Ignatian Center

The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education

The Ignatian Center exemplifies and activates the Jesuit, Catholic character of Santa Clara University.
We encourage our students, faculty, staff, and community to embrace Jesuit wisdom by inspiring awareness, thought, reflection, discernment, and action.

A Spirit of Gratitude

This past quarter, the Ignatian Center's Arrupe Engagement placed 407 SCU students with 45 community partners, facilitating community-based learning opportunities that underscore SCU's commitment to justice and solidarity with marginalized communities. To learn how those 8 weeks of community engagement impacted the students, read their Post Engagement Reflections.

Humanizing Homelessness

Mandi Sit '20 first encountered the Ignatian Center when she decided to sign up for the San Jose First-Year Immersion trip the summer before starting at Santa Clara University. To find out how that trip as well as her two additional immersion experiences have had such an impact on her time at SCU, read Mandi's interview.

More Powerful Together

The most recent recipient of the Ignatian Center’s Spohn Fellowship is well-deserving Bronco, Nick Spragg ’20. A Humanitarian Business Development and Art History major, Nick is in the University’s honors program, a Johnson Scholar, president of SCU TedX, an SCU Ambassador, and a former Jean Donovan Fellow. Read about his time in Uganda in his Spohn Fellowship Journal.

Immersion Reflections

Immersion experiences allow participants to see the world with new eyes, recognize the unjust suffering of marginalized communities, and use those experiences to inform their vocational discernment. This past winter break, participants visited San Francisco, East Los Angeles, Tacoma Washington, New Orleans, and Ecuador on Immersion trips. To learn how these trips impacted the students, read their Immersion Reflections.

TedxSCU:
Defining Humanity

The Ignatian Center’s Bannan Forum is teaming up with TedxSCU to host a specially tailored event, “Defining Humanity.” This event will explore the intersection of technology and humanity, and foster conversations about where our world is heading in the face of new technological advancements.

Tech & the Human Spirit

Technology has changed us, and it will continue to shape our lives, our organizations, our communities, and our future. How can we steward technology’s advance to benefit humanity to the fullest, contributing to human flourishing in all its dimensions? SCU and the Ignatian Center's Bannan Forum are pursuing answers.

A Catalyst for Solidarity

This past summer, the Ignatian Center sent 8 SCU faculty and staff members to Nogales, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico in collaboration with our new partners, Kino Border Initiative. This organization helps make humane and just migration between the U.S. and Mexico a reality.