Global Outreach! Program, Fordham University

Global Outreach (commonly known as GO!), is a student led organization sponsored by Fordham University and dedicated to educating students AbOUT issues of social justice and individual responsibility through service trips to global and domestic locations. Separate progams on each campus currently sponsor 27 annual trips ranging from Thailand to East New York, and dealing with such diverse issues as public health, affordable housing, migrant labor, and disaster relief.

Before 1980

Over the course of many years, a series of unconnected and largely unorganized service projects were undertaken by Fordham students, faculty, and administrators. The most consistent location was Mexico, where team members assisted in Providing medical services in area clinics. The actualization of these trips depended on the interest and number of participants, which varied from year to year. At the end of the 1950's, these projects began to incorporate construction work as well. The Campus Ministry Department eventually initiated its own service projects to Peru and Appalachia, independently of the ongoing Mexico project. Like the Mexican counterparts, the execution and success of these Campus Ministry-organized projects varied greatly.

1980-1990

By 1988 the tradition of service abroad was becoming well established at Fordham University. The year to year consistency of the existing service projects was becoming more and more solidified. Up until this time, service trips were all run by different organizations on campus. The rising level of student interest and the growing complexity that it took to organize such endeavors soon made it evident that a new, more focused, organizational staff would have to come together. In 1988, Father Paulbrant, SJ committed himself to this purpose. The New name of the club was the "Mexico Group Project." Mexico and Peru were the two most complex projects that the club offered, other satellite projects were still provided that solely served the United States.

1990-2006

Global Outreach, in its currently recognizable form, was not established until 1990. Interest in service abroad reached such high levels that, once again, a necessity for the club's expansion became evident. Dave Phillipson, an administrator at Fordham, organized the first board. The purpose of this board was to expand levels of participation and service opportunities for the student body. They began by initiating projects with the Navajo, in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, as well as the first cross-Atlantic project, in India. Now encompassing a more advanced palette of locations and work sites, the name Global Outreach was adopted.

Current News

Global Outreach is currently playing a major role in Fordham's ongoing response to Katrina. Each campus is offering a GO! trip to New Orleans in the 2006-2007 school year with plans to continue those efforts annually. At the same time GO! is continuing to expand its international program.