Faith on Campus: Ministry at the National University of the Altiplano 

University years are frequently a period of searching and significant personal growth, as young adults grapple with questions of identity, purpose, and vocation while also navigating academic and social pressures for the first time away from family support systems. For students at the National University of the Altiplano, these years unfold in a region marked by both rich Andean cultural tradition and significant economic hardship.

For more than twenty-five years, Maryknoll has accompanied students at the university through a vibrant campus ministry program that offers spiritual formation, counseling, leadership development, and organized opportunities for service. The campus center functions as a welcoming hub where students can explore questions of faith, build meaningful relationships with peers, and engage in service that connects their academic life to the broader community.

For more than twenty-five years, this ministry has embodied the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, forming university students as active, engaged members of both the Church and civil society. It reflects Maryknoll’s founding charism of forming missionary disciples, accompanying young people through a formative season of searching so that their faith matures alongside their education.

Gifts to this project support spiritual formation, counseling, and leadership development for university students in Puno, helping form future leaders committed to faith, compassion, and service to others.