Walking the streets of jolly old London, Abby Wilson, FCLC ’25, spent her spring learning about housing justice, urban development and environmental sustainability. “We engaged with the London Jesuit Centre and Toynbee Hall where we learned more about London’s involvement with the Laudato Si’ — an advocacy movement for social justice,” said Wilson.
This program, organized by the Center for Community and Engaged Learning (CCEL), is called Global Outreach (GO!).
GO!, Fordham’s short-term service and immersion program rooted in social justice and community engagement, is currently accepting applications for the winter session. Students accepted to the program will travel from Jan. 7-14 to California, Puerto Rico, North Carolina, Mexico or Arizona, engaging with members of the community in different ways to learn more about other communities.
“The winter locations are all partners we’ve worked with in different capacities in the past and who we’re looking to strengthen our relationships with,” said Benjamin Medeiros, immersion coordinator for CCEL.
The program started in 1962, when the university sent 27 students to Mexico for the months of June to August, according to Medeiros.
Past students who have participated in GO! have the opportunity to return to the program to serve as a Student Leader, alongside a Fordham chaperone on the trip, which Wilson said she plans to do this winter while serving as a Student Leader on the California GO! team.
“We’ll work with [the Dolores Mission] on immigration and the intersectionality with other social justice issues like health equity, environmental sustainability, et cetera,” said Wilson.
“With acknowledgment to the wildfires, I will really be emphasizing the effects of environmental sustainability on immigrant health.”
GO! said they plan to send teams to five different locations to engage with different communities on a variety of topics and issues.
They will work with Dolores Mission in California. The GO! California team will be engaging with the local community, providing support for various populations including Spanish-speaking immigrants and lower-income families, while also learning about the Boyle Heights Community of East Los Angeles.
In Puerto Rico, the GO! Team will work with Friends of Puerto Rico. The GO! Puerto Rico team will be doing service work at Panorama Farm, learning best practices for coffee farming and having advocacy-rooted conversations about economic justice and social opportunity.
The GO! Mexico team will work with Enlaces Comunitarios Internacionales, a community-run sustainability organization based in Puebla, Mexico aiming to empower local farmers through sustainable ecological practices.
The GO! North Carolina team will work with the Industrial Commons. The team will be working with sustainable circular economic models through the examples of various textile mills, working primarily with Venezuelan and Hmong immigrant communities.
The GO! Arizona team will be partnering with the Kino Borders Initiative, a bi-national, Jesuit organization that provides humanitarian aid to Mexican migrants and refugees in both Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico and is committed to a social and pastoral education for its members.
According to Medeiros, GO! operates in three phases: formation, immersion and sustainable outcomes. Formation consists of group members connecting with each other prior to the trip in order to learn more about each other and the location the group will be going to. Immersion happens on the field as groups engage with the community socially and culturally, demonstrating elements of service, dialogue and advocacy.
The third phase, sustainable outcomes, emphasizes taking lessons learned abroad and relating them back to the Fordham, the Bronx and greater New York communities.
“I hope participants on all GO! projects take the time to reflect on global experiences and how they relate to their experiences in their own communities,” said Wilson.
Interested students can keep an eye out for spring applications, typically released during the latter half of the fall semester.
