When asked to sum up YCP’s impact on him in one sentence, Ryan Stevens, Co-President of YCP Louisville, shared, “YCP has taught me how to better facilitate God’s love in my workplace.”

‍

Ryan was raised in the Southern Baptist church. It wasn't until his time at Bellarmine University that a curiosity about Catholicism began to take root. He started the OCIA process, but stalled out, discouraged by being the youngest person in the room by a wide margin.

‍

He prayed, “Lord, if you want this to make sense, make it make sense for me.”

‍

Not long after, Ryan was accepted to Notre Dame Law School. There, surrounded by a vibrant Catholic community and faithful priests, he picked OCIA back up and was fully initiated into the Catholic Church.

‍

Ryan moved home to Louisville to practice law. But it was 2020, and between a demanding new career and a socially distanced world, finding a Catholic community that felt like home was hard. Slowly, his faith slid to the back burner.

‍

Enter YCP.

‍

One evening scrolling on social media, Ryan came across an ad for a YCP Louisville Happy Hour at Churchill Downs. Maybe this could be his opportunity to find Catholic Community.  Walking into a room of strangers wasn't his idea of a good time, but he saw the potential to find the community he had been searching for, so he went anyway.

‍

He was met with genuine hospitality from the leadership team, ran into the brother of an old college friend, and met people involved in all kinds of local Catholic ministries. It was, he said, noticeably different from every other professional organization he'd been part of. A gathering full of people who were all trying to figure out how faith and career fit together.  

‍

He continued to deepen his involvement with YCP Louisville by attending the Executive Speaker Series events, which have impacted the course of Ryan’s faith and career.  

‍

Spiritually, these speakers left him hungry to learn more about the Catholic faith and dig deeper into Church history.  

‍

Professionally, he’s become a better leader and advocate for his clients, seeing them and serving them as children of God.  

‍

What started as one Happy Hour kept multiplying. Through conversations and connections made at YCP, Ryan found a parish to call home. At that parish, he met his fiancée. A YCP board member took notice of Ryan’s potential and began investing in him as a leader, helping him grow not in his ability to build others up.  

‍

‍

Today, Ryan is at a new job, one that challenges him professionally while leaving room for the faith and family he’s building.  There's a prayer of St. Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers, hanging in Ryan's office, with a crucifix soon to join it. He says he wouldn't have had the courage to put either up if it weren't for how YCP has shaped him.

‍

Ryan's advice to fellow young professionals? Get faith and work right, since that's where most of our hours go, and everything else has a way of falling into place. That's the gap YCP exists to fill: a community for people who are starved for exactly this, learning to live their faith out loud, right where they work.

‍

What started as a single Happy Hour became a parish, a fiancée, a faith re-ignited, and a servant’s heart that he brings everywhere he goes.

‍

Ready to find where you belong?

‍