OUR VALUES

Walking along Sacred Paths

Jonah shares a Navajo landscape story in Monument Valley-Navajo Tribal Park, March 2022. Photo by student, Roan Regnier.

Our Values and the Road Through Xavier

To learn more about how Xavier Expeditions aligns with the heritage, values, strategic initiatives, and teaching methods of Xavier University, scroll down to discover:

  • “The Road to Xavier”

  • “The Road through Xavier”

  • Xavier as a “Laudato Si University”

  • Xavier’s Ignatian Heritage.

The “Road to Xavier”

Xavier Expeditions is a leader among liberal arts institutions in offering immersive-learning experiences to extremely remote and ecologically sensitive places. OUR MISSION is to inspire our students to be the change, to be men and women for others.

New Friends, New Perspectives

Xavier student learns how to shape knives the Mbuzu way, Kavango West, Namibia, June 2022. Photo by Roan Regnier

Xavier Expeditions is a truly unique learning immersion program among undergraduate institutions in North America. There really is no program quite like us! Our expeditions facilitate experiences and thoughts that often are too deep for words.

While you need not be a Xavier student to participate, Xavier Expeditions is one more reason why becoming a Musketeer will be the best 4 years of your life! To learn how to become a Musketeer, visit the “Road To Xavier” or click on the below button.

The “Road Through Xavier”

Xavier Expeditions contribute to a student’s “Road Through Xavier.” Picking-up where the “Road to Xavier” leads off, our expeditions offer high-impact learning experiences throughout students’ university careers. This begins with a First-year Seminar opportunity and is followed by various expeditions offered each year from Africa to the Arctic.

“Road” to the Greenland Icecap

Students on an Icebreaker on the way to Eqi Basecamp, Greenland, July 2022. Photo by Dr. Leon Chartrand

Plus, expeditions are open to every undergraduate major because the courses we offer are CORE Curriculum. And since our CORE courses vary from expedition-to-expedition and from year-to-year, students can realistically participate in up to five expeditions during their undergrad careers.

While you need not be a Xavier student to participate, Xavier Expeditions offers life-changing experiences for our students that will truly highlight the Xavier 4-year experience! To learn how Xavier Expeditions can positively impact your “Road Through Xavier”, click on the below button.

Xavier, a “Laudato Sí University”

Ignited by Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Sí: On Care for our Common Home, Xavier University is actively committed to the Pope’s Seven-Year Journey towards integral ecology and to the development of strategies that “demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (LS 139). The Laudato Sí Initiative is a major component of Xavier University’s Strategic Plan, which involves a Laudato Sí Action Plan addressing the below Seven Laudato Sí goals.

Standing with Mountain Gorillas

Dr Leon standing near a Gorilla family with Silverback in the background, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda June 2022.

  • Response to the Cry of the Earth

  • Response to the Cry of the Poor

  • Ecological Economics

  • Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles

  • Ecological Education

  • Ecological Spirituality

  • Community Resilience and Empowerment

Our Ignatian Heritage

Xavier Expeditions is a program within Xavier University, a Jesuit Catholic university rooted in the liberal arts tradition. Our mission is to educate each student intellectually, morally, and spiritually. We create expeditions within an inclusive environment of open and free inquiry, and we strive to offer experiences that prepare our students for a world that is increasingly diverse, complex and interdependent. Driven by our commitment to educating the whole person, promoting the common good, and serving others, Xavier Expeditions seeks to participate on our university’s mission to cultivate lives of reflection, compassion and informed action. This mission is driven by seven core Jesuit Values, which are presented in the image below:

To learn more about Xavier’s Jesuit tradition and Ignatian Heritage and values, click on the below button:

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Most images and videos on this website are provided by students/faculty/guides who were actively participating in a Xavier Expedition and Xavier University at the time they were created. Other images displayed on this website are defined as “public domain” images and are made available for public use by the Department of Interior, National Park Service and US Fish & Wildlife Service or by the Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service. For questions concerning use of federal agency images, click here.