Just a few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to find Mizzou on a map if my life depended on it. And now I’m here in Columbia ready to serve the community and the students as best I can as the new Resident Campus Minister!
My name is Logan Davis, and I’m from a very small town in Southeast Iowa called Oxford, which is just a few minutes West of Iowa City. Don’t even mention the Hawkeyes to me though, because I attended Iowa State University in Ames where I received my bachelor’s degree in biology with minors in psychology and Spanish. My favorite thing is when engineering students tell me how hard they think biology is when they’re in the middle of their 17th calculus class.
I was fortunate to grow up in a Catholic family with two parents and a younger sister who encouraged my active involvement in the Church. Without their support and encouragement to be involved, who knows if I would be here in this position today. I made sure to attend youth conferences and even served on a diocesan youth ministry planning committee while balancing all of my high school extracurricular commitments, but it wasn’t until college where my faith truly became my own.
I originally attended Iowa State as a pre-med biology major, and I jumped into the new student retreat that the Catholic student center provided along with a small group Bible study. Still, it wasn’t until my junior year, having survived what can only be described as an all around dreadful sophomore year, that I really had an encounter with Jesus and realized that a life of seeking holiness was the pinnacle of a life to be lived.
At St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames, I was leading small groups, retreats, and meeting intentionally one-on-one with my peers to walk together towards Christ, and I developed a devotion to St. Catherine of Siena, whose intercession I’m sure has had a major impact on my life.
It was as if God kept pulling me further and further into service to His Church through ministering to my peers. The deeper I went, the more alive I felt, and the more I was using my spiritual gifts. This led to a really cool discernment process about my future that frankly has too many details for this column. As much as I loved the science of biology, I realized that I needed to explore a career in campus ministry, which is how I found out about this amazing opportunity in Columbia!
When I am not doing campus minister things, I enjoy catching up on the latest Netflix shows, getting coffee with friends, trying some new crazy recipe, or reading a spiritual book, among other things. I also have a podcast with my friend Josh that we call “The Broman Catholic Podcast,” which you should all of course listen to!
I have felt nothing but welcome since arriving in Columbia, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting all the new people of this community. Feel free to come visit me in my office! I would love to get to know you over some coffee or just have a chat. I am beyond grateful to be here, and I’ll pray for you all if you pray for me!
Logan Davis