I am excited to announce that I will be a first-year missionary with FOCUS’s first year at Stanford University!

In being born into a family that went to Mass every Sunday and prayed the Rosary regularly, the Lord has given my life so many blessings. I went to great schools, had experiences with a loving family, and constantly partook of the sacraments.

And yet, while I was intellectually acquainted with God in my brain, and could matter-of-factly recount to you Jesus’s miracles, His ministry, and the steps for a holy life, I did not want to seek out a relationship with Him myself beyond the “mandatory”. For me, my duty to God was a check-list I could complete Sundays and with nightly rosaries, after which I’d be “free” to set him aside.

COVID-19 turned my college experience upside down. I hungered for genuine human interaction like never before. Meeting Catholic friends in undergrad who sought out God not just on Sundays, but every day, at adoration, and during daily masses sowed the seeds of growth in my faith and developing an active relationship with Christ. This all came to a head when I entered a vibrant Catholic community in grad school, and said yes to my new friends’ invitations grow more deeply in my faith. Because of their love and my growth in a nurturing community, I finally went to a Holy Hour with an open heart during their first Fall Retreat, and felt Jesus truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I had now finally begun to understand in my heart that Jesus truly wanted a relationship with me, and I sought him out regularly in adoration – not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Since then I’ve seen great fruits of the Holy Spirit in my own life as I more actively seek to live out a relationship with God and be a witness to Him to others.

Thanks to people in my life constantly calling me higher, a missionary friend of mine encouraged me to check-out joining FOCUS. While applying, the joy and divine intimacy that radiated from FOCUS missionaries, their personal relationships with God, and their testimonies of people being brought to the faith pierced my heart. Now, God is calling me to do one thing and one thing only: be a Catholic witness and friend to other college students, just as my friends were to me.