PURPOSE

Learn it, Live it, Share it
After witnessing a successful model in his hometown of Philadelphia, Dr. Nicholas Rossi had a great passion for creating a similar faith and culture center at the Newman Catholic Student Center at The University of Iowa. Dr. Rossi’s desire was to create an environment where current and future Newman Center students are given the opportunity to learn and discuss how faith and culture interface in their daily lives.

An endowment of $125,000 was established in 2017 to fund two speakers a year, led by Dr. Rossi. The annual stipend for the Faith Formation Special Event fellow is paid from an endowed fund Dr. Rossi and his late wife, Helen, previously established at The University of Iowa Center for Advancement.
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Dr. Nicholas Rossi, Emeritus Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
The Center for Faith & Culture will energize and catalyze current activities whenever it can by financing student fellowships and sponsored activities like endowed lectureships in all or any fields of endeavor; students will take part in the planning, implementation and follow-up along with Newman Center staff, UI faculty, and local professionals. The potential is the number of such events is equal to the number of academic fields of study. Students, faculty, Newman Center personnel and local professionals in any area may initiate and promote ideas for speaker forums and programs. 
Thank you, Dr. Rossi for providing the vision to support the Newman Center mission of preparing disciples for the Church and the world!

Meet Our Fellow

to Lead is to Serve

KELSIE TINGLE

2020-21
     Kelsie Tingle is our 2020-21 Faith                   Formation Special Event Fellow  ​
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Kelsie is a senior pre-pharmacy track, biology major-genetics and biotechnology track- and  English minor. She is instrumental in leading special events that help students grow in their relationships with God and discover the call to serve others as disciples for the church and the world.  

Kelsie collaborates with staff and students to plan, promote and execute special events and student retreats.  Her team invites and welcomes students within the Newman Center and beyond the University of Iowa campus. ​
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2019-2020
Jocelyn Zenner, was a senior majoring in biomedical engineering
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2018-2019
Gabrielle Greco, was a senior majoring in history/pre-law
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"I’m very thankful to Dr. Rossi and the Newman Center for providing this opportunity to me and my fellow students. This fellowship provided me with the faith community involvement I was looking  for during my college years. I valued your trust and enjoyed being the first Special Events fellow.”
​Claire Sevenich, 2017-2018
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PATRON SAINT JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

Heart Speaks to Heart
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John Henry Newman as he appeared in 1844, an engraving from a drawing by George Richmond CREDIT: CHRONICLE / ALAMY

​For Saint John Henry Newman, the ideal university is a community of thinkers, engaging in intellectual pursuits not for any external purpose, but as an end in itself. He envisioned a broad, liberal education, which teaches students "to think and to reason and to compare and analyze." Newman held narrow minds were born of narrow specialization and stipulated students should be given a solid grounding in all areas of study. A strictly vocational education was out of the question for him.​
"I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not."  
The Idea of a University by John Henry Newman