There is a new face in the campus ministry office this year. Stephanie Salinis resigned from her role as campus minister and, over the summer, campus ministry worked to find someone new to step into the role. Effective July 30, Salinis left Cabrini to begin her new position as a member of the administration at Villa Joseph Marie High School. “My time at Cabrini was filled with laughter, fun memories, faith & leadership development, relationship building and learning,” Salinis said through email interview.
After three years as Cabrini’s campus minister, Salinis came to the decision to resign stating that “My reason for leaving Cabrini was very similar to my reason for starting at Cabrini: prayer and discernment.”
Before coming to Cabrini, Salinis participated in a year of service volunteering with youth in Chicago. To Salinis, “Prayer, faith and a personal relationship with Jesus” have always played a significant role in her life. It is these personal beliefs that she based her choice on which path she would follow. After going through a “Prayerful discernment process,” Salinis found herself on the third floor of Founder’s Hall working as the school’s campus minister.
Along with other offices on campus that are meant to bring a sense of community to staff and students, campus ministry is embracing the college’s Catholic identity. In hopes of creating “A space for respectful dialogue where persons of all faith traditions—and those still searching—are invited to share their journey,” a statement taken from campus ministry’s Cabrini web page.
After her years working with Cabrini’s campus ministry program, Salinis faced a very difficult decision when choosing whether or not to leave Cabrini. However, Salinis stated, “At the end of the day, I knew God was calling me to a new ministry so I listened and I am happy here as well.”
After the process of interviewing happened over the summer, Manisha Divecha was brought in as the new campus minister. “Every candidate we invited to visit campus had unique gifts and talents,” Father Carl Janicki, director of campus ministry, said through email interview. “We felt that Manisha’s gifts and talents were the best fit for our program and would allow us to grow our program.”
Divecha’s credentials include serving as a campus ministry intern at Villanova University, an intern in-service at the Catholic center at Washington University and Charlottesville Catholic fellow at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. According to Janicki, she also has a working knowledge of Spanish and Hindi, classically trained violinist and cellist and achieved her Master of Arts in Theology with a certificate in pastoral ministry from Villanova University.
Some of the duties of campus minister include arranging retreats and spiritual enrichment programming, community outreach programs, leadership development and logistics for immersion trips. Janicki points out that Manisha’s goals are different from when Salinis joined their team. “Now our goal is to strengthen and improve what is in place and intentionally and strategically grow our program. As she becomes more familiar with the Cabrini way, I hope she is able to create new opportunities for us to realize Mother Cabrini’s legacy of an Education of the Heart in ways we had not yet previously thought of.”
When Divecha saw the job description for the role of campus minister at Cabrini, it included all her favorite parts of campus ministry and all the things she is most passionate about. “I’ve fallen in love with Cabrini, its mission and Mother Cabrini,” Divecha said. “I’m passionate about the work and ideas of the college. It’s the fifth college I’ve worked at and I haven’t felt this way in every school.”
She even said that the students here reminded her of herself when she was in college. One of her big goals as campus minister is helping people grow. “If I can help one person, then in a sense I’ve done my job–little steps to achieve bigger things.”
