CRUX: Following Jesus Together

Crux, North Park’s discipleship group for first-year students, is now under the Center for Civic Engagement. Open to students from all majors and church backgrounds, Crux is a community of students who follow Jesus together during their first year at North Park.

Journeying

Following the example of Jesus and his disciples, Crux students regularly journey together around the city.

Learning

Crux students take two to three classes together in both fall and spring of their first year at NPU.

Partnering

Crux students commit to a year of partnership alongside organizations both on campus and in the city.

its mission of preparing students for lives of significance and service.”

And those students—engaged through real-world learning in the city—love it.

Chase Friel—who graduated in May with a double major in politics and government and biblical and theological studies—served on the Catalyst Student Leadership Board throughout her undergraduate career and worked in the new center. She said she has been “thinking about civic engagement and our role as community members” and about “putting faith into action for the good of our neighbors,” ever since she met Kohng at a North Park Trustee Scholarship competition.

“There is such value in taking the concepts you learn in the classroom, like urban sociology or real estate zoning, and interacting with them in person, with your feet on the ground in the places you have learned about,” Friel said. “Engaging with communities—walking with them as they gain access to needed resources and develop skills for organizational care—is an act of faith.”

The center’s new Community Assets Cohort is a good example of how North Park works with local clergy to support their efforts and community aspirations. It is a partnership between the Center for Civic Engagement and the North Park Theological Seminary’s Lilly-Endowment-funded Academy of Church Leadership, designed to help address economic challenges facing pastoral leaders in the community.

“Honoring the stories of these individuals, seeing their faith in action for their community, and seeing a reflection of the Kingdom of God within the service and labor of our neighbors allows us to see the face of Jesus in a way we never have before,” Friel said. “Loving our neighbors is one of the greatest commandments and directives within our Christian faith.”

Sydney Wirtz, another graduate who also served on the Catalyst Student Leadership Board, said the Cabrini and Pilsen experiences were among her favorites.

“At Cabrini, students walk with a lifelong resident of the neighborhood and see the former housing project turned into multimillion dollar condos and learn about gentrification. One side of the street has brand new, shiny high-rises and businesses while the other is fenced-off, abandoned apartments that were once home to hundreds of people in need of affordable housing, who were forced out and told that the buildings would be torn down to make room for new development,” Wirtz said.

After graduation, Wirtz will serve as a park guide for Pullman National Historical Park in Chicago. The park is the site of America’s first planned model industrial community. It is significant for the sleeping car magnate who created it, the workers who lived there, its influence on rail transportation, industrial innovation, urban planning, and the labor and civil rights movements.

“I've loved working with Catalyst since I first got here,” Wirtz said. “It’s one of the reasons I chose North Park.”