Does Ateneo education encourage depth of thought? This is a question the Sanggunian has sought to engage this year. In discussions based on the reflections of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., “depth of thought” has been understood as “a profound engagement with the real” that is “a careful analysis (dismembering) for the sake of integration (remembering) around what is deepest: God, Christ, the Gospel” which is necessarily transformative because “the experience of reality includes the broken world, especially the world of the poor, waiting for healing.”
The Sanggunian is performing a broad analysis of student life to identify which areas can be further improved to encourage depth of thought. I will share one of the most important threads that connect these frontiers: externalization—moving out of the campus in meaningful ways.
Why is externalization important? If the Ateneo seeks to form leaders, they should be deeply rooted in the realities outside our red-bricked campus. We first grasp reality in lecture halls and books, but we complete this process of Ignatian imagination by moving out of the classrooms and engaging the problems, joys, pains, triumphs and struggles of the Filipino for ourselves.
Ateneo education already involves extensive externalization. The Integrated Non-Academic Formation Program (INAF) – InTACT, NSTP-PLUS, JEEP and Praxis-Immersion, allows every Atenean to be exposed off campus. The Service Learning Program of Health Sciences and some Management subjects allow direct application of classroom theories to communities. The On-the-Job Training (OJT) Programs of several courses provide workplace experience and input for career discernment. Organizations are involved in engagement of communities and advocacies that are national in scope. In my four years in the Ateneo, students have started several initiatives that respond immediately to national crises including Task Force Ondoy and the fight for the Sumilao farmers.
However, several hindrances remain. The formation program has been met with a spectrum of responses, from lackluster compliance to outright resistance. The Service Learning Program has been mostly targeted to business subjects, with a particular weakness in the sciences and humanities. Students have consistently asked for more OJT and theory application opportunities. A majority of org work in social involvement is advocacy on campus in nature, rather than participation in direct and sustainable community engagements.
With these hindrances and opportunities in mind, I propose three changes that, although may already be present in the current frameworks, still need more emphasis or actual implementation.
Much to learn, much to share. Outside the Loyola Schools, the Atenean is like a Spanish Conquistador in Central America. Whether it is a response of wonder, pity, disgust, shame or inspiration, it is often from a perspective that highlights the difference of contexts. The call to service is often seen from an outsider’s perspective, a call to be a “messiah,” and singlehandedly attempt to solve a community’s problems. While noble, this is essentially problematic.
We have to revisit the paradigm of mutual sharing and learning – a realization that we are not in a position of superiority but rather are tasked to see that our companions are in the same journey to truth, freedom and progress. Our service becomes more grounded on the reality of our shared humanity, better contextualized, exhaustive of the possibilities to learn and empower the people as our equals, not dependents. Being on top sometimes breeds complacency and triumphalism. What makes us the best is not what we know, but rather our humility to accept our limited knowledge and would want to learn more.
Creative shift from additional to integral. Expanding current frameworks to more courses are hindered not by principles, but by questions of feasibility and logistics. Responding to these challenges requires two strategies. One is to view externalization not just as additional but integral. If we are to be true to the ideals of Jesuit education, the student must be allowed to understand the world he/she is called to help heal, not just through reflective exposure but through meaningful engagement. Consultations reveal that students are looking for more integrated avenues to explore applications of classroom concepts. This presents an opportunity to creatively transform this decidedly self-developmental view of learning toward enriching service. The second strategy involves Ignatian creativity. Current frameworks are too constrained by load and output. Once the externalization is seen as integral, it becomes possible to consider how we could do service learning even in electives or OJTs integrated in curriculum.
Internationalization and “nationalization.” An edge in externalization that Ateneo has over other Philippine universities is the breadth of our internationalization programs. As much as it is important to continue these efforts, it would also be valuable to expand internationalization to other parts of student life. Many will benefit from exploring how internationalization can also be made to cover organizations as well. Current participation in student conferences, affiliations and collaborations at the regional and international level are limited at best. Investing in this could go a long way to further improving student life and supplement the benefits of the academic internationalization program.
Another area that needs consideration, however, is “nationalization”—efforts to bring students closer to the Philippine situation. We find in Ateneans a Manila-centric mentality in culture and preferences. As much as globalization is important, there must be efforts to bring students in contact with other cultures beyond Manila. We have much to learn, for example, from the experiences of fellow Ateneans in Naga, Davao, Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro and even fellow students from state universities.
These are but three summary points of several ways to expand externalization in the Ateneo. It cannot be emphasized enough that for Ateneo to truly fulfill its work of forming “Men and Women for Others,” externalization efforts will play a critical role. There is a need to infuse a sense of urgency to begin exploring how to make these efforts more effective and more meaningful to students. Moving out really means moving forward in making Ateneo education more capable of encouraging depth of thought.
Rob Roque (IV BS Ch MSE) is the Sanggunian President. He also chairs Buklod Atenista, an alliance of student councils of the different Philippine Jesuit universities. He plans on spending his fifth and final year studying and working as a volunteer in an NGO.
