Yearly Archives: 2021

How Newman Became a Home-Away-From-Home for a Set of Twins from California Last year, Abi and Ame traded sun and sand for snow and wind when they left southern California to begin their college experience at UIC. After playing volleyball together since age four, they found that UIC offered the best opportunities both on and off the court, and, most importantly, they could continue playing volleyball together at the elite level. What they didn't realize, however, was just how much the Newman Center would become their "home away from home." "I started coming to Newman because I liked the community," says [...]

Written by Lupe Bollas, Class of 2021 As I wrapped up my senior year of college, I found myself desiring good Catholic community, so I decided to sign up for the SEEK2021 conference. In one of the small group sessions during the conference, I bonded with one of the FOCUS missionaries over food and cooking, and after the conference, she continued to invest in me, as a witness of the Lord’s love for me. She continued to invite me to be a part of the Newman community, and through her investment, I came to see that God didn’t just want a [...]

Written by Monica Mackie, Development Coordinator After serving as a FOCUS Missionary at UIC for two years, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to serve Newman as the new Development Coordinator, especially during this exciting time of new beginnings. Specifically, we have been hard at work, renovating our chapel to create a beautiful place to pray, and we are gearing up to launch Cor Coffee as school starts this fall. While these might seem like two independent projects, they are very much interrelated. Statistics are often thrown around again and again of how many people are leaving the [...]

Written by Becca Siar, Director of Campus Ministry   Why do you think college ministry is important, and why do you think it's a good fit for you? FR. TIM: I was blessed to work with high school students for the past three years, and every year, my seniors from the parish had to transition into “college life,” where they were bombarded by different ideologies, prompting curiosity and questions. College ministry gives students the ability to have their questions answered, especially in an environment where they know that they loved and where they truly belong. I think its a good fit [...]

We are so excited to introduce you to the students who have been selected to serve on our student leadership team, the Cor Team, for the 2021-2022 school year and to have them share what they're most excited about for this upcoming year! Ella Ramos, President - UIC Senior Ella is a fourth year student on the pre-med track, majoring in Biology and double minoring in Spanish for the Health Professions and Disability and Human Development. After undergrad, she hopes to go to medical school and train to be a physician to help those in need. Whenever she has free time, [...]

Since we've had some significant staff turnover this summer, we thought it would be a good opportunity to (re)introduce our Newman Center Ministry Team for the 2021-2022 school year! Fr. Connor Danstrom, Director/Chaplain Fr. Connor has been a priest for seven years now and says that it has been “an amazing adventure so far.” He loves playing sports and writing music in my spare time, and aside from saying Mass and hearing confessions, you’ll also often find him around Newman either playing ping pong, making coffee, gardening, or skateboarding. A fun fact about Fr. Connor is that he’s not allergic to [...]