College students continue to endeavor for success in the classroom. However, some students find solace in furthering their spiritual connections through involvement in student organizations. Those involved in Be the Light, a religious student organization on campus, find the light within the faith to guide them through their spiritual and academic journeys.
Passionate Christian students at Oakland University want to explore their beliefs by engaging in action and furthering their spiritual awareness.
Undergraduate students, Liana Kakos, Justin Abro, Melinda Yossif and Matthew Jarbo are the e-board members of Be the Light.
“I had a calling to be a part of the Christian student association at my high school,” Kakos said. “I had a desire to create a community like that for Christians to showcase what it means to represent Christ.”
Both Abro and Yossif express these sentiments.
“I became interested because I wanted to spread my faith with others,” Abro said. “What inspired me was to be more involved with praying for people, action within the community and awareness of telling people about our faith and praying for them,” Yossif said.
The aims of Be the Light inspired Jarbo to become an e-board member.
“In college, you just get too busy, so I want to bring on the knowledge that I have onto others who may not have had it for the past few years because of life paths chosen,” Jarbo said. “It is not a judgmental club. We just want to inform people that there are different people in this world with different views, so you have to respect that.”
Yossif echoes these statements.
“It is just to have a place on campus to show your faith and communicate with others,” Yossif said.
The club furthers its mission through its general member events.
“Last semester we had a finals prayer confession session, the power of that was that a lot of people feel anxiety, and many times people deal with stress in informal ways,” Jarbo said. “We morally introduced a different way of stress relief in the form of prayer and confession.”
Correspondingly, Abro shares the related importance of the action and awareness characteristics.
“Another event that showcased our purpose was our collaboration with the Catholic Campus Ministry,” Abro said. “An important aspect for collab is faith, so having the opportunity to collaborate with them was great to relate to our faith and church. “
Be the Light has successfully orchestrated events to support its mission statement and advance in action and apologetics.
“We want to start a Lenten series soon which focuses on educating people about various topics within the faith,” Kakos said. “We’re also doing apologetics in the Oakland Center and let people ask us questions about our faith.”
Ultimately, the student organization focuses on dedication to evangelization and shows the importance of relations.
“It’s important for our community to stick together and be good examples of the faith,” Kakos said.
As awareness is spread, the e-board members have an aim to further develop the club.
“We spread our faith on social media and film frequent series on there,” Yossif said.
Jarbo believes that the club has made a positive contribution to the OU community.
“A lot of members have come to us and thanked us for making a club like this,” Jarbo said.
The organization continues to expand.
“The organization is targeted to any race, ethnicity or religion,” Abro said. “We’re not exclusive to a certain amount of group, we are inclusive people.”
The student club will continue to expand and educate anyone who wants to learn. For further information, contact [email protected], and for future events, Be The Light on GrizzOrgs.
