A Global Partnership Initiative of the Jesuit Schools Network |
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A Note from the Executive Director
Dear Global Companions:
It is my desire that at the heart of this Ignatian year we would hear the Lord calling us, and we would allow him to work our conversion inspired by the personal experience of Ignatius. (Arturo Sosa, S.J., September 2019)
After many months of denying reality, I finally succumbed this past month to a thorough eye exam, which, as you can imagine, has led to my latest version of eyeglasses. Putting aside my stubborn pride and accepting my new progressive lenses, I am actually able to see! After just a few days of using them, I continue to ask, “Why did I wait so long?” In addition to seeing more clearly with my own two eyes, I find myself enjoying what I read and am better able to understand - now that I can see.
The lenses through which we view the world determine how we see.
This week, as we begin the Ignatian Year marking the 500th Anniversary of the Conversion of St. Ignatius Loyola, we are marking his experience of a change in lenses. Ignatius’ conversion, with all its lore about knights and cannon balls, is really about how Ignatius came to see things with new eyes, the eyes of God. As we know, Ignatius resisted the need for new lenses for a very long time, but when tragedy hit and his old lenses no longer made sense, he put on a new set. He saw as God sees, that is in Christ, and this, as we know, made all the difference.
“Seeing all things new in Christ'' is the basis of our special celebration this Ignatian Year. It is the conversion we now seek.
The COVID 19 crisis has been our cannonball moment. Like the convalescent soldier, we are invited to conversion and to join Ignatius in a pilgrimage that will hopefully continue transforming Jesuit education. (II Colloquium JESEDU-Global 2021)
On Monday, June 28th, a little more than a month past the opening of the Ignatian Year, we in the global network of Jesuit schools will gather at II Colloquium JESEDU-Global 2021, just the second global gathering of Jesuit schools. Like Ignatius before us, we will ask the Lord to help us “see all things new in Christ,” and then together seek the magis through different eyes, as Ignatius did. The Global Colloquium will gather 500 participants from throughout the global network of Jesuit schools to “discern a hope-filled future.” While just 80 representatives of JSN schools will be able to attend, all members of JSN schools will have access to colloquium materials. Educate Magis is hosting the virtual gathering. All materials are located on their website and are available to participants and their colleagues, alike. I encourage everyone in the network to engage in this experience, either as a direct participant in the Global Colloquium or as a fellow companion on the road to conversion by engaging with the materials put forth by the planning committee.
As we begin the Ignatian Year, let us stop and consider the lenses through which we see our world. Is it time for a new set of glasses? “To see all things new in Christ” and experience a newfound understanding from within the global diversity of our Jesuit school communities is an opportunity to consider this question, the question of our own conversion. If you are anything like me, change is a difficult venture, but my own words still haunt me to this day, “Why did I wait so long?”
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Please know of my prayers during these days and throughout this special year.
Rev. Robert E. Reiser, S.J.
Executive Director
May 13, 2021
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"To act as a universal body with a universal mission" GC35, D.2 #20
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Our Way of Proceeding: Standards and Benchmarks for Jesuit Schools in the 21st Century~Domain 5 Revised
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In response to the civil upheaval that followed the Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd killings in February, March, and May of 2020, the JSN Board of Directors charged the JSN Conference staff to revise Domain 5 of Our Way of Proceeding: Standards and Benchmarks for Jesuit Schools in the 21st Century to express more forcefully the call to work for justice and reconciliation as fundamental to Jesuit education. Many of JSN schools' DEI practitioners and other school personnel were also consulted in this revision. Added to Standards and Benchmarks in the revised Domain 5 are reflection questions intended to help schools grapple with complicated issues and come to a fuller understanding of a faith that lives justice.
Click on Domain 5 below to access the revised pages.
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Reimagining Jesuit Education: A Shared Responsibility Towards Justice
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Since the foundation of the first Jesuit school in 1548, Jesuit educational institutions have positioned themselves as some of the best in the world. One of the aspects that make Jesuit education unique is that it focuses not only on academic excellence, but also on its commitment to instill principles of faith, justice, and service in its students. Still, despite espousing values of social justice as the cornerstone of their identity, Jesuits schools often carry historical systemic inequities that negatively affect their students, faculty, and parents.
In recent years, many schools have made strides to address these challenges. For instance, intentional outreach and fundraising efforts to increase financial aid have led to significantly more diverse campuses in terms of socio-economic, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. While this certainly is a move in the right direction, it has become increasingly clear that simply creating the conditions to ensure that previously underrepresented populations have access to Jesuit schools does not guarantee that that their communities will become inclusive and equitable. Larger systemic issues such as the lack of a culturally responsive approach to curriculum development and instruction, poor representation of faculty and administrators of color, exclusionary practices towards non-English speaking parents or the failure to implement school-wide policies to address the prevalence of expressions of racism and microaggressions among students and adults, to name a few, remain.
So how do we respond to these challenges? I am privileged to belong to the cohort of companions across JSN that lead the efforts to ensure that our institutions are more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist. Many of us are currently leading efforts to design and implement DEI strategic plans aimed at transforming our institutions into what our Jesuit mission and identity calls us to be: places of hope, belonging, liberation, justice, and reconciliation. It is crucial to note that while DEI practitioners might be leading the charge, true conversion requires active participation from all members of each school community. From the boardroom and the principal’s office to the classroom and the sports field, the call to reimagine our beloved institutions despite longstanding traditions and to bring the mission-oriented changes they need is our collective responsibility.
Contact Carlos to continue the conversation...and check out his IFTJ 2020 Presentation below.
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Project Mo.Ba. An Intercultural Dialogue
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The Project Mo.Ba. An Intercontinental Dialogue was conceived after the pandemic caused by Covid 19 spread in Spring 2020 preventing the students from Loyola Blakefield (Baltimore, USA) and Muratori-San Carlo (Modena, Italy) to travel for our Exchange Student Programs. Instead of canceling the plans altogether, we were able to transform them into an intellectual, vibrant, cultural immersion through a series of video conferences. This international collaboration showed that we can create unity and can foster a love for learning about other cultures even when difficulties prevent us from being physically together.
Closely guided by four teachers and meeting virtually for five months via video conference, four groups of students (each group formed by 4 Americans and 4 Italian students) collaborated to research the following current social issues: Environmental problems; Social Justice and Human Rights; Racism and the Internet; Social Justice and Women in the Workplace. From October 2020 to March 2021, the individuals in each group shared their research and worked to prepare for a joint bilingual presentation. American students spoke and worked in Italian (their language of study), while the Italian students spoke and worked in English. This not only developed foreign language skills, but it also was a way of honoring the partner school’s cultural identity.
As a final project, on March 31, 2021, each group worked together to create four combined PowerPoint Presentations that were delivered live to both entire schools using the platform of Microsoft Teams. Teachers, administrators, and students from both schools learned how social issues affected Italy, the United States, and the broader global community.
It was a wonderful experience that highlighted the importance of embracing cultures, overcoming problems together, developing organizational and technological skills, and understanding social issues from a global perspective. More importantly, the experience cultivated mutual respect and a sense of friendship that crossed geographical borders.
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Transformative Classes that Transcend Borders
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As a part of our burgeoning Bridges program, Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute will coordinate this fall a combined Arts and Cultural Identity course for students of Seattle Prep and Leon, Mexico’s Instituto Lux. Seattle Prep’s Mike Kelly calls the partnership an opportunity for “facilitating an authentic experience for our students to collaborate and engage intellectually, socially, and emotionally with students from another school who provide a rich and varied context from that of our students.” The course will include asynchronous elements where students will complete activities and assignments individually and in local groups, but it will also feature frequent virtual synchronous meetings where all students will investigate course content and demonstrate outcomes as a single group, providing both schools what Institutio Lux’s Marcela Gonzalez Hage calls “the opportunity to interact with students who come from a different context and use the course of Arts and Cultural Identity as an excuse to promote reflexive processes, as well as a rich experience to practice a foreign language in an authentic environment.”
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Transformative Encounters
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This past March, Fairfield Prep and Belen Jesuit partnered together to host the first-ever virtual service opportunity for students from both schools rooted in the Jesuit mission, Universal Apostolic Preferences, and the individual goals and objectives of the schools' mission statements. This experience is one that engaged students across the four grade levels from both schools through keynote speakers, breakout rooms, individual reflection time, and retreat elements as a means of building community, forming relationships, and transforming how students view themselves as servant leaders in their respective communities.
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Tag your social media posts with #JSNGlobal and SHARE your global journeys in & out of the classroom.
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JRS Student Leader Summit, July 20 – 22 |
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Invite your students to join JRS/USA for a virtual three-day gathering for high school students to learn more about the mission of JRS and how they can take action in their own community. This summit will provide students with an “insider” look at JRS’s work while they develop their own action plan to mobilize support for refugees on their campuses.
The gathering will occur over three days in two-hour sessions in the afternoon over Microsoft Teams. There is no cost to take part. Students will receive a certificate from JRS/USA in recognition of their participation in the summit. For more information, please contact Josh Utter.
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From May 20th Educate Magis invites you to a personal journey, in the footsteps of Ignatius of Loyola. This new online course “Four Key Practices in Ignatian Spirituality” is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the life and spirituality of St. Ignatius, whose 500th anniversary of being struck by a cannonball in Pamplona and his subsequent conversion experience we celebrate this year. Read more about this invitation here.
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Ignatian Solidarity Network's Race, Justice, and Equity Survey
Just 15 minutes of your time is all it takes to complete the Ignatian Solidarity Network's Race, Justice, & Equity survey—which will help shape ISN's racial justice work for years to come. Please complete the survey using the link below and share with your colleagues at your school—the more input, the better!
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In celebration of Jackie Robinson Day, the New York Mets invited Cristo Rey New York High School choir members to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th Inning Stretch at their game on April 23rd! Cristo Rey is lucky to work closely with the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which has awarded scholarships to many of our graduates over the years. CRNYHS' Choir Director, Natasha Cooper, and seniors Anell and Jaida did a wonderful job performing for Mets and Nationals fans!
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The Jesuit Schools Network promotes the educational ministry of the Society of Jesus in service to the Catholic Church by strengthening Jesuit schools for the mission of Jesus Christ. |
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