Title: Georgetown Collaborates with Catholic Educational Institutions in Louisiana

Georgetown has formed partnerships with a Catholic high school and university in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of its ongoing engagement and collaborations in the region.

In late 2024, the university created an alliance with St. Augustine High School, an all-male Catholic school, to offer a full scholarship every year to one graduating student who is accepted to Georgetown.

Georgetown also worked closely with Xavier University of Louisiana, the only Catholic Historically Black College and University (HBCU), on an exhibit in Georgetown Library that celebrates Xavier’s centennial anniversary.

Georgetown has sought partners and collaborations with institutions in Louisiana as it has worked to address historical ties to slavery and engage with Descendant communities whose ancestors were once enslaved on Maryland Jesuit plantations, said Joseph Ferrara, vice president and chief of staff at Georgetown.

“We are honored to build partnerships with these terrific schools that are dedicated to excellence and forming future leaders,” Ferrara said. “We recognize the role that both schools play in Catholic education and in contributing to our nation and are excited by the possibilities of working together.”

Collaboration with Xavier 

Georgetown most recently collaborated with Xavier University of Louisiana, which is celebrating the anniversary of its founding in 1925 by St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

 Xavier President Reynold Verret, who is a member of Georgetown’s board of directors, presented the 2025 Bernardin Lecture in Riggs Library on Feb. 4. The Bernardin Lecture, an annual event that honors the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, invites leaders to speak on issues of human dignity and life. Verret spoke about science and the humanities, faith and reason, and Catholic higher education as part of the liberal arts.

“I am grateful for the occasion to deepen Xavier’s kinship with Georgetown University, a fellow Catholic institution of higher learning,” Verret said. “Delivering the Bernardin Lecture was a great honor. It offered an inspiring evening of reflection on the interdependence of our academic disciplines and the need for closer conversation between the humanities and sciences. 

“Ensuring formation of our students in these seemingly disparate disciplines equips them to confront pressing issues with empathy, ethics and depth that can only come from balanced curricula. It is the purpose of our universities.”

During his visit, Verret visited a new exhibit in Georgetown Library that spotlights Xavier’s Institute for Black Catholic Studies, a ministry program for graduate students working in U.S. Black Catholic communities. 

The exhibit, “The Institute for Black Catholic Studies of Xavier University of Louisiana: The Spirit of Sankofa,” celebrates the leaders who formed the institute 46 years ago and whose spirit drives the mission forward today. Sankofa, a Ghanaian concept, represents the African roots of Black spirituality that has inspired Black life and religion over time, said Kathleen Dorsey Bellow, director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies.

“The Georgetown exhibit is a nod to Black History Month. It sheds light on the spirit and genius of the Black Catholic community, an example of how the diversity of God’s human creation is a blessing to the Church and all God’s people,” Bellow said. “I am grateful for the collaboration and thank Georgetown University for so distinguished a celebration of Xavier University of Louisiana’s 100-year anniversary.”

Through a collaboration between the institute and Georgetown Library staff, the exhibit features a Ghanaian hand-carved Sankofa bird, which symbolizes reflecting on the past to inform a better future, archival photos, scholarly works, a West African gold-flecked cloth with symbols for the omnipotence of God, a prayer book and sketched portraits of the founders. 

“We wanted to recognize the institute’s tremendous impact on student learning and community life and create an awareness that there is a Historically Black College and University that is Catholic and active in engaging the African American community in the broader Catholic community,” said Keith Gorman, associate university librarian for the Booth Family Center for Special Collections in Georgetown Library.

The exhibit will run until Feb. 28.

Georgetown has partnered with Xavier in the past, when Xavier hosted a dialogue session in late 2018 for Georgetown and the Jesuits to help open a dialogue with the Descendant community and the Society of Jesus about reconciliation. The Maryland Province of Jesuits enslaved and sold 272 children, women and men in 1838, the proceeds of which benefitted Georgetown.

In January, Georgetown professor and theologian Andrew Prevot visited Xavier and presented on the university’s integration of Black and Catholic studies over decades and its contributions to theology.

On Feb. 27, Fr. Tim Kesicki, S.J., former president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States and an alumnus of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, will speak with Monique Maddox, president of the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, about the exhibit, Xavier’s centennial history and focus on Black Catholic studies, and the ongoing work of reconciliation. 

Partnering with St. Augustine

In 2024, Georgetown also partnered with St. Augustine, a high school founded by the Josephites, a Catholic religious community dedicated to serving the African American community.

Georgetown’s scholarship will support an accepted student’s tuition and room and board, an academic summer program before their first year, and continuing support throughout their undergraduate career. The first student, who will be admitted through Georgetown’s standard and competitive admissions process, would be eligible to enroll in fall 2026.

“It’s been 10 years since we have had a graduate of our school advance their academic studies at Georgetown University,” said Aulston G. Taylor, president and CEO of St. Augustine High School. “Blaise Brown (C’19) has consistently shared his Hoya experience with the students of St. Augustine and with this exciting new partnership, we intend to build a meaningful pipeline.”

Georgetown joins fellow Catholic, Jesuit institutions, including Fordham and Canisius, in establishing affiliation agreements with the school.

“We’re excited about our partnership with St. Augustine and look forward to welcoming a St. Augustine graduate to join our Hoyas and, as St. Ignatius said ‘go and set the world on fire,’” said Jeanne Lord, special advisor to the president for Jesuit and Catholic Identity.