The Catholic Studies minor has a wide array of alumni who continue to connect Catholicism with their disciplines. Check back on this page for featured alumni and alumni updates. If you are a CS alumna/us and you would like to get in touch with current CS students or other alumni please contact hankcenter@luc.edu.

Welcome to the Catholic Studies Alumni Profile Series!

This page features alumni who have been faithful to the Catholic Studies community and who have used their experiences within it to grow in their vocations, professional endeavors, and personal lives.

 

What year did you graduate from Loyola University Chicago?

I graduated in 2017.

What did you study at Loyola University Chicago?

Major: Theology, Minor: Catholic Studies

What is your current occupation?

I am a Graduate Student at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

How has your participation in the Catholic Studies minor enhanced your perspective on living out your career and vocation?

I often joke with people that my real major in undergrad was the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Between working for the Hank Center and taking Catholic Studies classes, I felt immersed in the way literature, art, architecture, poetry, and theology played a role in shaping Catholicism. The Catholic Studies minor helped me understand my education as necessarily interdisciplinary. Nothing is deemed too low brow, too profane, or too secular to be considered valid sources for theological and spiritual reflection. This insight has been a cornerstone of my career. When I worked with journalists and media professionals, I was drawn to tell stories about how Catholicism is lived by people who do not spend their time in theology classrooms. And now that I find myself spending almost all my time in theology classrooms, I do not shy away from incorporating non-traditional sources into my own research. Catholic Studies allowed me to approach my further studies with careful attention to the way theology can dialogue with other fields. The minor also helped root me in a vision of Catholicism that is wide, inclusive, and robust. I entered theology school just after the revelations about McCarrick and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report shook the US Church. I study alongside people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ identified students who call the Church to task. Without Catholic Studies showing me that Catholicism is a much bigger and much messier reality than we are taught in Sunday School, I think it would be much harder to live my vocation as a Catholic theology student.

 

What year did you graduate from Loyola University Chicago? 

I graduated in 2019.

What did you study at Loyola University Chicago? 

I was a double major in History and Religious Studies with minors in: Islamic World Studies; Arabic Language and Culture; and Catholic Studies.

What is your current occupation? 

I am the Director of Parish Mission at St. Teresa of Avila parish in Lincoln Park, Chicago. 

How has your participation in the Catholic Studies minor enhanced your perspective on living out your career and vocation? 

I believe that the Catholic Studies program taught me how diverse and dynamic the Catholic tradition is. Growing up, I always thought that Catholicism was a static and unchanging institution. The minor taught me how different people from around the world understand their Catholic faith.

What year did you graduate from Loyola University Chicago?

I graduated from Loyola in 2017 with my Bachelor's in Psychology.

What did you study at Loyola University Chicago?

After earning my Bachelor's in Psychology, I began the Master of Social Work program in the fall of 2017. During my studies, I noticed that many social workers either avoid talking about religion completely, or only talk about it negatively. My experience as a Catholic Studies minor motivated me to challenge the way religion was discussed in social work.

What is your current occupation?

I graduated from the Masters of Social Work program in May 2019 and I am now the Site Coordinator at the Vietnamese Association of Illinois. I work with middle school youth in an after school setting, as well as supervise interns who are currently Master of Social Work students. When I work with my interns, it is my goal to help them understand the importance of addressing religion in our work with clients.

How has your participation in the Catholic Studies minor enhanced your perspective on living out your career and vocation?

As I mentioned, my experience as a Catholic Studies minor motivated me to challenge the way religion was discussed in social work. While religion can certainly be a source of heartache it can also be a source of comfort. When social workers approach treatment it is important that we address the whole person, which includes their religion.

Reilly Cosgrove

What year did you graduate from Loyola University Chicago?

I graduated in May 2018.

What did you study at Loyola University Chicago?

My major was Psychology and minors included both History and Catholic Studies.

What is your current occupation?

I am currently a Doctor of Occupational Therapy Candidate at Creighton University.

How has your participation in the Catholic Studies minor enhanced your perspective on living out your career and vocation?

As a graduate student in the healthcare field, I think the Catholic Studies minor prepared me to address each of my patients as an individual, and view each one holistically. It has also improved my ability to address spirituality with my clients. As research shows, health outcomes and patient satisfaction can be improved when healthcare professionals are willing to discuss their clients' spiritual needs.

 

Daly Myers

 

What year did you graduate from Loyola University Chicago?

I graduated in Spring 2019.

What did you study at Loyola University Chicago?

I studied Theology and Psychology, along with the Catholic Studies Minor.

What is your current occupation?

I am the Coordinator of Youth Ministry and Director of Religious Education at Blessed Sacrament Parish.

How has your participation in the Catholic Studies minor enhanced your perspective on living out your career and vocation?

My job allows me to connect with young people, build a community with them at our parish, and teach them the Catholic faith as best I can. My experience with the Catholic Studies Minor at Loyola Chicago prepared me for all of these areas of my job. The Catholic Studies events such as the John Courtney Murray Forum and the CS minor banquets at the end of the semester helped me understand what a healthy community looks like and ways to make that happen. Primarily, I learned that food and participation go a long way towards building a strong community. Which is why I always have plenty of snacks in my youth room. Additionally, through my Catholic Studies courses I learned how to both understand the Catholic faith from multiple perspectives and mediums, as well as how to present it in an engaging and meaningful way. Many Catholic Studies courses challenged us to play the part of facilitator in the classroom. Now, that practice from my college experience is invaluable. Especially when I give presentations on the faith for 20-30 minutes at a time, once a week, to a room full of teenagers who would just rather be anywhere else. I am now able to teach the core tenets of the Catholic faith, but say it in a refreshing and newly attentive way.  

Chantal Lim

What year did you graduate from Loyola University Chicago?

I graduated in 2019!

What did you study at Loyola University Chicago?

I majored in Criminal Justice and minored in Catholic Studies. There was no minor for it at the time, but I studied Japanese, too.

What is your current occupation?

I'm an Assistant Language Teacher with the JET Program, currently assigned to three schools in Kumamoto, Japan. I help teach English to Japanese schoolchildren.

How has your participation in the Catholic Studies minor enhanced your perspective on living out your career and vocation?

I think one of the most impactful things the minor did for me was expose me to Ignatian Spirituality. These days, I rely a lot on its toolkit--the Examen, the discernment of spirits. I think it's because of the minor that I'm a little more equipped to navigate life right now; whether it's discerning the best way to make my way through a foreign culture, or how to maintain my faith and live in a way that's close to Christ, it's the things that I learned in the minor that help me understand the different ways God makes himself present in life every day. The ability to think for myself in a grounded and rational way has helped tremendously in learning to live independently and intentionally, both in my life and career.

The other thing the minor did was allow me to take a glimpse at both the breadth and depth of the Catholic tradition. Beauty, intellectualism, social justice--it is a wonderful thing to realize that the place I come from is one filled with an abundance of knowledge, wisdom, and art. If I were to say it in a word, I would call it:  life-giving. It is so life-giving to be able to back into the past at the wisdom of people who came before me, and it is so heartening to look forward and see how people are out and about living good lives for others, rooted in that same tradition. I don't think I would have that perspective if I hadn't participated in the minor; or, at the very least, not to the extent that I have it right now.