Matt Egler DiFerdinando ’10

Recently, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called for National Migration Week, an opportunity for Catholics to focus on the plight of migrants and immigrants. In honor of this week, the Prep’s Office of Mission and Ministry hosted a panel session discussing our call to support those often “excluded” from society, one of the Universal Apostolic Preferences professed by the Society of Jesus.

There can be no better example of how a Jesuit-trained student can react to this call than that of Matt Egler DiFerdinando ’10. From his start at the Prep in 2006 through his graduation from law school in 2018, he was a part of many different Jesuit works, including college at Loyola University Maryland, a study abroad program in El Salvador run by Santa Clara University, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and law school at Boston College. He now practices immigration law at HIAS Pennsylvania, specializing in representing people in detention during the deportation process.

“I feel like after all that Jesuit education, this was a natural end point,” DiFerdinando says. 

Entering law school, he knew that he wanted to work in public interest law. At first he explored housing law but using advice he learned at the Prep to “try as many different things as you can,” he volunteered at a clinic at Boston College that helped people in Massachusetts who were detained pending deportation. “This was 2017 when many immigration laws changed. There was such a need.”

This need led DiFerdinando to another lesson he learned at the Prep: “Find the place where your skills and interest meet the opportunity that the world presents.” 

After graduation from law school, DiFerdinando moved back to Philadelphia and clerked with a judge at City Hall. Soon after that, he moved to HIAS Pennsylvania and the work he wanted in immigration law.

It is not easy work, but DiFerdinando feels privileged to do it. “Doing this line of work requires a recalibration of what success looks like,” he says. “I am meeting people at their most dire hour. There are no punishments more severe than deportation. I don’t take it lightly that these people are sharing some of the hardest moments of their lives with me. It’s great to build those relationships. When it works out and people get to stay here, it’s a really good feeling.”

Living in the Graduate Hospital area with his wife Caitlin and their dog Booey, DiFerdinando has enjoyed reconnecting with many of his Prep friends. He has many fond memories of his days at the Prep and appreciates the introduction to service that he found there. He is especially fond of the opportunities offered by Mission and Ministry, especially then service director Sam Deitch.

“I was very much someone who learned by doing so the service experiences in particular were impactful for my journey,” he says. “I did a weeklong trip to Buffalo the summer of my junior year and then I traveled to South Dakota as part of the Native American Spirituality class with Sam Deitch and Dino Pinto. That experience in particular, right after I graduated from the Prep, was so important. Being able to have those experiences with good friends of mine and process it all together was an important springboard to where life took me.”

Moments like these from 17th & Girard were the foundation for his life of service. “I look back very fondly on those years,” he says. “A lot of what I learned at the Prep is the reason for what I am doing now.”