Catholic Campus Ministry at Virginia Tech 2025 : Issue 1

Go Forth and Make Disciples... C l ass of 2025 Mi ss i onar i es

Despite an incredibly fruitful encounter with Christ during my first two years of college, I was a little unsure what putting my faith into practice would look like as a transfer student at Virginia Tech. However, that worry was quickly thwarted upon arriving in Blacksburg as I realized there was something incredible at work with the Holy Spirit on campus. My friend Ryan invited me to a Bible study and after only a few short weeks, I immediately felt at home. By my second year, I kept the ball rolling and led an Alternative Spring Break trip to Emmitsburg, Maryland, and started a Bible study with the help of the FOCUS missionaries. One missionary, Andy — my discipler — inspired me to discern mission, and after attending the FOCUS Interview Weekend, I realized that God had been calling me to become a FOCUS missionary all along. Looking back on my college years, I know that God has been working on me through the people and opportunities he has put in my life: friends, teammates, Youth Apostle brothers, and compelling adventures. I'm confident I’m meant to bring the message of the Gospel to college students out of gratitude for the incredible formation and fraternity that I was so lucky to have.

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My experience with the Catholic Campus Ministry was truly life changing. Coming into college, I remember desiring to know a little more about my faith, while still wanting to have a typical college experience. However, after more and more time went on, I found the typical college weekend activities to be more fruitless, while at the same time getting to know great people in the CCM. Seeing examples of holiness and intimate relationships with Christ lived out in my peers made me realize that holiness is something attractive. Through their help and example, I grew in my own faith, and am growing more every day. Fast forward two years, and here I am as a senior, discerning the next step after college. Over the course of college, I was blessed to take on leadership in the forms of spending two years on the Servant Leader Team for the CCM as well as leading a

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Bible study. This not only helped me drastically grow in my faith but taught me how to help others do the same as well. It was during the start of senior year that the Lord was strongly putting on my heart to pursue mission after college. After much discernment, I decided on the Youth Apostles Mission Program. Youth Apostles is a community based out of Northern Virginia dedicated to serving young people. They also help run the campus ministry at Virginia Tech, which inspired me to join several years ago. Around this time of discernment, we found out some of the missionaries were leaving and their roles needed to be filled. Although reluctant at first, I knew the Lord was calling me to step up and help fill them. I am really looking forward to the next year I will spend in Northern Virginia getting to serve the youth. God willing, I hope to evangelize the high schoolers I will be working with like I was evangelized here at Virginia Tech. The Lord gave me a great gift of a community here at college, and I am excited to try and help him give that same gift to high schoolers at the Catholic School I will be assigned to.