Campus Ministry at Saint Mary’s welcomed a new addition to the department at the beginning of this year when Liz Palmer was named assistant director.
Palmer is a Saint Mary’s alumna from the class of 2013. She was a biology and psychology double major and landed her dream job in Campus Ministry, she said.
“I get to give back to the place that invited me to know my faith more deeply,” Palmer said.
Some of the components of Palmer’s work with Campus Ministry are organizing retreats, leading pilgrimages both locally and internationally and organizing work with Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
“[CRS is] making global issues more local, and being advocates on campus for topics like immigration, climate change [and] global hunger,” she said.
Palmer is also focused on the social media side of Campus Ministry to advertise for different events through their various platforms.
“We do want to invite people into conversation into worship spaces and just empower women on campus,” she said.
She is using the presence of social media to promote her “I Found” campaign. Palmer reached out to a number of students and asked them to answer the question, “I have found [blank]” with the hashtag #throughfaithoncampus, she said.
“It has been a way to share with others … if they have found faith on campus through extracurriculars, relationships with mentors or through the aesthetic beauty of the College,” Palmer said.
One of Palmer’s goals as she kicks off the year is to cultivate relationships with students.
“I want my office to be a welcoming environment for students to come in,” she said.
She wants to also be able to expand outside of her office and interact with students all around campus. Palmer said students can get involved with Campus Ministry through the club Friends with Sisters. Students will be paired up with Sisters of the Holy Cross to connect with each other and their own faith.
As the year progresses, Palmer said she is very excited for her fall break pilgrimage to Brazil to visit Sisters of the Holy Cross. She is also organizing a pilgrimage to Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood on Sept. 20 to focus on Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“[Participating students will] go beyond the walls of Saint Mary’s to a Pilsen neighborhood and see different murals, talk about the history and talk about living faith,” Palmer said.
Palmer said there will be an opportunity for the tri-campus community to connect through Catholic Relief Services Ambassador Training on Sunday. This will offer networking between campuses and an opportunity to be an ambassador since it is a national program.
“We’re going to be learning about advocacy training and how to tangibly bring ideas to campus,” she said.
Palmer said she has many ideas she looks forward to sharing with the campus community. She wants to keep her door open, she said, to anyone interested in Campus Ministry to participate in the work she fell in love with while attending Saint Mary’s as a student.
