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Beyond The Prompt: Coding The Magis In The Age Of Ai, Vanessa Rotondo

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

As a scholar-practitioner in Jesuit higher education, I’ve witnessed how generative AI is not merely a tool students use—it’s a formative force that shapes how they reflect, imagine, and even pray. Drawing on the Catholic imagination, Ignatian pedagogy, and sociological frameworks like liquid modernity, I argue that Jesuit institutions must respond not just technologically and reactively, but actively anticipate methods of integrating AI both theologically and pedagogically. I introduce the concept of Imaginative Intelligence as a formative goal—an embodied, sacramental way of knowing that invites depth, wonder, and resistance to automation. This is not a call to reject AI, but …

Faculty And Staff Formation In Jesuit Higher Education: The Scholarship And Art Of Accompaniment, Belle Liang, Maria Gregoire, Elisa Liang

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This study examines the formative impact of selected faculty and staff formation initiatives offered at Boston College, with particular attention to those shaped by Ignatian spirituality. Drawing on qualitative survey data from 134 participants, the analysis identifies interrelated conditions through which formation is experienced as a coherent process rather than a set of discrete programs. Across initiatives, renewal and vocational clarity were most often described through four conditions: People, Pause, Place, and Purpose, understood here as the alignment of values, commitments, and lived practice. Presence emerged as the relational medium through which People, Pause, Place, and Purpose became formative. Presence …

Forming Physicians For Others: The Identity Of The Jesuit Catholic Medical School, John Hardt, David G. De Marco Sj

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Forming Physicians for Others: The Identity of the Jesuit Catholic Medical School

The Jesuit medical school accepts a widely-acknowledged telos: the preparation of the medical student to offer excellent patient care. It pursues this telos, however, through the distinctiveness of Ignatian formation, which finds expression in each domain of undergraduate medical education. This formative commitment, oriented toward and witnessing to an appreciation of the unconditional worth of the human being, may empower a subset of medical students—who are engaged by a life of faith and open to the transcendent invitation of their lives—to experience an even more fundamental transformation—one that …

A Student-Centered Coaching Program In Jesuit & Mercy Traditions, Sara Gifford, Karen Mihelich, Arthur Ko

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

A student-centered coaching program grounded in Jesuit and Mercy traditions, called “Coaching for Care,” was implemented at a midwestern Jesuit and Mercy institution. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the development of future nurse educators’ pedagogy, foster holistic licensure examination preparation among pre-licensure nursing students, and examine students’ perceptions towards the program’s guiding Jesuit and Mercy values. Pre-licensure students who received coaching felt that their uniqueness/holism, accountability, and reflection were important for their licensure exam preparation at significantly higher rates than pre-licensure students who did not receive coaching. Themes identified from the doctoral student coaches included instilling confidence …

A Spiritual Direction Approach Aimed At Creating Belonging On Campus, Michael Dante

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Abstract:

Creating a campus culture of belonging is mission critical for Jesuit institutions. This is even more heightened with the recent Supreme Court decision eliminating Affirmative Action and numerous states banning the teaching of history especially around race. To overcome these setbacks and the larger negative effects of racism and white privilege, many of our schools offer trainings, book discussions, and dialogues. These have been very helpful.

Yet, another untapped dimension to racism and white privilege occurs at a spiritual level. Mission Officers, DEI Officers, Rectors of Jesuit communities, and spiritual directors can collaborate to engage this level of the …

Imagination Grasping Reality: An Ignatian Foundation For Critical Hope In Jesuit Education, Susan Haarman

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

As public faith in higher education faces an all time low, the need for hope to both infuse and be a product of our institutions of higher learning is paramount. Rather than a simple hopeful optimism, Henry Giroux conceptualized critical hope - an educated hope that will form students capable and willing to view themselves and the world through a critical lens and then imagine new ways of proceeding that serve the public good and honor human dignity. Jesuit education, at its best, is rooted in expressions of critical hope with a world-affirming commitment to depth of thought and imagination …

Preparing Humanities Students For Employment: Reimagining Career Exploration And Education Through Ignatian Spirituality And Discernment, Elizabeth L. Angeli, Serina Jamison, Susan E. Jones-Landwer

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Graduate students in the humanities are hungry for career exploration as they face limited academic career options and feel called to work beyond the academy. Career preparation is typically left to graduate advisors, and then, the focus tends to be on academic career preparation. This article details how a required, introductory graduate class was reimagined to integrate career exploration using a framework at the heart of Ignatian spirituality and education: discernment. The authors outline the course and two assignments that can be adapted and applied to any graduate course. The authors share reflections on how the class has impacted their …

The Challenges To Mission And Ministry In The Covid-19 Moment In Jesuit Higher Education, Mark Bosco S. J.

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

In this Reflection, Father Bosco examines the adaptations and adjustments made at Georgetown University as students, faculty and staff managed with the impact of the coronavirus.

Review: In The School Of Ignatius: Studious Zeal And Devoted Learning By Claude Pavur, Timothy Rothhaar

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

No abstract provided.

Cura Personalis As Institutional Practice, Julia Bninski Ph.D., Jennifer R. Wozniak Boyle Ph.D.

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Founded by Loyola University Chicago in 2015, Arrupe College is a two-year program that continues the Jesuit tradition of offering a rigorous liberal arts education to a diverse population, many of whom are the first in their families to pursue higher education. Using an innovative model that ensures affordability while providing care for the whole person—intellectually, morally, and spiritually—Arrupe prepares its graduates to continue on to a bachelor’s program or move into meaningful employment. From the beginning, cura personalis has been a priority at this new institution. In this article, drawing on their experience as faculty members and administrators at …

Another Ignatian History: Including Women In The Story Of Jesuit Mission, Julia A. Dowd

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Orientation programs at Jesuit universities often include a review of the life of Ignatius. What is missing from the official history of Ignatius are the stories of the women with whom he lived and worked who contributed financially, politically, and emotionally to Ignatius’ formation and that of the early Jesuits. What is also missing is a critical feminist analysis of the historical context out of which Ignatius, the Spiritual Exercises and the Society of Jesus were born. In this article, I argue that women provided essential scaffolding to bolster Ignatius’ identity and vocation, and likewise to contribute to the early …

Revisiting The Promise And Foundations Of A Jesuit Education, Dirk J. Dunfee, Sue Scherer, Ken Sagendorf, James D. Nash, Cheryl Schwartz

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Offering a Jesuit education requires much from the faculty and staff at a Jesuit university. While there is wide agreement with Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach’s observation that our particular education should be measured by who our students become, faculty and staff need a fundamental understanding of the roots and intentions of Jesuit education to truly begin to fulfill that promise of a Jesuit education.1 This article shares the reflective practice of five colleagues working in different roles at a Jesuit university, seeking to better re-examine their understanding of the foundations of Jesuit education, including special attention to the history, …

The Management Exercises: A Way Forward With Purpose, Richard W. Stackman, Kimberly Rae Connor

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This paper outlines the Management Exercises, a co-curricular program that reflects the more — the magis — to better prepare students as future leaders and citizens. The Management Exercises seek to further orient students toward a life of questioning and engagement as students learn to exercise discernment, to build character, and to enact citizenship. The four modules that comprise the Management Exercises are outlined in conjunction with the implementation of the Management Exercises into the school’s MBA program.

Practicing Ignatian Pedagogy: A Digital Collection Of Resources, Zheng (Jessica) Lu, Vicki Rosen

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

In the Spring 2015 issue of Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, Kimberly Connor described building an Ignatian Pedagogy Faculty Learning Community at the University of San Francisco. One outcome of the FLC was to gather and make easily available a collection of resources on Jesuit education and the IPP (Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm). In this issue, two USF Gleeson Library/Geschke Center librarians, Zheng (Jessica) Lu, Digital Collections Librarian, and Vicki Rosen, Distance Learning Services Librarian, describe creating Practicing Ignatian Pedagogy: A Digital Collection of Resources, an openly accessible database available through the USF Library website, using the FLC resources and digital …

The Study Of Kinesiology And Ignatian Spirituality: Parallels Through Exercise, Karl F. Kozlowski

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Spirituality relates to an internal movement towards the sacred, while kinesiology is the science of physical human movement. Strong, user-friendly communication between spiritual directors and retreatants is important to the development of an individualized productive retreat experience. To better facilitate guidance, it is helpful for directors to understand the parallels between spiritual exercises and the expertise of retreatants and for retreatants to understand comparisons between their professional and spiritual lives. The physical activity of St. Ignatius during his pilgrimage across Spain exemplifies the similarities between Ignatian spirituality and the science of human movement. Comparisons between Ignatian spirituality and kinesiology include …

Ignatian Spirituality And Ecology: Entering Into Conversation With The Earth, Joseph Carver S.J.

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Editor’s note: A version of this paper was presented at the International Seminar on Ignatian Pedagogy and Spirituality on November 7, 2014 in Manresa/Barcelona. The author was recently interviewed at Regis University about Pope Francis’ latest encyclical: Laudato Si. https://youtu.be/hi3VUYfYGsY

Teaching With Ignatius: Justice In Pedagogical Practice, Jeffrey L. Wilson

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

The document Justice in the World, released in 1971 by the World Synod of Bishops, is an excellent basis for thinking about pedagogical practice in Ignatian higher education as a constellation of acts of justice. I describe here my personal experience (as an ambiguously Catholic faculty member) of teaching an upper division ethics course in the core curriculum and contextualize it in terms both of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the 1971 Synod document.