In the age of doomscrolling, a new Christian storytelling initiative is aiming to fill the UP community’s feed with faith and hope.
In December 2025, the university received a grant of more than $2.86 million to fund “Hope Works: Stories from The Bluff, Portland, and Beyond,” a Christian storytelling campaign awarded by the Lilly Endowment Inc., a nonprofit organization that frequently funds religious initiatives.
As the title suggests, the project is designed to spread a message of hope and faith, targeted towards a Gen Z audience. Shannon Mayer, physics professor, co-director of the Garaventa Center and member of the Hope Works team, says that the project will revolve around what faith and hope looks like in the UP community.
“So what does it mean to be in your mid 20s on the West Coast in 2025 and be a person who's thinking about faith and how faith intersects with life,” Mayer said.
The four-year grant funds 10 short-form, “Instagram-ready” videos per academic year featuring students and young alumni, according to Mayer.
While the project is still in its planning stages, the short-form videos are expected to begin publishing in the fall of 2026.
In addition to digital content, the team will host one live storytelling event during the spring semesters of 2027-29, which will be modeled after The Moth Radio Hour, a popular form of live storytelling.
Some stories will also be printed in Portland Magazine. Mayer, who first learned of this grant last fall, quickly reached out to Jessica Murphy Moo, editor of Portland Magazine and director of storytelling, hoping to collaborate.
“She forwarded it over to me and said, ‘This sounds like you. This is what the magazine does. Let's talk,’” Murphy Moo said.
Mayer’s instincts proved correct. Storytelling is vital to Murphy Moo’s role on campus, which she noted how the university has a longstanding tradition of telling stories that “you can’t shake.”
Murphy Moo hopes to continue that tradition of compelling storytelling through this project.
“There's this saying that the shortest distance between two people is a great story, and we've sort of seen that happen over and over again,” Murphy Moo said. “These are really positive, inspiring stories that young people will be leading the community to, so our hope is that it builds community and connection.”
Other members of the Hope Works team include Clare Kennedy from the Moreau Center, Fr. Nik Guiney and Fr. Peter Walsh from Campus Ministry and Daniel McGinty, director of the Dundon-Berchtold Institute and executive director of the Opus Prize Foundation.
Like Murphy Moo, Guiney was recruited through an email from Mayer seeking collaborators to help shape the initiative.
As a “zillennial,” Guiney brings photography experience with what he calls “little goofy films” to the team.
He believes that storytelling can be powerful among young people, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. He hopes that these videos can offer hope amid online negativity.
“I hope the stories we tell are beautiful and special, and have that moment of pause where you get to stop doomscrolling and be able to reflect for a second,” Guiney said.
Murphy Moo echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that she and the team leave planning meetings feeling more energized and hopeful after discussing impactful stories.
“There's a lot of bad news out there right now,” Murphy Moo said. “We get to focus on really amazing people doing amazing things that lift other people up, [and] our hope is that the hope [from the videos] is infectious and that it inspires the viewer.”
Kaylee Monahan is the Copy and Opinions Editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at monahan26@up.edu.
