NEWARK — The evolution of campus ministry at the University of Delaware continues in 2025-26, with a former missionary sticking around as the new campus minister and director of catechesis. Erin Shay, who was a team director last year for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), is staying in Newark at the Newman Center at St. Thomas More Oratory, which is entering its second year back under the pastoral care of priests of the Diocese of Wilmington.
Shay, a Philadelphia native, first felt the urge to work in campus ministry while an undergraduate at Temple University in the city. She first connected with fellow Catholics at Temple while a freshman.
“I got connected to the community, going to Sunday Mass and events here and there,” she said. “I had grown up Catholic. I’m very grateful to my family for instilling the roots of the Catholic faith in me.”
Shay started attending Bible studies, and she attended her first SEEK conference, an annual gathering sponsored by FOCUS.
“At the SEEK conference, I had a deeper encounter with the Lord through the sacraments. When I came back to campus, I got more involved with the Catholic community and started leading Bible study and eventually serving on the board. I’m really excited to be working with the student leaders in a capacity that I worked in during college,” she said.
“As I neared the end of my college years, I realized that campus ministry was where I felt the most alive and felt that the Lord was really calling me to full-time.”
She spent seven years with FOCUS, first as a missionary at Virginia Tech, then as a team director at Coastal Carolina and Brown universities before arriving last summer at Delaware. Shay said she is “hoping to use my experience in four previous ministries to help the Newman Center here at UD.”
Last year in Newark helped convince her to stay on campus.
“I decided I wanted to stay at the Newman Center in a more permanent role. The Newman Center is on a trajectory of growth the past couple years. I loved being at UD,” Shay said. “I’m from Philly. I love being able to minister to students from the area.
Shay and Father James Gebhart, one of the priests assigned to the Newman Center along with Father Richard Jasper, were encouraged by what they saw last year. More than 100 students attended at least one Bible study session, and 67 came at least four times.
“I know that that was more than have come in the past, so it’s very clear that the community is growing. It’s great to see the students committed to learning about Scripture and growing in Christ-centered friendships and growing in their relationship with our Lord,” Shay said.
Father Gebhart said the staff of the Newman Center has looked at everything they did last year to help decide what was best moving forward.
“We said, ‘What were things that worked really well? What are some of the things that maybe we need to re-think?’ We did a lot of events last year,” he said.
Theology on Tap will return to Klondike Kate’s, bringing speakers to the popular bar/restaurant on Main Street. That was well-attended. University of Delaware students will travel to Washington, D.C., in October for the biannual diocesan Marian pilgrimage. The times of some events has been adjusted to better accommodate the schedules of college students.
“We are always looking to get more students through our doors and to know that this is a place where they can come to live their faith, and a place where, when they need it, they have a home that they can dome to,” Father Gebhart said.
“We want to make sure we are setting up these students so that when they leave here and they graduate and go out into their parishes, wherever that is … they’re going to be really positive members of those parish communities.”
Freshmen move in the weekend of Aug. 23 ahead of the start of class on the 26th. Father Gebhart said the Newman Center will be open for students and parents to visit; there is a large parking lot on one side of the building and a number of dorms on the other, so they expect some foot traffic. The Newman Center will provide water and snacks.
“That’s one of our outreach opportunities,” Father Gebhart said.
In addition to reaching a larger number of current students, the staff also would like to do outreach to a wider community, he continued. They are working on communicating better with alumni and hope to hold an event for them later this academic year.
“There’s a lot that goes into making this ministry successful, and we need a lot of help to make that possible,” he said.
