The vibrant 500-year-old tradition of Jesuit education is the most obvious face of the intellectual aspect of the Ignatian worldview. “Educating the whole person” involves mind, heart, and soul. It pays particular attention to the Catholic intellectual tradition, the arts and the use of the imagination so central to Ignatian spirituality and Catholic social teaching.
Each quarter, the Ignatian Center works with over 20 faculty spanning various academic disciplines at Santa Clara University to execute our community-based learning program.
Support is provided to faculty for CBL in two primary ways:
By allowing student participation in our Arrupe Weekly Engagement Program where students engage directly with our community partners for approximately 2 hours a week during 8 weeks of the quarter.
By collaborating with faculty members and community partners to develop student projects that meet community needs and connect with course learning goals.
The Bannan Forum of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education collaboratively leads faculty, staff, administrators, and students in advancing the Jesuit, Catholic vocation of Santa Clara University as a transformative social force, building a more humane, just, and sustainable world.
The Ignatian Center has run an immersion for SCU faculty and staff since 1992. The endeavor was sparked initially by the signing of the Peace Accords in El Salvador and the call for truth and reconciliation in the wake of the Salvadoran Civil War. Over the years, many of our campus community have attended immersions, and we hear time and time again that that experience has made a profound personal and professional impact on participants.
Today, we continue our ongoing commitment to a partnership on the Arizona/Mexico Border, working alongside many Jesuits and Jesuit institutions with the Kino Border Initiative, which seeks to promote US/Mexico border and immigration policies that affirm the dignity of each human person, and a spirit of cross-frontier solidarity.
Ignatian DNA - Foundations of our Ignatian Tradition
This four-part series introduces faculty and staff to the basic history and concepts of the Jesuit, Catholic tradition of Santa Clara University. Participants meet to discuss readings with a cohort of other faculty and staff members as a means to illuminate and activate the Ignatian tradition in their work.
Sessions focus on:
- History of the Jesuits and Jesuit education
- Core concepts of Jesuit education
- The intellectual and spiritual tradition
- Justice in the Ignatian tradition
This bi-weekly email series serves as an opportunity to connect with and celebrate the mission and tradition that unites our campus and the wider Jesuit network. The mission of any institution is important to its vitality and role in the wider world. Whether in times of crisis or in everyday situations, a deep engagement with the Jesuit mission shapes our actions and underpins our transformative vision of higher education. The mission of our institution also binds us together as we educate global citizens of conscience, competence, and compassion.
At least once a quarter the Ignatian Center offers a workshop or lecture for faculty and staff on Ignatian Pedagogy. This series seeks to improve teaching and learning outcomes at Santa Clara through familiarity with the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm and the best practices of Jesuit education. The program is relevant to faculty and staff across the University's varied units and will serve to enhance a sense of a unified and holistic approach to student formation.