By Matthew Desmond
The pandemic led University Ministry at Dominican to rethink on how to best fulfill its mission to support community, service, study, and prayer.
In March 2020, Dominican students took classes through Zoom and events that would normally be on campus became virtual.
Many of the services University Ministry provides such as Come to the Table, Bagel Day and Service in the Streets, relied on face-to-face interaction.
Dominican students needed emotional, mental, and spiritual support and University Ministry’s charitable partners still sought assistance to fulfill their missions– a pivot had to be made.
According to Tara Segal, assistant director of University Ministry, the ministry made many adjustments to serve the needs of students and the larger community by going online.
One main change University Ministry made is their work in serving their other charitable partners through programs such as Beloved Community and Ministry en lo Cotidiano.
Segal said an evolution of relationships took place. “It was so helpful to have those relationships already as the partners and the interns could still find ways to work with each other,” she said. “They ended up working online through social media work and outreach.”
She said that some of the work “paused altogether because of the nature of what the community partners were doing, but by and large, it continued.”
Not only did the Ministry keep serving outside communities during the pandemic but it also continued to serve students.
“There were folks who had monastic experiences of the pandemic,” Segal said. “So many who had to go out and do their job and be in the world were nervous about that.”
She described the varying feelings of students toward the situation and described it as unifying.
“People experienced loneliness and anxiety over being safe while working,” Segal said. “It made me think about how I think about life and that’s a conversation I had with a lot of people.”
The pandemic also led to more participation through virtual retreats and other virtual experiences. Segal said University Ministry wants to continue these well beyond the pandemic because they have been well accepted by many students.
“We are way too hard on ourselves, and we have to be gentler and kinder with ourselves,” Segal said. She also said it is important “to slow down and speak our needs” as well as “rely on each other.”
Segal sees the challenges as an opportunity to strengthen existing connections, to forge new connections and to include more people in Dominican University’s mission to serve.
mdesmond@my.dom.edu
