Tag: Reflection

Posted on

When a Building Means More Than a Building: An Ode to 640 Massachusetts Avenue

When you remember the 640 Massachusetts Avenue campus of SCS, which we will bid farewell to at the end of July, what will first come to mind? This post is a reflection on more than ten years of memories in this mission-animated space. 

Readers of this blog are no doubt aware of the exciting developments on Georgetown’s Capitol Campus, including the opening in August of the 111 Massachusetts Avenue building (see: “Anticipating the Opening of 111 Massachusetts Avenue on the Capitol Campus”). But anticipating the opening of the new building means reflecting well on the closing of another, the 640 Massachusetts Avenue home of the School of Continuing Studies since 2013. With a Farewell to 640 Celebration planned for July 29 (RSVP here) and an invitation to share your memories of 640 (upload here), I wanted to share some perspectives about the meaning of this campus location from a broader view of the University’s mission and values. Sharing these perspectives involves my own personal and professional experiences of the building and its many spaces. 

A thoughtful study of the built environment includes evaluating why certain physical structures have particular historical or cultural features worth preserving. We often think of only certain types of facilities worthy of this kind of designation, especially buildings with notable historical, cultural, artistic, or religious significance. In this way, the highly modern, rehabilitated, and redesigned four floors of the 640 SCS campus, embedded in a larger office building, do not necessarily possess historical attributes of a building worthy of historical preservation. But the 640 campus location does carry significance for its enduring meaning in the life of Georgetown University. A July 2012 Georgetown web story, “University Announces Expansion of ‘Georgetown Downtown’ Presence,” reveals the University’s mission-based vision for the growth of SCS and increasing presence in this area of the city. President Emeritus John J. DeGioia reflected on this meaning and said: “This new home provides us with an opportunity to extend the impact of the university into new parts of the city and to broaden the reach of our work. We are excited to be aligning our interests with this vibrant and growing city.” 

Operating for more than a decade in a dynamic area of downtown Washington, D.C., we can confidently say that 640 has become a home. I can remember the first time I entered the building in 2014 when I interviewed for a staff position in the Master’s Program in Urban & Regional Planning: I was struck by the building’s light and air, polished modern amenities, and the surprising way that the dynamic modern environment pointed my attentions back to Georgetown’s long history and heritage as a Jesuit institution of higher learning. I knew then, and continue to know as we embark on a new phase of Georgetown’s life, that our Catholic and Jesuit mission, with its abiding commitment to interreligious dialogue and multifaith programming, would be animated in a distinctly Ignatian way in this urban campus location. 

So many events, programs, courses, and convenings have marked the building’s faithful commitment to a vision of an urban campus rooted in our Jesuit heritage of being people for others with an orientation to a faith that does justice. I particularly recall when the campus building was used for community service and learning, including a December 2019 experiential training and street outreach event for people experiencing homelessness (see: “SCS Day of Service Puts Spotlight on Homelessness in the Downtown”). I recall times when the building became a place for cross-cultural community-building and exchange (see: “English Language Center Hosts Annual Panel About Thanksgiving Traditions” and “When Networking Helps Meet the Mission: LeMoyne College Visits SCS”). And I will especially remember the many times that the atrium space was reimagined as a banquet for delicious food, celebration, and fellowship (see “Savoring the Season: Scenes of Joy from the SCS Student and Faculty Holiday Party” and “A Week of Welcomes: SCS Opens Its Doors and Its Heart”). 

But I will remember most the human connections and the relationships of meaning that occurred in this building. I will savor the memories of staff-organized potlucks, with colleagues in pre-COVID 19 times regaling in each other’s company over a diverse, homemade spread of delicious food. I will savor the memories of learning the craft of teaching in the classrooms of 640 and getting to know new students semester after semester as they began their academic journeys at Georgetown. I will savor the memories of growing the bonds of colleagueship with other staff and faculty through spontaneous interactions, impromptu communal uses of the space (like watching the World Cup on the projector in the atrium), and planned gatherings like all-staff meetings and new student orientations. I will also remember my particular trip to campus, enjoying (usually!) my walk up and down 7th Street from the Gallery Place Metro Station. I will remember the feeling of pride at showing friends and family the incredible learning spaces in 640 and watching as visitors marveled at the touch and feel of a truly technologically-enabled modern urban campus building. 

Buildings are more than buildings if we take to heart that it is the people who make the physical experience of a place into something much more. I have found my own deeper connection to Georgetown’s mission, heritage, and identity through the people I have encountered at 640. I feel such an enormous privilege to have called 640 home for a little over a decade. And now I’m ready for another home at Georgetown, and I pray that 111 Massachusetts Avenue will become a home to so many in the way that 640 has been one for me, my community of colleagues, and a generation of Georgetown students. 

Posted on

An Examen for Summer

This week’s post is a reflection on the summer and how it might shape and inform our lenses of wonder and awe. 

The Summer Day 

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver

In her poem, “The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver, beloved by many Jesuit-animated spiritual guides, gives the world an invitation to savor the scenes of summertime. Oliver asks us to look more closely at the creatures composing the scenes of our views and vistas. And then she recognizes that while she does not “know what exactly a prayer is,” she does know “how to pay attention.” In this way, the poet gives instructions for how to engage with an Examen by paying deeper attention to all the daily flora and fauna we encounter through our sensory experience. This kind of embodied knowing is beyond mechanical processes or conceptual knowledge. In this exercise of attention-paying, the Examen can shape choices in a spirit of abundant gratitude for our “one wild and precious life.” Oliver wants us to fully embrace the possibilities and potentialities of a life more fully lived. She wants us to be most fully alive by delighting in all that surrounds us. 

With the possibility of a more abundant, fully realized life as our backdrop, I would like to recommend that summer is a welcomed season for this kind of paying attention. I invite members of the Georgetown community to engage in the intentional pause of an Examen and, true to the Spirit of Georgetown, live the value of “Contemplation in Action.” This means that, like Oliver’s poem, we can find prayer in the midst of our awe and wonder at the scenes of daily life. Our paying attention becomes a form of spiritual practice, a prayerful way of being. How to do this, you might be asking? Especially how to do this, you might also be wondering, when awe and wonder do not accurately capture our present moods but instead belie a climate of challenge, difficulty, and anxious uncertainty? 

The Ignatian spiritual tradition suggests that we need to balance two kinds of imaginative lenses as we navigate the journey of life. On the one hand, it is necessary to employ a lens of wonder, which sees the beauty and majesty of people and the natural creation. A disposition of noticing the world through this view means savoring the goodness of humanity and the utter grandeur of the natural world. Try this lens out, especially during times of rest and relaxation this summer, and just give yourself over to what happens when you sit with the deep gladness that can arise in paying concentrated attention to everything you encounter. 

On the other hand, we also have to also use a lens of critique or skepticism as there is injustice and suffering and depravation in this world. This imagination requires a moral response, some kind of externalization of a better choice to be made, a more loving or healing decision, in light of the despair that we notice in our daily scenes and become aware of through our reading, learning, and social analysis. These realities can animate our conscience and give rise to actions for justice and the common good. 

I encourage you to use both views as you journey these days. Before long, the bells will toll for the fall semester and a new season will be upon all of us. For now, let us find some measure of rest in these long days. 

Posted on

2025 Spirit of Georgetown Winner Reflects on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the Value of International Education, and the Importance of Making the World a Beautiful Place

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 Zaki Mohammed, a graduating student of the Master of Professional Studies in Cybersecurity Risk Management program. Mohammed has demonstrated extraordinary leadership during his time at the School of Continuing Studies that has contributed to the School’s reputation for applied innovation in the fields of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Both within the University and outside of it, Zaki has strived to advance the University’s leadership in these ever-evolving and dynamic areas of professional life and practice. I hope you will find, in his responses, connections to the University’s mission and values, particularly Georgetown’s longstanding commitment to forming lifelong learners who are generous in service with and for others. 

This week’s post is an interview with Zaki Mohammed, a graduating student who realized his dream of coming to Georgetown to help grow his ethical leadership in the professional practice of cybersecurity. 
  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? 

When I look back at my journey, from the vibrant, technology-driven streets of Bangalore, India, to Georgetown’s inspiring and intellectual community, I reflect on something much more than just a professional career trajectory. I see a deeply personal transformation driven by purpose, hard work, passion, and values that transcend any achievement.

Growing up in Bangalore, India’s “Silicon Valley,” technology was always a significant part of my life. The exponential advancements in technology overwhelmed me with uncertainty about my future. My mother, who always believed education and the pursuit of knowledge were the best ways to find one’s place in this world, constantly reminded me that I would be fine. Yet despite studying computer science engineering as a 16-year-old, I initially struggled to find my place in this modern world. It wasn’t until my senior year when I took a class on advanced network security that something profound sparked within me—a calling not just to understand technology but to protect people from the vulnerabilities it creates. This moment of clarity set the stage for everything that followed.

I made it my life’s goal to become a highly skilled cybersecurity professional, aiming to be an integral part of the digital revolution and to help build a trustworthy digital world that our civilization is headed towards. I started by learning cybersecurity, working on research projects in healthcare cybersecurity, publishing papers, and gaining over three years of experience in cybersecurity, threat intelligence, and information assurance. I’ve designed, implemented, and validated risk management strategies for enterprises navigating today’s complex threat landscape.

In pursuit of further knowledge, I traveled across the world and came to Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies seeking expertise. However, I quickly discovered something far more valuable: a community that inspired me to lead with empathy, integrity, and purpose. My time at Georgetown profoundly shaped both who I am and who I aspire to become. Coming from humble beginnings as an international student, Georgetown welcomed me with opportunities and a community that valued not just my potential but also my story.

At Georgetown, my proudest moments went beyond technical research or career milestones. Serving as senator for the Cybersecurity & Risk Management Program and director of the Online Students and Technology Committee allowed me to advocate for my fellow students and thousands of online students, building meaningful connections. Growing up in a small town in India and coming from a humble middle-class family, I had never dreamt I would one day be among such great company and represent them. Learning from experienced industry professors and working with them on futuristic research projects are experiences I will never forget. These experiences weren’t merely extracurricular—they taught me about leadership, the power of hard work, and the profound responsibility that comes with advocacy.

Creating Georgetown’s first-ever cybersecurity student society and working as a research assistant provided deeply personal experiences that made my time here truly worthwhile. Understanding the intersection of artificial intelligence and cognitive biases wasn’t just academic; it was about creating fairness and equity, ensuring technology serves humanity ethically. This pursuit of ethical technological implementations through innovation continued into my work with Siemens, helping protect critical infrastructure.

My graduate student life at Georgetown involved working 12-hour days during the summer, managing an internship, assistantship, volunteering for GradGov and Georgetown University Cybersecurity Society, keeping up with academic rigor, and achieving professional certifications. At times, all of this seemed overwhelming, but the pursuit of knowledge, growth, and intellectual curiosity kept me going. While being deeply involved and committed to multiple responsibilities, the “why” always mattered more to me than the “how.” Throughout it all, I never lost sight of the “why.” Whether publishing research, raising $25,000 in alumni engagement as a student engagement specialist at the Office of Advancement, or advocating for funding for new cybersecurity initiatives, I was driven by the belief that technology is only as powerful as the values guiding it. My focus consistently remained on safeguarding trust and ensuring people remained at the heart of technological progress.

The most precious moment of my Georgetown experience, which I hold closest to my heart, was when my efforts to pursue academic excellence and contributions to the betterment of fellow graduate student experiences were recognized with the Exceptional Master’s Student Award by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences last spring.

Graduating from Georgetown University this year, receiving the prestigious Spirit of Georgetown Award, and being honored as the outstanding student in the Cybersecurity Risk Management Program, as well as leading 1,400 exceptional graduates as the student marshal at the convocation ceremony, were profoundly humbling milestones. These experiences were precious to me not merely due to the recognition itself, but because they affirmed that I had successfully embodied the values Georgetown cherishes. It reminded me that while professional accomplishments are important, true success lies in how deeply you touch the lives around you and how genuinely you live out your values. 

Being recognized as the 2025 Spirit of Georgetown recipient, I now carry the responsibility of walking in the path of some of the greatest individuals who have carried this honor throughout the 200-year history of this prestigious university. This responsibility and the exciting expectations of my professors, who have instilled precious knowledge and wisdom in me, will guide me in my future pursuits to embody the values Georgetown proudly cherishes.

Looking forward, my vision remains rooted in the values Georgetown instilled in me. Whether working at the forefront of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, shaping ethical technology policies, or building inclusive communities, my goal is to lead thoughtfully, act responsibly, and always stay guided by the spirit of service.

Georgetown didn’t just prepare me for a career—it shaped me into someone who sees technology as a tool for meaningful and compassionate evolution. This spirit, more than any skill or achievement, is what I’ll carry forward wherever life takes me.

Hoya Saxa.

  1. Your degree was in Cybersecurity Risk Management, and you have been involved in research about artificial intelligence, including cognitive bias. What do you think are the most significant ethical dimensions of this new technology? 

My work as a research assistant to Dr. Lemieux on cognitive bias detection using advanced prompt engineering deeply reinforced my belief in the ethical responsibility we hold when developing and implementing new technologies like artificial intelligence. While our research was not specifically focused on cybersecurity, my background in Cybersecurity Risk Management constantly reminded me of how biases and misinformation can compromise trust, security, and fairness in our digital society.

Cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias and circular reasoning, significantly impact critical decision-making across areas like media, healthcare, and legal systems. Our research addressed these issues by engineering structured prompts to guide AI systems toward accurately detecting these biases in real-time. This capability is ethically significant because it promotes transparency, reduces misinformation, and ultimately leads to fairer outcomes.

In this week’s Mission in Motion, Georgetown SCS graduating student Zaki Mohammed reflects on how Georgetown has shaped him as a person and a professional. 
  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? 

As I reflect on my journey at Georgetown SCS and my life experiences thus far, the best advice I can share with soon-to-be graduates, especially young individuals like myself, is to anchor your lives around four key pillars: the pursuit of true independence, the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of happiness, and the pursuit of love. True independence gives you the freedom and courage to chart your path; knowledge equips you with the tools to understand and impact the world around you; happiness fuels your spirit and passion; and love connects you deeply and meaningfully with others.

My grandmother often reminded me, “Make your corner of the world beautiful, and the world will eventually be an amazing place.” This simple yet profound wisdom has guided me through my toughest moments. It taught me that creating positive change starts small, right from your immediate surroundings. If each of us commits to making our corners of the world more compassionate, inclusive, and hopeful, collectively, we will transform our communities and ultimately, the world.

Embrace these pursuits wholeheartedly, live your values, and know that your unique story and voice truly matter.

Posted on

Symbols of Light and Unity Carry the 2025 SCS Commencement

The 2025 SCS Commencement featured a stirring address by Steve Pemberton. He encouraged the Class to become Lighthouses for the world. You can watch Commencement on Facebook. 

Every Commencement Week reflects something unique about the particular moment in the world in which the graduates of the School of Continuing Studies are entering. A meaningful experience of the ceremonies of Commencement, both the Tropaia Awards in Gaston Hall for outstanding students, faculty, and staff as well as the actual Commencement Exercises that take place on Healy Lawn, included periods of prolonged reflection. In each ceremony, speakers attempt to signify the deeper meaning and purpose behind these formal gatherings. The effort is to ensure that the graduation experience does not float by without serious intentionality about what it means for everyone involved. 

This year, SCS was blessed to receive consoling messages that seemed to coalesce around a shared theme of light and unity in uncertain times. I was particularly struck by two images that were presented to the assembled along these lines. On Tuesday evening, Rabbi Rachel Gartner, Senior Advisor for Spiritual Care at SCS, gave the invocation prayer at Tropaia. Rabbi Rachel movingly invited all of us to come together in spite of our differences. The way through turbulence, Rabbi reflected, is by coming together as if we are all journeying in the same ship. While we cannot control the state of the waters around us, we can decide to find ways to unify in our shared purpose at Georgetown, motivated by our rich spiritual traditions and the commitments that arise from our mission and values. 

At Commencement, Steve Pemberton delivered a remarkably memorable address to the graduating class. An accomplished professional with diverse leadership experience across several sectors, Mr. Pemberton’s theme centered around the image of the Lighthouse. Arising from his own early life history of surviving traumas at the hands of a foster care system that failed to care for him, Mr. Pemberton reflected on the qualities of kindness, generosity, and magnanimity needed to weather life’s storms. How you share your gifts and talents with others, especially those most in need of them, is what defines a life. Mr. Pemberton, drawing on the wisdom of St. Ignatius that we should spend our lives in generous service with and for others by illuminating the world (in fact, setting it on fire), challenged the Class of 2025 to be light for the world. 

Rabbi Rachel Gartner blessed the 2025 SCS Tropaia awards by inviting the assembled to join together in a ship of togetherness to navigate turbulent waters. You can watch Tropaia here. 

This year’s Commencement reveals clearly that educational institutions, especially ones like Georgetown anchored in long traditions of religious heritage and values, need moments of communal gathering to reflect and celebrate together. The motto of the University, “Unum utraque,” or “both into one,” tells us that we are always stronger together. Congratulations, Class of 2025! 

Posted on

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. 

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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. 

Posted on

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. 

Posted on

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.