To the Band of Brothers: 
BYM 2026
 

6/23/2026
Fr. Willie, S.J. ’87 | President

For anyone in the world of academia, the summer is clearly a time of rest. It is a time to be unshackled from the bonds of schedules regulated by bells and disciplinarians in the hallways. It is a time to travel the world and explore strange, new lands. A time to visit distant relatives, hang out with first, second or third cousins. It is a time to wake up late, let hair and beards grow out, and test your limits, if any, on your Netflix or Prime Video accounts.

I remember those youthful summers well. Vegetation was definitely on the García-Tuñón list of things to do. The right end corner of the Florida room sofa was the location of choice. From that angle, the bulky remote control had the best chance of catching the sensor on the television set and providing the smoothest transition from one channel to another. Whether it was Spiderman and The Three Stooges in the morning or Love Boat and Fantasy Island in the evening, it all eventually culminated with a Big Wilson Night Owl movie.

Few would contest the lackadaisical attitude of the summer-phased student. Unless your mother pulled up into the driveway with a carload of groceries or the grass was too high in your front yard, you were likely to be given a parental reprieve as a form of recognition for a school year well executed. Sure, some could argue there are better, more productive ways of investing your time in June, July, and the first half of August, but doing nothing has a pretty decent chance of being acceptable. 

That being said, not all teenagers will be lounging around this summer. Some will be exercising their Christian obligations with great force. On Friday, 60 Belen students will be embarking on the annual Belen Youth Mission trip. They will be heading to the mountains of Santiago in the Dominican Republic to build an aqueduct that will provide water for over 300 families. More than 8 miles of PVC pipes and three water tanks will be built by these young men and their chaperones in order to provide much-needed water to several Dominican villagers.

During this time on mission, there will be no television sets, no remote controls, no sofas, and no cell phones. They will be deprived of the many luxuries they have access to back home in Miami. For 10 days, these young men will put aside creature comforts and experience first-hand how most of the world´s population lives and struggles on a daily basis. This mission trip is not a handout. It is not a donation in human capital that gets chalked up frivolously in some scorecard of good deeds. It isn’t even a convenient way to catch up on necessary community service hours. It is a response to a duty each of them has and received on the day of their baptism. It is a way to ensure our motto of “men for others” isn’t reduced to a catchphrase that pathetically adorns our mission statement or website. It’s what they’re supposed to do. 

Like the young men from Belen this summer, hundreds of high school students from Miami will make similar treks. The girls from Lourdes and Carrollton and the boys from Columbus, just to name a few, will travel to underserved communities to live out their Christian lives and experience moments that can help change not only the lives of others, but their own. The future of the Church and of our world is brighter because of experiences like these. Please keep them in your prayers. 

Auspice Maria