Walking into the bottom of DeSales Hall, one could peer into the first classroom on the right and mistake the dark-haired man sitting at the desk for a Cathedral student. This man is Spanish teacher and Campus Ministry Service Director Mr. Kevin Dunn. Often mistaken as CCHS senior Lucas Xavier for his down-to-earth personality and his khaki pants similar to that of CCHS students, Mr. Dunn is known as one of the teachers on campus that really relates to students.

Senior Ale Eppich said of his relatability to teenagers, “He talks the talk and walks the walk.” She continued to explain and said, “He’s exactly double our age, so he’s passionate about the faith and that helps students relate and thrive on his fire.”

Toire Walsh also said of Mr. Dunn’s Campus Ministry class, “He really knows how to keep us engaged by letting us voice our opinion. We were talking about the death penalty in class and he just gave us the facts, not his opinion, so I felt no judgment.” She continued and said, “Because of this environment, we were able to express our feelings and, you know, ask questions.” Student Lauren Meyerson described his class as such and said it’s “really discussion-based.”

This same atmosphere of discussion was fostered when I sat in for an interview with the teacher. Pulling up a map of Illinois to show me exactly where his hometown is, Mr. Dunn said, “Growing up in the Midwest in a small town called Bloomington, all I saw were flat, cornfields and in a family of seven kids, we didn’t travel a lot.” This, he said, made him want to “look at the bigger picture.” So, when he attended the University of Notre Dame, he began traveling wherever he could. Through college service projects, he lived in a homeless shelter for six weeks and travelled to Israel and Palatine, and he even became immersed in the social justice issues pertaining to those regions.

He recalled one of these trips, in his junior year of college, when he went to study in Spain for a year, because he said, “my roommate wasn’t easy to live with and I didn’t want to go back to school just yet.” So after Spain, he spent a semester doing internships in Washington D.C. where he first became heavily involved in the non-profit world through the Organization of American States and in the Office of Latin America.

Mr. Dunn continues working on various projects all in the San Diego area with his wife who is a lawyer and is also heavily involved in social justice issues. His interest in humanitarian causes isn’t at all kept separate from discussions in the classroom. As student Lauren Meyerson said, “[Mr. Dunn] cares so much about us and all current events and global issues.” In addition to prompting student discussion on current controversial topics in Catholicism in his classes and in making Light Group lesson plans, he sets up service trips to places such as Nicaragua and Los Angeles to bring students to the heart of the issues being discussed in class.

His students described that because of this difference in his teaching style, he’s become closer to his students than most educators. His Campus Ministry Service student, Lyndsey Richards said, “In ‘Campus Min,’ he always seems to care about what’s going on in our lives by asking for prayer intentions at the beginning of class and asking how school’s going.” She continues, “It seems like every class he asks us if the course load is a lot right now.” Student Robert Smith recalls that Mr. Dunn has become so much of a support and inspiration that students call him, “Kevs, K-Dog, and Scooby instead of ‘Mr. Dunn,’ which is too formal to call someone that’s become so much of a friend,” he said.

Next year, Mr. Dunn will be leaving Cathedral to continue his service work at Francis Parker in San Diego where he looks forward to “empowering students to drive decision-making to make them feel like they have a voice.” He hopes to continue to “provide for my family, be a loving husband, and make an impact in all those around me.”

For a Spanish and Religion teacher, if you could even pick him out as one in a crowd of students, you’d never know the impact he’s already made through his service work and through the students’ lives at CCHS unless you asked any student or teacher that’s had a conversation with him. If you asked Mr. Dunn himself, he would respond humbly. “With a healthy amount of cynicism, I’m hard on myself, but I’m doing the best I can,” he said.