Faith Life on Campus

To many students, faith is an important part of their lives. Whether a person is theist or atheist, devout or "casually-spiritual-but-not-religious," it plays an important role in how that person lives his or her life. The odd thing is, it's one of the last things many people think about when applying to schools. Sure, academic programs are the number one priority (this is college, after all) but why is faith an afterthought?

Well, in the case of IIT, that's not a problem! Whatever you believe, we most likely have you covered (No Flying Spaghetti Monster club, though! Not yet.). The nice thing about having such an international student body is that there are clubs and groups dedicated to just about everything, faith life included.

If you visit the Spiritual Life page on IIT's website, you'll find a list of groups on campus to join, as well as a list of local worship spaces to take advantage of nearby (NOTE: Currently the Spiritual Life page is being updated, so much of the info may be outdated. Contact me and I can give you the current info). Being in Chicago means there is probably a place for you to check out. Just within a couple miles of campus, there are Christian churches for several denominations, including Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, and non-denominational; as well as Buddhist, Jewish (including Conservative and Reform), and Muslim worship spaces.

Within the confines of campus there is the Robert Carr Memorial chapel, lovingly referred to as the "God Box" by the student body. It's a non-denominational chapel open for use to anyone and everyone. Many faith-based organizations hold meetings and events there, and it's a great location as it's set a stone's throw away from the hustle and the bustle of the goings-on at IIT. It's quiet, cozy, and perfect for prayer or meditation.

Carr Hall, AKA the "God Box," just east of the MTCC.

Regardless of how one approaches the idea of college and religion, there is generally a presumption that urban engineering schools are not a great place for faith formation, or at least, I hear that from incoming students. They sometime feel worried (or at least they assume) that at tech schools, faith is left at the wayside in favor of science and technology.

And that is indeed how I felt coming in as a freshman. Part of it is because now we are on our own, and we don't have our parents dragging us out of bed every Sunday to go to church. Part of it is that in today's culture, faith isn't something most people like to talk about with others (I think that's stupid, but whatever) and it's that lack of faith-related dialogue that gives the illusion of a lack of faith itself.

During my first year here, I was incredibly busy with Architecture. That, combined with a severe lack of parental guidance, meant that I would go to mass once in a great while, which, let's be honest here, is pretty sad considering my local church is practically next door to campus. In the back of my mind I kind of knew I wasn't going to be very religious after I left home.

But a strange thing happened to me my sophomore year. I found myself free on a Tuesday evening, and ended up going to an on-campus service in the God Box. I met some people from the organization running it (Catholic Campus Ministry) and they invited me back to participate in the next event. So I came back. And the people there were awesome. So I came back. Then I started hanging out with them, both at events and eventually outside events. And now, four years later, I have an amazing group of friends and I feel stronger in my faith than I ever did before I went off to school.

The point of this story is not to convince you to convert to this or that religion. It's more of me telling you that you don't have to sacrifice your existing belief system when you choose your university. If you know that you want to grow in your faith (whether that be Catholicism, Cheondoism, or Atheism), or if you're curious about another religion, you will put the effort into it wherever you are. But know that choosing IIT is not going to get in the way of that.

God Bless.