CONWAY — With a broad smile, firm handshake and an unwavering zeal for the faith, Deacon Richard Papini has welcomed college students to Catholic Campus Ministry in Conway for 25 years. 

It was something he couldn’t imagine back in 1999 when then-diocesan campus ministry director Phyllis Enderlin suggested he take the helm of the new ministry. 

“I said, ‘Well, Phyllis, I appreciate you thinking about me, but I don’t know anything about campus ministry.’ And then she said, ‘Deacon Richard, that’s OK. You’re a deacon, and we need somebody in that position who can speak for the Catholic Church.’ Well, I tell everybody this story, I said I almost fell out of my chair — me a deacon, spokesperson for the Catholic Church,” he said with a laugh.  

After saying yes, the first student he met told him she’d been praying for God to send someone to the ministry.

“It confirmed, you know, that God is who put me there, even if it was the answer to one prayer, one person’s prayer,” he said. 

On July 7, Papini, 80, was again open to the movement of the Holy Spirit toward a new season of life, retiring as director of CCM. Tachia Awbrey, campus minister since last year, was named the new director. 

“Mixed feelings,” Papini told Arkansas Catholic July 5 about his retirement. “This has been very much a major part of my life. Andrea, my wife, played a significant role in this thing from the very beginning.” 

Papini’s cheerful nature, coupled with his passion for the faith, has been the stability CCM needed to minister throughout the Conway colleges — University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College and Central Baptist College, and regionally. 

With the help of campus ministers, he spearheaded weekly Masses, small Bible study groups, retreats and weekly meals for students, along with his wife. He was a driving force for a $3.9 million facility and chapel across from UCA at 1919 South Blvd., replacing the small white house where students met for years. Bishop Anthony B. Taylor celebrated the first Mass in the new CCM facility Sept. 6.

But none of this would have been possible if God had not allowed certain pieces to fall into place. Papini, ordained a deacon May 31, 1998, said Andrea was “very much against” him taking the CCM job a little over a year after his ordination. Andrea said the couple had lived in Russellville for about 18 years, and uprooting their lives seemed impossible. 

However, the more he learned about the job, the more he felt called, and Andrea said she felt God was telling her to “let go of it.” She agreed he could take on this ministry if the diocese offered him the job before the deadline to accept a voluntary severance package from his then-employer, Entergy. The call came the day before Papini had to take the severance. He commuted for two years from Russellville before moving to Conway. 

“It’s meant everything to his life; I mean everything. It has just been life-changing,” Andrea said. “The students had so many problems and issues going on in their lives; they just need someone they can talk to.”

Throughout his ministry, Papini said he’s learned that one of the simplest ways to keep Catholic students grounded is for CCM to be a welcoming place. 

“One of the things is welcoming them if they walk through that door. And initially, we weren’t very good at welcoming,” he said, adding they had to combat cliques within the ministry. “… It was a slow process of winning them over. Now that we have this beautiful facility, I think that it will help to attract them in here, especially a Sunday Mass and feeding them after that Mass.”

That welcoming environment allowed students to carve out their life paths with faith, with some leading to the priesthood. Fathers Taryn Whittington, William Burmester and Omar Galván all attended CCM, along with seminarians Deacon Joel Brackett and Duwan Booker. 

Father Galván, administrator of St. Andrew Church in Danville and St. Augustine Church in Dardanelle, was drawn to the ministry by pancakes — a CCM meal offered during the stress of finals for the 2010 fall semester. 

“He gave me a big smile and a really firm handshake and said, ‘What is your name? I haven’t seen you around,’” Father Galván said of Papini. “We talked, and he kind of invited me to come back next semester.” 

He was active in CCM that spring and left for college in Fort Smith the next year. Then he entered the seminary. 

“It was the invitation from Deacon Papini that gave me a place to really keep growing my faith and discern properly my vocation to the priesthood,” Father Galván said. “… That small act of going out and simply inviting the college students to be a part of CCM, to be a part of the space to get to know the Lord, that’s what I really admired about him.” 

Papini, who will continue with his diaconate ministry at St. Joseph Church in Conway, said his message for college students is the same as it’s always been — grow in the Catholic faith.  

“Being a Catholic is a lifetime of learning. That’s one of the things I share with a lot of Catholics. When I’m expressing my feelings about my Catholic faith, it’s a lifetime. You’re constantly learning and growing. But you’ve got to make that choice that you want to grow,” he said. “… The other thing I say … a lot about is how the Eucharist has impacted my life and it truly is life-giving. And when Jesus says, ‘Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you,’ well, I’ve experienced that life.”

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With school in full swing, students are busy juggling academics, sports and other extracurriculars. Fortunately, several campus ministers in the state are making it easier for busy students to navigate their faith lives.

 

Russellville

Jacob Moellers, campus minister

A Morrilton native, Jacob Moellers said attending Mass with his family at Sacred Heart Church felt like clockwork — until his sophomore year of high school when he attended the Search #140 youth retreat. 

“That’s when I realized ‘Oh, that’s what this is all about,’” Moellers said. 

For the remainder of high school, Moellers became deeply involved in his Catholic faith and very active in Search retreats. In 2018, Moellers began attending Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and was active at St. Leo the Great University Parish. Moellers began helping with the program ACTS Jr. on campus, which brings youth with disabilities together to create a play each semester. Moellers, whose older brother is autistic, has spent much of his personal life debunking stigmas about autism and neurodivergent people. 

Moellers began to spend his Mondays among the staff and with the late Father Ernie Hardesty at St. Leo and solidified his role as “the super mega Catholic guy” to his friends. 

The new campus ministry center at St. Leo was completed in May 2021, and Moellers found himself donating things to the center, such as a ping pong table. 

After graduating in 2022 with a degree in cultural and geospatial studies, Moellers spent several months working at a hardware store and the Arkansas Department of Transportation as a traffic safety analyst. Then one day, St. Leo’s parish manager, Mary Corkins, told him they needed a campus minister, and she could think of no one better than Moellers. He was hired July 17.

Now, Moellers mentors Catholic students at Arkansas Tech University, promoting the faith through St. Leo’s social media accounts. He also organizes activity nights, worship nights and outdoor events and coordinates volunteering efforts while still helping with ACTS Jr. Moellers is ambitious in his campus ministry goals.

“Arkansas Tech is going to be a private Catholic university by the time I’m done with it,” he said with a laugh.

 

Conway

Tachia Awbrey, campus minister

For campus minister Tachia Awbrey, her new role at Conway Campus Ministry is a perfect marriage of her passion for student success and her love of the Catholic faith. Awbrey worked at UCA for 15 years as an academic advisor and education counselor after receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCA. 

“I always knew that I had a passion to work with and guide this age group based on my own personal experience,” Awbrey said. 

As a first-generation college student, Awbrey struggled to adapt and lost her scholarships. 

“I learned the hard way, went back to work, and ended up finishing,” Awbrey said. 

Determined to make sure that other students didn’t have the same experience, Awbrey went into advising to help guide students. 

“There’s always conversations of, ‘Oh, my grades,’ and things like that,” Awbrey said. “But the conversations started taking a darker turn, at least with this generation. They’re very open about their anxieties. … That really tugged at my heartstrings, because I was also having my own personal faith journey.”

Awbrey grew up Protestant, but a decade ago, she began to feel called to the Catholic faith. Just two years ago, Awbrey converted to Catholicism, and her two sons followed suit. She is a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Conway. 

“These two things merged at the same time — my experience in higher education, along with my personal faith journey.” 

As a campus minister, Awbrey gets to use both.

Awbrey was hired Aug. 1 and hit the ground running. Now that the new CCM facility is built, Awbrey gets to focus on the wellbeing of the students who walk through their doors. 

“Everything I’ve learned from working in higher education is going to help me relate to these students and what they’re going through on a week-to-week basis,” Awbrey said. “And being able to openly discuss my faith at the same time is exactly the type of conversations I want to have with students.”

 

Luke Hoelzeman, assistant campus minister

Even though he was officially hired in June 2022 as the assistant campus minister, Luke Hoelzeman has been involved with Catholic campus ministry since 2012 when he attended UCA and majored in health promotion. Hoelzeman’s girlfriend at the time and now wife, Colleen, was very involved in campus ministry, which made it easier for Hoelzeman to be involved. During his sophomore year, Deacon Richard Papini, who has overseen campus ministry at UCA for 25 years, hired Kasey Miller as campus minister. Hoelzeman said he and Miller became close friends, and she acted as a spiritual mentor.

“When I left the dorm and started commuting … I spent all of my time at the old CCM house on Bruce Street, which means I saw Kasey and Deacon almost every day,” Hoelzeman said. 

Miller often hinted to Hoelzeman he should work in campus ministry some day. 

“At the time, I was very set on what my role in life was supposed to be,” Hoelzeman said. “I was studying to be an educator and a football coach.”

Hoelzeman did just that for the next few years after graduating in 2017, getting married and settling down in Russellville. Until, one day, he got a call from Miller. 

“Kasey reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, we’ve been looking at the budget, and we’re thinking sometime in the next three to five years, we might be able to hire a new campus minister.’ Then she said that she’d be head hunting for me,” Hoelzeman said with a laugh. 

But just a few months later, Miller called back — she needed an assistant campus minister urgently. Six months later in the summer of 2022, Hoelzeman found himself working as the assistant campus minister in Conway. Hoelzeman, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Morrilton, primarily helps students at UCA and the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton but is eager to help any Catholic student in the area. 

It was at Sacred Heart Church that Hoelzeman grew up knowing Moellers. Hoelzeman had coached Moellers for a while and was able to offer the same mentor-mentee faith relationship Miller had offered him. 

“If you’re around the age of college … we encourage you to get involved with us, because we know that it can be a difficult transition after college,” Hoelzeman said. “We’ve all made really good friendships from this, and this is something that I’ve always been really passionate about.”

 

Jonesboro

While there is still an opening for a campus minister at St. John Newman University Parish at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, new administrator Father Alex Smith is eager to start making a difference right away. For Father Smith, this is a ministry of presence. 

“It’s so important because there’s a lot of Baptist, Methodist and non-denominational campus ministries that are very present on campus,” Father Smith said. “That’s not to judge or chastise  — it’s wonderful that our brothers and sisters are there to walk with people. But it’s important that we do our very best to do that too.”

Father Smith has been promoting Catholic campus ministry to students, redesigning the campus ministry website and social media and is putting together a Bible study. He said the administration has been very welcoming, allowing him to be on the sidelines at home football games and celebrating Mass for the Red Wolves coach and team.

Father Smith said this ministry of presence is especially crucial as students look for something familiar. 

“We have an opportunity to cheer them on and to remind them that they’re a young adult on fire for the Lord,” Father Smith said, emphasizing a college campus ministry has to help students navigate their faith and adulthood.

Father Smith hopes a full-time campus minister will help him reach his ministry goals.

“Being a campus minister is not a 9-to-5 mentality,” Father Smith said. “You have to be able to walk with them where they’re at, with God’s grace and mercy as well.”

Before coming to Harding University in Searcy, Julio Montenegro of Nicaragua spoke with his parents and pastor about the Catholic campus ministry. His pastor sent a letter to Father Polycarp Ssebbowa, pastor of St. James Church in Searcy. 

“They were waiting for me and once I arrived at St. James, they introduced to me all that has to do with the campus ministry,” Montenegro said, adding that it was important for him to stay connected to his faith in college. “ … I just wanted to continue to be closer to God.” 

The 20-year-old senior said faith was his anchor. If parents do not build a faith foundation before their child leaves, it can be hard for them to stay on the Christian path.  

 

Getting lost

Liz Tingquist, diocesan director of campus ministry, snapped her fingers to explain just how quickly a college student can get out of the habit of going to Mass or fall away from their faith altogether. It’s important to establish a solid faith foundation while the student is still at home so their faith isn’t separate from their daily life, including going to Mass together, volunteering and participating in parish and diocesan youth events, whether the child is in a Catholic or public school. 

“I would say the majority of families don't prioritize their kids being involved in their faith … I’ve had some parents say, ‘Well, you know my daughter and my son, they just don't want to get into their youth group at church.’ It's like, when did you quit being the parent?” Tingquist said. 

Collin Gallimore, 20, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, had a strong faith growing up in Hot Springs. Freshman year, he convinced himself he didn’t have the time for CCM.

“A big thing for me last year was that I had a lot of trouble with my home life, with my family back at home,” he said, which shook his faith. “…  I didn’t have people to lean on anymore. I was closer to my small (Bible study) group and friends in that circle because they gave me that feeling of family that I was lacking at that time.” 

 

Why are you leaving? 

Flo Fitch has led campus ministry for 30 years at the Church of Christ-based Harding University in Searcy and Arkansas State University in Beebe. Most are international students, predominantly from Central America. 

“If they are strong in their faith in their countries, that is very much a benefit,” Fitch said. “I have had parents in previous years call and text me saying, ‘We’re so grateful you are there for our kids, our family.’” 

Religious ministries at Harding cannot advertise their religion or group meetings. It is all word of mouth. She said students have been drawn to other faiths because of more activities at other churches and contemporary music during services.

Tingquist said many former young Catholics are not practicing because of misunderstandings about Church teaching on LGBTQ issues. 

“LGBTQ is the No. 1 reason some of his (my sons) friends are not practicing their faith anymore because … they don't understand the Church's teaching and how we embrace people,” she said. 

Kasey Miller, a campus minister for 11 years, said CCM at the University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College and Central Baptist College, all in Conway, is there for help with tutoring, spiritual guidance and a safe space. She sees students put their faith on the back burner mostly in pursuit of perfection. 

“They fill their time with trying to chase that 100 percent, and grades are very important. But that’s a detriment to their mental and spiritual help because they don't have time for community,” she said. 

 

Encourage, don’t force 

When touring a college, finding the campus ministry should be included in the day. 

“I introduced my kids to whoever it was that was in charge of that,” Tingquist said of campus ministry. “I wanted them to know where the church was, or the chapel, on campus. And I gave those people my kid’s emails and cell phone numbers.”

Miller said parents encouraging, rather than pushing, makes a difference. 

“A lot of times this starts way before they get to college, asking them about their personal prayer life, asking them what sort of stuff interests them about the Catholic faith. More than, ‘Did you go to Mass? Did you go to CCM?’ she said. “ … It creates a different atmosphere about faith rather than just an obligation.” 

Adam Koehler, campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Fayetteville for six years, said parents should continue to be active in their own faith life while their child is at home and away and connect with campus ministry. 

“‘Hey, my kid has a home away from home and a safe place to build a community of friends,’” he said.

During phone calls, parents should ask their child about their spiritual wellbeing and prayer life, in a non-threatening way.

“My kids would call me with problems, one of the first questions I would say to them, ‘Have you taken it to the Lord? Are you praying? Because I promise you if you pray, it will lighten the load,’” Tingquist said. 

Montenegro said there are lonely times in college and prayer helps. 

“It is important to keep the prayer life active and also it is important to have someone like a friend or someone from the Church that is actively seeking you, asking you, ‘How are you doing?’” Montenegro said. “Even the parents can do that, but it is better when you find someone in college that is helping you to be closer to God.” 

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Bishop Anthony B. Taylor blessed St. John Newman University Parish in Jonesboro Nov. 15, after several long-overdue updates to the sanctuary. 

Brandon Weisenfels, director of Catholic Campus Ministry at Arkansas State University, has been working toward renovations for three years. After their original air conditioning unit began leaking, an assessment was completed and it was determined the flooring and ceiling needed to be replaced. The building is 26 years old. 

“While we’re doing this (air conditioner replacement) let’s look at everything in the sanctuary and update everything,” Weisenfels said. 

They set out to raise $300,000 for renovations, after an insurance claim of $62,000, Weisenfels said. 

Renovations began in December 2019 and were completed Nov. 14. The new features include hardwood flooring at the altar; carpet throughout the sanctuary, sacristy and confessional; a new ceiling and a commercial AC unit; and new paint on the walls. 

A family donation from the trust of parishioner Bernard “Mickey” Bridger, 74, who died Sept. 3, 2019, went toward new Joseph and Mary statues, a suspended crucifix and a back altar for the tabernacle. The parish did not previously have a crucifix, but a risen Lord cross with a metal outline of Jesus. 

“He was a very big supporter of the students,” often bringing snacks for them, Weisenfels said. “(Bridger) and Father (Francis Madanu, the former pastor) had just talked about the need to fix the church the night he passed away,” Weisenfels said. 

Another major donor also contributed to the renovations. 

The parish has about 80 registered families and averages about 40 people at Mass, primarily college students.  

CONWAY — Savanna Gauthier admits she didn’t truly know her faith when she came to the University of Central Arkansas.

“I didn't even own a Bible,” the 21-year-old Catholic college student said in the small gathering of people at St. Joseph Church’s Spiritan Hall in Conway Oct. 27 to share about the impact Catholic Campus Ministry has made. “And then when I joined my first (CCM) small group, I came in and I realized how much more to the faith there was than I knew about.” 

Since then, she has led one of those small groups and a women’s group and is armed with a solid faith foundation in her senior year. 

“I've been here and learning so much about my faith, about who I am as a person and now I’m going to be able to take that with me when I graduate,” Gauthier said. 

It was just one of a handful of student stories shared during the official launch of the “Sacred Space, Sacred Time” $3 million capital campaign for a new chapel and multipurpose building for Catholic Campus Ministry at the University of Central Arkansas. The ministry serves students at UCA, Hendrix College, Central Baptist College, all in Conway, and the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton and the University of Arkansas Little Rock. 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, you know, we're not going to build another. This is going to last 50 years or 100 years. So we want to do it right the first time,” said Deacon Richard Papini, founding director of Conway CCM for 21 years. “… We're hoping that this new facility is going to be a draw, that people would want to see what's happening in this building. Once they get in there, hopefully, their hearts will be touched. And they'll say, ‘I want to be a part of this. I want to take hold of my Catholic faith.’” 

Architect Joanna Nabholz discussed the key features planned for the 7,425-square-foot building across from campus at South Boulevard and Baridon Street, diagonal from its current rented building. It will include a 160-seat chapel, confessional and sacristy; a large gathering space; an 80- to 100-seat dining room; commercial kitchen; and outdoor gathering space and dining area. Glass window walls around the gathering space, offices and some in the chapel will be used to create an inviting atmosphere. 

“We wanted to kind of mix the feeling of like it’s a church with it’s a college space,” said Kasey Miller, CCM campus minister for six years. “We're mixing a lot of bricks and wood and that kind of church feel with more of that industrial college feel.” 

The goal is to break ground in fall 2021 and have it built by May 2022 in preparation for the fall 2022 semester. St. Joseph parishioner John Nabholz is chairman of the 10-member campaign committee, along with five advisors including Liz Tingquist, diocesan director of campus ministry, chaplain Msgr. Jack Harris and Papini. 

Miller said there are about 42 new or transfer students who have registered for CCM this fall, lower than normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lower turnout was expected as college students are taking most of their classes online, and Hendrix is completely virtual this fall. 

Last year, there were 148 registered, with seven small groups, more than 15 ministries and programs, 23 student leaders and 20 students in formation with the ministry staff, according to campaign materials. CCM also hosts annual mission trips and retreats. 

In the past 21 years, 30 students have joined the Church, an important achievement when other Protestant campus ministries have more staff and larger worship spaces, including Baptist Campus Ministry, which is also building a new center next to the planned CCM building. 

When the ministry began in 1999, it was housed in a small house at 2204 Bruce Street, seating about 50 people, where it remained until UCA bought the property last year to build an integrated health science center. The college moved the ministry to another house, with similar seating, in August 2019. The rental contract extends for about another year, Miller said. 

“We’ve actually been directly told by students they have chosen to attend Mass at St. Joseph (Church in Conway) because it’s too crowded, it’s not comfortable, they can’t kneel,” Miller said. “We are literally side by side, knee to back and with that many bodies, houses are not built to temperature control that many people. We do the best we can, but sometimes it gets really, really hot or really, really cold.”

While CCM has stayed active online and the rental building is still open, the pandemic has forced the ministry to cancel most activities and Masses. 

“If we had a larger space pre-COVID, we would have been able to continue to have Masses at the CCM house,” Miller said. 

The campaign has already raised $1.2 million,  thanks to donations, grants and the sale of the Bruce Street property. The campaign will start its public appeal in January, reaching out to alumni who have benefited from CCM.

Father William Burmester, pastor of St. Edward Church in Texarkana and committee member, told attendees how being active in CCM his freshman year at UCA in 2006 helped foster his priestly vocation. 

“You’re training leaders to go off and do that in any parish, any ministry, any profession that they have,” Father Burmester said. “So these are life-changing moments of forming people into the people that they will be wherever they go.”

CONWAY — Deacon Richard Papini remembers how naïve he was as he reported for the first event of his first semester in charge of the Catholic Campus Ministry in Conway.

“I thought they’d just be lined up waiting to get in,” he said, followed by a knowing shake of the head.

In reality, only a couple of students showed up, separately, that first evening. But one of them planted a ministerial seed in him that would grow and flower for the next two decades.

“A young woman walked in, she’s a sophomore. She came in there and started sharing with me just how bad her freshman year was on the UCA campus, because she was getting beat up by people, getting told she was going to hell because she was Catholic,” he said.

“And she told me, ‘I prayed all summer that God would send somebody to this ministry.’ And I said, ‘Well, here I am. He sent somebody.’”

“Just to hear that story was really a confirmation for me that God answers prayers, number one, and that there was a need here that God pulled me out for.”

The organization looks a lot different than it did 20 years ago. Catholic Campus Ministry moved into a new house in August, a leased space that offers more office and meeting rooms, including a large main area where CCM celebrates Mass. The numbers have changed too, to about 100 college kids a year who take part in various scheduled activities including a praise and worship night, Bible study and fellowship gatherings. Papini is in the center of it all and, students say, better than ever.

“He’s a person you can talk to and he puts you at ease. If there’s anything you need, he’s willing to stop what he’s doing to help you with it,” said Malachi Morse, 20, a sophomore from Los Angeles. “My first year of college was challenging; I battled a little bit of depression. Going to CCM helped me through that and helped me connect closer to God.”

“When you come into college it’s so easy to get lost in the shuffle,” said Cameron Heslip, 18, a freshman from Maumelle. “He makes you feel like you are his favorite in the entire group. You walk up and you feel like you’re the only person he’s paying attention to, but he does it to everybody, so everybody is just so full of joy when they see him. Which is a really cool thing, because a lot of times students don’t get that, being lost in how many students there are. It doesn’t matter how many people walk through his door, he wants to know every single person individually.”

In 20 years, not much has changed about college students, Papini said. But interacting with them has changed him, in some ways dramatically.

“I’ve tried to be more accepting of a student, or anybody, where they are,” he said. “Trying to show some kind of compassion for them, trying not to be a hard-nose.”

“It’s a challenge to maintain that kind of demeanor because on the one hand, you’re always being disappointed. You can’t rely on them saying, ‘I’ll do this.’ But on the other hand, you see them taking hold of their faith and really utilizing their talents and pouring themselves into it. That’s what keeps me coming back.”

Campus minister Kasey Miller, who joined the ministry six years ago, is Papini’s polar opposite in many ways. He’s cradle Catholic, she’s a convert; she’s the students’ big sister while he’s the favorite grandfather; she gets technology, he doesn’t. Despite this, and aside from some early hiccups, the two have become an effective ministerial team.

“He was very open and intentional about being ready to take risks,” she said. “We’ve tried things that have crashed and burned where no one showed up and that’s OK. The fact that he allowed me and the students to try new things and they failed speaks to the fact he takes the long view, where a lot of ministries are very hesitant to try something if it’s not going to work right away.”

The deacon said he discovered long ago that simply unlocking the door wasn’t going to attract Catholics on campus, you have to go get them where they are. Johnny Ramirez, 22, a senior from Arizona, said once they get here, students find the deacon has a lot to offer.

“For most people, when they think of CCM, they think of Deacon Papini,” he said. “He’s got so much insight on how to grow. When you’re young, you think you have it all together and he doesn’t necessarily challenge you in that way, he just makes you think a little more, a little deeper. You figure things out on your own, but the fact of him just listening helps you discern a lot.”

The group counts two vocations among their alumni — Father William Burmester and seminarian Omar Galván — and Papini is always on the hunt for number three. But he’s equally proud of the people who have taken up the mantle of responsibility and become lay leaders and evangelists in their home parishes.

“This is the hope of the future,” he said. “These students, I keep telling them, ‘You are going to change the face, not only of the world, but of the Catholic Church.’ They’ve got that potential and if we can just guide them in the right direction and they have something to leave here and be a part of, they can do so many things.”

At 76, Deacon Papini is as lively as ever. Congregating for a weekly Bible study, each college student gets a hug, a high-five or a slap on the back. He’s quick with a joke and even quicker to laugh at someone else’s. Someone quips that he’ll be around for another 20 years and he doesn’t disagree, he just grins broadly.

“God willing,” he said.

Tarah Verkamp, 20, is looking at how she can make a difference on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas.

In Conway, the sophomore is an active member of Catholic Campus Ministry. With several other students, she traveled to the University of Notre Dame this summer to receive evangelization training.

“Within our group, we learned how to evangelize through one-on-one ministry with another person and to encourage one another to become disciples in Christ.”

She has been active in Catholic parish life all her life, first as an altar server and then as a lector and Vacation Bible School volunteer for five years at Sacred Heart Church in Charleston.

Verkamp sees her mission as organizing a Students for Life group on campus. The group would be separate from CCM, but they are supportive of her goal.

According to Verkamp, Planned Parenthood in Little Rock hands out brochures and notecards to students telling them where they can get abortions. The campus clinic also distributes information from Planned Parenthood in the waiting room. A Students for Life group would insure that pro-life supporters would get equal time to promote respect for life.

Verkamp, who is majoring in sociology, plans to get her master’s degree in social work and would like to work with children. Her cousin, Jennifer Verkamp-Ruthven, director of Catholic Immigration Services-Little Rock, has helped her plot her course to achieve her career goal.

Asked for her primary musical influence, Brooke Buckner doesn’t even bat an eye.

“Taylor Swift is a big inspiration for me,” she said. “She is my favorite artist to listen to, and I love learning from her songs, too.”

Buckner, who has a passing physical resemblance to the mega superstar, is a talented musician in her own right. She’s already cut one single, “Say Goodbye,” and an album is in the works. And while she doesn’t quite have the worldwide following of her idol — yet — she does support an impressive array of social media platforms to help promote what she’s doing.

And that doesn’t even count the many ways she lends her musical talents to youth retreats, summertime Masses at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock and playing for Catholic campus ministry at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro where she’s a sophomore broadcast journalism student.

“I have been into music for a very long time,” she said. “I started playing guitar at the age of 7. My dad (Ed, chief meteorologist for KTHV) taught me the basics and after that I was kind of self-taught. I never took real lessons from anyone.”

Brooke’s formative years were spent between Little Rock’s Christ the King and St. Edward parishes where she also attended their respective schools. Once she reached Mount St. Mary Academy, she was encouraged to put her music out there with the help of Susej Thompson, music director at Holy Souls.

“In high school is when I started playing in front of people more,” Buckner said. “My sophomore year, Susej asked me to lead music with her at all of our Mount retreats. Ever since, I’ve been a part of her team and we’ve traveled all over Arkansas to lead retreats. Usually it’s kids and other times it’s college students. Sometimes we play for people older than me.”

Once at college, Buckner latched onto the Catholic campus ministry at Blessed John Newman University Parish where she plays twice a week for meetings and weekend Mass. Inspired to continue to grow as an artist, she recently launched her own weekly broadcast online.

“I do ‘Praise with Brooke.’ That is a new thing,” she said. “I’ve done it three weeks now with the Newman Center. Basically I go live every Monday at 1 p.m. and I play about three songs and I talk in between and pray with whoever is watching and talk about what songs mean to me.”

“I want my music to move people. This might sound really weird, but I have made people cry on multiple occasions when I have sung live, and I like it when I make people cry.”

Buckner hopes to have her album completed this summer with songs cut from the same cloth as “Say Goodbye”, a medium-tempo tune about a changing of the seasons in her life. She doesn’t limit herself strictly to Christian themes, she just stays open to inspiration for new songs.

“Inspiration comes from real-life experiences. A lot of times they’re sad experiences; for some reason it’s just easier to write about that than the happy things. I don’t know why that is, but that’s just the way it is.”

St. Francis of Assisi is credited with the familiar directive, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”

It’s unlikely that St. Francis meant to use hip checks and elbow pads, but then he didn’t say not to, either. And thus, these have become the tools of Catholic campus minister Kasey Miller’s trade as KC/DC, a member of the Rock Town Roller Derby club.

“A lot of things I’ve learned in derby have helped me empower and encourage my students and vice versa,” she said. “It helps me be more fully myself.”

Miller, a Catholic convert and member of St. Joseph Church in Conway, grew up in an evangelical household. She began exploring Catholicism while attending Virginia Commonwealth University where she originally had designs on becoming an oral surgeon.

What began as debating religion in a theology class changed the course of her life.

“I was skipping classes to do ministry work; I was taking calls from fellow students who were going through things. It became very obvious God had something planned for me,” she said. “My teachers and mentors said you have to examine your life. Where are you being pulled versus where are you making yourself go?”

Miller converted in 2009. Following graduation she landed in Fayetteville as a campus minister at the University of Arkansas in 2011. In 2014 she relocated to Conway to minister to students at the University of Central Arkansas and Hendrix College. Not long after, God pulled off another big reveal.

“I really needed a community and something to challenge me because going to the gym was not happening,” she said. “Working with college students is awesome and keeps you young, but they’re college students. I was looking for something with people my own age.”

Acting on a suggestion from her sister, Miller checked out a practice of the Little Rock roller derby club and has never looked back.

“I asked them where they were practicing and I showed up and fell in love with it instantly,” she said. “Everyone is very supportive of each other and that really exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be a team and great, we’d have a couple socials and that would be it. But it’s very much a family.”

Miller wasn’t entirely unprepared for the sport — she was a competitive figure skater growing up and had played various sports through high school. But that was a long time ago and roller derby proved to be a learning process.

“Eight wheels are very different than (an ice skate) blade with edges,” she said. “Being able to skate and keep my balance was very much going back on a bicycle, but (technique) is very different. Figure skating is very up and kind of ballet-like. Roller derby is very down, football positions. Being able to do that on skates is challenging.”

After nearly dying out in the 1970s and 1980s, roller derby has had a wholesale renaissance over the past decade or so. Most leagues have eliminated the cartoonish violence or overt sexiness of the past in an attempt to showcase skaters’ considerable athletic skills. In fact, Rock Town skaters have to demonstrate a level of proficiency before they are allowed to perform certain contact drills or compete.

Miller finds the process of honing her physical skills a metaphor to her teammates’ spiritual development in that everyone falls sooner or later. More than once, she’s lent her ministerial skills to help them back up.

“The club is an awesome teaching moment for me because of the diversity,” she said. “I meet people who’d never cross a threshold of a campus ministry or a church in their life. I get to hang out with them multiple times a week and I field a lot of questions about the Catholic Church.”

“More than that, I get support and love and encouragement from them and give that to them in return. It’s an amazing example of how the Church is supposed to be in the world.”

Juliane Pierini describes being “gently led” to campus ministry.

Now, in her second year as a campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Pierini, 25, hopes to bring college students closer to Christ in much the same way.

After graduating from UCA in December 2014, Pierini accepted a 12-month position in 2015 with Boys Hope, Girls Hope International in Pittsburgh as an academic success coordinator with the Girls Hope division. From January to March 2016, she arranged an au pair position in Zaragoza, Spain.

She returned to Arkansas and began a 9-to-5 job, but when hearing about the opening of the campus minister position, she felt the nudge to apply.

“Being in this position, kick-started my own faith life after graduating from college and brought me some peace,” said the former parishioner of Christ the King in Little Rock.

Although her first year on the job had an equal measure of rewards and challenges, that peace and learning to follow that gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit is something she hopes to share with other young people searching for their faith while studying on campus.

An avid believer in peer-to-peer ministry, her goal is to get to know the students personally and learn about their interests.

“Every year is a new beginning, a chance to revamp our efforts in reaching the students and to help each individual go deeper in their faith,” she said.

 

• If you could be any saint, who would it be?

“I’d pick St. John Bosco. I became inspired by his mission to care for children who had no one else and educate them to where they could later provide for themselves and love Jesus. He was an early pioneer of social justice.”