 | | Alyssa Beck, a recent graduate of Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., teaches English at the Maison Fortune Orphanage in Haiti in June 2009. Many Catholic colleges and universities take students on service trips to other states and countries. Courtesy photo |
"The church is alive. And the church is young."
Such was the expression of hope that marked the beginning of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy, and is an expression that is incarnated in the thousands of service ministry and learning programs available to students at Catholic colleges nationally.
College is a place where the student decides how a respective discipline ought to serve God and humanity, said Benedictine Father Brendan Rolling, director of ministry at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan.
"Action is an expression of faith," he said. "We not only study the truth, we are to live the truth. A Catholic college should not only teach what Jesus taught, but it is also our job to show students how to do what Jesus did."
Immersion in these opportunities often creates a different kind of student, and a different kind of graduate.
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