Why We Support CC@S
/“We want more than just smart leaders”
It’s a refrain you hear often enough at Stanford: we’re training tomorrow’s leaders. And Stanford certainly has had an incredible track record of famous alumni who have founded global companies, become U.S. Supreme Court Justices, best selling authors, and world‐renowned athletes.
So what does faith have to do with it? Plenty say Stanford alumni and parents Cindy Howell `85 and Kevin Howell `85. Explains Kevin, “We don’t doubt that there are plenty of potential future leaders at Stanford who will impact the world. We just want to be sure that they are given the foundation to be leaders who make the most positive impact on the world. We think faith has everything to do with that.”
“You ask yourself: what would make the future better? More resources? Better technology? Certainly, but all of that is meaningless unless those people leading our companies and our governments have the compassion and wisdom that comes from a strong faith and relationship with God.”
Current CC@S Parents and Alumni Cindy Howell `85 and Kevin Howell `85 made a transformative gift that furthered our Encounter Christ initiative on campus. Encounter Christ has already reached an unprecedented number of Stanford students in its first quarter.
Cindy and Kevin knew that they wanted to help the undergraduate program at CC@S train Stanford’s future leaders, to give them the faith foundation they need. When they heard that CC@S was looking to start a new initiative called Encounter Christ, they were intrigued.
“There are a number of Catholic programs right now for undergraduates. But we wanted to ensure that we were using one that was not only effective in its outreach to students, but was also measured and compassionate,” says Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P. “Pope Francis has encouraged us to invite people to a dynamic personal faith, not merely reciting church doctrine. EC is completely consistent with that.”
When Cindy and Kevin heard about Encounter Christ through CC@S, they were so impressed with the impact it could make on students that they chose to underwrite the CC@S 3‐year Alliance with The Evangelical Catholic (EC) organization. The Alliance brings EC staff to Stanford’s campus multiple times a quarter to train and assist Catholic student small group leaders and CC@S staff in outreach and evangelization.
When they heard of the opportunity to send student leaders to EC’s summer boot camp this past summer in Seattle, they gave a gift to cover that as well. “We wanted to ensure that we gave Catholic students the best head start they could have in learning how to reach out to other students,” says Cindy, “The first year has already had tremendous impact. The roll out at the beginning of fall quarter with students giving testimonials at the first Masses and then getting over 150 students to sign up was just incredible!”
Agrees Fr. Emmanuel Taylor, “The change in just one quarter has been monumental. One student just told me the other day, ‘we are reaching students that we never would’ve reached if we didn’t have EC.’ That’s pretty powerful.”
If you would like to help send Stanford students to this upcoming EC summer training camp, please contact Development Director M’Lis Berry at meberry@stanford.edu.
