"All I can offer the world is a good heart and a good hand."

- Joseph Smith, Jr.  

J.J. Calica is currently a junior at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He graduated in 2003 at St. Francis High School, a Catholic college preparatory school for boys located in La Canada, California. He attended his first 2 years of college at Brigham Young University – Idaho, receiving his Associate’s Degree in the fall of 2004.

After graduation, J.J. served a church mission from 2005-2007 for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the country of Guatemala. Living in the mountain regions of Quetzaltenango, he learned to love and appreciate the people and their culture.

He is the eldest of three siblings and son to amazing parents. He attributes all that he has become to the example and love shown by his mother and father. “Family is truly the most important thing in this world,” he states, “... our large family has taught me patience, understanding and true unconditional love.”

Both mother and father of the Calica household have come from large families, numbering eight and fourteen siblings, respectively. J.J. has more than 70 cousins around the globe. Only 32 of which are found in this photo.