Why I’m Replanting InterVarsity at My Alma Mater – Called to Return

I’ve met Jesus in many places throughout my life.

At church camp when I was 10 years old. At youth group worship nights. In the loft of my home church where we did Sunday school and in the worn pews of the chapel.

But I didn’t truly know Jesus—truly understand his character or how to have an intimate relationship with him—until I met him at the University of South Florida (USF).

I never thought that a decade later, I’d be meeting Jesus in a brand new way there again.

My InterVarsity College Experience

For my first two years at USF, I rejected countless invitations from my older brother to join his InterVarsity LaFe Bible study. We grew up in church, I felt like telling him. What can campus ministry teach us that we don’t already know?

A lot, it turned out.

After I finally caved and joined InterVarsity in 2015, I experienced a series of new beginnings. I began studying Scripture in ways that changed me forever. I began feeling safe asking “scandalous” questions like What if I struggle with doubt? I started letting go of bitterness and learned to value reconciliation and forgiveness. I discovered Christ’s heart for those on the margins and felt challenged to serve them like he did. I realized that some of the most profound, spiritual moments take place around food with friends who truly, deeply care about you.

InterVarsity gave me so many rare and beautiful things I never knew I needed.

Drawn Back to Campus

Of those rare, beautiful things, community is still one of my favorites. In fact, while most of my classmates were ready to leave campus behind after graduation in 2017, I desperately looked for reasons to stick around. College turned out to be exactly what people told me it’d be: the best years of my life. And I panicked at the thought of losing it. Mostly, I feared losing my InterVarsity friends to new jobs and new cities.

Funny enough, I was the only one who moved away.

A few years after graduating, I relocated to Wisconsin to work with InterVarsity’s communications team, 2100. My job with 2100 gave me a unique perspective on how God is moving through the ministry across the country. I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on large group meetings in Denver, Seattle, and Madison. I’ve interviewed dozens of students from community colleges, four-year state universities, and Ivy League schools. Despite each student’s unique background and experience, almost every interview can be summed up in one phrase: “I truly met Jesus on this campus, and I’ll never be the same.”

Over the first few years of this job, the more students I spoke to, the more I felt drawn back to the campus. I fondly reminisced on my time as a student back home, but I didn’t necessarily want to move back to hot, sticky Florida.

Then, things changed when my little sister started her freshman year at USF in 2023.

Reconnected Community & Dreaded Possibility

My sister told me she wanted to join a Christian group, so of course, I suggested she join InterVarsity. “There isn’t an InterVarsity on my campus!” she replied.

This was true. The chapter I was part of as a student was no longer active. I began to investigate why and felt grief. It was like senior year again, dreading the end of an era. Except now I was a 28-year-old dreading the possibility that my sister and her classmates would miss out on the same kind of life-changing experience my friends and I had.

Finally, God did call me to move back to Florida. I reached out to my old InterVarsity friends and was quickly welcomed back. To my joy, while I was away in Wisconsin, my friends had continued meeting for Bible study, praying for each other, and spending time together on weekends. They were doing life together…just like we all learned to do ten years ago.

I started attending their weekly Bible studies, and it didn’t take long for me to realize what a gift I’d been given. Since graduating college, I never related to the idea that it’s hard to make friends as an adult. Through InterVarsity, God surrounded me with deep, life-giving friendships in Wisconsin. And when I moved back to Florida, he blessed me again with the same kind of community. The thoughts I’d previously had came back and persisted:

I want my sister to have this in 10 years. I want more students to have this now.

Final Push and Provision

I expressed my desire to re-plant InterVarsity at USF to my supervisor, InterVarsity’s Florida regional director, my brother, my sister, and anyone who would listen. Each time I shared, I was affirmed.

The last push I needed finally came when I told my small group friends about my dream for USF. They resonated. Not only were they excited for me, but they wanted to join me!

We began prayer walking the campus together. As we walked past the student center where we had held large group back in the day, the benches where we were discipled, and the food court where we laughed, cried, and were changed, we remembered what it was like to meet Jesus at USF.

Even though we’re only at the beginning of this process, I feel grateful to God not only for the community he gave me 10 years ago and the community he’s given me now, but also for a community that wants to give others community. I know planting isn’t a solo job––I can’t do it on my own, nor should I. So, God provided a team around me that understands the importance of offering students something they might not know they need.

God is showing me that he doesn't just call us to start things. He doesn’t just ask us to meet him in new ways in new places. Sometimes, he calls us to return.