A JESUIT EDUCATION AND

LEADERSHIPVinny Torossy

Five Traits of Leadership

According to Robert A. Mitchell’s Five Traits of Leadership these are the 5 characteristics of a Jesuit institution:

1. A passion for quality

2. Study of humanities and the sciences no matter what specializations may be offered.

3. Preoccupation with questions of ethics and values for both the personal and professional lives of graduates

4. Importance a Jesuit education gives to a religious experience.

5. It is person centered.

My Jesuit Education

I am currently attending Loyola University Chicago where these five traits of Jesuit education help me to prepare for leadership experiences now and into the future.

A Passion for Quality Jesuit educations provide an education by those who are

respected and know the field. At Loyola I have had business teachers that have actually

been executives in companies, and other teachers that have worked in their field before they started teaching.

I am able to talk to these teachers one-on-one and try to understand the right steps it takes to get into a particular field such as politics or the business world, because for the most part they are very knowledgeable on a certain field.

Talking to professors helps me prepare for leadership because I know what steps I have to take to accomplish my career goals in life, and it helps develop communication skills.

Study of humanities and the sciences

“Jesuit institutions want students prepared for living as well as for working”

Even though it’s important for me to get a good education at Loyola it is also important to be able to understand how to live and work in the real world.

Learning things that are not only applicable in a school setting but learning things that will help me beyond college are what I gain at LUC, and I believe it enhances my leadership skills.

An effective leader has to know how to operate in the real world not just in the four walls of a classroom, and I believe that Loyola teaches us how to use our skills not only in those four walls but in the outside world as well.

Questions of Ethics and Values for Both the Personal and

Professional Lives of Graduates

“Family values, personal integrity, and business ethics have always been important.”

Not only operating politely in a classroom setting, but taking that same integrity, respect, values, and responsibility that are instilled in us in our classrooms at Loyola and following those in the outside world demonstrates good leadership.

We are taught that in order to be an effective student and leader that we need not only focus on school but other things that we value in life.

The values that are instilled in me in the classroom are what I carry on in the outside world, and those values that we are taught have prepared me for future and current leadership positions.

Importance to a Religious Experience

Having religious teachings offered at Loyola allows its student body, including myself to grow as a person and a leader in both knowledge and faith.

Students that are strict churchgoers may gain a little more out of the religious experience than others.

After the readings and through my Jesuit education to this point I have learned that a religious faith helps one gain a better understanding of the sense of community.

Gaining this better understanding and having this insight has helped me become a better leader in trying to understand what is beneficial to the community, not to just myself or my friends.

Person Centered

The goal of a Jesuit education is to teach the students that the individual is important.

Loyola has stressed this, even though we are a large institution with about 10,000 undergraduates we are in small and manageable classroom sizes that we are able to have a better interaction with the professor.

Learning the importance of the individual has helped me prepare for leadership by realizing that the majority may hold a certain stance, but every single person holds a unique opinion within that majority. Everyone has a right to say what they want to say, and that needs to be heard, and respected.

Jesuit Higher Education and Leadership

My Jesuit education at Loyola University Chicago I feel has made me not only a better leader but a better person.

Values are taught and learned he that would not be at a large state school.

The interactions that I have with teachers on a day to day basis and the teachings offered by a Jesuit school in particular this Jesuit school are skills that I will have with me for the rest of my life.

The Concept of Magis

The concept of magis means to do more, the greater, for God.

Magis is important to leadership, it is a part of our motto here at Loyola University Chicago which is, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, or for the greater glory of God.

Magis though does not only apply to religious aspects, it can apply to leaders, and humans in every day life that attempt to do great things for God.

Magis and Leadership “When you work, give your all. When you make plans plan boldly. And when you dream, dream

big.” This quote describes magis from the Chapter 13

reading. This quote is how magis applies to leadership and

how they intersect. A leader is supposed to go above and beyond the call of duty whatever that may be. magis involves doing the greater of what is necessary, and a leader should attempt to the best of their ability to do the best thing possible. Always going above and beyond is what magis is about and that is what leadership is about.

Magis and Leadership Cont…

A leader cannot be just anyone that goes about their day to day business. A leader is someone that needs to go beyond what is necessary. That is where magis and leadership intersect.

The only way to lead is by example, and by going above what is necessary and following magis one is leading by example.

Magis shows leadership in the regards of doing more than is necessary for the benefit of others.

A Jesuit Education, Magis, and Leadership

I am currently a sophomore here at Loyola and through my one half years completed I feel that a Jesuit education has been vital to preparing me to be a leader in the future.

Our motto at Loyola of Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam encourages each and everyone one of us to go and above and beyond what is expected. We need to perform to the best of our abilities, and then some to accomplish our goals.

Leadership values have been instilled in me through my Jesuit education to thus point and I'm sure there is only more to be learned in my remaining time here at Loyola University Chicago.