Angela Postage

If you told me in seventh grade, ‘When you’re older, you’re going to want to be a missionary,’ I would have laughed,” says sophomore theology major Angela Postage. “I was not strong in my faith growing up at all.”

Back then, her world was soccer. She started playing at age 3 and became more competitive every year. Religion wasn’t on her radar—until her mom started listening to Catholic podcasts, attending daily Mass, and going to adoration when Angela was in junior high. Seeing her mom grow closer to God inspired Angela to do the same.

“My mom is one of my biggest role models,” explains Angela.

At her mom’s suggestion, Angela began volunteering at church, helping teach third-grade religion classes and serving on the Diocesan Youth Council. To her surprise, she discovered she had a passion for evangelization.

“It was so natural for me to talk to people about things that made me feel really vulnerable, but at the same time, I knew what I shared would help somebody else,” she remembers.

She started to dream of becoming a missionary someday.

When it came time to choose a college, she accepted an athletic scholarship to play soccer for a Catholic Division II college, hoping to major in theology there. But in her freshman year, fall sports were canceled, and the school didn’t have the theology major she was looking for—so she was neither playing soccer nor growing in her faith. She started to think about Franciscan, where she had attended two youth conferences in high school.

Angela called her friend Sydney Lorentz ’22, who had served with her on the Diocesan Youth Council and was a Franciscan catechetics major and Division III athlete. Sydney encouraged her to call the head soccer coach, Sarah (Schriner ’18) Salamida. Coach Sarah told her the team goes to Mass and Holy Hours together, and the team’s core values are rooted in Christ.

“That one phone call told me I was going to the right place,” Angela says. Arriving at Franciscan in fall 2021, she found everything she’d been looking for.

“I’m growing more than I ever have in my spiritual life. And I have more missionary opportunities than I ever could have asked for.”

This summer, Angela will spend six weeks teaching children as a Totus Tuus missionary. Then she plans to keep playing soccer for Franciscan while she works toward finishing her undergraduate, then master’s degree in theology and Christian ministry through the 4 + 1 program.

After that, she is looking forward to fulfilling her dream of doing full-time mission work. She hopes to volunteer with FOCUS, Damascus Youth Camp, and anywhere else God leads her.

“I see the potential in teens and young adults,” she explains. “I just don’t think all Catholic youth have the support they need to understand and carry on their faith—and I feel called to give them that support and help.