Telling Our Stories

Late in his life, St. Ignatius Loyola was persuaded by his fellow Jesuits that he should record the story of his life. Intriguingly, he chose to narrate his biography in the third person, referring to himself as “the pilgrim.” As he looked back over the years with fresh eyes, he came to appreciate how his long journey of discovery — of God, of his deepest friendships, and of discerning his purpose and mission in the world — was, in some sense, a pilgrimage to the most sacred realities of identity and meaning. Telling his story helped him to see the steady, patient, gentle way that God had guided him “like a schoolmaster” toward his particular vocation in the world. And what an important and impactful vocation that was! A vocation that touched so many around him, leading to the founding of the Jesuits, and that continues to animate our mission at Santa Clara today. 

As we come to the end of the academic year, it is good for us to pause, like Ignatius, and tell our stories. For discernment, which we often practice in a forward-looking way, trying to determine how to authentically choose next steps, also reveals itself powerfully when we look backward. Indeed, what felt like a series of half-thought-out, disconnected choices can come to show themselves to be connected by a powerful, consistent through-line. One of my favorite exercises is to invite seniors, in the week before graduation, to go back through their computers’ hard drives and look at all the essays they wrote and projects they undertook as undergraduates. When they do, they discover that what seemed like disparate assignments across dozens of courses in varied departments with different professors actually resulted in consistent choices about topics and approaches that overlap and illustrate their unique worldview, interests, and gifts. Indeed, they come to see, and celebrate, the strikingly distinct voice they themselves have developed as “authors” in their life.

In this final newsletter for Mission and Ministry this year, we recount some of the stories that have animated our community this year. They help us see where God, and our choices as people on a journey with God, have led us, forming us for lives of meaning, belonging, and service in our world. The first tells the story of our Wednesday night student candlelight Masses, a “new” tradition this year that began with the desire of a handful of students and now brings together forty to fifty students each week for prayer, silence, and fellowship. The second shows how one group of students’ experience of an immersion in Appalachia inspired them to design a mural, now housed in our SCU Forge Garden, to raise awareness about the environment. And the third invites us to accompany Fr. Bill O’Neill, S.J., as he tells the story of his journey with refugees in East Africa over a lifetime of service.

MISSION EXEMPLIFIED | Stories of Impact

A Midweek Respite

This past academic year, Campus Ministry added a midweek student mass to the schedule with a Wednesday evening Candlelight Mass. What began as a small gathering of students has since grown into a community of up to 50 faith-filled young adults seeking a peaceful reprieve from the rigors of academics and extracurriculars.

Learn more about this new, meaningful tradition

Stereotypes, Strip Mines, and a Change of Heart

When SCU student participants on the spring break Immersion to Appalachia returned home, they carried more than memories with them. They carried a mission and a canvas. The group of students spent the week in Wheeling, West Virginia, engaging with communities shaped by the coal mining industry and grappling with questions of labor rights, environmental justice, and economic vulnerability. When they came home, they weren’t ready to let the experience stay in Appalachia, so they painted it on a big poster to hang for everyone to see. 

Read about their experience and vision to bring Appalachia home to SCU

Fr. Bill O'Neill, SJ | Look, and Look Again

SCU's quarterly “Search for What Matters” luncheon speaker series invites faculty and staff members to reflect on the question “What matters to me and why?” This past Spring's event featured Fr. Bill O'Neill, SJ, Resident Scholar in the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education and the Markkula Center, and Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at SCU's Jesuit School of Theology. Fr. O'Neill has spent much of his life far beyond the classroom: in art museums in St. Louis, refugee camps in East Africa, and a hospital room in Nairobi. As a theologian and refugee advocate, he explained how art helped him see color and hope amidst “the grey anonymity of suffering.”

Read About Bill's Search For What Matters

MISSION ENGAGEMENT | Join Us for Mission & Ministry Events

MISSION IN ACTION | A Collection of Mission & Ministry Happenings

CAMPUS MINISTRY

• MASS: Attendance at the Sunday evening Student Masses has grown 32.2% over the past three years.
• DONUTS: Weekly Coffee and Donuts saw a big uplift with over 4,440 donuts enjoyed by community members.
• INTERFAITH: We served over 325 meals at our monthly Mosaic Dinners and facilitated a vigil led by student leaders of the Jewish Student Union, the Muslim Student Association, and the Sikh Student Association for the October 7 attacks in Israel.
• CATHOLIC LIFE: We hosted spiritual retreats for students and facilitated OCIA for 15 students to receive the Catholic Sacraments of Initiation.
• LGBTQ+: We supported the LGBTQ+ community through participation in quarterly dinners with a gender-expansive community of faculty, staff, and students.

COMMUNITY ENGAGED STUDENT LEARNING

• ARRUPE: We placed 1,146 students with 41 community partners, providing over 18,300 hours of engagement in our local community.
• IMMERSIONS: We added two new locations - Mexico City (partnering with Universidad Iberoamericana to explore innovation and sustainability through a lens grounded in indigenous knowledge), and Half Moon Bay, California (learning alongside farmworkers about sustainability, health, migration, and the dignity of work).
• THRIVING NEIGHBORS: We connected more than 425 community participants and families with 50 student fellows through 10 community-engaged programs.
• STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS: We supported 8 Ignatian Fellows throughout the past academic year as they worked with Catholic Charities and Grail Family Services, 17 Jean Donovan Fellows who will fulfill their fellowships over the summer with various organizations across the globe, and 10 Cura Fellows who will work with the School of Engineering in dementia care innovation.

IGNATIAN FORMATION

• BANNAN FORUM: We hosted six public events this year engaging in conversations on: the ways that our Jesuit educational tradition can respond to the challenges of this moment; the nature of faith and hope; and Catholic social teaching and the rights of refugees and migrants.  
• BANNAN GRANTS: We supported six faculty research and teaching projects that engage with the Jesuit educational and intellectual mission, ranging from projects that are developing new courses to form students as whole people to research that seeks to create inclusive and just communities.
• IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY: We hosted four retreats, welcoming 94 faculty and staff members into experiences of reflection, discernment, and personal renewal grounded in the Ignatian tradition and open to individuals of all faiths and backgrounds.
• MISSION ENGAGEMENT: Along with two student assistants, we led the repurposed Ignatian 201 program and brought 13 faculty and staff to Recovery Café San José to deepen our understanding of our Jesuit Catholic mission and strengthen SCU's local community impact.
• SEARCH FOR WHAT MATTERS: We welcomed more than 340 participants across three engaging conversations featuring a faculty member, a Jesuit, and a staff leader.

MISSION & MINISTRY

• CAPELTIC COFFEE: SCU became the first Jesuit University in the U.S. to serve Capeltic coffee at one of the cafes on campus. 
• PILGRIMAGES: We led 19 students on the inaugural pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, exploring sacred sites and engaging in spiritual reflection.
• AMDG FELLOWSHIP: We led 10 students in a unique year-long commitment deepening their understanding of Ignatian Spirituality and reflecting upon their Catholic faith identity through ongoing service, a spiritual retreat, and culminating in Spain doing the Camino Ignaciano.