Santa Clara University

Overview

Last April at the first international conference on “Networking Jesuit Higher Education for the Globalizing World,” Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J. superior general of the Society of Jesus urged Jesuit universities around the world to collaborate more closely in order to create a global network that truly could educate students to be in solidarity with those most in need. As Fr. Nicolás observed, although “regional organizations of cooperation in mission exist among Jesuit universities, I believe the challenge is to expand them and build more universal, more effective international networks of Jesuit higher education. If each university, working by itself as a proyecto social, is able to accomplish so much good in society, how much more can we increase the scope of our service to the world if all the Jesuit institutions of higher education become, as it were, a single global proyecto social?"

It in this spirit of international collaboration that we are pleased to announce both a new study abroad program, and a new step in building a global network among Jesuit universities. Beginning in August 2011, the highly successful Casa de la Solidaridad will have a new sister program, Casa Bayanihan, in Manila. Founded ten years ago to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the UCA martyrs in El Salvador, the Casa de la Solidaridad has become in the words of Dean Brackley, S.J. “perhaps the best program of its kind in the world.” It is a prime example of how to foster a well-educated solidarity in an academically rigorous way through direct contact with the poor. Now, in an effort to make this transformative educational experience available to more students, the University of San Francisco in conjunction with Santa Clara University and the Ateneo de Manila will launch a new Casa program in the Philippines. Casa Bayanihan will be modeled on the original Casa program, and it will benefit from the direct support and close guidance of the original Casa staff as well as graduates of the program. It is our hope that this will be the first of many such cross-university collaborations resulting in a global network of Casa programs connecting Jesuit universities around the world.