Teaching Award Descriptions

This prestigious award is named for Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order and patron saint of our University.

The St. Ignatius Loyola Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes faculty whose teaching involves a commitment to excellence, raises global awareness, promotes social justice, and educates the whole student. The award honors the faculty member who embodies true excellence in their teaching, including advising and mentoring students, teaching to mission, and actively engaging students in their learning.

Award candidates are asked to submit materials reflecting their work in the following areas. The St. Ignatius Award winner shows distinction in all areas.

• Commitment to excellence (or Magis): a commitment to exceeding expectations and striving to innovate and improve, particularly in terms of advising and mentoring, teaching to mission, and actively engaging students in the learning process.
  
  
• Raises global awareness: an attention to our global context, such that students learn material not only as applied to the classroom environment, but to conditions and circumstances beyond the University.
  
  
• Promotes social justice: through instruction, challenges injustice, demonstrates the value of diversity and common humanity, and promotes thinking, empathy and actions that defend the right to equitable treatment and opportunity for all people, especially those who are marginalized.
  
  
• Cura Personalis (a Latin phrase that translates as "Care for the whole person”): demonstrating genuine and holistic care for each student as an individual, forging connections with their students to enhance their learning experience.

The award honors the faculty member who embodies excellence in all aspects of teaching, including advising/mentoring, teaching to mission and engaging students in their learning. 

This award is named for Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., the 29th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. The Kolvenbach Award for Engaged Teaching recognizes faculty who promote active and collaborative learning through a variety of hands-on, service-learning, and outreach experiences that encourage students to apply classroom material to real life situations. Exemplary faculty support deep student learning through active engagement and learning application in and outside the classroom.

The Kolvenbach Award winner shows distinction in each of the following areas.

• Engaged learning: Actively facilitates learning opportunities for Loyola students that bring real world examples and applications into the classroom (e.g. through case examples, guest speakers, service projects, research opportunities, community presentations, etc.).

• Active, collaborative approach: Actively involves students in the learning process and reflects on, responds to and adjusts the learning process as it evolves for both the teacher and learners
  
  
• Outreach beyond the classroom: Facilitates student engagement with community partners that respects and uplifts those partnerships as inherently valuable, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial.
  
  
• Justice orientation: Motivates and inspires students in critical thinking, empathy and action for the rights, opportunities, and inherent humanity of those who are disadvantaged or oppressed.

In the Jesuit tradition, the Latin word magis means more, or striving for excellence. In April 2021, after an overwhelming demand on the part of students and faculty colleagues to recognize the great teaching of Loyola’s part-time instructors, FCIP gathered a working group of part-time Loyola instructors to create the criteria for such an award. The Magis Teaching Award for Part-time Instructors presents an opportunity to elevate and celebrate the impact of Loyola’s part-time instructors’ unique and mission-critical contributions to Loyola students.

The Magis winner demonstrates distinction in each of the following areas:

• Presence: Consistently answers the call to be a teacher-practitioner and role model in their field, demonstrating excellence in their chosen careers outside the classroom and sharing their work and life experiences with their students.
  
  
• Magis (a Latin word for "more"): Commitment to going ‘above and beyond’ to meet the needs of their students, persevering through obstacles and exceeding expectations to provide a formative and multi-faceted learning experience. 
  
  
• Cura Personalis (a Latin phrase that translates to "care for the whole person"): Demonstrates genuine and holistic care for each student as an individual, forging connections with their students to enhance their learning experience.
  
  
• Teaching to mission: Consistently embodies the Jesuit ideals of mission, community and service through their course structure, facilitation and engagement with students and the community.