ROGERS — Prayer, reflection time, daily Mass; this is not the schedule of a seminarian, although it might come close.
Instead, these daily rituals were practiced by a handful of Catholic college students around the state who spent their summer pursuing dreams and growing their faith lives. While making money or interning might be at the top of the to-do list for some, these idealistic students believed Keeping Their Faith Alive 101 was a prerequisite course.
Jacob Grelle, a 20-year-old member of St. Vincent de Paul in Rogers who attends Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., spent seven weeks this summer with the Totus Tuus program of the Archdiocese of Kansas City. “Totus Tuus,” Latin for “totally yours,” is a catechetical program designed for college students to travel from parish to parish facilitating week-long retreats for elementary and high school students. Reflecting on the inspiration of the Blessed Virgin’s “yes,” Grelle said, is how these students answer the call to give of their summer as teachers or counselors.
“The point of the program is to realize your vocation,” said Grelle, who is a second-year veteran of Totus Tuus. “The first year I had a real growth in my love of the Lord and in wanting to share my faith, but this year was different. It grew me more as a person and helped me learn how to call on the Holy Spirit in becoming a leader.”
Grelle said a big part of that growth can be attributed to how the program is organized.
“We travel as the apostles did to different parishes and stay with host families during the week,” he said. “Meals are provided by various families of the parish, so you rely on them for your daily needs, but you have to adjust to working with people of all backgrounds and personalities, too.”
Working on Capitol Hill as a Catholic intern posed some of the same challenges for Ashton Wills, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas.
Wills, a resident of Russellville, spent eight weeks in Washington, D.C., interning for the ecumenical Franciscan Action Network, a grassroots organized advocacy group that lobbies for social justice issues.
“My first week was like an immersion experience,” said Wills, who is majoring in sociology with a minor in political science. “It was tough getting used to all of the dialogue.”
Shortly after arriving, Wills went to Capitol Hill with the FAN director of advocacy to lobby and speak on immigration reform.
“This was close to my heart because it was mainly about helping college students whose parents are not legal residents,” Wills said. “We were able to speak on our experiences here in Arkansas with immigrant students.”
Although all of the organizations Wills worked with are faith-based and her days consisted of Mass and weekly reflections facilitated by the Sacred Heart Sisters, life was not without its challenges. An only child growing up, Wills lived with four other interns also working at Catholic non-profits in the area.
“Cooking, cleaning, shopping for groceries and preparing meals together was a big part of the learning experience, too,” Wills said.
Yet, Wills said experience allowed her to see that God was so much bigger than the Church.
“I feel more grown-up in my faith,” she said. “In dealing with the issues, everyone came from a place that was good, but sometimes individual opinions or politics got in the way. That was difficult to understand.”
Following her stint in the nation’s capital, Wills flew straight to Little Rock to attend an Evangelical Catholic retreat held for college students at St. John Center in Little Rock. The retreat’s motto, “to form disciples and train leaders on college campuses,” gave Wills the chance to parlay her summer experiences back at school.
“We want to bring Catholicism alive on college campuses,” she said. “With person-to-person ministry and evangelization, small group sessions and Bible studies we can do that.”
Like Wills, most college students have had to live in close quarters at some point and University of Arkansas junior Michael Deines knows a thing or two about community living.
For three summers, he has worked as a summer servant at Bethlehem Farms, a Catholic, self- sustaining organic farm and community in West Virginia. Bethlehem Farms hosts different high school and college groups every week during the summer, according to Deines, and so community life can be crazy, but it proved to be a life-altering experience for him.
Deines, who was raised in Indiana, spent most of his summer sharing morning and evening prayers with 16 other people, tending the farm’s extensive garden and leading a small group in caring for a physical need of a 94-year-old World War II veteran.
“The area is very impoverished,” Deines said, “and this individual still lived without running water or sewage, so we were able to put in plumbing for a toilet.”
Many of the local residents are in need of assistance, said Deines, so even produce from the garden provides relief.
“Serving at the farm made a major difference in my life. Spiritually, many deep discussions that came up during shared prayer caused me to pick up religious studies as a minor this year,” Dienes added. “Plus, I am more aware of our resources. My roommates call me the electricity police.”
The idea of being removed from the technological demands of the world was also attractive to Brandi Willet, a senior at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. Willet, a resident of Rogers and a parishioner at St. Leo University Parish during the school year, spent her summer at Camp War Eagle, a non-denominational camp in northwest Arkansas.
“Children of all faiths, and even those who don’t believe are welcome,” Willet said. “The camp serves to introduce everyone in a non-confrontational way to Christ.”
College roommates encouraged Willet to apply for a counseling position at the camp three summers ago and she has returned every year.
“There is so much positive energy out there and everyone is happy and wants you to grow,” confided Willet.
Nightly devotionals, Bible studies and an in-depth study of the Book of Acts kept her faith life on track.
“I definitely grow spiritually when I am at camp and it prepares me to go back to school,” she said.
