St. Thomas MoreNEWMAN CENTER

Spring 2016 Alumni Newsletter | comonewman.org

MADE FOR MORE NIGHTS

PAGE 4

AWAKENINGS CLIMBS TO 160

PAGE 6

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

FR. MIKE QUINN, PAGE 5

CAMPUS MINISTRY GROWS

RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS AT NEWMAN! COLUMN ON PAGE 2

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Campus Ministry GrowsBy Joe Bradley, Coordinator of Communications, Technology & Alumni Relations

I write this column as the students are busy preparing for finals. The class-rooms upstairs are packed with stu-

diers and the free food to keep them fu-eled is overflowing. There’s even students sprawled out in the Gathering Space, notes and papers in disarray. It’s been quite the year here at Newman and it’s hard to believe it’s ending! 2015-16 was a school year marked by growth and new programs in Campus Ministry. This year, we had 1,180 students register as student parishioners, almost 400 more than last year. Of those, at least 700 attended a Newman event outside of Mass!

To kick off the school year, we once again held our annual Mass on the Quad, but this year we moved to the new Traditions Plaza on the South Quad (page 3). It was the perfect venue for Mass. We welcomed back our alumni in the fall for Homecoming with a tailgate in our courtyard (photos to the right). This is a tra-dition we hope to continue each year. In 2016, Homecoming will fall on October 22. Please join us!

One program that just exploded this year was Ephesians 3 (E3), formerly known as Time Out and a few other things throughout the years. E3 is centered around a talk, typically given by a student, as well as praise and worship music, small group sharing and — of course — a snack. Formerly held in the student lounge on Wednes-day nights, the program moved to the MPR a few years ago. With the addition of a new sound system for the band, E3 has grown to a weekly attendance of more than 100 students, sometimes as many as 150. To get a taste of E3, you can watch all of the talks on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/comonewmancenter.

The Awakenings Retreat once again grew to record numbers, both in the fall and the spring. Including staff, nearly 160 stu-dents attended the spring Awakenings, “Through Many, One.” There are already 80 students signed up to help with the Fall 2016 Awakenings, which will move to a larger retreat center near the Lake of the Ozarks.

Two new events started this year that will return in future years were the “Made for More” nights (page 4) and Senior Night (page 5). And of course the program that continues to make great gains is the small groups. There were more than 40 active small groups meeting this year, with more than 350 students involved!

Of course, attendance numbers aren’t the true measure of im-pact. A moment that sticks out in my mind though of the impact of Campus Ministry this year was at a recent 8 p.m. Mass. The students started a tradition of First Sunday Adoration, in which immediately following the first 8 p.m. Mass of each month, Adora-tion is held. I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful it was to see the chapel full of students adoring after Mass had ended. Please know that Christ’s presence is alive and well on campus!

Homecoming Alumni Tailgate and Mass

Thank you to the alumni who joined us for Homecoming Weekend, October 10-11, 2015. We held an alumni tailgate in the Newman courtyard before the Mizzou v. Florida game, and the alumni choir performed at the 11 a.m. Mass.

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Mass on the Quad Moves to Traditions Plaza

With the completion of the new Traditions Plaza at the north end of the Carnahan (South)

Quad in October 2014, Campus Ministry made the decision to move our annual Mass on the Quad about 100 yards north. The new plaza was dedicated in honor of 175th anniversary of the University of Missouri. The main feature of the plaza is the six-lev-el amphitheater style seating facing a 70’ x 30’ brick stage. The stage sits right across the street from Jesse Hall and is made up of 15,000 bricks that alumni can purchase to be engraved.

The large stage and amphitheater seat-ing made for an ideal location for our Mass

on the Quad. The stage had more than enough room for the choir, altar, five priests, and our giant projection screen. The amphi-

theater seated more than 500 students and resident parishioners comfortably and im-proved both acoustics and site lines.

Alternative Spring Break 2016: El Salvador

Whenever I was asked to reflect on my experience in El Salvador what was

the one word I could think of — dirt. Why? Because we’ve never had so much dirt caked on our body in our lives. After playing soccer with the kids from the community in the dirt field, our legs had turned a com-pletely different color. The hot and humid temperatures caused us to be covered in a layer of sweat making it even easier for the dust to stick to us. The baths in the river were great to clean it off, until walking back on the dirt roads to our house caused it all to reappear almost instantly.

But it was more than the literal dirt or the grime that was constantly stuck to us. It was the dirt that El Salvador has on the Unit-ed States, a long history riddled with mis-takes made by our government. Throughout our trip we got to learn about our country’s troubled pasts, and it was not pretty. The U.S. had funneled millions of dollars to support Salvadorans killing other Salvadorans. Our government supported their civil war, and all around dehumanized an entire country of people’s suffering. While tough to hear, it was so important to learn about this history so that we do not make the same mistakes in the future.

Dirt has such a negative connotation. Especially in the sterile, don’t-touch-me, so-ciety of America, dirt is nearly unheard of. We often forget that dirt is also soil, and from soil comes so much life, and so much growth. The people of El Salvador are definitely soil and are definitely growing. There are so many projects, which under the tender care and nurturing of CRIPDES and SHARE, are causing these communities to strive towards a better future. The people there are strong and resilient, and are fighting for a better life for themselves and their families.

Dirt is also a symbol of humility. With-out a doubt, the people of El Salvador are the most humble, giving people we have ever met in our lives. They gave up everything they had, their entire homes, food, village, for a group of complete strangers from the United States. We can only hope to be a frac-tion as giving with everything God’s gifted to us that these people are. While never having

felt so dirty in our entire lives, we also never felt so much love or joy than we did in the week we were there. The sense of community and love is stronger than anything most of us have ever felt before. The joy in the children’s faces as we were dancing with them made us never want to go home.

Should I have chosen a more glamorous word to describe our experience? Probably. But was our delegation glamorous? Abso-lutely not. Not a single picture came out In-stagram-filter worthy. But Jesus and Oscar Romero weren’t known to be amongst the glamorous. They met the people where they were at, and formed lasting relationships with everyone they encountered. And that week, for just a snapshot of our lives, we did the same thing. Everyone we met are now our second families. We will remember them and pray for them, by name, forever. And to me, no amount of earthly possessions can mean more than that.

By Ashley Bramer, MU Senior

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#comonewman Photos of the Week

In the summer of 2013, the Newman Center entered into unchartered territory when we signed up for Instagram (@comonewman).

Since that time, we’ve posted nearly 300 pho-tos and gained more than 200 followers (do you follow us? If not, you should!) Our biggest success though has been with our #comonewman Photo of the Week contest. We invite stu-dent and resident parishioners to tag their Newman photos with

#comonewman to be entered into the contest. Winners receive a #comonewman travel coffee mug or water bottle (pictured) and are featured on the cover of the bulletin. There are more than 450 pho-tos tagged with #comonewman on Instagram now! Below is just a small collection of them. To see more photos (and to read the great captions that accompany them), just search #comonewman on Instagram.

Made for More is all about under-standing that we are inherently made out of love for a greater pur-

pose than we could ever imagine. We so often lose sight of our purpose. Lose sight of what leaves us truly satisfied. These nights are meant as a reminder to everyone that we are made out of love in order to love. The Made for More title was chosen be-cause we are made for more than things of this earth. We are made for eternal life in Heaven, which is knowing the Father. These nights have two different meanings for both men and women, but they con-tain the same basic messages.

The men’s night topics were “Redefining what it means to be a man” and that “Love is to pursue the greatest good.” The men at

By Christian Boschert, Mizzou CSA President

Made for More

the night learned that true manhood means to be like Jesus who was obedient, patient, forgiving, and loving in every moment. They also discussed that love for another means to pursue the greatest good, which is Heaven. The women talked about what it means to be made in God’s image and what their identity is. More than 160 students at-tended each night. These nights get to the core of the Gospel and our very roles as men and women of Christ. We hope to instill a redefined sense of purpose and a deeper understanding of God’s love in each and every soul that we encounter through these nights.

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Where Are They Now? — Fr. Mike Quinn

#comonewman Photos of the WeekYEARS AT NEWMAN: 1977-1998CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: Pastor at My Holy Family in Hannibal, Missouri. FAVORITE NEWMAN MEMORIES: I have so many good memories of my 21 years at Newman. Right now I am in the process of moving to another rectory. I am still finding boxes of pictures of weddings, first communions, baptisms and other var-ious Newman celebrations from my time there. One file contains lists of students during the early and mid-80s on our Fall Inquiry Forums. One year there were 54 participants, another 85. This was a forerunner to the RCIA. We had a great group every year of priests, sisters and lay leaders from campus and town. In the late 70s and early 80s we had great retreat experiences at Stephen’s College at their retreat cottage in the woods near cam-pus. Mizzou’s Awakenings Retreat near the Lake and the Busy Person’s Retreat touched many. We had so much going on in the area of social justice. A great memory surrounds the beginning of St. Francis Catholic Worker House. Newman Week on cam-pus was exciting and involved a number of our students. Since a child I have been a strong fan of all Mizzou sports. Being chap-lain for our football team and celebrating Mass for the team be-fore every home game was special. The Protestant chaplain and I would go to one away game and have services for the players.HOW DID THE NEW CHAPEL COME ABOUT IN 1994? Since the mid-80s, talk was beginning about a need for a larg-er space for worship and campus and parish ministry activities. At that time we had seven or eight Masses on the weekend with Masses upstairs (in the area of today’s Kemper Library) and in the MPR (today’s office area) simultaneously. Around 1990 groups were formed to vision and project what would serve the needs of the Newman faith community in future years. Many were involved in fundraising work.WHAT WERE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHANGES IN YOUR TIME AT NEWMAN? Some of the biggest changes in my 21 years at Newman were the tremendous growth of students coming to Newman. The Catholic Student Association (CSA) had lots of student activities going on. The numbers of faculty and staff and townspeople who chose Newman for its spirit filled

Senior Night

On Friday, April 8, Campus Ministry hosted a “Senior Night” for our college seniors (obviously) to help prepare them for their faith life after college. Stu-

dents discussed in small groups over dinner their thoughts and concerns about how they would choose a church and remain involved once they left Newman. After dinner, they received some tips from a panel of mostly Newman alum-ni, including Victor Tran, Andrew Dean, Joe Bradley, Sara Maslar-Donar, Kevin Shull, Emily Shull, Scott Allen, Bob-by Hofman and Alyssa Strickland. They were also joined by Newman Youth Minister, Chelsea Schuster. It was a great event that we hope to continue in the future!

liturgies and growth opportunities was overwhelming. Minis-try to students of all ages increased with religious education and Life Teen programs.WHAT OTHER ACTIVITIES ARE YOU INVOLVED IN? Right now I am spiritual director for the diocese of Engaged Encounter. In January I was spiritual director for Cursillo in Quincy, IL. I am a judge on the diocesan marriage tribunal. In April, I was spiritual director for the Residents Encounter Christ (REC) at the women’s prison in Vandalia. I also work with Teen Encounter Christ (TEC) in Quincy. I helped begin a parish re-newal program here at Holy Family called Christ Renews His Parish. CRHP has made a huge difference in our parish family. Folks are more connected to one another and small faith sharing groups are many.YOU ARE LEADING A PILGRIMAGE WITH THE DIOCESE COMING UP THIS SUMMER. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THAT? I have been doing pilgrim-ages for more than 10 years. I have led a pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes and Santiago; another in the footsteps of St. Paul to Greece and Turkey and one to the Holy Land.ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT NEWMAN ALUMNI TO KNOW? If any of the students I have known over my years at Newman would like to be in touch my new address beginning May 10th is 108 West-Ridge, Hannibal, MO 63401. I would re-ally like to hear from you.

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200Total StudentsAwakenings Sta�Awakeners

Fall ‘04 Fall ‘05 Fall ‘06 Fall ‘07 Fall ‘08 Fall ‘09 Fall ‘10 Fall ‘11 Fall ‘12 Fall ‘13 Fall ‘14 Spring ‘15 Fall ‘15 Spring ‘16

Awakenings Retreat: A Visual History

This spring, the Awakenings Retreat once again grew to record numbers! The retreat was moved from Edina to Lake Doniphan, near Kansas City in 2013 to accommodate more retreatants. In 2015, we began hosting both a fall and a spring Awakenings, and even had to start a wait list this year! Well after three years and five retreats, Awakenings will move to an even larger home next

year near the Lake of the Ozarks that will allow us to continue to grow for years to come!

Alumni NewsAlumni Donors

Matthew Beaty Matt & Jennifer Bronson Clark & Theresa Messmer Brian & Darice Todd James Knapp Kevin & Dianne Kelly Mike & Mary Kay McCrate Molleen Dupree-Dominguez Jenny Crouch Brian & Claudia Sharp David & Barb Throm Stephanie Wagner Dan Holland Steve & Laura Free Richard & Susan Butler Elena Christiansen Dan & Sue Lane Michael & Renee Gorman Kevin & Katie Fennewald Brian & Kelli Bittick Brian & Jennifer Malecha Robert & Mary Jane Noellsch Bart & Elizabeth Renkoski Greg & Mary Ann Hodits Tim & Kathleen Shuck Harry & Jenny Ruth Mark & Susan Schneider Bob & Judy Wernert Scott & Elizabeth Buckman Lawrence & Christine Fuller Barbara Kelliker Lisa Klempert James Petzel William Spaniel Gary Yepsen John & Janice O’Connor Tom & Cindy Bander Eddie Straub Jeff & Diane Scott Robert & Toni Elliott

SPRING 2016 | 7

Dan Everson, MU, 2012, a former campus ministry intern, professed first vows in the Society of Jesus on August 8, 2015. Two great Newman friends, Lisa Kendzior and Katie Miller, joined the celebration in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Dan has moved on to study philosophy and theology at Loyola University Chicago.

Bill and Latricia Vaughn will celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary this summer. Bill retired from Drummond Mechanical five years ago and the couple bought a small farm to raise chickens and guineas. Their daughter Natalie graduates in May from University of Oklahoma Health Science Center with her Sonogram degree, and along with her husband Bryan have two children, McKenzie and Kalum.

If you would like to submit a life update for the next alumni newsletter, email joe.bradley@comonewman.org.

Thank you to our alumni who have contributed since July 1, 2015!

GOLF ENTRY FORMGOLF FEE: $100/player; $400/team (includes: green fees, cart, dinner and drink tickets) Deadline to enter: September 18

FORMAT: 4-person scramble; Registration starts at 1 p.m.., shotgun start at 2 p.m.; Dinner and program to follow. Prizes for 1st and 2nd in two flights, plus pin and hole-in-one prizes!

I would like to register as a... Individual (will be placed on a team)Team (include team members below) I won’t be able to attend, but would like to donate

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* Please have each team member fill out an entry form, unless you are including payment for the entire team. Additional entry forms available at www.comonewman.org.

Please include check with entry form, payable toSt. Thomas More Newman Center. Return to: 602 Turner Ave.Columbia, MO 65201 Attn: Golf Tournament

Sunday, September 25Lake of the Woods GC

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Keep us updated! Complete this form and mail it to: St. Thomas More Newman Center, Attn: Joe Bradley602 Turner Ave., Columbia, MO 65201Or email joe.bradley@comonewman.orgOr fill it out online at: www.comonewman.org/alumni

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Please check any ministries you were involved in at Newman: Awakenings Retreat Other Retreat InternAlternative Spring Break / Mission Trip Choir/MusicalSmall Group/CLC Liturgical Ministry None of the above

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Upcoming Alumni Events

Tickets still remain for this event! Check out www.stlnewmanalumni.eventbrite.comto purchase tickets for just $30, including dinner!

Make a donation today!Included in the seams of this newsletter is a return envelope for donations to Cam-pus Ministry. As you have hopefully read in the previous pages, Campus Ministry is growing and growing! In order to keep up with that growth, we need to generate more income from our generous alumni donors, especially as the parish works to pay off our recently replaced HVAC system. If you would like to donate to the Campus Min-istry Endowment, please indicate that on the envelope. Thank you for your support!