Ignatian Mentoring Program

Affirming excellence in teaching scholarship and mission consciousness

The Ignatian Mentoring Program (IMP) for faculty began in 2004 with a grant from Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts and is continuing with support from the XU Jesuit Community.

Goal: To facilitate the incorporation and assimilation of the Ignatian vision into the professional identities of XU faculty.

Participants: Faculty who have participated in AFMIX or the IMP are paired with a participating faculty member, usually from their same college.

List of Participants in the Ignatian Mentoring Program, click here.

Program Structure: Pairs, typically 10 or 11, meet regularly during the fall semester to discuss the Jesuit mission and identity as it relates to one's own discipline and career. Readings and scholarship are made readily available from the Center for Mission and Identity, and from the creation of the Jesuit Identity Collection in our University's McDonald Library.

During the spring semester, faculty incorporate a new mission-driven teaching component into their coursesand articulate their scholarly works in a way that affirms the mission and identity of the University.

Outcomes: By the end of the year-long program, faculty have incorporated a mission-driven teaching component into their courses (see the outcome of their work), and are able to articulate their scholarship in a manner which is mission-related. Senior faculty have served as academic leaders who affirm the Jesuit identity of the University.

See the work of the faculty participants in TEACHING TO THE MISSION - electronically by department or in book form available for educational/non-profit use.

Faculty feedback:
"The establishment of the mentor relationship seems to have been the real value of the IMP. Our conversations about Ignatian spirituality, classroom ideas, book recommendations etc. will last beyond this first semester... This is something that would not have begun without the IMP."

"Meeting my mentor was the best part of the IMP. We've started a friendship that might not have formed otherwise, and I feel comfortable talking with my mentor about almost anything."

"I have valued taking the time to read about Jesuit identity and mission, which cohere with my personal and professional values. I feel challenged to think about the most effective pedagogical ways to incorporate these values and challenge students to reflect on how they are living out these values."

Recognition: Since 2004, Xavier's Mentoring Programs:

has become an endowed program by the Xavier Jesuit Community.
was presented, by invitation, at the Lilly Fellows Program's annual Workshop for Senior Administrators ("Mentoring for Mission"), October 07.
was presented, by invitation, at the Heartland-Delta Faculty Conversations Conference February 08 (panelist: Drs. Stephen Yandell, Richard Mullins, Trudelle Thomas and Debra Mooney).
has been spotlighted in a speech offered at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Santa Clara University's Bannan Institute by Dr. Jennifer Hayworth of Loyola University-Chicago, "Making Critical Connections: Faculty/Staff Mission Formation Efforts at AJCU Institutions" and published with M. Barry in "CONVERSATIONS on Jesuit Higher Education", Fall 08.
paved the way to receive a 2nd mentoring grant from Lilly for "Taking Time to Think: Ignatian Principles at Work".