A Global Partnership Initiative of the Jesuit Schools Network
Dear Global Companions:
Welcome back as we begin another academic year. This issue of JSN Hemispheres welcomes you with the voices of your JSN colleagues as we begin to navigate another year of needed flexibility and innovation, all grounded in the ongoing love you show your students, colleagues, and the earth. Caring for our common home takes central stage with a new, easy-to-use, practical framework from the Secretariat for Education of the Society of Jesus in Rome. We hear from JSN educators doing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work in our schools and have included the Revised Domain 5 section of Standards and Benchmarks.

Forming students to be active members of this world and to feel at ease and confident within it is part of our Ignatian tradition. This issue includes a global citizenship course for students and shares an opportunity to participate in a facilitator led global citizenship course for educators!

In the Jesuit Schools Network, we place ourselves in the context of our global network of schools while we operate from our local place and perspective. Thank you for joining us on this journey!
"To act as a universal body with a universal mission" GC35, D.2 #20
Catharine Steffens
Director of Global Partnerships and Initiatives
Jesuit Schools Network
CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME: THE GLOBAL TASK FORCE
By Jennie Kuenz from Jesuit High School in Portland, OR
There is a windowed workspace on my campus that overlooks a breathtaking view: autumnal trees, in full fiery yellow, ablaze against a backdrop of blue sky. Gazing up from my work, I often pause to soak it in as I am recharged, absorbing our Creator’s beautiful handiwork and the tandem role I have in helping care for it.

Environmental stewardship is not a new or Western idea. Indigenous cultures model a rich history caring for creation, yet it seems we need the cannonball moment of the current ecological crises to shift our gaze as educational institutions and reprioritize our energy (figuratively and literally).

As educators, how do we respond? The Universal Apostolic Preferences, Rio Action items and Laudato Si’ call us to care for creation as well as those on the margins most impacted by the effects of climate change. Where do we begin when the task feels daunting and there are many other pressing issues?

We begin with humility, recognizing that the journey begins by looking inward toward the self, but also realizing that it is our collective school-wide actions that have the most impact as they extend beyond the classroom to our alumni and governance boards.

Over the past year and a half, 14 of your fellow educators from all six regions of the Global Jesuit Network, along with Fe y Alegría, met to discern a shared vision for caring for our common home in our Jesuit schools. We met over the virtual table, bringing multiple lenses from our diverse schools and varied roles (faculty, provincial assistants, Jesuits and lay people). Through those lenses we prayerfully analyzed our core Ignatian documents to create Caring For Our Common Home: An Ignatian Perspective.
This framework is meant to be used! Each section is directed to constituent groups who play a role in our school communities, from students to parents and alumni. In true Ignatian fashion, the framework was created using the different elements of the IPP. Quotations from core documents set context and within each section we provided a series of reflection questions and action items. In addition to constituent groups, we also felt it important to incorporate a self-reflection and school-wide ethos and mission statement section.

We pray the conversations that come out of your use of this framework will be fruitful and insightful. For your taskforce team, the opportunity to collaborate and create this framework was one of the biggest graces of the past year.   
CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME: THE FRAMEWORK ON CAMPUS
By Jennifer Snyder from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL
For me, getting started on a new project is the hardest part of it. We at Loyola Academy have just started initial meetings on a “Green Team.” This is daunting, but full of joy and enthusiasm. I could also get headed in 20 directions at once. Some participants want immediate action, others want a theological or philosophical foundation. Some prioritize solar panels while others want special prayers for respect for the earth. In our JSN schools, some may just be beginning work on UAP 4: Caring for Our Common Home, while some have had individuals giving their all in their corners of the school, and others have province-wide collaboration and strong vision on environmental issues. What we all need is a unified Way of Proceeding. 
The Secretariat for Education of the Society of Jesus invites us to read and use “Caring for our Common Home, an Ignatian Perspective” as we collaborate with our own schools to move toward what Pope Francis calls an ecological conversion. This framework relates Universal Apostolic Preference 4 to the other UAPs, our Global Identifiers and JESEDU-Rio2017. The framework identifies eight stakeholders within a school, and each of these stakeholders is addressed on an individual page. On each of these pages are Ignatian Pedagogical-style reflection questions and action suggestions organized by roles in the school, from administration to families. You can start or continue your care for our common home using these reflection questions with stakeholders and eventually move toward an ecological conversion.

An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation, and selfishness. (Laudato Si’, 230)
CANNONBALL EXAMEN: THE CRY OF THE EARTH AS A CANNONBALL MOMENT
A cannonball moment, the Ignatian tradition suggests, is a moment of both agony and opportunity. The phrase is a literal one, referring to a specific moment in the story of St. Ignatius of Loyola, when a wartime injury spurred a lifelong conversion. 
The soldier, Iñigo de Loyola, allowed pride to triumph over prudence when he refused to surrender to the French at the Battle of Pamplona. His arrogance earned him a cannonball to the leg—and a perpetual limp. But he wasn’t the only one impacted; his decision led to the death and disfigurement of countless others.
A cannonball moment, then, is something we may choose unknowingly—or, it may be chosen for us. Regardless, the moment is stark; there is no going back to the way things were before.

For us, living with the effects of climate change now, in this very moment, we find ourselves faced with our own global cannonball moment. Like Ignatius, we see the threat looming on the horizon: monster storms, freak heat waves, devastating drought. This reality is not of our choosing, and yet we can not escape it.

Will we allow our pride to govern our decisions? Or, will we choose the path of prudence? Will we seize this moment as the opportunity it is? After all, we know that countless lives and livelihoods around the world are at stake; this cannonball does not strike discreetly.

And so, we share this Cannonball Examen, recognizing that our God of love and compassion is present to us even amidst this challenging time.
This prayer was originally shared as a resource as a part of Renewing the Earth: Living Laudato Si’ in the Year of Ignatius—a journey of discernment with other schools, parishes, and individuals to bring the Laudato Si’Action Platform to life in your community with Ignatian spirituality as a guide. Learn more and sign up.
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP COURSE REVISIONS
By Geoff Miller from Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC
The Global Citizenship course for high school students has been revised for the upcoming school year. Geoff Miller from Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC piloted the course in 2020, and the updated version can now be used for any grade level. In addition to the videos, websites and other online materials from the Educate Magis course for educators, this new version adds a survey that gauges students’ levels of interest and engagement with their community and the world. More importantly, this updated course provides different activities and assessments based on grade level, with separate options for grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. As before, the lessons cover human rights, sustainable development goals and responsible citizenship, and they work well in many areas of a Theology or Social Studies curriculum and possibly other fields as well. There is also a link to the Spanish version of the course at the beginning of the lesson plan.
EDUCATE MAGIS OFFERS FACILITATOR-LED GLOBAL COURSES FOR EDUCATORS
Registration is now open for two new Facilitator-Led Global Courses from Educate Magis. The Facilitator-Led Global Courses are a new course modality that gives members of our global community the opportunity to learn together with a global group of learners from other schools and countries around the world led by facilitators who will summarize the content, facilitate group exercises, reflections and discussions amongst participants.
REFLECTION: WHERE GOD IS
By Deena Sellers from Brophy College Prep in Phoenix, AZ
"Whatever you are doing, that which makes you feel most alive... that is where God is." — St. Ignatius of Loyola

On a wing and a prayer, I decided to turn my life upside-down to pursue what my heart desired. This summer I moved from Xavier High School, New York City to Brophy College Prep in Phoenix, Arizona. New pace, new city, new time zone, and new climate - all of this at once would be enough to set someone’s hair on end, but for me it was easy: I was following the call.

Before I had a name for it, I prided myself on making the best choices in life, taking every risk and reward into careful consideration, and letting the chips fall. This insight served me well when I moved from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona this summer. But following the call of Christ took a different form in all these things and more. A calling or vocation is something to which your heart compels you, the purest form of God showing His love through your life and work in His name. The work of diversity, equity, and inclusion became a passion that evolved into an even stronger passion and flowered into a ministry. I am blessed to have the opportunity to live this ministry at Brophy College Preparatory, and my conversations with God always include gratitude and praise for the turn my journey has taken over the past six months. 
 
May God bless us all this school year and may the Holy Spirit manifest in us the ability to always listen for the call of Christ.
STANDARDS AND BENCHMARKS: DOMAIN 5 REVISION
Our Way of Proceeding: Standards and Benchmarks for Jesuit Schools in the 21st Century "was born from a need expressed by the schools for an instrument better suited to the Sponsorship Review Process." (p.4) The Domain 5 section of the document underwent a complete revision last Spring to more directly address today's realities in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Service and Justice Learning; and Operational Vitality. Download the revised section to review these important changes.
JUST CONVERSATIONS WITH JAMAL AND NATE
A Podcast on Race, Faith and Catholic Education
Positioned at the nexus of faith and matters pertaining to race, justice and Catholic education, Just Conversations is a podcast that highlights historical and current happenings in the realm of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism with a focus on solutions, systems-change and the amplification of voices working to create a more egalitarian society for all. Join educators Jamal Adams and Dr. Nate Sessons as they engage in authentic, provocative dialogue seasoned with critical perspectives, scholarship and life experiences.
LA SILLA ROJA 2021: A PROMISE TO EDUCATION
Magis Americas launched their back-to-school campaign, La Silla Roja, on September 15th. La Silla Roja is a yearly global citizenship education campaign that uses a red chair as a symbol for the right to quality and inclusive education for the over 260 million children and youth worldwide who are still out of school, highlighting the impact a lack of access to education has on personal and communal development

This campaign will be structured as a challenge to be completed in three phases, either online or in person. Each phase can be completed in 45 minutes, or one class period, and can be implemented using the challenge activity sheets.

If you are interested in making #APromise2Education, check out our website and sign up for the campaign and download the action packet here.
JESUIT EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS
We Jesuits have educated youth for more than 450 years, and our 1960s and 1970s statements regarding faith and justice had tremendous consequences for this work, which have, in turn, been addressed in several documents and speeches. However, there is little research on the situation of the schools and networks themselves. Jesuit Education at the Crossroads: Discussions on Contemporary Jesuit Primary and Secondary Schools in North and Latin America tackles this lack of research by bringing together relevant studies and asking experts to comment on them.
As a whole, the book shows that Jesuit secondary and primary education is at a historical moment—a crossroads. The schools overcame the crises of the 1960s and 1970s, but the twenty-first century has brought new challenges, such as the secularization of culture, the transition from mostly Jesuit to mostly lay leadership, and new questions about the role of our schools and networks for equity and inclusion. This book touches on these and other points from the perspective of "the Americas", from Canada to Chile.

With more than 20 contributors (including the JSN's own Kristin Ross Cully), this promises to be a key text for all who are interested in Jesuit education.
#jesuitschools spotlight
Tag your social media posts with #jesuitschools and share your global journeys in & out of the classroom.
Programs, events and initiatives
IGNATIAN FAMILY TEACH-IN FOR JUSTICE
October 11 - October 16 | Virtual
November 6 - November 8 | In-person
Join the Ignatian Solidarity Network this year for TWO unique conferences—one virtual (including a high school track week of content) and one in Washington, D.C.—featuring dynamic speakers, including Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., Fr. Bryan Massingale, Keya Chattergee, and Fr. James Martin, S.J., Sr. Norma Pimentel!
#JRSMILES4REFUGEES
October 15 - November 14
Join JRS/USA in raising awareness for and expressing solidarity with refugees by participating in #JRSMiles4Refugees, a 30-day challenge to reach 50 miles. The challenge starts on October 15 and goes until November 14, 2021, which is JRS Day. As a collective whole, we hope to reach 20,000 miles by JRS Day. Please reach out to Josh Utter if you have any questions.
RENEWING THE EARTH: LIVING LAUDATO SI' IN THE YEAR OF IGNATIUS
Join the Ignatian Solidarity Network in exploring themes from the life of St. Ignatius and the gospel in conjunction with ecological themes from Laudato Si' throughout the Ignatian Year as we learn, pray and act to renew the earth.
THE WORLD THAT CHRIST DESIRES
This Ignatian Year, Educate Magis invites you to take your students on an exceptional reflective and creative journey. If your school is interested in participating or is already involved in this project, let Educate Magis know here.
ARRUPE LEADERS SUMMITS
February 4 - February 6 | Mt. Hermon, CA
February 18 - February 20 | Sparks, MD
March 4 - March 6 | Parma, OH
The Ignatian Solidarity Network's Arrupe Leaders Summits form and connect high school aged leaders for Ignatian-inspired social justice! Join us in person in 2022 at one of our three regional summits.
A closing prayer...
Click the video link below for the guided meditation "A CALL TO ACTION" narrated by George Nedumattam, S.J.
The Jesuit Schools Network promotes the educational ministry of the Society of Jesus in service to the Catholic Church by strengthening Jesuit schools for the mission of Jesus Christ.