Genuine Gift | Victoria Vance loves to hang out with students. It's not a job she walks away from at the end of the day—it's her life. As a youth, when friends excelled at dance or singing, Victoria wondered what she was good at. Today everyone agrees her forte is developing people.

Victoria Vance walks in the door to her central California home, plops her backpack in a chair and plays back seven phone messages. Tucking the phone between shoulder and ear, she calls people back while making dinner.

When one of her disciples—Jessica Lee—arrives, Victoria hangs up the phone. Jessica sighs as she eyes the broiled tuna, pulls the ring off the floral cloth napkin, and runs her finger along the place mat—not your typical college fare. Weary from pulling an all-nighter to finish an art project, the senior liberal-arts major welcomes time with Victoria over a home-cooked meal.

As Jessica spears broccoli and spinach bathed in an Alfredo sauce, Victoria asks how her relationship with God is going. After taking in every word of the answer, Victoria inquires about Jessica's physical and emotional health. By the time dinner is over, Jessica walks away refreshed by Victoria's hospitality and ready to take her next steps with the women she leads.

Victoria's life is her ministry. From the moment the Campus Crusade for Christ staff member finishes spending time with God in the morning until her head hits the pillow at night, the consummate extrovert effortlessly loves people. And they thrive around her. Her disciples dub the alone time they spend with her "Tori time."

The reformed tomboy speaks fluent Swedish and goes nuts if she's home alone on a Saturday. Since arriving at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Victoria has spurred people to lead. In 1994, when she met Christians who thought the 30 students in Campus Crusade were cliquish, she challenged them to join and change that. She focused on gathering outgoing students with a heart for God and the ability to lead others.

Both her director and associate campus director left in 1996, and Victoria became the de facto leader. Her first move was to give the students more ownership. "When students help shape something," says Victoria, tucking her red hair behind her ears, "they're more motivated to be a part of it."

She pulled together the then-60 students and the two new staff members—Ken Virzi and Erin Ednie. "We want to give the 16,000 students at Cal Poly an opportunity to hear the gospel as a stepping stone to reach the world," says Victoria. "What do we do to get there?" She turned the reins over to the students, with Ken and Erin as coaches.

Go Mustangs! | Cal Poly San Luis Obispo sits midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and only 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Pronounced San "LOO-iss" Obispo, the mission city of 43,000 was founded in 1772 and named by Spanish friars in honor of the 14th-century bishop of Toulouse. Due to mild temperatures year-round, Victoria usually meets students outside the bookstore between classes. Amanda "Wig" Orwig (right, with Victoria) leads a Bible study of sophomores who all have groups of their own. "I do with them," she says, "what Tori does with me."

"Students run our movement," says Amanda Orwig, one of Victoria's disciples and leader of a Bible study of sophomores who all have studies of their own. "Staff members oversee, but students own it."

When Jamey Pappas came in the fall of 1998 to take the role of director, he soon adopted Victoria's philosophy of student ownership. "Our students love God, love people and are committed to our mission," says Jamey. "We now have more than 100 Bible-study leaders with the future of our movement in their hands. If staff members start to talk about doing something new, Victoria's the first to say: 'We've got to involve the students in this decision.'" Since Victoria set foot at Cal Poly, the ministry has grown by 2,000 percent.

People love being around her, partly because she engages them and actively listens. Sitting across a table from fellow staff member Christine Bowen in the Avenue—Cal Poly's cafeteria near the university union—Victoria asks about Christine's relationship with God, about her physical and emotional well-being, and how coaching students is going.

Christine says she's struggling with believing God to bring students to a fraternity and sorority retreat planned for the weekend. Only 10 people had signed up. "I've hit overwhelmed mode again and I don't like it," says Christine, nearly in tears. "I thought it would look different this quarter. Am I being the most effective?"

Victoria leans forward, as if unbroken eye contact will catch any tear that drops. When Christine finishes, Victoria pulls out her yellow-lined pad of paper, asking questions to help Christine see through the fog. As Christine evaluates what went wrong, Victoria writes down items to remember for the future.

"How can you change things this quarter?" Victoria asks.

"I'm wondering do I really need to meet all my leaders every week?" Christine responds.

"What are you doing, where you can take your disciples with you?" Victoria says.

Within a few minutes, Christine figures out solutions to her time management. "Tori gives me tracks to run on," says Christine, "especially when I'm freaking out. She keeps us in line with our purpose."

Girl Talk | Victoria splits her time developing the staff team, discipling students and overseeing the women's side of the movement. Her authentic relationships with God and others attract people to her and, ultimately, to the Lord. Jennifer Moulton, a friend since second grade, remembers Victoria showing Christ's love to her at a time when she strayed from God: "All my other friends pointed their fingers at what I did wrong. Victoria kept in touch, asked how things with God were going, and listened. She really sticks by."

By listening, Victoria helps leaders figure out their next steps. But she doesn't stop there. She speaks the truth in love. As a freshman, Allison Hardy attended Victoria's Bible study. She took partying more seriously than her faith, and Victoria confronted her. Allison got ticked off and stopped coming.

Yet later, Allison knew who to come back to. She now works alongside Victoria as a Campus Crusade staff member at Cal Poly.

"I appreciate that Victoria will sit there as long as it takes to get through conflict," says Ken. "She's committed to people, their well-being and the well-being of the relationship."

Victoria coaches women leaders to deal with conflict as it crops up. If they get stuck, she "walks them through" how to resolve the conflict. "We don't confront," says Victoria, "because we don't care about the relationship. If I did something and no one ever told me, I wouldn't grow."

There's one area that more than one person has pointed out to Victoria. "She feels a constant tension," says Jamey. "She loves to be with her girls, but she needs to also give attention to details for the whole movement. She tries to do too much."

"Most of the time I overload myself," says Victoria, "and there are things I can't get to." Like going to the grocery store. After a weekend retreat, Victoria tore a paper towel to use as a makeshift filter for her coffee maker so she could enjoy her morning cup of java. But cutting things from her schedule comes difficult for the Southern California native.

She was born in 1971 to parents who had been set up on a blind date after her mother came to Vermont from Sweden as an au pair. Victoria and her older brother, Joachim, grew up in Lomita, Calif. When asked as a child if she wanted to marry a millionaire, she replied: "No, I want to be one."

This goal started to change in high school. One of Victoria's church friends met one of her friends from school. Learning they both had a friend named Victoria, each started to describe her. They concluded that even though names and physical descriptions matched, it couldn't be the same person. Startled by her own mixed persona, Victoria went off to college in Santa Barbara, Calif., with a new goal: to be consistent in character.

The economics major got involved with Campus Crusade. After a year, staff member Kathy Burke took Victoria aside and told her she was good with people. "She challenged me to be a greeter," says Victoria, "and then later to lead the weekly meeting team. I wouldn't have put myself in leadership." That summer Victoria went on an international summer mission project where she decided to join the staff of Campus Crusade.

Today, she's itching to take some of the now-600 students overseas and stay for more than just a summer. She hopes to go on a yearlong mission in Sweden. She's familiar with the language and culture from spending every third summer there with her family (an agreement her mother made with her dad when she agreed to marry him and live in the United States).

With Victoria's passion for people, she can't see herself doing anything else but ministry. Her director can't either. When Jamey moved his family to Cal Poly, they stayed with Victoria while looking for housing. "We couldn't find anything and were disappointed," he remembers, shaking his head back and forth. "A couple of Tori's roommates were graduating, so she offered her place."

"This is what you really need," Victoria said of her three-bedroom rental close to campus. She gave them her house and went on a summer project.

After returning in the fall, Victoria looked for a place to live. She ended up staying with Jamey's family for four weeks, then bunked with some students until she found a rental. "She sent us gift certificates for letting her stay with us while she looked," says Jamey. "That's Tori."