On July 16, 2021, TBC held its series event East Meets West Talks, bringing together a diverse group of speakers who shed light on a pressing global issue – environmental destruction and Caring for our Common Home – planet Earth. Read more below or watch the full event recording here. Continue reading “TBC: Caring for Our Common Home -Virtual Event Recap”
TBC: Caring for Our Common Home -Virtual Event Recap
In TBC’s “East Meets West”, Jesuit universities in US and Philippines reflect on service-learning
As part of its “East Meets West” talk series, The Beijing Center (TBC) hosted a virtual conversation with Loyola Marymount University in California, Ateneo de Davao University in southern Philippines, and Five Loaves and Two Fish, a Beijing-based organisation supporting children of migrant families. The conversation centred around the importance of service-learning as community involvement and student engagement in Jesuit education.
Interim Director of the Center for Service and Action at Loyola Marymount University, Patrick Furlong, began the discourse by recollecting the virtual immersion at the university and how students are connecting their passions and interests with social issues through community participation. Furlong described the service-learning approach through a global citizen lens, where students are encouraged to learn in and out of the classroom in order to use their knowledge and contribute to the betterment of the world.
Loyola Marymount University has established immersion programmes to meet their students’ need for authentic encounters, which have become progressively necessary during the ongoing pandemic. As part of these immersion programmes, students and educators participate in virtual activities that satisfy cultural curiosity, offer a safe space for reflection, and increased awareness of formative social issues.
Another service-learning perspective is practised at Ateneo de Davao University. Agnes Joy J Sagaral, Service-Learning Coordinator at the Arrupe Office of Social Formation, stressed the equal importance given to the learning goal and the service goal throughout each service initiative at Ateneo. In implementing these programmes, service-learning is framed by the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm. It follows a framework, where students are first provided with the context, followed by experience, reflection-action, and, finally, evaluation. An important part of the programme is the recognition given to the assisting partners and the results of their efforts in serving Asia-Pacific communities.
Fr Johnny Rakotoarisoa concluded the discussion by describing Five Loaves and Two Fish’s service efforts. As Programme Coordinator, Fr Rakotoarisoa shared the education and developmental support they provide for children of migrant families. Children are taught and cared for by dedicated volunteers, who maintain the facilities and accumulate resources to meet the children’s needs while they are in their care. Many of the organisation’s service-learning components have been a part of TBC students’ service-learning experience for years. Students have seen first-hand how children need a stable learning space as their families adjust to new lifestyles to make a better living.
An inquiry that arose from the audience was how service-learning will progress and evolve – virtually and in-person. This drew attention to the new challenges and opportunities of immersion programmes and the unfulfilled potential to do more for our communities. How, through risk, trial and error, and the use of valuable resources, service-learning initiatives can strengthen the cultural life and economic development of respective communities while shaping students into proactive and compassionate citizens.
Sharing the faith through art
During this celebration of the Ignatian Year, St Ignatius of Loyola is portrayed in a myriad of ways, from the traditional–as seen in the great paintings, sculptures, and antique texts from Europe–to the more current, usually as illustration or even graphic design. A young Polish Jesuit, Fr Mateusz Orlowski, recently completed his own portrait of Ignatius. “The Conversion of Iñigo de Loyola” captures the visage of a young and handsome man full of life and energy, also vulnerable and starkly human. Continue reading “Sharing the faith through art”
Fr Stephen Chow SJ is new bishop of Hong Kong
Pope Francis has appointed Fr Stephen Chow Sau-Yan SJ as the next Bishop of the Hong Kong diocese. He will take over from Cardinal John Tong Hon, who has served as the Apostolic Administrator of Hong Kong since January 2019. Continue reading “Fr Stephen Chow SJ is new bishop of Hong Kong”
The Society of Jesus Calls For Justice in The Global Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines
As COVID-19 vaccination campaigns accelerate in the world’s wealthiest countries, the Society of Jesus joins the calls for concrete efforts to ensure an equitable and just vaccine allocation framework. Currently,87% of administered vaccines have gone to high-income or upper-middle-income countries while low-income countries have received only 0.2% of available vaccines. Continue reading “The Society of Jesus Calls For Justice in The Global Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines”
Virtual Pilgrimage App Brings Ignatius to You
The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies announces the release of the enhanced Journey With Ignatius virtual pilgrimage app, available now as a free download for all iOS and Android devices. Continue reading “Virtual Pilgrimage App Brings Ignatius to You”
Student Volunteers From The Beijing Center Teach English To Local Community Children
The commitment to service-learning has long been a core practice and value for students at The Beijing Center. This semester, the Spring 2021 students had the opportunity to visit an organization that The Beijing Center has collaborated with for years, Five Loaves and Two Fish.
At Five Loaves and Two Fish, the dedicated volunteers continue to support local communities of migrant children in Beijing, by providing them a safe space to improve their education and nurture their well-being, as their families work towards a better living. As part of this community service, The Beijing Center students participate by extending their knowledge to help the children learn more by running lively activities for the children on the weekends.
On arrival, the students were welcomed by Fr. Zevola Giovanni, the organization’s founder, and devoted supporter. While The Beijing Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Simon Koo, and Fr. Giovanni exchanged a few words, the students became acquainted with the children they would be teaching for the day.
The Beijing Center students and staff came prepared with a lesson plan to teach the children English. The lesson plan included an engaging rhythmic children’s cartoon in English, which presented new vocabulary words that were used in the following game. After watching the cartoon, the children were able to better understand and memorize the new words, and their knowledge was tested in a fun banter game of guessing words in English. The students were able to teach the children new words in an interactive way, by using their English skills to help them practice speaking and reading in another language. This lingual delight left the children energized and student-volunteers inspired by the positive influence they created.
Through such service-learning activities, which are part of the academic curriculum at The Beijing Center, students are able to develop holistic perspectives by encountering and engaging with marginalized communities, while also providing an invaluable experience to children who greatly benefit from additional and diverse learning activities.
Founded in 1998, The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies (TBC) is a center of higher education in mainland China committed to fostering mutual understanding between China and other cultures through cultural exchange, education, and research. What makes us unique is our placement in a long and storied tradition of Jesuit education, one that teaches us that true cultural engagement starts first with friendship. To learn more, visit https://thebeijingcenter.org or email [email protected].
TBC stand with the Asian community
We at The Beijing Center (TBC) are all deeply disturbed by the recent violent outbreak against Asian Americans, and we are horrified at the continued unfolding of racially motivated acts of hate and violence. As we collectively continue to battle against the ongoing pandemic, an increase in violence and additional deaths points to the need to expand the awareness of bias and discrimination that is still very much present in our societies.
As we firmly stand with the Asian community now and always, we recognize the severity of this occurrence and the urgent need for positive change and global unity. The effects of this act of violence reach beyond Atlanta, reminding us all of the harsh reality – that any individual, regardless of race and ethnicity, can be targeted and that we should work towards eliminating the propensity for violence.
As an international education institution built on a multicultural Jesuit identity, we can’t help but be grateful for the inclusive and diverse community and company culture we have cultivated. In doing so, we are taking this racially-motivated violence towards the Asian community with a heavy heart and an open mind into further understanding the intricacy of injustices brought on by intersectionality.
Ancient Practices to Improve Mental Wellness: Insights from Daoism, Spiritual Discernment, & Taichi
On March 13, 2021, The Beijing Center held an online webinar discussing a prevalent global issue at the moment – mental health. Continue reading “Ancient Practices to Improve Mental Wellness: Insights from Daoism, Spiritual Discernment, & Taichi”
Keeping protection and safety at the heart of our mission
Fostering a safe and supportive environment, especially where children and vulnerable people are concerned, has been at the forefront of the mission of the Society of Jesus. It is in fact one of three important matters entrusted by General Congregation 36 to Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ to “promote within the Society and its ministries a consistent culture of protection and safety of minors”, acknowledging that there remains much more to be done in becoming real advocates of the protection of minors.
There are currently four Jesuits from our conference who are in Rome for exactly this purpose. Fr James Wenceslao U Gascon SJ from the Philippines, Fr Agustinus Tanudjaja SJ from Malaysia-Singapore Region, Fr Alis W Prasetya SJ from Indonesia, and Fr Vincent Phuc Minh Nguyen SJ from Vietnam are just beginning their diploma course on safeguarding at the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) of the Pontifical Gregorian University.
CCP’s diploma course is the only safeguarding education programme that formally incorporates Catholic teaching. The participants of the programme learn not only the competencies within the field of safeguarding, but also how to relate the lessons in the course to their own cultural realities. For our participants, this is important as they are expected to lead in promoting safeguarding in their home provinces.
Fr Gascon is the Convener of the Safety in Ministry Network of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, as well as the Safeguarding Officer of the Philippine Province. His training in Rome helps prepare him to lead a similar diploma course on safeguarding to be offered by the Catholic Safeguarding Institute (CSI) this coming school year, from August to December. CSI, which is based at the Ateneo de Manila University, seeks to offer a safeguarding programme suited to the church in the Asia Pacific context. Fr Gascon is the Educational Program Director and Chaplain of the institute.
Since 2011, the Archdiocese of Singapore has had in place a Professional Standards Office that deals with sexual abuse against children and young people. In the last two years, the Malaysia-Singapore Jesuit Region has held safeguarding workshops in addition to those conducted by the Professional Standards Office. Fr Tanudjaja, who is a member of the region’s safeguarding team, is open to discovering what God has in store for him, trusting that it will be something useful, which he can take back to Singapore at the end of the course. “So far, the journey has been smooth,” he says, grateful, among many things, for his three companions from the conference.
Fr Prasetya brings with him the hope of the Indonesian Church to create a safe and healthy environment and ministry. “I realise that it is a big project that needs a big heart to do,” he says. As the safeguarding delegate of the Indonesian Province, he looks forward to learning the pedagogy of creating and managing a culture of safety in ministry, and to network with others from different cultures and backgrounds engaged in the same field.
Collaboration is also top of mind for Fr Phuc, particularly in developing a programme that will help children and adolescents in Vietnam who have been abused to recover and lead productive lives. “It’s important for me that I really care about children who have been abused,” he says. “What are the tragic consequences they have to endure?”
Fr Phuc will go on to study Psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University after his course at CCP to prepare him for formation work in Vietnam. He is motivated by a desire to gain a deeper understanding of psychology, ethics, and the factors required for the overall growth and development of children. He also wants to know what drives people who violate children to commit such acts, and what we can do together to prevent and reduce child abuse. “We can do something to help heal their injuries,” he says, “and help them somehow grow up normally.”