Purpose

What matters to us most? Why do we believe what we believe? What values guide us everyday? What do we believe as a campus?

What do you believe?

This I Believe at TCU helps us to have conversations around these vital questions. This I Believe at TCU is a campus-wide project encouraging Horned Frogs to explore, share, and discuss the core values that guide our daily lives. The project exists to guide members of the campus community to explore and name their beliefs. We encourage participants to articulate not only what they believe but why the believe it. We believe that saying beliefs out loud matters.

By naming our beliefs and sharing the stories behind them we can….

celebrate the diversity that makes up our campus and learn about those who believe differently than we do
come together around shared commonalities, values, stories and beliefs
learn how to talk and write about those things which matter most to us
Learn to intentionally make decisions based on our values and not our fears or societal pressures
explore what makes us come alive and how we can use that insight to create change in ourselves, in our communities and in our world

Background

This I Believe at TCU is inspired by the nation-wide This I Believe program which is based on a 1950s radio program of the same name, hosted by acclaimed journalist Edward R. Murrow. Each day, Americans gathered by their radios to hear compelling essays from the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Harry Truman as well as corporate leaders, cab drivers, and scientists—anyone able to distill into just a few minutes the guiding principles by which they lived.

Fifty years later, This I Believe Inc. was founded in 2004 as a not-for-profit organization that engages youth and adults from all walks of life in writing, sharing, and discussing brief essays about the core values that guide their daily lives. Since 2004 stories have been featured on NPR, in USA Today and now through weekly podcasts, online and through countless books. This I Believe has inspired over fifty universities so far to explore what we believe and why, as individuals and as a community.

Executive producer Dan Gediman says, “The goal is not to persuade Americans to agree on the same beliefs. Rather, the hope is to encourage people to begin the much more difficult task of developing respect for beliefs different from their own.” Educators around the country—and around the world—have embraced This I Believe as a powerful educational tool. To see other universities that are facilitating similar programs click here.

Get Involved

Write your Story. If you are a TCU student, alumni, faculty, or staff we want to hear your story! Learn how here.

Read Stories. Read the stories of others in the TCU community here.

Get Involved. The stories begin in the written word, but they don’t end there. Throughout the year we will host different events to help our beliefs and stories be heard. These include TCU Believes Photo Shoots, Leadership Training, and Community Building dialogues. To host an event with your group email believe@tcu.edu

Help us share our stories. These are stories that need to be heard. We would love for these stories to be shared in classrooms, videos, radio, blogs, newspapers, worship services, magazines, theater, projects, books, public readings…anywhere! If you have an idea to help us share these stories, let us know! Email believe@tcu.edu.

Use This I Believe in the Classroom. Many TCU professors are finding that the This I Believe project is great tool for their classes. The national This I Believe project offers curriculum for best practices for using This I Believe in the classroom. To find out how TCU faculty are using This I Believe click here. If you would like more information about using This I Believe in the classroom or if you would like to share how you have used it in your courses email believe@tcu.edu.