Category: Reflections on COVID-19

Posted on

Georgetown Event To Reflect on Two Years of COVID-19: “So What Did I Miss?” 

One of the significant benefits of being a member of the Georgetown community is the opportunity to attend informative, entertaining, provocative, and reflective events throughout the year. Situated in Washington, D.C., leveraging the intellectual and moral resources of our global capital city, Georgetown puts together on a weekly basis an incredible menu of events that span topic areas and disciplinary perspectives. The week of March 28 is no different as the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life is hosting its first in-person convening in over two years. Taking place on March 28 at 6:00 p.m. EDT in Gaston Hall and livestreamed (RSVP here), the event is titled: “’So What Did I Miss?’ A Look Back, A Look Around, A Look Ahead After Two Years of COVID.” 

Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life hosts its first in-person event in Gaston Hall in over two years. You can also livestream. The event is open to all members of the Georgetown community. 

The Initiative, which has collaborated with SCS and hosted some of its programs on our campus at 640 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, building, was not quiet during the two years of global pandemic. It hosted 44 online dialogues in the last two years, attracting 154,000 viewers in the U.S. and around the world, and addressed pressing issues in faith and politics, racism, human life and dignity, and so much more (visit the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life). These events, while diverse in their content and focus, all share a common characteristic: they bring together leaders from across the world working at different levels and sectors of society. The defining aspect of each convening is applying the lens of Catholic social teaching in an inclusive and invitational way to motivate deeper reflection on current events. I personally appreciate how the Initiative complements views offered from both the bottom and the top: there are voices from the highest levels of authority and the voices of folks working on the ground to serve individuals and families in their communities. 

The event on March 28 includes five accomplished writers, thinkers, and emerging leaders who will engage in a comprehensive dialogue on the myriad social, economic, faith, and cultural issues that the global pandemic has surfaced. The Initiative describes the themes of the March 28 event in this way: 

“In the musical ‘Hamilton,’ Thomas Jefferson returns from France to find a different country and asks, ‘So what did I miss?’ James Madison responds: ‘Thomas, we are engaged in a battle for our nation’s very soul. Can you get us out of the mess we’re in?’ This dialogue will examine our nation’s soul after what we have been through and how to ‘get us out of the mess we’re in.’ It will use Catholic social teaching as a lens to look at COVID-19, politics, and faith over the past two years. What are the impacts of the pandemic and the lessons we should draw from them? Where are we now? What are hopes and fears for the days ahead? Pope Francis reminds us that we can’t go back to normal, so where should we go?”

With the continued pandemic transitions, ongoing war in Ukraine, persisting economic uncertainty, and other significant social stressors, this feels like an opportune moment to pause and consider where we are going from here. I hope you will check out the event and enter into the conversation about the soul of the nation. 

Posted on

Finding Friends in the City, Opportunities for Encounter in the Everyday 

I recently spoke with Jesuit-run America Magazine for a piece entitled, “Urban planning can facilitate friendship – and the Catholic Church can help.” These conversations are nourishing for me because I can speak to my passion for helping readers walk a bridge between the professional resources of the practice of urban planning and the moral and spiritual wisdom of a Catholic, Jesuit education. Georgetown’s Master of Professional Studies in Urban & Regional Planning, where I serve as a course instructor, intentionally integrates ethical reflection into its coursework and I consistently find that students desire philosophical discussions that build upon the professional skills that they are cultivating at SCS. 

Photograph taken in front of the SCS building in late February 2022. The opportunity to encounter other people in the city in a spirit of friendship is the focus of this week’s post. 

The article’s author, Eve Tushnet, makes the case for why civic life in the city needs social friendship and why realizing this kind of connection is difficult in the contemporary city. She presents concepts that go back to the classical philosophy of Aristotle and Cicero: “Friendship was meant to fill the public square; in a sense, friendship creates public life, as one of the primary ways people move beyond domestic concerns into the broader life of the city.” She goes on to diagnose many of the ways that contemporary cities fall short in realizing this vision, including the prioritization of making cities for autonomous individuals who do not need to encounter one another in urban spaces. She points out “anti-homeless” street designs and an emphasis on surveillance that work against social cohesion and organically formed friendships. We can also add to this list the very real threat of violence, which the ongoing situation of war in Ukraine brings into stark relief (see the statement on Ukraine by Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Georgetown’s Vice President for Mission and Ministry). 

One major takeaway of the piece is that society makes tradeoffs in realizing certain public goods, like autonomy, control, safety, order, and comfort, but losing other goods like community and solidarity. The thread back to the Jesuits and their spirituality is the language of “encounter” used by Pope Francis. He describes a culture of encounter in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti: 

“Human beings are so made that they cannot live, develop and find fulfillment except ‘in the sincere gift of self to others.’ Nor can they fully know themselves apart from an encounter with other persons: ‘I communicate effectively with myself only insofar as I communicate with others.’ No one can experience the true beauty of life without relating to others, without having real faces to love.” 

With the University returning to in-person instruction and my own urban commute to the SCS campus downtown becoming more routine, I find myself engaging with the invitation to “encounter” in the city. Recent walks in the downtown neighborhood suggest that the pandemic continues to significantly influence urban life. Many storefronts remain vacant, the lunch rush of office workers is not as large as it once was, and the unhoused community continues to struggle in a city that can be unforgiving to persons experiencing homelessness. But there are signs of public life returning to some vibrancy, and with that come new opportunities for civic friendship. 

One practical way to go about this culture of encounter, rooted in the University’s mission and values, is to sign up for a Hypothermia Outreach Team at Georgetown. Run by the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, the outreach teams help prevent death from exposure and encourage unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness to seek safety in available shelters and warming stations. 

Posted on

SCS 2021 Dean’s Report Highlights Integration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Jesuit Values

The annual SCS Dean’s Report is an opportunity to share a snapshot in the life of the SCS community and communicate a vision for how the School continues to animate the University’s mission and values. The recently released 2021 report, “Bringing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to Life,” testifies to the many ways that SCS – its students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community partners – has committed to the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as a constitutive element of realizing Georgetown’s Jesuit-inspired mission to educate “women and men to be reflective lifelong learners, to be responsible and active participants in civic life and to live generously in service to others.” 

The 2021 SCS Dean’s Report spotlights the School’s DEI work and the ways that Georgetown’s mission and values inspire that work.

What especially stands out about this year’s report is the way that the values of the Spirit of Georgetown and the Jesuit principles that ground the University are explicitly and intentionally named in the School’s DEI work. A simple search of the document will reveal that the terms “Jesuit,” “spirit,” and “values” are employed more than 20 times throughout the report, used by multiple voices reflecting on different aspects of the School’s life. This incorporation of the University values is not an accident but a byproduct of a commitment by SCS leadership to infuse the organization’s management and culture with the guiding principles of a Catholic and Jesuit ethos of education. 

One of the most dynamic and innovative manifestations of the integration of Jesuit values and DEI is an ongoing project led by Dr. Shenita Ray, Vice Dean for Education and Faculty Affairs. The project, “SCS Jesuit Values and Cultural Climate Framework,” seeks to update “the mechanisms (legacy networks, relationships, processes, policies, practices, and tools) that drive the School’s daily work to align with who we say we aim to be as an organization.” By explicitly bringing together indicators of the Cultural Climate Survey, like institutional diversity and culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy, with Spirit of Georgetown values, like Community in Diversity and Cura Personalis, this model’s aim is to create “sustainable systemic structures to facilitate fairness, regardless of who is in any position in the organization.” Unlike a top-down coercive approach, this project invites a change of heart and mind at the individual, group, and local level so as to achieve sustainable systemic structures that better reflect Georgetown’s values. The innovation of marrying Jesuit values and curricular strategy is not new for SCS and Dr. Ray (see this previous Mission and Motion for active examples of Jesuit pedagogy at work in SCS online and on-campus courses). This framework will continue to be refined and utilized across the School, offering important lessons for how to realize the integration of DEI principles and Jesuit values across curricular, co-curricular, and administrative processes at Georgetown and beyond. 

And there are other examples of Jesuit principles serving as a resource for DEI commitments that are named in the Dean’s Report. Regan Carver of the English Language Center (ELC) reflects on how the Center has worked to advance access to English language resources while bridging cultural and geographic divides in a way that is reflective of “inclusive, Jesuit-rooted education.” An alumnus of the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies program, Chris White, talks about using his gifts and talents in service of the most vulnerable persons through the work of community development finance in Washington, D.C.  And Valerie Brown, a lawyer and lobbyist turned leadership coach, discusses how the University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership (ITL) did not turn away from the racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder but engaged it out of the University’s Jesuit values. 

The commitment to DEI is firmly rooted in the University’s Jesuit mission and values and reflected in the diverse religious traditions that have a home at Georgetown. An example of the moral urgency of anti-racism work espoused by religious leaders is evident in recent statements by Pope Francis, who has compared racism to “a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.” Pope Francis has also expressed solidarity with the movements for racial justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and others, saying: “Do you know what comes to mind now when … I think of the Good Samaritan? … The protests over George Floyd … This movement did not pass by on the other side of the road when it saw the injury to human dignity caused by an abuse of power.” 

SCS Dean Kelly Otter invites us to read the report and “learn, reflect, and join the conversation” so that we can together “continue the good work of fostering a more just, inclusive community.” I hope this invitation gives life to an even deeper individual and collective effort to advance DEI at SCS in the years ahead.  


Check out the 2021 SCS Dean’s Report

Posted on

Teaching MLK’s “I Have a Dream” Speech in 2022

An annual activity of the University’s MLK Initiative: “Let Freedom Ring!” is to take one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s signature speeches and use it as a curricular launching pad for deeper reflection about the enduring legacy of Dr. King and what his movement building for economic and racial justice means for living out our Georgetown mission today. Mission in Motion reflected on last year’s efforts that included speeches from both MLK and Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), timely selections for locating hope amidst the desolations of social injustice, particularly manifested in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

For this year’s MLK Initiative: “Let Freedom Ring!” at Georgetown, Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech will be the focus of Teach the Speech, an annual effort at the University to encourage reflection within curricula about the meaning of MLK’s legacy. Join the Teach-In via Zoom on Tuesday, January 11 at 11:30 a.m. ET (RSVP).

This year’s speech, the famous “I Have a Dream” address in 1963, is a fitting choice for 2022. Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ), one of the co-sponsors of  the initiative, commented that this “choice might seem cliché or obvious.” But the inspiration for choosing it arises in part from an article by Dr. Ibram Kendi, who lamented the myriad ways that Dr. King’s dream speech has been distorted by intentional efforts to convert the landmark speech into advocacy for “color-blind civil rights.” Rather, Dr. King’s speech is actually a challenging and demanding call, issued then but still reverberating today, to work for justice in a multiracial democracy by directly addressing the roots and effects of structural racism. 

In his own lifetime, Dr. King would address some of these distorted impressions caused by a single line in the speech that he dreamed “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He remarked in 1965 that “one day all of God’s Black children will be respected like his white children” and in 1967 that the “dream that I had [in 1963] has at many points turned into a nightmare.” 

As the United States continues to experience social, cultural, and political polarization around persisting racial injustices in all facets of society, MLK’s iconic 1963 speech presents a valuable opportunity to renew the discussion in 2022 and re-commit to tangible actions at Georgetown. For SCS students, staff, and faculty, integrating the “I Have a Dream” speech into classes and co-curricular spaces can spur critical reflection and action about racial inequities in the various professional industries that are the subject of SCS academic programs. For faculty and staff interested in Teaching the Speech in their classrooms and educational spaces this year, please fill out this form to learn more about the pedagogical resources to support this work. 

If you want to more deeply explore Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, you should also attend next week’s annual Teach-In event over Zoom on Tuesday, January 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. ET (RSVP). The Teach-In will feature:

  • 11:30 a.m.: Community Gathering with Music
  • 12:00 p.m.: Welcome by Ryann Craig, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs followed by a student reflection by Veronica Williams (C’23) and mini-keynotes by Virginia State Senator Jennifer McClellan and Neonu Jewell (L’04) of the African American Policy Forum
  • 1:00 p.m.: Dialogue with our three speakers facilitated by Ijeoma Njaka (G’19), Senior Program Associate for Equity-Centered Design at the Red House
  • 1:40 p.m.: Gratitude by Maya Williams, Office of Student Equity and Inclusion

Faithfully celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. means more than taking a day off from work. To witness to Dr. King’s legacy is to make a commitment to carry on his movement efforts for social justice and the common good. I hope you are able to attend the January 11 Teach-In and find ways to reflect and act at Georgetown on the enduring lessons of “I Have a Dream.”

Posted on

An Examen Reflection on 2021

With 2021 coming to a close, now is a good time to invite deeper personal and collective reflection at SCS about the year that we have experienced. A helpful resource for such a reflection, which comes out of our Ignatian heritage as a Jesuit university, is the Examen. This style of reflection has been highlighted many times by Mission in Motion, including posts about Examen formats customized for transitioning back to in-person learning during the fall semester, committing to the daily work of anti-racism, and navigating difficult emotions in the midst of the pandemic. The Examen helps us move forward by looking back.

This week’s post invites us into an Examen of the past year. Follow the suggested reflection questions to review your experiences and consider how you are being led into 2022. At Georgetown SCS, many events rise to the surface, including celebrating the Ignatian Year in October, honoring graduates in-person at Nationals Park in May, and promoting Black History Month. 

At the heart of the Examen reflection practice is the idea that engaging with the data of our interior lives, including our memories, desires, emotions, stirrings, repulsions, and attractions, can help us live authentic, nourishing, and generous lives. By paying attention to our interior movements we put ourselves in position to respond to our deeper callings in life. In a spirit of openness to how God is at work in our lives and in our world, the Examen asks us to engage honestly and directly with all of our interior experiences. This type of reflection surfaces both consolations and the desolations, requiring that we be generous and loving with ourselves in the process. The hoped-for outcome is that we come to see more clearly how we can commit to personal and communal actions that convert our deeper gladness into gratitude and our adversity into self-growth and community connections. Such a year-end reflection is all the more necessary as we grapple with the stress, exhaustion, and uncertainty presented by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. 

I invite you to enter into an Examen on the past year by considering these three questions:  

  1. Where have you been this year?;
  2. Where are you now?; and
  3. Where do you want to go in the coming year?

Looking back: Settle into a time of quiet, allow your body and mind to calm. Then engage with all of your senses and, in your imagination, go back through all of the relevant experiences of the past year. Allow yourself to let each of the most significant moments of 2021 float by as if in a parade of memories. Hold off on judging or analyzing these experiences – just let them come to the surface. What events of this year brought you the most joy? What challenged you or caused you to feel disconnected from yourself, others, and God? As a member of the SCS community, where did you find yourself in 2021 feeling the most gratitude for your Georgetown experiences? When and where did you find yourself struggling in your life as a member of the University community? You might refresh your memory about the significant experiences that we lived through as a community, including the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an in-person Commencement at Nationals Park, and the celebration of the Ignatian Year. 

In the present: As you sit in the current moment, how do you find yourself as a result of this year’s experiences? Do you feel in touch with your true, authentic self? Are your work, your study, and your personal life bringing you energy and motivation? Are there parts of your life in need of healing and change? Have the realities of social injustice caused you to feel disconnected and hopeless? Are you feeling inspired and encouraged by the people in your life who support you and provide you with loving attention and care? How have you changed this year? Do you feel closer to living out your vocation and purpose in life and work? 

Looking ahead: An Ignatian Examen is always oriented to making choices and committing to actions. As a result of your reflection on this last year, how do you want to grow in the next year? Are there particular challenges you are being invited to undertake? Are there habits of mind and heart that you want to engage in order to live a healthier, more grounded, and more generous life? Are there things that you learned in 2021 that you want to continue into the next year? How do you feel called to work for justice in your communities and in the world beyond? 

I hope this Examen helps you recollect your experience of 2021 and inspires a renewal and a recharge for 2022! 

Posted on

Hoyas, Hope, and the Holidays

It is that time of the year. The final push in classes as final exams, projects, and papers loom. Colder, darker, wintry days are upon us. And students, staff, and faculty across Georgetown eye the exits to the break as we enter into a holiday season at the end of a year that few will ever forget. Many are anticipating time away from campus duties and welcoming the opportunity to take some rest and reset from a challenging semester. Georgetown, anchored as it is in its mission and values, encourages all of us not to rush this precious time period but pay special attention to the themes of this spiritually significant season. As the Jewish community celebrates Hanukkah and Christians enter into Advent in anticipation of Christmas, now is a gifted opportunity to reflect on the gratitude we have experienced together as a learning community and the possibilities of hope at the end of 2021. 

The holiday season at Georgetown is a festive time of year. The Jewish community celebrates Hanukkah and the Christian community enters Advent in anticipation of Christmas. 

In his opening reflection for Georgetown’s 2021 Advent Devotional, Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry, sets the context for the challenges we have endured as a University community: 

“We enter this liturgical season having struggled and survived through almost two years of the COVID pandemic – a time that has kept us sober about the fragility of life, yet aware of the hidden graces that God has revealed to us amidst this new reality. … Indeed, as we have found ourselves in close and sustained proximity with our family and only the closest of friends, we have been challenged to think more deeply about the preciousness of life, as well as the profoundly new ways in which we can support and sustain one another. … We anticipate coming out of our own COVID fog yearning for God to come and set the world right with perfect justice, truth, and peace. Welcome to this season of hope.” 

This reason for hope – the possibility of a more peaceful and just world – gives life to this season and animates the religious traditions celebrating their special holidays. Mission in Motion reflected at the beginning of the fall semester about this theme of hope expressed during the opening year Mass of the Holy Spirit. The takeaway message from President DeGioia’s remarks, rooted in the writing of Fr. Otto Hentz, S.J., still resonates in this holiday season: We can be hope for one another. The next few weeks, filled as they might be with final projects and parties, can also be a time to grow in generous service with and for others.  

SCS helped the community celebrate the holidays by programming a series of events. 

At SCS, this commitment to others as a reason for hope has been actively on display in recent days. The SCS Programming Task Force has put together a series of community-building events intended to help us take a short break from the press of end-of-semester obligations. From a scavenger hunt to a trivia game and much in between, including decorating holiday cards for kids at Children’s National Hospital, the SCS community has been spending quality time with one another. These events pointed us to what is possible when we invite others into our lives and make space for new encounters and new friendships. 

For me, in this season of anticipation and waiting, the greatest joy comes from savoring the gifts in my life – friends, family, and community. This gratitude can then give life to greater generosity and inclusiveness, wondering if I can be more hospitable in sharing these gifts. As we journey deeper into these December days, I hope you can find a little time to savor some gratitude and generate some generosity toward friends and strangers alike.

Posted on

English Language Center Celebrates Thanksgiving with Gravy and Some Gratitude

A now annual SCS tradition is the English Language Center’s (ELC) hosting of a panel discussion about the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday. For several years, ELC has put together this dynamic event, which features SCS staff and faculty offering their insights and perspectives to an audience of ELC students learning about the diverse ways that America celebrates Thanksgiving. Moderated by Stephanie Gallop, associate director of ELC’s Intensive English Program, the panelists explored different preferences and customs that families engage in throughout the country. Turkey or stuffing? Family over football? Black Friday or Cyber Monday? The interactive discussion revealed some regional differences (sweet potato pie, for example, is more popular in the South) and some heartfelt reflections about why this is such an important holiday. 

The English Language Center hosted their annual panel on the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday. SCS staff members (seated L-R) Jocelyne Quintero, Jamie Kralovec, and Katie Weicher shared their perspectives. 

The celebration of Thanksgiving is an opportunity to consider the central place of gratitude not only in this holiday but also in the Ignatian spirituality that gives life to the Spirit of Georgetown. I love Thanksgiving because of the way that it invites us to make space for naming the gratitude in our lives. Family, friends, and food come together around a table, a setting for deep pondering about the ties that connect us to each other and to the deeper purpose of our lives. This setting also becomes an opportunity to consider how we might move beyond our comfortable boundaries and invite others to the table, with particular attention to persons in our community in need of food, family, and fellowship.  

Set against the consumerist tendencies of our culture, the practice of Thanksgiving can help remind us of our gifts and how our gratitude for these gifts can inspire our generous action in the world. Such gifts do not require any payback or recompense. Instead, as Johanna Williams, executive director of the Jesuit-affiliated Kino Border Initiative, a transnational organization that works for humane, just, and workable migration between the U.S. and Mexico, reminded us recently: 

“Gratitude is key to Ignatian spirituality. It is not just a feeling, but a disposition. An attitude. Part of fostering gratitude is thanking God for all of the blessings and gifts He has given us. … Processing a life experience through a lens of gratitude does not mean dismissing grief and pain. Gratitude allows migrants and all of us to reframe loss and trauma into an opportunity for consciousness and power.”  

Such an attitude of gratitude animated the ELC panel and the joyful celebration that followed, a sampling of traditional Thanksgiving foods on the ground floor of the SCS building. The carefully selected spread of Thanksgiving tastes, the students enjoying their plates, and the staff that served them generously all point to a gratitude about how mission and values come alive at SCS. I found myself simmering in gratitude for the opportunity to share in this learning experience with the ELC students and the staff and faculty that care for them. A student later shared her reflection about the event, offering thanks for the opportunity to learn about a new holiday and create some lasting memories of Georgetown. 

After the panel, ELC students enjoyed a sampling of Thanksgiving flavors on the ground floor of the SCS building. School staff and faculty prepared and served the meal. 

As we enter into a week of Thanksgiving, I invite you to spend some time in gratitude for all of the gifts of your life, including the community at SCS. You might consider using a special Examen created for this purpose by the Jesuits: “An Ignatian Examen for Thanksgiving.” 

Posted on

Curious About the SCS Daily Digital Meditations? Some Frequently Asked Questions

SCS continues to offer a Daily Digital Meditation for interested students, faculty, staff, and alumni. This week, Mission in Motion considers frequently asked questions about this program and encourages you to participate by signing up here.

Since the pandemic began, the School of Continuing Studies has offered a digital daily meditation each day of the workweek. The meditations have become an important piece of the School’s commitment to Care for the Whole Person as we continue to confront the challenges of COVID-19 and its related disruptions and stresses. For two years, Mission in Motion has reflected on the meaning and purpose of the daily offering of meditation, including a post last summer that featured testimonials from regular attendees: “The Value of Inner Silence: Participants Reflect on  the Benefits of SCS Daily Digital Meditations.” In that reflection, I offered some insights about the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of such a daily mindfulness practice. More than 200 students, staff, faculty, and alumni have registered to receive the log-in instructions since March 2020, and I continue to enthusiastically lead these sessions and believe in their enduring value. The virtual nature of this activity has enabled greater access to our SCS community members dispersed in different places.  

With the fall semester well underway, I want to answer some frequently asked questions about the meditations we offer. My hope is that some or all of these questions help persuade you to join our welcoming community and put into practice the University’s Jesuit value of Contemplation in Action. 

What if I have never practiced meditation? What can I expect?

The SCS Daily Digital Meditation is a form of mindfulness practice and there is no prerequisite for participating. It starts at 12:00 p.m. ET and runs until about 12:17 p.m. ET. During that time, we engage in a body scan, a conscious breathing exercise, nine minutes of silent centering meditation assisted by a piano soundtrack that facilitates a sacred setting for attendees, and a short closing. Most participants join the Zoom room on camera and then turn off the camera as we transition into the meditation experience. The approach is inspired by Western and Eastern traditions and the core exercise resembles “centering prayer” with its encouragement of naming a single, sacred word to gently push aside any distracting thoughts or feelings that creep into one’s conscious awareness during the time of pure silence. On Fridays, we practice an inclusive form of the Examen, modeled on Ignatian Spirituality, to reverentially review in silence the experiences of our week. 

What if I like the idea of meditation, but committing to a daily practice feels like too much? 

We hold the meditations every weekday and you’re welcome to attend whenever you like. Some attendees participate multiple times a week and others log in less frequently. There is no expectation to join on a regular basis. Daily meditations allow us to include as many participants as possible each week. And even though the sessions are in silence, there is a feeling of community among those who log in. As one participant shared: “I wasn’t sure how I would feel practicing meditation with a group. As it turns out, over the past several months I have found a community of individuals who share a common goal of sitting in silence to contemplate whatever they are dealing with on any particular day.” 

I’m interested in the meditations, but what else can you tell me about it and other similar programs being offered at Georgetown? 

Please reach out to me, Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, at pjk34@georgetown.edu. At Georgetown, there are many ways to practice mindfulness and wellness along with spiritual development. You can also learn more about Georgetown wellness (for students and faculty/staff) and spiritual accompaniment. 

Posted on

SCS Doctoral Student Puts Values, Skills into Practice by Contributing to In-Depth Study of Women and the Diaconate

Enshrined in Georgetown University’s mission is a dedication to “creating and communicating knowledge” through education “in the Jesuit tradition for the glory of God and the well-being of humankind.” This aspiration anchors the excellent undergraduate, graduate, and professional education offered across the University. At SCS, learning experiences are designed to maximize impact on the common good by cultivating professional skills that can be brought to bear on the pressing needs facing communities around the world. The Doctor of Liberal Studies (DLS) program demonstrates this commitment by encouraging students to frame issues in ways that cut across traditional disciplines, engaging in interdisciplinary reflection and analysis rooted in Georgetown’s Jesuit values. 

Study%20Screenshot.png
This week’s Mission in Motion is an interview with Jennifer Sherman, Doctor of Liberal Studies student, who recently contributed to a social science research study about U.S. Catholic women and the diaconate. 

In this week’s Mission in Motion, we sit down with DLS student Jennifer Sherman, who reflects on her learning journey at Georgetown and a research study published this week, “Called to Contribute: Findings from an In-Depth Interview Study of US Catholic Women and the Diaconate,” which she contributed to on a research team with Cella Masso-Rivetti and the study’s primary author, Dr. Tricia C. Bruce. This sociological study relies on in-depth interviews with women in the U.S. Catholic Church whose call or ministry bears similarities to that of ordained male deacons. The motivation for this systematic, social science research arises from the Catholic Church’s growing exploration, evident in the recent appointment of commissions by Pope Francis, about questions surrounding women and the diaconate. In the interview, Jennifer, who is also an alumna of Georgetown’s Bachelor of Liberal Studies program, reflects on her SCS curriculum, what led her to take on this project, and what this experience means for her professional future.

(MiM) Did you ever expect to be involved in a research project like this? Tell us more about the journey that led to your participation in this study. 

(JS) Not at all; it still feels more like a happy surprise or a dream come true than an expectation met. This despite the fact that my coursework and connections at Georgetown not only led me to this work but also helped prepare me for it. 

My involvement in the study began with a directed reading I did with Jamie Kralovec on women’s ordination. One of the readings he suggested that semester was a reflection by Casey Stanton on the Amazon synod. When Jamie and I discussed the article, he encouraged me to reach out to Casey, considering our shared interest in women and the diaconate. When she and I spoke, her Discerning Deacons project was just launching. Casey introduced me to Tricia, who was leading the sociological arm of that project, and the rest is history.

(MiM) In the course of your work on the research team, in what ways did you rely on the skills, knowledge, and values of your Georgetown education? 

(JS) I could provide many examples, but instead I’ll touch briefly on each category. In terms of skills, there were the research philosophy course with James Giordano, the quantitative studies on women’s ordination with Mark Gray, and courses on gender and religion with Lauve Steenhuisen. On the knowledge front, there was the historical study of women’s roles in the Church with JoAnn Moran Cruz. When it comes to values, Jamie Kralovec’s Jesuit Values in Professional Practice course was quite influential in that it allowed me to consider how I might align my values with my professional goals. It may sound cliché, but it’s because of experiences such as these that I was ready when the opportunity arose to work on this study.

(MiM) Can you reflect on how this experience is informing your own ongoing professional discernment?  

(JS) It certainly reinforces my desire to do further sociological work on women’s ordination and other topics in religion. But my interests are broad, and this experience reminds me that what’s important to me is working with others toward goals that support shared values such as those in Georgetown’s mission statement, including cura personalis, justice, and “people for others.” These values come into play in various other projects I’m involved in.

(MiM) Anything else you would like to share? 

(JS) Yes. For anyone who wants to discuss this or another project, or otherwise communicate with me, please contact me at jms354@georgetown.edu. I look forward to hearing from you!

Posted on

The Importance of Reflection in Professional and Continuing Education

The style and approach of teaching and learning in Jesuit education is known as Ignatian Pedagogy. Mission in Motion has previously covered Ignatian Pedagogy in the context of the University’s research about student learning habits during the pandemic and a faculty workshop at the School of Continuing Studies about how the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) is interpreted and enacted across the SCS curriculum. 

The dynamic interplay of context-experience-reflection-action-evaluation occurs in a continuous learning cycle which, inspired by the orientation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, invites students to consider how best to apply their holistic knowledge in the service of truth and the common good. 

The IPP attends to the whole person and counters a narrow assumption that content knowledge and technical skills alone represent the highest value of formal education. Rather, teaching and learning in the Jesuit style is a constant invitation to consider the various and diverse ways that learners, in their unique contexts, bring their lived experiences into the classroom as part of the shared educational endeavor. 

IPP%20CNDLS.png
 This week, Mission in Motion takes a closer look at Ignatian Pedagogy and the practice of reflection, which is a relevant professional skill for SCS students. Learn more about Ignatian Pedagogy at Georgetown. 

In a context like SCS, whose vision is to “transform the lives and careers of diverse lifelong learners by providing access to engaged and personalized liberal and professional education for all,” the lived experience of adult professionals becomes an invaluable basis for deeper learning. In this way, professional practice itself shapes student learning goals and provides a foundation for deeper reflection about academic content. In addition to its critical significance in Ignatian Pedagogy, reflection is an important element of effective professional education. 

Donald Schon’s 1983 book, “The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action,” helped bring attention to the need for greater awareness about the ways that professionals reflect, consciously and unconsciously, about their activities. The book is an important part of the curriculum of “The Reflective Professional,” the community-based learning course I teach at SCS every fall about the relationship between Jesuit mission and values and professional leadership development. 

I would like to make some basic connections between Schon’s ideas and the reflection stage in the IPP. My hope is that articulating the close relationship helps illustrate the congruity between the learning styles of adults involved in professional and continuing education at SCS and the mission of Jesuit education. 

Building off of the learning theories of John Dewey and others, Schon lifts up the importance of life experience in the educational process. By closely examining how professionals solve problems, Schon makes clear that professionals utilize their intuition, common sense, and habits in a range of situations including those of “uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict.” Technical reason is not enough to address such situations. The “epistemology of practice” comes from daily experience: 

“When we go about the spontaneous, intuitive performance of actions of everyday life, we show ourselves to be knowledgeable in a special way. Often we cannot say what it is that we know. When we try to describe it we find ourselves at a loss, or we produce descriptions that are obviously inappropriate. Our knowing is ordinarily tacit, implicit in our patterns of action and in our feel for the stuff with which we are dealing. It seems right to say that our knowing is in our action.” 

The notion that knowledge is gained in the midst of action resonates clearly with Contemplation in Action, a core value in the Spirit of Georgetown. The founding Jesuits were clear that their approach to spirituality would be broadly inclusive, paying special attention to busy professionals involved in civic affairs who could not afford to take significant time  away from their duties for prayer.

While research-based theories are necessary, Schon goes on to say that the professionals will depend ultimately on “tacit recognitions, judgments, and skillful performances” in the learning process. This theory of professional reflection closely relates to a Jesuit understanding of reflection. In the IPP, reflection is understood in this way: 

“We use the term reflection to mean a thoughtful reconsideration of some subject matter, experience, idea, purpose or spontaneous reaction, in order to grasp its significance more fully. Thus, reflection is the process by which meaning surfaces in human experience.”

The layers of understanding that occur in reflection include the “truth being studied more clearly,” “the sources of the sensations or reactions I experience,” “the implications of what I have grasped for myself and for others,” “personal insights into events, ideas, truth, or the distortion of truth,” and “some understanding of who I am (What moves me, and why?) and who I might be in relation to others.” This act of reflection connects up with Schon’s learning theories about reflective practitioners because of the way that daily human experience, including work, is at the root of the education experience. True to the Ignatian tradition, the act of reflection should always implicate a decision or action that magnifies the learner’s gifts and talents and capacity for generous service with others. 

Professional life continues to adapt during the ongoing pandemic. Continuous reflection is called for as organizations, governments, and other entities adapt to changing trends and uncertain circumstances. At SCS, we are fortunate to be guided by and grounded in the tradition of Ignatian Pedagogy and the resources that it offers for forming civic-minded, well-informed, and globally aware students.