TAMUCC Newman Center continues to thrive during pandemic

Like the rest of the world, the coronavirus pandemic has taken the students at the Newman Center of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) by surprise. Sudden lockdowns, online classes, loss of jobs, canceled graduations, the uncertainty whether to stay on campus or reunite with family, and interrupted plans for the summer are just a few of the struggles college students had to face during this time. 

Here at the Newman Center, we try to accompany the students through Zoom meetings, online prayers and personal accompaniment. I was impressed with the resilience the students showed, how they were able to experience God’s presence amid all the challenges and even see the new life that comes out of these difficulties.

It was essential to continue these meetings, to offer a space where students could share what they are living and support each other.

Over the summer, the campus ministry team, including Bea Romo, myself, and Amy Barragree, Director of Campus Ministry, continue to discern as we face these new challenges. We tried to identify the opportunities that God is putting in front of us through these circumstances. 

We decided to focus on leadership training and small group ministry since it could be done safely and moved online, if necessary. 

New doors opened for us on a very practical level. The Evangelical Catholic, a nonprofit organization specializing in Catholic ministry consulting and evangelization training, offered free coaching for campus ministries to run evangelization training groups with students over the summer. We also received a grant to continue our partnership with the organization during the school year. 

Over the summer, we have trained nine students to become evangelization small group leaders. It was a great experience. Students were super committed and showed up weekly for our online training group meetings and additional one-on-one check-ins. Early on, some of the students were afraid to lead small groups with their peers in the fall, but after the nine training sessions, they all felt ready to lead a group and were excited to pass on their experience to others.

Natalya Reyna, a senior at TAMUCC, has been coming to the Newman Center for a year now and says she has enjoyed the experience immensely. Reyna joined the summer leadership training because she believed it to be a fantastic opportunity to grow deeper in her faith. 

After her Summer training, she was asked to be a small group leader and help invite others to the Newman Center community while evangelizing to others. 

Although hesitant, she prayed and reflected on what God wanted her to do. Over the next week, she was awarded several scholarships and said she felt that this was God’s grace. He was letting her know that things were going to be okay. She let one of her two jobs go and said, “Yes.” She said it has been such a fulfilling experience so far.

There are six small groups and ten small group leaders right now, and part of the ministry team’s role is to walk with these students as they walk with others. One of the ways this happens is through one-on-one appointments. Bea Romo meets one on one with the leaders and says she experiences a lot of hope in witnessing their determination and love for God. “I also get to see how excited and nervous some of them are as they embrace the call of intentionally and consistently offer ‘this space’ where peers can encounter Jesus,’” Romo said.

Thanks to the Scanlan Foundation grant, we are also able to continue our work with The Evangelical Catholics and have started another evangelization training with ten more students this fall. They will be ready to launch more small groups in the spring semester. 

Besides the small groups, we still had many common questions and uncertainties. How could we minister to the students in a safe way through events? What do we need to stream some of our services and activities online? How can we reach out to new students without the usual orientation events over the summer? How can we manage the additional cleaning? We took it one step at a time and tried to involve the students themselves once they started to return on campus. 

Sure enough, new ideas began to surface: In collaboration with the other Christian Campus Ministry organizations, we created posters to put up around campus with contact information for the different groups. The students came up with creative ideas for safe activities, like chalk art on the parking lot or outdoor tailgate party and games to meet new students.

Surprisingly, many first-year students reached out to us or stopped by at the Newman Center to connect. Several of them are part of the six student-led small groups that started last week.

We have also been able to keep our monthly “Faith Alive” series, this year based on the Theology of the Body and live-streamed on Facebook. We are also working on joint online events with the Campus Ministries in Beeville and Kingsville. 

The pandemic has brought many challenges, but also opportunities. We see a deep need for connection and communion. Things that we took for granted, like going to Mass, meeting with friends, sharing a meal, and being in each other’s presence, have become precious gifts. 

Maybe “success” in ministry cannot be measured in growing numbers this year, but we can already see a growing depth in the student’s faith and life choices. It is an important moment for pastoral ministers, priests, and laypeople alike to walk through this “dark valley” together and, like the good shepherd, accompany the people entrusted to them on this journey.