Senior Diego Dominguez sits inside the USC Caruso Catholic Center, a place he says he didn’t visit at all before his junior year at USC. (USC Photo/Kristopher Head)
Path to purpose
In their own words, Trojans share how they’ve discovered faith and explored spirituality at USC.
Four Trojans, among an increasing number of USC students who are independently seeking religious and spiritual guidance, rituals and community, share first-person stories of their journeys.
Junior Safa Abbas of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting on embracing her Muslim faith
“I didn’t want to blindly fall into a faith just because I was born into it. I was a clean slate except for the cultural stuff, so I took the time to learn about other faiths I thought might interest me. In my first year, I realized that service is what I care about.
“Islam is a faith, a community, where you take care of others and others take care of you. It’s a beautiful feeling, never having to worry about yourself. At the end of my freshman year, I put on a hijab to see how I would feel. I wore it for a month, and I just never took it off after that.
“The biggest thing for me was intentionality. Your hijab is a reminder of your faith and what you represent. For me, that’s service. It’s a reminder of all the things I want to be and do.”
Senior Diego Dominguez of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences on discovering Catholicism
“I didn’t go to the USC Caruso Catholic Center at all before my junior year. I knew I was blessed and in a good place in life, but I was facing a lot of struggles. I identified areas where I wanted to work on myself as a person, and as a child of God.
“I opened up to one of my fraternity brothers who had just gotten baptized. I was talking to him about his training with the faith. A few days later, he gave me a Bible. As I started praying more, reading the Bible helped me realize that I wanted to take the next step: I wanted to get baptized.
“I started going to church, and my parents, who have always been nondenominational, have been very supportive. I convinced them to come out for my baptism. I hope I can inspire them to follow in the faith. My little sister is very inspired by the path that I’m going through. I took her to Mass on Christmas for her first time, and she looks forward to continuing to go. Going to Mass every Sunday is huge. I went to my first-ever retreat, and it was time devoted to — and surrounded by — the faith. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it exceeded my expectations.”
Graduate Gabrielle Weiner ’25 of the USC Marshall School of Business on finding her Jewish faith
“I never had a bat mitzvah. I was busy with tennis, and we never went to temple. I was really shy and didn’t want to have the party. At USC, I was looking for sense of community. My older brother Ben went to the University of Hartford and found community at Hillel (the largest Jewish campus organization in the world). A group of girls I was around were also Jewish, and we started going to USC Hillel as a group. I didn’t go into it thinking I would become a really religious person.
“Growing up, we didn’t do Shabbat or anything, but I immediately liked the tradition of it all. It brought me there every Friday. It became such a fun aspect of my college journey. I learned a lot, it opened my mind to doing the bat mitzvah, and I started attending classes, which were super flexible.
“I had no fundamental knowledge or experience reading Hebrew. We were a three-person cohort and were able to progress pretty quickly. I didn’t realize how powerful that element would be. My parents were proud. They couldn’t come out to California from New York for it, but they wrote nice letters to me, and we have celebrated since I’ve been back home.”
USC Dornsife senior Grace Boyd on their nonreligious spiritual journey and being president of USC Interfaith Council
“I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church while growing up in Forest Falls, Calif. I was curious about other religions because they weren’t really covered very thoroughly in my high school education.
“Once I got to USC, I wanted to study religion from a more secular lens, and I’ve tried to take as many classes in different areas about religion as I can. I have been exposed to all these different worldviews — especially in religiously diverse Los Angeles. It’s made me realize that there were more options out there than just the one that I grew up with.
“The Seventh-day Adventist worldview didn’t resonate with me as a queer person, so I already felt alienated from that. Being at USC and being involved in the Interfaith Council has been really valuable for me. You are able to go to different programs run by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life like a Buddhist meditation, an iftar dinner during Ramadan or a Diwali celebration with one of the Hindu student organizations. I like learning about their practices and their prayers and the rituals. Everyone is pretty open and friendly to you being curious or joining in even if you aren’t part of that faith. As long as you sign up and you know they have enough food for you, you’re welcome to join and explore different spiritual practices.”
