I was glad to be back on campus for Homecoming weekend back in October when the Department of Meteorology and Geology hosted a retirement celebration for Professor Bart Wolf. Dinner was a great time of catching up, particularly with my good friend Richard, who I hadn't seen in years. After dinner, several people shared stories about our experiences in the department with Bart in a "roast", like times in class, including my roast on his atmospheric heights questions on quizzes and tests, along with stories from storm chasing trips.
Richard is one of many good friends I'm still in regular contact with since graduation. I'm glad to count Zach as another great friend after we had such a great quality of time sharing a roomspace together. He lives closer to me now, and we've gotten together a couple of times, which has been nice. It was special to celebrate him as he and his wife Heather welcomed their son into the world about 2 weeks ago. We forged special bonds on the fields of Valparaiso, and we continue to celebrate what's happening in each others' lives.
In recent years, I've kept up with what's happening at ValpU through the lens of missionaries serving at St. Teresa's through Fellowship of Catholic University Students, otherwise known as FOCUS.
Missionaries for FOCUS are often recruited from recent college graduates who minister at Catholic Newman Centers at universities, building community and also launching student-led Bible studies. They are at over 200 universities throughout the USA, and they came to Valparaiso shortly after Father Chris started at St. Teresa's in 2016.
I was greatly impacted by my experience at St. Teresa's, and I can tell that the presence of FOCUS missionaries is only enhancing the ministry there. So I eagerly support those missionaries serving ValpU at St. Teresa's. They periodically send updates about their ministry, often sharing stories of experiences with specific students. It provides me a lens to see what's happening with current ValpU students and it gladdens my heart to sense a vibrant sense of community there. I certainly have seen that sense of community when I have gone back to help with the student meals after the Sunday evening Mass. Sharing a meal together really has a powerful way of connecting people, and I'm delighted to pay it forward by contributing to the meals the students share today.
FOCUS holds an annual conference during the first week of January called SEEK, which has tracks for college students and parish ministry leaders, too. The conference has grown to the point that this year in 2025, it was held in three different locations: Salt Lake City; Washington, D.C.; and Cologne, Germany.
I watched the livestream of a presentation at SEEK, courtesy of Relevant Radio, one of its sponsors. Combined with what I saw from the ValpU FOCUS missionary updates, I can see that SEEK is offering college students such an energizing experience, bringing them together in community and encouraging them in faith, and giving a picture of how vibrant the church of young adults is. It reminds me of what was so amazing about my own college experience, especially as it enlivened me in faith. So it was rather appropriate to attend another energizing spiritual event in Indiana last summer when I participated in the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
I also felt a sense of ValpU in Springfield, IL, during the Illinois March for Life. Andrew Hansen, a ValpU graduate, was there in his capacity as the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Springfield, IL, filming footage. When I watched the documentary God is Alive, he mentioned his time at ValpU, and we connected over comments in the documentary's YouTube page. So it was great to meet him that day, with our shared connection at ValpU and St. Teresa's.
As I mark this 12th anniversary, my thoughts also turn toward Religious Education, which has been part of my life every year since my ValpU graduation. They have been 12 amazing years of passing on the faith, shaped so powerfully during my time at ValpU. Teaching has been an opportunity for me to connect with today's middle schoolers, who are at the age I was when I came to an abundant sense of my own faith, which was sealed when I was confirmed. Yet there is so much more transformation that results from Confirmation, which is exactly what happened when I was in college, and I have brought that to my students.
It is wonderful to see how the students pick up on the things of faith. One student even enthusiastically wanted to lead the P-A-R-T-Y routine in class that Father Kevin taught and I handed on to them. Later in that same class, he volunteered with equal enthusiasm to lead our closing prayer.
I hand on the faith, so they can follow the path I've gone in building up faith as a way of life. In fact, at the Confirmation retreat in February, I was expounding on the story of when Jesus called the fishermen to be His Apostles after we watched the scene from The Chosen series. As I talked with a certain level of energy, one very talkative student noticed my demeanor and blurted out, "Do you do this for a living?", as if she asked if I do religious education for a living. The power of that question was not lost on me and I responded, "I do this as my life."
It is a blessed way of life that I can focus not just on making a living to support myself, to make a life by giving of myself and answering the commission I received on the day of my graduation on Pentecost Sunday to live with purpose and make God known.
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| Joanna Gentile, who oversees the team that prepares and serves the student meals, photographed me serving the students as dinnertime began. |
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| Here I am pouring milk in the moments leading up to serving dinner. Joanna may have also taken this photo, or another volunteer. |
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