Matt Zerrusen
Co-Founder & President
In 2009, on the sideline of a University of Illinois football game, I met a Catholic priest. He was the chaplain for the football team. He started telling me about his campus ministry, located just a few blocks away. Soon an invitation came and we were headed in that direction. Now mind you, it was a late night on a college football Saturday. I made the assumption that students would be out on the town. I was wrong. Gathered in the common area of this Newman Center were hundreds of students. Some were playing games, some were studying and others were in what appeared to be a bible study. Having not gone to college myself, I was simply amazed. I asked the priest if these centers existed everywhere. To my surprise, he told me, with the student housing component, "No, we are the only one." I looked at him and said, "Not for long." The very next day I started Newman Student Housing Fund with the idea of bringing inspired living to every college campus in America.
