2008 Woodie Awards
McCaffery reflects on past to bring Campus Minstry forward
Caitlin Newbitt
Issue date: 12/4/04 Section: News Stories
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Working in a homeless shelter for women and children the year after she graduated college, Stephanie McCaffrey worked and lived with Catholic sisters. "I became attracted to how the Catholic Church was committed to helping the poor," she said.
Growing up Methodist, her family was very religious, but she felt like something was missing when she got to college, and she wanted to learn more about Catholicism. What she discovered was missing in her life was the experience of the Eucharist and going to mass. "I enjoyed hearing about other people's faith lives," McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey was born in St. Petersburg, FL where she grew up and graduated from St. Petersburg High School in 1989. She attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA and graduated in 1993 as a biology major. McCaffrey was married to Tony McCaffrey on December 29th, 2001.
Her official conversion to Catholicism took place on April 6th, 1996, after her experience at the women's homeless shelter.
Stephanie was a teacher for a year but did not enjoy it, so she got her masters of divinity at graduate school during a three-year program. By word of mouth from a friend living across the street from Assumption at the time, she became interested in the job as overseer of retreat programs. When describing her career choices, she said, "Maybe I'm called to do ministry work."
In the Campus Ministry program here at Assumption, McCaffrey's job is to oversee the retreat programs of the college. This means that she is responsible for helping students who seek to grow in their faith lives by putting together short getaways from school, where they can reflect on their lives and their spirituality with their peers. Retreat opportunities for students include START and SEARCH retreats.
The START retreat, which stands for Students Talking About Religious Topics, is for Assumption students and run by Assumption students. The four main ideas of the retreat are identity, community, commitment, and faith. The SEARCH retreats are run by Assumption volunteers who give retreats to high school students in the Worcester diocese. Along with the above, McCaffrey seeks to promote many other activities for students to become involved in. Among them is candlelight prayer, which offers students "time away to reflect on one's own life," and is for those who want something that is not a big time commitment. Candlelight prayer takes place at 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights in the chapel. There are also opportunities for students to become greeters and Eucharistic ministers during masses. Those who are not Catholic but are interested in Catholicism also have the opportunity to become involved by attending weekly meetings that are offered for confirmation preparation for those who may want to become Catholic. McCaffrey most enjoys, "watching students create meaningful retreat experiences for other students."
Growing up Methodist, her family was very religious, but she felt like something was missing when she got to college, and she wanted to learn more about Catholicism. What she discovered was missing in her life was the experience of the Eucharist and going to mass. "I enjoyed hearing about other people's faith lives," McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey was born in St. Petersburg, FL where she grew up and graduated from St. Petersburg High School in 1989. She attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA and graduated in 1993 as a biology major. McCaffrey was married to Tony McCaffrey on December 29th, 2001.
Her official conversion to Catholicism took place on April 6th, 1996, after her experience at the women's homeless shelter.
Stephanie was a teacher for a year but did not enjoy it, so she got her masters of divinity at graduate school during a three-year program. By word of mouth from a friend living across the street from Assumption at the time, she became interested in the job as overseer of retreat programs. When describing her career choices, she said, "Maybe I'm called to do ministry work."
In the Campus Ministry program here at Assumption, McCaffrey's job is to oversee the retreat programs of the college. This means that she is responsible for helping students who seek to grow in their faith lives by putting together short getaways from school, where they can reflect on their lives and their spirituality with their peers. Retreat opportunities for students include START and SEARCH retreats.
The START retreat, which stands for Students Talking About Religious Topics, is for Assumption students and run by Assumption students. The four main ideas of the retreat are identity, community, commitment, and faith. The SEARCH retreats are run by Assumption volunteers who give retreats to high school students in the Worcester diocese. Along with the above, McCaffrey seeks to promote many other activities for students to become involved in. Among them is candlelight prayer, which offers students "time away to reflect on one's own life," and is for those who want something that is not a big time commitment. Candlelight prayer takes place at 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights in the chapel. There are also opportunities for students to become greeters and Eucharistic ministers during masses. Those who are not Catholic but are interested in Catholicism also have the opportunity to become involved by attending weekly meetings that are offered for confirmation preparation for those who may want to become Catholic. McCaffrey most enjoys, "watching students create meaningful retreat experiences for other students."