Category: Service in Action

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Teaching Teachers as Mission Activity: English Language Center in Service to Others

The Mission in Motion blog has made Ignatian Pedagogy a central focus in the last few years. Ignatian Pedagogy refers to the set of practices, approaches, and values orientations of teachers who desire to incorporate the spirit and content of Jesuit principles in their teaching activities. The entire framework derives from St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and original source of pedagogical guidance for instructors in Jesuit schools. The paradigm is not, however, a one-size-fits-all method for bringing mission and values into learning spaces nor is it a prescription for teaching particular content. Rather, Ignatian Pedagogy, like the spirituality and values that inspire it, makes the individual uniqueness of a teacher, her students, and their context the starting point for developing a teaching strategy. 

This week’s Mission in Motion explores how the English Learning Center at SCS lived out the Georgetown value of being People for Others by serving 150 local students with a 10-hour English course. 

At SCS, we are fortunate to be home to the English Language Center, an English language and teacher training center that has been at Georgetown for nearly 60 years. Through a diverse array of programs offered to students from around the world, the ELC promotes “global understanding and education through programs that enhance English language proficiency, language teaching, and intercultural understanding” as well as “academic excellence in teaching and learning that is guided by a commitment to diversity and tolerance, and respect for the individual.” Several examples of the Center’s commitment to respect for the individual and commitment to a Community in Diversity, like the ELC annual Thanksgiving panel and potluck, have been featured on this site. 

A more recent example of ELC service to the community typifies the Center’s tight alignment with the Spirit of Georgetown. Recently featured on the SCS website, the article “Certificate Students Gain In-Person Teaching Experience” tells the story of how the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Certificate served 150 local students from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. In a 10-hour English course, TEFL teaching candidates gained direct practical experience in meeting the learning needs of these 150 students. The occasion brought the teaching candidates together with the students from a wide variety of cultural and language backgrounds. 

Multiple goods were served by this program experience. The teaching candidates gained valuable professional experience that can be leveraged as they seek TEFL jobs throughout the world. Such a direct practicum experience is at the heart of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm, which emphasizes the centrality of “action” in an interrelationship between “experience” and “reflection.” By having the direct experience of teaching in this way, the TEFL candidates can reflect on their practices with the help of program faculty and other students in the program. There is no substitute for real-world professional experience and the TEFL candidates are now better situated to enhance their knowledge base and skillset as a result of this teaching practicum.

In addition to benefits for the teachers, this program advanced the Spirit of Georgetown and its value of service with and for others. By aligning teacher training with the needs of local learners, the ELC TEFL program realized the University’s mission commitment to education in the service of community and the common good. The program design serves as a model for how to simultaneously realize the values of Academic Excellence and People for Others. Teaching and learning, regardless of the academic or professional discipline, can always be directed toward the generous service of the world. 

I hope you check out the Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate website and learn more about how the English Language Center brings Georgetown values to life.

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SCS “Be Continued” Campaign Shines Light on the Mission of Continuing Education

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This week’s post takes a closer look at the new SCS branding campaign, “Be continued,” and connects it to Georgetown’s mission and values. 

Every two years, the gifted SCS marketing staff plans for a distinctive brand campaign that raises awareness about the School of Continuing Studies. The campaign has multiple components, including creative placements (like this article in The Washington Post: “Turn the Page In Your Career at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies”) and messaging that is highly visible around the city and the D.C. region. You might have seen the campaign advertised on a city bus! The entire undertaking is an enormous effort and requires the coordination of many stakeholders. 

This year’s campaign, “Be continued,” is a creative on-ramp to a deeper exploration of the mission and values that animate Georgetown SCS. Through the campaign’s messaging points, “Turn the page in your career,” “Your next chapter starts here,” and “Your story is far from finished,” we can appreciate the resonances with the larger mission of Georgetown and the particular mission of SCS. The University’s mission commits to educating “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 SCS mission picks up on the University’s commitment by further specifying populations served in the implementation of Georgetown’s universal mission: “To deliver a world-class, values-based education to a diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers.” Both statements draw attention to the critical importance of education being “lifelong” and professionally and civically oriented. 

You might see the campaign in action on a city bus near you! 

The dimensions of adult professional and continuing education at SCS that make it particularly unique and distinctive are the connections to the Jesuit heritage of Georgetown University. As readers of the Mission in Motion blog can attest, there are many ways to name this uniqueness, including the University’s commitments to multi-religious chaplaincy and inter-religious dialogue and action. There are 10 values in the Spirit of Georgetown that attempt to narrate the meaning of this Jesuit heritage in a way that resonates with our diverse community. I would like to point out a specific connection to Jesuit values and education that arises for me as I contemplate the meaning of the “Be continued” campaign. 

In his 2000 address at Santa Clara University, then Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., gave some guidance about how Jesuit colleges and universities should be measured in terms of their effectiveness in realizing the mission. According to Kolvenbach, Jesuit schools strive to form students not just for worldly success but for a deeper personal and social commitment:

 “The real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become. For 450 years, Jesuit education has sought to educate ‘the whole person’ intellectually and professionally, psychologically, morally, and spiritually…Tomorrow’s ‘whole person’ cannot be whole without an educated awareness of society and culture with which to contribute socially, generally, in the real world. Tomorrow’s whole person must have, in brief, a well-educated solidarity.”

-Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., former Superior General of the Jesuits

The measure Kolvenbach suggests, “who our students become,” feels unmeasurable in some ways. How exactly can we assess who our students become? What criteria can we establish to evaluate whether this “becoming” is a sign of mission achievement? 

I think the “Be continued” brand campaign points to an important mission-defining aspect of SCS in response to Fr. Kolvenbach’s reflection. Students never fully “become” because we are always on the path to “becoming” who we are truly called to be. The educational offerings at SCS, in the form of degree and certificate programs, make possible the work of ongoing whole-person formation and development for the purpose of realizing the good in one’s own life and in the surrounding society. Each of our stories is being written anew each day and we cannot know how our own story will end. But the transformative gift of a Georgetown SCS education helps provide more options in the living out of our personal and professional stories. And together, our individual stories of professional self-discovery and advancement can add up to a larger shared story. Becoming active participants in this larger shared story, one that invites deeper commitment to justice and the common good, is exactly how the mission of SCS comes to life. 

So how are you being called to “Be continued”?

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Dr. King’s 2023 “Teach the Speech” Focuses on “The Drum Major Instinct,” Emphasizes Leadership in the Service of Others

This week’s post features the 2023 Dr. King Teach the Speech at Georgetown. Check out the January events and curriculum support guide to make this year’s selected speech, The Drum Major Instinct, come to life in your teaching at work at the University. 

Georgetown’s annual Teach the Speech is a welcomed learning opportunity for all parts of the University, including the School of Continuing Studies. Mission in Motion has engaged with this yearly event and written about it in 2022 and in 2021 (the blog has also covered SCS Faculty Director Dr. Erinn Tucker-Oluwole’s participation in the 2021 MLK Initiative event on food equity in Washington, D.C.). 

This year’s speech, The Drum Major Instinct, was delivered by Dr. King two months before his assassination and is filled with timely themes that can challenge and inspire our ongoing efforts to realize a beloved SCS community that honors the diversity of our members by striving for justice and the common good. The speech was then and remains today a provocative perspective on the two sides of greatness, significance, and the importance in each person. 

The intention of Teach the Speech is to encourage faculty and staff to meaningfully incorporate the speech’s content into classes and work at the University. The best way to dig into the curricular and professional applications of this year’s chosen speech is to first read it or listen to it. If you were not able to attend Teach-In 2023, I encourage you to check out the portions of the event that were livestreamed and recorded. You can watch a lecture by Dr. Vicki Crawford, Director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. collection, and a sermon and closing by Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. After all of this, I recommend that you engage with the comprehensive teaching guide that offers an array of suggestions about how to make The Drum Major Instinct come to life in your teaching or working context. 

From the perspective of the professional and continuing education learning community at SCS, I think this year’s selected speech presents several avenues for deeper exploration. For one, adult professional learners are motivated by their desires for greatness and for public recognition. Being motivated to advance one’s career and enhance one’s professional prospects is a healthy reason to seek higher learning at SCS. But even this noble ambition can become distorted if the intention for greatness becomes a desire to be first at all costs. Selfishness can crowd out others in one’s life, leading to neglect of duties to family and community. Dr. King is realistic about the human condition as he says: “Now in adult life, we still have it, and we really never get by it. We like to do something good. And you know, we like to be praised for it.” But Dr. King invites the listener to consider the other side of the pursuit of the ideal of greatness. 

For Dr. King, to be great is to be in service to others. The speech is an incredible expression of Dr. King’s humble embrace of his own mortality by giving the speech’s audience instructions for his own eulogy. In these instructions, we today hear a call to servant leadership. Dr. King does not want his memorialization to include his many awards and accomplishments. Instead, he says: “I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.” In this simple request, Dr. King is helping us appreciate what most matters in a life. A life of professional significance should be assessed on the basis of how one shares their gifts with others and helps realize a more just and inclusive community. We can take this lesson to heart as we pursue our professional ambitions at SCS. A life of professional development and advancement need not come at the expense of serving a higher purpose in life. 

Dr. King’s speech also points us to the social justice dimensions of our educational enterprise. The Spirit of Georgetown invites a commitment to justice that moves from charity to acting for change in social systems and structures that contribute to injustice. Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice, Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ) offers some opportunities to commit to this deeper work of social change. 

Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Adviser for Spiritual Care, embodied such a commitment this month while she spoke on a panel at the 2nd National Multi-Faith Conference on Ending Mass Incarceration.  At this conference hosted at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., Rabbi Gartner presented this Values-Based Call to Action co-authored for the Jewish Council of Public Affairs. In this work, Rabbi Rachel demonstrates that contemporary movements for social justice, inspired by the example of Dr. King, are rooted in deep spiritual and moral foundations.

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2022 SCS Dean’s Report Highlights the Role of Mission and Values in Forging Ahead as a Community

The 2022 SCS Dean’s Report, which covers Academic Year 2021-2022, is the focus of this week’s Mission in Motion. The report tells a deeper story about how the School uniquely manifested Georgetown and Jesuit values throughout the year. 

Each year, the SCS Dean’s Report offers a meaningful review of the School’s most significant work during the Academic Year and its vision for the year ahead. I like to think of this annual exercise as an Examen of sorts, given the document’s reflective spirit and the wide variety of student, staff, faculty, and alumni perspectives that give the report its life. In addition to individual articles authored by a breadth of voices, the report uses facts and figures to present a holistic snapshot on the state of SCS.

The framing of each report is instructive because it communicates to its readers something important about how the School lived out its prior year of work. This year’s document, “Forging Ahead,” tells the story in a series of reflections about how SCS returned from the pandemic to both pre-existing, pre-pandemic habits and to new ways of teaching, learning, and working together. As Dean Otter offers in her opening reflection, the balance of old and new ways of proceeding are reflected in the unique ways that SCS inspirits Georgetown and Jesuit values in its work: “The Dean’s Report is only a snapshot of achievements across our varied portfolio, and the diverse stories herein capture our community’s perseverance, and also our profound commitment to enacting our Georgetown and Jesuit values.” The document then provides multiple concrete examples of how SCS has put the mission into motion during Academic Year 2021-2022.

Many of the highlighted examples of work should be familiar to readers of this SCS Mission in Motion blog. For example, Miranda Mahmud, Manager of Communications, tells the story of Summer High School Programs returning to the Hilltop. You can read this past Mission in Motion post to learn more about the deeply mission-aligned Summer College Immersion Program (SCIP). Dr. Sherry Steeley, Associate Teaching Professor, goes into depth about the collaboration between the SCS English Language Center and Georgetown’s Institute for Women, Peace, and Security that provided direct English language and professional development support to Afghan refugees (the blog shared more about this partnership in a post: “Serving a Community in Dispersion: Reflections on Sharing English Language Learning with Afghan Refugees”). And I authored a piece about how SCS celebrated the Ignatian Year 500 through a set of dedicated activities covered by Mission in Motion throughout 2021 and 2022. The article explores the special events, retreats, and experiential pilgrimages that characterized Georgetown’s embrace of its Ignatian heritage in this milestone year of celebration.

The annual publication of the SCS Dean’s Report is more than a static document about a point in time. The words that comprise this document, a project undertaken by a dedicated team of SCS staff, are living testimony to the School’s enduring commitment to Georgetown and Jesuit values. I hope you will take a closer look at this year’s report and reflect from your unique position in the SCS community about how you have forged ahead over the last year of life and work.

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Cherishing Moments of Redemption: Rabbi Rachel Gartner Reflects on Hanukkah and a Retreat with the Prisons and Justice Initiative

In this week’s Mission in Motion, Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care, reflects on a recent retreat with students from Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) Paralegal Program seen here at their recent graduation. 

It’s just over a week since I had the distinct honor of facilitating SCS’s Prisons and Justice Initiative’s (PJI) Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizen Affairs (MORCA) Paralegal Fellows’ Retreat. Tonight, I’m sitting near my hanukkiah* and, as I write, I find myself reflecting on Hanukkah and the retreat in light of one another.  I can honestly say that the remarkable fellows on that retreat taught me things that will deepen the way I experience Hanukkah – and so many other things – for the rest of my life.

I am so grateful.  

Every night of Hanukkah, many Jewish households light the hanukkiah and place it in our windows, as the tradition requires.  On the windowsill, the lights act as:

  • symbols of resilience
  • offerings of light 
  • statements of both faith and pride 
  • a testament to the miracle of Hanukkah

The miracle of Hanukkah is in part a miracle of triumph and redemption in the face of great odds.  Hanukkah recalls a time when powerful rulers sought to permanently suppress Jewish traditions, teachings, and practices; to humiliate and frighten Jews into abandoning our sense of peoplehood; and to “choose” full-on assimilation.  In sum, to extinguish our light. 

But Hanukkah reminds us – with God’s help, the Jewish people didn’t let that happen.

The word “hanukkah” literally means “to dedicate.” On the first Hanukkah, Jews rededicated our holy Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by a tyrannical ruling class. Every Hanukkah since, Jews are meant to rededicate ourselves to bringing about a future time when the entire world is redeemed from tyrants and oppression.  We recommit to the active pursuit of a time when peace, justice, righteousness, and love will reign supreme.  We rededicate ourselves to bringing about a time when every single human being is free, secure, resourced, and cherished just as they are, with their full identity and full dignity fully intact. Every Hanukkah we rededicate ourselves to the holy task of bringing about a fully perfected world.

Which brings me to the retreat.

Among the many spiritual gifts I received from the fellows that day (and days since) was the reminder of the importance of not only pursuing a perfected world but of also affirming all the perfect moments in life along the way.  

One fellow shared that their confidence in God’s providence came from those moments when they were able to access deep calm amidst what they described as their life’s nearly unbearably chaotic turbulence. Another named as holy the many times in life that they’d discovered patches of solid ground amidst violently shifting sands. 

I know I can be so focused on getting to the promised times that I am often unable to see the moments of redemption along the way, to hear the little harmonies amidst life’s cacophony, to 

see the many sparks of light amidst life’s darker times.

This Hanukkah, thanks to the fellows, I’ll see things a bit differently. This year, I’ll be rededicating myself to staying open and attuned to catching the holiness that life offers up all around us and within us every day; the holiness of resilience, of calm, of fortitude, of insight, of transformation, of growth, and of contribution.  This year, I aspire to cherish the small but significant moments of redemption, even amidst today’s serious social, emotional, political, and environmental challenges.  Even as we seek to transform the world into the one we wish to live in.

May the lights of the season guide our hearts and hands towards actualizing that world, bimheriah b’yammeinu – speedily in our days.

And please, consider joining us on a future retreat.  You’ll be amazed at how much warmth and light a little rest and reconnection can bring!

*For the record: Menorah simply means candelabra!  The eight-candled (plus one) menorah we use for Hanukkah is called a hanukkiah.  If you really want to show all you know, call it a “hanukkiah,” but it’s not a problem in the least to call it a menorah!  Either works.

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A Prolonged Pause for Gratitude

As we near the Thanksgiving holiday, it feels appropriate to reflect on the place of gratitude in our individual lives and in our collective experience at Georgetown SCS. The Jesuit tradition of spirituality, embodied in the practice of the examen, makes gratitude the centerpiece of regular reflection and prayer. Growing in awareness of the gifts of our daily lives, from small details to the major sources of thanksgiving, can shape us into ever more generous, more discerning, and more large-hearted people. To enter into reflection on our lives in a spirit of gratitude makes us more available to become the authentic people we are called to be. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, believed that gratitude was the proper response to our encounter with the divine. 

It is important to note that naming gratitude does not always come easy. And it is ok to acknowledge that today, this week, or this semester has not surfaced much gratitude in our reflective awareness. It is not advised to force an expression of gratitude when it does not feel true to who we are or the reality of the world around us. If you’re in a place like this, you might need to pursue support, help, and guidance from friends, mentors, and trusted guides who can accompany you in your journey and help locate the blockages to experiencing gratitude. But we must also acknowledge that the social reality around us also gets in the way of freely naming a sense of our gifts. The endless episodes of senseless violence, including the recent shooting at the University of Virginia, and the reality of injustice and oppression make us more aware of our responsibility to build up and restore the common good. But this awareness of suffering and injustice might also make us feel the opposite of gratitude. 

In this week’s Mission in Motion, we pause in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday to savor gratitude in our individual lives and in our collective experience of Georgetown SCS. Several events this week at SCS, including a Thanksgiving potluck and an Instagram Live for Jesuit Heritage Month with alumna Karim Trueblood, were sources of gratitude. 

This week at SCS has surfaced much gratitude. Students and faculty are hard at work in their courses, nearing the end of a full semester. This community is also finding ways to build community and convene outside the classroom. This past week, SCS staff helped put together a series of dynamic public events, including a fall lecture series by Project Management, an International Student Series about the H-1B hosted by Hoya Peers to Peers, a Community Listening Circle for faculty and staff hosted by the Diversity, Equity, Belonging and Inclusion Council (DEBIC), an Instagram Live session for Jesuit Heritage Month with alumna Karim Trueblood, and a Rock Creek Hike hosted by the English Language Center (ELC). The ELC introduced its students to the American rituals of Thanksgiving by offering a panel discussion of SCS colleagues reflecting on their own holiday traditions. For faculty and staff, ELC also organized a Thanksgiving-themed potluck lunch. 

This week’s Instagram Live for Jesuit Heritage Month with alumna Karim Trueblood, explored how Georgetown’s Jesuit values came alive for Karim in SCS classes, retreats, and other opportunities.

This is just a small list of the many ways that SCS students, faculty, staff, and alumni are working to construct a more just and generous society and world and realizing the Spirit of Georgetown’s commitment to becoming People for Others. However you experience next week’s Thanksgiving, I hope that you can find some quiet time to savor the gifts of your life.

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SCS Adds Special Event to Georgetown’s Celebration of Jesuit Heritage Month

This week’s Mission in Motion highlights Georgetown’s Jesuit Heritage Month, which includes a special Instagram Live with SCS alum Karim Trueblood. 

Every year, Georgetown explores the enduring contribution of the University’s Jesuit heritage and values through an entire month of programming. You can check out the diverse array of activities occurring across Georgetown that invite participants into a deeper consideration of what the five centuries of tradition of Jesuit spirituality and education mean today. Jesuit Heritage Month can be especially helpful for community members who do not know much about Georgetown’s Jesuit characteristics and desire to learn more.

Mission in Motion attempts to narrate the myriad ways that SCS lives out Jesuit values across the school community. This blog is intentional about practically telling the story of mission and values at SCS by emphasizing how this work is approached inclusively and invitationally, encouraging everyone in the community to take part in activating the core principles of the Spirit of Georgetown. The emphasis is on the “motion” of the mission, signaling that mission and values are critical because they inform how we act more generously and justly in the world. The religious diversity of SCS is celebrated in these posts and Jesuit values are offered as a resource for deeper learning and service for everyone, especially in the context of the diversity of lived experience and religious identity. 

SCS uniquely manifests the Spirit of Georgetown in curricular innovations, like instructional design processes that intentionally incorporate Jesuit values into online and on-ground courses. All of the Master of Professional Studies programs include a core class in Ethics that explores professional decision-making from diverse philosophical vantage points, with special attention on the contribution of Ignatian discernment and Jesuit values. And a dedicated community-based learning course, “Jesuit Values in Professional Practice,” allows degree-seeking students to deeply explore the implications of incorporating Jesuit-inspired reflection practices, like the examen of consciousness, for professional life. 

With the uniqueness of the SCS way of living out Georgetown’s Jesuit values in mind, it is very exciting that Georgetown’s Jesuit Heritage Month will include a special SCS event. On November 17 at 3:00 p.m. ET on the School’s Instagram, I will sit down and talk with Karim Trueblood, SCS alum of the Class of 2019. Mission in Motion has featured Karim on the blog and explored her distinct ways that she made Jesuit values part of her curricular and co-curricular experience at SCS.

I am very excited about the Instagram live conversation because Karim’s story of personal discovery is an inspiration for anyone who wants to live out the University’s mission and values but may not know where to start. A graduate of the Master of Professional Studies in Emergency & Disaster Management, Karim models so well how every person has their own special sacred story and no one’s story is exactly like anyone else’s. The most compelling stories are so often filled with surprises and unexpected turns. Karim will help us understand how Georgetown SCS fits into her ongoing pilgrimage of life and work. Tune in and learn more about how Karim is helping set the world on fire! 

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BellRinger Ride to End Cancer Brings SCS Together

This week’s Mission in Motion shines a light on the October 22 BellRinger Ride to end cancer by funding research at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. SCS has come together to support BellRinger as a community, including by donating to Team SCS

Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, does critically important research that translates into clinical practice. The accelerated search for a cure to this disease and more effective treatments are supported by Lombardi’s invaluable work. Framed around the Spirit of Georgetown value cura personalis (or care of the whole person), the Lombardi Center, as part of the Georgetown University Medical Center, brings the University’s mission and values to life through its life-saving care and research. Almost everyone has a deeply personal experience with cancer, so the work of Lombardi and other comprehensive cancer centers is urgent for many. 

A year-round grassroots effort to end cancer by supporting the Lombardi Center has led to BellRinger, an inaugural bike ride taking place October 22-23, 2022. BellRinger is a promising community movement fueled by riders raising funds for cancer research. There are many ways to contribute and you can participate as a physical rider, a virtual rider, a volunteer, or by donating funds to the cause. What is energizing about BellRinger is the way that this inaugural ride weekend presents an important mission commitment. SCS has responded to this invitation to animate Georgetown’s mission by inviting its students, alumni, staff, and faculty to come together and make the BellRinger ride an enriching community bonding experience. 

It is not too late to join Team SCS and participate in the BellRinger Weekend. You can donate to Team SCS and you can still register for the big ride as part of SCS. A virtual kick-off for SCS is taking place on Friday, October 14 from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. ET. SCS community members can register for the kick-off meeting and learn helpful tips from BellRinger representatives about preparing for October 22. I invite you to check out SCS Dean Kelly Otter’s Instagram story extending an invitation to consider joining this important effort. BellRinger is truly a mission-grounded opportunity to share in helping end cancer and enjoy each other’s company along the ride!  

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Showing Up as Your True Self: Assistant Dean Lynnecia Eley Reflects on Supporting Students, Staff, and Faculty While Maintaining Authenticity

Last week, Mission in Motion reflected on the critical contributions of Georgetown’s staff community that bring to life the University’s mission on a daily basis and often do this work behind-the-scenes. This week, we sat down with SCS Assistant Dean Lynnecia Eley to learn more about her role at SCS, how she has grown professionally and personally during her decade of service at Georgetown, and what advice she gives to new students. Lynnecia is a mission-driven higher education professional and she consistently invites her colleagues and the students she supports to a deeper level of commitment grounded in the Spirit of Georgetown. 

This week’s Mission in Motion is an interview with SCS Assistant Dean Lynnecia Eley, who shares about her journey at Georgetown and what motivates her work at SCS. 

1. You’re an Assistant Dean for the Analytics, Technology, and Security Programs. Tell us more about this role and what your responsibilities entail. 

As the Assistant Dean for the Analytics, Technology, and Security Programs at SCS, I often find myself in a catch-all between coaching advisors or managing expectations of students and faculty, while also being an enforcer of academic policies. Specifically, my role includes assisting in planning and implementing curriculum in cooperation with program faculty directors, and also managing a team of academic advisors that counsel students in academic matters and student recruitment. At times you may also find me directly counseling students on personal or disciplinary matters and working closely with other colleagues to develop strategies for marketing, communications, enrollment, and monitoring program financial budgets.

At least that’s most of what my job description says…

While all true in relation to responsibilities, I view my role a little differently at times. Assistant deans can wear many hats and balancing them all can sometimes be a challenge between being in service to our teams and students and also being the “closer or fixer” when another voice is needed. Neither of which is specifically bad or difficult, but it is a balance nonetheless. I’m a caring and supportive individual by nature, so I thrive in space that allows me to be both a cheerleader or coach and a judge on tough matters. As assistant dean at SCS, I’m able to bring a little of my inner self to my daily work activities. 

2. You have been at Georgetown SCS for nearly 10 years. Say more about your journey at the University and what you have learned about yourself along the way. 

It’s been a long journey, but one that has been met with many meaningful experiences that stand out. There is so much rich history at Georgetown and honestly before working here all I really knew was its history of faith and basketball. I started at Georgetown SCS in the Summer & Special Programs department after two years of taking career risks and trying out jobs that didn’t connect with me as a person. It didn’t take long for me to begin feeling right at home and making connections with so many people.

Nearly 10 years is a long time, and throughout those years I’ve met people that became close friends, some of which have helped me become the person I am today. I remember struggling a bit in my early years, battling being myself versus being who I thought others needed me to be or “wanted” me to be. I remember a staff/faculty member, Wanda Cumberlander, asking me, “When are you going to come out of that box they have put you in?” You see, she saw so much more in me that I was almost afraid to let out. I used to take for granted how much being myself was needed for me to evolve personally and professionally.

What I have learned most along the way is how to show up authentically and how putting myself forward is part of showing up and being successful. Authenticity is at the core of being effective and sustainable because being authentic pulls from personal strengths and core values. I learned authentic self-promotion. It’s having the conviction that I have something of special and unique value to offer and the willingness to show up to serve and thrive within the process.

3. As someone who prioritizes good advising relationships with students, can you share with us some of the advice that you give to new students about being successful? 

My best piece of advice to new students comes in the form of a question: “If you had to grow your own food, would you wait until you are hungry to plant a few seeds?” Rather you are entering graduate school immediately after undergrad or a seasoned career changer, relationship building is key to being successful. You cannot wait until you have graduated to begin planting seeds that can affect or change the rest of your life. Relationship building and career networking begins with your first class meeting.

When we intentionally plant seeds we have to nurture them and wait for them to grow. Accelerating the process is just not humanly possible. So while a student, especially in a setting like SCS where programs are industry-specific and you are amongst other adult-learners, start building an integrated network of contacts early. This is more than exchanging business cards or the occasional like on LinkedIn; in essence I advise building intentional and quality relationships over a mass quantity of “people you know.” 

Some of the tips I’ve shared are to get to know your instructors and their areas of expertise, volunteer and/or join professional organizations, or even adopt a mentor (instructor, program alum, or current classmate) that can prove great payoff in the future.

4. Reflecting on Georgetown’s mission and values, what about the Spirit of Georgetown most matters to you as a person and professional? What are some ways that you bring the University’s mission to life in your work and daily life? 

Georgetown’s mission is to educate a diverse community with holistic values rooted in faith and traditions, but what matters most to me personally and professionally is the commitment to educating the whole person. The University integrates “real life” into academic experiences where students, staff, and faculty are able to connect and share about influences and interests that make them unique. My belief is that when you find something you really enjoy doing, you also find a way to help others while doing it and the feeling it provides gives a sense of purpose or fulfillment.

Outside of the University I’m a huge cheerleader for others in coaching and teaching them how to show up as their best selves with confidence and go after the freedoms that allow them to do whatever it is that they love. At work, I’m the same with my team. I’m very intentional and careful about affirming their qualities, while also coaching and teaching them to be great student advisors. The effect they have as advisors, being of service to so many students, in turn creates a circle of personal and professional growth.

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Staff Appreciation Day Presents Opportunity for Gratitude, Community, and Care

Cura personalis is one of the most popular and widely cited values in the Spirit of Georgetown. And this makes sense because this particular value points to the need for individualized attention and care in all relationships at the University, especially among teachers and students and between employees and managers. Caring for the whole person in this way, attending to the individual’s gifts and talents as well as their challenges and limitations, requires that we get to know each other at more than a surface level. By encountering each other’s unique stories and lived experiences, we begin a relationship of work or study from a place of meaningful context. The relationship is more meaningful when both parties involved are willing to listen attentively to each other’s needs out of a place of deeper personal recognition. 

This week’s post is a reflection on Georgetown Staff Appreciation Day, relating the values of care for the person (cura personalis) and care for the work (cura apostolica). Pictured: SCS staff members enjoying the picnic lunch. 

This week, Georgetown hosted a Staff Appreciation Day on the Hilltop campus and many members of the SCS team attended this festive event. With food, dancing, and the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company on a beautiful day in the late summer, the three-hour celebration was a welcome but rare occasion of bringing together the staff community from across Georgetown. The experience also invites deeper reflection about how the staff at SCS and across the University uniquely bring to life the Spirit of Georgetown in their daily work. To assist with this deeper reflection, I’d like to connect cura personalis to the value of cura apostolica, or care of the work. 

Relating cura personalis to cura apostolica helps us appreciate in a more significant way how the staff at SCS and across Georgetown are instrumental to the realization of the University’s mission. Each member of the staff serves a unique role in the organization, manifesting a diversity of professional expertise and skill in all the daily tasks that need to be realized in order for Georgetown to function well. So much of this activity occurs outside of the view of students and faculty. Staff members care for the universal work of Georgetown’s mission with their particular contributions. Regardless of one’s specific job responsibility, however, staff members do more than just make the organization function and operate efficiently. They bring the mission to life in vital ways. 

By paying attention both to the person and to the work for which they are responsible, the Spirit of Georgetown relates individual personal attention and collective purpose and mission. Care for the whole person is valuable for its own sake. But as an institution of higher education rooted in the Jesuit tradition, purposeful care and attention toward the individual ultimately serves the larger purpose of our educational goals. The Jesuits around the globe have noted that these two values are sometimes in tension but can fruitfully come together when co-workers collaborate “towards the service of the mission” but also recognize that they themselves are a “form of mission.” More than serving the mission, staff are themselves the mission. As Stephanie Russell puts it in an article entitled “Cura Apostolica Revisited:”

“Cura apostolica is the complement to cura personalis, but it is not an institutional counterweight that tempers our warm and fuzzy inclinations to provide personal care (that is, the Ignatian version of good cop, bad cop). Rather, through cura apostolica, the same intimate knowledge and compassion found in cura personalis is extended, beyond any single person, to encompass our shared personhood and mission. … We matter to each other; we matter together for the common good.”

Staff Appreciation Day was a reminder of how much individual staff members, however behind-the-scenes their work might be, serve our communal mission. Appreciating the staff in this way can sharpen an awareness about how the Georgetown educational experience is a shared endeavor.