by Kathryn Mullan
They say change is the end result of all true learning. And nowhere is that more true than in the work of Catholic University’s Student Engagement and Campus Ministry teams.
Pivoting to meet the needs of a new generation of students amidst increasing cultural pressures and increasing challenges, these two teams have been nimble and agile in their reconfiguration of key support systems and services for our University’s most valuable resource: our current students.
Rising high-school freshmen when COVID-19 rolled in and witnesses to some of the greatest anxiety-causing events and global challenges of our time, this generation is unique. The Chronicle of Higher Education shared insights in its recent study, “The New Generation of Students: How colleges can recruit, teach, and serve Gen Z” (2019), to help colleges and universities understand this cohort.
The Great Recession and its aftermath focused Gen Zers on the value and relevance of a degree. The purpose of college for them is to help launch a career. Gen Zers also see technology as an extension of themselves with respect to how they communicate, consume information, and learn. No generation is a monolith, and research on Gen Z is just emerging. But campus leaders must pay attention, as this new generation coincides with a shrinking pool of high-school graduates and increased expectations for student success.
The report also does a deep-dive into the mind-sets and motivations of Gen Z and describes how colleges can best reach and serve this new generation of learners, discussing three main areas where impact is being felt and changes need to be made. This article focuses specifically on the third area, findings and trends for campus life and the student experience.
Are these findings and trends true for students who choose The Catholic University of America for their college experience? We did a pulse-check with Steve Kreider, associate dean and director of the Center for Student Engagement, and Julie Cilano, associate director of Campus Ministry.
On the Front Lines
By way of background, Kreider has been in his student affairs/experience role at Catholic University for the past 20 years, overseeing student organizations, leadership programs, and cultural programming. In addition to his student services role, he also has been named an associate dean, as campus activities merged with cultural engagement into one office that is now the Center for Student Engagement. As director of this new center, he and his team now oversee student organizations, leadership programs, campus events, orientation, cultural programming, and first-generational student support.
“There’s a lot of moving pieces to my role, but what I like best is the top-notch orientation program we provide to incoming first-years,” says Kreider. “We consistently get really good reviews and feedback from families and students — in the 90% success satisfaction rates.” He notes that they do a lot with lean resources, building strong relationships with student leaders and organizations and connecting and supporting various initiatives.
Cilano has been in her Campus Ministry (CM) role since 2023, having previously worked two years as a mentor in the Busch School of Business Career Development Center but 15 prior years in ministry and counseling. Her CM work centers on leading staff and student leaders, in collaboration with the chaplains, to animate the life of faith on campus and encourage students to bring that faith into the Brookland neighborhood, their hometowns, and the world. Tactically, she supervises the campus ministry office day-to-day operations, including its four departments: (1) undergraduate student formation; (2) service and justice; (3) liturgy; and (4) faculty, staff, and graduate student formation.
Each department coordinates area specific events and activities such as: retreats, student ministry, various liturgical and pastoral initiatives, weekly service sites and neighborhood outreach, mission trips, the on-campus Cardinal Cupboard and Closet, and more.
“We have an exceptional team of chaplains, religious sisters, lay staff, and student leaders who make this work both joyful and deeply meaningful,” she says.
Campus Life
The Chronicle report notes: “Today’s students come to campus less seasoned than previous generations, which raises the stakes for personal development as part of the college experience … [for example,] they need more guidance on issues like study habits and wellness … .”
Kreider would agree that the shift to wellness has been a key change in his department.
“Twenty years ago when I first started working here, there was more of a negative perception of therapy,” he says. “But now everyone openly talks about it, and there’s a general understanding that it’s okay to ask for help. For our current students, that help could either be tutoring, counseling, dean services, or disability support services.”
Looking at the data from this study, Cilano agrees with the findings about Gen Z but also notes that Catholic University students are a bit different.
“Students here share their Gen Z peers’ desires for support, meaning, and formation in their college experience, but they often bring an additional openness to exploring faith and moral questions,” says Cilano. “Many arrive already aware of the world’s challenges and want to know how to make a difference through their careers. … They see their faith not as separate from that search but as central to it. Many are mission-driven more than money-driven, although financial stability remains important to them.”
Also known as “Gen Ztressed,” anxiety is common, so Cilano indicates that a sense of security — relationally, spiritually, and financially — holds significant value for them.
“As a campus ministry staff, we’ve read The Anxious Generation (Jonathan Haidt, 2024) to help us better understand our students. Perhaps the most profound takeaway from this book was the shared observation that Gen Alpha and Gen Z are … ‘growing up younger,’ putting the pressure on universities to provide greater human formation as part of their experience,” notes Cilano.
Connecting and Belonging
This study came out in 2019 before COVID, and since then the need for connection and belonging among this generation has only accelerated. Catholic University’s Campus Ministry team is there to help build those blocks from the beginning.
A longstanding tradition at Catholic University, the Freshman Retreat is often students’ first introduction to Catholic life on campus. Nearly 300 first-year students attended this 2025 weekend away (with a steady increase of attendees each year), which is held three weeks into the first semester; this experience helps them build friendships and grow in faith through prayer, leisure, the sacraments, and small group discussions.
“This year we introduced a new initiative called Freshman Ministry Nights: Upper Rooms, designed to continue what begins on retreat,” says Cilano. These three Upper Room sessions are designed to help students meet more of their classmates and build community. “The first session helps students develop a daily prayer plan; the second encourages and challenges them to regularly participate in the sacraments of Mass and Confession; and the third encourages them to keep developing authentic friendships.”
In more recent years, our student-facing teams have seen this uptick in need for more support in forming authentic, in-person community and friendship. Kreider agrees with this and sees the same needs on the student engagement side of the house.
“I think that the most important thing is feeling a connection,” he says. “That’s why we have programs that focus on the first six weeks of a person’s time at Catholic University because the research also shows that if a connection isn’t made in the first six weeks, there’s a much greater likelihood that a student will struggle and won’t want to continue studying here.”
So students need to feel like they are connected somewhere. Kreider adds: “Whether that’s a student organization, a service group, an academic group, or a professor, dorm life on campus, whatever it is — it happens the first six weeks and it’s a feeling of ‘I’m part of this community.’”
Outcomes and Careers
The Chronicle report says that above all, Gen Z students “want an education they can apply; they prize project-based learning and undergraduate research that will hone crucial, marketable skills for life.” This might be true for most American college students, but Catholic University students — and students at other Catholic universities — tend to look for more than marketable skills from their college education. They also seek meaning.
As University Chaplain Father Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., notes: “For some time now, universities have regarded their students as individual customers, to whom endless options must be offered for a self-made, self-curated university experience. Today’s students are looking for something different, however. They long to be part of something larger than what they can create individually. They want a real campus community that supports friendship and provides uncomplicated opportunities for shared study, prayer, and mission.”
The good news is that research just published in October 2025 indicates that students from Catholic institutions of higher education are 7% more likely to view their careers as meaningful, 14% more likely to report a strong sense of belonging, and 17% more likely to say they are satisfied with their mental health (Higher Education Holistic Impact Report). This annual report is published by the Center for Catholic Studies (CCS) at St. Mary’s University (San Antonio) in partnership with YouGov; Jason King is the chair of CCS at St. Mary’s and the lead on this study.
“Higher education has been disrupted by political battles and financial pressures, but Catholic higher ed does not appear to be caught in these tides,” says King. “With recent data, we can see that it continues to form graduates for meaningful lives, community engagement, and ethical decision-making. Because of this focus, it also supports graduates’ mental, financial, and social well-being.”
This is a welcome sign of hope for our Gen Z students — those currently on campus and those who have gone out into the world with their talents, formation, and Catholic University education.
Final Take
Interestingly, the Chronicle report’s “Defining Success” section did predict what would be accelerated by the COVID effect: to fulfill its mission with Gen Z, a university must adapt or fail.
“The risk is too great for institutions to stay the course, and The Catholic University of America is no exception,” says Cilano. “We have experienced our own adaptations in the past year, and in spite of the odds, challenges, and necessary sacrifices, I believe we are already adapting.”
Key Takeaways
2025 Higher Education Holistic Impact Report
As Catholic colleges and universities increasingly focus on holistic education for each student, this Impact Report compared 1,000 graduates from Catholic colleges and universities to 1,000 from secular ones to explore the benefits of higher education beyond monetary measures.
Here’s a snapshot of comparison findings about the Catholic university graduates vs. their secular counterparts. They have +9% sense of clear direction in life; +14% lifelong search for purpose; +15% social fulfillment; +19% morality in decision making.
Resources
The New Generation of Students
Gen Ztressed: How Colleges Can Support Gen Z Students’ Mental Health Needs - TimelyCare
The Higher Education Holistic Impact Report
