Stephanie Formenti, Covenant’s new vice president of Student Development. Photo courtesy of Covenant College Marketing Department.
Stephanie Formenti, as of February 1, 2024, is serving as the vice president of Student Development for Covenant College. Formenti currently serves as the Chapel Associate for Discipleship. Part of her current role is to minister to Covenant students and disciple them in their walk with Christ. Formenti explains that “this need arose out of an awareness that over half of Covenant students are women, and it was becoming clear that the college was in need of a woman on staff to handle discipleship and ministry to Covenant’s female students. There has been a desire for a female equivalent to the job which our chaplain does. I have helped run the SMCs and identified female speakers for chapel. These roles require a more ministerial aspect, but the thread which spans from both my current role and this new one would be discipleship,” Formenti said.
Currently, there is nobody selected to replace Formenti, but she will continue to fill the role while she steps into this new position with Student Development. For those who are not aware, Brad Voyles’ former position was the vice president of Student Development, and the position has been vacant since he stepped in as our president.
Formenti graduated from Covenant in 2004 and then went to seminary. She has been in both formal and informal ministry contexts in many places. She said, “I was on the mission field, was a stay at home mom, taught English in Brazil, so I’ve been all over. But my job six years ago was my first time on staff at Covenant after seminary.”
For Formenti, this promotion was not necessarily something she was going after, but she feels that the Lord has called her to this new role. Taking this next step is an act of obedience for Formenti, and she is happy to do it. “My life has been like the Lord illuminating a path for me. It feels like the Lord has given me direction, but there have also been sharp turns. This feels like one of those sharp turns, but one that I am happy to take.”
Formenti explains that she wants the co-curricular experiences outside of the classroom to be fun and educational but also formative to aid students in becoming more mature with robust faith in Christ. “I believe that community and ministry can be implemented in ways that are not only serious, and that there are ways to implement this in a way that is fun,” Formenti said. This new role will have lots of responsibility. Formenti will be overseeing lots of different aspects for the students and working with other leaders in those areas. “All of this I will be doing with the heart of discipleship,” Formenti said.
When asked about her goals in this new position, she says that “there is a lot I have to learn, and there is a great team in place which I want to learn from. I have ideas for the role, but I am also ready to support the good things which are already happening.”