Tag: Jesuit Education

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Finding Your Deep Passion: An Interview with 2022 SCS Spirit of Georgetown Awardee, Lorena Chirinos

Every year, Georgetown SCS honors a graduating student or alumni who exemplifies the University’s values, grounded in our Jesuit heritage, of people in service to others, commitment to justice and the common good, intellectual openness, and leadership. A committee of SCS faculty and staff select the winner of the Spirit of Georgetown award after a thoughtful and discerning review of nominating statements that come in from across the community. The winner receives this prestigious award at the conclusion of the SCS Tropaia Ceremony taking place in Gaston Hall on the Hilltop campus.

Public honors like this are important for the work of mission integration because they publicly communicate the values and commitments that SCS aspires to. This year, SCS is proud to give the Spirit of Georgetown award to Lorena Chirinos, a 2022 graduate of the Master of Professional Studies in Integrated Marketing Communications.

Lorena came to Georgetown from Venezuela to realize a dream for herself and her family, and in only a few short years has made a considerable impression on fellow students, faculty, and colleagues because of her commitment to public service. One of her nominators reflected on Lorena’s generous spirit: “Lorena is a living, breathing example of our Jesuit values personified in her commitment to social justice through education. … She has not just excelled academically but also applied her values and experience in support to the university.” 

This week’s Mission in Motion is an interview with Lorena about her time at Georgetown, her advice for students, and lessons she is taking away for her professional future. 

This week’s post is an interview with Lorena Chirinos, a 2022 graduate of the Master of Professional Studies in Integrated Marketing Communications, who will receive the Spirit of Georgetown award at next week’s SCS Tropaia ceremony.

This week’s post is an interview with Lorena Chirinos, a 2022 graduate of the Master of Professional Studies in Integrated Marketing Communications, who will receive the Spirit of Georgetown award at next week’s SCS Tropaia ceremony. 

1. Congratulations on winning the SCS Spirit of Georgetown award! What was your reaction to learning of this news? 

I was so proud and excited at the same time. I can’t believe that two years ago I was receiving the news that I got into Georgetown, and now I get to graduate and receive this incredible award. For the past two years I have been a full-time student, while working at Georgetown, and dealing with many of the pressures we immigrants and international students have to deal with, and to receive this recognition just makes me feel like all my hard work was worth it and also noted by everyone around me.

2. How has your education at Georgetown SCS informed your professional discernment? What are you taking away from Georgetown for your next steps in life and career?  

The education I received at Georgetown SCS has taught me to be a well-rounded professional. Prior to attending Georgetown, I obtained my B.A. in Mass Communications back in Venezuela and worked as a marketing coordinator for several years. Even though I had extensive knowledge of the industry, Georgetown SCS’s IMC program gave me the strategic tools to make the most out of my expertise. Additionally, I believe that being able to customize your own path by picking the electives that make the most sense to you gives you the opportunity to hone the skills you will need in the future. During this time I also found a deep passion for market research, which has made me want to learn more about this industry and maybe even work at a market research firm someday.

3. What advice would you give to an incoming student at SCS? 

First, enjoy it! It is surprising how fast time flew by and how much I’m going to miss going to Georgetown. Secondly, to connect with everyone around you: other students, faculty, and staff. As you navigate graduate school you are going to learn how valuable these connections are, not only professionally but also for your personal development. And lastly, treasure every piece of knowledge you obtain during your journey at Georgetown SCS. I know it can feel overwhelming at times being a grad student and, for many of us, working at the same time. But everything you learn at Georgetown is going to make you a better professional and, overall, a better person.

4. What are you most looking forward to about Commencement? 

To see my mom! I haven’t seen my mom in almost three years, and I am very excited to share this celebratory moment with her. I’m also very happy to see my fellow classmates in person. Even though I have had the immense pleasure to meet some of them, I know there are a lot of my online classmates that are going to be coming to the ceremony. It is so crazy and exciting at the same time that I get to meet them after two years since we started the program.

5. How has the Spirit of Georgetown, the Jesuit values that animate the University, come alive for you during your time here? 

I loved my time at Georgetown and all the opportunities it presented for me to live the Jesuit values in my day-to-day life. For over a year I had the chance to work as a marketing assistant for Biomedical Graduate Education at Georgetown University. During my time there I had the opportunity to help other fellow Hoyas in their professional development. This position also gave me the opportunity to actively promote resources for other international students and to advocate for diversity and inclusion among our student population. Additionally, I had the pleasure to work with The Red House organization under Georgetown. Working with them helped me understand even further our student population and how we can transform education by breaking paradigms while aspiring to build whole persons that go beyond academic excellence. Lastly, I have had the pleasure to be part of the organizing committee for the first Multicultural Graduation Ceremonies for graduate students at Georgetown University. This experience has allowed me to connect with different Hoyas from different cultural backgrounds and has been an overall enriching experience that I will never forget.

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Engaging in Solidarity with the People of Ukraine 

“What can I do?” 

This question has become common in recent weeks as the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine grow. Observing images of human suffering and senseless destruction on television, in newspapers, or on the web is dispiriting and potentially demotivating. One might feel like there is nothing that can be done in response to a conflict half-way around the world. And when one appreciates that the war in Ukraine is only one of nearly a dozen other armed conflicts occurring in the world at this very moment, the sense of hopelessness in the face of human suffering and unnecessary loss can only grow.

What can we, as a Georgetown University community, do in response to these events? What might we discern as action steps, individually and collectively, in response to the war in Ukraine?  

This week’s Mission in Motion explores what can we do as members of the Georgetown community in response to the war in Ukraine and the growing humanitarian crisis it has caused. Tetiana Stawnychy, president of Caritas Ukraine, participated from Ukraine on a virtual Georgetown panel and offered ways to support the people of Ukraine (watch the recording).

The University’s mission and values offer insights about how to proceed. Georgetown students are educated “to be reflective lifelong learners, to be responsible and active participants in civic life and to live generously in service to others.” We live out these commitments through values like “People for Others,” “Faith that Does Justice,” and “Interreligious Understanding.” These principles are being animated at the University in the weeks following the beginning of the war. 

Georgetown’s official University landing page details several ways for members of the community to support growing humanitarian needs arising from the war. In addition to statements and expressions of support, one finds at that site resources for supporting mental and spiritual well-being in response to these destabilizing world events. Consistent with the University’s academic mission, the page also features timely scholarship, commentary, and public convenings that shed light on the many dynamic issues that the war brings up for the global community. 

This week, for instance, Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life hosted an event, “War in Ukraine: Human Agony, Global Crisis, Moral Principles.” The event, which featured speakers from around the world, including Tetiana Stawnychy, president of Caritas Ukraine, who was participating from within Ukraine where she is leading humanitarian assistance on the ground. This event was focused on practical questions, namely “what is the best way for event viewers to help?” But the discussion also pointed to the need for deeper individual reflection about the meaning of the war. One panelist offered that discerning what one is called to do in response to this war depends on first understanding the underlying issues. How did this war come to be? And what are the implications for the people of Ukraine in the short, medium, and long terms? Such reflections, which can occur in interdisciplinary curricular and co-curricular ways at Georgetown, bring up critical questions about globalization, religion and nationalism, international governance, economics, etc. 

There are many international humanitarian organizations addressing the human needs arising from the war in Ukraine. The Jesuit Refugee Service has set up this page with suggestions for how to become more involved in the humanitarian response. And from April 6–9, 2022, Loyola Press, a Jesuit publishing company, will donate all of the proceeds from book sales on its site to the JRS. 

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Students Find Community, Contemplation, and Snow at Annual SCS Retreat 

This past weekend, over 20 SCS students from across 11 different programs experienced an overnight retreat at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center, “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New.” The first in-person SCS student retreat since the global pandemic began, the experience invited registrants to say “yes” to a weekend of rest and to recharge along with interior spiritual practices taking place in individual and group activities. 

The 2022 SCS Student Retreat, “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New,” took place at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center.

A series of pre-retreat readings and preparation activities framed the weekend. Students had a chance to read in advance about silence as the foundation for meditative practices by exploring some of the wisdom offered by the Center for Action and Contemplation, a contemplative teaching organization grounded in the Christian tradition that explores interior practices from an inter-spiritual lens. In addition to silence, students read about the relationship between meditation practice and inter-religious dialogue from the book, “We Walk the Path Together: Learning from Thich Nhat Hanh & Meister Eckhart.” More than reading, registrants were also encouraged to practice mindfulness meditation in advance of the retreat and to select a sacred object to bring along to help them more deeply introduce themselves and their sacred stories to their fellow Georgetown classmates. 

The weekend offered some surprises. A mid-March snow and wind storm made for an unexpected background throughout the overnight event. And while the spring retreat did not feel “spring-like” in a certain sense, the packed snow offered a layer of natural beauty in the already breathtaking setting of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Retreatants explored the snow while taking advantage of the Calcagnini Contemplative Center’s many walking paths and trails during solo and group nature walks. Much of the retreat took place indoors in the Arrupe Community Room with chairs arranged in a circle and a fireplace warming up the space. Group mindfulness and Examen meditations encouraged participants to experience silent reflection in a community setting. And a time for individual contemplative reading about Jesuit notions of interior freedom helped realize the retreat’s theme of “seeing things new” in the spirit of the Ignatian 500 year. 

 A snowfall made for a beautiful natural setting on the SCS student retreat. 

Beyond the potential mindfulness and spiritual benefits, the retreat was also fun! Delicious meals and the ever presence of snacks, coffee, and tea made for enjoyable conversation and fellowship among students, many of whom had never met others outside of their program at SCS. By the time the retreat concluded, a common refrain was a wish that it had lasted longer. 

 Students enjoyed the fireplace in the Arrupe Community Room, using the space for individual and group reflections and meditations. 

Making time and space for such an intentional physical retreat from daily life is an important ingredient of the whole person education articulated in the Spirit of Georgetown. Students had an opportunity to reflect on what the time away meant to them and how it shaped their self-understanding. This is a sampling of what the students shared: 

  • “I feel more calm and centered.” 
  • “The retreat brought about some important interior awareness that I should further explore and contemplate.” 
  • “I feel grounded in my sense of peace and community here at Georgetown.” 
  • “I feel more conscious about not judging myself so harshly. I feel more conscious about the importance of leading a balanced life.” 
  • “I am more grounded in the present moment and noticing things that I want to work on in myself. I feel great about the connections that I made with others.” 

If you missed this year’s retreat but are still interested in exploring opportunities for spiritual growth at Georgetown SCS, you might consider: 

  • signing up to receive newsletters from the different religious chaplaincies operating at the University (sign up)
  • registering for the SCS Daily Digital Meditation that I lead on Zoom Monday-Friday at 12 p.m. ET. I offer a version of the centering mindfulness meditation on Monday through Thursday and an Examen on Fridays (sign up) 
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President DeGioia Delivers Sacred Lecture in Georgetown’s Ignatian Year, Invites University Community To Live Questions of Meaning

President DeGioia delivered a Sacred Lecture as part of Georgetown’s Ignatian Year 500. You can watch a recording.

On February 17, 2022, in Dahlgren Chapel, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia contributed to the University’s celebration of the Ignatian Year 500 by offering a Sacred Lecture: “Formation and the Practice of Discernment” (you can watch a recording). President DeGioia delivered the lecture at the invitation of Ignatian Year 500 working group co-chairs, Fr. Ron Anton, S.J., Superior of the Georgetown Jesuit Community, and Kelly Otter, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Continuing Studies, along with Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry. This event was conducted in coordination with the Office of Mission & Ministry, who produces the Dahlgren Chapel Sacred Lecture Series. These lectures imitate a tradition in the early history of the Jesuits when lecturers, outside of the context of formal preaching and liturgy, sought to instruct, edify, and challenge their listeners to apply the content of religious education within their daily lives. The lectures functioned then as now as a kind of adult education or adult faith formation. This feature of early Jesuit history, like the fact of St. Ignatius being a military veteran who suffered wounds in battle, is another meaningful connection between Jesuit tradition and the characteristics of SCS.  

President DeGioia framed his presentation in response to this question: an injury suffered in Pamplona launched Ignatius of Loyola on a journey that we honor five-hundred years later. What is the meaning of this moment for a University community? The lecture covered a wide range of territory, including the biography of St. Ignatius and the cannonball moment that gives life to the Ignatian Year, the Jesuit framework for the “discernment of spirits,” and the relevance today of St. Ignatius and Jesuit spiritual tradition. One of the primary takeaways, based on President DeGioia’s reading of early Jesuit and spiritual master St. Pierre Favre, is that the spiritual life is rooted in affective movements. Not discounting the intellectual, Favre raised important awareness about the need to pay attention to “felt understanding” or “experiential and affective knowledge” in discerning our interior movements. This understanding of human experience, which is informed by the Spiritual Exercises, a guided retreat that St. Ignatius designed out of his own experience that continues to be shared today at Georgetown and throughout the world, gives rise in Jesuit education to a focus on caring for the whole person. 

There were many moments of significance in the Sacred Lecture, but some of the most important exchanges of ideas occurred during the question-and-answer session. Four Georgetown students had opportunities to share questions with President DeGioia. The issues and concerns on the minds of these students reflect common questions raised often at Georgetown, grounded as it is in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition, but meaningfully committed to multi-faith chaplaincy, inter-religious dialogue, and a respectful pluralism of ideas and philosophies. One student inquired about how a Jesuit discernment framework is relevant to those who do not profess a belief in God. President DeGioia’s answer is instructive and points all of us at Georgetown, regardless of our religious identities, to the enduring practicality of Ignatian spirituality: 

“Whether you believe in God or not, I believe that we all have these interior movements. Interior movements that may lead us to a greater sense of fulfillment, or a sense of flourishing or meaning. And other experiences that may lead us away from that. Now what Ignatius offers, and what the Jesuit tradition offers, is a way of making sense of that in relationship to God. For those for whom that does not resonate, there is still the interiority that is calling for your care, calling for your attention, calling for your engagement. I said in the remarks that we come up with other words to describe this experience in modern language. This moment in the life of Ignatius for the life of a university like Georgetown. But you can no doubt think about what words might work. Contemporary psychology, for example, the work around ‘flow’ or integral psychology, it’s secular, it doesn’t really presume a belief in God. Some of the fusion of Eastern and Western traditions, not clear for me how a spiritual reality might fit in that moment, but those are questions that you can live with. Questions that you can explore. What I would encourage you is to live with the question you just asked me. Because that’s your question. And coming to terms with that, that’s where meaning will be for you, in your life.”


As SCS students prepare for this weekend’s retreat at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center, “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New,” we will take to heart this lesson that all of us can grow as individuals and as a community when we commit to interior practices that help us journey the questions that have meaning in our lives.

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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. 

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SCS Mental Health Initiative Centers Gratitude, Kindness, Self, and Communal Care

A recent article, “Jesuit Education Offers Tools to Meet the Mental Health Crisis,” both illuminates the scale of the mental health challenges being experienced today by students and offers hope by suggesting resources from the Jesuit tradition of education for addressing these challenges. The article’s author, Mary-Catherine Harrison, a faculty member at Jesuit peer institution University of Detroit Mercy, diagnoses the many contributors to high levels of mental distress. These factors include entrenched inequality, climate change, normalization of gun violence, surge in hate crimes, a rise in addictions, divisive public discourse, pervasiveness of social media influence, and the COVID-19 pandemic. For Harrison, there is a temptation to present the “new gospel of ‘self care’” as the solution to this crisis. While taking care of one’s own health and wellness is clearly an important action, the error of presenting this approach as a cure-all for the pandemic of mental illness, according to Harrison, is that it presents an “individual cure for a collective disease.” So what then is the right collective response, especially in a university setting, to the mental health crisis? 

SCS staff members Frances Bajet and Crystal Leung set up an activity table in the C2 atrium as part of a “Share the Love” mental health initiative at SCS. A wall of gratitude captured posted notes. 

The Jesuit tradition of education has a lot to say about caring for a university community at a time like this. Harrison pulls out three particular ideas. First, classrooms that build bonds between students and teachers, between classroom learning and the lived experiences of communities beyond the four walls of the university foster deeper, more meaningful connections for students. This kind of connection creates community that “protects mental health. This is not a peripheral goal of education; it is at the very heart of what we do.” Second, Ignatian pedagogy, or the unique style of teaching and learning in the Jesuit tradition (see this Mission in Motion for more about it), integrates a whole-person approach to learning that can help students make connections between their lived experience and the content of their coursework. The effect of this approach is gifting students with a “framework for self-actualization and meaningful vocation.” Third, a Jesuit education can both prioritize the unique individual needs of students, on the one hand, and challenge social and institutional structures to change their ways, on the other. Harrison invites us to consider and push back against the various ways within universities themselves and in broader society that students might interpret their value strictly in terms of productivity and not in their “inherent value as human beings.” 

This SCS initiative epitomizes an approach to caring for the community that arises out of the Jesuit tradition of education.

This week, SCS put these ideas into action with a multi-day mental health initiative framed as “Share the Love.” An activity table, placed in the C2 atrium, invited students, faculty, and staff to engage with their goodness by sharing it with others. Participants were given the opportunity to write a kindness card to cheer up a child affected by pediatric cancer and cards will be donated to the Valentine Project. Activities also included a gratitude wall to post notes about reasons for gratitude. And finally, the initiative invited individuals to share their health and wellness practices on social media so as to encourage others to follow. All of these activities point to the need in this current mental health crisis for connections and community, self care and community care. 

Some of the creative kids crafted by the SCS community for the Valentine Project.

Current students who are looking to foster even more of these connections should consider signing up for the upcoming SCS student retreat taking place from March 12-13 at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center. Please sign up by March 4, 2022!

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Upcoming SCS Student Retreat: “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New” 

This week’s post is a promotion of the upcoming SCS student retreat to be held at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center from March 12–13, 2022. All SCS current students are invited to RSVP by March 4.

Retreats exemplify Georgetown’s commitment to a whole person education. During their time at the University, Georgetown students are invited to grow and develop beyond the classroom, paying attention to all aspects of their lives, including their spirituality. At the heart of the Spirit of Georgetown, uniquely expressed in the value of Contemplation in Action, is a recognition that leading lives of generous action in the world requires taking time for silent reflection. In simple terms: our doing depends on our being. We have an opportunity to lead deeper lives of meaning, belonging, and purpose when we make time and space for intentional quiet. The beauty of a group retreat is that it encourages both personal and communal growth, which is especially important at SCS where students come from a diversity of academic programs. We are fortunate at the University to be able to facilitate this kind of experience for students at the beautiful Calcagnini Contemplative Center, a spiritual home away from home that is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. 

This year’s SCS weekend retreat for students will take place at Calcagnini from March 12–13 (current students should RSVP here!). Offered in-person for the first time since 2019, this relatively new annual tradition at SCS has become a welcomed touchstone in the student life experience. The retreat’s theme this year, “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New,” reflects how societal realities like the ongoing pandemic, the persistence of social injustice, and the continued fragmentation and polarization in our culture are profoundly affecting our interior lives. Over the last two years, Mission in Motion has highlighted the many health, wellness, and spiritual resources that Georgetown offers to support students during these challenging times. The upcoming retreat is another opportunity for SCS students to develop habits of reflective self-awareness that are so important for cultivating ethical leadership in a world that desperately needs it. 

Students can expect 24 hours filled with intentional meditation, reflection, relaxation, contemplative conversation, nature, and discernment. Even this short time away from home, work, and other obligations can create needed space in one’s interior life. The retreat’s focus will be on interior practices, like mindfulness meditation, the Ignatian examen, nature walks, etc., that can support us as we journey through life. A particular emphasis will be on the potential for healing the polarization that ails our society through the practice of deep, active listening. The art of dialogue, especially dialogue across differences, requires this kind of listening and learning in a spirit of mutuality. 

The retreat will also pick up some themes from the Ignatian 500 Year, which we have been exploring this year at SCS and across Georgetown. In the same way that St. Ignatius saw things new as a result of his own response to the adversity of a cannonball collision, we too are invited to broaden our imaginations in response to the social, economic, public health, political, and cultural divisions that we continue to experience.

Sign up for the retreat by March 4, 2022, and direct any questions to the retreat leader, Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, at pjk34@georgetown.edu. 

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The Role of Public Communications in Restoring Civility, the Common Good 

Linda LeMura, president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., a peer Jesuit institution with whom SCS has partnered in the past, offered a challenging reflection this week about the crisis of incivility in the public square. Her article in America Magazine, “St. Ignatius has a lesson for politicians: Words and deeds (and nasty tweets) have consequences,” focuses on the prevalence of mean-spirited, truth-less attacks made by public figures on social media that are “inaccurate in its particulars and troubling in its source, an attack that serves no purpose but to heighten the incivility so sadly evident in our public discourse.” Rather than passively accepting this kind of communication in our society, LeMura offers a path forward for Jesuit-inspired education grounded in the wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola. 

LeMura points to the guidance that Ignatius offered his fellow Jesuits in the 16th century about how to engage in true and meaningful dialogue within the context of a public setting filled with conflict and disagreement. LeMura summarizes Ignatius’ guidance in this way: 

“St. Ignatius seems to have anticipated the modern era, in which the art of conversation has been replaced by the warfare of the tweet, back in 1546. In a letter to his followers attending the Council of Trent, he instructed them on the art of dialogue. He reminded them to ‘be considerate and kind’ and said that when stakes and emotions are high, they should work to be ‘free of prejudice’ and to understand ‘the meanings, learnings, and wishes of those who speak.’”

The relevance of this Ignatian wisdom for today’s toxic communications culture among public officials, according to LeMura, is the opportunity to cultivate responsible leadership not only in our students but in the faculty and staff that run our Jesuit institutions. We can all participate in this work of fostering a culture of civil communications. A critical first step in this process is a recognition that “every word and deed, be it from the lectern, podium, pulpit, or stage – or cellphone – has weight and consequence. A real leader wields powers with the gravitas it deserves, acutely mindful of the potential to do harm or great good.”  

SCS marketing and communications degree programs have taken up this leadership challenge by educating students to become ethical professional communicators striving to produce content that contributes truth, accountability, and justice to public life. This is evident, for example, in the Master of Professional Studies in Journalism which, “grounded in ethics,” emphasizes the “guiding principles that are inherent to journalism excellence – including accurate and fair reporting, accountability, and sound judgment.” An important way that SCS academic programs, like Journalism, realize this commitment to ethics and the common good is through public conversations intended to spark deeper reflection and action about pressing challenges facing society.

This upcoming event during Black History Month, sponsored by SCS and the Washington Association of Black Journalists, will feature leading Black journalists discussing press coverage of the American presidency. Events like these advance Georgetown’s commitment to fostering understanding and civility in public life, which is being challenged by the spread of misinformation and mean-spiritedness. 

An upcoming example of this commitment is an event hosted by SCS on February 16: “Covering the President During a Time of Great Societal Change.” A collaboration between the Washington Association of Black Journalists, the SCS Master of Professional Studies in Journalism program and the Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion Council (DEBIC), the event features leading Black reporters who cover the White House and increase public understanding about a broad range of issues affecting the presidency and the country as a whole. 

In the context of disinformation and incivility among public officials, the kind that LeMura lamented in her article, the February 16 discussion promises to offer important insights about the critical role that Black journalists play in holding public officials accountable for policies that uphold the common good of all. I hope that the discussion inspires greater awareness about how ethically grounded journalism can advance justice and the common good, helping realize the promise of an education rooted in the Jesuit tradition. 

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The Spirit of Georgetown Animated in New University Campaign 

The University recently launched an exciting new campaign to shine a light on how the Spirit of Georgetown, 10 foundational values that take their inspiration from Jesuit education and spirituality, binds our diverse community together and encourages meaning, belonging, and purpose. In the last few years, in the context of the ongoing pandemic, Mission in Motion has amplified how SCS students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community partners live out Georgetown’s Jesuit mission and values in work and study. This larger campaign at the University is exciting because it provides a valuable opportunity to appreciate how the Spirit of Georgetown, animated in unique ways within the contexts of particular Georgetown schools and departments, is an invaluable resource for addressing the pressing challenges of our time. 

The Spirit of Georgetown campaign launched with this inspiring video. You can find all of the campaign’s content at this website. 

The campaign kicked off with the release of a Spirit of Georgetown video (watch here!). In two short minutes, viewers are introduced to a panorama of images, sounds, and words that inspire. Whether a long-time member of the Georgetown community or completely new to the place, one finds in the video clear indications of how the University presents its mission as a university grounded in a Catholic and Jesuit heritage. Narrated from the perspective of students walking the historic Hilltop and traversing the streets of the monumental city of Washington, D.C., the video presents religious diversity as a central pillar of Georgetown’s approach to mission. 

While so much of the University’s iconography and visible presence reflect Jesuit tradition, it is also obvious to someone watching the video that Georgetown creates spaces where diversity of expression and belief find a home. I feel this most especially in the video’s concluding scenes featuring Georgetown’s team of multi-faith chaplains leading worship for their respective communities. There is unity on display in this diversity as Georgetown lives out its mission principle that “serious and sustained discourse among people of different faiths, cultures, and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical, and spiritual understanding.” 

These themes are amplified in the first published story of the series, “What It’s Like To Attend Georgetown as a Non-Catholic: Takeaways From Current and Former Students.” The testimonies of the students interviewed for the story reflect how a common set of shared religious values enriches the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional experiences of particular religious communities. 

Perhaps surprising to some, the presence of vibrant religious chaplaincy for particular traditions fosters more, not less, interreligious dialogue and community. By directly experiencing the practices, beliefs, and imaginations of different traditions, one better appreciates their own. Doha Maaty (NHS’23) captures this well by the way she has connected the principles of her Muslim faith to Jesuit values: “While she was expecting more of a focus on medicine than Jesuit identity in the program, she was surprised by how much the Jesuit values intersected with many in her own faith.” 

 The first article in the Spirit of Georgetown series is about the diverse religious traditions represented at the University. 

This inspiring content has put me in touch with some examples from SCS that illustrate our living out the Spirit of Georgetown. Retreats for SCS students and faculty and staff invite deeper exploration of what a shared mission means for developing our interior lives. Examples of service and justice point to the need for action in a world that desperately needs it. And an abiding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion demonstrates how the Spirit of Georgetown is indispensably important to meeting social justice challenges arising in our communities. These are just a few examples of the distinctive SCS approach to animating Georgetown’s mission and values. 


Spend some time following the new Spirit of Georgetown campaign. And reflect on how you find yourself moved to explore in more depth what these principles mean for your time at Georgetown.

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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