Help Jeffrey Serve as a Hospital Chaplain

My name is Jeffrey Neering, and I started this fundraiser to make my dream of becoming a hospital chaplain a reality.

I was recently accepted into a year-long clinical chaplaincy internship at the University of California San Francisco’s Medical Center at Mission Bay. This internship would allow me to complete 4 Units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which are required to become a fully board-certified chaplain. I currently work at Naropa University as a graduate admissions counselor, and given the high cost of living in Boulder, my income only covers my basic expenses, and not an expensive relocation.

I’m asking for your generous help in making the move from Boulder CO to San Francisco to serve others. I’m placing myself in the cradle of community to make this a reality.

I’m a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and consider myself to be an interfaith spiritual caregiver. I want to provide end-of-life spiritual care because the imminence of death can be the most anxiety provoking, and yet spiritual, time of someone’s life. If I can help reduce the suffering of others in crisis, I will consider my life well-lived.

My call to serve others began as a commitment to do no harm and became a deeply seeded desire to alleviate the suffering of others. I have done harm. In 2011, I seriously injured someone with a piece of glass during an altercation in Boulder and was convicted of 2nd Degree Attempted Murder and 1st Degree Assault. I was ultimately sentenced to 12 years in prison and served 6.5 years. I owe a debt of gratitude to the community of supporters that protested at my sentencing and filled the gallery, and to everyone that sent letters conveying their positive regard for me. I am also grateful to Dr. Phil Stanley, a professor at Naropa University, who testified at my trial as a character witness.

Before committing my crime, I was a student at Naropa University in 2010 and 2011, studying Buddhism at the graduate level, but didn’t practice. I was spinning my wheels on the intellectual considerations of Buddhist philosophy. In prison, out of a sense of desperation and a necessity, I began practicing. I took refuge, found a Buddhist community (sangha), finished three graduate courses in Buddhism through Naropa, and practiced in earnest.

My motivation in studying Buddhism changed; I wanted to be a force for good in people’s lives. I was supported by professors at Naropa, and Khenpo Thupten Daji, in my practice. Daji became a volunteer at the prison where I was housed, and I took refuge with him; professors came to visit me, and I spoke to my advisor at the university weekly. After release, I returned to Naropa, this time for a Master of Divinity (MDiv). I thought being a chaplain was a way to help others that felt authentic to me. In 2023, I graduated with an MDiv from Naropa University. I owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have helped me get to this point.

I am asking for a rather large sum, or at least for me it is, and your help is sorely needed. I have listed the expenses I anticipate to travel to, and settle in, San Francisco, pay rent for two months, and other incidental costs. I am asking for two months of rent because the internship starts August 26, and I will not have been paid enough to cover September during the first few days of the internship.

Rent - August and September $4,400

Truck Rental $1,765

Gas - Friend Round-Trip $400

Three Weeks Living Expenses $2,000

and Professional Wardrobe

$8,565

It is my hope to continue work as a chaplain and spiritual caregiver after finishing the year-long residency at UCSF, so your contribution funds the year, but also makes a future beyond the internship possible. Thank you for your consideration. Anything helps!

If you may be so inclined, please share this request with others. This can really help. Thank you so much for your contribution.