Cura Personalis • Magis • Men and Women for Others • Reflection
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I am literate.
I can read and I can write.
At this point in my life, I do not even think about these skills; they come naturally and effortlessly.
When we first learn how to read and write, there is a conscious effort as we sound out every letter and work to make sense of every syllable. Over time this process becomes second nature as these skills become engrained in our everyday lives. Literacy becomes us.
Over my four years at Fairfield University, I have developed a new kind of literacy – a jesuit identity. The jesuit values have become a subconscious component of my life in the same way that reading and writing has.
My jesuit identity developed in the same way my conventional literacy did. As first, I was consciously aware of the impact reflection and service had on my education. Today, after four years of a jesuit education, I find the jesuit values seeping into every aspect of my life whether I realize it or not.
Literacy, whether reading and writing or a more intricate literacy such as the development of a jesuit identity, does not develop on its own. Literacies develop through a series of sponsors. In her article “Sponsors of Literacy,” Deborah Brandt explains that sponsors of literacy are “[…] the figures who turned up most typically in people’s memories of literacy learning […],” (Brandt, 167). Sponsors inspire our literacy. Sponsors are the people, or events, who help us to see the importance of reading and writing – or of embodying the jesuit spirit.
Throughout the megabytes of this blog, you will find a journey towards a jesuit identity. You will see, through a series of anecdotes and experiences, how my jesuit spirit emerged over four years in relations to my identity as an English major.
By examining the four core jesuit values recognized by Fairfield University – Cura Personalis, Magis, Men and Women for Others, and Reflection – in partnership with the development of my own written and oral literacy, we can see the ways in which different forms of literacy subconsciously become engrained in our everyday lives.
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Cura Personalis •Magis • Men and Women for Others •Reflection
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Read More:
Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication. Vol. 29. No. 2 (1998): 165-185. Link.
My Jesuit education 