Ohio Wesleyan Associate Chaplain Earns National Certification

Delaware, Ohio — Kelly Adamson, Catholic campus minister at Ohio Wesleyan University, has been certified by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by way of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, a national professional association for campus ministers.

Adamson is director of Catholic Campus Ministry and co-director of Mission and Vocation at Ohio Wesleyan. She is a resident of Sunbury, Ohio, and has been an associate chaplain at the university for five years. An Ohio Wesleyan graduate, Adamson earned her M.A. in theology from Xavier University and a Post-Master’s Certificate in the Practice of Spirituality from Boston College.

Certification measures a person’s compliance with the Catholic Campus Ministry Association’s competency-based Standards for Campus Ministers. Through a process of self-evaluation, reflection, prayer, and peer assessment, the campus minister demonstrates competency in personal, theological, and professional areas. The campus minister also is expected to demonstrate acceptance of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association’s Code of Ethics.

In the 1985 pastoral letter on campus ministry “Empowered by the Spirit: Campus Ministry Faces the Future,” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops emphasized the importance of having competent, trained leaders for ministry on college campuses. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Catholic Campus Ministry Association’s certification process is an important step in the realization of that goal.

The national Catholic Campus Ministry Association’s standards and procedures for certifying Catholic campus ministers are approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Commission on Certification and Accreditation, with offices in St. Francis, Wis. The Catholic Campus Ministry Association was authorized to certify campus ministers in the name of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Catholic Campus Ministry Association in October 1992. The Catholic Campus Ministry Association also provides publications and educational programs for campus ministers and promotes the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education.

Approximately one out of every three college students is Catholic, according to recent studies of incoming freshmen. Catholic Campus Ministry — formerly known as the Newman Apostolate — serves Catholic college students at more than 1,200 public, private, and Catholic colleges and universities in the United States.