Mission

The mission of the Office for Community Service and Action (CSA) is to serve the diverse Loyola and local communities by fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.

Values

Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching and Ignatian traditions, we are committed to being a people of service and hope. Students work together on this journey through direct service with vulnerable and marginalized neighbors and through advocacy to build just systems impacting us all. Firm in our purpose of engaging students in life-long practices and behaviors and inspired by the hungers articulated in Loyola’s “Transformative Education in the Jesuit Tradition,” Community Service and Action weaves its values into a four-part process of student engagement in which we:

Immerse students in the world through direct contact with and advocacy for vulnerable populations, with the guidance of community partners and issue experts. Through experience with complex social issues, we believe that students can open themselves to intentional new ways of knowing and being – ways that are rooted in justice, solidarity, and equity.

Invite students to connect their intellectual and spiritual selves in understanding their experiences of service and advocacy. By integrating their experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and actions through critical analysis – especially when those parts of themselves may be in conflict – we believe that students can develop awareness and seek wholeness for themselves and for the world.

Inspire students to engage in reflection that supports thoughtful and hopeful visioning for the future, using their imaginations to envision a just world that supports human dignity and community. With a constructive curiosity for what has been, what is, and what is yet to be – we believe that students can be visionaries for a peaceful world framed around the common good.

Ignite students’ passions and plans for a life of justice at Loyola and beyond. With integrated skills of the heart – compassion, empathy, self-awareness – and of the mind – critical thinking, social analysis, theory application – developed and integrated through service and advocacy, we believe that students can be agents of change contributing to a just world through their diverse professions and vocations.