Celebrating Who Our Students Become
In his now-famous speech at Santa Clara University in 2000, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the superior general of the Jesuits at the time, proclaimed that “The real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become.” He went on to say that “students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering, and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose, and act for the rights of others” in a way that will shape their entire lives.
In this issue, we celebrate our graduating students who have participated with commitment in the Ignatian Center. They are models of, as Fr. Kolvenbach said, “who our students become.” Each of them has taken the risk to enter into contact with the reality of our world, and the people they have encountered and the listening, study, research, and work they have done has transformed them. Our team in the Ignatian Center has accompanied them in their journeys, engagement, and reflection, and we have seen them grow in ways that neither they, nor we, could have anticipated. And now they are poised to move into the next steps in their lives – in year-long volunteer programs, in graduate studies and first jobs – carrying with them the values and perspectives they have gained and honed through their work. Our world will be better to have them in it!
