The Loyola Promise is expressed and experienced throughout our university community. To learn more about what the Loyola Promise means, review the text below. Or, to read about some extraordinary Loyola people, click on one of the photos (at right, below).

All of us in the university community—faculty, staff and administrators, as well as our students, alumni, donors and friends—are involved in the work of preparing one another to lead extraordinary lives.

To fulfill our Promise, Loyola University Chicago will: seek opportunities for the dialogue between faith and culture; provide an enriched undergraduate, graduate and professional curriculum that challenges students to learn broadly, serve generously and lead courageously; have as its hallmark that faculty and students at all levels are engaged in the discovery and use of knowledge in the service of humanity; take full advantage of Loyola's urban resources and location; and dedicate the necessary resources to support this mission.

This refers, first, to our students, whom we serve as part of our core mission, and, second, to each other. But, as a Jesuit Catholic institution, we also must be committed to assisting all faculty, staff and administrators—and reaching out to our alumni, donors and friends—to enable all persons touched by Loyola to lead extraordinary lives within the university community and beyond.

As part of the Loyola community and its rich Jesuit Catholic tradition, we are inspired to make the world a better place. To do so, this means that each individual must step forward as part of one's family, community, profession—and into society and the world around us—to actively answer the calling to be of service to others.

In today's society, it may be easy to define "extraordinary lives" as those in the glare of cameras and media hype. If so, this would ignore more important stories of extraordinary lives happening around us. Instead, our Jesuit Catholic tradition of education strives to prepare students for extraordinary lives that will reflect the following characteristics:

• Commitment to excellence: Applying well-learned lessons and skills to achieve new ideas, better solutions and vital answers.
• Faith in God and the religious experience: Promoting well-formed and strongly held beliefs in one's faith tradition to deepen others' relationships with God.
• Service that promotes justice: Using learning and leadership in openhanded and generous ways to ensure freedom of inquiry, the pursuit of truth and care for others.
• Values-based leadership: Ensuring a consistent focus on personal integrity, ethical behavior in business and in all professions, and the appropriate balance between justice and fairness.
• Global awareness: Demonstrating an understanding that the world's people and societies are interrelated and interdependent.