“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.”
These words begin a prayer by St. John Henry Newman, recently named by Pope Leo XIV the 38th Doctor of the Church and co-patron of education with St. Thomas Aquinas.
His own prayer to entrust his mission and purpose to God resulted in a life of service to students in secular universities. Though his mission started in England, it quickly spread to the United States and today there are an estimated 2,000 Newman Catholic Centers nationwide.
Deacon Stephen Tran, director of college campus ministries, shares that the three Newman Centers in the Diocese of Sacramento aim to carry on the saint’s mission “to accompany students in living authentically Catholic lives while excelling academically.”
Newman Centers under new leadership
Deacon Stephen is a Vietnamese refugee who at four years old came to the United States with his family. His parents settled in Stockton, where Deacon Stephen lives today with his wife of 18 years, ThaiTam Nguyen, and their two children: LeAn, 17, and Thomas Thuan, 14.
Faith has always played a key role in Deacon Stephen’s life. During his undergraduate studies at the University of the Pacific, he was a student leader for his Newman Center and was involved in his Vietnamese Catholic community. Upon finishing his master's in education, Deacon Stephen began working in sales training, management, development, and corporate leadership with some of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, but stayed heavily involved in his parish.
After many years of volunteering, teaching classes for confirmation and the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), marriage preparation and more, he heard the call to be ordained as a permanent deacon — and the grace of that vocation changed his life.
“When you receive a sacrament in the Church, it’s a calling. It’s meant to be life changing.”
Soon after being ordained in 2022 for the Diocese of Stockton, Deacon Stephen left his 25-year career in corporate leadership to work in college campus ministry.
“This was a leap. It’s as close to a 180-degree turn as it gets, moving from that realm of business to nonprofit ministry, but you ultimately trust,” Deacon Stephen says. “You trust in God’s plan and let him do great things in your life, and in others’ lives.”
Despite the professional shift, Deacon Stephen finds that his background gives him a unique perspective.
“In business you think big, plan big, execute big and market big. My specialty was leadership development — training managers, building leadership pipelines, and helping people grow into their roles. That translates directly to Newman. I want to develop strong leaders.”
A vision for G.R.O.W.T.H.
Deacon Stephen started at UC Davis, building strong leaders among the student body. In fact, after his first year at the Davis Newman Center, the ministry went from 12 to 15 active student leaders to nearly 40, thanks to his clear vision for growth.
G.R.O.W.T.H. is the acronym used among all three Newman Centers in the diocese today, under Deacon Stephen’s leadership. The acronym stands for:
G – Gospel: This reflects the mission of the Newman Centers to spread the Good News of the Gospel on college campuses.
R – Refer: Once students have encountered the Gospel, they are encouraged to refer others, inviting them to be part of their Newman community.
O – Outreach: Newman students are also encouraged to be witnesses on their campuses, and to not let their faith stay in Newman Center buildings.
“The Last Commission is to go out into your families, go out into the community, go out into the world and exercise your faith out there,” Deacon Stephen says.
W – Worship: Newman leadership recognizes the great importance of the sacraments to the Catholic life and to making the Eucharist and confession available to students, while also teaching them to pray.
T- Testimony: As the faith of student leaders deepens, they are given opportunities to share their personal stories of encountering Christ with the community and others in their lives.
H – Hope: “Always we hope our Newman Centers will be a light in the darkness,” Deacon Stephen says.
Joe Johnston, director of the Newman Center serving students at CSU-Sacramento, expands on this last element of the G.R.O.W.T.H model, sharing the importance of hope for the whole Church.
“The hope is that these ideas will allow the Church to be young, explosively grow, lead families to Christ and lead people to vocations,” Joe says.
Deacon Stephen believes a key aspect of this growth model is putting students in leadership roles.
“Young adults are capable; they just need accompaniment and trust. At Newman, students lead ministries. So when they graduate, they’re confident stepping into parish leadership.” He adds: “The future of the Church isn’t just tomorrow — it’s today.”
How Newman Centers are reaching students
To reach students where they are and invite them to be part of Newman communities, each center offers several events each week.
“We offer a buffet of opportunities, nearly 20 events a week,” Deacon Stephen says. “Students don’t need to do everything -- just find what speaks to them.”
This is only possible because the Newman directors invest deeply in their student leaders and trust that the interests of their leaders will draw other students too.
From outreach events to deeper spiritual formation, Marie Antunes, director of the Newman Center serving students at CSU-Chico, shares about the importance of balancing the calendar to accommodate the needs of all students.
“We try to balance outreach and formation,” she says. “We host social events like scavenger hunts or ice skating that students can easily invite friends to. From there, it becomes easier to invite them to talks, Bible studies, or men’s and women’s groups.”
This model has allowed all three Newman centers to see incredible growth because at the center of it all, students are encountering the truth about Christ and the Church.
“Our role isn’t to reinvent the wheel,” says Gabe Penner, director of the Newman Center serving students at UC Davis. “It’s simply to present the faith authentically and invite people into community. We’re seeing more students entering OCIA and coming into the Church.”
Of course, Deacon Stephen and his team recognize that though the needs of young people and message of the Gospel don’t change, the modes for communicating have shifted.
“Authenticity is key -- the sacraments and the faith don’t need gimmicks,” Deacon Stephen notes. “But how we communicate does matter.”
To reach college students online, the Newman Centers launched a new unified website, newmancatholiccenter.org, as well as TikTok, Instagram, and other social media accounts. All are run by students and have seen success. In fact, a post sharing about Sacramento Newman’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass reached more than 21,000 views and resulted in 160 people attending Mass.
“That’s the power of student-driven outreach,” says Deacon Stephen, crediting student leaders with the success of their online reach.
Hope for young people
In his work with college students, Deacon Stephen keeps his own children in mind.
With teenage children, the number of young Catholics leaving the Church in college causes Deacon Stephen concern. The mission to college students that he believes God has entrusted to him resonates with his heart as a father, “to develop fruitful ground for (his children) and prevent them from falling into secularism.”
That mission has given hope to many of God’s children, giving them the tools they need to live authentically Catholic lives.