By Katie Smith, A&E Editor
Before school ended last year, Newman announced plans to form “living communities” in the residence halls, and among them were communities for pet owners, nursing students, biology majors and Catholic women.
The idea was that students with like minded interests might benefit from close living quarters.
But only one of those living communities actually formed.
Women in God’s Service or WinGS, located on the third floor of Carrocci, is being coordinated by junior Murphy Obershaw.
“Once a month we get together and have an event and there’s going to be some sort of spiritual aspect to it, then some sort of food and fellowship aspect to it,” Obershaw said. “It’s still kind of evolving since it’s a new thing.”
There are four rooms that are a part of the community. One serves as a chapel and the others house 4 female students.
“The chapel is a dorm room that has been converted into a chapel-esque area. It’s very slowly coming together.”
Obershaw said that there used to be a type of Catholic community in the residence halls but the community was eventually dissolved because it became too cliquey.
“In Beata there used to be a whole floor of Catholic people... [I want to find a way] to still have that community but make sure it’s not a clique. With our next event, I’m going to start bringing some of the freshmen that live in the dorms in to it to see if they’d be interested in it maybe next year, just to give them an experience of it.”
She said she sees this living community as another benefit for students who choose to live on campus.
“I keep thinking that if I was a freshman, would I sign up for this community? Absolutely, yes, and not just because I’m a theology major but my faith is something that is important to me,” she said. “If you’re already in that community of people who have similar values to you and would be there, you’d have more people on campus to spend your time with and they’re good quality people.”
The community had its first faith and fellowship event Friday evening.
“It was nice to sit down with other people with similar interests as mine and talk about what faith means to us. I enjoyed hearing different ways that we can use our faith on a day-to-day basis… I enjoyed the prayer that we listened to because it reminded me that Jesus is always there for us no matter what,” sophomore Madisyn Bucl said.
PHOTO: Murphy Obershaw. Staff Writer
