Welcome to our new Mission and Ministry Newsletter!

One of the challenges of our hyper-connected modern lives is information overload. Here at Santa Clara, we are certainly not exempt from this. There is just so much good going on, it can be hard to keep track of it all!

St. Ignatius actually had a saying about this overload. In Latin, it was an encouragement to seek non multa, sed multum, which roughly translates to “not many, but much,” or more elegantly, pursue depth over quantity. It’s a good lesson for all of us, whether in our work or personal lives, and perhaps especially in our use and consumption of information and media.

We are taking this to heart in Mission and Ministry. To simplify our communications, we will be providing this bimonthly Mission and Ministry email. It draws together stories and opportunities from across the Ignatian Center, Campus Ministry, and the Mission Church so that you can see them all at a glance (and perhaps mark your calendar for some exciting upcoming events). The format aims to offer new depth and breadth.

Each issue opens with a section called Mission Exemplified: Stories of Impact. It will feature short stories, photos, and videos from across our Mission and Ministry community about recent events and undertakings. The goal is to allow you to go deeper in understanding the experience of our community, especially students, in the many ways our Jesuit mission is lived out across campus and around the world.

Next, we will preview some of our biggest upcoming events and opportunities in a section called Mission Engagement. Each will have links for you to easily sign up in advance and to mark your calendar.

Finally, we offer a longer list of recent and ongoing Mission Happenings – including the many recent, ongoing, and upcoming goings-on that make our community so vibrant. Each comes with links for further exploration.

We hope this Mission and Ministry newsletter will complement our other mailings from the Ignatian Center and Campus Ministry. Please feel free to send feedback and impressions on this message and any of our other messages.

Mosaic Dinners | Finding Light in the Winter

In a season often associated with cold and darkness, this January's Mosaic Dinner was a reminder that light is always within reach, waiting to be found in the warmth of community and the sharing of stories. Originally called Interfaith Dinners, the event was renamed to better reflect the inclusive spirit of the event, bringing a community together to celebrate connection and diversity.
Read one student's reflection on Mosaic Dinners here.

Roots of Resilience | MLK's Legacy in Action

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Just like Dr. King taught us, people are not truly living unless we shift our perspectives to embrace the shared struggles, resilience, and humanity of others. This year, the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education hosted two community engagement opportunities to honor the late Martin Luther King, Jr. and provide SCU students with a new perspective. Both experiences captured Dr. King's vision of real change beginning when we listen and transform understanding through meaningful engagement with those around us.
Read about their experiences here.

Bannan Mission Integration Grants | Putting Our Mission into Action

JAN 6 | This quarter, 13 Ignatian Fellows began their placements with local community partners and an additional 6 fellows are ready to do the same in the Spring Quarter.

JAN 9 | Registration closed for Arrupe Engagement with 383 students registered for their Experiential Learning for Social Justice (ELSJ) placement this Winter Quarter.

JAN 13 | A new Thriving Neighbors series of coding workshops began in collaboration with SWE++, a student club from the School of Engineering, with 20 middle school girls participating.

FEB 7 | 13 students who are preparing to receive the Catholic sacraments of initiation at Easter will deepen their understanding of the Catholic faith and explore the invitation that God is extending to them on a Campus Ministry OCIA retreat.

FEB 19 | A new session of Ignatian 101, a four-part luncheon series that introduces new faculty and staff to the distinctive dimensions of the Ignatian Tradition and the SCU’s Jesuit Catholic mission.

FEB 25 | The ever-popular Search for What Matters speaker series returns, featuring Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J., Dean of the Jesuit School of Theology.

FEB 27 | We are launching a 6-week faculty and staff reading group, Jesuit Education Today: A Mission for Justice where we will reflect and discuss key documents on the Jesuit Catholic Mission in Higher Education.

APR 3 | We will be taking 17 students to Los Angeles for the Ignatian Q Conference, a conference for LGBTQ+ undergraduate students at Jesuit universities.