Welcome to Georgetown’s Ignatian Year! (Wait, What’s an Ignatian Year?)

In her fall welcome message, “Looking Ahead with Hope,” SCS Dean Kelly Otter acknowledged the challenges and stresses many are experiencing in this semester of transition and pointed toward reasons for hope. Building upon the inspiration of Fr. Otto Hentz, S.J. that we can be hope for one another, Dean Otter articulated a special cause for hope at the University in 2021–2022: celebration of the Ignatian Year. 

This week’s Mission in Motion introduces the Ignatian Year, a celebration occurring in 20212022 at Jesuit institutions around the world. What is this Ignatian Year? And why should it matter to you? To answer these questions, we need to start at the beginning: the story of St. Ignatius. Check out this short film about his life. 

The purpose of this week’s reflection is to narrate the significance of the Ignatian Year, the 500th anniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, a religious order known for building schools all over the world. My own hope is that this brief summary of highlights will help make Georgetown’s Ignatian Year relevant to every member of this community. Regardless of your religious or spiritual tradition, your familiarity with the Spirit of Georgetown, or how long you have been at the University, the themes, principles, and practices at the heart of Ignatian spirituality and the style of education St. Ignatius inspired five centuries ago are relevant to you today. I invite you to consider how your ongoing journey at Georgetown, grounded in your unique lived experience, will be enriched by more deeply engaging with the events and opportunities planned for this special year.

This story begins with the story of St. Ignatius of Loyola (for an entertaining biographical summary, check out this short 10-minute film produced by Jesuits in Britain). The founder of the Jesuits was an unlikely saint, devoting the early part of his life to the pursuit of riches, honors, and conquest in battle. Upholding his knightly honor as a Spanish soldier, Ignatius defended against an invading French force and was struck by a cannonball that severely injured his leg. He had no choice but to recover slowly from his injuries, forced to stay put and entertain himself not with TikTok but with the castle’s only available reading material: religious books. This period of convalescence set into motion the deeper personal transformation that Ignatius would undergo for the rest of his life. 

What matters most for us about this transformation story is that Ignatius eventually decided on his life’s path because he paid attention to his daydreams! During his recovery, Ignatius began to notice how he felt after imagining his life’s alternate possibilities. The authentic option, the one that would lead him to pursue a profession of generosity and the common good, left him feeling joyful in a sustained way. When he imagined returning to his past life, Ignatius experienced fleeting feelings of excitement that ultimately left him feeling dry. The path toward realizing God’s invitation, his deeper purpose, would lead to deep delight and joy. Moving from a life of vainglory to a life of noble purpose required thoughtful discernment of Ignatius’s interior movements. And so it is the same for us today five centuries later

We are each called to make meaning of our experience by paying attention to our interior movements. You might consider these basic questions: 

  • What stirs you? 
  • What do you desire? 
  • What repels you? 
  • What distracts you?  
  • Where do you find purpose in your work? In your home? In your community? 
  • How and when do you feel most free to pursue the deeper meaning of your life? 
  • How do you want to share your gifts and talents with others? 
  • How do you want to realize justice, practice charity, and build bonds in your communities? 
  • Is there a shift in perspective that you are being invited to undertake? 

Ignatius would tell you to pay special attention to the movement of these feelings within yourself and where they lead you. Ultimately, it’s the direction of the movements that matters. And while we may not have literal cannonball experiences like Ignatius, we are each invited – especially in light of the ongoing pandemic – to convert our individual and collective suffering and adversity into profound moral and spiritual transformation. 

Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Georgetown, discusses the significance of the Ignatian Year by describing an Ignatian movement from profession to purpose. Watch the video

For Ignatius and the Jesuit spirituality that carries on this legacy, implanted in our interior life, rooted in our deepest desires, is our vocation to be realized in the world. All of our lived experience – from the most tedious daily details to the biggest cannonball moments – present opportunities to encounter a loving God. There are many names and paths for this encounter and some may use less theologically oriented language like the true self, transcendent mystery, goodness, truth, etc. According to Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Superior General of the Jesuits, all of us, regardless of our beliefs, share in the “same struggle” of realizing real change in our day-to-day mission of life. 

This Ignatian Year is also an opportunity to shine a light on how all Jesuit institutions are called to realize the Universal Apostolic Preferences. These orientations – Showing the Way to God, Walking with the Excluded, Journeying with Youth, and Caring for Our Common Home – are intended to focus the energy of all Jesuit works for the next 10 years. Georgetown SCS uniquely animates Jesuit mission in a way that honors the context of our learning community. One of the great opportunities of Georgetown’s celebration of the Ignatian Year is a deeper appreciation for the diverse ways that schools and units across the University bring to life an Ignatian spirit in their teaching, learning, and working. 

In the coming weeks and months, Mission in Motion will dedicate attention to the meaning of the Ignatian Year. Stay tuned for opportunities, like events, communications, programs, and practices, that are designed to accompany you on your journey. 

An Invitation To Consider Some Commotion in Your Life and Work

This week’s Mission in Motion is a cross-post from the blog of Georgetown’s Campus Ministry, “Integrating Jesuit Values in Professional Education.” Campus Ministry invited me to share some reflections, in the context of the Ignatian Year (more to come in the following weeks about the Ignatian Year and how the Georgetown SCS community can engage in it), about how Jesuit values come alive at SCS. The post below presents the various ways in which the curriculum, student experience, and community engagement efforts at the School manifest an Ignatian vision of teaching, learning, and serving. 

I am inspired by an image from the autobiography of St. Ignatius about causing “commotion at the university” when I reflect on what the Jesuit tradition offers professional and continuing education. The dictionary sense of the word “commotion” conveys “tumultuous motion, agitation, and noisy disturbance.” But is there a more constructive and healthy way of considering “commotion” as a spur to disrupting the unreflective status quo in our lives, in the institutions in which we work, and in the social structures we inhabit? How can the Ignatian spirit inspire us to see our lives anew and transform our habits of heart and mind? 

Jamie Kralovec (left) with Rashada Jenkins, a 2017 graduate of the Master’s in Human Resources Management program. This week’s Mission in Motion is a cross-post from the blog of Georgetown’s Campus Ministry: “Integrating Jesuit Values in Professional Education.” 

In his autobiography, St. Ignatius of Loyola describes a “great commotion at the university” that occurs after he gives the Spiritual Exercises to a few prominent teachers and students. Five centuries later, a similar dynamic can occur whenever a student, staff, or faculty member is transformed by an Ignatian formation program and is invited to exteriorize what they have deeply interiorized. St. Ignatius was willing to disrupt the status quo of universities and other institutions in order to see things new and follow God’s calling in the service of the common good. Jesuit schools, in the spirit of their founder, have evolved over time to meet the educational demands of the changing societies in which they operate. And while the forms of Jesuit education have been updated, including the development of professional and continuing education programs like those at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies (SCS), the essential core of Ignatian-inspired teaching and learning has never changed. Universities like Georgetown and schools within them like SCS continue to uphold a humanistic tradition with a religious vision that, initiated 500 years ago and celebrated in this Ignatian Year, is constantly seeking how to most effectively respond to the challenges of our time while attending to the unique contexts of our diverse learners. 

At SCS, whose vision is to “transform the lives and careers of diverse lifelong learners by providing access to engaged and personalized liberal and professional education for all,” the intentional incorporation of the Spirit of Georgetown continues to bear fruit across the academic enterprise. Faculty are encouraged to explore the resources of Ignatian Pedagogy in order to integrate Jesuit values across the curriculum. For example, SCS Vice Dean Shenita Ray’s “Strategies To Integrate Georgetown Values into Online and On-Campus Courses,” helps faculty and instructional designers visualize the practical ways that Ignatian Pedagogy can come alive in assignments and other learning activities. 

Students, faculty, and staff are also invited to participate in a variety of Ignatian-inspired retreats and other spirituality programs, including SCS Daily Digital Meditation, a digitally connected community that originated at the beginning of the pandemic that continues to extend the resources of mindfulness meditation, including a weekly Examen. And a weekly blog reflection, Mission in Motion, narrates the many ways that SCS students, faculty, staff, and alumni live out Jesuit values in their study, work, and engagement with the communities beyond Georgetown. 

One of the signature SCS manifestations of Ignatian spirituality and pedagogy is “Jesuit Values in Professional Practice” (recently renamed “The Reflective Professional”), a first-of-its-kind elective open to all degree-seeking students at the School. Offered annually since 2016, this community-based learning course, which is supported by Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice, Research, Teaching & Service, is a reflection-based exploration of the history, education philosophy, spirituality, and social justice applications of Jesuit education. I created the interdisciplinary course in response to my own transformative experience of the Spiritual Exercises. Similar to those early Ignatian-animated citizens of the university, I discerned at the retreat’s conclusion how best to share my transformative experience with others. The outcome of my discernment was a dedicated course that introduces some of the tools of the Ignatian tradition in a way that honors religious pluralism, advances social justice, and meets the needs of busy adult learners at SCS. 

All of these experiences hopefully make clear that the enduring resources of Jesuit education and the vision of its founder animate the life of the School of Continuing Studies. In this Ignatian Year, I invite you to consider: what might it mean for you to cause a little graced commotion at Georgetown and beyond? How might you listen for and respond to deep callings in your life, your study, and your work?  

Jamie Kralovec is the Associate Director for Mission Integration at the School of Continuing Studies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(MiM) Anything else you would like to share? 

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

The Importance of Reflection in Professional and Continuing Education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Invaluable Opportunity To Live Jesuit Values at Georgetown: Alternative Breaks Program

With the fall semester already underway, students, faculty, and staff have begun to settle into the rhythms of return. New members of the Georgetown community, especially students in their very first semester, ask lots of questions in these early weeks that range from the quotidian to the existential. A common question that I hear, which animates our work of mission integration at SCS and across the university, goes something like this: So what exactly are the Jesuit values that I hear so much about? What do these Jesuit values mean and how will they influence my Georgetown experience? 

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Apply by September 17, 2021, to one of the 10 critical immersion experiences taking place across the country during Spring Break 2022. The ABP is free for participants and is an excellent way for students, staff, and faculty to more deeply engage with Georgetown’s Jesuit values. Apply here! 

Mission in Motion regularly shines a light on the diverse ways that SCS articulates the meaning of the Spirit of Georgetown and puts these characteristics of a Jesuit education into practice throughout our community. Whether in classroom activities, spiritual programs like meditation and retreats, or community-engaged service and justice opportunities, Jesuit values manifest at SCS in ways that are unique to our context as a dynamic center of professional and continuing education. One of the most essential components of living out the Spirit of Georgetown is through service and a commitment to social justice. This commitment, which is crystallized in the University’s mission statement, is evident in the work done by Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ)

SCS works closely with CSJ to facilitate opportunities for members of the community to engage deeply with Jesuit values by participating in the Center’s mission to “advance justice and the common good” and promote “community-based research, teaching, and service by collaborating with diverse partners and communities.” One of the critical ways that CSJ accomplishes this mission is through critical immersion experiences like the Alternative Breaks Program (ABP). Grounded in the Jesuit pedagogical model of context-experience-reflection-action-evaluation, CSJ ABP immersions are intended to give students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to engage with “diverse and vibrant communities through direct service, immersion, and reflection in a substance-free environment.” Fostering intersectional solidarity and inspiring lasting commitments to service and social justice, the ABP experiences are meant to return to Georgetown by living on through the witness of participants. For years, SCS community members have been participating in CSJ-sponsored immersion opportunities. I have previously reflected in Mission in Motion about my own critical immersion experience along the U.S.-Mexico border and SCS Vice Dean Shenita Ray has shared her reflections about her immersion in Peru. 

This year, there are 10 year-long ABP immersions with in-person travel over Spring Break from March 5-12, 2022. In addition to the immersive travel (which is planned for in-person at the time of this writing), the ABP experience consists of pre-trip learning and community building along with post-trip activities. You can read more about the trip descriptions, which range from exploring the legacy of slavery in Montgomery, Alabama, to rural poverty and the need for economic justice in Pulaski, Virginia. There is no cost for participants or trip leaders as ABP fully subsidizes transportation, lodging, and meals. The application for both participants and trip leaders is due before 11:59 pm ET on September 17, 2021. Questions can be directed to the ABP board at altbreaks@georgetown.edu

I encourage members of the SCS community to consider applying for the ABP. The experience of direct engagement with pressing social injustices can be transformative to one’s ongoing education and discernment of a professional vocation. The theory of social change at the root of the ABP experience is echoed in these words by former Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach: 

Solidarity is learned through contact rather than concepts. When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is a catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.”

Responding to Humanitarian Crises by Supporting Disaster Relief

The inspiring message of hope from last week’s Mission in Motion was put to the test in recent days as tragic events around the globe demand our attention and response. A humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the devastating impact of Hurricane Ida on communities along the Gulf Coast point to the urgent need for action in response to human suffering. These crises also illustrate how vulnerable people and communities endure disproportionate harm and are least able to withstand the effects of environmental degradation and war. 

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Humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and in communities impacted by Hurricane Ida call out for response consistent with Georgetown’s Jesuit values. At Georgetown, you can learn more about how to respond to recent disasters. 

Events in Afghanistan and the Gulf Coast can return our attention to a cornerstone commitment of a Jesuit education. The Spirit of Georgetown calls all of us to be people for others and to live out a faith that does justice. An education that does not challenge and inspire action to support vulnerable people in times of need and address the structural conditions that create such need is not consistent with the Jesuit values that animate our work at Georgetown. In their recent proclamation of Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs), the Jesuits worldwide have made Walking with the Excluded an explicit orientation of all Jesuit and Jesuit-animated activities. According to the UAPs, walking with the excluded means: 

“To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice. Sent as companions in a mission of reconciliation and justice, we resolve to walk with individuals and communities that are vulnerable, excluded, marginalized, and humanly impoverished…The path we seek to follow with the poor is one that promotes social justice and the change of economic, political, and social structures that generate injustice. … We confirm our commitment to care for migrants, displaced persons, refugees, and victims of war and human trafficking.” 

But how to go about this personal accompaniment when the injustices on display this week may seem distant from our daily experience? In order to live out this mission of reconciliation and justice, Georgetown has provided useful information for anyone who wants to respond to the refugee and asylum crisis arising from the conflict in Afghanistan and the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida. 

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GIWPS) has long worked in solidarity with Afghan women and has created protectafghanwomen.org. Through the site, you can donate to help the evacuation of at-risk Afghan women, call your representatives to urge further action, and spread the word about the conditions in Afghanistan for women, civil society, and human rights leaders. Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ) has provided information on its website about how to support Afghan allies through Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service and the Jesuit Refugee Service. And the GU Veterans Association has provided information about how to support Afghan refugees

In the wake of Hurricane Ida’s destruction, many people in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have been left with no power and few resources. To find out how you can support disaster relief efforts during this time, please visit this Disaster Response page by the CSJ.   

Responding generously, creatively, and courageously to social, environmental, and economic injustices is a characteristic of Jesuit education. You can see this demonstrated in how Spring Hill College, a Jesuit institution in Mobile, Alabama, responded by providing temporary housing for students at Loyola University New Orleans, a peer Jesuit institution directly impacted by Hurricane Ida. Actions like these are necessary to sustain hope. 

An Examen To Help Us Prepare for a Transition to Something New

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 With Georgetown SCS returning to regular operations next week, we turn our attention to a customized examen for this time of transition. The examen is a resource that helps us reflectively engage with a range of emotions https://trinity.org/ignatian-spirituality/pandemic-year-examen 

As Georgetown SCS and the entire University prepare for a resumption of in-person activities in the fall semester, community members are experiencing a range of emotions about this change. Some are overwhelmed with excitement about the prospect of being back together, or “returning to one another” as one of Georgetown’s Jesuits described it recently. Others are filled with trepidation and worry, concerned about the continuing unpredictability of the global pandemic and how it might interfere with plans for “return.” This last year and a half has been a challenge, with the pain and suffering of the coronavirus disproportionately burdening the most vulnerable in our society. Mindful that the pain of the pandemic has been uneven and it continues to cause hardships throughout the world, all of us at Georgetown have journeyed in some way through significant uncertainty since spring of last year. This current moment calls for flexibility, creativity, community, and a sense of realistic hope about how we might transition to something new in the weeks ahead. 

With SCS’s official return of the building to full-time operations next week (which was announced by Dean Otter in July), I want to share a special examen crafted by Catherine Heinhold, pastoral associate for Ignatian spirituality & prayer at Holy Trinity Church, the Jesuit parish just beyond the gates of Georgetown’s Hilltop campus. Catherine’s examen, which invites participants to use whatever language is comfortable to them, is titled “An Examen for Transition From the Pandemic Year.” You can reflect and pray through the 20-minute guided examen in one sitting or space out how you proceed through the stages.  

The beauty and the brilliance of this examen prayer is that it helps us name our strongest pandemic-related feelings and pay attention to how these feelings are stirring us, moving us, and challenging us to consider some changes for the better in our daily actions. The examen is especially helpful for working against the inclination to be controlled by the most negative, desolating emotions that we are experiencing in the continuing pandemic. By naming challenging emotions and getting in touch with how they are influencing us, we begin to find more balance and more reflective distance so as not to be overwhelmed. By naming the positive emotions, those that console us, we make it possible to discover gratitude in our lives, even in difficult and uncertain circumstances. The examen is a helpful opportunity to pause, especially when it feels like the world around us is moving too quickly. 

The pandemic continues to surface tensions in ourselves and in our communities. How to make sense of the reality that for many, but not all, this has been a time for healthy slowing down and getting into closer touch with the things in our lives that give us greater joy and fulfillment? I have heard many people describing how new work- and study-from-home routines have simplified their lives and led to more family time and more time for prayer, meditation, and silent reflection. It is important to remember that the journey has been unique for each of us. As we prepare for something new at Georgetown in the coming weeks, I invite you, with the help of this transition examen, to notice whatever has awakened anew in you, both consoling and desolating, in this pandemic year. 

New Certificate Programs in Mental Health of Children and Families Advance Georgetown’s Mission and Values

Mission in Motion often highlights SCS degree and non-degree programs that advance Georgetown’s mission and values by offering professional educational opportunities that respond to pressing social and economic needs. Given the School’s experience in developing technology-mediated certificate education, SCS is uniquely positioned to leverage university resources and community partnerships to create these kinds of socially responsive programs. This way of proceeding as an educational entity at Georgetown is an important way that SCS contributes to the common good, deepening the commitment in the University’s mission statement 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.” 

SCS, in partnership with Georgetown’s Center for Child & Human Development, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital Department of Psychiatry, and the Center of Excellence for Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, recently launched certificate programs intended to address the mental health needs of infants, children, and their caregivers, and families. 

There are three new non-credit professional certificates: 

The intended audience for these certificates indicates in a powerful way how a Georgetown program, working in collaboration with subject matter experts and community resource providers, has the potential to serve critical needs while building capacity in a community to sustain more lasting change. By targeting professional clinicians, consultants, and community health workers in the field of infant mental health, these programs are working in a holistic manner by focusing on the ecosystem of care for infants and young children. The programs also reflect a pressing need surfaced during the global pandemic to create healthier, more resilient communities that can provide care and attention for children and their families, especially the most vulnerable. 

Jeffrey Warner, Senior Director of Professional Development & Certificates at SCS, articulated the mission commitment of the infant and early childhood mental health certificates when he said: 

This program embodies the spirit of Georgetown University as an opportunity to learn to support more effective caregiving of all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or class. Our University’s Jesuit tradition of cura personalis is emphasized throughout the curriculum as it encourages care and individualized attention to the needs of children and their families, distinct respect for their circumstances and concerns, and an appropriate appreciation for their particular gifts and insights.” 

These new certificate programs reflect the valuable ways that SCS lives out the University’s Jesuit values in partnership with others at Georgetown and beyond. 


You can read more about these exciting new certificate programs on the SCS homepage: “Georgetown Launches New Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Programs.” Learn more about all of the professional certificate programs offered by SCS. 

The Olympics Highlight the Role of Sports in Fostering the Common Good

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This week’s Mission in Motion, on the occasion of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, explores the spiritual, ethical, and social dimensions of sports with the help of Pope Francis. 

Few global events bring people together quite like the Olympics. And while the summer games in Tokyo lack large in-person crowds because of the pandemic, the events still delight excited fans tuning in from all over the world. I relish the occasion of the Olympics and have transmitted my enthusiasm to my family. During the two weeks of competition, you can safely bet that I am regularly refreshing results and waiting until after work to turn on the live coverage. 

Georgetown is also celebrating these summer games by highlighting the Hoyas who are participating in them (you can visit the #HoyaOlympics site). At SCS, we are especially proud of Rachel Schneider, a graduate of the Master’s in Sports Industry Management program and a runner competing in the 1,500-meter race. The dedication required by athletes to qualify for the games, let alone compete in them, engenders enormous pride and respect. 

More than pride and national spirit, I have been wondering about the purpose of the Olympics and what we all can learn from them. Are there important moral and spiritual lessons to be gleaned from this intensive competition? How do sports, and particularly the industry surrounding them, relate to Georgetown’s mission and values? 

To help appreciate some answers to these questions, I would like to focus this week on some of Pope Francis’s reflections about the deeper purpose of sports. An avid soccer (he’d say fútbol) fan himself, energetically dedicated to his Argentinian teams, Pope Francis has not been shy about expressing the spiritual, moral, and social value of athletic competition. A few years ago, Georgetown hosted a Vatican-sponsored conference on these very questions: “Sport at the Service of Humanity.” The three pillars of that conference reflect a helpful framework for appreciating how sports can build community and foster character: inspiration, inclusion, and involvement. The conference schedule, which included an interfaith service with participation from Georgetown student-athletes and panel discussions featuring leading experts in religion, sports, and culture, demonstrated the deep linkages between sports, mission, and values. 

Pope Francis emphasizes the ways that sport can encourage a practice of encounter where people of different backgrounds and traditions meet one another and grow in belonging, inclusion, and solidarity. This theme of encounter, which Francis has echoed throughout his writings and teachings including the recent encyclical Fratelli Tutti, can become a powerful antidote to the cultural, political, and economic tendencies toward separation and isolation. The pope’s 2013 comments to the European Olympic Committee capture this idea: 

“Engaging in sports, in fact, rouses us to go beyond ourselves and our self interests in a healthy way; it trains the spirit in sacrifice and, if it is organized well, it fosters loyalty in interpersonal relations, friendship, and respect for rules. It is important that those involved at the various levels of sports promote human and religious values which form the foundation of a just and fraternal society. This is possible because the language of sports is universal; it extends across borders, language, race, religion, and ideology; it possesses the capacity to unite people, together, by fostering dialogue and acceptance.”

Sports have the transformative potential of bridging differences through a common language that is universally recognized. In this way, sports are, according to Pope Francis, a valuable resource.

While the sports industry is capable of ethical lapses and corruption in many forms, sports can also build the bonds of community and personal integrity. Teamwork and overcoming one’s own preferences provide valuable opportunities to transcend tendencies toward selfishness and intolerance of others. On this theme of inclusion, Pope Francis made news in 2020 by meeting with leaders from the National Basketball Association (NBA) to discuss their efforts around racial justice and inclusion. 

With more exciting Olympics coverage to come, I invite you to reflect on the deeper purpose of sports and how your role in sports, whether as fan, participant, or industry manager, can “rouse you” to go beyond yourself and contribute to the common good. 

SCS Fall Elective Course, “The Reflective Professional,” To Explore Mission-Driven Leadership

Since the start of the global pandemic, Mission in Motion has provided resources, information, and reflections about how the School of Continuing Studies, rooted in the Spirit of Georgetown, is addressing the needs of our diverse community. For more than a year, the blog has shared inspiring examples of work at SCS grounded in a commitment to educate the whole person. SCS students, staff, faculty, and alumni have sustained the bonds of community despite being dispersed across the country and the globe. SCS and larger Georgetown efforts to promote racial justice that aspire to our University value of Community in Diversity have been a major focus of these weekly reflections. Along the way, the blog has hopefully helped readers understand what is distinctive about an approach to professional and continuing education animated by the Jesuit tradition. 

This week, I call attention to a course opportunity this fall that incorporates the University’s Jesuit values in a holistic way. Since 2016, “Jesuit Values in Professional Practice” has been offered as a free elective open to any degree-seeking student at SCS. The course, which Mission in Motion highlighted last year, is a unique option in the SCS curriculum in that it is truly interdisciplinary by bringing together students from across the academic degree programs. The course is also unique in that it is community-based learning, organized around opportunities for students to address the direct needs of vulnerable persons through service opportunities facilitated by Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service.  

The course has been renamed “The Reflective Professional: Journeying Toward Mission-Driven Leadership” to signal how critically important reflection and leadership are in the development of professional students. The pandemic has demonstrated how necessary it is to form SCS graduates who are prepared to take on the economic and social justice challenges facing their communities in the U.S. and around the world. Inspired by the Jesuit tradition, an important motivation is an understanding that generous action in the world flows from habits of reflective self-awareness and self-discovery. This is an invaluable opportunity for students to pause and discern their values and how they want to apply these values in the workplace. The course, which is organized around the foundational concepts and applications of Jesuit education and spirituality, features professionally relevant topics like: 

  • Frameworks for professional reflection
  • Theories of leadership, including spiritual leadership
  • Discernment as a strategy for professional decision-making 
  • Exploration of Georgetown’s mission and values 
  • Models for inter-faith collaboration 
  • Contemporary social justice issues, like immigration reform and the climate crisis 

The class is open to and welcomes students from all faith traditions or no faith tradition and presents an important opportunity to engage with mission-driven leaders at Georgetown and beyond. An alum of the course described the transformative experience of hearing directly from such a diverse set of guest presenters: “The speakers who moved me the most had journeyed deeply inside their humanity and then touched mine.” 


Degree-seeking students who are interested in “The Reflective Professional: Journeying Toward Mission-Driven Leadership” (LSHV 480, CRN: 40526) should reach out to me, Jamie Kralovec, course instructor and SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration (pjk34@georgetown.edu).