Living the Mission

Laudato Si’: A Fordham Green Plan

Pope Francis issued a new imperative to our world to act courageously in addressing climate change. This bold and visionary approach asks all Catholic institutions to holistically transform over the next seven years to stave off catastrophic global warming.

Learn More View Our Action Platform

Change yourself. Then tackle the world.

Who we are determines what we do. We seek knowledge and engage with society. We strive to find God in all things. We are committed to the spirit of inquiry and curiosity even when—especially when—we don’t know where the answers will take us.

A Jesuit education means living a life beyond self, helping to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, heal the sick. Service is a critical part of who we are - so much so that it’s built into our curricula.

Nurturing the Jesuit, Catholic approach to education is the work of our division. We help everyone at Fordham grow spiritually through reflection, dialogue, and service. 

At Fordham, service forges the person you become. We hear it all the time from our alumni and current students: Fordham gives them the tools to not only make a positive change in themselves, but also a positive change in the world.

 

Looking for information on Urban Plunge? Head to the Center for Community Engaged Learning's webpage to learn more!

Urban Plunge Students - LG

Campus Ministry Center for Community Engaged Learning Center on Religion and Culture

What Does Living the Mission Mean to You?

Fordham students talk about what Living the Mission means to them.

Living the Mission News Articles

Remembering Paul Brant, S.J., a Champion for Bronx Renewal

Remembering Paul Brant, S.J., a Champion for Bronx Renewal

As a young man, Paul Brant, S.J., earned a degree in engineering—preparation, he hoped, to join a Jesuit mission in Peru building earthquake-resistant housing. It was a combination of the deep empathy and solution-oriented practicality that defined his life, explained Roger Hayes, a friend of Father Brant’s since seminary in the 1960s. “He cared a [...]

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Racial, Gender, and Ecological Justice: ‘A Deep Link’

Racial, Gender, and Ecological Justice: ‘A Deep Link’

Melanie Harris, Ph.D., a leading scholar in Black feminist thought and womanist theology, spoke at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus on Wednesday, April 26. In “Ecowomanism, Justice, and the Work of Planetary and Self Care,” Harris, a professor at Wake Forest University, made the case that race, gender, spirituality, and ecology are deeply intertwined and talked [...]

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In Ignatian Community of Practice, a Chance to Reflect on Service

In Ignatian Community of Practice, a Chance to Reflect on Service

Service has always been a core part of Fordham’s Catholic American Studies concentration, a selective program designed to give undergraduate students of any major a deeper appreciation of the historical, theological, and cultural manifestations of Catholicism. But this semester, the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, which supervises the program, partnered with the Center for [...]

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Fordham Kicks Off Faith Fest, a Campuswide Multifaith Celebration

Fordham Kicks Off Faith Fest, a Campuswide Multifaith Celebration

At the beginning of this school year, new Fordham President Tania Tetlow led an interfaith prayer and picnic that was open to all. Erin Hoffman, director of campus ministry for Lincoln Center, said that the popularity of the event really drove home the need for more multifaith offerings. “For such a long time, we felt [...]

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Agents for Change: Alumni, Students Reflect on Global Outreach Experience as ¡GO! Celebrates 60 Years

Agents for Change: Alumni, Students Reflect on Global Outreach Experience as ¡GO! Celebrates 60 Years

When Jade Catherine Petalcorin traveled to Mississippi through Fordham’s Global Outreach program last year to learn more about the foster care system there, she joined a long tradition at the University, one that has helped thousands of students engage with communities, take action on social issues, and forge their postgraduate career path. “It’s a humbling [...]

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Theologian Proposes Reimagining Our Place in the Natural World

Theologian Proposes Reimagining Our Place in the Natural World

In a wide-ranging lecture on March 21, Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., made a case for rethinking humankind’s relationship with the natural world. “We need to change from thinking that we are masters of the universe to realizing that we are siblings, or kin, with all other beings in the community of creation, loved by God,” she [...]

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Fordham Experts Weigh in on Pope Francis’ First Decade

Fordham Experts Weigh in on Pope Francis’ First Decade

Ten years ago on March 13, following the shocking resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the world got another surprise: the elevation of a Jesuit, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., of Argentina, to the role of pontiff. Taking the name Francis, he became the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first [...]

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Undocumented High Schoolers Intern at Fordham through Beyond Rising Program

Undocumented High Schoolers Intern at Fordham through Beyond Rising Program

This summer, Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) will help reprise and expand the youth program Beyond Rising, which it runs with Oyate Group, a community partner. The program offers paid internships to undocumented immigrant high school students who live in the community around the university. The program is designed to fill in a [...]

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Center for Jewish Studies Launches Bronx Jewish History Project

Center for Jewish Studies Launches Bronx Jewish History Project

In the first half of the 20th century, the Bronx was home to hundreds of thousands of Jewish residents, many of whom had immigrated with their families in the late 1800s and early 1900s from Europe. More than 600,000 Jewish people lived in the borough in the late 1940s, but by 2003, just about 45,000 [...]

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Curran Center Lecture Explores Thomas Merton’s Affair–and His ‘Complex’ Humanity

Curran Center Lecture Explores Thomas Merton’s Affair–and His ‘Complex’ Humanity

Thomas Merton’s humanity, humility, and complexity are part of what drew Gregory Hillis to him in the first place. So it’s fitting that Hills, a professor of theology and religious studies at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, would want to explore a particularly complex part of Merton’s life: his affair with a nurse. Merton, an [...]

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Living the Ignatian Mission at Fordham, One Program at a Time

Living the Ignatian Mission at Fordham, One Program at a Time

In more than 20 years at Fordham, Robert Parmach, Ph.D., has worked to incorporate Jesuit values, teachings, and practices in all of his roles, which have included first-year class dean, professor, leader of the Manresa program, and GO! leader. In his new role as the inaugural director of Ignatian mission initiatives in the office of [...]

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