mass after ordination will be at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis with his fellow Jesuits, followed by Masses of Thanksgiving at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, and St. Peter Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Central and Southern Province)