Trish Vega’s ’14 path to becoming a missionary was not a straight line, but it was one tethered to her time at Carondelet. She said, “Carondelet rooted us in being women of heart, faith, and courage and just lean into that feeling to its full potential,” she said. “Being plugged into my faith more as a personal thing than an idea, but it took me until college to realize this.”
She went to study music at the University of Miami where a retreat freshman year changed her life. “It helped me understand on a deeper level many of the things I learned at Carondelet from experiences like Kairos, campus ministry, and liturgies. God’s love became a more tangible reality to me, and I was hungry for more.”
Joining a mission trip to Haiti with the Missionaries of Charity, Trish saw the material poverty of the Haitian families and came home to Florida wanting to continue to help others. “It taught me how to be grateful and joyful in God’s love and spread that love to others. I knew this was my passion, and I was willing to give my life to it.”
However, upon returning to UofM, Trish saw the opposite of what she encountered in Haiti. “In Haiti there’s a lot of material destitution, but in America there’s so much ‘stuff’ but also loneliness, isolation, and emotional and spiritual emptiness.”
Wanting to do something tangible, she applied to be a full time missionary and joined FOCUS, The Fellowship of Catholic University Students. FOCUS was founded in 1998 and today has 700+ missionaries located across 175+ campuses in the US, Austria, Germany, and Ireland. For the first three years, she was stationed at New York University in Manhattan, which was a great fit for her to use her music background. With so many trying to break into the industry, I was there to encourage students to know they are loved no matter whether or not they got that internship—God and the people around you will still love you.”
Now, she is a team director at Worcester Polytech Institute and oversees a team of four. “We spend our time investing in students through weekly Bible studies, community events with campus ministry, mission trips, and normal activities like going out to coffee, grocery shopping, and just hanging out. Kind of like how Jesus did ordinary things with his people to share in their daily life and share his love in everything they do.”
Though the work is rewarding, it’s been a hard year even as the pandemic starts to wane. The need is greater than ever as students combat escalating mental health challenges. “I am thankful to be here when there is so much need,” she said.
“I can’t serve other people if I don’t know how my own heart needs to be loved and let others love me,” she said. “I firmly believe I will be a missionary for the rest of my life. Maybe not in this capacity, but I do see myself serving others—having a family and allowing God to decide what that looks like.”
As she walks through life by faith, Trish is grateful for the foundation she built as a teenager. “I continue to be grateful for the sisterhood,” she said. “It’s a gift and God has created women with such great power. Our world needs women of heart, faith, and courage. Be encouraged to lean into that in whatever way that looks.”