Although most of these students were born Catholic, many speak of "converting" to this deeper immersion as teenagers. They'd grown dispirited with routine Sunday masses and wanted a more personal connection with Christ. ... conversion is a deeply personal choice, not something by which to measure others. "It's an ongoing experience, a handing over of life more and more to the Lord."
As an Evangelical, I think that if these folks want a more personal connection with Christ and are handing over [more of their] life more and more to the Lord, then I would say this seems authentically Christian.
Conversion as an ongoing process is indeed authentically Christian. But how comfortable you are, as an Evangleical, with the notion that an initial act of faith needs to be a struggle sustained by unending work?