Senior strategic communication major Anna Hendry said she found an avenue not only for faith and worship, but for friendship as well when she joined the student religious organization Student Mobilization, or “Stumo” back in 2010.

“For me, it was an answer to prayer because there are people you can really relate to,” she said. “It’s very diverse […] and hanging out is fun.”

Student Mobilization is open to all denominations because loving and sharing with everyone is the objective of this organization, Hendry said.

Compared to other student religious organizations, Student Mobilization is not as well-known in the TCU circle, senior communication studies major Jane Imaizumi said.

Imaizumi, whose friends are members of Stumo, said Student Mobilization tries to develop their program by getting to know people rather than advertising through big events.

“It’s more of a quiet movement,” she said.

Student Mobilization’s TCU chapter, which was set up in fall 2009 by TCU graduate Kendal Rader, took a more personalized approach to faith and worship.

“They didn’t start with large-group worship or meetings,” Rev. Angela Kaufman from TCU’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and Minister to the university said. “They started with small groups, individuals first. They started with small dinner gatherings and worship groups and grew from there.”

Its campus ministers, couple Stephen and Lacey Click, who met Rader in Oklahoma, moved to Fort Worth to support Rader as she attempted to establish the organization on the TCU campus.

According to the Student Mobilization’s official website, the organization was established as a non-profit ministry in 1986 by Steve and Carol Shadrach. Currently it hosts chapters at 10 other campuses in the country, including the University of Texas and Kansas State University.

According to the website, Student Mobilization targeted key campuses in the South Central United States to “reach and mobilize college students to become laborers of Christ.”

Every summer, chapters of Stumo come together in Panama Beach, Florida, for a nine-week ministry discipleship program called Kaleo. At Kaleo, all the different campus chapters have the opportunity to meet with each other and celebrate their faith and mission together on the sunny beaches of Florida, Hendry said.
Student Mobilization hosted other events nationally and locally as well, such as Student

Mobilization Conference, which was the venue where Hendry was first introduced to the mission.
Annual local event Encounter, a five-week program that includes bible study and worship, will take place at the Brown-Lupton University Union on Sept. 21 this year.
From member to board, Hendry now serves on the leadership team for TCU’s Student

Mobilization. The leadership team meets weekly to plan monthly events and gatherings for its members, Hendry said.

Hendry said the work and people she is involved with are amazing.

“It’s full of life and awesome people,” she said. “I’m ecstatic about it. It’s just fun.”

No membership fee is required to join Student Mobilization. All that is required is the passion to serve people, Hendry said.

“Basically our mission is to share the love of Christ with people,” she said. “Love on people and do life with people and that’s basically it.”