The Discerning Pilgrim
Twenty-one Boston College seniors will travel to Spain and retrace the journey of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, as part of a course on leadership and Jesuit principles debuting this semester.
Titled The Discerning Pilgrim, the three-credit Capstone course is an outgrowth of the University’s Fourth Year Initiative program, which encourages faculty and administrators to develop classes and co-curricular experiences that help prospective graduates reflect on and evaluate their time at BC, and prepare them for post-graduate life.
Offered through the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, the course is a collaboration between Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (IAJS) Director Casey Beaumier, S.J., and Student Affairs Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Formation Colleen Dallavalle, who co-created and co-teach the course, and will lead the trip to Spain accompanied by by Taiga Guterres from the Jesuit Educational Quarterly as well as the 21 seniors. They will travel portions of the 120-mile “Camino Ignaciano,” the route Ignatius took in 1522 from his home in the Basque country to Manresa, near Barcelona, where he began composing his renowned Spiritual Exercises.
The pilgrimage to Spain during the University’s spring break (March 3-8 this year) is one of four components to the course, which “views reflection, spirituality, engagement with community, discernment, and mindfulness as essential elements to being true to oneself and developing as an authentic leader,” as noted in its description. Students have extensive reading and writing assignments, engage in weekly reflection, and lead class discussions, among other requirements.
Fr. Beaumier and Dallavalle say the development of The Discerning Pilgrim reflects key institutional and programmatic goals of the University, notably its signal objective: preparing men and women for others.
Boston College Vice President and Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies Director Casey Beaumier, S.J.: "St. Ignatius provides a great model, but it’s one thing to simply read or talk about his life: To literally walk where he walked gives his teachings an in-depth reality that we feel will be profound for students.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
“So many words and phrases critical to Jesuits are part of the BC student experience and they contain depth and meaning beyond the confines of our campus,” said Fr. Beaumier, a BC vice president who also is University secretary. “Our hope is to facilitate encounters with these important and holy places to make them even more real and meaningful to our students so that they can serve as guideposts for their lives after Boston College.
“St. Ignatius provides the inspiration for us to seek an even deeper meaning to the BC experience. To literally walk where he walked gives his teachings an in-depth reality that we feel will be profound for students.”
“This course presents an opportunity for us to support the University’s academic and formational mission,” said Dallavalle. “It’s also meaningful to have an opportunity to have a spiritual and practical element to help senior students reflect on their time at BC as well as identify how they can live a life of meaning and purpose after their commencement.”
Dallavalle had reached out to Fr. Beaumier last year after reflecting on the call for proposals from the Provost’s Office and mulling how to integrate spiritual, social and intellectual formation in addressing this need. “I see a number of students who demonstrate their leadership capacity in the context of their student organization(s) or by finding a calling through service or advocacy. And it made me consider, ‘How can we best leverage their BC experience to understand who they want to be as a leader, a community member, and how they want to live a life of meaning and purpose well beyond their undergraduate years?’
Student Affairs Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Formation Colleen Dallavalle: “I see a number of students who demonstrate leadership capabilities, whether in the context of an organization or taking the initiative on a compelling issue. And I wonder, ‘What do they need from BC to explore those capabilities, in ways that prove to be enduring well beyond their college years?’"
“The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies has so many resources to help students learn about leadership through the Jesuit lens, so Fr. Casey and I discussed what things might work. The more we talked, the more we liked the idea of having students immerse themselves in a pilgrimage like that of St. Ignatius—but to focus on what happens after the journey, to make meaning of it in the fuller context of their lives.”
The Discerning Pilgrim directs students to consider questions such as: How can St. Ignatius’ journey provide us with leadership lessons that are relevant today? In what ways does the journey up until now, and moving forward, provide us with opportunities similar to St. Ignatius’ pilgrimage? Whom do we surround ourselves with, and why? How can we learn in and through interpersonal tensions and differences? How do we examine life’s journey to mine it for the great wisdom contained within it? And what contribution do companions, role models, conversation partners, and mentors make for accompanying us through these kinds of life reflections?
Readings for the course include Markings by Dag Hammarskjold; Praying the Truth: Deepening Your Friendship with God Through Honest Prayer by William Barry, S.J.; The Road to Character by David Brooks; Type Talk: The Sixteen Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Work and Love by Otto Kroeger; and selections from Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
For their final project, students submit a “What’s Next?” presentation. Using the insights of St. Ignatius, class discussions, and the pilgrimage experience, they will explain how they will integrate what they have learned throughout their undergraduate years into their post-BC lives: “What do you think you can continue to do, how will this inform your personal and professional practice, and how do you plan to ‘set the world aflame’?”
The course was originally slated for 15 students, said Dallavalle and Fr. Beaumier, but the level of interest was so high they wound up accepting 21, with a lengthy waiting list.
“The students it attracted were just phenomenal, not just in terms of their academic ability but their passion to be leaders and agents of positive change,” said Dallavalle. “We’re very pleased at the buzz the course has created, and look forward to building on this encouraging first year.”