New youth ministry director has vision for reaching teens

It's a good thing Michelle Stefanik likes to "hit the ground running."

The new associate director for youth ministry at the Albany diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis stepped into the role only a few days after achieving a master's degree. She will be responsible for coordinating diocesan-level youth ministry programs and helping parishes in creating faith communities that welcome youth.

"Getting a good grip on the position is going to take" some time, Ms. Stefanik said, but "the best way to be effective is to be a good listener -- and I'm going to put my ear to the ground and get to know people."

Scholar

Ms. Stefanik, who grew up in Our Lady of Grace parish in Ballston Spa, just graduated from Chicago's Catholic Theological Union with a master's degree in theology. She is a graduate of Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady.

She won the Cardinal Bernardin Scholarship, which immersed her in the thoughts, theology and legacy of Chicago's famous cardinal, who died in 1996.

"I can't believe how lucky I am to be entrusted with this," she said, "to be someone to carry on his vision" of reconciliation, interreligious dialogue, peacemaking and empowering youth.

Volunteer stints

Ms. Stefanik did not go directly to graduate school from college. After graduation from Poughkeepsie's Marist College in 1999, she joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

She spent a year in San Francisco, advocating for seniors and people with disabilities who were looking to obtain assisted and independent living. She lobbied state and local government to provide options outside of institutions.

That experience changed her life, she said, both through the work itself and through the experience of community life in the Corps.

'Calling'

Ms. Stefanik then moved to Milwaukee, where she took a position as a pre-trial advocate for mentally ill non-violent offenders, assisting them in obtaining legal support, medical and mental health treatment, jobs, and connections to the community.

"It was the immersion in social justice that got me wanting to work more and study more," she said. "The more you get into the work, the more you needed something to be grounded in. I needed a background that wasn't just going to provide external answers. This was a calling."

That sense led her to pursue her master's degree.

New role

Now, Ms. Stefanik hopes to carry her calling to youth, noting that "one of my biggest visions for kids is to help them really cultivate a strong understanding that they are the Church now. That's really something I'd like to do."

Her goals in her new job include helping teens to bring God closer to their lives and helping them to learn what it means to live their faith in the world.

"We're a missionary people, a community for the Kingdom," she said. "That's what we work for and towards. When you make it sound like it's something far away or distant, how do you expect [teens] to be adamant and lively in its interpretation, especially when they live and breathe a popular culture that puts things right in their laps?

"That's the challenge put forth to ministers -- to stand in the middle of it all, not on some peripheral edge."

(9/16/04)