Step 2: DePaul University.

Through my Discover professor, I was invited to work in Catholic Campus Ministry. I had already been involved in the community through retreats, but this was a new step. I was going to be seen as a leader in the community. “Leader.” Something I had always been told I was - though I wasn’t really sure why. And here I was, being placed into another leadership position. But this was going to be a different leadership experience than anything I had ever had before.

For my first year and a half working in CCM, I was the Catholic Community Night coordinator, and I put on weekly events for the community to come get involved on a low-pressure, low-impact basis. Things like: game nights, talent shows, reflections on springtime, movie nights. The stress of putting on a weekly event taught me a lot about myself. About how I work, how I learn, what kind of support I need. I was growing through the struggles of feeling, weekly, that I had failed, that I wasn’t doing enough for the community, that I had nothing to bring to the position I was in. I learned that tears and failure and struggle are good.

And thanks to my supervisor, Rob, I learned a lot about what it means to be a Vincentian. Not only was he a wonderful example of the Vincentian virtues lived out, but he was a constant support for me while I was struggling. Our weekly meetings, much to my dislike at the time, were spent talking about how I was doing in all aspects of my life. He genuinely cared every time he asked me, as I sat in his cluttered office,

“how are you, Jordan?”

And though I was annoyed that we would only spend the last five minutes of our meeting talking about the next week’s event, I needed that support, that love.

Leave it to Rob to have a Vincentian quote for every situation. To be able to connect every event we put on to a Vincentian story. I loved that Rob was able to have such a strong connection to St. Vincent and St. Louise, and able to teach me a little as I worked with him. I loved that these Vincentian quotes were resonating with me. I felt a connection to these ideas and these people called “Vincentian” that made me think I was in the right place. At DePaul I was finding a way to describe what had been on my heart for so long.

God demands first the heart… then the work. - Vincent de Paul