Student Experience
Academics
Mission: Integration
Mission: Integration
A Loyola experience liberates the human spirit – igniting a passion for learning, rooted in faith and love. Guided by the core principles of Jesuit education, students explore relevant content and gain valuable skills, while developing strategies for self-care and a desire for personal growth. Our formation cultivates connections to the learning process through interdisciplinary objectives, which animate a joyful discovery of experiential learning, a broader global perspective, and an unwavering commitment to serving others. Every aspect of the student experience unleashes the power of his mind, heart, and will. The result is a student primed to not only face the challenges of his future academic career, but to transfer his knowledge into bold action on behalf of justice in the face of an everchanging world. Mission: Integration is not only a process, but an outcome of a journey that reaches beyond the frontier and into a brighter future – one that a Loyola graduate will help construct for the greater good.
Our unique approach to education is guided by five Curricular Directions, each of which play a critical role in shaping the experience of our students. They come to life in a variety of ways through three primary pedagogical principles: an emphasis on experiential learning, commitment to interdisciplinary design, and student engagement. The result is a student who not only masters content, but is armed with the tools and desire to succeed in further study, within their chosen career, and as citizens in an increasingly global community.
Curricular Directions
List of 5 items.
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Education for Service and Justice
As one of the six grad at grad goals, the dedication to service and justice is a core part of Loyola’s mission. Through his studies and experience with retreats and service work, a Loyola student will explore how his faith invites and challenges him to work and fight for justice, especially as it relates to service and advocacy for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. A foundation in social history and comprehension in relevant current events will enable him to both raise awareness and take action. -
Education for Global-mindedness, Diversity, and Inclusion
The Loyola experience embraces and fosters opportunity for multicultural studies, exploration of the wide diversity of the human experience, and an appreciation and desire to engage with people from a variety of backgrounds. Exposure to diverse literary and artistic movements, study of language and cultures, and discussions of prejudice and inclusion allow Loyola students to articulate and demonstrate the richness of our common humanity as they discover their role in both the local and global community. -
Education for Integral Ecology
Our curriculum blends the study of the integral role science plays in education for environmental awareness with issues deeply connected to economics, politics, morality and spirituality. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students gain a fundamental and experimental knowledge of the interconnectedness of ecology and society to promote sustainability. Via a living-classroom model, the Loyola experience exposes the beauty of creation and fosters an appreciation for the natural world and empathy for those impacted by its destruction. -
Education for Holistic Health and Wellness
Campus-wide and grade-specific programming is designed to introduce topics related to the health and wellness of our students, especially those issues that primarily affect their development as teenagers. Coupled with counseling resources, and curricular integration, these programs instill an understanding of a healthy lifestyle and strategies to live as one’s best self. This includes understanding the important role of physical, mental and spiritual well-being, empowerment to make and advocate for healthy decisions in the face of social pressures, and an ability to maintain positive interpersonal relationships. -
Education for Discerning Use of Technology
Technology is ever-present in the lives of our students, which brings opportunities and challenges. While it opens the door for more information and communication, it requires a vigilant filter of ideas and expressions, and an evolving set of skills to master educational and professional applications. Through his experience, a Loyola student will understand how technology may enhance or diminish his academic success, explore its positive and negative role as a social environment, and make connections between its ethical use and his responsibility as a digital citizen.
Pedagogical Directions
List of 3 items.
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Experiential Learning
For St. Ignatius, true learning experiences should move a person’s mind, heart, and will. Whether through field trips, role plays, or service projects, we strive to create learning experiences that involve the whole person, not just the intellect. -
Interdisciplinary Learning
The complex issues of our time require that students be able to approach concepts from a variety of perspectives. To that end, various points of the Loyola curriculum present students an opportunity to learn about certain topics in multiple classes, often working on a single assessment that counts in multiple subject areas. In their Freshmen year, for example, students learn about World War II and the Holocaust at the same time in History, Theology, and English. -
Student Engagement in Learning
Research indicates that academic outcomes improve when students are engaged – that is, when they are actively involved in the learning process, rather than simply responding to the requests and demands of a teacher. Students are given initiative and choice in their academic experience, whether it’s through the choice of texts during summer reading or options for final projects in Computer Science class.
Transfer Goals
Greater than the mastery of content or principles, Transfer Goals represent how an integrated learning experience prepares students to ultimately understand, articulate, and perform. Born from experiential learning, they are applied, not simply recalled from memory. Long after their academic career is over, our students have the cognitive (mind), affective, (heart) and behavioral (will) ability to conquer any obstacle that stands in their way. View examples below.
List of 3 items.
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Cognitive
History
Understand the significance of events, their relationship to preceding context, and their results.
Science
Students will be able to draw connections between the health of individual organisms and the health of the ecosystem in which those organisms live.
Theology
Students will be able to present a reasoned rationale for the key doctrines and moral principles of Christianity. -
Affective
History
Students will demonstrate a healthy sense of patriotism – gratitude for the rights of being an American citizen and a sense of duty to build a better nation
Science
Students will show an appreciation for nature and the ecosystems in which we live.
Theology
Students will express a sense of conviction in regards to their personal beliefs and a sense of openness in regards to the beliefs of others -
Behavioral
History
Actively participate in civic discourse and advocacy efforts that invest in a just society.
Science
Students will be able to conduct a simple, controlled scientific investigation using laboratory facilities.
Theology
Students will be able to pray in both personal and social contexts, using a variety of modalities.
