Diego Araujo ’17

For Diego Araujo ’17, Franciscan University prepared him for a life of ministering to youth and young adults in need of positivity in their lives.

“Franciscan was a greenhouse that helped prepare me to encounter the secular world by rooting me in my faith,” Diego, a youth and young adult minister at Most Precious Blood Parish in Brooklyn, said.

Diego, who also does youth and young adult ministry work at two other Brooklyn parishes, said his social work professors gave him great advice on how to approach his future ministry.

“They said to meet people where they’re at and get to the core of who they are without having an agenda,” Diego said. “That’s how you build trust with people.”

His experience in Knights of the Holy Queen Household called him “to grow in the ways I needed to my future ministry,” Diego said.

As a resident assistant, Diego saw people at their lowest and was able to comfort and minister to them. When he went on Bronx mission, Diego said the experience showed him what it would be like to minister in New York.

“That mission solidified my desire to throw myself into that culture,” he said. “Franciscan University gave me the spiritual tools to help me become the instrument the Lord desires me to be.”