Another year has gone by during which many new global Ignatian educational experiences emerged, setting a path for what is to come in 2024.

In 2023, many of us were blessed to have had the opportunity to reflect, discern, and learn with fellow educators from different countries across the world. There were no barriers, even scheduling the right time zone for Connected Classrooms and working online meetings were successfully overcome.  It was amazing to see the kindness from many of you, your flexibility, and your excitement to create new global experiences for yourselves, fellow teachers, and your students by using the different tools and resources available in the Educate Magis platform. It is thanks to all of you that we are all more knowledgeable and aware of the incredible benefits that Learning, Teaching, and Collaborating together can bring, as a Global Apostolic Online Community of Educators, to contribute to delivering the holistic vision of Jesuit education, “forging the path to human excellence, through the formation of young people of Conscience, Compassion, Competence, and Commitment (the four C’s)”.

A million thanks to all!

Now that 2024 is here we invite you to bring forward, reflect, and focus on some key Ignatian educative experiences from 2023 to guide your global educational path in this new year.

Using the Educate Magis tools and resources in the schools and the classrooms.

• «An Integrated (Holistic) Perspective» Infographic: This tool has been instrumental in introducing teachers and administrators from the Jesuit schools in the Jesuit Province of Central Africa (ACE) to Our Contemporary Way of Proceeding in the apostolate of education. Read Kalubi Nsukami’s article which walks us through this experience here
• Connected Classrooms: Two Connected Classroom activities brought together young people from different countries and diverse backgrounds, despite language barriers, to shed light on the global challenges of human rights and environmental degradation. This initiative was taken by two teachers from Colegio San Ignacio A.O. in Santiago de Chile, Erik Bylund and David Chamorro, as a joint venture with the global community of Educate Magis. Read more here
• Global Groups tool: In 2023, the Jesuit Schools Network of North America (JSN) had a keen interest in using Educate Magis’s Groups tool. Last year the Groups Tool was enhanced to be a lot easier and more user-friendly. JSN has been using it for the organization and coordination of a number of different group meetings.  Robert Reiser, walks us through this experience here
• Global Cohort Courses: Many educators enjoyed their participation in the Spring and Autumn 2023 Global Cohort Courses hosted by Educate Magis. Faculty and staff from different Jesuit schools deepened their understanding of Ignatian Spirituality and reflected on Ignatian Global Citizenship in the different sessions. To read more about this learning experience and its reviews visit this link. Also, some experiences shared by facilitators and participants can be read here
• Global Webinars: In 2023, important discussions on three Global Identifiers (Global Indentifier #1 “Catholic, Faith Formation & Interreligious Dialogue”, Global Indentifier #3 “Global Citizenship”, and Global Indentifier #9 “Human Excellence”) took place as part of the «An Integrated (Holistic) Perspective Webinar Series”. The recordings for all the Webinars are available here
• Global Networking: For Samuel Simick, Principal at St. Xavier’s School, Educate Magis resources have been very helpful for global networking, student exchange programs, to encourage online meetings. It was also a great source of inspiration and knowledge to educate not only students but also parents and guardians. Read more here
• Spiritual Experiences: In 2023, the General Curia in collaboration with Educate Magis invited students to reflect on their relationship with God, with their neighbor and with the Earth; and to consider ways they can better serve each. To help, we offered “Who Do You Want to Be” a video series which included videos and pedagogical materials for schools to be used to accompany students during Lent. Read the details of this project here
• International Education: In this article, Mary Joy Ponce-Torres, a teacher at Sacred Heart School (Ateneo de Cebu), Philippines, shares how her dedication to international education extends beyond her immediate surroundings by actively engaging in global education projects through the Educate Magis platform. «Educate Magis is an asset to our institution as our school intensifies its desire to become a global and culturally enriched institution.» Read Mary Joy’s experience here
• International partnerships between Jesuit schools: By way of illustration of how global collaboration and work can be achieved within the Ignatian paradigm and ethos, the following is a reference list of international partnerships between Jesuit schools that have been initiated or facilitated with the strategic and technical support of many in our global community. Read more here

New integrations to our Educate Magis Platform.

• Global Identifiers Integration: At the beginning of the year 2023, using the “An Integrated (Holistic) Perspective” infographic, our Educate Magis team in Galway ventured on a project to study, reflect on, and discern how the Global Identifiers can be present across our community’s platform as a way to enrich the understanding of the Global Identifiers as an intrinsic part of the global dimension of our Jesuit schools. The fruits of this reflective work are visible on different banners in our Educate Magis platform. You can check out some examples of this integration here
• Ignatian Practices online: Another important integration of the 10 Global Identifiers into the Educate Magis platform was through the FLACSI Teaching Laboratories on May 25th, which promotes awareness and the need to write teaching experiences for teachers using the 10 Global Identifiers as a framework. The FLACSI team together with the Educate Magis team in Galway worked to bring these important Ignatian practices online. To learn more about the result of this collaboration visit this page

Discernment within our Apostolic Global Community.

• Participation in the Global Discernment Circles was extraordinary! On November 9th, 2023, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Pedro Arrupe’s famous speech by discerning as a global community on the significance of Arrupe’s “Persons for Others” in today’s context. Read about this global discernemt experience here
• II Seminar JESEDU-Jogja2024: On October 26th, 2023, the seminar’s official microsite was launched, which features general information about the seminar, important recommendations on transportation and accommodation, as well as details on what to expect for pilgrimage day, as a spiritual journey for the seminar participants. The II Seminar JESEDU-Jogja2024 is an international event which is scheduled to take place at De Britto College in Yogyakarta in Indonesia from the 24th to the 28th of June, 2024. To see the microsite click here

Global Series and Reflections for our Global Community

• Global Series for Teachers New to Jesuit Education: Fr. José Mesa SJ in collaboration with Educate Magis made available more articles to keep igniting sparks of knowledge in teachers new to Jesuit education. Check out the wide range of topics on Jesuit Education in this series here
• Thirty years since the launch of “Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach”. On March 31st, 2023, we celebrated 30 years of the Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach more commonly known as the IPP (Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm). To celebrate this important milestone Fr José Mesa SJ wrote a reflection on the relevance of the IPP in the context of our times. To read this reflection, please follow this link

If you are looking for some inspiration to bring new ideas to your classroom or just for your own personal and professional growth, we recomend the following content that has been shared during 2023 by members of our global community.

• Exploring the Publications of the Secretariat of Education: On the Construction of New Facilities for Jesuit Schools, written by Felipe Carrillo
• Why Is Our Global Community Different From Other Global Communities?, written by Fr. Sunny Jacob SJ
• Reflection on Jesuit Education and Human Excellence, written by Fr. Sunny Jacob SJ
• Jesuit and Catholic Schools are embracing cultural diversity, written by Fr. Sunny Jacob SJ
• Reflections on Discernment in the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), written Bill O’Neill SJ
• Practicing Ignatian Values within Cognitive Coaching Conversations, written by Pete Musso
• Reflections on the life and spirituality of Beloved Don Pedro: “Man for Others”, written by Fr. Hedwig Lewis SJ
• ‘Sportingly +’ – Learning Values and Positivity through Sports. video series created by Rahul Mukherji
• “Young Jesuits Talk About Ignatius”, video series created by the Jesuit Curia Comunication Office
• The relationship between Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuit ‘brand’, writen by Bill Toner SJ
• My experience of welcoming immigrants to the school, written by Verónica Paredes
• My experience working in the educational apostolate of the Society of Jesus, writen by Gabriel Scott Losambe
• How meaningful for all of us is to have an in-depth understanding of the message of Easter in today’s context, written by Fr. Sunny Jacob SJ
• Christmas is the feast of love incarnate; let us reclaim it, written by Fr. Sunny Jacob SJ

A happy and blessed New Year 2024!