Recent graduate Joseph Anderson ’26 is always up to something. On any given day during his four years as a student, he could be found leading the Student Activities Council, serving as a resident assistant, organizing a new student initiative, or stopping in the middle of campus for a long conversation with a friend. But amid his many projects and interests, Anderson found time to launch something with an impact far beyond Christendom’s campus. Driven by a desire to serve those in need, he founded Omnia, a student-led works of mercy project dedicated to helping the Front Royal community.
Anderson is the fourth of his family to attend Christendom, having observed the effect the college had on his older siblings, starting with his oldest brother.
This story comes from the latest issue of Instaurare Magazine, the official magazine of Christendom College. Read more from Instaurare here!
“I started to see a change in [my brother] every time he would come home for break—just him becoming more and more the man he is today.” Anderson recalls. “We started having these conversations that I didn’t have the vocabulary for at the time.” Nonetheless, these conversations about life, morality, and faith planted a seed in Anderson that made him start asking questions.
His brother responded with an (at the time) maddening answer: “That’s a good question. You should ask that.” This sentiment would stick with Anderson as he followed his older siblings to Christendom, asking questions and looking for ways to find answers about faith and philosophy.
Anderson was met at Christendom with a plethora of formative experiences, including ministry to the homeless and mission trips to Mexico and Honduras. Though all were profoundly impactful to his spiritual growth, he describes Honduras as especially eye-opening:
“It was intense. It was an incredible calling to bring you out of yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re comfortable, or whether you are commensurate to the problem you’re facing, because you are not.”
Anderson assisting with construction in Mexico.
In his week serving in a hospital in Comayagua, Honduras, Anderson witnessed poverty, disease, and suffering. He also saw a profound love of God even in the people’s lack of access to the sacraments. He found their joy in Christ to be inspiring, despite their impoverished circumstances.
“It was hugely formative. It sticks with me to this day.” Though he felt he had little to give, he tried to be as present as possible, and to let God take care of the rest.
After leaving Honduras, Anderson had trouble settling back into his regular school routine, as he kept thinking about the poverty, hardship, and profound love for Christ that he had witnessed. He found himself thinking about Mother Teresa’s call to those who are considering mission life— “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”
Anderson reasoned that if he looked for need in his own community, he would find it.
While all these things were brewing in the back of his mind, Anderson received the offer of Student Body President during his semester studying abroad in Rome. Immediately heading to St. Peter’s Basilica, he prayed it over and accepted.
With all the new responsibilities, discussions, and ideas that came with being Student Body President, Anderson kept thinking about mission and service. As had become a habit since that conversation with his brother long ago, he kept asking good questions and looking for answers. He was also encouraged by the example from his father to always leave something better than how he had found it, with a cheerful disposition and strong work ethic.
“My dad taught me the importance of doing something just because it is good to do, and that sticks with me,” he shares.
Ultimately, Anderson concluded that what he wanted to do went beyond the Student Activities Council and would be something new and separate. After countless discussions with Student Life staff, the idea of a service-based student initiative was born. Echoing the sentiment of the college’s motto, Instaurare Omnia in Christo—“Restoring all things in Christ”—they settled on the name Omnia—“All Things”. Anderson recalls speaking about the project with Student Life, as well as College President Dr. Harne, and was met with support and encouragement.
Anderson in a chapel in Comayagua, Honduras, on a Christendom Mission Trip.
“Suddenly,” Anderson recalls, “doors just kept opening.”
The Christendom website describes Omnia as “a Student Initiative run by a group of students that focuses on creating works of mercy, primarily on the surrounding community as a whole, but also will have a few campus-specific events.” Omnia focuses on serving the community, responding to the needs, no matter how big or small, that come their way. Omnia works to find opportunities, opening them up to the student body, asking any Christendom student to help if they can. And they do, offering their time and energy to help the larger community. Anderson says, “I did not realize how big this was actually going to be.”
After lots of prayer, planning, and determination, Omnia completed its first service project: painting, cleaning, gardening, and organizing at a local school—finishing in hours what would have taken an already busy staff months.
Once the first service project was underway, momentum quickly built. Anderson describes the process of setting up an email and beginning the process of looking to help: “It started with one email. And suddenly, they started flying in … and we’ve been able to help so many of them.”
He continues, “There have been students who approached me after an event and say, ‘We need to do more of this. This is exactly what I want to do.’”
Seeing the effect of the services has been profound, both for the Omnia members themselves as well as the people they assist.
“There’s not just poverty in Honduras, in Mexico—there is need everywhere. That was pretty affirming that other people were seeing the same things we were and saying we need to help.”
Throughout the process, Anderson brought in several fellow seniors who believed in the mission he was forming. In particular, Anderson credits two fellow seniors who would be crucial to getting Omnia off the ground: Anna Hsu and Regina Cousino.
“Omnia is indebted in a very special way to Anna and Regina, who both put serious effort into helping me do this.”
Hsu was instrumental in getting the project going from beginning to end, and Cousino developed a weekly system for visiting local families to help them with whatever they needed. Despite the busy nature of senior year, both Hsu and Cousino saw the value of the project and gave their time, effort, and talent unreservedly.
“The campus community needed a way to reach out to others, and I have been privileged to help provide a way for students to engage in these works of charity,” Hsu says. “The mission of Omnia is to bring Christ to the broader Front Royal community through our actions. This type of silent evangelization will encourage people to learn about Christendom College and wonder why the students are so joyful.”
Cousino agrees, saying:
“The truth is, receiving requests for help, and being let into people’s homes to encounter their humanity, and in our own humanity, be able to offer ourselves and our humble help to them, has been an astounding thing to experience, and I am not sure who is receiving more.”
Students smile outside John Paul the Great Montessori Academy after the completion of the first Omnia service project.
Looking back on her time at Christendom, Hsu is grateful for the fulfillment she has experienced with Omnia.
“I have met so many people and seen the joy that we can bring them,” Hsu says. “Through these Omnia projects, I have experienced a deeper sense of joy than during my other years at Christendom. As I graduate, I want to apply what I have learned through my experiences on Omnia to form the type of person I will be in the world, and I am excited to see how Omnia grows in the future,”
Since its conception, Omnia has completed dozens of service projects, both large and small scale, involving large numbers of the student body with each project.
“The idea that to whom much has been given, much is asked is something that really sticks with me,” says Anderson. “And the idea of caring is something I always return to.”
Ultimately, for Anderson, Omnia is about caring.
“To truly love and truly give of yourself means you have to put your heart into it, despite however imperfect that heart is,” he says. In addition, Anderson remains inspired by Matthew 25:23:
“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in small matters, I will set you over much. Come, share your master’s joy.”
Anderson gave his all to Omnia, as well as to serving as student body president. He graduated in May, majoring in philosophy and plans to pursue medicine as a physician’s assistant, determined to do whatever he can to serve, whether in body or in soul. Omnia is only one of the legacies he leaves at Christendom, as he goes on to continue to see to the needs of those around him and to not count the cost.
Written by Lianna Youngman
Read more from Instaurare Magazine here.