Ignatian Week 2015

“You may not have S.J. after your name, but Ignatius is still your father and you are still part of our family.” (President Fr. Joseph McShane)

Keating Hall decorated for Ignatian Week!

Before I came to Fordham University, I didn’t know anything about the Society of Jesus and I had never met a Jesuit priest. I chose Fordham because I knew I wanted to be involved in community service and an education that prepared me to serve others in whatever career I choose. Fordham has provided me with both these opportunities, but it has also gone so much deeper. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, firmly believed in education as the best means to better serve others. Being an integral part of a Jesuit university doesn’t require any religion; it requires a willingness to search for truth and work for justice, while caring for and understanding others (including our Earth) and constantly bettering oneself. President Joseph McShane, S.J. always says students should graduate from Fordham feeling “bothered” by the world, with the skills and the heart to go out and change it. Each fall, Fordham celebrates Ignatian Week: a week full of activities for us to celebrate the Jesuit tradition of our school and to challenge our own individual lives by learning about and connecting through Ignatian spirituality. 

"Jesuit Storytelling" in the St. Ignatius of Loyola Room

Tuesday evening at the Rose Hill campus, I went to an event titled “Jesuit Storytelling: Three Generations of Jesuits Share Their Journeys”, pictured to the right. We learned about the best and most challenging parts of being a Jesuit from an 87-year-old biology PhD, a graduate professor of religious studies, and a 23-year-old Scholastic who will be graduating from Fordham this spring. Getting to know the Jesuits who live, work, and study at Fordham has been a crucial part to my understanding of being a member of the Jesuit family.

I also attended Wednesday’s dinner event titled “Finding God in Failure: Ignatian Spirituality for Our Dark Nights of the Soul.” College will probably introduce you to more failure than high school ever did, and so it was great for students and faculty alike to hear the presenters’ takes on how Ignatian Spirituality can inform your confidence in the face of failure. Tomorrow, I am really looking forward to attending the lunchtime conversation on “Global Justice and Solidarity.” If you're interested, check out this link to the full calendar of Ignatian Week 2015; these events are all examples of typical events put on by Fordham Campus Ministry.

Growth through GO!

One of the greatest things about Fordham is the various opportunities students have to apply the knowledge and values they learn in the classroom and apply them to real world experiences.  One such opportunity is Global Outreach (or GO!), which sponsors domestic and international service and immersion projects over winter, spring, and summer breaks.  This past winter break, I participated in GO! Mexico, and spent 11 days in the town of Cholula, Mexico with 10 other students learning about the importance of sustainability in areas stricken by poverty.

A field of cacti in Cholula.  Popocatepetl, an active volcano, is in the background.

We were hosted by Community Links International, a non-profit organization that works to educate communities across Latin America how to incorporate sustainability into their lives.  In Cholula, we learned that water is expensive and in short supply, so Community Links is building a community center that will incorporate techniques for conserving water and capturing rainfall.  For example, the land that they are building on is slightly sloped, so they have strategically planned the crops that they will grow to efficiently irrigate the plants as water runs from the high point to the low.

This retaining wall will prevent erosion, which can occur during the rainy season.

Although helping to build the community center was hard work, we had a lot of fun too! One of the goals of Global Outreach is building community, both with our fellow students and with the people in Cholula, and one of the ways we did this was by playing soccer - lots of soccer.  

One of the most memorable experiences was playing soccer with several local families on a Saturday afternoon.  Members of the community - young and old, parents and kids, men and women - joined in the fun.  Although I don't speak Spanish and most of them didn't speak English, playing alongside one another was a very rewarding way to interact and bond.  Participating in GO! Mexico was a unique way to extend learning beyond the classroom, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.

GO! Trip to Navajo, New Mexico

One of the best things that Fordham has to offer is its Global Outreach (GO!) program. This program is completely unique to Fordham and gives students the opportunity to travel all over the world. There are trips to India, Romania, Guatemala, Mexico, and even ones within the US including Nashville, New Orleans, San Diego, and New Mexico. These are just a handful of the many trips to choose from.

GO! is not an ordinary club or organization that you would typically find on a college campus. It is completely student-run and organized and is centered on service to others as well as community, simple living and spirituality. Every week throughout the semester, you will meet with the eleven other people going on your project and get the chance to build amazing friendships with them. This way by the time the trips comes around, you know your team very well and cannot wait to spend an entire week with them.

The beautiful reservation in Navajo, New Mexico

In May I had the opportunity of going on a GO! trip to Navajo, New Mexico. Navajo is home to the Navajo Native Americans in northern New Mexico right on the border of Colorado. My team and I stayed with a welcoming Native American on his reservation that has been in his family for multiple generations. This trip was not only a chance for my team and I to bond and form life-long friendships, but it was also an educational experience. I learned about some of the injustices that Native Americans have faced in the past and how I can help change the dialogue about the way in which people speak about Native Americans. I also learned a lot about their unique culture, which included emersion trips to Pow Wows where more than twenty different Native American clans would gather together and join in traditional dances and other festivities. Living in a tent on a beautiful piece of land for more than a week with my closest friends and learning about a culture completely different from my own is an experience that I am thankful to Fordham for giving me.

My GO! team and I on our last day in Navajo before heading back to Fordham

The great thing about GO! is that you do not have to say goodbye to the wonderful people that you went on the trip with once you return to Fordham. All of a sudden you have a close-knit group of friends that live right on campus with you that you can talk about this unforgettable experience with. I could not recommend more highly getting involved with GO! before your time at Fordham is complete.

Blog By: Abby Collins

GO! on an Experience of a Lifetime!

Here at Fordham, about 90% of the student body participates in community service activities through the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice. The largest community service organization on campus is Global Outreach, or GO! as students affectionately call it for short. Students have traveled all around the world to immerse themselves in four main pillars: community, spirituality, simple living, and social justice. 

In May 2013, I went on GO! Navajo, a project in which a group of 12 of us traveled to a Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, NM. Throughout the spring semester, we met weekly as a group to get to know each other better, discuss plans for the project, and talk about what we want to get out of this experience. We also held PB&J sales on Sundays to raise money for the project--they were also a great time to bond as a team! By the time we were leaving for New Mexico, we had become one, big, happy family! 

Upon landing in Albuquerque, we met our "host mom," Jennifer from Via International, the organization we worked closely with to plan the project. We stayed in a beautiful adobe casita in Santa Fe, where we explored the city and volunteered at a horse shelter. 

Next, we drove to Shiprock and met Larry, the owner of the reservation. Through sessions in the hogon (Navajo spiritual room), sunrise ceremonies, traveling to Colorado for a pow-wow and "bear dance," working in the garden, and constructing an adobe house, we became fully immersed in the culture of the Navajo peoples. We learned that "everything is hozho,"which stresses the importance of peace, harmony, and balance in our lives. 

To conclude our experience, we traveled to Arizona, where we visited the Four Corners National Park and hiked down Canyon de Chelly. 

Going on a GO! project was the best part of my Fordham experience. I made lifelong friends, visited a part of the country I have never visited before, and learned a great deal about myself and the injustices that may occur in other parts of the world. I highly recommend doing one! For information about all projects, visit www.fordham.edu/go 

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