Vincent L. Strand, SJ, 33, grew up in Dousman, Wisconsin, and attended St. Bruno Parish, where his family has been members since the church was founded in 1852. At Kettle Moraine High School in Wales, Wisconsin, Strand played basketball, baseball and football. He first met the Jesuits while attending Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he was active in the university’s retreat programs, liturgical choir and the St. Robert Bellarmine Society, a theological student organization at Marquette. He also worked part time in the Jesuit community. Strand’s time at Marquette was formative, and there, especially through his interaction with Jesuits both in and out of the classroom, his vocation was nurtured. After graduating in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree, he entered the Jesuits. As a Jesuit novice, Strand spent five months in Ecuador learning Spanish and working in a variety of social ministries. After professing vows, he was missioned to Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, where Strand earned a master’s degree in philosophy in 2010. Next, he headed to Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, Nebraska, where he taught theology and philosophy, coached basketball and Academic Decathlon, and led retreats. Theology studies took him to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology. He served as a deacon at the English-speaking Caravita Community in Rome. During the summers he had several opportunities to travel, visiting Ignatian and biblical sites in Spain and Israel and doing language studies in Austria and Germany. Strand will begin studies toward a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry after ordination. His first Mass as a Jesuit priest will be celebrated in his home parish of St. Bruno alongside his brothers Luke and Jacob, who are both priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. (Wisconsin Province)