Jeff Thielman came to my home a while ago, and two high school students were there who were trying to figure out a way to "green" the lunchroom cafeteria by changing the Styrofoam lunch trays to a more bio-degradable or recyclable material.

These are the kind of 15-year-olds we need in our world, and when they asked Jeff about the situation he was really wonderful with them. He listened respectfully. He had some specific suggestions about how they could go about reaching their goals.

Having known Jeff for a number of years. I was not surprised. One of the things I admire about Jeff is his faith. To me, Jeff exemplifies the best of Catholic teaching, its understanding of right and wrong, its understanding that poverty is the worst injustice, and the focus on doing something practical to solve the problem of poverty.

Jeff's work with Catholic schools and developing innovative solutions to funding the education of the low-income students is a good example of his creative problem solving ability. The school-business partnerships he has developed are a great lesson of leveraging the power of business, faith and schools to make a real difference in the lives of low-income students.

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