Category: Mission in the Curriculum

Posted on

Election Season Puts Reflective Resources into Action at Georgetown

This week’s post explores the election season upon us from the perspective of Georgetown’s mission and values. The University is offering resources for navigating election time in a spirit of reflection. 

With less than two months to go until Election Day, Georgetown students, faculty, and staff have already made some plans about how they will spend this politically significant semester. In the last few weeks, the Georgetown community has received several communications about various resources on the campuses that support the democratic process and encourage civic participation. At the heart of the social teaching of the Catholic and Jesuit tradition is a belief that voting and other forms of political leadership can support the common good. At the same time, there is a widespread recognition that the turbulence of American political life can take a mental toll on our community. The temptation can be overwhelming to simply get stuck in an endless cycle of paralysis by reading and viewing news and scrolling for the latest updates. 

The occasion of election season is another reason for gratitude for Georgetown’s mission and values and the reflective practices that they encourage. To be Contemplative in Action, as our Spirit of Georgetown calls us to be, is to enter into a life of engaged activity, sometimes stress-inducing and difficult, in a spirit of generous reflection. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, believed that a person’s contemplative grounding need not be compromised by an active and busy life with many commitments. Translating such an idea to this fall semester, I think Ignatius would remind us that the hectic pace of national affairs caused by the election does not necessarily mean that we should become so absorbed as to lose touch with our own need to pause, reflect, and make meaning of what we’re experiencing in current events. 

Thankfully there are many ways at Georgetown to engage in reflective pauses in a season of election. Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice, in partnership with Student Affairs, for example, has created a resource page of Election Reflection programs. Reading this list is a vivid reminder of the many different ways our university community, leveraging the many gifts and contributions from across the campuses, is capable of coming together at important times. I am pleased to add to the offerings with “A Civic Examen: Spiritual Grounding in the Ignatian Tradition at Election Time,” on October 24 at 2 p.m. ET on Zoom (Register at this page). The Examen has been a central focus of Mission in Motion and is incredibly adaptive as a spiritual resource for mindful reflection about one’s inner movements. I was partly inspired to contribute to this season’s programming because of this article in America Magazine by Tim Muldoon, “Election Season Is the Perfect Time to Pray the Examen.” Muldoon explains that the Examen is a suitable companion for reflecting during tumultuous times because of its emphasis on locating emotional balance and authentic purpose in the midst of conflicting emotions. 

Georgetown’s proximity to the national government and the symbols of American democracy adds to the University’s capacity for meaningful impact on the common good. The political life of the country is a feature of Georgetown’s programs, professional development, and extra-curricular life. I hope that you can find ways to engage this election season by seeking out the community resources that Georgetown is making available. 

Posted on

Reflecting on Georgetown’s Mission as a Resource for the New Academic Year

This week’s post is a reflection about the nervousness of starting a new academic year. Can we turn our jitters into joys by leaning more into the resources of Georgetown’s mission? 

A new academic year brings with it so much anticipation. These feelings are experienced in both similar and different ways by our students, faculty, and staff.  Many new students are likely asking: Do I belong at Georgetown? Can I effectively balance my academic, professional, and family commitments? What decisions will I make during my time at the University that will have a lasting impact on my future? Our staff members are likely asking: How can I best serve these incoming students? What challenges in the student experience should I be prepared for? How do we handle both the sameness of a new semester and its unpredictability? And our faculty are likely asking: How can I innovate and refine my craft of teaching in a way that registers with my students? How will I engage sensitive discussions that will inevitably arise about the U.S. presidential election and conflicts in the Middle East? What will inspire me when the semester feels long and the work is tiring? 

All of these are questions that I have either heard from others or asked of myself as a student, staff, and faculty member. I think that the recurrence of these kinds of questions is a healthy sign for an academic institution like Georgetown with a lasting mission and set of values that are intended to guide our way. In his article in America Magazine, “The Classroom as Holy Ground,” former Georgetown Vice President for Mission & Ministry, Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., describes the nervousness at the root of this regular experience of working in education: 

“Every semester begins the same way. I walk to the door of the classroom and catch my breath. Like an actor walking on stage, the nervousness of a teacher on the first day—or any day—is natural. It is the same now that I am teaching college as it was when I taught high school before joining the Jesuits. The more I teach, however, the more I realize that it is not just nervousness I feel on the first day. Along with the anxiety is awe, because I am beginning to appreciate how the classroom is holy ground, a place where I can encounter God.” 

In this way, the pre-semester nerves of a new academic year tell us that something deeper, more meaningful than surface-level worry is happening when our attentions turn to the start of fall classes. If we give ourselves the time and space, we can actually convert these anticipatory feelings into some soul-searching and self-discovery that can animate our personal and professional growth at Georgetown. Our jitters can become our joys. I believe that our mission and our Jesuit and multi-faith traditions can inform this journey for all students, faculty, and staff as they begin anew this fall. 

Here are three suggestions arising from Georgetown’s religious heritage that you might consider as a new academic year gets underway:

  1. Pay Attention to Your Feelings: There is something very important about spending a little time each day pausing, slowing down, and growing in awareness of your inner experience of the day’s activities. The Ignatian tradition offers a spiritual practice, the Examen, to help with this need to slow down and process the many emotions that we experience on a daily basis. By regularly attending to the flow and movement of our feelings, we become more able to recognize patterns, both consoling and desolating, and then make better choices about how to flourish and live into our gifts and talents and pursue our mission and purpose in life. Try attending a Digital Daily Meditation (sign up here) if you would like to practice these kinds of pause moments during your semester. 
  1. Engage Your Georgetown Experience with All of Your Senses: The Spirit of Georgetown invites us to educate Whole Persons who become Contemplatives in Action. To realize this ambitious vision of personal formation, we must allow ourselves to enter into every learning experience by using not only our heads but also our hearts and our hands. The transformative potential of a Jesuit education is only possible when we use all of our mental, emotional, spiritual, psychological, and physical faculties in the knowledge process. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, would strongly encourage you to daydream, use your imagination, and savor your sensory experiences. 
  1. Find a Mentor or Guide To Accompany Your Journey: The spiritual life should not be a solitary venture. Instead, the inner journey of the self should be joined with resources in a community, including the steady guidance of trained spiritual teachers and directors. St. Ignatius counseled that retreatants be paired with these trusted guides who could help direct a path to deep inner knowing and experience of the Divine. Today, we might say that any kind of mentor figure, whether a leadership coach, advisor, counselor, chaplain, or spiritual director, can play this role. Regardless of the type, I encourage you to find someone to accompany you and journey alongside your Georgetown experience. 

I hope the coming weeks reveal new possibilities for you. As your fall semester journey begins, whether this is your first semester at Georgetown or your twentieth, I wish you peace on the next steps. 

Posted on

5 Steps to Facilitate Meaningful Meetings: Insights from Georgetown’s Summer Programs

This week’s post is about the importance of small group discussions and how effective facilitation can help participants, like the students participating in Georgetown’s summer programs, strive for deeper meaning and purpose in their education.  Image is from Georgetown’s “A Different Dialogue Program.” 

As the summer gets underway, a dedicated team of SCS staff has been preparing for months to welcome students for a wide-ranging set of summer programs. These summer experiences cater to the needs of diverse student audiences, including high school students from around the country coming to main campus for a dedicated experience of university life. Some programs last the duration of the summer months and others are shorter in length. Mission in Motion reflects each year, for instance, on the mission-driven Summer College Immersion Program (SCIP), a three-week residential experience of Georgetown for talented students in the KIPP Foundation and Cristo Rey Network of schools. What is distinctive about Georgetown’s summer offerings is that they present students with the opportunity to engage with Georgetown’s traditions of academic excellence, community, and globally significant position in the nation’s capital. 

Each summer semester requires an entire year’s worth of planning and preparation. As part of this effort, the summer staff reviews and evaluates how it can improve its delivery of services and support for summer students. As part of this year’s effort, I was invited to deliver a training for the staff working for Georgetown’s High School Summer Academies. The Academies are one, two, or three weeks in length and organized around different thematic areas, like Biotechnology, American Politics, and International Relations. Some of the students venturing to Georgetown’s Hilltop campus have never traveled to Washington, D.C., or had the experience of living independently in a college dorm. The summer staff hoped that I might provide some guidance for how to effectively facilitate small group discussions for students throughout the summer. 

Summer staff serve as resources to the students as they navigate classes and life on campus. The convening of small groups throughout the summer is invaluable for many reasons, including the formation of deeper bonds among smaller groups of students outside of the traditional classroom experience. Small groups also help summer students reflect on the learning occurring within classes. I introduced some suggestions for practices rooted in Ignatian pedagogical principles. My view is that facilitating an effective small group is a key skill that is transferable to many areas of professional life. But more than organizational effectiveness, facilitation as a skill relates to helping others experience the deeper meaning and purpose of a Georgetown education rooted in the Jesuit tradition of education. My five-step framework for facilitating can help convert an ordinary experience of group discussion into something more meaningful.

First, Invite: Make sure your attendees know what to expect during the meeting and what they are being asked to do. Too often, we do not consider how a small group conversation can become a rich opportunity for learning and growth. To ensure this possibility, the facilitator needs to set the expectations in advance about how participants are expected to show up and participate. 

Second, Create the Space: Establishing a space as safe, brave, and sacred means making certain intentional decisions about the meeting setting. This means that the facilitator needs to think about the arrangement of chairs and how participants are able to see each other, communicate with each other, and learn from each other. Creating space also means being clear about the community agreements that will govern discussion. For instance, how will the group handle confidentiality, technology, and conflict in the space? Responsible facilitation means being clear about the ethics that will guide the process. 

Third, Maintain the Space: Facilitation is an active practice because it necessitates being involved throughout the experience. The facilitator needs to get involved when community agreements are violated or the group is getting off track. This means reading the room, so to speak, and making judgments about what the group needs in order to sustain the discussion. Effective facilitators also recognize opportunities to healthily work through conflicts emerging in the space. Some conflicts are too big and difficult for a group so must be managed outside the group structure. Maintaining the space also means monitoring time and keeping the group on time. 

Fourth, Check In: Facilitators learn to interact with a group in ways that respond to the group’s particular needs. Each group has a different life and a different culture. It is helpful for the facilitator, especially in a learning experience at Georgetown, to time and again remind the group of the larger purpose of the activity. Why are we here? How does this discussion help deepen the meaning that you are making of your time in the classroom? The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm puts “reflection” after “experience” because meaning-making of an experience requires intentional interior processing of all that happened during the experience itself. 

Fifth, Transition: How the meeting ends is in the control of the facilitator. The hope is that participants know when the conversation concludes and how this particular meeting relates to the next one. Giving the group good incentives to return to the following conversation is helpful to maintaining the energy and buy-in of the participants. One helpful way to transition is to mark the end of the meeting with some symbolic practice, like a poem or prayer or piece of music. 

Georgetown’s summer staff teams gives students an accelerated experience in a short amount of time. Their work is invaluable and critical to ensuring that the University’s Jesuit mission and values come to life in the student experience.

Posted on

Getting to Know the Context of the School of Continuing Studies

 This week’s post is a contextual introduction to the School of Continuing Studies, inspired by the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm. 

Last week, Mission in Motion offered an Examen reflection, inspired by the University’s Jesuit heritage, to help graduating students reflect on the meaning of the coming Commencement exercises. This week, I would like to apply some of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP), the inspirational framework for teaching and learning in Jesuit schools inspired by the dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and the principles and practices of Ignatian spirituality, in order to fully appreciate the meaning of the SCS approach to learning on the eve of Commencement. The IPP is an interrelated and interconnected process that supports the student and the teacher as whole persons throughout the learning process. An Ignatian Pedagogical approach begins with Context, moves to Experience, and then follows with Reflection, Action, and Evaluation. The cycle is continuous and dynamic.

The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) is an interrelated set of dynamics organized around a meaningful learning process, with Context at the beginning. 

Inspired by the IPP and its stages of learning, I would like to offer a brief reflection on the context of SCS. My hope is that sharing a bit more about the reality of the School will be helpful over the coming week of Commencement, especially for those traveling to the graduation events and meeting SCS for the first time. This introduction to the context of our learning community will hopefully help visitors appreciate how the School achieves a unity of mission and purpose in light of the diversity of students, modalities, and disciplinary approaches. 

According to the IPP, context refers to the establishment of the background conditions and factors that influence the learning situation for students and teachers. According to the Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy at Loyola University Chicago, context is:

“Clearly the background of the framework. As St. Ignatius directed, we always want to recognize how the time and space we occupy, and the socio-geo-political happenings of our day have relevance for our teaching and students’ learning. Context is constantly evolving and therefore must be under on-going consideration.”

The foundational importance of context is related to the insistence by St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises to enter into a “Composition of Place,” at the start of imaginative prayer and meditation exercises. The retreatant is invited to consider all the physical and material details of the scene in which one is entering so as to faithfully and humbly acknowledge what is already at work in a particular situation. We can then apply this approach to context by exploring all of the basic details that comprise the School of Continuing Studies. One way to do this is to enjoy this four-minute video introduction to the history of the School. Another way to do this is to read the latest SCS Dean’s Report, which provides both descriptive statistics about the composition of the School’s students, staff, and faculty but also a values-driven orientation to the mission commitments of SCS programs and initiatives.  

Reading through the 2022-2023 SCS Dean’s Report is a good way to better understand the mission and purpose of the School and who it serves. 

One might most fully appreciate the context of SCS by spending time reflecting on its particular mission: “To deliver a world-class, values-based education to a diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers; to improve employability and develop workforces; and to contribute to building a civic-minded, well-informed, and globally aware society.” You might become more familiar with how SCS realizes this unique mission, in the context of Georgetown’s overall Jesuit mission and purpose, by spending some time reading through the examples shared on the Mission in Motion blog. 

I hope that a fuller picture of who SCS is and why it operates helps all of us appreciate the deeper meaning of the Commencement exercises. This is a time for celebration of student accomplishments. It is also a time to reflect on who we are as a School and why our mission matters for the betterment of the world.

Posted on

Career Counseling in an Ignatian Key

In her book, “Coaching with Careers and AI in Mind: Grounding a Hopeful and Resourceful Fit for a Digital World,” Adina Terry offers much needed insights about how to prepare job seekers for success in the turbulent digital age. Some, like the World Economic Forum, refer to our current epoch as the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by the advance of cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence. In so many ways, the world of work has dramatically changed and preparation for these economic realities require a reimagining about how to provide career counseling. 

footprints and directional arrows - photo by imelenchon via Morguefile

This week’s post offers insights about career counseling in this digital age from the tradition of Ignatian discernment. Image from “Four Strategies for Discernment” by Vinita Hampton Wright at IgnatianSpirituality.com. 

The career counseling literature stresses the need for flexibility, adaptability, and lifelong learning in navigating the demands of work at a time of digital innovation and disruption. Much of what job seekers need is related to the development of technical skills and expertise necessary to fulfill the ever-changing demands of jobs that meet current economic and social needs. But more than technical practices, interior dispositions and capacities to tap into one’s deeper sense of meaning and purpose are necessary to align one’s skills to available work opportunities. In this way, career support needs to be about the “Whole Person,” a values-based commitment made explicit in the Spirit of Georgetown. 

Thankfully, SCS offers a set of resources to support students on their professional journeys, including career coaching from a certified career counselor. These curated resources are in addition to program-specific professional preparation and advising that take place within classes and in applied networking opportunities that occur outside of the curriculum. I believe that spiritual accompaniment resources should also be considered part of the overall well of support for career development. Students should consider their pastoral engagements with the suite of Georgetown’s multi-faith chaplains and staff, which occur in individual consultations and group settings like workshops, fellowship, and retreats, an important part of their career preparation. 

Engagements with spiritual guides can help students discern their “calling,” which scholars in an article in the journal The Counseling Psychologist entitled, “Purpose and Meaning in Career Development Applications,” describe as “linking what clients do at work to a broader impact” that “can enhance a sense that they are living out a calling and promotes purpose and meaning in their careers.” The key to this understanding of “calling” is that individual flourishing does not take place in isolation but depends on connecting one’s own well-being to the well-being of the entire community. Calling is truly a shared project. Calling is not discovered in a single “aha moment,” but discerned over the longer term. How, you might be asking, can one’s calling in work be discerned over the longer term of a career that needs to withstand the dynamic forces of an economic system in flux? 

Discernment is one of the essential practices at the root of the Jesuit tradition of spirituality and leadership. This approach necessitates that the seeker regularly grows in sensory awareness of their inner movements. These habits of self-awareness, cultivated through the Ignatian examen of consciousness, lead the individual to notice their emotions, feelings, affections, desires, attractions, and repulsions. The reflective stage of the examen invites the seeker to make meaning of these inner experiences. Am I being inclined by my inner movements to experience more connection and alignment with my true self and my authentic identity before my ultimate source of meaning (e.g., God, Ultimate Mystery, etc.)? Or am I noticing a troublesome disconnect between what I deeply desire for myself and how I actually feel? This journey of discernment requires regular attention to these subtle interior changes and this process should be supported by a trained spiritual guide. 

William Spohn, in his article “The Chosen Path” in America Magazine, presents the transformative possibilities of utilizing an Ignatian framework in making career decisions. Spohn names this potential for transformation through Ignatian spirituality as the opportunity to “discover our personal calling by aligning our gifts and aspirations with what we see as the deepest needs of our world.” We must remember that discerning one’s vocation is a continuous exercise and it is not generic, but a unique journey experienced as a “call to individuals tailored both to their talents and the community’s needs.” By bringing one’s deeper desires into the career discernment process, the individual taps into possibilities for self-growth and community service that extend beyond their technical skills and training. I hope that all involved in the career support ecosystem consider the multidimensional and holistic dimensions of assisting students on the journey to meaningful work. 

Posted on

2024 Dr. King “Teach the Speech” Emphasizes the Ongoing Struggle for Freedom and Human Dignity

Lionell Daggs III, Associate Director for Racial Justice Initiatives at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, and Tony Mazurkiewicz, chaplain for the Athletics Department, led an anti-racism examen meditation at the 2024 Dr. MLK, Jr. Teach the Speech event. 

Every year, Mission in Motion reflects on Georgetown’s chosen speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and offers some suggestions for how its content and themes might be incorporated into courses and other activities at SCS. The 2024 Teach the Speech selection, “Eulogy for the Four Little Girls,” is Dr. King’s memorialization of the four young girls killed in the 1963 terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. 

In his eulogy, Dr. King mournfully prays for the souls of Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Diane Wesley, and Carole Robertson. The speech is more than a remembrance of these lives, however. Dr. King draws attention to the larger moral and spiritual questions presented by such an act of racialized violence. How can we exercise non-violence and a spirit of non-retaliation in the face of such hate and destruction? Dr. King maintains that we “must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.” Speaking to bereaved families in the aftermath of such tragedy, Dr. King, who would ultimately be killed in an act of racialized violence, inspires a call to redemption. This road is not easy, however, and requires resistance to “evil systems” and overcoming a tendency to remain silent and complicit in the face of such injustices. 

This year’s event includes a helpful set of teaching resources that can accompany the 1963 speech. This resource document traces several approaches that faculty in any discipline might consider in making the content of the speech align with particular course learning objectives. The resource guide suggests some critical questions for individual and group discussion, including: 

  • King addresses the families of the victims and talks about death as the ‘irreducible common denominator of man.’ He speaks on the importance of faith in these moments. How do we deal with grief and the sense of loss after death? What are the practices in your culture, in your personal lives? 
  • Have I consciously or unconsciously acted to advance racism through my own inactions or silence? Am I culpable? Have I turned a blind eye to racial injustice? How? Why? 
  • How will we hold ourselves accountable to one another on the moral imperative of anti-racism? 

I was particularly interested in the suggestion that Dr. King’s “Eulogy for the Four Little Girls” could become the basis for an anti-racist self-reflection. Readers of this blog will recognize the Jesuit-inspired examen practice and will know that this framework can be flexibly utilized for particular issues, topics, situations, and events. For example, Mission in Motion has previously reflected on an anti-racist examen published by the Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities. I was so grateful to attend the guided examen led by Lionell Daggs III, Associate Director for Racial Justice Initiatives at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, and Tony Mazurkiewicz, chaplain for the Athletics Department. Lionell and Tony modeled the examen practice in a dynamic way, using the audio of Dr. King’s eulogy, historical images, a recorded conversation with a survivor of the Birmingham bombing, and other media to stimulate deeper reflection. Between these visuals, groups at tables in Copley Hall were invited to individually reflect on guided questions in silence and then turn to their table partners for brief conversation. 

I was moved greatly by the sacred atmosphere of this examen and how table partners, many of whom entered the event as Georgetown strangers, developed a trusting bond formed over intimate reflection and active listening. True to Ignatian pedagogy, the examen experience focused not only on reflection but also consideration of discerned actions that can be taken individually and collectively about the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our university, our communities, our country, and the world. My impression is that participants left the morning session more grounded in Dr. King’s moral and spiritual invitation to human dignity and freedom. This struggle and the journey continue. 

Posted on

2023 Dean’s Report Highlights SCS Commitment to Integrating Jesuit Values

The 2022-2023 SCS Dean’s Report shines a spotlight on how Georgetown’s Jesuit values come to life across the school’s diverse portfolio. 

Regular readers of Mission in Motion should be well aware of this platform’s enthusiasm for the diverse ways that SCS students, faculty, staff, and alumni uniquely live out the University’s Jesuit values. In recent years, the blog has especially focused on how the set of values in The Spirit of Georgetown present invaluable opportunities for deeper personal and social transformation during times of conflict, adversity, and challenge. As we continue to transition away from the COVID-19 global pandemic and face ever-changing social and economic dynamics in the world around us, the mission of SCS to deliver a “world-class, values-based education to a diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers” could not be more important. 

The 2022-2023 SCS Dean’s Report, “Catalysts for Change,” exemplifies the spirit of the SCS commitment to living out Georgetown’s Jesuit values across the School’s extensive portfolio of educational offerings. What really distinguishes this year’s report is the degree to which every article and every piece of data presented connects to a thread of The Spirit of Georgetown. You will read about students and alumni across a range of professional disciplines who are applying their values-based SCS education in the service of justice and the common good. Those unfamiliar with the organization of SCS and its many different programs will learn how each professional field represented at the School has something to offer in making the world more just and generous. For example, the report highlights the way that Amanda Fratterelli, 2023 graduate of the Master’s in Integrated Communications program, used her Capstone project to raise global awareness among Gen Z about malaria. The skillful and creative deployment of communication and media resources to inspire others to care about the needs of the least advantaged and most vulnerable is truly at the heart of Georgetown’s Jesuit values. 

The Dean’s Report tells the story of how SCS shares the Spirit of Georgetown with students, faculty, and staff through inclusive retreats and other spiritual programs. 

This year’s report also features several articles that call attention to the very explicit ways that SCS manifests The Spirit of Georgetown. In particular, an article I authored about how SCS offers inclusive, Ignatian-animated retreats for students, faculty, and staff, “SCS Cares for the Whole Person: Restorative Spiritual Retreats,” tells the story about what is possible when adult professionals take time for spiritually grounded rest and renewal. Always faithful to the dynamics of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, SCS retreats strive to faithfully meet participants where they are on their professional journeys and present resources and practices that can deepen their interior lives. Readers of the report will also find an interview with Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Spiritual Care, and learn how SCS delivers retreats in a way that recognizes and honors the incredible diversity of our community. 

An article about the School’s partnership with Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), “Empowering Bright Futures: SCS and the Jesuit Refugee Service Increase Educational Access,” amplifies a deeply mission-aligned project that speaks to how SCS leverages its educational assets in service of the world’s great needs. Mission in Motion has previously reflected on this incredible partnership model, led by the English Language Center (ELC) at SCS, which connects SCS staff and faculty volunteers with JRS-support refugees seeking weekly English conversation and mentorship. My hope is that readers of the Dean’s Report will take away from these examples how it is possible to deliver a transformational suite of applied professional programs in ways that meet both the needs of the marketplace and the needs of the common good. 

It is with healthy pride that I encourage you to check out the 2022-2023 Dean’s Report and reflect on how SCS continues to advance Georgetown’s critical mission in many unique ways. 

Posted on

SCS Convenes Interdisciplinary, Intersectoral Series on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Banner
This week’s post considers the deeper ethical questions at the root of artificial intelligence and highlights a series of events at SCS on this topic. 

A day does not go by without artificial intelligence, or AI, making headline news. The advent of new AI applications, like ChatGPT, has been much discussed in higher education. Georgetown is no exception to this phenomenon, with the University devising new protocols around the use of AI in classroom settings in an effort to preserve academic integrity. The growth of AI tools, and their deployment through commercial and military entities, has sparked much discussion in the academy. There is growing recognition that AI brings both possibilities and perils as this set of techniques and technologies becomes more broadly adopted. 

Pope Francis, for example, in his New Year 2024 World Day of Peace message, comments on both the enormous potential for human flourishing presented by AI as well as the ethical pitfalls. On the one hand, Pope Francis notes that advances in science and technology remedy “countless ills that formerly plagued human life and caused great suffering.” These gains for human flourishing are notable and reflect the awe-inspiring power of scientific discovery and new applications of research. On the other hand, Pope Francis comments about the significant ethical and moral challenges posed by this burgeoning technological movement: 

“The inherent dignity of each human being and the fraternity that binds us together as members of the one human family must undergird the development of new technologies that serve as indisputable criteria for evaluating them before they are employed, so that digital progress can occur with due respect for justice and contribute to the cause of peace. … We need to be aware of the rapid transformations now taking place and to manage them in ways that safeguard fundamental human rights and respect the institutions and laws that promote integral human development.”

Christopher Brooks, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at peer Jesuit institution the University of San Francisco, echoes these points in an article in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: “Artificial Intelligence: The Brave New World of Moral Issues.” Brooks makes four fundamental claims related to potential misunderstanding that the operation of AI is automatically a net positive for humanity. He advises that ethical caution is necessary as this set of practices and tools become more commonplace because 1) Data is not information; 2) Information is not knowledge; 3) Knowledge is not understanding; and 4) Understanding is not wisdom. He goes on to affirm the contributions that Jesuit education can make to growing a base of wisdom about the ethical applications of AI. Given that “idea of reasoning about reasoning, asking those deeper, more fundamental questions, is a hallmark of Jesuit education,” Brooks argues that Jesuit education can advance the ethical considerations of this conversation through ideas of discernment, invitations to choose the “Magis” or better choice, and solidarity, which “reminds us to know and connect with the people affected by this technology.” The imperative to deeply interrogate the ethical and moral repercussions of AI has a special place, therefore, in the teaching, research, and service that occurs at a Jesuit institution like Georgetown.

Georgetown SCS is taking a leading role in this ongoing public discourse by launching a semester-long series, entitled “Responsible AI: Intersectoral Seminar Series.” This timely series investigates how diverse sectors, many of them represented among the degree programs offered at SCS, are navigating the challenges of AI deployment. The series is an excellent representation of how SCS uniquely advances the larger Georgetown mission to encourage “reflective lifelong learners” who might become “responsible and active participants in civic life.” 

Rooted in the SCS scholar practitioner model, the series showcases on speaking panels a diverse professional array of leaders working in fields like urban planning, project management, marketing and communications, and journalism. The mission commitment of Georgetown to advance knowledge that supports human flourishing and the common good is manifested in how the series presents an interdisciplinary approach to these vexing ethical questions that touch upon overlapping and interdependent facets of human life. The fact that every degree program has something important to say about this ongoing discernment is a testament to the enduring ethical importance of the SCS programs. 

Emerging technologies should be rigorously assessed from the vantage point of various ethical frameworks. Georgetown SCS is bringing interdisciplinary attention, rooted in the ethical principles that animate the mission of the University, to these important questions. I hope you check out the remaining events in the spring semester series! 

Posted on

Reflecting on “Eloquentia Perfecta” as Center for Social Impact Communication Celebrates 15 Years

This week’s post highlights the 15th anniversary of CSIC and the ways that this mission-serving Center brings to life the Jesuit characteristic of perfect eloquence. 

In an article in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, “Rhetorical Education in the Jesuit Mode With Five Bullet Points for Today,” Jesuit historian and long-time Georgetown professor Fr. John O’Malley, S.J., reflects on the distinctive characteristics of Jesuit education. Central to O’Malley’s presentation is the way that the art of communication factors into the training and education provided in Jesuit schools. He makes note of how the humanistic tradition values the gifts of oratory and public rhetoric as a way of serving the common good. The schools run by Jesuits for the last five centuries have evolved and taken on many new forms, but one consistent thread is a commitment to eloquentia perfecta, or perfect eloquence. Fr. O’Malley describes the concept in this way: 

“This expression took hold in the Jesuit tradition as capturing the most immediate goal of rhetorical training. The goal was achieved through the study of great literature in one’s own language and in the languages of other cultures. Eloquence, a word sadly out of fashion in most quarters today, is the skill to say precisely what one means and to do so with grace and persuasive force. It is the fundamental skill needed by anyone in a leadership position, however humble. It is a skill, as well, that helps one ‘get ahead’ out in the marketplace, and sometimes get farther ahead than those with nothing more than the technical skills of the trade.”

The notion of perfect eloquence arises as SCS prepares to celebrate on December 4 the 15th anniversary of the Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC). This Center has stood out since its founding as an indispensable mission-serving entity at Georgetown. CSIC’s focus is on supporting the social impact sector to meet the most intractable issues faced by society and it does this by “embracing the blur.” What does this mean? According to CSIC, “embracing the blur” acknowledges “the level of effort it takes to create measurable—and sustaining—social impact. The problems we seek to solve are too complex for one sector to tackle, or one functional area to own. … Embracing the blur means uncovering your own unique strengths and recognizing how they can work synergistically with those of your collaborators to ultimately create impact.” As an educational unit, CSIC accomplishes this critical social change vision in several ways. 

The Center works through applied research, graduate courses, community collaborations, and thought leadership. CSIC helps clients apply for pro-bono services, including marketing, communication, fundraising, and journalism services from SCS graduate students. By matching real-world clients addressing real-word social needs with Georgetown students, CSIC is integrating the Spirit of Georgetown values into the applied curriculum of SCS. One of the Center’s signature courses, “Cause Consulting,” provides students with the opportunity to share integrated communication services for non-profits and socially responsible businesses. The measurable positive impact of this course alone is notable, with over 22,000 pro-bono support hours contributed over the last decade and more than 75 clients served through the partnership. This is just one example, in addition to others like applied research and “Strategic Storytelling,” in which CSIC at SCS is helping support social transformation through the power of effective communication. 

The story of CSIC is truly one of using communication with both “grace and persuasive force,” a combination that reverberates with the Jesuit tradition of eloquentia perfecta. 

The 15th anniversary celebration for CSIC will take place on December 4. Be sure to visit CSIC at its homepage.

Posted on

Jesuit Heritage Month Presents Opportunities to Pause and Ponder Georgetown’s Mission

Mission in Motion recently posted about the ongoing Mission Priority Examen that Georgetown is undertaking this academic year. This reflective, university-wide process of more deeply considering how effective Georgetown is at living out its Catholic and Jesuit mission will provide insights that shape the future of this work at the University. One of the themes that typically emerges in this collaborative process of reflective self-assessment is how to make explicit what it is often implicit in terms of Georgetown’s Jesuit mission and values. 

 The bell at the top of Dahlgren Chapel on Georgetown’s Hilltop Campus is a visible sign of Georgetown’s Jesuit identity. This week, Mission in Motion explores the reflective possibilities of November’s Jesuit Heritage Month.

Every November, the University makes this movement toward the explicit with Jesuit Heritage Month, a series of events and programs intended to invite deeper connection with the Jesuit values and the Spirit of Georgetown. Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry, describes this annual occasion as an opportunity to reflect on not only the Jesuit and Catholic dimensions of Georgetown’s unique identity but also the ways that the Jesuit values affirm a commitment to interreligious understanding: 

“This month is also a time to reflect on, and reaffirm, the core aspects of our university mission. Since its founding in 1789, Georgetown has been a home for all faiths. Our commitment to interreligious understanding – especially over the last 25 years – is rooted in our Catholic and Jesuit identity, informed by the documents of Vatican Council II on interfaith dialogue, and shaped anew by the call of Pope Francis to deepen our fraternal love for one another. These values shape the best of who we are as a university.”

As a mission integrator for the SCS campus, I am aware that many in the community feel like Georgetown is a very active place, sometimes too active. Every day at the University there are public events and other gatherings promoted through regular emails broadcasted to the entire Georgetown community. Each week, a list of events communicates the depth and breadth of conversations happening across the campuses. Students, faculty, and staff, who are busily engaged in the work of academic excellence in classrooms, have to make decisions about what extra-curricular experiences enhance their academic pursuits. The amount of potential activity to choose from can feel overwhelming. Especially for our adult learning population at SCS engaged in professional education, there are significant opportunity costs in choosing how to expend limited resources of time given other demands of work, family, and civic obligations. 

My invitation is to spend this Jesuit Heritage Month as an opportunity to pause and slow down. There are some good events to spur deeper engagement with the materials of Jesuit mission and values. You can check out the list here. But I also invite you to take a pause, especially in the context of the coming Thanksgiving holiday, and reflect on what Georgetown’s mission means to you. Is this mission at the center or the margins of your conscious awareness? Do you desire a shift or a transformation of your understanding of Georgetown’s mission and how it might be relevant to your work and study at the University? 

At SCS, we work to bring the Jesuit values to life in ways that meet the contextual needs of our unique community of learners. One of the ways you can directly engage with the spirit-mindfulness tradition of Jesuit practices is by signing up for the SCS Daily Digital Meditation. The meditations take place each day of the workweek at 12 p.m. ET. The sessions all occur on Zoom (registrants receive the link and instructions for joining via email) and last around 15 minutes. From Monday through Thursday, the session is organized as a mindfulness meditation that consists of a short body scan, intentional breathing, and then a period of silent, centering meditation with a melodic piano track playing in the background. The Friday meditation is reserved for an inclusively presented Examen meditation, modeled on the reflective practice arising from the Ignatian tradition of spirituality. The Examen consists of five reflective prompts that invite participants to notice with sacred awareness the significant events of their past week, exploring in more reflective detail times of gratitude, consolation, desolation, and hope for the week ahead.