{"id":106259,"date":"2026-01-20T20:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T20:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106259\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T20:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T20:01:14","slug":"touching-hearts-transforming-lives-manhattan-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106259\/","title":{"rendered":"Touching Hearts, Transforming Lives | Manhattan University"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image Last August, Brother Augustine (Gus) Nicoletti, FSC, D.Min., Ed.D.<\/a>, vice president for mission, traveled to Kenya for a friends and family service trip in support of a Lasallian charitable organization, The Centre of Love Foundation<\/a> (TCOLF). TCOLF works to assist underserved communities in Nairobi by providing education and access to clean water.<\/p>\n

During the weeklong trip, Brother Gus and six other volunteers conducted outreach at several sites near Nairobi, including an orphanage, a school for impoverished children run by the Ngong Road Children\u2019s Foundation, and Cheshire Home, as well as a shelter operated by Catholic sisters for unhoused elderly people. The group also visited the Kibera settlement, where they attended the dedication of land for a future school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went there to talk with the people, to pray with them, to engage them in conversation,\u201d Brother Gus says. At the school, \u201cwe were engaging with the kids, playing games with them, telling stories, and reading to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image Brother Gus has deep roots in the African continent, having lived and worked there extensively over the course of his Brotherhood. \u201cAfrica,\u201d he says, \u201cis a second home for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of belonging was especially evident during a Maasai communal celebration, where Brother Gus; Patrice Henning, founder of TCOLF; and Brother Larry Schatz, FSC, of the Christian Brothers of the Midwest, were named honorary tribal elders.<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/p>\n

The people of Kenya, oh how I need you and I hope you may need me. That is at the very heart of my \u201cyes\u201d to serve.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about mutual respect and understanding.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about \u201ctogether and by association\u201d as transformative partners hoping to change each other\u2019s lives and circumstances.<\/p>\n

People from different parts of the world coming together to live, listen, to understand, appreciate, suffer together, to laugh, love and pray.<\/p>\n

I know I need to learn from you, the people of Kenya, to understand your culture, traditions, and social attitudes. This experience will teach me and form me, challenge me and stretch me, and in the end, it is I who will have grown from this experience.<\/p>\n

I will be transformed.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brother Augustine Nicoletti, FSC<\/p>\n

As featured in the Fall 2025 issue of Manhattan Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last August, Brother Augustine (Gus) Nicoletti, FSC, D.Min., Ed.D., vice president for mission, traveled to Kenya for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-106259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}