STEUBENVILLE, OHIO—A program that trains graduate assistants to reach out to students on the margins of campus faith life is beginning its fifth year at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Bob Lesnefsky ’99, director of Student Evangelization, conceived and started the Graduate Assistant Evangelization Program to identify students who are not taking part in what Franciscan University has to offer in the way of spiritual formation.

“It’s possible even at Franciscan, with such great ministry and faculty and staff, for someone to still need evangelization or to fall through the cracks,” Lesnefsky said. “Our battle cry is ‘there are still lots of little cracks even in the best systems.’”

Some of the students the grad assistants approach are simply disengaged, holed up in a dorm room, or seem a bit anti-social.

“But they’re willing to have coffee or play video games with one of our people and eventually willing to come to an event or a family dinner we have each week,” Lesnefsky said. “The main thing is we just want to meet people where they are.”

The program he started employs a relational and incarnational style of ministry, modeling the way Jesus reached out to people by going to them and engaging them. Graduate students in the program spend 20 hours a week seeking out students at sports events, the cafeteria, or the campus J.C. Williams Center. In turn, they receive free tuition, a small monthly stipend, and housing.

Before beginning their work, the graduate assistants undergo a month of training. Afterward, they are mentored weekly by a member of the evangelization staff and take part in monthly group formation.

Lesnefsky, who currently is training eight graduate students for the program for this fall, gets about 50 applications a year. In choosing those who will serve, he said, “We’re looking for someone who can connect relationally with different personality types, so we try to hire extroverts and introverts.”

Margaret McKee ’21 participated in the program from 2021 to 2023 while earning a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and now serves as Franciscan’s coordinator of Household Life. She said some of the most positive experiences she has had in ministry occurred while she was in the evangelization program.

“For me, some of the best stories happen,” McKee said, “when you encounter a student who feels lonely, and he or she ends up joining a household. Or a student who has been away from the faith for a while wants to join us for Mass after being invited every week for a semester.”

McKee said students land on the margins of campus life for various reasons. Some got used to low levels of commitment and engagement during the COVID shutdowns. Yet another factor, McKee said, is what cell phones have done to give young people the illusion of connectedness.

“Sometimes, the actual engagement with a group or individual seems daunting and awkward because they have less experience with it,” she explained.

One of the students McKee engaged was a young woman from her hometown who was not very involved on campus. The two started having coffee together and have continued to do that once a week.

“At the end of her junior year,” McKee said, “she mentioned wanting to explore the Graduate Assistant Evangelization Program and to see if the Lord was calling her to it.”