St. Jerome Newman Center provides community

Friday, Sep. 12, 2025
St. Jerome Newman Center provides community
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The Saint Jerome Newman Center at Utah State University in Logan kicked off the academic year by participating in the university’s Day on the Quad, held Aug. 27, where community and campus groups gather to provide information to students. Shown from left are Father Anthony Shumway, chaplain; and Newman Center members Hayden Davis, Dominic Peri and Collin Terry. Father Shumway is pointing to a Life Saver’s® candy because he was using the tagline, “Jesus cares about saving your life, so have a Life Saver.”
By Marie Mischel
Intermountain Catholic

LOGAN — The chapel of Saint Jerome Newman Center, across from Utah State University in Logan, was filled to capacity with students and young adults attending the Mass that preceded the welcome back social on Sept. 7.
The Sunday Masses on each of the three weeks since the academic year began have been full, said Dominic Peri, a member of the Newman Center who transferred to the university last spring. At first he didn’t join the center, but over the summer his pastor in Livermore, Calif. suggested that he do so. He took that advice, and now feels more connected, he said, adding, “It’s nice at the Newman Center to see kids my age, to be able to share more age-related spiritual journeys.” 
Similarly, Alyse Blanchard, a junior from Reno, Nevada, said the women’s group at the center is “an amazing community” that has connected her with friends. In addition, the Bible study has helped her grow in her faith, she said, and the center has “been a blessing, definitely.”
The Newman Center’s women’s group is comprised of both students and young adults, said Christina Bingham, who helps lead the group. The first activity for the group this year is to meet at her house to bake, something that she hopes will build fellowship among the members. 
Other activities for the women’s group will include a book club and service projects, said Bingham, who became involved with the Newman Center about 18 months ago after moving from North Dakota. “It’s given me a home,” she said.
With a new chaplain this year, many of the Newman Club activities are being re-evaluated, said Collin Terry, who has been involved for two years. Although things are “kind of nebulous right now,” they are considering doing activities that are more visible in the school community, such as Mass on the quad, he said.
The Newman Center “helps anchor me and ground me,” Terry said, adding that it also offers a place “to hang out with your guys and gals – that’s important too. … We hang out with these people even outside a religious context.” 
They also are thinking of designating a specific kind of activity for each week, such as having a spiritual activity on the first week and a service project on the second week, said Hayden Davis, another club member. “So it’s going to be much more focused, much more organized. So that’s going to be the biggest change.” 
Like the others, Davis says being involved in the Newman Center “has definitely helped me strengthen my faith,” and it also is “a tight-knit group that welcomed me.”
Father Anthony Shumway, who began as the center’s chaplain in August, said, “We’re striving to make this a place that is welcoming to all, whether Catholic or not, on a campus that is full of people that have diverse backgrounds, from different places, different faiths – everybody is welcome to join us for any of our events, to be part of our family.”  

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