April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
YOUNG ADULTS
Diocesan website designed by RPI student
He said Facebook may be handy for quick updates and to locate and identify one's audience, but it shouldn't serve as the sole means to foster spirituality.
"To actually reach people, it takes human interaction," he said.
Vincent, a business and finance major in his senior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, has served on the Diocesan Pastoral Council for a year and a half.
He previously represented teenagers on his parish council at St. Helen's in Niskayuna; now, he represents adults between the ages of 19 and 40.
Where are they?
That's "a very broad age group to represent," he said. "The difference between a 40-year-old and a 19-year-old - it could be father and son."
College, new careers and family life may mean young adults are tough to track down at parishes.
"Right now, what that boils down to is finding all the young adults, because there isn't really a network," Vincent said.
Vincent's most recent contribution to the DPC was a custom website for the Autumn Diocesan Gathering (www.autumngathering.org), which he designed with user-friendly software. A quarter of the site's visitors opted to register for the event online.
"It was probably the easiest thing I've done on the council all year," he said.
Vincent aims to design a similar website for the Diocese's young adult ministry to provide informational resources and ways to give feedback.
"You want to know what there is for you, what you mean to the Diocese," he said of young adult users.
The site will include research on issues important to young adults.
What they need
"There's a lot of people [who] assume that the biggest issue for young adults is marriage," Vincent said. "There's a lot of misconceptions, and it's tough," since there isn't much information from the young adults themselves.
Currently, the Diocese offers chances for young adults to mingle and talk about their faith through the Theology on Tap program, but that usually attracts the same 20 people from the same geographic areas, Vincent said.
He aims to build a strong foundation for a young adult group to create its own impromptu events. That way, he said, the diocesan director of youth and young adult ministry can focus on large-scale events.
Vincent's leadership in the Church began after he attended the diocesan Christian Leadership Institute at Pyramid Life Center in Paradox in high school.
"Everything kind of took a turn after that," he remembered. "I saw myself as somebody who could lead in the Church community."
He started coordinating witness retreats for high school students and teaching faith formation classes. He still values the retreat experience and wants to incorporate it into young adult ministry.
Life "only gets harder and it only gets busier," he said; retreats are "like a 48-hour step back in your life."
In his spare time
Vincent still speaks at retreats, but tapered off his involvement in his parish. He wishes he could be more involved in campus ministry at RPI. "I can't be everywhere," he relented. "I try."
At RPI, Vincent heads the business operations committee of the school union, which approves items on the $8.6 million school activities budget. He recently approved renovations to the bookstore.
He also works at the front desk of the business school, plays guitar, brews his own beer and cooks Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food.
Vincent's high school alternative blues band, The Outskirts, broke up after graduation.
"We didn't really get good enough to have a genre," he said, laughing. But he still likes to play solo acoustic instrumental folk music, mimicking guitarist Andy McKee.
Vincent plans to be a financial analyst for an investment bank when he graduates next spring.[[In-content Ad]]
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