On Purpose is a program of immersive experiences that create space for students to engage in spiritual reflection and intellectual engagement that expands their moral imagination.
Over Spring Break 2025, students will travel to learn and collaborate with partners who demonstrate profound commitments to human dignity in the face of serious challenges, demonstrating tangible love and care toward those on the social margins. These organizations are living examples of how best to wrestle with the question, "What do we owe each other?" Students will have opportunities to discern while on the retreat how we can deepen our commitment to love and dignity back on our own campus, and how encounters with modern day challenges should shape our understanding of the Catholic Social Tradition going forward.
On Purpose immersions are planned for two locations this year.
First, students will have the opportunity to spend Spring Break at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Founded by Father Greg Boyle (author of Tattoos on the Heart and other books), Homeboy Industries is the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry organization in the world. More than being a mere service provider, Homeboy is unique in its overriding commitment to building a community rooted in profound human dignity. On this immersion, students will wrestle with significant questions about what it means to be human and to live in dynamic interdependence with others.
Second, students also have the opportunity to travel to the Southwest and spend a week engaging with Indigenous communities exploring a wide range of issues about the historic and modern experience of Native peoples. In partnership with the American Indian Catholic Schools Network (through Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives), students will visit Indigenous schools as a launching point into life and culture on several reservations across the New Mexico region. The complicated stories students will encounter invite deep reflection about our responsibility for one another and how we pursue shared flourishing as neighbors in our society.
More information about how to apply is forthcoming.
