I am a first year FOCUS missionary

I am grateful to have been raised in the Catholic Church, but it wasn’t until college at the University of Cincinnati that I learned what it meant to have an authentic, intimate relationship with the person of Jesus. As every other breathing human, I was in deep pursuit of truth.

It was at the Newman Center there that a student missionary invested deeply in friendship with me, and I saw the way that she lived with authentic joy and freedom. Most importantly, she helped introduce me to Jesus face-to-face in the Eucharist. That is where I found the Truth I had been longing for. Throughout the ups and downs of college, this was the one constant truth that I could not only return to but also carry with me.

Throughout nursing school, I learned the beauty and importance of caring for the physical and emotional needs of the sick and the suffering. I learned, though, that many of them were also suffering spiritually. This happens to not be too different than those on college campuses. It is a great joy and privilege to have the opportunity to introduce other students to the same Truth that was introduced to me by that missionary and, most importantly, to introduce them to the person of Jesus.

“Some people go by giving, others give by going.” -St. Mother Teresa