Men and Women for the People
“If even one of our Senior Year students will be the most competent person in the world and the most honest person you can meet, but will not put this competence and morality at the service of others, especially for those in need, our education will have failed its purpose” used to repeat Father Vincent Duminuco, former Secretary of Father Arrupe for secondary and primary education.
This phrase echoed the famous saying of Father Arrupe: “or our schools will form men for others, or they will not be”, which Father Kolvenbach later transformed into men and women for and with people.
Openness to the others is a result that grows hand in hand with intellectual competence, openness to growth, the ability to love, growth in faith, leadership in collaboration and active commitment to justice. These six points are the educational “standard” the Society of Jesus requires to all the Jesuits’ school all around the world. The Gonzaga Campus summarizes them in this short formula: Educate the mind, the hearth and the will. To educate these three parts of the person, to achieve “the integral formation of the person”, it is necessary that in addition to the study of curricular subjects our students experience the wider world around them and open up to others.
This happens by going where people live – even the poorest people and those on the margins of society – reflecting on the experience, and deciding possible actions to improve situations. Finally, this happens by making deep experiences of one’s own inner self, the place where everyone can reread their own story, find one’s own vocation, know God’s action in one’s own life.
The Gonzaga Campus educational offer is built on these principles, with the title “openness to others”: spiritual animation – religious formation, catechesis, spiritual retreats, mission experiences during the year or in summer, participation in Ignatian groups, moments of prayer and liturgical celebration – and service education through volunteering.
