God had beautiful plans for Jordan. Plans to pursue her. Plans to surround her with community. Plans to heal her identity. Plans to grow her into a leader.  

But Jordan wasn’t looking for any of that when she started her freshman year at Metropolitan State University in Auraria, Colorado. She wasn’t a Christian, despite her mom trying to convince her to consider Jesus for years. Jordan didn’t see the point. 

I don't know if [Christianity] really solves all my problems or works the way that I want it to, she thought. 

“We’re the loneliest and most seen generation,” Sarah Ludvik, InterVarsity campus minister and recent graduate of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, said.

Many members of Gen Z can relate. Though they’re connected to each other via a million different apps, their rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness are higher than previous generations.

“Don’t put God in a box,” Lucas says when asked if there’s anything he could tell his freshman self. It’s a Friday afternoon in May, and Lucas sits across the table from me next to a suitcase of clothes he’s bringing to chapter camp in his apartment a few blocks from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 Like many InterVarsity students, Len Andyshak met the Lord as a college student.

“I learned what it meant to know him versus know about him,” Len said.

He also learned that Jesus had a purpose for his life, a mission. Soon after graduating, Len began a 50-year journey of continually discovering that mission as an InterVarsity staff.