For St. John’s University student Thomas Crimmons, becoming an active member of the SJU community has been a pivotal part of his college life.

Crimmons, a senior at St. John’s, is currently majoring in education, a change from when he started as a history major with an education minor.

“I want a job that I’ll be excited waking up and doing every day,” Crimmons said.

Although St. John’s was not his first choice for a university to attend and although he came for financial reasons, he is happy with the decision.

“I’ve been happy ever since,” Crimmons said, “It’s been a great time so far.”

Since he first began his studies at St. John’s, Crimmons has been very involved.

“It wasn’t until I started getting involved that I really started to enjoy high school, so, I told myself that I wasn’t going to let my freshman year slip me by,” Crimmons said.

He is an active member of Campus Ministry, participating in the St. Vincent de Paul Society. During his sophomore year, Crimmons took on the position of secretary and has been the vice president for the past two years. He also assists with the freshman retreats.

“You feel pretty safe there [Campus Ministry],” Crimmons said, “It was just a very welcoming, friendly place. I felt comfortable there.”

During his sophomore year, Crimmons was also a part of the staff of the Spectator, which he would like to rejoin in the future.
Crimmons became a mentor through the Alliance Mentoring program during the spring semester of his freshman year. He continued with it until his junior year and is planning to go back to it next semester.

Ireland became Crimmons’ home for a semester during his junior year while participating in the study abroad program, which he highly recommends for other students. This was a reason for the break-up in some of his school activities.

“Going to Ireland was one of the best experiences of my life,” Crimmons said.

Recently, Crimmons was accepted to the President’s Society, a service organization that works with the president of the university. In this society, he acts as a representative of the student body.

On two different occasions, Crimmons took part in the Urban Plunge Program, where he spent a week living in an inner city area. While there, he got involved in the community by helping in soup kitchens, going to parochial schools, assisting in an education program for adults who can’t read, and also in a secretarial school.

“I can’t imagine anybody actually walking away from or spending a Saturday doing a service project and feeling like they wasted their time,” Crimmons said, “I haven’t had a single bad experience doing service work.”

For his community, Crimmons is an assistant Catholic Sunday School teacher.
This year, Crimmons is employed by Campus Ministry, the same place where he used to spend most of his time during his freshman year. He performs various office tasks such as answering phones, running errands, putting retreat folders together, and basically whatever else is needed.

Campus Ministry is something that Crimmons feels can be beneficial to all students.
“If anyone’s out there looking for a way to feel connected to St. John’s or just a way to get involved, campus ministry is a great place to go to,” Crimmons said.

Since Crimmons has gone through three years of study at St. John’s, he has the insight that enables him to give advice to other students.

“Don’t be afraid to get out of yourself,” Crimmons said, “Don’t be afraid to miss TV or video games or whatever you do when you’re not doing stuff at school. Do something Red Storm-esque.”