NUrturing Faith

Sharing Stories from LCMNU

Spring 2026

Finding Home: Delaney Caudill

When Delaney Caudill of Chariton, Iowa, was in elementary school, her family moved from one small town to another, but still drove 30 minutes back to her home church, Good Shepherd Lutheran, because of the caring community there. “It was a fun place to grow up,” she recalled.

Delaney, now a junior at Northwestern, became interested in medicine in middle school and felt called to focus on mental health. When the COVID pandemic struck during high school, she binge-watched “Grey’s Anatomy,” finishing 16 seasons in 31 days. She started researching the best pre-med schools in the Midwest, and Northwestern came out on top.

“Being from a small town, not a lot of people apply [to Northwestern],” Delaney said. “A lot of people told me, ‘You’re crazy for applying.’ And I thought, ‘Well, I’m just going to try and see what happens.’”

To her delight, she was accepted to Northwestern. Her pastor encouraged her to seek out campus ministry and wrote down LCMNU’s information in a graduation card.

When Delaney got to campus, she met Pastor Deanna at the student organization fair and learned they had a mutual friend from Camp Ewalu in Strawberry Point, Iowa.

“I knew I wanted to continue going to church and have a balance with work at Northwestern,” Delaney said. “Moving from a small town to a big city, LCMNU served as a place to make friends and connections, especially with older students. I felt really at home here; everybody was super welcoming.”

While Delaney felt at home at LCMNU, adjusting to Northwestern proved to be more difficult than she anticipated. She no longer had lifelong friends nearby, and, having come from a high school without Advanced Placement classes, she questioned whether she really belonged.

“My first quarter here, fall quarter freshman year, I really hated it,” she recalled. “Not LCMNU, but just Northwestern. I didn’t have many friends, and I wasn’t getting out of my dorm much. It wasn’t everything that I had pictured in my head. LCMNU served as that home on campus where people are actually my friends and want to get to know me and connect.”

Despite this rocky start, Delaney loved her psychology classes, leading her to major in Psychology with an adjunct major of Global Health Studies. She now juggles a full schedule of activities—working as a manager at Norris University Center, volunteering weekly as a mentor in Chicago Public Schools, and staying involved with her sorority, Dance Marathon, and the exec board of the national undergraduate psychology honor society.

LCMNU remains Delaney’s spiritual home on campus. She serves as the Communications leader on the Student Leadership Board and works part-time as the communications assistant, preparing bulletins, emails, social media posts, and flyers. Working in the office has added to her appreciation for LCMNU and all that staff and volunteers do to support the students.

“It’s been a wonderful experience to give back to a ministry that has given me so much,” Delaney said. “It also has taught me a lot more about my faith. Learning background information, reading books, and doing the 21theo Bible study has really aided in knowing a lot more.”

“LCMNU was vital in my transition to Northwestern,” she added. “It has served as a place to ground me and help me figure out how I want to lead my life as I go into adulthood. It’s given me a community apart from academics. I have authentic conversations about silly topics and deep topics. It’s not something that you find everywhere on Northwestern’s campus.”