The
Jesuit tradition at Saint Joseph's borrows from over 450 years of Jesuit history, but even more importantly, is very much alive today as the University prepares men and women for leadership and service in the twenty-first century.
Jesuit education began in the United States in 1789 at Georgetown, where a visionary Bishop John Carroll opened a school that would educate students to take advantage of the nation's newly-won freedom. Founded in 1851 as the seventh oldest of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, Saint Joseph's shares its proud history not only with Georgetown, but with Boston College, Fordham, St. Louis, Santa Clara and other distinguished Jesuit colleges and universities. Each has its own distinctive characteristics, while sharing the same basic educational vision.
Once known as the "schoolmasters of Europe," the Jesuits are known for excellence in a highly personalized education in the liberal arts, complemented by pre-professional and professional education. That education pursues the growth of the whole person toward responsible freedom, competence and compassion. Jesuit graduates are to be "men and women for others," committed to using their carefully-honed talents in lives of leadership and service.
Today, this ambitious task is pursued in partnership with diverse and ecumenical colleagues who share their experience and insights with Jesuits in forging a highly contemporary version of the Jesuit tradition. The core experience is enriched by diversity, a diversity that is increasingly found in students, faculty and staff.
Because of this increased diversity, Jesuits and their colleagues are engaged in various efforts to rediscover the dynamism of Jesuit education in the experience of the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola. Especially in his Spiritual Exercises, we find the basis for the personalism, the concern for leadership and excellence, the commitment to service, and the generous reading of the signs of the times that characterize Jesuit education at its best.
A survey of Saint Joseph's alumni shows that this description of Jesuit education works. An impressive array of women and men are leading lives of leadership, creativity, intelligent concern, and service -- largely due to their experience at Saint Joseph's.
- Rev. Joseph J. Godfrey, S.J.
Jesuit Resources Online:
- Saint Joseph's Jesuit Community
- Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities
- Brief History of the Life of St. Ignatius
- Brief History of Jesuit Education
- American Conference of the Society of Jesus
- Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus
- American Magazine
- Company Magazine
- Jesuit Volunteer Corps
- Jesuit Vocations
