I never expected one week in a place I once lived would transform me and my perspective on living globally. Coming back to Rome as an International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) Global Citizenship Fellow rather than as a resident gave me a completely different lens on a place I thought I already knew. On day one, a fellow mentioned: "You can never be lost when the world is your home." That idea became the theme of the week.
During our workshops, we learned to confront difficult conversations in a way that allows all involved to grow. We practiced dialogue that recognizes disagreement doesn't have to mean division. One workshop in particular taught us how to trade rigidity for receptivity, responding to opinions not with a rebuttal but with "Let me see if I got this right" to prioritize listening. Throughout the week, a quote from a fellow—"Without vulnerability there is no courage"—stuck with me and shifted the core from bravery to the ability to listen and be changed by what others say.
We carried these lessons with us—at the dinner table, wandering through the streets, and on runs. Our visits to the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), the Vatican Museum, and the Papal General Audience showed us how spaces of service, social justice, and faith are tied together in Rome and have been for centuries, long before the term "global citizenship." At JRS, we discussed the idea of accompaniment and staying beside someone as they endure struggles rather than offering assistance from far away. This term has followed me throughout my Jesuit education, and I believed I understood it thoroughly, but through my conversations, I learned the difference between accompaniment as an idea and an action; this continues to inform my work as I volunteer and live at an asylum shelter in Mexico this summer. The friendships and connections I made with fellows around the world are things I will carry with me not only in my heart but in my spirit and mind. Through conversations with fellows, I learned that struggles across communities worldwide are more interconnected than we realize. I fostered an even deeper understanding of cura personalis, and that crises around the globe are not far off from those in my own community.
In my own university, Fordham, and within the Bronx, I plan to take the idea from our workshops of speaking across conflict. In the clubs I lead and at community gatherings, I want to help create spaces where students and community members can disagree without disconnecting, and where listening is treated as seriously as speaking. The accompaniment that has defined my summer in Mexico is an idea I want to bring back to Fordham by showing up consistently for people rather than treating service as a single event. With these conversations, I hope people will begin to realize, as I have, how challenges around the world are more local and connected to us all.
The most wonderful thing about this experience was the people I met, mentors and friends from around the world, all of whom challenged me to view global issues through new lenses from the countries and cultures they came from. I left Rome not just with memories of a city I loved, but with a renewed understanding of what it means to belong to something larger than any one place. Another quote from a fellow that will stay with me: "Look at where you are. You are winning." When we have the opportunity to listen and be changed, we are always winning.
