Today's incoming freshmen seem a far cry from my days of college (1997-2001) when beepers were the craze and CD players were making their mark. Today's freshmen come, seemingly, in uniform with white ear buds and a desire to make the world better. Time Magazine described this generation, Gen Y, by stating "they just want to spend their time in meaningful and useful ways, no matter where they are."
We are finding this to be true as Freshmen Orientations have begun on the campuses in Newark, NJ. As I begin my sixth year on campus, I am seeing more students getting involved with organizations and becoming more involved in the campus community. Yesterday 45 student organizations came out to greet incoming freshmen at RU-Newark. InterVarsity was also present and accounted for to meet and greet students. We had students flocking to our table because of the word "Christian". That was easy! But as we interacted with other students, who were nominal or non-Christian, we were able to share about our activities and values. Many of these students wanted to learn more and signed up to get on our Facebook group and get more info from us.
ONE STUDENT, Gabe, touched my heart. He came to the table, I introduced myself and asked "What brought you to our table?" He said "The guy over there just talked to me about the group so I wanted to sign up." It's that simple, someone communicated and a student responded. Gabe, will be living in the dorms this semester and we look forward to building a relationship with him that will draw him to Jesus. This generation wants to be involved in things that matter! We are excited to be on campus this season so we can invite incoming students to consider what matters most, living an abundant life with Christ.
Keep us in prayer as we aim to reach 1,000 students this Fall semester. We have already interacted with close to 200 new students.
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