Newswise — Carolyn Braun accomplished a lot while a mechanical engineering student at Rowan University. She received scholarships from the Lockheed-Martin Corporation and the Boeing Company. She served as president of Rowan's Engineers Without Borders-USAâ„¢ and Society of Women Engineers chapters. And along with fellow students and professors, she traveled to El Salvador and Africa to put her engineering knowledge to use to bring clean water to villages.
Though an excellent student with a highly technical mind, Braun will soon stand out even more as she takes on a whole new "habit" just a few months after graduation.
In September, Braun will enter the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), a Catholic order dedicated to teaching.
"Nowadays, there's more and more to do in the Catholic Church as a young person. I feel empowered," the 24-year-old said. "The Catholic Church needs to be set on fire, and young people have a natural fire about them. They're young, they're excited about life and motivated, they're not skeptical or worn down by bad experiences or pessimism. The more young people we get involved, the more optimistic and energized the Catholic Church will be."
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostate Catholic Poll, less than one percent of Catholic women seriously consider entering the religious life, proving Braun always stands out, even within the Catholic community. A Catholic her entire life, Braun has been just as involved in her faith as her engineering training. Her knowledge and love of the church stem from her upbringing in a large Catholic family and from a Catholic education. While in high school, the Telford, Pa., native was involved in St. Maria Goretti Parish in Hatfield as a lector at Masses, president of the youth group and member of the pastoral council.
At Rowan, Braun has been active in the Newman Club, serving as president for a year and as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, aiding clergy in distributing communion to congregations and the sick.
Braun first thought about entering the religious life in fifth grade but didn't seriously consider it until seventh or eighth grade.
"I was taught by the sisters at the Catholic school I went to, and so I was very familiar with them. But I assumed they were boring or all they do is pray, and I thought that was horrible," she said.
Her perspective changed when the school principal offered her a tour of the convent, the first time Braun realized the sisters were "real human beings." After a lot of personal research and talking directly with the sisters about their everyday lives, she started to seriously consider entering the convent. Throughout high school and college, Braun intensely considered her future possibilities and discussed them with a vocation director.
As a new graduate, she looks back on college and describes leaving as both good and bad. "I understand my role in general better, as well as my role in the church, and my vocation is more solid," she said.
Braun dismisses the concerns that she will miss out on traditional life experiences. "I'm not concerned about missing the married life, kids or anything," she said. "It's not the life I feel called to. I don't see myself as married. I have dated quite a bit, so it's not like I haven't tried that. I've looked into it and found that it wasn't for me."
She also disputes the idea some people have raised that she's wasting her engineering education. "When you first go into engineering, you think you're going to design and build stuff and work for NASA, which was my ultimate goal," Braun said. But she knows that her education is applicable to several different areas, including math, physics and chemistry, which she can teach.
"I hope to give students real-world problems so they can't say 'what do we use this for?' By showing how physics is used in engineering, physics problems can be way cooler," she said. This summer, Braun worked at TriState HVAC, in West Conshohocken, Pa., where she was an operations engineer.
Next month, she will begin an eight-year formation process in the IHM community. During this period, she will live in one of the communities of sisters, focus on prayer and discernment, study theology and earn her teaching certificate.
After the formation period, she will take the solemn vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. At that time, she will be a professed sister and work in the order's missions in North and South America.
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