by Annie Renz
Stonehill
College Senior Jermaine Williams didn’t consider himself religious until he
transferred to Stonehill in the Spring of 2023.
“Growing
up, I wasn’t religious at all,” said Williams. “I battled a lot of adversity
growing up, and I definitely questioned God a lot.”
Even
though he graduated from a Catholic high school, Williams, a Stamford,
Connecticut native, said he was turned off to religion early on.
That
changed one night at Stonehill when he downloaded a Bible app and started
reading Genesis One.
“I
transferred to Stonehill from Central Connecticut,” said Williams. “When I
first got here, I didn’t like it at all. One night, I was like, ‘Let me give
religion another crack’ because I wasn’t enjoying it here.”
That
same night, Williams said an old friend called him for the first time in over a
year and they bonded over renewing their relationships with religion. Williams
said this phone call gave him an epiphany that God is real and it ignited his
devotion to the Lord.
Today,
Williams serves as the founder and leader of Bible study, a weekly meeting for Stonehill
students to come together to learn the Bible.
Williams’
story of finding religion again in college is not uncommon. In 2003, UCLA’s
Higher Education Research Institute conducted a multi-year research project to
study the spiritual development of undergraduate students.
In
that study, 112,232 students from 236 colleges across the United States were
interviewed about their values and beliefs regarding spiritual and religious
matters.
The
study reported that four in five students entering college “have an interest in
spirituality.” Additionally, three-fourths of the students say they are
“searching for purpose/meaning in life.”
Regarding
religion itself, the study reports that 74% of students “felt a sense of
connection to God/Higher Power.”
The
study concluded that a relationship with God can be fostered in college, but the
journey to achieve that relationship is not linear. The study based this
finding from the fact that well over half of the freshmen reported they have
felt distant from God and questioned their religious beliefs.
Father
Tim Mouton, C.S.C., who has worked at Stonehill for eight non-consecutive
years, said he has witnessed students come into their faith at Stonehill.
“I
don’t know if that’s because more students are interested in it or because
we’re listening better; I think it’s the latter,” he said. “We’re kind of
changing our priorities that we’re not caring how many people are attending
this thing, but how many people are we talking with and setting the stage to be
open to conversations about faith.”
Mouton,
who will take over as director of Campus Ministry on June 1, said his new
position is not about pushing the Catholic agenda, but making the pursuit of
faith more accessible for students.
“My
job is to help you figure out what you believe, because you have to believe in
something,” said Mouton. “Everybody does, but it’s articulating it that’s the
hard part.”
Other
Stonehill students said they have been able to reengage with religion in
college.
Like
Williams, sophomore Alex Paglia said she went to a Catholic high school where
religion felt like a chore. Paglia, a Newburyport, Massachusetts native, said
Bible study brought her closer to God.
“Kira
Pomrinke introduced me to Bible study which made me want to go to church
again,” she said. “Going to church and hearing people my age talk about Him in
a positive light makes Him not seem like just a word or name.”
Like
Williams and Paglia, Pomrinke’s experience with religion in college has not
been a linear path.
“For
those of us that are religious and have those values, I think college is one of
the biggest challenges because you’re thrown into a world of partying and any
stupid choices you could make,” said Pomrinke. “I think I probably fell away
from my religion the first semester I was here.”
Pomrinke,
a sophomore from Dallas, Pennsylvania, said she credits Bible study for
bringing her back to her Christian morals.
Bible
study has rapidly become an outlet for many Stonehill students to engage with
religion. Last winter, Bible study was incorporated into a larger club called
“Stonehill Christian Athletes”.
Pomrinke
said Bible study was converted into “Stonehill Christian Athletes” because
clubs receive funding from the school. Since becoming S.C.A., the club has been
able to go on field trips like the Elevation Worship Concert in Boston last winter.
Although
the club is named Stonehill Christian Athletes, Pomrinke said it has become a
space for both athletes and non-athletes to have Bible studies.
Williams
smiled ear to ear when discussing how much Bible study has grown since he
started it.
“Bible
study started with three people in my dorm room,” he said. “That three people
turned into five people, then 10, then 15 to 20 to 30 to 50. A couple weeks ago
we had a worship night and 60 people came,” he said.
Mouton
attributes the growing religious involvement to the religious network within
the Stonehill student body.
“Of
the students who are engaged, they run the gamut of uber-engaged and super
Catholic and doing all of the Catholic things to students who are like, ‘Yea, I
wanna try this out, my friend’s doing it so I figured I’ll give it a shot,’” he
said.
Father
Tony Szakaly, C.S.C., said students that engage with religion do so
spiritually.
“Our
7 o’clock Mass is full of life. The difficulty is that many students don’t
engage strongly,” he said. “A majority of our students are Catholic by baptism,
but many aren’t as active as they could be. That’s one of our challenges, so we
try to reach out to students.”
Szakaly
said he has seen students join into Catholicism along the way amidst their
college experience.
“My
experience is that those who are active freshman year stay all the way through.
We pick up students along the way. We just had 10 students confirmed on Sunday.
They weren’t active Catholics but they wanted to become more,” he said.
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