Think. Pair. Share. with Dr. Luis Fraga

From illuminating the artistic side of a political scientist to two-way immersion and empowering and serving communities of understanding and tolerance.

Dr. Luis Fraga, Director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, reflects on the transformative nature of Catholic education and the potential lasting legacy of building diverse communities of understanding and tolerance, as well as the adventures of family road trips and being a grandfather again.

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Notable Quotes

• I don't want to leave my children and grandchildren a legacy of conflict. I want to leave them a legacy of hard decision making hard choices, but that is focused on conflict reconciliation and focused on mutual self interest - focusing on what it is that we think America can be. And having in focus not just what we are, not just what we've overcome, but what we could be.

• “If you invest in your child you give them a gift for life: language, culture and spiritual versatility if not spiritual tolerance, if not spiritual growth.”

• “Think of (two-way immersion) as putting Catholic schools at the forefront of educational innovation. It's an equal valuing of different cultural traditions that I think is most important, and that I think is most long lasting. And if one believes that children don't see differences of the sort that we see but are rather taught to see differences, then this should work to help them understand how some of those differences shouldn't be differences that separate, but should be differences that enrich: that help everyone be better off and understand and love... and love in the best spiritual sense.”

• “Because I had been given this opportunity to gain this incredible education—I had an obligation to give back.” 

• “I've talked about the importance of thinking about legacy and thinking about the way in which the decisions that we make now as a polity as a citizenry as an individual citizen leave a legacy for those we cherish most: our children and our grandchildren.”

• “It was clear to me that I had just as much ability to learn as these students did, but I hadn't had as much opportunity to learn as they had. And so I knew that I would have to apply myself a great deal if I went to Harvard but it made Harvard seem within reach.”

• What has brought Notre Dame its greatness? Well, it's it's alumni and their generosity to the university. Historically, the communities that Notre Dame served were predominantly Catholic, predominantly working class, predominantly immigrants and immigrant origin communities: Irish, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Germans pick your group. And all across generations as the University has educated students across generations it knows in its heart that it was the investment in individuals, families and communities with very few resources now, we can do that because there were priests, who are offering classes and costs of education at that time or much less, but it was the investment in the future. That was the right thing to do, and the right ministry to pursue. It wasn't just right in an absolute ethics sense, it was the Catholic thing to do. Well, which is the community today that can make a similar contribution? Well it's Latinos - it's African Americans and Asians and others of course all first Generation Students right, because no one is as grateful to an institution that gives them opportunities as someone who is raised in a community with very limited opportunity. What the Institute for Latino Studies does is to allow Notre Dame to recommit itself to its original mission once again—the missions are aligned.