The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education
The Ignatian Center exemplifies and activates the Jesuit, Catholic character of Santa Clara University.
We encourage our students, faculty, staff, and community to embrace Jesuit wisdom by inspiring awareness, thought, reflection, discernment, and action.
Stories of Impact
A Commitment to Solidarity
Alice Fulton '25
Little did Alice Fulton '25 know when she signed up for her first Experiential Learning for Social Justice (ELSJ) course through Arrupe Engagement that her experience would be so life-changing. Working at the College of Adaptive Arts not only provided Alice with a community and a unique family, but also it instilled in her a purpose and commitment to solidarity.
We Work, Walk, and Dream Together
Gema Sanchez Gamez '26
This past Summer, the Ignatian Center hosted 9 students on an immersion trip to Chiapas, Mexico to learn about indigenous sovereignty and human rights. One of the attending students, Gema Sanchez Gamez '26, wrote about her experience visiting the coffee plantation of Petul, an indigenous farmer in the Yomol A'tel cooperative.
Why I Do the Things I Do
Saron Weldemariam '26
For LEAD Scholar Saron Weldemariam ’26, it took a life-changing Ignatian Center Immersion in Costa Rica to shift her perspective and remind her of her purpose and why what she was doing mattered. "Education is the reason my family came to this country, and I want to honor that.”
A Pilgrimage of Accompaniment
Faculty Staff Immersion
In Spring 2023 the Ignatian Center hosted a Faculty Staff Immersion to the US/Mexico Border. The 11 participants learned about all aspects of the border immigration system, including desert walks, meeting with border patrol and ranchers in the area, and spending time in accompaniment with migrants at the Kino facility.