Taylor Wilkerson

It may take a lifetime for a Catholic to ever dig into theology, if it happens at all. For Taylor Wilkerson, it started in middle school.

“I studied theology books on my own, I’ve always been kind of a bookworm,” Wilkerson said. “As a Catholic in a southern public school, I was asked a lot of questions about my faith by my peers. You know the sort of questions I’m talking about — the ones about worshiping Mary and bowing to statues, that sort of thing. So my interest in theology began, actually, as an interest in apologetics (the defense of the faith). It was because I was constantly asked these questions at school that I started to read and study my faith more seriously.”

Growing up at St. Jude Church in Jacksonville, Wilkerson attended the Little Rock Theology Institute in high school. At only 19 years old, she is a senior theology and philosophy major at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., and chairs the school’s social justice committee.

This summer, she did research at The University of Oxford in England for her undergraduate thesis on feminist theology.

“I’m particularly interested in Mary Magdalene. She was very much a leader in the early Church. … It’s fascinating to learn how women shaped the Christian tradition but were also kind of in the background.”

Wilkerson, who will go for her doctorate in biblical studies, said theology is for everyone.

“In whatever they’re doing, find that specific area of theology that relates to your daily life and that will guide your faith,” she said.

What one question would you want to ask Jesus?

“I would ask, ‘In today’s world how are we called to apply the Gospel? … When Jesus says go and sell everything you have, how would we apply that to our daily lives?’”

ROGERS — Taylor Johnson had no clue what would transpire when she posted a letter to herself on her Facebook page.

In a matter of hours, Johnson, a freshman at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, found that her “open letter to her freshman year in college” had gone viral with more than 2,000 views.

The “dear 3 a.m.” letter, as it’s called, written in the wee hours one April morning when she was having a particularly difficult time falling off to sleep, was her way of getting everything out of her head and on to a page in hopes of making sense of it all.

“Isn’t it funny,” the letter begins, “that you can go 18 years of your life feeling like you have it all figured out, just to find out you still don’t remember how to do your own laundry, and this is only the beginning.”

Her journey of self-discovery drafted in the course of a morning refers to “the lessons (that) have guided her freshman year” and reminders of how to survive life “on my (almost) own.”

“All my life, I’ve been huge into writing letters to myself, friends, and family,” 19-year-old Johnson told Arkansas Catholic. “It’s always been the way I express my feelings the best.”

Johnson’s entry was so heartfelt, she decided to share it with a friend who encouraged her to post it to a blog and share it with other friends and family. What happened next even astonished her.

“I posted the letter on wordpress.com on April 15 because I didn’t know how else to share such a long letter with friends and family,” Johnson said, “but I had no idea that the letter would spread like it did and impact the lives that it has.”

Attention like that on the internet, well, attracts attention, and pretty soon, Johnson had the Huffington Post tweeting her.

Huffington Post, a U.S. online news aggregator, scrutinizes the Internet for whatever is trending and Johnson’s letter was doing just that.

Within the span of a few days, she was asked to fill out information and post a short biography and the letter on HuffPo.

Johnson’s piece got enough views in a 24-hour period to warrant moving it to the home page of the website.

Of interest in Johnson’s recounting of her first year in college is not just her upbeat, inspirational words, but her references to God. She credits God with the “real blessings of the people bestowed on the journey” and “that God has a plan and that people are truly sent into your life when you need them most and leave when their purpose is fulfilled.”

Johnson, along with her two siblings, attended Christ the King School in Fort Smith and St. Vincent de Paul School in Rogers before she moved to Tulsa, Okla., where she resided with her parents, Mark and Edie Johnson, until she graduated from Bishop Kelley High School in May 2014.

“When you first come to college, you are so excited to be on your own and not have any rules,” Johnson said. “I think this is the time you fall away from God the most. As first semester comes to an end, you realize God is your constant and you start finding who you are in relation to your faith. At least for me, this is when I began to make my faith constant and strong and unique to the person that I am.”

Her advice to those heading to college in the fall for the first time: “Start your journey of finding who you are with God the day you step onto campus and all the rest of your adventure will be a piece of cake with him by your side.”

Johnson’s letter has had more than 150,000 views and has been shared on Facebook more than 10,000 times. She said her writing is done on a voluntary basis according to when she can’t sleep and her thoughts are overwhelming.

This might happen fairly often because she posted again April 29 on Huffington Post with a blog entry titled, “Today I Let Go, Tomorrow I Fly.”

Her message has certainly struck a chord with followers. But, any detractors?

“My older brother thought I had been drinking too much coffee,” she said, with a laugh. “I am a very light-hearted person, generally, and to write such a serious piece was completely out of left field for my friends and family.”

Readers have thanked her for helping them feel uplifted despite the trials and tribulations of college life.

“The message of my letters, in brief, is: you will lose friends, gain friends, find that your parents are your support system, and will need to love yourself no matter what is happening in your life, “ said Johnson about the posts she has made to date.

“The letter has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on so many young girls my age, which caused them to reach out and say thank you,” Johnson said. “That my words have touched the hearts of so many people I have no connection with other than the Internet.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — College: a time for students to try on new ideas for size, build enduring friendships and struggle through a few pre-exam all-nighters. And, in between all of that, drink. A lot.

Data released last year by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, shows that more than 80 percent of college students consume alcohol. Reflecting a sharp increase, half of those who drink consume alcohol through binge drinking — defined as four drinks for women and five drinks for men in a two-hour period.

The consequences of excessive alcohol consumption range from embarrassing to life-shattering and include everything from academic problems to assault, sexual abuse and death.

To help educate students on the dangers and offer healthy alternatives, Catholic colleges in northern Virginia and Washington and a Catholic campus ministry have established a number of programs and outreach efforts.

At Marymount University in Arlington, the goal is to educate students on the risks of binge drinking before they step foot on campus. That’s an ideal time, given the first six weeks of freshman year are an especially vulnerable period because of student expectations and social pressures, according to the NIH alcoholism institute’s report.

Marymount’s new-student orientation includes interactive skits that support healthy choices, and students must complete a personalized and confidential Web-based program before classes start.

“The program is a tool not just for educating students but for helping them become aware of their perceptions of alcohol and to understand themselves better,” said Kelly DeSenti, Marymount dean for student development and engagement.

DeSenti said students come to school with a variety of backgrounds and experiences with alcohol, and the goal is to reach out to each effectively. “We don’t just want to be reactive; we want to be proactive,” she said.

Christendom College in Front Royal holds a mandatory freshman talk that includes a discussion of alcohol. The school nurse also hosts an information session for all resident assistants.

Amanda Graf, director of residence life, noted that Christendom typically attracts students who want to avoid a large party or drinking school. The pervasive Catholic culture and the students themselves keep drinking to a minimum, she said. “Drinking can occur, but in general, it’s amazing how much the drinking culture is controlled by students holding each other accountable.”

Graf added that there is a moral element to drinking and that the school conveys this to students.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, overconsumption of alcohol disrespects the dignity of the human body. “Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God,” states the catechism. “We must take reasonable care of them. … The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess — the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco or medicine.”

With a popular Greek system of fraternities and sororities at George Mason University, “heavy drinking is absolutely part of the campus culture,” said Father Peter W. Nassetta, chaplain and director of campus ministry at the Fairfax university.

He said every campus ministry outreach effort is an attempt to help students avoid unhealthy decisions like binge drinking and embrace nourishing ones. The recent alcohol-free luau — that drew some 1,200 students — is one example of such efforts.

Father Nassetta said the campus ministry’s student leaders, including missionaries from the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, play a key role in reaching out to students.

FOCUS missionary Carrie Wagner believes that many students who binge drink are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives — something that comes through friendship. “They are looking for friendships through drinking, or they’re looking to escape their problems,” she said.

The campus ministry team provides opportunities for authentic friendships through one-on-one mentoring, small Bible studies or just listening, said Wagner.

Allison Kuenzig knows firsthand that so-called friendships forged through excessive drinking usually are hollow. The 2009 Marymount graduate spent many college weeknights and weekends drinking with other students, usually to get drunk. “We were barely acquaintances when sober,” she told the Arlington Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Arlington Diocese.

Like so many of her peers, Kuenzig said she made poor choices while drinking, including thinking it was no big deal to throw up at the end of the night or thinking she and others were OK to drive. “My guardian angel worked overtime all of my college career,” said Kuenzig.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, each year more than 3.3 million students between the ages of 18 and 24 drive under the influence of alcohol, and nearly 2,000 die each year from alcohol-related injuries.

Kuenzig, now happily married and pregnant with her second child, said looking back she sees the origins of her self-destructive behavior. “I think deep down I was lonely,” she said.

Along with loneliness and social pressures, the institute reports that a number of factors affect college drinking behavior, including unstructured time, the widespread availability of alcohol, and limited interactions with parents and other adults.

At The Catholic University of America in Washington, a number of programs are in place to help prevent unhealthy and illegal drinking. A new requirement this year is an online educational course, similar to Marymount’s.

Catholic University also has a peer support program called Peer Educators Empowering Respectful Students, which hosts a number of awareness campaigns, including National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, National Drunk and Drugged Driving Week, and Safe Spring Break.

The university’s Brief Alcohol Screening Intervention for College Students program helps students who may have a drinking problem find the tools they need “to make better choices in a non-confrontational, non-judgmental and non-labeling manner,” said Stephanie Davey, assistant dean of students. The program involves one workshop and two one-on-one sessions with a facilitator.

Like schools across the country, local colleges affirm the reality and severity of binge drinking and are attempting to tackle it head-on in a variety of ways.

The good news is that parents and administrators can make a difference in student behavior.

“Research shows that students who choose not to drink often do so because their parents discussed alcohol use and its adverse consequences with them,” states the NIAAA report. Additionally, “leadership from a concerned college president in combination with an involved campus … can help address harmful student drinking.”

FORT SMITH — The Busy Person’s Retreat held at the Catholic Campus Ministry house at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith during the week of Sept. 28 might be considered a spiritual orientation.

Its purpose — “to learn the ways in which God is part of your daily life and to develop personal patterns of prayer” — is imperative for students trying to orient or re-orient themselves to juggling school, work and social life in a new environment.

According to campus ministry director Jennifer Briselden, students became interested in this retreat last year after Sister Theresa Sullivan, SC, who has directed these retreats on campuses in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Alabama, gave a presentation to the group.

“Many students are interested in making a retreat but often they aren’t sure what a retreat is or don’t have time to get away for a retreat,” Sister Theresa said. “This brings the retreat right to where they are. It provides an opportunity to grow in prayer and their relationship with God.”

The retreat started with Mass on Sunday night. At the regular Tuesday meeting, Sister Theresa spoke to students on “Pope Francis: The Joy of the Gospel: The Call of Love — Reaching Out To Our Brothers and Sisters.” Daily work was up to each student.

The keys to its success were prayer and individual spiritual direction, scheduled at the student’s convenience.

“The students found daily prayer to be most important and having someone to listen to them and hear them out,” Sister Stephanie Schroeder, OSB, one of three directors at the retreat, said.

The daily prayer sessions were Scripture-based, and students were encouraged to let God’s word lead them into contemplation and meditation, finding which parts of the passage connected most deeply to their own personal stories.

Each of the four days had a theme: “Who Is God? Who am I,” “Call to Transformation,” “Call to Reconciliation” and “Responding to God’s Call.” Several suggested Scripture readings, a contemporary parable and questions.

The second tool students were given was a daily review to help them discern where God was present in their daily lives, to thank him not only for their accomplishments but also for their challenges and to ask forgiveness for their failures and omissions. They were encouraged to keep a journal to record the graces they received as well as the patterns of behavior they discerned and to review the journal each month to see how they responded to God’s invitations and to experience his love.

At the closing service Thursday night, the 11 student participants indicated that their prayer life had deepened and said they would like to begin each school year with another Busy Person’s Retreat. Several decided to meet with a spiritual director once a month.

“It was a really good experience this week, good to have daily Scripture,” student Cesar Lopez said, “to be able to start off the day with God’s word, to reflect on it throughout the day and to discuss it with Sister Alice (O’Brien, OSB), my director.”

Sister Theresa said once prayer becomes part of busy students’ lives, they find it easy to continue the habits they’ve established.

“At the end of retreat many students tell me, ‘Wow, this week I found time to pray every day. This has reinforced that I can and want to make room for prayer in my daily life,’ ” she said.

CONWAY — There’s little in common between the University of Central Arkansas and Hendrix College in Conway save a zip code and the growing Catholic Campus Ministry movement.

The organization, with members spanning both campuses as well as Catholic college students from Conway attending school in nearby Morrilton, Little Rock or elsewhere, is enjoying a boom in numbers and enthusiasm.

“God has really blessed us. It hasn’t all been peaches and cream; there were a lot of days in the desert where you’d ask ‘What am I doing here?’” said Deacon Richard Papini, director. “This is the Lord’s ministry; God wanted this ministry to happen.”

When Papini landed on campus in 1999, attendance at the group’s weekly free lunch — a staple of campus ministries — averaged about 30. Mass attendance wasn’t much better, 10 college kids standing around a ping-pong table. Today, lunch crowds of between 150 and 200 are common and the first Mass of the current term was standing room only at the group’s meeting house.

“There were some kids standing in my office, there were kids standing in the kitchen,” Papini said. “There were kids standing outside, too.”

Papini is joined this year by Kasey Miller, a native of North Carolina, who was hired as full-time campus minister. Her arrival on campus was timely: During welcome week activities at both UCA and Hendrix, where campus groups make themselves known to incoming freshmen, more than 200 new students signed up, a record.

Chance Keith, a member of St. Mary Church in Paragould and a UCA junior, said contrary to what many people think about college students’ priorities, many still want to maintain a strong faith life and that, combined with this population’s hunger for inclusion, makes CCM an attractive option.

“College life can be confusing for freshmen,” he said. “There’s so much hitting them at once that they really like familiarity. Even the kids who aren’t super-involved see the Catholic Church for the family it is.”

While the number of signups has grown, for Conway’s student leadership it’s little more than a good start.

“It’s a good feeling, but at the same time I don’t just want to see a bunch of numbers on a page,” said Holly Hambuchen, a UCA senior who grew up in nearby St. Joseph Church. “It sets the expectation higher. Now we have to go and serve these people.”

Hambuchen’s tone underscores how seriously the student leadership takes the success of the CCM. This year’s leadership organized their own planning retreat over the summer, spending several days defining who they wanted to be as an organization and how they planned to accomplish their mission.

“The events CCM does are for community building and having fun and that’s great because we all need a break,” she said. “But the real goal here is to help people meet Jesus in a new way.”

That goal is accomplished through student-led, small group Bible study, which has been a fixture of Conway CCM for a few years, but will for the first time this year be held in the dorms, further reducing barriers to students’ attendance. Each meeting, the study groups focus on a topic, discussing Scripture and how faith applies to everyday life.

The groups attract students of varying beliefs and devotion, according to Nick Baltz, a Hendrix College sophomore and member of Christ the King Church in Little Rock. He said participants fall into three broad categories.

“There are the hard-core Catholics who don’t really need us, but like making friends,” he said. “Second, there are the people who don’t know what they think. They generally don’t get involved and we very often lose them.

“Then there’s the ‘conscientious objectors’ who know what they think and are generally pretty insightful about it. Very often these are the people who, once they start learning what the Church is all about, experience a beautiful conversion.”

Branson Shaffer, a fifth-year UCA senior, was one such person. Raised Church of Christ, he tagged along with his Catholic roommate to a Bible study group during his junior year more out of curiosity than anything.

“They were really cool, really embracing,” he said. “I looked around and I thought, ‘Well, I haven’t seen anything super-Catholic yet.’ All I saw were these people who loved Jesus and loved the Bible, as I did.”

Shaffer said being a convert gives him an advantage when approaching other Protestants. He said even if he hadn’t shared their experience, the underlying attitude of the group disarms a lot of people because it focuses primarily on faith and secondarily on religion.

“Honestly, if at my first small group meeting we had dove right into discussing the Virgin Mary or something it would have scared me away,” he said. “There are a lot of people on campus who are hurting and lost. There’s a time to talk apologetics and doctrine, but to start, all they need to see is the face of Jesus here.”