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Explore Saint Louis University's Core in Images and Words

Ignite: Teaching and Learning at Saint Louis University

What makes teaching and learning at Saint Louis University distinctive and transformative? At the heart of a SLU undergraduate education is the University Core.

This integrated educational experience invites both students and faculty to explore the ideas and questions that inspire them as learners and teachers. The Core begins with the Ignite First-Year Seminar. Ignite Seminars make visible for students the rich interplay of intellect and identity, wonder and certainty, rigor and play that characterizes academic inquiry rooted in the Ignatian ideal of care for the whole person (cura personalis).

In these small, discussion-based learning experiences, SLU faculty members鈥� own distinguished and diverse areas of expertise provide the lens through which first-year students practice the Ignatian learning process鈥攁n personal approach to learning rooted in context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation.

The Core is animated by four key values: Discovery, Integrity, Courage and Connection. By illuminating these values in a student鈥檚 first year, the Ignite Seminar begins a journey. Students are inspired to approach all future courses鈥揵oth in the Core and in their majors鈥搘ith this same spirit of curious, open inquiry.

SLU graduates pursue careers rooted in both their own personal interests and convictions and also in SLU鈥檚 mission: 鈥渢he pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity."

Inside Core Classes

A professor stands in front of an outdoor class with at SLU's clocktower
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CORE: 1000
The Ignatian City

This course is designed for students who come to SLU with a desire to learn about the faces of urban oppression, social suffering, and urban marginality.

A student in a mask with both hands raised sits next to another student at a classroom table
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CORE: 1000
Algorithms to Live By

This isn't a class for math majors, it's a course for everyone on thinking algorithmically, on learning about the fundamental structures of the problems we face, and ultimately on discovering something about ourselves.

A teacher with Dubourg Hall in the background touches hands with a student
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CORE: 1000
The Power of Communication

Learn about yourself, communication and its disorders, and how powerful communication is in our world. It just might change your professional path.

A group of students sit on folding chairs set up in a circle on a lawn for discussion
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CORE: 1000
The Behavior of Social Justice

In this Ignite seminar, first-year students learn the basic principles that explain why people do and say what they do and how to encourage behaviors and actions of social justice in themselves and others.

Students sitting at classroom tables in masks look ahead. One student raises her hand.
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CORE: 1000
Mind at the Museum: Psychology, Art and Wellbeing

This course ignites imaginations through the topics of human empathy, meaning-making, and creativity, along with an introduction to the learning resources that SLU and the St. Louis community have to offer.

A group of students sit in chairs on an outside patio
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CORE: 1000
Where Are We? Learning our Place in Midtown

From the Missouria people to the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood, we will explore and reflect on the past, present, and future of this place where we together learn, work, and share community.

Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm

Two students in masks sitting at a classroom table
 

St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, did not create the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP). But when the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education published Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach in 1993, the Commission drew upon the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the lived experience of Jesuit education as reflected in the Ratio Studiorum, a way of studies that has shaped Jesuit education since the late 16th century.

The dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises is essentially that of relationship 鈥� the relationship between God and the retreatant and the relationship between the retreatant and the spiritual director. As schools emerged as a essential element of mission for the Jesuits, Ignatius and his companions drew upon their studies at the University of Paris that emphasized the classics of ancient literature, the study of Latin and Greek, philosophy and theology , grammar and rhetoric鈥攁ll in service to the creation of eloquent, compelling and moral graduates capable of exceptional service to their cities, their leaders, and their church.

The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm distills all of this into a contemporary practice of Jesuit education. The IPP encourages a classroom of active engagement that builds upon experience as well as dreams and aspirations. Here at Saint Louis University, the IPP shapes and upholds Saint Louis University鈥檚 mission to 鈥渃are for the whole person鈥� 鈥� in mind, body and spirit 鈥� cura personalis.

鈥� Fr. David Suwalsky, Vice President for SLU Mission and Identity

Thank You To:
  • Aligned Media
  • Division of Enrollment Management
  • Division of Mission and Identity
  • iheartbuffets
  • Office of the President
  • Office of the Provost
  • Past and Present members of the Saint Louis University Undergraduate Core Committee
  • Photographer Martin Springborg
  • Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning
  • Saint Louis University Core
  • Saint Louis University Museum of Art