When the spirit moves you: Students on finding religion and connection at USC

The Alumni Park lawn looked like an outdoor church on Feb. 18 as more than 100 people gathered for a special Ash Wednesday service close to the Tommy Trojan statue on USC’s University Park Campus.

The Rev. Matthew Wheeler, his magenta robe flowing in the breeze, said to the crowd of students, faculty and staff: “We’re here today not to put on a show or draw attention to ourselves. We’re here to gather as a family of faith and humility.”

That so many students turned out to have ashes placed on their foreheads — marking the start of the Lenten season for Catholics — comes as no surprise to Wheeler, pastor of the university-affiliated Our Savior Church and USC Caruso Catholic Center.

“Something’s going on,” Wheeler said at an interview a few days prior. “The [students’] parents were not the ones dragging them to Mass this morning. Every single one of them chose to be here.”

The spike in Catholic participation is part of a broader surge in religious and spiritual life at USC fueled by Trojans who come to campus unaffiliated with a religion and are now seeking meaning on their own, says Varun Soni, USC’s longtime dean of religious and spiritual life.

This academic year, 51% of new USC students voluntarily identified themselves as unaffiliated with any religion, up from 35% nearly two decades ago.

“A lot of these students aren’t walking away from religion,” Soni says. “They were never raised with it — they’re seekers.”

Across USC, religious and spiritual leaders say participation is climbing: Catholic Mass attendance rose 17% over the past year, Muslim iftar meals draw up to 250 students during Ramadan, and weekly Shabbat dinners are more popular than ever. In February, Shabbat 1000 — an annual event spearheaded by Chabad @ USC that brings together the university’s Jewish community — drew approximately 1,500 people.

In addition, more than 500 students are taking mindfulness classes during the spring 2026 semester, sign-ups for classes with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have tripled in the past year, and attendance is up at Hindu holy celebrations such as Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali.

“I did not think that this would be the year that we’d be in our golden age of religious life,” Soni says. “I’ve been here 18 years, and I’ve never seen numbers like this.”

USC meets the moment

The university’s infrastructure has proven to be well-equipped to support this boom in spirituality, with its staff of campus chaplains and 90 overseen religious groups — more than any other university in the United States. They include Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints groups and more. 

USC’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, headed by Soni and Senior Associate Dean Vanessa Gomez Brake, emphasizes inclusivity and the integration of spiritual life with academic pursuits. Soni is Hindu, and Gomez Brake is a humanist — and that, Soni says, is significant in the history of university chaplaincy.

“Because of who we are, we have expansive perspectives on religion that serve our students really well,” Soni says. “We’ve been building the office to meet this moment of religious diversity and curiosity.”

A welcoming, inclusive approach

The office continually creates spaces where students from diverse backgrounds can gather, express themselves and feel a sense of belonging. It has its own building, partnerships, collaborations and an organizational structure to recognize and fund student groups.

“It’s a universal human need to make meaning out of this life,” Gomez Brake says, prefacing how their office engages with students. “Our programs are expansive and want to invite everyone in, whether they see themselves as religious, spiritual or secular.”

One example is the Tuesday morning coffee gatherings in the University Religious Center’s student lounge. Hosted by various religious and spiritual groups, the gatherings are a space where students from different backgrounds meet informally.

“Everybody comes together over coffee, over tea,” USC Campus Imam Shaikh Muzzammil Dadabhoy, the university’s inaugural director of Muslim life, said during a recent hour that he hosted. “People sit together for the first time, and you hear things like, ‘Oh, I’m pre-med too.’ There’s a nice commonality among students of different groups and backgrounds.”

At a coffee hour held in March, freshman Sumia Dawla of the Keck School of Medicine of USC praised USC leadership for making it easy for Trojans from different faiths to regularly interact.

“Whether it’s the same religion or a different religion, it’s a place of being comfortable,” Dawla says. “It’s so important to have a space like this. Everyone is here to gather and talk, and I’m really glad students here at USC do that.”

Students seek tradition amid volatility

Many religious and spiritual leaders at USC agree with Soni’s assessment that Trojans are seeking community, tradition and comfort from sources that were not a major part of their upbringing.

They point to such reasons as the post-pandemic environment, geopolitical and climate volatility, and the changing nature of the workforce.

“Students are making these decisions about the future, and it’s all existential questions,” Dadabhoy says. “They’re here at the university critically thinking and asking, ‘What is my purpose in life? Where am I going?’”

Wheeler, a USC alumnus who came to campus in his current position in 2024, has seen the same trend. “The world today is kind of scary for students,” he says. “There’s a lot of pressure to succeed, and a lot of upheaval and division. Students have shared that they look at the outside world, and it seems to be falling apart.”

Kelsey Driggs, coordinator of the Institute of Religion for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says their Tuesday night classes resonate with Trojans because they focus on scripture relevance and address family and relationships.

“I have had the most tender experiences of people just looking for belonging and connection with other students,” Driggs says. “But it’s deeper than a social search — it’s spiritual. They’re trying to figure out what their moral compass is while making these decisions about who they want to become.”

Formalizing religious belief

For many students, the discovery — or rediscovery — of religion and spirituality has gone beyond attending events and being part of organizations; it has progressed to training and study.

“I noticed a wanting to publicly express Jewishness,” says Senior Jewish Educator and Campus Rabbi Jocee Hudson of USC Hillel. “There’s a desire to connect to a tradition that they don’t yet know.”

That desire is leading to action: Students experiencing Shabbat dinner for the first time have sparked a deeper commitment to other Jewish rituals, such as b’nai mitzvah, a celebration that marks the transition to Jewish adulthood.

Among them was Gabrielle Weiner, who graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business last December. Weiner started attending Shabbat dinners at USC Hillel during her freshman year, and it became a regular Friday night ritual.

“I was seeking community and not applying as much attention to religion,” says Weiner, who took classes through USC Hillel’s Student B’nai Mitzvah program, which involves in-depth study of Hebrew and Jewish texts. “But I learned a lot and it opened my mind to doing the bat mitzvah. I didn’t realize how powerful that element would be.”

Senior Diego Dominguez of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences began reading the Bible, attending church services at Our Savior Parish and taking classes through the USC Caruso Catholic Center during his junior year.

Dominguez soon realized he wanted to be baptized, receive First Holy Communion and be confirmed in the Catholic faith. He studied through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults program that the center offers, which begins in the fall and concludes with sacraments during the Easter season.

“Sometimes I wish I was raised in the faith, but I also think it’s a beautiful thing that I wasn’t,” Dominguez says. “It has allowed me to learn so much more about the faith, to have all these questions and get them answered.”