Service
Fordham Prep partners with many local Bronx organizations, including the Mercy Center. Here students deliver goods donated during the Prep's annual participation in the Great Ignatian Challenge.
When St. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions designated education an apostolate of the Society of Jesus, their goal was to empower students to "find God in all things." They believed forming students with the ability to discern God's presence in the world would further the Society’s universal mission to "help souls" for "the greater glory of God."
Today that ideal of Ignatian education is expressed in the phrase "educating men and women for and with others." Students at Fordham Preparatory School are called to wonder, to reverence and to thank God, and to serve all of God's creation, especially their sisters and brothers in need.
Fordham Prep's Christian Service Program is responsible for organizing a curriculum, programs, and activities that provide students with opportunities to recognize, appreciate, and live out this vocation. Students are required to perform service both in group settings and individually each of their four years at Fordham Prep.
Service Requirements
In 1973, Rev. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, the then Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) addressed the 10th International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe. He stated that Jesuit education's "prime educational objective must be to form men-for-others; men who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ—for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors".
Essential to Fordham Prep's mission is the creation and formation of "men for others". Students are required to perform acts of service during their four year experience. In freshman and sophomore year, they are required to perform service in group settings. In junior and senior year, they are responsible for individual service hours.
Freshmen, in their mentor groups, will band together to create and seed a new fund to help people in distress. Freshmen will be introduced to a number of agencies, including POTS, that provide emergency relief to people who are one setback away from dire straits. They will hear stories about people who could have been spared a devastating turn if short-term assistance had been available. The service efforts of our freshmen to collect funds and materials will represent a “bridge over troubled waters” for our neighbors.Service Immersion Trips
In addition to the four-year service requirement, students can also apply to travel to Camden, NJ, the Appalachia Mountain Region of Tennessee, and Quito, Ecuador, to live in communion with and to provide material assistance to residents in need. Our young men do much-needed building and home repairs for people who are not able to do or afford the work. Lasting from a week to ten days, most of these trips take place in the summer.
To learn more about Christian Service Immersion Trips to Camden, Tennessee, and Ecuador click here.
Social Justice Initiatives
"The mission of the Society of Jesus today is the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement.” (General Congregation 32 of the Society of Jesus". Responding to this mission Fordham Prep's social justice initiatives aim to form students who are committed to justice by inviting them to assess critical issues of justice through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching and Ignatian spirituality. The Assistant Director of Campus Ministry for Social Justice works closely with a student-led social justice committee to plan events and programs for the community.
For more information about these programs, visit our Campus Ministry page.
Meet the Christian Service Team
Abby Pochiraju
Titles:
Director of Christian Service
Departments:
Religious Studies, Christian Service Program
Email: