On Purpose
The application window for Spring Break 2026 On Purpose immersions is now closed.
How can I make intentional choices in response to the person I feel called to be?
How can I become the kind of person who is a force for good?
On Purpose invites students to explore questions of calling through meaningful immersion encounters with people and communities committed to loving those on the social margins. Working alongside and learning from partners who share these convictions, students experience an invitation to a common purpose of loving neighbors, strangers, and even enemies, and consider how this might shape their particular way of living well and in pursuit of the common good.
On Purpose offers students vision, tools, exemplars, and experiences to help them become people who can enact such love in the world and become the kind of people who can actually, and authentically, be forces for good.
Two On Purpose immersions will take place during Spring Break 2026:
- HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES: Founded by Father Greg Boyle (author of Tattoos on the Heart and other books), Homeboy Industries in LA 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. Students will spend time engaging with Homeboys and Homegirls and learning about the Homeboy Social Enterprises.
- PUEBLO COMMUNITIES: Students will spend a week in the Southwest 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 visit Indigenous schools as a launching point into life and culture on several reservations across the New Mexico region.