University Mission Day

Mission Day 2024 header

We look forward to seeing you the morning of Thursday, April 11th for Mission Day, a time to pause, reflect and re-energize for our shared educational mission!  

Mission Day will feature renowned speaker Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, who will help us recenter, reconnect and reclaim our sense of belonging as collaborators in building a more just and humane world.  

How is Mission Day different this year?

Kimmerer reminds us:

“Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging – to family, to a people, and to a land. It marries the mundane and the sacred… the community creates ceremony and the ceremony creates communities.”

  • In this spirit, post-keynote breakout sessions will feature various cultural and spiritual practices.
    Talented colleagues will lead us through practices to recenter on what’s most important in the midst of our work and life. 
    However, know that some sessions have now closed.
  • Mission Day concludes with lunch, a time to enjoy the company of one another in various rooms across campus. 
    St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, encouraged and understood conversation as a crucial aspect of mission.
    As we draw from the past, we look to the future.  

Mission Day Registration to:

Choose a breakout session

RSVP to attend lunch

We look forward to welcoming you to Mission Day 2024!

Prior Mission Days

April 7, 2022

Looking Forward in Hope

Opening Remarks: Jen Tilghman-Havens, Executive Director, Center for Jesuit Education 
Opening Prayer: Arturo Araujo, S.J. , Rector, Arrupe Jesuit Community 
Introductory Remarks:  President Eduardo Peñalver

Panelist Remarks:

Charles Tung, Professor of English and Special Assistant to the Provost
Paige Gardner, Assistant Professor, Student Development Administration
Angie Jenkins, Director, Learning Assistance Programs
Stacey Jones, Senior Instructor, Economics
Marrakech Maxwell, President, SGSU
Daniel Tamayo , President, GSC

April 11, 2019

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Heart of Jesuit Education.”
with Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University sociologist and best-selling author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America and most recently, What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin and Our Unfinished Conversation about Race in America. With responses:

AyeNay Abye, Deputy Director, Center for Service & Community Engagement
Azrael Howell, President, SGSU, Alfie Scholar
Amber Larkin, President and Board Chair, Graduate Student Council, Strategic Planning Steering Committee Member
Joelle Pretty, EdD, Director of Student Academic Services
Christina Roberts, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Women and Gender Studies and Director, Indigenous People’s Institute

Program accessible with SU credentials: Mission Day 2019 

April 12, 2018

Creating the Commons, Living the Tensions: Ignatian Tools for our Times, Consolations, Desolations and Hopes for moving forward as a Seattle University community.  

April 6, 2017

Honoring our Past to Inform our Future: Seattle University's Mission at 125

April 7, 2016

The Promise and Challenge of Racial Justice

April 16, 2015

Global Engagement and the Nicaragua Initiative

April 10, 2014

The Call to Environmental Justice and Sustainability at a Jesuit University

April 11, 2013

The Jesuit Mission at the Frontiers: Past and Present

April 26, 2012

The Faiths that Do Justice: Seattle University’s Mission and Interfaith Dialogue

April 14, 2011

A Fire that Ignites Other Fires: Igniting Wonder, Pursuing Justice

April 29, 2010

Seattle University and Our Neighborhood

November 19, 2008

Empowering Leaders for a Just and Humane World: A Dialogue

April 24, 2008

Integrated Jesuit Education/Strategic Directions: Implementing the Strategic Plan-Six Initiatives

April 26, 2007

Jesuit Education in a Broken World

April 27, 2006

The Arts and Jesuit Education

April 28, 2005

Educating the Whole Person - the Spiritual Dimension

May 1, 2003

The Developing World and Seattle University - What does our experience of the developing world as of Seattle University?

May 3, 2002

Award of Honorary degree to Corazon Aquino

2001

Seattle University Gathering IV: Implementing Education for Justice

2000

Seattle University Gathering III: Developing a community that Models and Educates for Justice

2000

Seattle University Gathering III: Deepening our Commitment to Education for Justice

1999

First Annual Mission Day of Reflection on Our Mission

1999

Seattle University Gathering II: Exploring our Commitment to Justice Education

1998

Seattle University Gathering I: Enhancing our University Mission for Service and Justice