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‘Campus Connection’: creating a pipeline from congregation to campusChaplaincies link urban Episcopal youth to higher education
By Pat McCaughan
Nancy Fausto credits All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Highland Park with “helping me, loving me, and pushing me. If it wasn’t for my church I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
 Fausto, 24, is in her senior year at Cal State University, Los Angeles, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Inspired by her own experience, she took nine All Saints’ youth ages 13 to 17 to Campus Connection, an April 4-5 immersion weekend to explore UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Channel Islands.“My parents had no knowledge of college,” Fausto recalled. “My church was the one who helped me, they’re still helping me.
“A lot of these kids don’t really know what’s out there, they don’t understand how it works. It’s important to show them there are people out there to help them.”
Church futures: ‘helping young people, helping congregations’
Campus Connection is a new program designed to “put college on the map and create a pipeline for campus ministries,” says the Rev. Nicole Janelle, chaplain and vicar at St. Michael’s University Church in Santa Barbara.
Janelle and the Rev. Sarah Nolan, associate chaplain at Cal State Channel Islands, teamed up to host about 30 students and ten clergy and mentors over the weekend.
“The idea for Campus Connection came through thinking about how we could be proactive about building a pipeline or bridge between parishes and campus ministry and help to make college a reality for Episcopalians in urban, under-resourced communities,” Janelle said.
In addition to All Saints, Highland Park, other Los Angeles-area congregations participating include St. Mary’s, Mariposa, Trinity, and Church of the Epiphany. Also participating was All Saints, Oxnard.
A March 15 pre-weekend session invited students, parents and clergy, offering a primer on college preparation, how to navigate the applications process, access resources and other information, Janelle said.
Fausto said the All Saints youth are already “very excited and eager to participate. When they saw how many other kids from other churches are going, it gave them an extra push,” she said.
“It’s important when they see kids their own age being very involved, not just in church but in college. That got them even more excited,” she said.
During the weekend, participants toured the campuses, visit classes, meet with college students and faculty and gather for group reflection sessions. There will also be a follow-up day scheduled to determine how to continue support.
“These are all smart kids who want to go to college,” observed the Rev. Floyd Naters (Butch) Gamarra, assistant rector at St. Mary’s Church. The Mariposa Avenue congregation sent three young people to the weekend’s events.
“Hopefully we can continue this project and try to set them up for scholarships,” Gamarra said.
Ed Martinez, a lay leader at All Saints, Highland Park and a counselor at Pasadena College, said the congregation decided to create a scholarship committee a decade ago.
“It is one of our ministries. Our goals are to build the church and to enhance the community by encouraging our young people to go on to post-secondary education, whether at a university or community college or even a short-term training program,” he said.
He said the scholarship committee also tries to mentor those it assists. “Basically, we help them with buying books and other things they might need as they go to school. We make it very clear that we want to be supportive of the young members of the church as a way of growing the church.”
About 30 young people have received financial assistance over the last decade, added Martinez, 50, who also addressed parents during the March 15 preparation session, offering advice about financial aid, the applications process and what their children might experience in college.
“I also tried to relate the educational differences, primarily between Latin American countries and what they experience in the United States,” he added. Universities in many Latin American countries, for example, offer a bachelor’s degree in law, whereas it is a graduate professional degree in the United States.
“I also wanted to encourage the parents of other parishes that participated, to try to think of establishing a scholarship committee as a ministry,” Martinez added.
Janelle said campus ministry “is truly a ministry of outreach, support, presence and witness on campus, in the community and in our church. The Deanery 1 campus ministries at UCSB and CSU-CI are excited to be creating new partnerships between our campuses and urban Episcopal churches. It's our hope that Campus Connection can help our parishes and campus ministries discover new ways to support youth in the college preparation process, while removing the barriers many of our youth face in attending college,” she said.
Fausto believes that helping young people helps congregations retain young adults.
“There’s that 18-to-30-year-old age group where people disappear from the church,” Fausto said. “But pushing the kids to go to school is something you never forget. When churches get more involved, it keeps the kids in church and makes them want to come back and help. I was very blessed with my church. They have always been there for me and that’s the reason I’m still there and I’ve grown so much.” |
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