Marymount junior gains global perspective through Catholic Worldview Fellowship

Stephanie Harangozo, a junior at Marymount University studying psychology and theology, spent four weeks this past summer in Europe focusing on her faith through the Catholic Worldview Fellowship. The program is a month-long educational, cultural, leadership and spiritual encounter that allows participants to discover what their Catholic worldview is and how it can be applied to their academic, professional and personal lives.
 
Journeying with 31 other students hailing from around the U.S., Canada and even Hong Kong, Harangozo spent three weeks traveling across Germany to sites where prominent leaders, primarily Catholic, either lived or were buried. This includes towns and cities such as Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Kevelaer, Trier and Xanten. The group concluded its trip in Rome and Vatican City, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.
 
The fellowship students were led by faculty who are Legionaries of Christ and professors at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, a pontifical university in Rome.
 
“Having access to three priests 24/7 was a gift that I will forever be grateful for,” Harangozo said. “Plus, the friendships I made are part of the rock that I anchor myself to that is part of our Catholic faith. I made 31 new brothers and sisters, as well as all of the faculty and staff, that I know I can always count on and go to for absolutely anything and never be judged. That kind of community is something you don’t find so easily today.”
 
The program’s four pillars – academia, culture, leadership and spirituality – inspired the curriculum’s discussion topics in which students were challenged to critically think about how to implement the Catholic worldview in their lives. Highlights for Harangozo included grounding her Catholic identity in Christ, learning how to better work with people based on her own personality and faith, connecting with God through developing friendships and visiting some of the world’s holiest sites.
 
“Walking into St. Peter’s Basilica, I was both in awe and in tears,” Harangozo reflected. “I never had felt so connected to God and my faith more than I did after those three weeks of transformation in Germany and bringing it all around full circle in the Vatican.”
 
Harangozo credits her meetings with former Marymount chaplain, Father Tom Yehl, for preparing her spiritually prior to the fellowship. She is also “tremendously thankful” to Marymount’s Center for Global Education, which awarded her a scholarship that helped fund her participation in the program.