Coming into Stanford, I never really took faith seriously. I grew up Protestant but was always unsure of what I believed. I went to Catholic school my entire life, so I attended mass frequently. As a freshman longing for something familiar in an environment where everything was new, I decided to check out mass on Sunday. When I went to my first mass at MemChu, what struck me was how welcoming everyone was, in such a personal way. By my second visit, people remembered my name, and that feeling of being seen is why I kept going back and started showing up to other events too.

What became more evident over time was watching other students live their faith so boldly and consistently. That consistency made me stop and self-reflect: What do I believe in, and how can I live that out in my life? RCIA (now OCIA) gave me space to explore that question more deeply and learn about the Catholic faith. Going through it and learning about Catholic teachings—not just the practices I'd grown up with, but what they meant—gave me the understanding for a faith I'd only ever inherited. It turned something I'd taken for granted into something I chose for myself.