When Carlson Che Niba boarded a plane in Cameroon following his high school graduation, he carried more than his luggage. He carried his hopes and dreams for furthering his education in the United States.
He also carried deep spiritual wounds. Born Catholic, Carlson had left the faith after tragically losing his mother at age 12.
“I couldn’t understand why God would allow something like that to happen,” he remembers.
Landing in America, Carlson was thankful to have escaped the rising political unrest in his home country. Then COVID hit, and his college entrance was postponed. Experiencing crisis after crisis brought him to a spiritual crossroads.
“I had to regain my life again,” he says. “I asked myself if this was the place my mom, who was a faithful Catholic, would have wanted me to be.”
Carlson went to a nearby cathedral and met Father Peter Van Lieshout ’08, who helped him return to the Church and became his spiritual director.
At Father Peter’s suggestion, Carlson visited Franciscan University. Afterward, he told Father Peter there was no other place he wanted to go. Carlson started praying daily to St. Maximilian Kolbe:
“Please make me go to Franciscan.” When his acceptance letter came in the mail, he discovered he had been awarded the St. Maximilian Kolbe Scholarship.
Now in his sophomore year, Carlson is majoring in social work.
“For me, social work is about a shared brokenness with humanity,” he says. “When I look at the lives of other people, I see myself in them. Through empathy, I can be there with them in their struggles.”
One of the struggles Carlson faced when he first arrived on campus was a sense of feeling out of place, as if everyone else was closer to God than he was. He confided in President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, who helped him find “an amazing group of friends that made me realize who I was. It was really consoling to realize I’m not the only one struggling in my spiritual journey.”
Feeling more at home, Carlson joined the Knights of the Holy Queen Household, started working for the summer conferences, and became an event team member with the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He also started doing small-group intercessory prayer with friends, which led him to discover a new calling: mission work.
“I realized that being a missionary and being a social worker go hand in hand,” he explains. “The best way for me to be a better social worker is by getting connected with my faith.”
Recently, Carlson has been working with a team to coordinate an annual mission trip—to Cameroon. If it pans out, he’ll board a plane this spring for a 16-hour flight, carrying with him his dream of holding conferences, like the ones he’s experienced working at Franciscan and the St. Paul Center, in his native country.
“When I look at my life journey and where I am at this moment, I feel like God wasn’t bringing me to Franciscan just to gain my education and receive the blessing of the faith for myself,” he says. “It was more like receiving it to give it back to my community as well.”
