Cura personalis
Care for the Whole Person
Students are known as individuals. Intellectual, emotional, social, physical, moral, and spiritual development are treated as connected parts of a meaningful education.
What Is a Jesuit Education?
A Jesuit education combines rigorous academic inquiry with reflection, ethical discernment, service, and care for the whole person.
What Is Jesuit Education?
- 1540 The Society of Jesus was formally approved.
- 1548 The first Jesuit school opened in Messina, Sicily.
- 27 Jesuit colleges and universities serve students across the United States.
- All Are Welcome Students of all faiths and students with no religious affiliation are welcome.
Jesuit education is a Catholic educational tradition rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus. It combines rigorous academic inquiry with reflection, ethical discernment, service, and care for each student as a whole person.
What Makes a Jesuit Education Different?
These principles shape how students learn, build relationships, examine their choices, and use their knowledge in the world.
Discernment
Reflection Before Action
Students learn to examine experience, recognize their values, consider consequences, and make thoughtful decisions rather than simply reacting to the next demand.
Magis
Seeking the Greater Good
Magis is not constant achievement for its own sake. It asks which choice can serve others more meaningfully and make the best use of a person’s gifts.
Cura apostolica
Care for the Shared Mission
Personal growth is connected to responsibility for communities and institutions. Students consider how their work can support a purpose larger than themselves.
Faith That Does Justice
Knowledge Put Into Practice
Jesuit education connects learning with human dignity, solidarity, and action. Justice becomes a way of evaluating decisions and their effects on other people.
People for and With Others
Leadership Through Accompaniment
Students are prepared to lead alongside others, listen across differences, share responsibility, and use their education in service of the common good.
How Does Jesuit Education Work in the Classroom?
The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm moves learning beyond information through a cycle of context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation.
Context
Understand the learner, the community, the subject, and the circumstances surrounding the question.
Experience
Engage actively with ideas, people, evidence, problems, and real situations.
Reflection
Examine what the experience means and how it connects to values, assumptions, and prior knowledge.
Action
Apply learning through a decision, project, service experience, changed perspective, or responsible next step.
Evaluation
Assess intellectual progress as well as personal, ethical, and social growth.
What Does Jesuit Education Look Like at John Carroll?
Founded by the Jesuits in Cleveland in 1886, John Carroll continues to connect academic growth with integrity, leadership, service, and responsibility to others.
Tradition Meets Innovation
JCU’s Jesuit tradition provides an enduring purpose while new programs, research, technologies, and learning environments expand how students pursue it.
Explore Academics at JCUFaculty Who Guide and Challenge
Faculty do more than teach a subject. They help students ask difficult questions, recognize their potential, and reach beyond what they previously thought possible.
See How Students Learn at JCUReflection, Experience, and Calling
Through study, reflection, relationships, service, and experience, students consider not only what they are capable of doing, but what they are called to contribute.
Explore Community-Engaged LearningA Community That Opens Doors
Students, faculty, and alumni create opportunities for one another through mentorship, service, professional relationships, and support that continues after graduation.
Explore Support and CommunityAt John Carroll, holding doors open is both a campus habit and a larger commitment. It means helping other people move forward with you.
A JCU Expression of Being People for and With Others
Explore JCU’s Story
Ignatian Heritage Collection
John Carroll’s Jesuit story began in Cleveland in 1886. Explore the people, places, events, and ideas that shaped the Society of Jesus and continue to influence JCU’s mission today.
31Interpretive Panels
8Campus Buildings
Nearly 500Years of Jesuit History
What Are the Benefits of a Jesuit Education?
Jesuit education develops lasting habits of inquiry, reflection, ethical judgment, communication, and responsible leadership.
Critical Thinking
Ask better questions, evaluate evidence, and examine assumptions before reaching a conclusion.
Ethical Judgment
Consider human consequences, competing responsibilities, and the common good when making decisions.
Communication Across Differences
Listen carefully, explain ideas clearly, and work constructively with people whose experiences differ from your own.
Reflective Leadership
Know your strengths, recognize limits, seek feedback, and lead with integrity rather than status alone.
Applied Experience
Connect academic knowledge with research, internships, service, global learning, and community projects.
A Sense of Purpose
Explore how your interests, abilities, work, relationships, and responsibilities can contribute to a life of meaning.
Jesuit Education FAQ
What is Jesuit education?
Jesuit education is a Catholic educational tradition rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus. It combines rigorous academic inquiry with reflection, ethical discernment, service, and care for each student as a whole person.
Is Jesuit education Catholic?
Yes. Jesuit education is part of the Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition and is associated with the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order. It approaches faith and reason as complementary ways of pursuing truth and understanding human experience.
Do I have to be Catholic to attend a Jesuit university?
No. John Carroll welcomes students of all faiths and students with no religious affiliation. Students are invited to explore questions of meaning, ethics, justice, and purpose while engaging respectfully with people whose beliefs may differ from their own.
How is a Jesuit university different from another Catholic university?
Jesuit universities share the broader Catholic intellectual tradition while drawing specifically on the spirituality and educational methods associated with St. Ignatius Loyola. Common emphases include discernment, care for the whole person, education for justice, and learning that leads to responsible action.
What does cura personalis mean?
Cura personalis is commonly translated as “care for the whole person.” In education, it means recognizing each student as an individual and supporting intellectual, physical, emotional, social, moral, and spiritual development rather than focusing only on academic performance.
What does magis mean?
Magis is a Latin word meaning “more” or “greater.” In the Jesuit tradition, it does not mean doing more for the sake of constant achievement. It asks which choice can produce the greater good, serve others more meaningfully, or make better use of a person’s gifts.
What is Ignatian pedagogy?
Ignatian pedagogy is a teaching approach shaped by the educational tradition of the Society of Jesus. It commonly uses a five-part cycle of context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation so students understand content deeply and decide how to use what they have learned responsibly.
What does “people for and with others” mean?
The phrase describes a commitment to use one’s knowledge, abilities, and influence in solidarity with other people. It emphasizes listening, shared responsibility, service, justice, and leadership practiced alongside communities rather than imposed upon them.
Explore More
Mission, Vision and Core Values
See how John Carroll defines its Jesuit Catholic mission and the commitments that guide the University.
Explore Mission, Vision and Core ValuesIgnatian Heritage Collection
Explore the people, places, events, and ideas represented across JCU’s campus heritage collection.
Open the Heritage Collection
