Mission-Priority Examen Guides New Approach to Mission Day

MISSION AND MINISTRY | Loyola Marymount University’s annual rededication to education and service will be a little different this year. The university’s Mission Day event will take on a new town hall format, featuring several important voices on campus in a forum highlighting the promotion of both LMU’s faith-based mission, and their ideas to build upon the university’s Jesuit and Marymount vision.

The Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination and the Office of Mission and Ministry invite the LMU community to attend the new event on Tuesday, April 10, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Collins Center, located near McKay and Leavey Chapel.

“The purpose of the event is twofold,” said Katherine Brown, ACTI assistant director. “The town hall will  allow ACTI and the Office of Mission and Ministry to provide a summary of ‘where we’ve been’ this past year and key insights that have come out of our programs, including ACTI’s ‘Idea of the Catholic University in the 21st Century’ series … It will also give the university community, including both faculty and staff, the opportunity to think constructively and collaboratively about how to achieve the goals that have emerged from our yearlong conversations.”

John Sebastian, vice president of mission and ministry, is working with ACTI to coordinate the program. “Mission Day will be managed differently this year,” he said. “We’ve spent the last year as a community reflecting on LMU’s mission through the Mission Priority Examen, and we want to share the fruits of that reflection.”

Sebastian succeeded Robert Caro, S.J., in June 2017 to become LMU’s second vice president for mission and ministry. He immediately got to work organizing the university’s institutional Examen, a multi-stage process undertaken at the request of Father Arturo Sosa, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus and with support from  the U.S. Jesuit provincials and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

“The Examen is a process we’ve been undergoing since 2017 to reevaluate LMU’s mission and assist the school in reaching its goals as a Jesuit institution,” said Sebastian. “We’re looking at the next five, even seven years to come.”

Having spent nearly his entire time at LMU involved in the Examen process, Sebastian has plenty to share on Tuesday when he and Brian Treanor, ACTI’s academic director, kick off the town hall forum.

But it won’t just be a day for sharing past work and long-term goals, added Brown. “We’d like [participants and ourselves] to leave the event with some specific, short-term actions that we can take in the next few months to year.”

Political science major Dylan Ramos is a junior and a contributor to LMU This Week.

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