The integration of mission into the lives, work, and experiences of faculty, staff, administrators, and students is a hallmark of Jesuit and Catholic education. The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education accompanies members of the SCU community from all faith traditions and human ideals in encountering, exploring and engaging mission. In partnership, we amplify and create the programs, relationships, and structures that promote the education of the whole person in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition, ensuring SCU's mission, vision and values come to life.
SCU's Vision, Mission, & Fundamental Values
Pause, break bread, and be in community. Quarterly lunches or breakfasts for faculty and staff interested in designing an Ignatian Formation plan. Learn more about programs, resources and how your colleagues engage mission.
Read MoreEncounter, Explore, and Engage Mission
We invite staff, faculty and administrators to encounter, explore and engage SCU’s mission through a variety of opportunities. In doing so, we aspire to enlighten community member’s understanding of and contribution to mission.
Opportunities for Faculty, Staff, and Administrators
A guide for faculty, staff and administration to encounter, explore and engage SCU's Jesuit, Catholic mission.
Integrate Mission
Integrate mission throughout your career at SCU. The opportunities below are tailored to your prior experience and career stage.
For Individuals
Learn about the distinctive dimensions of SCU’s Jesuit, Catholic mission and character. Participants build community in a cohort while illuminating and activating the Ignatian tradition in their work.
This four-part luncheon series, offered once a quarter, introduces staff to the distinctive dimensions of SCU’s Jesuit, Catholic mission and character. Participants engage in a cohort to build community while illuminating the Ignatian tradition in their work.
A follow-up to Ignatian 101, or for staff with experience in Jesuit education, this four-part series activates SCU’s "3 C’s" - competence, compassion and conscience - while exploring how mission can be integrated into daily work and life. Cohorts are invited twice each academic year.
Pause, break bread, and be in community. Quarterly lunches or breakfasts for faculty and staff interested in designing an Ignatian Formation plan. Learn more about programs, resources and how your colleagues engage mission.
For Current and Emerging Leaders
We are each called to educate citizens and leaders of conscience, competence and compassion. Here are some ways to support your leadership formation and development.
Part of the HR Management Excellence Series, this two hour seminar focuses on why mission matters to managers and the Ignatian perspective on leadership. Engage with a panel of campus leaders who share their experiences leading with SCU’s Jesuit, Catholic mission.
At SCU, we are driven every day by our mission - grounded in Jesuit Catholic foundations and demonstrated in the values that shape our distinct approach to education. This video provides a first hand view from staff, faculty and administrators on why they chose and continue to work at SCU.
The AJCU Leadership Institute is a professional development program for staff and faculty who are new to Jesuit higher education or to their leadership role. It is rooted in Ignatian leadership, pedagogy and spirituality.
A national program of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, the ICP educates and forms senior leaders and faculty more deeply in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition of higher education. SCU has been engaged since 2009.
For Teams and Units
Resources to support teams, departments, colleges/schools and divisions integration of mission.
The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, through the Ignatian Formation for Mission program, is honored to establish a new grant, Engaging Students in Mission Grant. This grant will support faculty and staff in directly engaging students in SCU’s Jesuit, Catholic mission.
Mission Integration Grants are available through the Bannan Forum to support research, teaching, and university initiatives that engage issues of contemporary significance within the Catholic intellectual tradition and extend the Jesuit, Catholic vocation of SCU as a transformative social force.
The Director of Mission Integration will be happy to meet with you to investigate funding resources for initiatives that integrate and advance SCU’s mission. Contact Margaret M Higgins at mhiggins@scu.edu.
The Director of Mission Integration will work with your unit to customize an offering to meet your departmental, college, school or divisional goals. Past offerings have included:
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- Presentations on SCU’s Jesuit, Catholic mission;
- Retreats on the Ignatian perspective on strategic planning;
- Using SCU’s Key Jesuit values to guide professional practices;
- Reflections on the Characteristics of Jesuit Higher Education.
Contact Margaret Higgins (mhiggins@scu.edu) for more information.
Activating SCU's Mission
Educating the whole person in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition
to foster citizens and leaders
of competence, conscience, and compassion
through knowledge and faith
to build a more humane, just, and sustainable world
Grounded in a 450 year tradition inspired by St. Ignatius of Loyola, SCU’s mission is activated within a Jesuit, Catholic foundation, in connection to Jesuit higher education, as an expression of Jesuit values.
SCU's mission is grounded in our Jesuit, Catholic foundation and Ignatian Spirituality. To learn more, explore programs and resources offered through the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education.
SCU brings mission alive by joining 28 other Jesuit Colleges and Universities in building a distinctive Jesuit, Catholic character in higher education.
Characteristics of Jesuit Higher Education
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
Santa Clara University brings mission alive in a community animated by key Jesuit values.
"The real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become. Tomorrow's 'whole person' cannot be whole without a well-educated solidarity. We must therefore raise our Jesuit educational standard to educate the whole person in solidarity for the real world."
- Peter-Hans Kolvenbach
Superior General of the Society of Jesus, speaking at Santa Clara University in October 2000
Additional Resources
Every five years, SCU and the 28 other Jesuit colleges and universities participate in a Mission Priority Examen (MPE). Explore the results of SCU’s 2019 MPE, reflect on the seven characteristics of Jesuit higher education, and prepare for SCU’s next MPE in 2025.
Establish your network of Jesuit and Catholic educators to share your work at SCU and learn about mission related initiatives.
The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), in response to the needs of the Church, and to seek the universal good and the greater glory of God have put forth Universal Apostolic Preferences to direct the Society's work in the current decade.
- To show the way to God through the Spiritual Exercises and discernment
- To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice
- To accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future
- To collaborate in the care of our common home
SCU's Universal Apostolic Preferences
Superior General, Arturo Sosa, S.J Speech
A Call for Collaboration and Participation
We invite you to collaborate with the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education and participate in programs and resources.
Aaron Willis, Director of Ignatian Formation and the Bannan Forum
Nayeli Carmona Perez, Program Manager
Tony Cortese, Director of Ignatian Spirituality
Margaret M Higgins, Director of Mission Integration