GALLOWAY – When entering Rowan University as a freshman in August 2022, Stephen McClain knew immediately one of the first places he wanted to be a part of: the school’s Catholic Campus Ministry.
“I knew entering college that I would be influenced by my surroundings, and I wanted to be influenced by the Church and peers with good values,” the now-junior mechanical engineering major explained.
That’s what drove him, too, to Stockton University’s Catholic Campus Ministry Center on March 29 for an evening of faith, fellowship, and fun for college students like him in the Diocese of Camden. Their time together began with outdoor Eucharistic Adoration on the Ministry Center’s grounds, led by Stockton Newman Club chaplain Father Christopher Bakey.
Afterward, McClain joined about 25 other students for dinner, explaining, “I wouldn’t have the drive to challenge myself to learn [the Catholic faith] and overcome peer pressure and other challenges in college without the campus ministry; it centers me.”
Sitting with fellow young adults at picnic tables, McClain noted the encouragement he found in seeing “that the faith is so much more widespread, and [in] meeting people practicing it just as devotedly and passionately as me.”
Soon after these words, he made his way to the volleyball net to join his newfound friends in a pick-up game.
“We’re giving college students the knowledge of the broader Church,” noted Britany Shields, Catholic Campus Minister of Stockton’s Newman Club.
The broader Church was experienced last fall, too, when Rowan’s Newman House hosted about 40 students from five Catholic campus ministries across New Jersey for a night of dinner, praise and worship.
“We’re not just one group, but part of a larger community that can learn from each other,” Shields said, adding that the bonds formed “help students see others like them who might be going through the same struggles and reaching for their faith.”
Gianna Caporino, a Stockton freshman majoring in health science with a concentration in speech pathology, said she appreciates the companionship she’s found with the Newman Club.
Before college, “I was going to church by myself, alone,” she said. Ever since she’s been involved with the Newman Club, though, “not only are friends messaging me to come to church with them on Sundays, but messaging me to come to Adoration, too.”
“Now, I look forward to going to Mass and Adoration,” she continued. “I realize I’m not alone in my faith anymore; other people want it, too, and I know I can rely on them.”
Fellow freshman Sydney Nelson, a math major, emphasized the comfortable space she’s found. “I’m thankful for the time to have shared experiences with others like me who understand the faith.”
Speaking on her relationship with God, Nelson said she knows that “He’s always looking out for me. If I’m going through good times, He’s there. If I’m struggling, He’s there.”
At the end of the evening, the students sat in a circle and shared their experiences as Catholic Campus Ministry members.
“This group has brought me a deep understanding of faith, and a level of relationship with the Lord that I never knew I was capable of having,” said Anthony Lapiana, a Rowan sophomore civil and environmental engineering major.
“Being able to grow closer with the Lord, while growing closer with my friends, has made my life so much better,” he continued. He said he was grateful for his peers, who have “helped me deepen my faith, grow in virtue and pray even more heartily.”
“In this increasingly secular culture, and seeing how confused and lost some can be, Catholicism has given me a foundation and structure to lay myself upon,” he said.
With old bonds strengthened and new ones created, the gathering left the students, and Shields, excited not only for their next get-together, but for what lies ahead for the young Church.
All present “will bring that spark, that fire to their communities,” Shields said, confident that “a day like this is making memories that will carry them wherever they go.”
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