One of the goals of Mission in Motion is to highlight some of the ways that SCS uniquely manifests the mission and values of Georgetown by delivering a world-class, values-based education to a diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers. In this Ignatian Year, we are each invited to engage with the origin story of the Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius, and then relate something from that story to the diversity of our own individual stories.
Storytelling has become a cornerstone of the Ignatian Year, outlined as a practice on Georgetown’s Ignatian Year bookmark and highlighted during a recent signature event that modeled how to share our own stories and listen to the stories of others. An important implication of this kind of storytelling is that transformation is possible through stories, not only for individuals but also for communities. SCS is helping realize the personal and social change possibilities of telling stories.
The Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC), and specifically its Certificate in Social Impact Storytelling, demonstrates the potential for social change when professionals effectively tell their stories as part of social impact work. Anchored in CSIC’s mission, the Certificate in Social Impact Storytelling seeks to teach “changemakers of all types, especially current and aspiring marketers, communicators, fundraisers, and journalists, how to harness the power of effective storytelling for the strategic benefit of an organization and society as a whole.” This commitment to social change aligns with the Spirit of Georgetown and the University’s commitments to social justice and the common good.
What is especially noteworthy is the congruence between the purpose of storytelling in the Ignatian Year and the mission of the storytelling certificate. The latter is grounded in the idea that telling stories effectively builds emotional connections that “bring to life the work of the issues we care so much about in ways that other forms of communication cannot.” The notion of connecting to others through emotions has a powerful linkage with the style of spirituality at the root of the Ignatian Year. Building relationships of trust grounded in the honest sharing of stories aligns with a spirituality that is centered around shared human experiences.
The starting place for a transformational spirituality is not by understanding abstract ideas, but by making meaning of our daily experiences and then relating that meaning to our ultimate purpose in life. St. Ignatius believed that through our emotions, the data of our everyday human experience, we are able to discern how we are called to lives of generous service. Our authentic callings and our deeper union with God flow out of the discernment we do of our interior, emotional experience. That interior work requires that we share our stories with others like trusted spiritual guides, friends, family, and others in our communities with whom we build trust. The philosophy of the CSIC storytelling certificate that “stories are inextricably linked to what it means to be human” similarly connects the sharing of stories with both individual and communal transformation.
Connecting stories to social change was evident this week in a special event organized by CSIC about the book “Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy During Jim Crow” by Dr. Tyrone McKinley Freeman. In conversation with John Trybus, CSIC executive director and faculty, Dr. Freeman explored how Madam C.J. Walker used her own story and her own voice for greater justice and inclusion in a society that marginalized African Americans. The story is one about the powerful bonds of community. Walker’s story of philanthropy challenges the notion that individuals are successful in private enterprise because they are “self-made.” Rather, like Madam C.J. Walker, individuals are “mutually made” in tight-knit communities and have the potential to generously share the power and dignity of their own stories with others. This story carries powerful lessons about the evolution of Black women’s philanthropy and the events that eventually gave rise to the civil rights movement in the United States.
The call to action at the end of the book event was: Do what you can with what you have. That same call resonates with the potential of this Ignatian Year. How might we share our stories and our gifts and talents with others in the hope of making the world a more generous and welcoming place?