The first Jesuit community college, Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago, is scheduled to open in August. The college will provide students with the same liberal arts core curriculum classes offered at the university, but at a more affordable cost, according to Fr Stephen Katsouros SJ, Arrupe College’s dean and executive director.
An inter-religious ceremony was recently held to bless the land for the Xavier Jesuit School Project. Msgr Enrique (Kike) Figaredo SJ, Apostolic Prefect of the Battambang Prefecture in Cambodia presided with His Excellency, Mr Oum Reatrey, the Vice-Governor of Banteay Meanchey Province with responsibility for Education, at the ceremony which took place on January 29, 2015, in a temporary tent erected for the purpose on top of the land-fill just opposite the site where the foundations of the first building are already being constructed.
The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco has been running an alternative study abroad program based in Metro Manila, the Philippines. Casa Bayanihan is a semester-long program rooted in the Jesuit tradition, conceived initially for undergraduates in Jesuit universities in the United States.
What a difference a change in venue can make. This year, by holding their English Summer Camp at the Arrupe Centre in Huay Tong, in the Mae Wang District in Chiangmai Province, the Jesuits in Thailand were able to take their camp to a new level.
According to the program’s chaplain Fr Vinai Boonlue SJ, the change of venue was to provide a multidimensional setting for the students to learn, and to help them become more aware of nature and their immediate environment. The camp is usually held in Seven Fountains, the Jesuit spirituality centre in Chiangmai.
Students from six Jesuit universities in Asia recently spent three weeks dialoguing and working with the Xavier Ecoville community. Xavier Ecoville arose from the devastation wrought by Tropical Storm Sendong (Washi). After the storm, Xavier University together with the city government led the relocation and rehabilitation of affected families on a plot of land donated by Xavier University.
What is the role of Jesuit universities in social justice? This was a question that participants at the recent meeting of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific (AJCU-AP) were asked to consider.
The two concerts were organised to raise awareness and funds for Xavier Jesuit School, the Jesuit education project in Cambodia. That they did and more. The two nights of awe-inspiring classical music led the school project team to an audience with King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia.
There is no institution so old that it has nothing left to learn – and the Catholic Church must commit to learning about and changing its practices in relation to ecological issues. This was the message from Colombian Jesuit Fr José Mesa, Secretary of Primary and Secondary Education at the Jesuit Curia in Rome and one of the keynote speakers at the JCAP Education Colloquium in Sydney.
The first Jesuit university in India was inaugurated on July 7. Located in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state of Odisha, Xavier University (XU) is also the state’s first Catholic university and the fourth Catholic university in India.
In his address, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the new university aims to be a centre of both academic excellence and sound ethical values, and thanked the Jesuits in Odisha for taking establishing it.
St Aloysius Gonzaga English Language Institute (SAG) marked a major milestone on July 5, with the granting of its first diplomas in education to 22 students who had successfully completed its three-year full-time Integrated Program. The graduating students received their diplomas from principal guest Bishop Basilio Athai of the Archdiocese of Taunggyi and Fr Mark Raper SJ, Major Superior of the Jesuits in Myanmar.