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Being there is what Melinda Szilva does best. Which is a good thing, because as associate chaplain at the College her main job is to provide a welcoming place where members of the community can come to talk. "Most of my day is spent with students who drop in to talk about issues," says Szilva. "But the chaplaincy ministers to faculty and staff as well. We provide a respite from the crazy world, a place where people can come if they're struggling with something in the day, and hopefully leave feeling renewed, feeling a little bit more energy." Being there Photo: Ron Hewson Szilva, who graduated from Carleton University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion, remembers what it was like to be a university student. She grew up in a family that had a strong faith life. "Church was very much a part of our life," she says. "When we reminisce about childhood, church is woven into the fabric of our lives. I took religious studies because I was really curious about why so many people across the world believed so many different things about what I believed was one God." It was while she was at Carleton, a secular university, that Szilva first began to appreciate the importance of campus ministry. "Many of my friends were saying 'I never really thought about whether there was or wasn't a god before, but suddenly I'm thinking about it.' I think it's really important for someone to be there for students, to be able to say, 'Okay, you want to talk about it? Let's talk about it. No, it's not weird to be thinking about God for the first time when you're 19 years old.'" But Szilva thought that she was too young to embark on a career in campus ministry. "I thought of it as something I could work towards. I thought that years down the road, when somehow I had acquired a lot of wisdom and knowledge, it was something I would do. Shortly after moving to Waterloo with her husband Jeff, who had found a job as a career advisor at Wilfrid Laurier, Szilva bumped into an old friend who was a graduate of St. Jerome's. "I just ran into Father Jim Link," he told her, "and Melinda, he's looking for you--he just doesn't know it. You have to go see him." So she did. One of the things they talked about was the importance of campus ministry. "When you go off to university, you're free to form your own belief system and your own values and your own religious tradition. You're not with your parents anymore. If you're going to want to maintain your faith, then you have to do it because you want to. I think there's a wonderful, freeing experience when university students find their own faith and claim it as their own, and then take it with them into whatever community they go to when they leave here." Father Jim invited Szilva to come to mass at the College, "and that was it! I got involved in a bunch of different things," she says. "I volunteered with the Student Catholic Community, and when the College had an opening in the chaplaincy, I was ready to make the commitment to the College. It just all seemed so right. I really felt that God was pushing me, gently pushing me." As associate chaplain, Szilva continues to be involved with the Student Catholic Community. As well, she works with other members of the University of Waterloo Chaplaincy Association, which offers marriage preparation weekends, Remembrance Day services, and other special events. She is also involved in the workings of the "pseudo-parish" at the College. She leads a women's prayer group, attends council meetings, and takes part in planning the liturgy and participates in it. One of her main responsibilities is baptismal preparation. She meets with parents, talks to them about baptism and the baptismal ceremony. "It's long hours, and it's pretty intense work," she admits. "One of the big challenges is not to get caught up in all the things we have to do. Because our most important job is to be there for people, to be present, and be focussed." "We provide respite from the crazy world, a place where people can come if they're struggling with something in the day, hopefully leave feeling renewed, feeling a little bit more energy" Melinda Szilva, the newest member of the chaplaincy team at St. Jerome's, knows what her most important job is.