Keeping the Faith

Starting college was an adjustment for Mary Catania in all of the usual ways. But when Catania left Bishop Gorman High School behind for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she faced one adjustment she hadn't expected.

Dealing with the absence of God from her school day.

"My education and my religious involvement have always been tied together," Catania says. "When I came to UNLV, not having that was a little jarring. I wanted to get it back into my life."

At the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Newman Center, Catania can. She attends daily Mass at the center when possible, stops by in-between classes to relax or study, and participates occasionally in Bible studies and social activities offered by the center.

Catania, who lives off campus, still attends Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church. But she considers the Newman Center vital to both her academic and spiritual lives.

"I know I couldn't be successful at all without my faith," Catania explains. "My faith gives me stability, and college is a very tumultuous time period anyway."

UNLV is home to a variety of student-oriented religious ministries and clubs -- 11 are listed on a student life Web site -- available to any student who wishes to take advantage of them. The fact that relatively few students do remains a puzzling challenge for UNLV campus ministers.

"You see it on the national level, the same question asked by everyone: Why is it no one wants to play with us?" says Randall Birk, director of ministry for the Wesley Foundation at UNLV.

It's a truism in ministry that college is a time when people are most apt to drift away from their faith.

"The best data we have, which is not very good, is that the majority -- and probably the vast majority -- of kids who are involved in their church in high school at least take a break, if not blow it off altogether" during college, says Chapman "Chap" Clark, professor of youth, family and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

Kyle Brennan, a senior business management major, doesn't detect much interest in issues of faith among fellow UNLV students.

Generally speaking, UNLV isn't "a spiritual place," he says. "I don't think it's a hugely common thing for people to be interested in what God wants in their life."

Nick Gausling, a leader of Campus Crusade for Christ at UNLV, agrees. While clubs and groups are available, he says, "I don't think the student population has the interest" to seek them out.

One reason could be as simple as that most prominent reality of college life: For the first time, Mom and Dad aren't around to make a student go to church, attend Sunday school or participate in anything church-related.

It also doesn't help that UNLV is largely a commuter school, adds Steve Timmons, director of Christian Challenge, a Southern Baptist on-campus ministry.

Most UNLV students live off-campus or with a parent, and are on campus only long enough to attend class, he says. "They don't come back to activities on campus, regardless of who's doing them."

In addition, UNLV students as a whole tend to be older than the typical college student just out of high school. Many, notes Kate Griffin, director of Hillel, the Jewish campus ministry, have to balance their classes with full-time jobs and family responsibilities.

While campus ministry offers a venue for younger students to meet one another socially, Griffin says, "those people who have lives, children and a social circle don't need a campus group, even a faith-based campus group, to fit in."

Yet, for some UNLV students, participating in campus ministry is a key aspect of the college lifestyle.

Brennan has been a member of Calvary Chapel Spring Valley for five years. Now, he augments the services at his home church with the offerings of various on-campus Christian ministries.

"It's the responsibility of the student to find the resources they need," he says.

Leslie Tesoro, a junior elementary education major, was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 14 and considers the classes she takes at the LDS Institute of Religion Student Center vital to her spiritual growth. When she's not attending classes, Tesoro enjoys visiting the center to relax and participate in events sponsored by the LDS Student Association.

"It's important, because I can just feel the spirit," Tesoro says. "I'm happy here, because I know we all have the same beliefs."

Tesoro suspects that students who make faith a priority during college probably made it a priority during high school, too.

"I think if they see the change in their lives, if it's a big part of their lives, they want to continue it and pursue it," she says.

"No one has to go (to faith events) if they're away from their parents. No one's pushing them. They're just going because of the fact they have that strong a testimony."

On the other hand, for students who have no religious background, campus ministries offer a means of exploring various faith traditions.

"We're all searching for something," Catania says. "I think college, especially, is a time when people are in transition. You want a solid base you can cling to, and I think religion is a great platform for that."

Alexis Jelepis, a freshman who converted to Judaism from the Greek Orthodox Church a year ago, says college students are at a time in life when "they're starting to open up their minds. They may have been raised in something -- maybe their parents' religion -- so they go off to discover what they think."

Sophomore Ryan Morris finds that, during his time at UNLV, "I've actually found myself a lot more religious."

"I'm in the Jewish fraternity here," he says. "That definitely helps out, whereas, in high school, I didn't really affiliate with Judaism and didn't really consider myself Jewish and didn't have many Jewish friends."

Campus ministry at UNLV is showing at least patches of growth. Garth Rasmussen, director of the LDS Institute of Religion at UNLV, says about 550 students are enrolled in classes this semester -- LDS students are encouraged to take the courses to supplement their religious education -- while events organized by the LDS Student Association can draw as many as 100 people.

Hillel, the Jewish student organization, has 70 to 80 active members who participate in activities ranging from High Holy Days services to social events and weekly trips to valley synagogues for Sabbath services, Griffin says.

The Rev. Albert Felice-Pace, director of the Catholic Newman Center, says he has 15 students who are taking classes to explore joining the Catholic Church.

Felice-Pace has seen ebbs and flows in student interest in religion during his nearly 40 years in ministry, and admits he usually can't discern what causes either.

"Now, we seem to be going up again," he says. "Why, I don't know."

What is known, ministers say, is the significance campus ministry can have on a student's lifelong spiritual life.

College is "really kind of a deciding point in their lives, where they'll either fall away from their religion completely or, if they do get involved, be involved with religion for the rest of their life," Griffin says.

Given that, Timmons says, "you kind of have to look at it long term. It's a long-term investment in a student."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0280.