Annie Martino '29

by Annie Martino '29 on October 8, 2026

Student Congress held another busy general assembly, opening with the guest speaker, Providence College Chaplain Father Simon Teller, O.P., who shared “What TikTok and Saint Thomas Aquinas Taught Me About Leadership.” 

For most of his life, Fr. Simon didn’t use social media—in fact, his upbringing strikes many as the opposite of “trendy”: homeschooled. However, the young priest took up various platforms to promote the Dominican Order and Campus Ministry, making the friars more relatable to those they interact with and teach on campus. Fr. Simon discovered the slippery slope of social media, where promoting a greater aim through your posts falls second to promoting yourself. For Fr. Simon, this meant losing sight of what actually matters: serving others and promoting God. The content of his posts and videos didn’t change, rather his intentionality did. He began asking, “Will this do well, or will it have a positive impact in people’s lives?” This phenomenon is coined by Saint Thomas Aquinas as the vice of vainglory, when status supersedes service, and personal good is put above the greater good. Fr. Simon used the example of a congressional campaign to demonstrate how noble intentions can be corrupted by vainglory: you may begin a campaign out of service and living for others, but it can devolve into living for yourself, what Fr. Simon referred to as “aura farming.”

Fr. Simon prescribes the antidote for vainglory: worship. Worship is the acknowledgement that there is someone greater than you. It changes the mindset that “I am the most important thing,” as self-promotion can’t be more important than the promotion of God. When you put first things first, everything else falls into place, and we do so by worshiping God every Sunday. As Fr. Simon said, “If you want to avoid putting yourself before others, put God before all else.”

Following Fr. Simon’s speech, the Executive Board welcomed the class of 2030, while the newest Class President, Nate Paul ’30, gave his class a call to action, reminding fellow congress members to “not just sit on the sidelines,” but to take advantage of the opportunities, friendships, and power for change invested in them by their peers. Other announcements included the Sunday, Nov. 1 date for Pumpkinfest, with more information to come!