by Jessica Able, Assistant Director of Campus Ministry
For Tania Vergara-Gongora, faith is not something lived on the sidelines – it is something encountered, shared, and joyfully communicated. Tania, a junior at Bellarmine University, is a marketing major with minors in marketing communications and broadcast, production, and performing. She has found powerful ways to unite her academic passions with her Catholic faith.
This fall, Tania served as a speaker for the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) Pre-Event Digital Discussion and as an ETWN Youth Correspondent during NCYC 2025, a historic gathering that included a live, virtual dialogue with Pope Leo XIV – the first time a pope has engaged young people at NCYC in real time.
Tania’s connection to NCYC traces back to 2019, when she attended the conference for the first time as a high school freshman.
“It was the first time I saw the young church alive and present,” she shared, describing an experience that introduced her to worship music as a form of prayer and ignited a faith journey that continues to shape her life.
Since then, she has returned to NCYC in multiple roles – as a presenter, speaker, lector, Youth Ambassador, and a member of the National Youth Advisory Council (NYAC) from 2022 to 2024.
Her leadership with NYAC led to an extraordinary opportunity in 2022: meeting Pope Francis in Vatican City. In a private audience, Tania and fellow council members shared the realities young Catholics were facing after COVID, including feelings of isolation and a desire for the church to meet youth where they are – especially in digital spaces.
Witnessing Pope Leo XIV’s live virtual dialogue with thousands of young people at NCYC felt like a powerful response to that request.
“It’s a direct testimony that the church really does listen,” Tania said. “Young people are not just the church of the future – we are the now.”
At NCYC 2025, Tania served as both the NCYC Event Ambassador and EWTN Youth Correspondent, roles that allowed her to combine her love of digital media with her call to evangelization. She interviewed young people, clergy, event leaders, and speakers while helping the EWTN media team to capture authentic moments of worship, joy, and transformation for a global audience.
“This year … I had to truly be in the moment and experience them myself,” she said.
Tania’s NCYC journey – from receiving a virtual message from Pope Francis in 2019, to delivering his message to youth in 2022, to helping document Pope Leo’s papal dialogue in 2025 – reflects a faith journey guided by trust and a willingness to say yes.
At Bellarmine, Tania is deeply involved in student life and leadership. She is a third-year intern with Bellarmine’s Development and Alumni Relations Department, a Bellarmine Global Ambassador, and a student fellow in the Character Community and Collaboration Initiating Cohort. She is also active in the Honors Program, BU Catholic, Bellarmine Christian Fellowship, BU Radio, the Multicultural Dance Group, the Hispanic Organization and Latino Alliance (HOLA), and Knights Media Network, where she serves as an anchor for Exploring the Unknown. She was also recently named a 2026 Kentucky Derby Festival Princess.
When asked to sum up her NCYC experience, Tania said it was both a gift and transformative.
“I’m so grateful that the Lord has not only allowed me to experience so much joy from NCYC, but also the opportunity to use the gifts he has given me to serve him – allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through me and share that same joy he has give me at NCYC with others,” she said.
As she looks to the future, Tania hopes to continue using digital media and broadcasting to amplify the voices of Catholic youth, with aspirations of interning with EWTN and pursuing future opportunities in faith-based media.
“My love for broadcasting, public speaking, and marketing isn’t separate from my faith – it’s how I live it out,” she said. “We might just have to take a step back, because if you take a moment to look around, you will find that God is everywhere.”