“Working Hard for the Church” — Producer Isabel Cacho (’11)

The above video about alumna entrepreneur Samantha Flanders (’15) is the latest installment of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ LACatholics Stories series to feature a Thomas Aquinas College graduate, following earlier episodes about musician and businessman Jake DeTar (’11) and pro-life counselor/executive Michele (Grimm ’81) Loughman. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the series’ producers is another TAC alum, Isabel Cacho (’11), the creative director on the Archdiocese’ digital team.

“The goal of LACatholics Stories is to highlight engaging stories of Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles living their faith in ordinary life,” says Miss Cacho. “The series features Catholics in all vocations expressing their faith by sanctifying their work as a gift to God, caring for their families and communities, and persevering in their spiritual lives. There are a lot of TAC alumni who happen to fit that description: Catholics who live a unified life.”

While the three graduates featured thus far have all pursued very different career paths, they bring a shared spiritual and educational background that helps guide their work. “Although it might be accidental to our decision-making process to include Thomas Aquinas College alumni in our LACatholics Stories series, the education that these alumni received was an essential part of what brought them to where they are now,” Miss Cacho reflects. “You can hear it in their stories; they have a certain formation and history that goes back to the College.”

As does Miss Cacho herself. “TAC helped me to develop an ability to think critically and articulate my thoughts,” she says. “These two skills are essential when you work on a team. You’re always trying to solve problems, come up with creative solutions, and communicate these to your team. It’s very similar to what we had to do in each of our TAC seminars. … The friendships that I made with the like-minded young adults that the College attracts were also a huge part of my formation as a young Catholic, and they remain essential today in my formation even as a Catholic professional.”

At the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Miss Cacho works closely with the executive team on developing outreach campaigns and branding, including creating project overviews, social-media strategies, and style guides. For the LACatholics Stories, in particular, she assists in researching and planning the videos as well as in production — set-up, lighting, sound, promotional photography, and sometimes conducting the interviews. She also creates the graphics for the videos, social-media posts, and web stories. “It’s all very fun and different every day,” she says.

For Miss Cacho, working to bringing “authenticity and inspiration” to the faithful, while showing “that you can glorify God in anything that you do,” is an important task for all Christians, one she is pleased to make her work. “From a faith perspective, my Catholic education is the reason I am working for the Church,” she says. “We need good Catholics in all walks of life, but there is also a great need for good Catholics working hard for the Church. TAC formed me as an adult in the faith, and I honestly don’t know where I’d be without that formation.”