The West River Catholic sat down with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) team at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to meet the new team members, find out what their new goals are, and to get to know them better. FOCUS was founded in 1998 and uses campus missionaries to invite college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship, and friendships in which they lead others to do the same. The goal is to have students take the skill, formation and encounters with Christ and share them for the rest of their lives. Missionaries are college graduates that range from newly graduated, to families, to adults who feel a call in their lives. 

Joseph Allen, Team Director
Originally from Nebraska
Number of years with FOCUS: 4
What is your overall vision for the FOCUS team: I want to speak about one of the characteristics of St. Carlos Acutis because it aligns perfectly with FOCUS, zeal. Here at the Newman Center, the students are faithful. They are devoted to Jesus in their Holy Hour, and daily Mass. We want to be the catalyst to move them to the next step of being zealous — willing to enter into pain and suffering. We want to enter into the lives of the engineers and students on campus and bring them closer to Christ and as a FOCUS team, removing obstacles that block them from going into this deep faithfulness.

What’s new this year:  We are going to Rome. There are a lot of protestant students that we work with, especially our teammate, Kevin, who converted from Protestant to Catholic. So, we have a chance to have our Protestant students see the beauty and the fullness of the Catholic church. By taking them to Rome, seeing the pope and the basilicas. This can be a pivotal moment for those students.

How do you reach the protestant students? We do outreach every week. Right now, we’re in what we call fall outreach. It’s a very special time — the beginning of the school year. You’re able to move from intentional conversations to something more formal.

Initially it’s how can we get students to talk to us? How can we get into more conversations with students? If that means dressing up as a banana, then we’ll do it. I like the banana thing — eat a banana, meet a banana. It’s us dressed up like bananas. Us being goofy. It’s something cool and exciting. It’s something to get their airpods out of their ears.

Then the skill of a missionary is to guide that conversation to an invitation at the end of the conversation — ‘I would love for you to join my Bible study.’ That first step into the Bible study is a starting point for some of these kids. It’s having them encounter Christ.

Abigail Mason
Originally from Illinois
Number of years with FOCUS: 2
What do you hope to build on from last year: I hope to build on the foundation laid last year with the student athletes. Making my presence and resources known is something I hope to accomplish across the athletic department. I desire for there to be an obvious Christian culture in Hardrocker Athletics.

How do you see last year’s leaders stepping up this year? How do you encourage that? By continuing to walk with the female leaders, I help equip them to lead other women. Currently, one of those women is walking with two other women, who will soon each be leading other women. By fostering a close relationship with all the women in this chain promotes authentic friendship and ongoing encouragement. Living an example of a Christ-like life is more caught than taught.

What is one thing about FOCUS (being on campus) that you want students and parents to know? Everything we do is with the intention of students having the opportunity to encounter the Lord and foster a deeper relationship with him. We want to meet students where they are and walk with them as they continue to grow into little Christ’s.

Kevin Baltzer
Originally from South Dakota
Number of years with FOCUS: 3
What do you hope to build on from last year: I hope to build on Protestant outreach (as I am a convert) and to build ecumenical dialogue. I would also like to continue teaching through any Papal Encyclicals the Pope has to offer for group study. Last year, I did Pope Francis’s Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us) as a study and many students enjoyed it!

How do you see last year’s leaders stepping up this year? How do you encourage that? Many people are stepping up this year. One of my disciples, Jacob, said “yes” to becoming a FOCUS Missionary and will graduate this fall. There are many other guys in the discipleship chain that are very involved in Bible study and activities at St. Carlo and eager to lead others to an encounter with Christ. 

What is one thing about FOCUS (being on campus) that you want students and parents to know? Parents: It is hard work that can be accomplished with the assistance of your prayers and community involvement. We are VERY thankful for all the local parishioners who provide food for Sunday Suppers, support St. Carlo Catholic Student Center on a monthly basis, offer prayer teams for Sursum Corda (our praise & worship night). Students: we offer Bible studies, friendship, awesome community, & coaching in the spiritual life, and we are on the lookout for you!

Cassidy Nelson
Originally from North Dakota
Number of years with FOCUS? 1st year
And how did you get involved in Focus? My sophomore year I met one of the FOCUS missionaries at the Newman Center at North Dakota State University, and she told me about all that they had going on.  I continued because of the invitations through that missionary. She walked with me and in friendship, invited me to things. She invited me to her Bible study.

How did you decide to become a FOCUS missionary? Honestly, right off the bat. When I heard that FOCUS was something that was even possible for people to do. I was like, “Wow, why wouldn’t people want to be a missionary? This seems so much fun? You’re leading Bible studies. You’re walking with students.”

However, it was definitely a roller coaster — could I see myself being a missionary? I knew it’d be hard. It’d be scary. There were so many fears leading up to it. This past fall, I had the opportunity to go on an interview weekend. I prayed, “Lord, I hope that the answer is no to this, but I’m open to whatever it is that you want.”

After that, I had spiritual direction for the first time ever with a very blunt priest. He basically asked me, “Cassidy, why don’t you want to be a missionary?”

I basically said a lot of different things — relationships, scared, what would my family think — and he said, “If you were to set all of those fears aside, what would you say?”

I said I would say, “yes.”

He reassured me that the Lord will walk with me in this, and he just asked me to pray about it a little bit more. Basically, I left that interview weekend and was going to say, “yes.” The Lord obviously showed me that this is what he wants me to do. They called me a week after my interview, gave me an offer, and I was committed to saying yes, but I said, “Can you give me three more days?” Because I got scared.

What was your reaction to your placement? I graduated with a degree in elementary education. I thought it was kind of funny because my degree has nothing to do with engineering. So, right away when I opened my letter, I thought, “Lord, you obviously had me going to this place for a reason, and you have given me gifts and abilities and talents for the specific placement. I fully trust that I’m going there for a reason.”

Even if my major doesn’t necessarily align with what the students are doing here, I know it has served me very well for mission work because education is building relationships with the students, making connections and being able to lead and teach about the faith.

Do you think your extroverted personality will be an advantage? Some of the students have been surprised by my outgoingness and wanting to sit and talk to people. Some students here are more introverted, and they just don’t know how to come out of themselves more, and I can definitely encourage that and help them to grow in that way. Every introverted person needs an extroverted person in their life because they wouldn’t go do the things that I would do because they maybe would be scared to. But, with me by their side, we’re going to be bold together. This is going to be fun.

You are a convert to Catholicism. When did you convert? High school. I went to a Steubenville conference with my best friend as a Lutheran. My friends were going and it sounded fun. I didn’t want to miss out. It was through that experience of going to Mass with them and seeing their witness — it was very beautiful. It really stuck out to me. We didn’t have anything like that, and I could just witness the beauty of it.

There was a desire in my heart especially after adoration. After Steubenville, I talked with the youth director at our home parish and our priest at the time and became Catholic.

This campus is very Protestant heavy. It has a very good strong community to it but there are a lot of other non-denominational groups and we want to give the fullness of truth to everyone here. I was Protestant Lutheran and then once I experienced the fullness of the truth of the Catholic Church, nothing else can satisfy me.