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There were doubts. How could there not be? When Joreen Belocura moved from El Paso, Texas to Southwest Florida four years ago to attend Ave Maria University she was alone at a school that was unaccredited, at a campus that was temporary and in a student body that was 100 students smaller than her high school.

After she arrived, the doubts remained. There were temptations to leave, she said, moments when she wondered just where she and her family had entrusted her education. Over time, inside and outside the classroom, she learned there were some benefits about going to a new, ambitious Catholic school. She could impact the school in its most formative years and it could form her in ways she hadn’t imagined.

“There’s an anticipation about being able to help start things,” said Belocura, a 22-year-old biology major and history and chemistry minor. “To help shape the university in a way you can’t do at Harvard, Georgetown and Notre Dame because they’re so established. But there’s something attractive about helping to form a culture in a very real way.”

Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Ave Maria University will graduate its fifth class in Southwest Florida and first at its permanent campus in eastern Collier County. Eighty-five students will receive bachelor’s degrees, 10 have earned master’s degrees. They will walk during commencement exercises held in the Ave Maria Oratory at the town’s center.

One of those graduates is Belocura, who has heard everything, good and bad, about the school since she arrived. Her response to those who question a decision to attend Ave Maria? We’re normal, but our perspective is outside the mainstream and unapologetically so.

She’s become a defender of her faith and said her experience served as an example of the school’s potential.

“You come out of this place more open-minded than when you come in, whether you want to or not,” she said. “I think that adds to the normalcy of the place. We watch the same movies, watch the same TV shows, listen to the same music. It’s just that faith is an integral part of our lives.”

And so Belocura’s going to try to change modern culture from within. She argues against scientific progress for progress’ sake and against using reason without a foundation beneath it. She had a variety of experiences at Ave Maria, including serving as this year’s student body president. She learned to navigate bureaucracy and work with the administration. Next year, Jeremiah, her younger brother and a rising junior, will take over the presidency.

Meanwhile, Joreen Belocura plans to take a year off and work at her mother’s medical practice in Texas. While there, she’ll take the LSATs and try to enroll in law school in fall 2009.

Whatever her career path, she said she owes much to Ave Maria and hopes one day to serve on the school’s board. She expects the questions about her school and her faith to continue. She’s prepared for that.

“If it starts with why do we believe what we believe, that’s OK,” she said. “That’s the fundamental question anyway.”