A key part of our community is our four FOCUS missionaries! (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students). Each has dedicated at least two year to spreading the Gospel on the college campuses of America! Their outreach to campus includes evangelization, Bible studies, and one-on-one leadership training. If you’re an undergraduate student who would like to join one of their Bible studies, please e-mail the missionaries at gw@focusonline.org or stop by Newman Center.
Our 2012-2013 FOCUS Missionaries!
check back soon for the team’s bio’s and pictures!
Nick Lee, Team Leader
Nick was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. He credits his love for Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church to his incredible parents, his three siblings, and his grandmothers. Having attended the Benedictine prep school, St. Louis Priory, where he was surrounded by a group of incredible monks who lived a life of “ora et labora” (prayer and work), he decided to leave St. Louis for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. At Vanderbilt, Nick studied Literature and Secondary Education with hopes of pursuing a career as a high school Literature teacher and to coach basketball and soccer. In college, Nick saw his friends falling away from the Catholic Church at an alarming rate and decided to serve the Church as a Catholic missionary on college campuses.
Nick served as a campus missionary with FOCUS for three years at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. This summer, Nick transferred to GW to serve as the FOCUS Team Director. He is pumped to be here!!!
Nick loves playing soccer, basketball, and cornhole in his free time. Nick’s ideal Sunday is starting the day off with a long hike, finding a new coffee shop where he can read and write, talking on the phone with his nephews, and worshiping the Lord with the GW community.
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Dan Grossano
Dan was born and raised in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. The oldest of three, he was born into a family with a strong Catholic background. He attended a Jesuit high school and there discovered a love for the poor and those who suffer injustice. This was what inspired him to study social work and minor in political science at Ramapo College, a small state school in New Jersey. As a freshman, Dan became involved with the Catholic student organization on campus, a Campus Crusade Bible study and prayer meeting. He started learning more about his faith, the Theology of the Body and he became more excited about being Catholic. Then he met a young woman named Michelle who inspired him by her wonderful witness to a Christ-centered life and eventually she helped to mentor him in his deeper conversion to the Catholic faith. Dan became the president of the Catholic student organization in his junior year which gave him more experience in Christian leadership especially with investing in the lives of fellow students. He enjoyed this type of work and wanted to continue with it after graduation so he joined FOCUS upon his May 2010 graduation. He is currently in his third year serving at GW. Serving in FOCUS has allowed to him to grow in faith, have experiences and meet people that he would have never otherwise. Some of his interests include learning about theology, philosophy, apologetics, the Theology of the Body, politics, playing the drums, community service, the outdoors and volleyball.
Samantha Deschane
Samantha comes from Madison, Wisconsin, and true to her origins, she loves the Wisconsin Badgers, Green Bay Packers, and cheese. Her deeper origins consist of two amazing parents and four brothers, who answered her prayers for sisters by marrying three women, and threw in two nieces and a nephew for joy’s sake.
Samantha fiercely loves snow, and delights in praising the Lord by dancing, sewing, kayaking, singing, and playing volleyball. She graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in Family Studies in May 2012, and is happy to have been led to Washington, DC to introduce young adults to her best friend and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Katie Brady
Katie’s hometown is Lee Summit, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, where she lived with two loving parents, one younger brother, and two utterly adorable dogs, Penny and Bella. Before answering God’s call to FOCUS, most of Katie’s time was occupied by planning ways to occupy the time of children ages 12 and under, as she prepared to be a teacher. She graduated from Benedictine College in small-town Atchison, Kansas, with degrees in Elementary and Special Education in May 2012. Even though she is now in Hippo/Colonial territory, she will always and forever be a Raven.
Katie loves to cook, bake and discover new recipes on Pinterest. Her recent favorite is amaretto cheesecake, complete with sliced almonds and gooey caramel strategically decorating the top. She has a passion for pretty much all purple products, and is rarely seen without a headband atop her curly hair. Katie also enjoys dancing, being crafty, ice cream, Zumba, thrifting, card games, and road trips.
Washington, DC is very different from her small hometown, but she is excited to be here at GWU and see how the Holy Spirit is calling her to serve the students and young adults on campus!
Check out their Facebook page!
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