By: Isha Madanu, B.S. Computer Science ‘29
Written on: June 22, 2026

As a first year student coming into Georgia Tech, I was excited, but also nervous, to begin a new chapter of life. Although new opportunities, people, and experiences were waiting around every corner, I couldn’t help but feel as though the transition meant leaving behind the faith community and relationship that I was able to foster through my four years of high school. Despite that uncertainty, the Georgia Tech Catholic Center became a place where I found my anchor, and a welcoming space that allowed me to reconnect with my faith in the midst of an unfamiliar setting.

After a few weeks into my first semester, the pressures of coursework and adjustment gradually drew me away from the faith practices that were once common in my spiritual life. But this shift changed as I was sitting in Sunday Mass, and I was reminded of the Catholic Centers’ daily offering of Eucharistic Adoration. This sat in the back of my mind, and a few days later, with an hour left before my next class, I decided to spend time in quiet meditation before the Lord. In those serene minutes, the Lord found me as I was, among my distractions and anxieties, calling me back to Him and gently reminding me of His constant presence. Only twenty minutes in company with the Blessed Sacrament brought me both a refuge from the demands of daily life and a reassurance that the Lord had never left me in these moments of worry.

Further into the year, I learned about the GTCC’s community Lenten mission, led by Father Branson. By practicing the tradition of Lectio Divina, reading, meditating, and praying with the Scripture strengthened my gratitude for life’s blessings and allowed me to find answers to the questions in my heart. I found myself surprised and grateful that every meditation came with the lesson, answer, and prayers that I needed at the time.

Completing my first semester, I found a deeper desire to step into the GTCC community. I could feel the Lord’s call when I discovered the opportunity to give back with the CC’s Pillar positions. By serving the community through a couple of volunteer positions, I was able to see the joy in giving back to the opportunities that strengthened my own faith and experience the welcoming environment within the GTCC. What began as a search for stability, came a deeper trust in the Lord and meaningful connections that encouraged growth in my faith life. My experiences from the opportunities presented at the GTCC, and the community surrounding it, are gifts that I will forever be grateful for in my college life.

By: Isabella Stankiewicz, B.S. in Biochemistry ‘28
Written on: March 12, 2026

From the beginning of my time at Georgia Tech, when I attended Sunday mass after moving into my freshman dorm, I could tell that the Catholic Center was a place of deep community and encounter with the Lord. Even before my first mass at the Catholic Center, I had been welcomed in by a student when I stopped by during a campus tour. I later found out that the girl who gave of her time to show me around was the President at the time, Ana. The summer before starting at Tech, I had the chance to get to know a graduating student, Lindsey, who lived her faith with a level of maturity and peace that I didn’t yet see in myself as a new college freshman.

Having attended Catholic school and being raised in the faith all my life, I entered the Georgia Tech Catholic community with a strong commitment to my faith, a desire to become involved in the community, and an openness to God’s plan for me at Georgia Tech and beyond. At eighteen years old, I felt I had a pretty good understanding of the Church’s teachings and Tradition. After all, I took a lot of religion classes growing up! What I didn’t realize, and the Catholic Center has helped me to understand, is how much more there is to learn about the faith. One of the beautiful mysteries of our Catholic faith is how you can always dig deeper into Scripture and Church teachings. This understanding is largely the result of my encounters with the people of the Georgia Tech Catholic Center. Being surrounded by students like myself who are striving to lead saintly lives in communion with Christ while simultaneously working to change the world through their studies and involvements is continually inspiring. The leadership of our priest, Father Branson, and the Focus missionaries is what keeps us all moving in the right direction, together towards Christ.

I have been blessed to encounter the Lord in a number of ways through my experiences with the Catholic Center. Some of my favorites include the Peru Mission Trip over Spring Break, my weekly Bible study led by Focus missionary Anne Marie, and Mass celebrated by our priests at the CC (Father Branson and Father John Klein regularly deliver the best homilies I have ever heard – packed with wisdom, insight, and clear applications to student life). Most recently, I have encountered the Lord through the small piece of the Catholic Center community that is studying abroad with me this semester on a Georgia Tech program in Australia and New Zealand. Out of a group of roughly fifty students, five of us are involved in the Catholic Center on campus. We began our time abroad each a bit unsure of how we would maintain our faith lives outside of the structure of the Catholic Center. During the first week of our program, three of us met up for a Bible study, and our community has since grown to about ten Christians who gather each week to thank God for this gift of traveling together to see His creation and to share our faith journeys with one another. This small community that we’ve grown Down Under speaks to the strength of the Catholic Center community, even when that Catholic community is as small as five people. The Catholic Center has shaped us as individuals growing our relationships with Jesus and has prepared us to form our own community with others walking life with the Lord. Sharing the truth, beauty, and goodness of my Catholic faith with our Christian Bible study friends has been rewarding, and I have learned much from my Christian friends in return. Living our faith openly together has also invited us to share our faith with friends on our study abroad program who are not religious or have fallen away from faith themselves. It’s exciting to think that God may be using me to reach others who do not know how much He loves them.

The support of parents, alumni, and other donors for our Catholic Center is making a direct impact on Georgia Tech students and shaping us to become leaders in our faith while we walk the path of college life, on campus in Atlanta and in places as far away as New Zealand. I have endless gratitude for the resources of the Catholic Center that have been shaping me along my college journey, and I am so grateful for the relationships I have formed, and grown, through my time thus far as a member of Georgia Tech’s Catholic community.

By: Samantha Rizzo, B.S. in Chemistry ‘25
Written on: September 25, 2025

If you’ve been reading these stories, you’ve likely seen that the graces from the Catholic Center flow from all kinds of involvement: regular connection with Jesus in the Eucharist, music ministry, Bible studies, and the community in general. In my three and a half years at Georgia Tech, I’ve been blessed beyond measure to be a part of each of these examples I gave, but that wasn’t where it began.

When I moved in freshman year, I knew I was planning on going to the Catholic Center on Sundays, but I had no idea how much more the GTCC had to offer. One night, I was sitting on the picnic table out back on the phone with my older sister when a fourth year, Maddie, who I had spoken to a few times, walked by with a couple friends and said that whenever I get off the phone, I should come out front and join them. She said “It’ll be fun!” with a kind of enthusiasm that made me think they were going to play a game or have a dance party. When I got off the phone, I went out front, and they were all sitting and chatting, no board game in sight. I sat down and soon realized that this was CLU, a group of students who meet and discuss life as the encounter with Christ and wrestle with difficult questions together. At first, I was thrown off by Maddie’s definition of “fun,” but I soon entered into the conversation and loved the way the group spoke so honestly about their experiences and questions.

While I only participated in CLU freshman year, Maddie’s invitation started a chain effect of involvement. I finally joined the Bible study that all the other girls in my year were in, I auditioned to play music during Mass, and I began to go to daily Mass more and more. By the time the Spring semester came around, I was ready to hit the ground running, with friends who encouraged each other to go to daily Mass, and even to get there early to pray! This is something that high-school me never would have expected.

Three years later, every day of my senior year holds its own story of grace. The Lord is moving constantly in my life, whether it be through the joy of celebrating milestones in the lives of those I love or through gazing upon the Eucharist and allowing Jesus to look back at me. The Catholic Center has been integral in opening my eyes to see more clearly how the Lord is loving me in every moment.

By: Sarah Mulqueen, B.S. in Mathematics ‘26
Written on: April 7, 2025

My first year at Georgia Tech, I thought I wanted the “full college experience.” But during my first year, I felt something was missing from my life. I never stopped going to Mass on Sundays, but I needed more. When I walked into class on the first day of my second year, I saw a girl from my Bible Study. I sat with her and ended up telling her I wanted to go to Daily Mass more. That one interaction began my journey of faith and my roots at the Catholic Center.

Before I knew it, I was going to Daily Mass or Communion Service every day of the week. I felt the desire to pray more: journaling, reading my Bible and other religious books, and spending more time in the Adoration Chapel. I began to meet more people with the same values as me, who I could talk to about anything. Everyone I met had such a love for Jesus, and it made me want to love Him more too. I didn’t know what I was missing my first year, but looking back, it felt like I had not been truly alive. I was just going through the motions of college without feeling true joy and friendships. Suddenly, I truly desired to grow more in my faith everyday. I desired to be in the presence of Jesus.

As I finish out my third year at Tech, I see the “real world” approaching quickly. I don’t know exactly where God is planning to lead me, but I know I am prepared for anything. I have grown in so much virtue and grace over these past two years, and I’m ready to see what these next years bring. I have deepened my relationship with the Lord more than I could have ever dreamed of. I have met and grown with people who challenge me to be better, who love me through my faults. Though I cannot remain in the Catholic Center forever, I know it and all I have experienced here will remain in me.

By: Daniel Buckley, M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering ’25, B.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering ’24
Written on: January 27, 2025

The bells ring and “Da pacem, Domine” (“Give peace, O Lord”) resounds through the sanctuary as the 9:30am Sunday Mass begins in the fall of 2020. I had started Georgia Tech a few weeks earlier and was still trying to find my place when I found myself singing this chant that would start a journey that has brought me closer to God.

For those who do not know me, my name is Daniel Buckley, and I am a first year Masters student in Electrical and Computer Engineering graduating in May 2025. When I arrived at Tech in August of 2020 as an undergraduate student, I knew I wanted to help the liturgy through music because I have always encountered God through its beauty. Originally, I planned to audition for playing piano at the 11:30am Mass where the songs are traditional hymns; however, I missed my audition slot. Later that day, I happened to meet Ben Dollar, the leader of the 9:30 choir, while playing piano in the sanctuary. He asked if I knew how to sing, and, after proving I could, he invited me to join the choir.

At my first rehearsal with the group, I came knowing practically nothing about Gregorian Chant or Renaissance polyphony. I walked out of rehearsal with a deep love of the music, knowing I had discovered something truly beautiful. The chant, sung throughout the Mass, with its ancient melodies and flowing, timeless nature complements the structured form of the liturgy. The polyphony adds to its beauty with each voice’s complex melodies weaving against the others in a intricate dance of ever-changing harmonies. When I first sang the polyphony, I thought to myself, “this makes sense!” and after four and a half years, my opinion has not changed. If anything, I have grown in love of the music as I learned more.

Over time I came to appreciate the blessing that I could sing chant and polyphony and share their beauty with others. Tech has a large number of talented singers with a high level of musicality who can learn a fairly new set of reasonably foreign music each week. I say ‘reasonably foreign’ because chant and polyphony are fairly peculiar to the Catholic Church and unheard in modern times. Unlike contemporary Christian music, which you can listen to on the radio, or hymns, which are common across Christianity, unless you actively search it out, you will not hear the ancient music that for so many generations has brought people closer to God. By His grace, the CC has the space for this music to be sung when most other churches do not.

As my first semester drew to a close, most of the choir left, leaving three of us to carry on. As always, the Lord provides, and over the next few years, the choir has grown. I have come to learn that this is the cycle of things: the group starts and over time grows large and talented, then most move on and leave a small remnant which must grow again.

In the spring of my sophomore year, I took charge with a choir barely large enough to sing polyphony but with musicians capable of doing so. Leading a choir was new to me, and I am thankful for the opportunity to grow into the position. Fortunately, we sing chant, so most of the music for each Sunday was set centuries ago. Picking and running the music taught me a great deal about the structure and beauty of the Mass which has helped me pray the Mass better.

I am exceeding thankful that the 9:30 choir has been an integral part of my life. Every aspect of it has been an invitation to draw closer to God, and I pray the music we sing invites others closer as well.