Blog

Behind every growing student leader is a campus staff minister. 

Paula, a Campus Staff Minister in Georgia, coached Adriana, a student who wanted to replant an InterVarsity Latino Fellowship (LaFe) chapter at Emory University. Because Paula lives several hours away, she used The Ministry Playbook — InterVarsity’s free digital resource for campus ministry training — to equip Adriana with the skills she needed to build a thriving chapter of 20 students.

Last spring, Laura, a volleyball player at Bucknell University,  felt God call her to start a Bible study for her teammates.  But partway through the semester, she struggled with  homesickness and considered transferring before starting it.

God’s Word transforms. You and I know this. And now Amber, a student at Santa Fe College, knows this too.

Coming into college, she carried deep pain. But God began showing Amber love and care through her school’s InterVarsity chapter, and her anxiety began to ease. She committed to exploring faith and attending the Urbana Student Missions Conference.

Daniel's Story

Daniel, a freshman at SUNY-Purchase, met some InterVarsity students at an outreach event on campus. They invited him to a pizza party that night. At the party Daniel told them, “I’m not a Christian, but I want to know more about how faith can be a part of my college life.” Later that evening, someone in the chapter shared the gospel with Daniel and he said ‘yes’ to following Jesus!

Tyler, a freshman at Queens College in New York, expected college to be his fresh start, a way to escape his hometown, and a place to find himself.

Most students enter college with this same mindset, with a burning desire to discover who they are and what their life should look like. When you support InterVarsity, you help students like Tyler find the deeper life in Jesus they’re truly longing for.

"I really love going to large group, and I love meeting God in that space, but I’m not sure if that’s a good enough reason to lead,” Annie, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student, confessed at a leaders’ meeting in 2020. 

She had been leading students in her fellowship, without the support of a full-time campus minister, for the previous year—but now she doubted herself.

Andrew McDowell, an InterVarsity alumnus of Occidental College, experienced Jesus through InterVarsity in a way that shaped the rest of his life. Today, he runs With Love, a nonprofit centered around a social enterprise market and cafe, that helps fund community programs around health, child development, and career skills for those in southwest Los Angeles.

Before Andrew McDowell founded With Love Community  Programs, he was a college student trying to figure out his purpose.