On three consecutive Saturdays in March 2021, St. Louis University High School (SLUH) in the United States, hosted the inaugural Jesuit Global Activism Leadership Summit, which brought together 84 students and 40 faculty from 19 Jesuit schools and 12 countries, in a virtual exchange format, to share cultural perspectives, creative solutions to global issues, and a passion for our common Ignatian tradition.

The summit began with keynote speeches by Catharine Steffens, JSN Director of Global Partnerships and Initiatives, and Dustin Liu, UN Youth Ambassador, as well as personal insights on the dangers of cultural biases from Eugenia Sanguinetti of Colegio Del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After a short break, students and faculty spent the remainder of the day getting to know each other in their small groups by sharing symbols and stories of their diverse cultures. Day 2 of the summit was filled with growth and learning as expert speakers on the three UN SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) which the summit focused on (#2-Zero Hunger, #5-Gender Equality, and #7-Clean and Affordable Energy) enlightened participants with their insights. Equipped with this new knowledge, students then spent the rest of the day in their groups developing a plan of action to address their chosen SDG while faculty gathered to share their stories and professional experiences. The final day of the summit opened with the Prayer of Generosity in all the languages of the summit, and the rest of the day was devoted to each group’s presentation of their amazing, innovative projects (Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D). After all groups finished, everyone gathered for some final thoughts, praise, and celebration of their great work.

Regis Jesuit was one of five Jesuit high schools from the United States chosen to participate in the inaugural Jesuit Student Global Activism Leadership Summit. In this article  one of Christina Vela’s students explains their school’s participation “I focused on the SDG of gender equality, and my small group consisted of male and female students from Jesuit schools in India, Poland, France, Chile and Columbia”.

St. Paul’s High School in Winnipeg, Canada also participated in the Summit. The following is an article co-written by three students from St. Paul’s High School on their experience of participating in the Jesuit Global Activism Leadership Summit this year.

Jennie Kuenz from Jesuit High School of Portland, Oregon also shared her and her students’ experience participating in the inaugural Jesuit Global Activism Leadership Summit via Zoom. In this article Jennie shares “The first day of the summit I got goosebumps just listening to the teachers introduce themselves and where they were from. It was so cool. There are schools all over the world that care about the same thing: to empower students to realize that you can make a difference.”

Students at BC High who also had the opportunity to participate in this Global Summit put together a short video of their experience. Watch the video here!

Art: Charlie Bieg

With the success of this initial summit, ambitious plans are already in development for an expanded summit in summer, 2022 which would be both in-person as well as virtual. For further information or any questions contact Robert Chura, Director of Global Education at St. Louis University High (rchura@sluh.org) or leave a comment below.

For more perspectives on the Summit from participating faculty and students at other schools check out the resource collection here!