Emilia Tanu Chornay, GIVEN ’21

Please share a little about yourself – feel free to include a fun fact!

I am a wife and mother of two young children, living and working in NYC. I love living out my lay vocation in service to the Christ, His Church, and the world! It’s been one of my greatest joys to be a witness of hope and flourishing in a city where you are challenged to confirm your convictions everyday. I try to let people know that I am truly happy living a life of self-gift. A fun fact about me is I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia and had a profound experience of the universal church very early on in my life!

Describe your professional work. How were you led to this? What are you passionate about?

My role at Seton Teaching Fellows is to lead our formation team so we can provide the opportunities, environment, and resources for our Fellows to grow in leading an integrated life as an apostle of Christ the Teacher. This practically looks like designing our formation curriculum and structures, coaching our Formators, mentoring Fellows one-on-one, organizing formative experiences like retreats, and developing partnerships with many in the Church who can provide formation for our Fellows.

I was led to this role by the suggestion of one of my mentors in the school I was working in at the time, she saw potential in me and encouraged me to apply for this role! I am forever grateful to her mentorship for seeing my unique gifts. I am truly honored to be in my role- it’s a passion of mine to help lay people love their lives, not their life in an ideal, but to truly love their lives in reality.

What are the personal strengths that you’ve been given and how do you utilize them?

Some personal strengths I’ve been given are my gifts of discernment, tenacity, and creativity. I use all three of these to generate new ideas for our team, execute our work excellently, and discern how the Lord is calling us to serve others with our time and resources.

What women inspire you, and why?

A particular woman that inspires me is Chiara Corbella Petrillo. Her story of ordinary faithfulness to the Lord’s will as a lay woman is extremely inspiring to me! Holiness is not optional!

Are there friends and mentors that you depend upon? How do they support you?

I depend so much on my colleagues and leaders- I can ardently say that I learn from them everyday.

Prayer is essential for everyone, but especially for women who are active in the life and mission of the Church. Do you have any favorite devotions or prayers?

I love the Examen. As a Mom, my prayer life looks different from when I was single, but I will always do an Examen everyday to make time to remember where I encountered the Lord in my day.

Do you have a favorite inspirational quote?

“We are all ‘good people,’ but something has got to change! Mary herself, after the Annunciation, was a different person. And so, the Christian vocation should carry something radically, profoundly different from what other people have.” – Fr. Luigi Giussani

What were your key takeaways from the GIVEN Forum?

To trust in the special way God has created me and thus to be able to confidently share myself with Him and others!

What was your GIVEN action plan? Describe its mission, audience, and impact.

My plan was to create professional development for secular teachers that was related to formation around the transcendentals. Ultimately, my action plan became part of the portfolio I submitted for my job interview for my current role in formation. It’s impact is found in the several years of formation our Fellows have experienced in the STF Program.

Could you tell us a bit about what motivated or led you to develop this action plan? Was this something that you had on your heart prior to this past year or was it something you developed through the GIVEN program?

I wanted to be able to communicate the ideals of Christian formation into professional development for teachers that could be universally applicable regardless of one’s religious beliefs. This was something on my heart at the time when i was still teaching at a secular school.

What were some of the fruits you saw from your action plan? What did you find most fulfilling in this process?

The fruits I saw were 1) my own discernment to courageously pursue a new career path – I switched from teaching to ministry, 2) being able to translate my action plan into my actual work!