If you stick around a college campus long enough, you’re sure to learn a few things. Just ask Meg Dalmut, who has served as associate director of campus ministry at Marymount University in Arlington for the past six years.

Through her job, she’s watched many young people discover their faith and has continuously grown in her own, most notably through her involvement in Women Youth Apostles. Among other things, she’s learned the importance of community and the value of daily prayer and the Eucharist — lessons she hopes to pass on to others.

Encouraged at a young age

A lifelong Catholic, Dalmut grew up in Springfield, where she attended St. Bernadette Parish. While she was in high school at Bishop Ireton in Alexandria, she became involved with her parish youth ministry and the Youth Apostles-run Catholic Life Community (CLC), which helped to cement her faith.

“That’s when I learned my faith is a real commitment,” Dalmut said. “Living out your faith is a daily choice. (CLC) gave me all the tools I needed to encounter God and develop a personal relationship with Him.”

After graduating from Ireton in 2001, Dalmut attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, where she majored in religion and philosophy. While a student, she spent several summers working at St. Bernadette, helping out at the parish religious education office. During those summers, she began to think about working for the Church, but she was still hesitant.

After graduating from James Madison in 2005, she heard about an available campus ministry position at Marymount and all of her reservations flew out the window.

“I’d been on a ton of job interviews, but this was the first time I thought, ‘I don’t know if I will get the job, but I really want it,’” Dalmut said. “There was a stirring in me that this could be really good.”

Luckily, she did get the job. She started working at Marymount in July 2005.

Every day is different

Six years later, Dalmut still loves her job. She is a part of a staff of seven people who spend their days planning programs and building relationships with students. Father David Sharland directs the campus ministry office.

“Every day is different,” she said.

As part of her campus ministry work, Dalmut helps run programs for students and small groups and ffers spiritual direction. Recently, she has been working on a new ecumenical program for the school, “Ignite.” She also spends a large amount of time simply hanging out with students, finding out about their lives and talking with them about God.

“My job is to be here with the students and come with them as they experience Jesus,” she said.

In a way, by supporting students, she is just returning the favor of what was done for her as a young person.

“I had a lot of adults who were very invested in me growing in faith personally,” she said. “They wanted me to know Jesus. Most people have that encounter in college, so it’s my privilege to be a part of that. The most important thing we do is be with the students, meet more students and just help them know the love of Christ through our love.”

A growing community of faith

Through her job at Marymount, Dalmut became involved with Women Youth Apostles after attending an interest meeting on her second day of work for women in high school and college ministry.

In the six years since that first meeting, Dalmut has seen Women Youth Apostles grow into a full-fledged community with 11 committed members who meet several times a month for formation and discussion.

For Dalmut, who is the directress of the community, being involved in a group with other Catholic women has been tremendously beneficial for her spiritual growth.

“We are made to be in community,” she said. “When you’re serving in any kind of apostolate, there are a lot of joys and challenges that come from that. To be able to share that with other people who are also running after the Lord is a great thing.”

Recently, Dalmut became the first consecrated member after making a one-year commitment on All Saints Day to live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. When her first year is up, she can choose to renew her vows for three more years before making a lifetime commitment.

For Dalmut, this decision is a longtime coming. She said she has been intrigued by the religious life for much of her life. As her faith has grown, she has felt a deep desire to give more of herself to God.

“The longer I’ve worked here and the more I’ve gotten involved in Women Youth Apostles and Youth Apostles, I just have this burning call within my heart to love Christ and to share that love that I’ve been given with young people,” she said. “That is what God is asking me to do — to love Him completely, totally, with all of my self and to share that with the young people I’m serving.”

As part of her commitment, she centers her life on prayer, with daily Mass and Holy Hour and a dedication to pray the Angelus and the Liturgy of the Hours daily.

“It’s a call to dive deeper into a relationship with the Lord,” she said. “In our community, we pray for a lot of things, but one of the lines that kind of sticks out to me the most is, ‘to perfect our love to You, our sisters and our young people.’”

A life in His hands

All of the prayer comes in handy helping Dalmut deal with the long hours and spiritual challenges of her work.

“The most difficult part is keeping yourself out of the way so God can do all the work,” she said. “We need to make sure we’re continually praying and continually seeking God ourselves and trying to do His will and not our own in this ministry. We need to be constantly discerning, what’s God’s will in this moment.”

When she can do that, the rewards are tremendous. In her time at Marymount, she’s been able to attend two World Youth Days. She’s visited the Holy Land on pilgrimage and she’s been able to spend 10 days volunteering in the baths at Lourdes, France, a trip she took alone as a way of drawing closer to God. Through those experiences, she’s been able to deepen her own faith and see her life with brand new eyes. Still, the most rewarding part of all is when she sees spiritual conversion in others.

“The most rewarding part is when you see that person finally get it, when they have that moment where all the walls have come down and there’s nothing else standing between them and the Lord,” Dalmut said. “It happens on retreat every once in a while. We’ll have adoration on a Saturday night and we’re just in adoration and they’re finally able to receive the unconditional love that God wants to pour all over them. When you see that happen, it’s breathtaking.”

She hopes students leave Marymount with a deeper faith. All of her work, everything she does, is in the hopes that they will become closer to God.

“I hope that they experience the transforming love of God,” she said. “That’s my greatest hope. I hope they feel empowered to bear witness to Christ in this world because they’ve been most transformed by Him. I hope they have a real friendship with Jesus — that they can go to Mass and truly be present and take advantage of all the sacramental opportunities and truly pray.”