Tag: Reflection

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Welcome to the Spring Semester!

Preparing for Inclement Weather | Office of Emergency Management | Georgetown University
This week’s post invites a reflective pause at the beginning of a chilly and snowy spring semester. As you enter this new period, what are your desires for this semester? How are you taking time to pause and reflect?  

The spring semester is upon us! It is a funny time to enter a “spring” season when the weather in Washington, D.C. feels pretty far away from the delightful summer temperatures of May. As is customary in the life of an academic institution, however, the changing of the semester is an opportunity to reflectively transition from what came before to what comes next. The life of a university seems to stop between semesters but the world obviously does not. We enter a 2025, both filled with hope and possibility and mired in despair and suffering, evidenced by the devastating wildfires this week in California. Such an event reminds us of the mission of Georgetown for which we are all responsible and calls us to transform our education into a generous force for justice and the common good.

SCS is a dynamic and diverse learning community whose students operate within a range of program formats, meeting times, and modalities. However, every semester at SCS welcomes new members to our community. So whether you’re a new SCS student beginning your first semester, a continuing student, or a member of our faculty or staff, this opportunity to slow down, catch your breath, and prepare your mind, body, and spirit for the coming semester might be a welcome invitation. Here are three ideas for how to meaningfully enter into quiet before a new semester begins. 

Renew. As you prepare for a new Georgetown semester, take some time to get in touch with your motivation for being here. What drew you to Georgetown? What inspired you to take on your particular program? What are your desires for your experience at this University? As you begin to reflect on these questions of your “why,” it might help for you to familiarize yourself with the deeper purpose of Georgetown as an educational community. You can spend this time with this Mission in Motion post: New to SCS? An Introduction to Georgetown’s Mission and Values in Four Points. 

Review. Spending time renewing your commitment to your Georgetown education might lead you to consider your future and where you are heading. But it is also important to take stock of where you have been and how you arrived at this current moment. Reviewing your past for the sake of reflecting on how your prior lived experience might inform your present and future is at the heart of the Jesuit spirituality that animates the mission of Georgetown. New members of our community might benefit from better understanding how Georgetown lives out its Catholic and Jesuit mission by reading through the most recent Mission Priority Examen self-study report. One of the core practices arising from the Jesuit tradition that helps in this review process is the examen of consciousness. You might consider signing up for the SCS Daily Digital Meditation sessions, which include a weekly examen that occurs every Friday. In whatever ways you construct a practice of review, I invite you to explore how your present self reflects the authentic fullness of your entire journey of life. 

Recharge. Taking up “rest” as a meaningful practice of spiritual wellness is a challenge in a culture that values constant activity and valuing one’s life choices on the basis of utility or value maximation. Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care, reminds us that the Jewish tradition of “Shabbat” requires that we “leave behind the regular flow of time and the productivity we imbed in it. We do this not in order to escape life, but in order to enter into it more deeply.” My hope is that you can find some intentional ways to truly rest in the time as this busy semester gets underway. Take lots of walks and try to transform your walks into spiritual experiences (you can even try out a Walking Examen!). Take time for silence. Truly enjoy the company of others. Give yourself some space to unplug from the daily distractions. Your soul will thank you! 

One of the great joys of working at Georgetown is welcoming new members into our community multiple times in the year. There is so much anticipation as a new semester begins. The anticipation at SCS is even greater in this new year as we plan for a move to 111 Massachusetts Avenue this summer and the creation of an ever more cohesive Capitol Campus. My hope is that you can savor these chilly days and arrive most fully in the early weeks of this new semester. 

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Capitol Campus Mass of the Holy Spirit Encourages Openness to the New (and Old)

This week’s post reflects on the Capitol Campus Mass of the Holy Spirit. Seen here are students leaving the Mass at Holy Rosary Church and proceeding to the Law Center for a reception. 

Mission in Motion recently reflected on the Mass of the Holy Spirit that took place on the Hilltop Campus and now, thanks to dedicated efforts to build Georgetown’s Mission and Ministry presence in the downtown, can reflect on last weekend’s Mass of the Holy Spirit on the Capitol Campus. 

In recent years, the Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) Mission and Ministry team has worked hard to build a neighborhood partnership with Holy Rosary Church on Third Street NW where the Catholic community celebrates weekly Mass. Today, the opportunity for the Catholic community to worship together has expanded beyond GULC to include students, faculty, and staff from SCS and the other units that make up the Capitol Campus. 

A sign of this effective partnership was the robust attendance by over 75 students, faculty, and staff at the Capitol Campus Mass of the Holy Spirit, which was presided over by Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Ph.D., Vice President for Mission and Ministry, and co-celebrated by several Jesuits from the nearby Gonzaga Jesuit community. On a beautiful Sunday evening, this religious gathering convened a diverse group of participants seeking spiritual consolation and greater community connection. All of it took place on the developing Capitol Campus (for more, read “Reflecting on Georgetown’s Composition of Place in the Downtown”) with the service occurring at Holy Rosary and a post-Mass reception taking place outside the GULC Campus Ministry suite in McDonough Hall. The short walk from the church to the campus contextualized the reality that Georgetown’s downtown presence is accelerating, marked by the opening this fall of the McCourt School of Public Policy at 125 E Street (pictured above as the building on the far right) and continuing construction of the 111 Massachusetts Avenue building (pictured below) that will house SCS and other schools and units starting next fall. 

111 Massachusetts Avenue, which is under construction and will be home to SCS and other units in 2025, is another sign of Georgetown’s accelerating presence in the downtown. 

Fr. Bosco’s homily pointed to themes of openness to both continuity and change by deeply exploring the meaning from Mark’s Gospel of being “opened.” The Aramaic line from Chapter 7 in Mark, “Ephphatha,” which means “Be opened!” is in the context of Jesus healing a deaf person. For Fr. Mark, this presented a point of departure for more consideration of what this openness might mean for us at Georgetown in 2024. In particular, Fr. Bosco called for us to pay more attention to the small details of our everyday lives. So many of us, obligated by the press of constant tasks and activities, forget to find beauty and goodness in the details of life. 

The need for prolonged attentiveness for the potential of deeper mystery and insight to emerge from reflecting on the objects of our sensory experience can be especially realized, Fr. Bosco noted, in the pondering one does of great art and literature. A patient and unhurried stroll through a museum presents an obvious opportunity for this delighted gazing. But so does the intentional commitment to opening ourselves up to new ideas, new people, and new perspectives as part of our learning at Georgetown. Openness as a spiritual and moral theme can then move from the personal or individual to the communal. 

As our learning at Georgetown does not take place in individualized silos, we are invited to consider what it means to learn together. Common experience suggests that life in community, however motivated we are by an aspirational shared mission, can be difficult. And these challenges become harder when division and conflict surround every part of our lives and spill over into the context of our education. We live in such a moment today. The temptation is to close off from ideas and views different from our own. Fr. Bosco’s homily encouraged the opposite: Part of the task before us this year is to expand the horizons of our perspectives by meeting old and new ideas with openness. No matter the discipline of our formal study at Georgetown, everyone engaged in this common project can grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually.

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Reflecting on Georgetown’s Composition of Place in the Downtown

graphic of the buildings around the capitol campus
This week’s post is an invitation to consider the geospatial reality of Georgetown’s downtown location. What meaning can we gain by entering more fully into the physical context of our campus and its surroundings?

St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and patron of Jesuit schools around the world like Georgetown, possessed an impressive awareness of spatial dynamics. What do I mean by this? The Jesuit founder thought carefully about how the physical location of things influences our spiritual lives and how we go about realizing the mission of our work. In this way, the 16th Century saint was ahead of his time in his geospatial consciousness. The Jesuits were unique among religious orders of the period, for example, because of Ignatius’ insistence that locating Jesuit institutions in urban cores would bring about more mission advancement. Serving the needs of the human (people) and physical (places and spaces) city has been a hallmark of Jesuits for the last five centuries. This is one of the many reasons that most Jesuit schools around the globe are located within cities. 

But Ignatian emphasis on the mission opportunities in the city is about more than administration. In the Spiritual Exercises, the guided, developmental retreat that the Jesuit founder created, Ignatius insists that prayer experiences need to be rooted in a “composition of place.” Here is the original text from the Exercises: “It should be noted here that for contemplation of meditation about visible things … the ‘composition’ will consist in seeing through the gaze of the imagination the material place where the object I want to contemplate is situated…” (Spiritual Exercises, 47). Here we see that Ignatius is inviting the one engaged in prayer and meditation to get concrete and material about the details of their imagination. This prioritization of real description of actual objects of contemplation suggests that fruitful prayer and meditation is not a flight into fantasy but a deep engagement with the reality of one’s experiences. A very basic way of putting this is that context matters. 

Context is intentionally the first stage of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (described here by Mission in Motion) because of this Ignatian composition of place. The idea is that any meaningful learning activity must first be situated within the material place of learning and the persons and things that comprise that place. In this way and inspired by St. Ignatius, I invite us to journey into this semester of learning at SCS by coming to better understand the composition of place for our campus. What does it mean that our study and work are based in the physical place of downtown Washington, D.C.? How can the urban context and environment of our learning inspire the ways that we engage with the tasks of education this semester? 

All of these questions about context are especially appropriate for us at Georgetown as the movement toward a unified Capitol Campus continues. In a year’s time, the SCS campus at 640 Massachusetts Avenue will migrate to 111 Massachusetts Avenue and become co-located with other schools and units that comprise a comprehensive Georgetown anchor of graduate and professional education in the downtown. The meaning and implications of our geo-location will take on more importance as SCS shifts locations in the neighborhood and additional consideration is given to the School’s urban surroundings. 

For the time being, I invite the SCS community to continue to take seriously the place-based reality of the current campus situation at 640. One way to engage deeply with this embeddedness is by understanding the place. You might consider learning about this neighborhood through reported data about the composition of place via the U.S. Census. You might also consider spending time getting to know the people and places that comprise our neighborhood. Are there opportunities this semester to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing the persons, places, and spaces of this particular neighborhood? How can our learning pursuits serve these needs? 

In all things at Georgetown, we are encouraged to seek out the resources of our Jesuit heritage and traditions in ways that inspire our present endeavors. As we continue our SCS operations in the downtown and contemplate our future operations in a more coherent Capitol Campus, I invite all of us to more deeply reflect on the significance of our spatial reality.

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Reflecting on Georgetown’s Mission as a Resource for the New Academic Year

This week’s post is a reflection about the nervousness of starting a new academic year. Can we turn our jitters into joys by leaning more into the resources of Georgetown’s mission? 

A new academic year brings with it so much anticipation. These feelings are experienced in both similar and different ways by our students, faculty, and staff.  Many new students are likely asking: Do I belong at Georgetown? Can I effectively balance my academic, professional, and family commitments? What decisions will I make during my time at the University that will have a lasting impact on my future? Our staff members are likely asking: How can I best serve these incoming students? What challenges in the student experience should I be prepared for? How do we handle both the sameness of a new semester and its unpredictability? And our faculty are likely asking: How can I innovate and refine my craft of teaching in a way that registers with my students? How will I engage sensitive discussions that will inevitably arise about the U.S. presidential election and conflicts in the Middle East? What will inspire me when the semester feels long and the work is tiring? 

All of these are questions that I have either heard from others or asked of myself as a student, staff, and faculty member. I think that the recurrence of these kinds of questions is a healthy sign for an academic institution like Georgetown with a lasting mission and set of values that are intended to guide our way. In his article in America Magazine, “The Classroom as Holy Ground,” former Georgetown Vice President for Mission & Ministry, Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., describes the nervousness at the root of this regular experience of working in education: 

“Every semester begins the same way. I walk to the door of the classroom and catch my breath. Like an actor walking on stage, the nervousness of a teacher on the first day—or any day—is natural. It is the same now that I am teaching college as it was when I taught high school before joining the Jesuits. The more I teach, however, the more I realize that it is not just nervousness I feel on the first day. Along with the anxiety is awe, because I am beginning to appreciate how the classroom is holy ground, a place where I can encounter God.” 

In this way, the pre-semester nerves of a new academic year tell us that something deeper, more meaningful than surface-level worry is happening when our attentions turn to the start of fall classes. If we give ourselves the time and space, we can actually convert these anticipatory feelings into some soul-searching and self-discovery that can animate our personal and professional growth at Georgetown. Our jitters can become our joys. I believe that our mission and our Jesuit and multi-faith traditions can inform this journey for all students, faculty, and staff as they begin anew this fall. 

Here are three suggestions arising from Georgetown’s religious heritage that you might consider as a new academic year gets underway:

  1. Pay Attention to Your Feelings: There is something very important about spending a little time each day pausing, slowing down, and growing in awareness of your inner experience of the day’s activities. The Ignatian tradition offers a spiritual practice, the Examen, to help with this need to slow down and process the many emotions that we experience on a daily basis. By regularly attending to the flow and movement of our feelings, we become more able to recognize patterns, both consoling and desolating, and then make better choices about how to flourish and live into our gifts and talents and pursue our mission and purpose in life. Try attending a Digital Daily Meditation (sign up here) if you would like to practice these kinds of pause moments during your semester. 
  1. Engage Your Georgetown Experience with All of Your Senses: The Spirit of Georgetown invites us to educate Whole Persons who become Contemplatives in Action. To realize this ambitious vision of personal formation, we must allow ourselves to enter into every learning experience by using not only our heads but also our hearts and our hands. The transformative potential of a Jesuit education is only possible when we use all of our mental, emotional, spiritual, psychological, and physical faculties in the knowledge process. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, would strongly encourage you to daydream, use your imagination, and savor your sensory experiences. 
  1. Find a Mentor or Guide To Accompany Your Journey: The spiritual life should not be a solitary venture. Instead, the inner journey of the self should be joined with resources in a community, including the steady guidance of trained spiritual teachers and directors. St. Ignatius counseled that retreatants be paired with these trusted guides who could help direct a path to deep inner knowing and experience of the Divine. Today, we might say that any kind of mentor figure, whether a leadership coach, advisor, counselor, chaplain, or spiritual director, can play this role. Regardless of the type, I encourage you to find someone to accompany you and journey alongside your Georgetown experience. 

I hope the coming weeks reveal new possibilities for you. As your fall semester journey begins, whether this is your first semester at Georgetown or your twentieth, I wish you peace on the next steps. 

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Shining a Storytelling Spotlight on a Key Member of the SCS Summer Team

Stylized portrait of Haroot in a Georgetown shirt sitting in a chair
This week’s post is a promotion of the recent Georgetown Faces profile of Haroot Hakopian, SCS assistant dean for student affairs. 

Mission in Motion has regularly reflected on how Ignatian spirituality has a narrative or storytelling style. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and creator of the Spiritual Exercises, believed that entering deeply into prayer and meditation requires the full use of the imagination. In order to do this, one making a retreat or praying in an Ignatian way is invited to imagine the characters in particular Gospel stories and then to insert oneself into those scenes. The perspective of the characters is multi-dimensional as Ignatius considers how different observers—self, others, and God—might be viewing the same event or situation. This movement to consider multiple lenses of perspective is ultimately intended to increase the individual’s depth of gratitude for the dynamic diversity of all created things. Understanding our spiritual condition and where we are being drawn to greater interior freedom, love, and generosity means better understanding the stories we tell about ourselves, each other, and God. 

I am reminded of these imaginative principles of Ignatian spirituality when I appreciate Georgetown Faces, stories about the unsung heroes, beloved figures, and dedicated Hoyas who make Georgetown special. The entire purpose of this series is to tell the story about Georgetown through the stories of the people that make up this large and dynamic institution. We come to better understand what matters to this university by learning through interviews, photographs, and descriptive text what matters to the diverse faculty and staff that animate Georgetown’s mission and values. I think this is a really captivating way to realize one of St. Ignatius’ famous adages: Love is shown more in deeds than in words. 

The most recent Faces profile shines the light on Haroot Hakopian, SCS assistant dean of student affairs, who began his Georgetown career as the academic and curriculum director of the Summer College Immersion Program (SCIP), a deeply mission-aligned SCS program that this platform has reflected about many times. The profile on Haroot focuses on the ways that he brings to life the Spirit of Georgetown in his engagements with a large and diverse group of summer high school students. In particular, Haroot names how the Jesuit value of cura personalis (care of the whole person) is a key ingredient in helping SCIP students, who are first-generation college seekers, navigate their own stories of identity and how these stories relate to the process of college admissions. 

As we approach the end of the summer semester, I invite you to read Haroot’s story and reflect not only on his contribution but that of the entire summer team at SCS. 

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Olympics Bring Together SCS Community, Illustrate the Possibilities of Peace around World

This week’s post is a reflection on the possibilities for peace arising from the Olympic games. SCS staff and faculty gathered recently to enjoy a potluck and watch the exciting competition.

Pope Francis recently gave an address on the eve of the Summer 2024 Olympic games in Paris. In the global context of ongoing war, conflict, and crises of various kinds, the Pope offered sports as a sign of hope. According to Francis, the Olympics have always possessed the power of cultivating unity: 

“According to ancient tradition, may the Olympics be an opportunity to establish a truce in wars, demonstrating a sincere will for peace. … Sport also has a great social power, capable of peacefully uniting people from different cultures. … I hope that this event can be a sign of the inclusive world we want to build and that the athletes, with their sporting testimony, may be messengers of peace and valuable models for the young.” 

I had these ideas in mind this week as SCS staff and faculty gathered for a fun and informal lunch potluck organized around watching live coverage of the Olympics in the atrium. It was delightful to see the different food items that made up a deliciously diverse display of offerings. The wide array of tastes reflected the richness of the SCS community. And there was much rejoicing as we watched the events in real time. Conversations were sparked among staff about their own memories of the Olympics and how our individual experiences of watching the games bonded us together. 

The Olympic Games are both  enjoyable and the subject of study and discussion. Georgetown’s Sports Industry Management program contributes to this engaged study of global sports.  

Georgetown has a lot to say about the 2024 games in Paris with two SCS alumnae competing and other Hoyas also joining in the competition. Students in the SCS Master’s in Sports Industry Management program are regularly studying and discussing this global event as part of their coursework and applied learning. In this way, Georgetown treats global sports not just as an activity to be enjoyed as spectators but as a subject matter to be seriously engaged and understood. It is with Pope Francis’ remarks that I believe this latter purpose of sports can be more deeply explored. 

In addition to the excitement and the fun of convening to watch intense competition, how do global sports potentially contribute to peace in a time of conflict? What about the occasion of global competition can interrupt patterns of conflict, invite a pause, and encourage a reset in situations of tense disharmony and fighting among peoples? I do not think it is naïve to believe that sports possess this possibility. 

As we continue to enjoy the storylines and triumphs coming out of Paris, I invite us to reflect on the communitarian meaning of sports and how global athletic competition can serve the cause of peace.

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SCS 2024 Commencement Celebrates Graduates, Encourages Compassion and Cultivation of Life-Long Relationships

This year’s SCS Commencement featured poignant reflections about the state of the world and how graduates can contribute to peace, justice, and the common good. Watch the ceremony on Facebook.

After months of diligent preparation, the SCS Commencement Ceremony last week was a triumphant experience of celebration and meaningful reflection on the purpose of our education at Georgetown. For the first time, SCS was the first school-based ceremony of the weekend and the event took place on a beautiful May afternoon in Washington, D.C. With planes overhead in the flight path of the airport and the familiar chimes of the Healy Hall bells, the sounds and sights of the graduation festivities created an atmosphere of excitement and joy. Occurring against the backdrop of profound challenges for humanity in the country and around the world, each set of remarks invited the proud graduates to consider the deeper meaning of their time at Georgetown. In this way, the SCS Commencement featured many direct references to Jesuit values and the Ignatian principles that guide the University’s mission. 

Norah O’Donnell served as the Commencement Speaker and invited SCS graduates to reflect on the quality of their relationships as the key to a “well-lived life.” 

Fr. Greg Schenden, S.J., Director of Campus Ministry, gave the invocation prayer that called upon the graduates and the entire community to continuously commit to the “ongoing work of formation” in a “spirit of belonging.” His prayer reminded the assembled of the “gift of our mission” that is realized through the practices of discernment and reflection that ultimately lead us to be in solidarity with all.  Rabbi Rachel Gartner, Senior Advisor for Spiritual Care at SCS, delivered a moving benediction to close the ceremony. Rabbi Rachel’s prayer centered on gratitude and the “gift of our lives” that help sustain us to meet and address the “brokenness and anguish of our world.” A broad vision and a wide horizon are needed, prayed Rabbi Rachel, in order to rejoice fully when we “can all rejoice together.” Both religious leaders signaled the shared commitment across the religious traditions represented at the University to work for peace, justice, and the common good. 

Norah O’Donnell, Anchor and Managing Editor of “CBS News,” as well as a Triple Hoya (including two SCS Degrees: a Master of Liberal Studies and an honorary degree awarded at the ceremony), delivered the primary commencement address. O’Donnell, referencing the deeper mission and purpose of Jesuit education, called on the graduates to be inspired by their relationships. She distinguished between three kinds of relationships: the relationship with the self, between the self and family and friends, and between the self and the larger community. At each of these levels, reflected O’Donnell, we are called to find meaning and purpose: “This I know is true. Of all that I have done and learned through my education here at this same graduate school, from friends and family to interviewing the most fascinating people in the world, it is this: The quality of your life is built on the quality of your relationships. That’s it. That’s my thesis for a well-lived life.” O’Donnell’s reflections acknowledged the growing cultural and political polarization in the country and around the world, encouraging more listening and more compassion and curiosity toward those with differing views. 

In addition to these poignant reflections, the SCS Commencement featured the usual business of graduation, including the awarding of more than 1,000 degrees. This annual exercise is one of the cherished opportunities for all of the SCS community to be together and celebrate the shared purpose of our educational endeavors. SCS is a school with a diverse portfolio of programs and offerings, but it is ultimately united by a mission to transform its learners into graduates who can realize a better future. 

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Getting to Know the Context of the School of Continuing Studies

 This week’s post is a contextual introduction to the School of Continuing Studies, inspired by the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm. 

Last week, Mission in Motion offered an Examen reflection, inspired by the University’s Jesuit heritage, to help graduating students reflect on the meaning of the coming Commencement exercises. This week, I would like to apply some of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP), the inspirational framework for teaching and learning in Jesuit schools inspired by the dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and the principles and practices of Ignatian spirituality, in order to fully appreciate the meaning of the SCS approach to learning on the eve of Commencement. The IPP is an interrelated and interconnected process that supports the student and the teacher as whole persons throughout the learning process. An Ignatian Pedagogical approach begins with Context, moves to Experience, and then follows with Reflection, Action, and Evaluation. The cycle is continuous and dynamic.

The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) is an interrelated set of dynamics organized around a meaningful learning process, with Context at the beginning. 

Inspired by the IPP and its stages of learning, I would like to offer a brief reflection on the context of SCS. My hope is that sharing a bit more about the reality of the School will be helpful over the coming week of Commencement, especially for those traveling to the graduation events and meeting SCS for the first time. This introduction to the context of our learning community will hopefully help visitors appreciate how the School achieves a unity of mission and purpose in light of the diversity of students, modalities, and disciplinary approaches. 

According to the IPP, context refers to the establishment of the background conditions and factors that influence the learning situation for students and teachers. According to the Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy at Loyola University Chicago, context is:

“Clearly the background of the framework. As St. Ignatius directed, we always want to recognize how the time and space we occupy, and the socio-geo-political happenings of our day have relevance for our teaching and students’ learning. Context is constantly evolving and therefore must be under on-going consideration.”

The foundational importance of context is related to the insistence by St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises to enter into a “Composition of Place,” at the start of imaginative prayer and meditation exercises. The retreatant is invited to consider all the physical and material details of the scene in which one is entering so as to faithfully and humbly acknowledge what is already at work in a particular situation. We can then apply this approach to context by exploring all of the basic details that comprise the School of Continuing Studies. One way to do this is to enjoy this four-minute video introduction to the history of the School. Another way to do this is to read the latest SCS Dean’s Report, which provides both descriptive statistics about the composition of the School’s students, staff, and faculty but also a values-driven orientation to the mission commitments of SCS programs and initiatives.  

Reading through the 2022-2023 SCS Dean’s Report is a good way to better understand the mission and purpose of the School and who it serves. 

One might most fully appreciate the context of SCS by spending time reflecting on its particular mission: “To deliver a world-class, values-based education to a diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers; to improve employability and develop workforces; and to contribute to building a civic-minded, well-informed, and globally aware society.” You might become more familiar with how SCS realizes this unique mission, in the context of Georgetown’s overall Jesuit mission and purpose, by spending some time reading through the examples shared on the Mission in Motion blog. 

I hope that a fuller picture of who SCS is and why it operates helps all of us appreciate the deeper meaning of the Commencement exercises. This is a time for celebration of student accomplishments. It is also a time to reflect on who we are as a School and why our mission matters for the betterment of the world.

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An Examen Meditation for Commencement Season

This week’s post is a suggested reflection in advance of Commencement. 

In a few short weeks, Georgetown will host more than 10 different Commencement ceremonies that celebrate the graduating class of 2024. As staff and faculty, the annual occasion of Commencement is a refreshing reminder of the ultimate academic purpose of the university. For graduating students, the excitement of walking across the stage marks a terminus, an end point that is also the beginning of something new. These days of Commencement stir up so many emotions, some in concert and some in conflict. How am I different today than when I entered my Georgetown program? How am I being called to use the gifts of my Georgetown education in service of the world’s great and pressing needs? What does the future look like in a time of great disruption, uncertainty, and instability? 

These questions are natural and present an invaluable opportunity for deeper reflection, prayer, meditation, and counseling with trusted guides. With these much-anticipated graduation events on the horizon, I invite all of us in the Georgetown community to contemplatively consider these prompts in an Examen style of meditation. My hope is that taking time to quietly recollect our feelings in advance will lead to more grounded savoring of the exciting events to come. 

Composition of Place – First, take some time to notice the context of your life. Where are you? As you prepare for Commencement, how would you describe your world? Bring to mind all of the rich descriptive details that compose the scenes of your daily life. For example, to what communities (professional, personal, civic, religious, etc.) are you devoting yourself? What are the situations you observe on a daily basis? How are you being influenced by the places and spaces that surround you? 

Gratitude – Second, for whom and for what in your life are you the most grateful? What are the experiences, persons, and places from your time at Georgetown that arise as the most significant gifts? Allow yourself to notice everything that constitutes gratitude, but sit with the most important gifts for a longer period of time. Relish these gifts. 

Emotional Review of Experience – Third, go over the major experiences of your time at Georgetown and permit yourself not only to recall and remember these times but also how you feel now, in the present, about them. Try to notice the most significant feelings that come to the surface during your review of the Georgetown experiences you’ve had. What  brought you deep gladness and joy that put you more in touch with your sense of purpose and belonging? What brought about the opposite inner movements, namely dryness, desolation, or discouragement about your sense of self and how you relate to a larger purpose in life? 

Make a Commitment to Your Future – As you prepare to enter fully into the time of Commencement being ushered forth into the next steps of your life, make a resolution about how you would like to commit yourself to choices and actions that help realize your true self. Are you noticing yourself being challenged or invited to make a positive impact in some small or large way? What is justice and the common good asking of you in your particular situation of life and work? 

I invite you to cherish any opportunities for some quiet reflection in the week leading up to the formal ceremonies of Commencement. Look back with delight as you look forward with hope! Congratulations, Class of 2024! 

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2024 SCS Spirit of Georgetown Winner Reflects on Gifts of Life, Family, and Georgetown

Each year, Georgetown SCS honors outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni at the annual Tropaia Awards in Gaston Hall. This is a treasured occasion to publicly celebrate the ways that SCS community members bring the Spirit of Georgetown, the Jesuit mission and values that animate this entire learning community, to life in their study and work. The SCS Spirit of Georgetown award is selected by a committee of faculty and staff through a rigorous process of reviewing peer nominations. 

This year’s winner is Mary Delaney Fox, a graduating student in the Master’s in Public Relations & Corporate Communications program. Mary’s story is about the transformation that is possible when we translate loss into new life. Born at Georgetown hospital, she would not be here today if someone had not been an organ donor for her mother, who survived a life-threatening condition because of the gift that she received. Profoundly impacted by this experience, she has committed her professional career to Infinite Legacy. A nonprofit organization, Infinite Legacy works with 68 hospitals and eight transplant centers to decrease the number of people waiting for a life-saving transplant, and educates people about the critical importance of registering to be a donor. Mary has used her bilingual skills to educate underserved communities about the importance of staying healthy and leaving a lasting legacy by registering to become an organ donor. Mary’s interview, which falls in Donate Life Month, is an opportunity to share more with the SCS community about the life-saving possibilities of organ donation. 

This week’s post is an interview with Mary Delaney Fox, a graduating student who has been transformed by her family’s story and has made her academic and professional career about promoting organ donation.  
  1. Tell us a bit about your story. What led you to Georgetown SCS and where is your journey heading a few years after your graduation? 

Before I was born, a generous organ donor donated a kidney to my mother which saved my mother’s life and allowed me to exist. 

My mother waited eight long years to receive her kidney transplant and my parents prayed every night that my mother’s life be saved. They prayed not only for my mother’s life to be saved, but they also prayed for our donor hero and our donor’s family. 

My mother’s kidney transplant restored her health, saved her life, and enabled her to marry the love of her life and have two children. My parents named me Mary, in honor of praying to Mary for eight years and to honor my mother’s journey which was saved by a generous organ donor. My mother’s life-saving surgery took place at Georgetown. Shortly after my mother’s life was saved at Georgetown, I was born at Georgetown.  

Since then, Georgetown has always held a special place in my heart, because of the kindness of our organ donor and the talents of the medical team at Georgetown that saved my mother’s life. Years later, the exceptionally talented Georgetown medical team took care of my mom with her pregnancy and then I was later born at Georgetown. I knew in my heart I would always return to Georgetown University, the place that saved my mother’s life and where I was later born and honor the Georgetown name by giving back. 

Growing up knowing you are a miracle baby and are alive today thanks to someone else’s generosity and kindness changes you. It absolutely changed the trajectory of my life. 

In fact, I have spent the last 15 years of my career in Communications and Community Outreach working at Infinite Legacy and supporting Donate Life America by serving on the Donate Life America Advisory Council and Chair of the Donate Life America Ambassadors Committee helping to educate the Washington, D.C., community on the importance of organ donation and sharing how you can be a hero and save someone’s life one day. Recently, I was awarded two Pinnacle Awards by Donate Life America, the highest industry honors, recognizing my Communications and Community Outreach efforts in promoting organ donation awareness. 

At my nonprofit, I work with underserved and multicultural communities, which are the most in need of life-saving organ transplants. As a native Spanish speaker, it is especially important for me to work with Spanish communities on the importance of staying healthy and the significant legacy you can leave by registering to be an organ donor. 

I am blessed to work with 200+ Donate Life Ambassadors who all have a direct connection to donation, whether it be they received a second chance at life with a lifesaving organ transplant or with donor families, who in their last act of charity of love, their donor hero gave the gift of life to others. Our Donate Life Ambassadors are instrumental in our mission as we work to promote organ donation awareness and education. I work with miracles every day and it fuels my passion and dedication to this mission-driven and life-saving work.  

Receiving my graduate degree at Georgetown has solidified my passion for Public Relations and Communications. I am confident using my power of purpose will continue to help organizations and communities celebrate the gift of connection with passionate storytelling. 

  1. What does the Spirit of Georgetown mean to you? 

The Spirit of Georgetown means identifying your passion which will lead to your purpose and the gifts you are meant to share with the world. 

For me, the Spirit of Georgetown means combining the Georgetown values and incredible knowledge learned from the amazing professors and faculty and leaning into your calling. You were meant to bring greatness to the world and the Spirit of Georgetown empowers you to be your best self and show up with purpose in everything you do. 

In this week’s Mission in Motion, Georgetown SCS graduating student Mary Delaney Fox shares about how her family has sustained and inspired her journey at the University. 
  1. As you reflect back on your time at SCS, what advice or inspiration would you like to share with the soon-to-be graduates? 

I will dedicate my Outstanding Public Relations & Corporate Communications Award and Spirit of Georgetown Award to my mom saying, “I did it Mommy! This award is for you.” It will also be the greatest Father’s Day gift I can give my dad who was instrumental in keeping me going while juggling multiple high priority responsibilities in my graduate school life. I kept my promise to both of my parents. Most importantly, I kept my promise to myself. 

My life-changing journey at Georgetown would not have been possible without the incredible support of my family: my brother, Timothy; loving husband, Philip; and my two beautiful children, Laney and Alex. Together as a family, we worked to support mommy going to Georgetown and my young children were immersed in seeing the value of hard work and dedication.

All of my professors have recognized my strength, academic achievements, and professional accomplishments and truly supported me during my Georgetown graduate journey. I have found a supportive family at Georgetown and know my professors and graduate colleagues will be lifelong friends and mentors for life.

Graduating from Georgetown University is the culmination of the hardest and most rewarding experience of my life. I want other graduate students to see that they can do it, too, even when they are going through an incredibly stressful season in their life. Dreams do come true when you believe in yourself—even when the odds seem impossible.  

When life gets hard, you are stronger than you think. There is hope, even when all hope feels lost. Anything is possible when you have the courage to follow your dreams. Keep going. 

  1. Anything else to share?  

Special thank you to all of my professors who have mentored me, supported me, and poured so much knowledge and wisdom into me. My Georgetown University graduate journey has taught me how strong and resilient I am and highlighted the gifts and talents I am meant to use to help make the world a better place. 

My story would not exist if it was not for our family’s generous organ donor. A profound thank you to our family’s donor hero. Organ donation does not just save the patient in need, it also saves families and, in my case, changes the course of history and allowed me to be born. I exist today because of the miracle of organ donation. I am a living testament to the miracle of organ donation. Organ donation saves lives! Visit www.registerme.org to learn more about organ donation and register to be a hero and save lives.