What does it mean in today’s world to be globally mindful, competent, and active? General Congregation 32 defined the promotion of justice as an absolute in the service of faith with the Society of Jesus. General Congregation 35 invites us to explore the potential of being and acting as a universal body with a universal mission. General Congregation 36 followed with an invitation to deepen our focus on networking and collaboration as our contemporary way of proceeding. Global collaboration for global challenges.
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These are significant invitations with complex responses, especially in busy schools where everyone is "full speed ahead" with day to day demands. In response, JSN is launching three new initiatives: the Ignatian Global Scholars Certificate Program (IGS), the Ignatian Global Engagement Mentors Program (I-GEM), and the Global Dimensions Inventory (GDI). Each initiative is framed through the lens of the UAPs, the guidelines of JSN’s Standards and Benchmarks (including the revised Domain 5), the Global Identifiers of A Living Tradition, and the Action Plan from JESEDU-Rio2017 with all elements represented, intertwined, and integrated on the Holistic Perspective Infographic (pictured). We invite you to explore these initiatives by clicking the icons below or visiting www.jesuitschoolsnetwork.org/global-perspectives. If you'd like to learn more about implementing the new global programs into your school, contact Catharine Steffens at csteffens@jesuits.org.
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Ignatian Global Scholars – One Year In
St. Xavier High School introduced the Ignatian Global Scholar (IGS) program in the spring of 2021. This May, eight seniors are expected to have earned this distinction, followed by 24 students in 2024 and more in subsequent years. IGS candidates have chosen coursework with a global dimension, completed service projects, participated in global events and intercultural experiences, and reflected on their growth as global citizens. The JSN IGS toolkit has been an indispensable resource in launching the program at St. X. Detailed but flexible, it provides a framework for implementing the program as well as access to a network of fellow JSN educators collaborating in this work.
Two outcomes of the IGS program at St. X have been the Global Perspectives foundation course, required of IGS candidates, and the Global X-plorers Club, which students created as an extension of the IGS program. An overview of the Global Perspectives course is available here, a scope and sequence for the course here, and a video featuring the course and student projects can be viewed here or directly below.
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Global Issues – A Course template
In our context, most of our course curriculum documents are produced by the provincial government; course curriculums that are ‘school-initiated’ are approved by the provincial government. For most of the years that I've been a teacher at St. Paul’s I've had the pleasure of teaching a course called ‘Global Issues: Citizenship and Sustainability’. Over the last few years, as part of discussions regarding ‘global education’ within the Jesuit Schools Network, some colleagues have consulted the curriculum for this course as they have brought several of its elements to their own school.
One strength of this course is the tremendous flexibility it provides to both the teacher and to the student. There are a number of ‘areas of inquiry’ listed in the curriculum document - although the list is not exhaustive – for teachers to focus discussions on. Students are also to explore some areas on an ‘independent’ basis (as individuals or in groups) to develop a ‘Take Action’ project. The inherent flexibility allows the Global Issues course to be very current and adapt to events as they unfold. As things happen in the community, country, or planet this course can easily adapt.
Click here or the button below to learn more about the course. For additional resources including helpful links and reflection questions, access the Global Scholars Self-Inventory here or at the button below. If you or your school are interested in developing such a course, contact Stacy Dainard at sdainard@stpauls.mb.ca with any questions.
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Global Citizenship Course
General Congregation 35 reminded us that “serving Christ’s mission today means paying special attention to its global context."Members of the global Educate Magis community have created a Global Citizenship Course designed to give educators and school leaders in Jesuit and Ignatian schools an introduction into the topic of Global Citizenship Education. It consists of five lessons which can be taken individually or consecutively. The course has been designed in line with the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm, encouraging Experience, Reflection and Action while teaching educators the importance of global citizenship through materials and activities which can be used to teach and accompany our students to become global citizens. A version of the Global Citizenship Course geared toward students is also available here.
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I-GEM Launches Across the JSN
This fall kicked off the inaugural year of conversations in the Jesuit School Network’s Ignatian Global Engagement Mentor (I-GEM). In the I-GEM program, schools commit to two years of self-reflection, with the help of a “mentor,” an Ignatian educator from a peer Jesuit school who is engaged in global work within his/her own school context. Each participating school meets monthly with their mentor to reflect, discern, and ultimately, create a strategic plan that will lead to a deepening of the school’s global understanding and identity.
As a mentor, it has been a fantastic experience to connect with another school and learn how they are already bringing the Ignatian Global Citizenship Definition to life. In addition to drawing us closer as schools in the same network, the I-GEM program presents us the opportunity to turn inward and reflect on what our individual schools are doing well and where there are opportunities for growth. The tool for this analysis is available to all: the JSN Global Dimensions Inventory (GDI) program. Encompassing eight categories, the GDI was created through the input of all our network schools including our Nativity, Cristo Rey, and traditional schools. In my own school, I found the questions on the inventory to be ones I couldn’t answer alone and required conversations among different departments and programs on campus. As such, the inventory is an opportunity to bring different departments of our schools together as we recognize that developing a globally minded school involves more than particular courses or programs – the themes of the Ignatian Global Citizenship Definition must be interwoven into the very fabric of who we are.
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SLUH Engages in Jesuit Global Activism Leadership Summit
This past July and August, more than 120 students and teachers from 23 Jesuit high schools representing 14 different countries engaged in the second annual Jesuit Global Activism Leadership Summit. The project, started during the pandemic in the spring of 2021, brings students from our Jesuit global network to collaborate on concrete actions, to be taken both locally and globally, respond to the many challenges we face as an interconnected community. All of this work is done with a primary focus on our UAP's and how we especially are called to this work as stewards of the Jesuit mission.
The summit kicked off with inspiring keynote speeches by Fr. Jose Mesa, SJ of the JSN and Giulia McPherson of Jesuit Relief Services. Both speakers set the tone of the summit by reminding students how our UAP's are first and foremost a call to be not just to act. After this opening session, students and teachers were put into mixed, diverse groups of six or seven where no two students were from the same community. The group spent their first day sharing their visions, values, and cultures to build a strong team atmosphere before the day ended with a global examen.
Day Two began with students listening to expert speakers on the UAP that they chose as their primary motivation for joining this project. Fr. Michael Mohr, SJ, Fr. Tony Riordan, SJ, Fr. Julio Villavicencio, SJ, and Loyola of Los Angeles alum Aidan Riley gave the group many wonderful insights on all four UAPs to help inform and better focus student's efforts during the summit. Students then returned to their groups to begin their projects together while faculty held their own sessions, sharing perspectives in teacher discussion groups.
After a similar format for Day Three, Day Four included group presentations their UAP centered projects to a panel of groups who chose other UAP's. Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, and Group 4 all presented amazing, well-constructed, impactful projects to highlight each group's work. As the culmination of the program, all students met on Day Five for reflection and celebration of the work done by all. Cynthia Yue, UN Youth Ambassador, left the students with some great challenges and final thoughts, and the remainder of the day was spent sharing perspectives, highlights, and outcomes.
As we look to next year's program, we're hoping to expand the summit with a virtual spring option, as well as possible summer in-person program. If you're interested in participating in future summits, please contact Robert Chura, Director of Global Education at St. Louis University High School at rchura@sluh.org for more details.
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Kino Border Initiative Launches #WelcomeLikeJesus Campaign
This fall, the Kino Border Initiative launched a campaign called #WelcomeLikeJesus Community Conversations with the goal of bringing together students, parishioners, volunteers, and community members from across the Jesuit Network and beyond to:
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- Share honestly about our own experiences of welcome and exclusion, and the impact that this has on each of us individually and as a community.
- Learn about what motivates people to migrate to the US-Mexico border today.
- Reflect on what it means to #WelcomeLikeJesus and imagine how we can do this together in our community in a way that moves us beyond our comfort zones.
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As we approach the 20th Anniversary of US and Mexican bishops' letter, “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope,” we continue to respond to their invitation “to exercise [our] faith and to use [our] resources and gifts to truly welcome the stranger among us,” so that families arriving in the US from a variety of circumstances experience that they are “strangers no longer and instead members of God’s household.” |
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Calling All Theology Faculty!
Kino is exploring the possibility of crafting a "Welcoming Curriculum" for Spanish and Theology. Their hope is to workshop the curriculum this fall so schools could implement it during the spring semester. Kino is looking for a handful of Theology faculty who would like to help craft and edit this curriculum over the next few months. Please contact Sister Tracey Horan at thoran@kinoborderinitiative.org if you would like to be part of this collaborative project to reinforce a theology of welcome in the classroom.
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November 14 is JRS Day
Join JRS/USA on November 14 in honoring the legacy of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ and Jesuit Refugee Service. Superior General Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ has invited the global Ignatian family to recognize November 14th as JRS Day, the anniversary of the founding of JRS by Fr. Arrupe. (It also happens to be Fr. Arrupe's birthday!)
Together, we hope to celebrate and honor “the women and men whose lives have been changed through JRS, and the generous service of so many lay colleagues, religious, and Jesuits.”
How can you join JRS/USA in honoring JRS Day?
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Social media graphics are available here if you would like to promote JRS Day on social media, especially on November 14.
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La Silla Roja: A Global Journey for the Right to Education
Here at Magis Americas, we launched our back-to-school campaign, La Silla Roja, on September 15th. La Silla Roja is an annual global citizenship education campaign that uses a red chair as a symbol for the right to quality and inclusive education for the over 244 million children and youth worldwide who are still out of school, highlighting the impact a lack of access to education has on personal and communal development.
In 2022 the theme for La Silla Roja is Building Community, Building Hope because if we have learned anything from navigating the world post-pandemic, it’s that we need community and support from many sources to provide for our students, especially those most in need. This year we will explore how centers for education demonstrate the Ignatian value of Cura Personalis and how communities care for students’ needs in addition to their education. This year’s campaign is an opportunity to explore how education opens doors for learning, growth, and human development outside of classrooms and how it contributes to creating more just and equitable societies.
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La Silla Roja: Building Community, Building Hope is structured in a three-part challenge that will run until December 2022. Each phase can be completed in 45 minutes, or one class period, and can be implemented using the challenge activity sheets. Participate in defending the right to access quality and inclusive education and choose to #BuildCommunityBuildHope. Sign up your school here and get started with our action packet. The packet is also available in Spanish for world language classroom implementation and as an independent study packet perfect for sub plans or virtual learning.
Once the students have completed the final phase, “Act,” experiences and reflections should be submitted to the Global Citizenship Education team at Magis Americas and we will share the experiences on the International Day of Education 2022 on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. Become part of the movement! Join Magis Americas as we work towards “inclusive and equitable quality education” and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
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En Todo, Amar and Servir – In All Things, Love and Serve
In the summer of 2023, from June 26 to July 5, the Jesuit Schools Network will sponsor an Ignatian Pilgrimage in Spain, "In the Footsteps of St. Ignatius," led by Jesuit Fr. Jose Luis Iriberri, Bill Haardt from Georgetown Prep, and Bob Reiser, SJ, and Catharine Steffens from JSN. The pilgrimage is open to any interested faculty and staff members who would like to join. Click here or the button below for an informational flyer and contact Bill Haardt at bhaardt@gprep.org or Catharine Steffens at csteffens@jesuits.org with any questions.
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Interculturality –Integrated Perspective Webinar on Global Identifier #7
Last Thursday, JSN hosted a webinar discussion on Global Identifier #7 featuring keynote speaker, Nicolas Standaert, SJ. In his presentation, Interculturality: The Priority of the Other in a "Selfie Society", Fr. Standaert discussed how Jesuit education can respond positively and actively to the diversity of cultures and experiences within our schools, reflected in the diversity of our students, teachers, parents, and communities. Click here or the video below to view the recorded session.
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JSN Virtual Ignatian Inquiry Session
Yesterday, JSN hosted our first Virtual Ignatian Inquiry Session of the academic year with keynote speaker Catharine Steffens, JSN's Director of Global Partnerships and Initiatives, who shared her presentation, "Deepening the Global Dimensions of Jesuit Schools: A Conversation on Launching JSN Programs for Global Awareness. Jesuit educators Salvatore Veniero (St. Peter's Preparatory School) and Pete Musso (De Smet Jesuit High School) also shared their involvement in JSN's global programming within their schools. Click here or the video below to view the recorded session.
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