Rev. Lauren Cogswell, dressed in black pants and a sleeveless cream-colored turtleneck sweater, could almost pass for one of the students in the Westminster Presbyterian campus ministry.
Instead, the 1996 James Madison University graduate recently was installed as an associate pastor of the Rugby Road church, where she hopes to serve as a resource for students who want to continue their faith in college.
The red stole and white alb, or robe, that she wears for the Sunday service hangs neatly on the door of her sunny office.
"I'm a minister because I had a great campus ministry experience in college," Cogswell said. And as the campus minister at Westminster she works to foster the same faith community that helped her in college.
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Campus ministers say they have to compete with peer pressure, clubs and activities, and academic demands for students' time.
"I think [students] just have to have a real desire to seek a life of faith, to seek a community of faith, because there are lots of other options," Cogswell said.
"The pressure to do well [in school] is amazing," said Father Thomas Blau of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Focus on grades and succeeding in class may mean that students are "putting faith things on hold for a while," he added.
Cogswell and Blau both take part in United Ministry, an organization of religious leaders who serve the University community.
The United Ministry provides a forum "for mutual support" among the diverse leadership, said Alex Joyner, United Ministry president and director of the University chapter of the United Methodist Wesley Foundation. The partnership was established about 30 years ago as a professional network for those involved in campus ministry, he added.
Today, a United Ministry representative sits on the deans and directors meeting of the Vice President of Student Affairs. The administrative link between the University and religious leaders helped to mobilize interfaith responses to the Sept. 11 attacks.
In recent years United Ministry has used its link with the University to develop new means of reaching out to students.
At one of the summer orientation resource fairs each year, United Ministry sponsors a table, "Religious Life at U.Va.," where first-years and transfers can fill out religious preference cards to be sent to churches.
"It helps us to maintain contact to folks who came in with a specific denominational background," said Joyner, who estimated that they received about 240 cards this summer.
Joyner has noticed a trend with young adults that feeling welcome in a religious setting is becoming more important than denominational background when choosing a faith-based organization.
Although churches and religious groups may use the information from the cards to establish an initial contact with a student, religious leaders realize that they have to allow students to matriculate to worship services and activities of their own accord. Even if that means telling a concerned parent on the phone that they cannot "make" someone's child get involved.
"Parents always say, 'Don't tell my son or daughter that I called, but ...'" said Shelby Apple, interim director of the Jewish campus life group Hillel. "It's really up to students to make the decision to come to programming."
For that reason many campus ministries depend upon a diverse programming schedule that incorporates social, educational and social events into a spiritual framework. Theology discussion groups at Starbucks, dinners on the Corner, Saturday apple picking and volunteering at a housing project provide students with an array of outlets.
"We offer lots of ways where students can live out their faith, it's not just something that they believe, but something that they do every day," Cogswell said of Westminster's service opportunities.
At Hillel, the international organization that promotes the establishment of Jewish campus community, a large portion of student programming is not oriented religiously.
"We want people to have a positive Jewish experience," Apple said. "Not necessarily become religious. There's no pressure to be a certain kind of Jew."
Yet at the University's Hillel chapter, Friday night services are student-led, with people taking turns reading from the Torah.
Getting students directly involved in mass at St. Thomas Aquinas parish - where Sunday's 5:15 p.m. mass draws a large crowd of college students and families - helps to integrate the multi-generational community.
"We can't go on without our students," Blau said. Many students are altar servers at mass and teach religious education classes for children at St. Thomas Aquinas. The result, he said, is a "wonderful dynamic" between students and families.
"A big struggle for college students is to figure out, 'What am I going to be? What am I going to be doing in four years?'" Cogswell said. "Adults who have found their path and found how to live out their faith through their life of work and their family [can] be mentors for students on their journey."
Whether students are interested in a low-key chat or need support for serious matters like depression, the availability of ministers and directors of religious organizations is a vital component of their job.
"Some of the best conversations happen at 10 o'clock at night when there's a light on and somebody walking by knows that they can come in," Joyner said.
Although there is no rabbi at Hillel, 29-year-old Apple said that her age may make it easier for students to come to her with a problem.
"I think I'm someone they more readily identify with than a 40- or 50-year-old rabbi," she said.
Cogswell said that she listens rather than preaches when students approach her. It's a sentiment that other ministry leaders echo when they discuss how they approach the topic of decision making when it comes to issues like sex, drugs and alcohol.
"We try to meet people where they are" on those types of issues, Joyner said. "We try to develop in dialogue what a Christian perspective might be."
Through discussion with peers and religious leaders, students can reach a new plane of spiritual development in an atmosphere where they feel safe expressing themselves and at the same time are challenged to grow.
"I think some people find a home here, some people find a quest," Joyner said. "Hopefully some people come away with an encounter with something that moves them from where they were to a place where they wouldn't have dreamed of being before"
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