Ignatian Mission Integration

The Difference!

Integrating Marquette’s Mission, Ignatian Values and Catholic Social Teaching in All We Do

Ignatian Values: Cura Personalis - Our Ignatian Heritage:

What Is It: (Latin meaning "care for the [individual] person"). A hallmark of Ignatian spirituality (where in one-on-one spiritual guidance, the guide adapts the Spiritual Exercises to the unique individual making them) and therefore of Jesuit education (where the teacher [faculty/staff] establishes a personal relationship with students, listens to them in the process of teaching [learning], and draws them toward personal initiative and responsibility for learning. This attitude of respect for the dignity of each individual derives from the Judeo-Christian vision of human beings as unique creations of God, of God's embracing of humanity in the person of Jesus, and of human destiny as ultimate communion with God and all the Saints and everlasting life.

Learn more about Jesuit education and Ignatian Spirituality

Points for Reflection

  • How do we practice care for the whole person in our own lives, as part of our own personal growth?
  • Do we, in the programs and service we offer, and as professional staff, infuse Cura Personalis, in our mentoring of one another and of our students in order to bring out our and their best?
  • In what ways may we support and challenge one another so that our staff and our students develop their ‘whole person’?

Connection with Student Affairs: The Learning Partnership Model (LPM)

Marcia Baxter-Magolda and Patricia M. King (2004) outlined the basic premise for what they call ‘the Learning Partnership Model (LPM) in order to foster holistic learning development for students (and for faculty and staff) that exemplifies Cura Personalis. The LPM connects well with the Ignatian notion of Cura Personalis as these partnerships help all learners (students/faculty/staff) grow into what Baxter Magolda and King, utilizing the work of Robert Kegan (1994 ) would regard a person’s ‘self-authorship’. The LPM consists of three assumptions and three principles.

  • Assumption 1: knowledge is complex and socially constructed.
  • Assumption 2: the self is central to knowledge construction.
  • Assumption 3: authority and expertise are shared in the mutual construction of knowledge among peers. Therefore . . .
  • Principle 1: the partnership must validate learners’ capacity to know.
  • Principle 2: the partnership must situate learning in learners’ experience.
  • Principle 3: the partnership (whatever that partnership may be) must consist of mutually constructing meaning (pp. 42-43).

Our work can utilize the application of a learning partnership model in order to foster growth in any situation where multiple dimensions of learning, while caring for the whole person, are a possibility.

Cura Personalis Quotes

  • "The honorary duty of a human being is to love." - Maya Angelou
  • "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama
  • "You play with your soul as well as your body." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  • "She taught me that it's ok to let down your guard and allow your players to get to know you. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - Pat Summitt
  • "Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better." - Bill Bradley
  • "Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential." - Bruce Lee 

(from Jesuit Resources on-line)

Our Call

We are called to greater intentionality in how departments within the Division of Student Affairs (DSA) integrates active Cura Personalis into offered programs and services. As we evaluate and assess our co-curricular learning outcomes, Ignatian Values and Marquette’s Mission and Guiding Values should be an active part of what we are about as a division. We can make richer therefore the language in program and service evaluation if we can demonstrate active understanding and implementation of Marquette’s Mission, our Ignatian heritage, and Catholic social teaching into the work that we do. How effectively, and in what ways, do we care for one another and our students that helps the whole person to succeed?

Helpful Resources

References

  • Baxter Magolda M. B., and King, P. M. (2004). Learning Partnerships: Theories and Models of Practice to Education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
  • Kegan, R. (1994). In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Traub, G. W. (2008). A Jesuit Education Reader. Chicago, IL: Loyola Press.