Catholic in College?

Or wandering the wild ways of modernity?

...As college freshmen struggle to balance faith and other priorities — and some consider opting out of their Catholic faith altogether, campus ministries and other Catholic organizations are working to bridge the faith gap between high school and college by inviting more students than ever to live their faith through the sacraments, relationships, activities, prayer groups and even a TV show.

Citing the importance of campus ministry in fostering lifelong Church involvement, the Chicago-based Catholic Extension, which provides funds to assist U.S. Catholic communities, recently awarded more than $1 million to campus ministries to help 500,000 students grow in their faith on 59 college campuses in 30 U.S. dioceses.

“Campus-ministry programs create substantive opportunities to train the next generation of Catholic leaders and develop students’ gifts and talents to positively impact them as young adults, as well as the entire Church,” said Frank Santoni, Catholic Extension’s regional director of grants management.

The need for strong ministries is clear: A recent study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University indicates that college freshmen are most likely to make their best friends during their first few weeks on campus, and during that time they also join the organizations they’ll be part of for their whole college career, according to Judy Cozzens, chairwoman of the USA Council of Serra International’s program College Connection for Catholics...

There's also this handy guide.