Serving the Community: Catholic Colleges and Youth Mentorship

Catholic colleges and universities strive to form students, staff, and faculty as leaders who are dedicated to serving their neighbors and working together to promote the common good.  In Ex corde Ecclesiae, Pope St. John Paul II writes that one of the four “essential characteristics” of a Catholic university is that it has “an institutional commitment to the service of the people of God and of the human family.” Catholic higher education has made a commitment to serving the community both locally and internationally: In 2013, 50 percent of ACCU member institutions were named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, highlighting these campuses as having “[achieved] meaningful, measureable outcomes in the communities they serve.”  These campuses are recognized as pursuing a meaningful institutional commitment to serving their neighbors.  To put this in perspective, this means that over 100 Catholic colleges and universities were recognized for service to their local communities.

Catholic Social Teaching and Youth Mentorship

Such achievements answer a call for Catholic institutions to serve the human family, with a special emphasis on service to the poor.  In its pastoral letter “Economic Justice for All,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) writes, “The prime purpose of this special commitment to the poor is to enable them to become active participants in the life of society. […] It states that the deprivation and powerlessness of the poor wounds the whole community.” Both domestically and internationally, youth can be the most deprived and powerless members of any given community. As such, students at numerous Catholic colleges and universities strive to work for the common good and serve the community through programs that focus on youth mentorship and education.

Youth Mentorship in Catholic Higher Education

Ursuline College in Ohio is an outstanding example of a successful youth mentorship program. ARROWS (Academic Readiness Requires Outstanding Work and Support) “intends to provide Ursuline College students an opportunity to mentor [local] high school students,” the College explains in a news article, “while offering the high school students support through the completion of high school, and encouragement to pursue postsecondary education.” As Ursuline is an all-female college, the coordinators of ARROWS decided to offer the program exclusively to local high school girls. The effect on both mentees and mentors is profound.

Ursuline College student mentor Eadaoin Cronin highlights the meaning of the program to both the mentees and the mentors, saying “It’s great how we are paired up with a Warrensville Heights [student] and we get to see them develop into successful young women.  We meet with the students around six times per year. During each visit, we talk with our mentees and we monitor their progress.” Cronin added, “The mentors and mentees set goals at the beginning of the year and it’s extremely satisfying when the students reach those goals. …Many of the mentees aspire to attend college and it is our duty to help them achieve this milestone.”

ARROWS clearly fosters a culture of encounter among both Ursuline students and Warrensville Heights students.Through the process of working with the Ursuline students, the mentees learn to take control of their education and thus are empowered to achieve their personal, academic, and career goals.  To both cohorts, the program offers an avenue to grow and develop academically, spiritually, and personally.

Another example of an exceptional youth mentorship program is Fun, Fit, Fridays  at Barry University in Miami, Florida, geared toward local elementary school students. Located a quarter-mile from the Barry University campus, Hubert O. Sibley Elementary School has been participating in Fun, Fit, Fridays since 2009.

According to Andy Havens, the director of Fun, Fit, Fridays and intramural coordinator for the Barry University Department of Campus Recreation and Wellness, the Sibley Elementary School mentees are nominated by their teachers as students who could benefit from mentoring, and are often students with academic or behavioral challenges. These students then spend their Friday afternoons in character-building lessons, physical education activities, creative expression through fine and performing arts, campus tours, homework help, and more, all led by Barry students, staff, and faculty. At the end of each session, the participants take time to reflect on that day’s experience through journaling and sharing their experiences with their parents and guardians.

A Fun, Fit, Fridays participant poses with the Barry University mascot. Photo courtesy of Barry University.

Dr. Darlene Kluka, dean of Barry University’s School of Performance and Leisure Sciences, shared how Fun, Fit, Fridays is an example of how the university’s mission is lived: “We believe at Barry that learning leads to knowledge and truth, and that reflection leads to informed action. …We also have a commitment to social justice, and that leads to collaborative service.”

In addition to these four ideals – knowledge, truth, social justice, and collaborative service – Kluka included “inclusive community” to round out Barry’s five “core commitments.” Fun, Fit, Fridays has developed into a program that comprises each of these five commitments. By assisting participants with academics and etiquette, the program seeks to foster in Sibley students a thirst for knowledge and truth. Havens and Kluka hope this will inspire Barry University students to learn how to more effectively participate in their communities by staying abreast of and involved in current and future social justice and service initiatives. In this way, the dean added, Fun, Fit, Fridays looks to create “opportunities for us to be doing God’s work,” by living out the call to work for the common good of the community.

ARROWS and Fun, Fit, Fridays demonstrate how Catholic higher education serves the youth of local communities. ARROWS seeks to empower young women through academic preparedness and support for entering higher education. Fun, Fit, Fridays provides an opportunity for students to combine their love of sport with their love for their neighbors through education and companionship. By living the call to create a culture of encounter and solidarity between youth and young adults, as well as building a stronger local community, Ursuline College and Barry University exemplify the institutional commitment of Catholic higher education to serve their neighbors.

Justine Worden is an undergraduate student at Georgetown University and the Peace and Justice Intern at the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Connecting Headlines to Hearts and Minds

Connecting Headlines to Hearts and Minds

January is a time for making new plans and setting goals for the semester and year ahead. Looking forward in 2015, how can your campus use Catholic Social Teaching as a tool to educate students’ minds while touching their hearts? What insight does our Catholic faith provide into the events of the previous year?

Many events throughout 2014 could have inspired the hearts and minds of students on your campus. The killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice and the protests that continue to occur around the country called attention to the reality of life in the African-American community and may have led to an important discussion of racial injustice. Additionally, the refugee crisis at the border that intensified over the summer remains on many minds. As thousands of refugees, including unaccompanied children, entered the United States, many were detained in inhumane conditions in detention centers. Other undocumented immigrants remain in society, but live in fear that their world could be torn apart at any moment. Students also may have been inspired by Pope Francis’ teaching on climate change, and news of his upcoming encyclical focused on the environment. Perhaps other events occurred in your community that gave rise to an opportunity for incorporating the Catholic tradition into discussion of current events.

Many traditional-age college students live at a crossroads—they are leaving behind childhood, and moving into adulthood. For many, this process includes realizing society’s failures. The American ideals they were taught as children suddenly do not seem as shiny and bright as they once were. A second version of America emerges—one where social issues faced by those living on the margins—racial injustice, poverty, hunger, among others—are not adequately addressed.

As Catholic colleges and universities, we have a special mission not just to teach young people their chosen disciplines, but also to invoke in them a sense of the Catholic worldview. In Ex corde Ecclesiae, Saint John Paul II called Catholic universities to be engaged with society, read the signs of the times, and act courageously to speak the truth, even when uncomfortable, for the common good (32). Catholic Social Teaching provides the tools to bring students into dialogue with the Church and to engage them on important issues that may have already captured their hearts.

Many of our students come from more fortunate backgrounds, and may not fully understand the “other America” as it exists. We, as Catholic colleges and universities, should seize this moment to speak courageously: Racial injustice persists, and the civil rights movement is history not yet finished. However uncomfortable this idea, we are called to engage and challenge our society: if America is the land of immigrants, how do we justify the treatment of our immigrants today? Although others may hesitate to act, Catholic colleges and universities are called to work for environmental justice, teach care for creation, and promote sustainability initiatives.  As educators in the Catholic tradition, we are called to teach the truth, and challenge and support students as they come to realize that the world is different from what it once seemed.

How do educators aid students in processing the complex situations and myriad responses they see on a daily basis from friends, media personalities, or on Facebook? The texts of Catholic Social Teaching, combined with service experience or classroom activities, can serve as powerful witness to our call to work for a common good that respects human dignity and life. As educators, we should reflect on a few important questions: How do we ask students (and the wider campus community) to view and engage with the world? Do we create enough experiences for our students to meet people on the margin, those that experience injustice in America firsthand? How do we assist students in discovering their own personal role in improving society and working for the common good?

As you and your colleagues on campus discuss these important questions, and implement new courses, programs, workshops, and events to address peace and justice topics, we hope that you will find inspiration in one another, the students you serve, and the people on the margins whom you encounter in your work.

Please consider sharing any resources or success stories with ACCU over the next year—we would love to feature you in our promising practices database or through this blog. We will continue to post news, resources, and upcoming events on the blog to assist you and your students in working for the common good.

Alexandra Weber Bradley is Member Services Associate at the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.