Using Ignatian Pedagogy to Support Faculty-Student Mentoring

Faculty mentors teach new skills, offer personal guidance, and act as role models for their students. In addition to professional support, mentors may also serve to encourage their protégés’ personal development and values discernment. Mentoring provides an opportunity to apply the experience reflection action Ignatian paradigm towards student formation, and building a meaningful mentor relationship may offer a transformative experience for students. In addition, many university-sponsored faculty mentor programs directly incorporate Jesuit values of social justice in their missions. One example is the federally-funded TRIO programs that include mentoring to assist low-income individuals and first-generation college students in progressing through the academic pipeline (the TRIO name comes from the original three programs implemented: Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services). This paper outlines a range of faculty-student mentoring opportunities in Jesuit universities and considers how Ignatian pedagogy may support the mentoring experience. Best practices in mentoring are reviewed, challenges in mentoring are identified, and recommendations are offered

Unpacking 'Give Back Box:': A Social Enterprise at the Intersection of Leadership, Innovation, and Sustainability

Once the domain of government agencies and non-profit organizations, a social enterprise integrates social benefits such as employment and sustainability into a for-profit firm’s mission.  The social enterprise (SE) bottom line includes both economic and social value, reflecting an intersection of the Jesuit leadership tradition with commercial business enterprise.  This case study describes the start-up of Give Back Box (GBB), a Chicago-based social enterprise that supports recycling and repurposing.  GBB’s business model involves providing a convenient, no-cost opportunity to follow up an online purchase by recycling the shipping box to forward unneeded items to charities.  GBB was founded in 2012 by two entrepreneurs with expertise in global business as well as online retailing. Thus, this case also addresses the entrepreneurial dimension of SE by illustrating the close link between social enterprise and social entrepreneurship.  Following its initial pilot phase, GBB has grown steadily, receiving impressive media coverage that has included articles in Forbes, Fast Company, and a feature on NBC’s ‘Today’ show.  In 2013 another partner joined GBB: a Colombian engineer with an MBA from a U.S. Jesuit business school who has sought to apply business principles and Jesuit values in his work as a GBB partner.  This case study describes the start-up’s inception, its mission and business plan, and its achievements to date, together with recommendations for other SE start-ups

Unpacking \u27Give Back Box:\u27 A Social Enterprise at the Intersection of Leadership, Innovation, and Sustainability

Once the domain of government agencies and non-profit organizations, a social enterprise integrates social benefits such as employment and sustainability into a for-profit firm\u27s mission. The social enterprise (SE) bottom line includes both economic and social value, reflecting an intersection of the Jesuit leadership tradition with commercial business enterprise. This case study describes the start-up of Give Back Box (GBB), a Chicago-based social enterprise that supports recycling and repurposing. GBB\u27s business model involves providing a convenient, no-cost opportunity to follow up an online purchase by recycling the shipping box to forward unneeded items to charities. GBB was founded in 2012 by two entrepreneurs with expertise in global business as well as online retailing. Thus, this case also addresses the entrepreneurial dimension of SE by illustrating the close link between social enterprise and social entrepreneurship. Following its initial pilot phase, GBB has grown steadily, receiving impressive media coverage that has included articles in Forbes, Fast Company, and a feature on NBC\u27s \u27Today\u27 show. In 2013 another partner joined GBB: a Colombian engineer with an MBA from a U.S. Jesuit business school who has sought to apply business principles and Jesuit values in his work as a GBB partner. This case study describes the start-up\u27s inception, its mission and business plan, and its achievements to date, together with recommendations for other SE start-ups

Beyond ‘Innocents Abroad’: Reflecting on Sustainability Issues During International Study Trips

With ecosystems and populations in many regions threatened by rapid development, sustainability is a critical component for businesses in mature markets and emerging economies alike. The International Association of Jesuit Business Schools notes that global sustainability involves a broad set of interconnected issues ranging from environmental preservation to social justice to desirable production and consumption patterns. Jesuit business schools are uniquely positioned to address sustainability issues with their focus on teaching managerial content in tandem with corporate social responsibility. Further, the Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm of experience, reflection, and action would suggest that business students may benefit from reflective observation in support of learning about sustainability.In this paper, we examine the international study trip as an opportunity for students to learn about sustainability, with results suggesting that student understanding about the broad sustainability domain may be enhanced through the study abroad experience. We discuss how two classes of primarily American MBA students traveling to emerging markets (one class to Santiago, Chile and one class to Johannesburg, South Africa) were able to connect local business practices with economic and social as well as environmental sustainability issues, enhancing both student engagement and learning outcomes. Further, these students’ sustainability experiences while in an unfamiliar environment provided the opportunity to apply the potentially transformative experience, reflection, and action components of the Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm. Compared to similar graduate business students enrolled in regular classes, we argue that these students discerned deeper connections with the economic, social, and environmental issues of sustainability

Factors Influencing Career Choice for Women in Science, Mathematics, and Technology: The Importance of a Transforming Experience

Organizations in the business sector, as well as government and academia, continue to demand intelligent professionals trained in science, mathematics, and technology. This paper explores factors that may influence women's initial choices to pursue careers in these fields. In addition to the many well-established factors that guide an individual's career choice, we propose that women who choose careers in science and technology have a subset of common early experiences that encourage them to pursue a career path still regarded as contrary to traditional gender roles for women. For many women, this common background is a transforming experience that supports their career choice in science, mathematics, and technology. This transforming experience is composed of personal contact with a role model and often an intimate involvement with the process that serves as an invitation into the world of scientific inquiry. The researchers outline a model for women's career selection in these nontraditional fields, and our results suggest some recommendations for increasing the numbers of women in these careers

Physical activity, diet and other behavioural interventions for improving cognition and school achievement in children and adolescents with obesity or overweight

Background: The global prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity is high. Lifestyle changes towards a healthy diet, increased physical activity and reduced sedentary activities are recommended to prevent and treat obesity. Evidence suggests that changing these health behaviours can benefit cognitive function and school achievement in children and adolescents in general. There are various theoretical mechanisms that suggest that children and adolescents with excessive body fat may benefit particularly from these interventions. Objectives: To assess whether lifestyle interventions (in the areas of diet, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and behavioural therapy) improve school achievement, cognitive function (e.g. executive functions) and/or future success in children and adolescents with obesity or overweight, compared with standard care, waiting-list control, no treatment, or an attention placebo control group. Search methods: In February 2017, we searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE and 15 other databases. We also searched two trials registries, reference lists, and handsearched one journal from inception. We also contacted researchers in the field to obtain unpublished data. Selection criteria: We included randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of behavioural interventions for weight management in children and adolescents with obesity or overweight. We excluded studies in children and adolescents with medical conditions known to affect weight status, school achievement and cognitive function. We also excluded self- and parent-reported outcomes. Data collection and analysis: Four review authors independently selected studies for inclusion. Two review authors extracted data, assessed quality and risks of bias, and evaluated the quality of the evidence using the GRADE approach. We contacted study authors to obtain additional information. We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. Where the same outcome was assessed across different intervention types, we reported standardised effect sizes for findings from single-study and multiple-study analyses to allow comparison of intervention effects across intervention types. To ease interpretation of the effect size, we also reported the mean difference of effect sizes for single-study outcomes. Main results: We included 18 studies (59 records) of 2384 children and adolescents with obesity or overweight. Eight studies delivered physical activity interventions, seven studies combined physical activity programmes with healthy lifestyle education, and three studies delivered dietary interventions. We included five RCTs and 13 cluster-RCTs. The studies took place in 10 different countries. Two were carried out in children attending preschool, 11 were conducted in primary/elementary school-aged children, four studies were aimed at adolescents attending secondary/high school and one study included primary/elementary and secondary/high school-aged children. The number of studies included for each outcome was low, with up to only three studies per outcome. The quality of evidence ranged from high to very low and 17 studies had a high risk of bias for at least one item. None of the studies reported data on additional educational support needs and adverse events. Compared to standard practice, analyses of physical activity-only interventions suggested high-quality evidence for improved mean cognitive executive function scores. The mean difference (MD) was 5.00 scale points higher in an after-school exercise group compared to standard practice (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.68 to 9.32; scale mean 100, standard deviation 15; 116 children, 1 study). There was no statistically significant beneficial effect in favour of the intervention for mathematics, reading, or inhibition control. The standardised mean difference (SMD) for mathematics was 0.49 (95% CI -0.04 to 1.01; 2 studies, 255 children, moderate-quality evidence) and for reading was 0.10 (95% CI -0.30 to 0.49; 2 studies, 308 children, moderate-quality evidence). The MD for inhibition control was -1.55 scale points (95% CI -5.85 to 2.75; scale range 0 to 100; SMD -0.15, 95% CI -0.58 to 0.28; 1 study, 84 children, very low-quality evidence). No data were available for average achievement across subjects taught at school. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of physical activity interventions combined with healthy lifestyle education on average achievement across subjects taught at school, mathematics achievement, reading achievement or inhibition control. The MD for average achievement across subjects taught at school was 6.37 points lower in the intervention group compared to standard practice (95% CI -36.83 to 24.09; scale mean 500, scale SD 70; SMD -0.18, 95% CI -0.93 to 0.58; 1 study, 31 children, low-quality evidence). The effect estimate for mathematics achievement was SMD 0.02 (95% CI -0.19 to 0.22; 3 studies, 384 children, very low-quality evidence), for reading achievement SMD 0.00 (95% CI -0.24 to 0.24; 2 studies, 284 children, low-quality evidence), and for inhibition control SMD -0.67 (95% CI -1.50 to 0.16; 2 studies, 110 children, very low-quality evidence). No data were available for the effect of combined physical activity and healthy lifestyle education on cognitive executive functions. There was a moderate difference in the average achievement across subjects taught at school favouring interventions targeting the improvement of the school food environment compared to standard practice in adolescents with obesity (SMD 0.46, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.66; 2 studies, 382 adolescents, low-quality evidence), but not with overweight. Replacing packed school lunch with a nutrient-rich diet in addition to nutrition education did not improve mathematics (MD -2.18, 95% CI -5.83 to 1.47; scale range 0 to 69; SMD -0.26, 95% CI -0.72 to 0.20; 1 study, 76 children, low-quality evidence) and reading achievement (MD 1.17, 95% CI -4.40 to 6.73; scale range 0 to 108; SMD 0.13, 95% CI -0.35 to 0.61; 1 study, 67 children, low-quality evidence). Authors' conclusions: Despite the large number of childhood and adolescent obesity treatment trials, we were only able to partially assess the impact of obesity treatment interventions on school achievement and cognitive abilities. School and community-based physical activity interventions as part of an obesity prevention or treatment programme can benefit executive functions of children with obesity or overweight specifically. Similarly, school-based dietary interventions may benefit general school achievement in children with obesity. These findings might assist health and education practitioners to make decisions related to promoting physical activity and healthy eating in schools. Future obesity treatment and prevention studies in clinical, school and community settings should consider assessing academic and cognitive as well as physical outcomes

Recruitment of latent pools of high-avidity CD8+ T cells to the antitumor immune response

A major barrier to successful antitumor vaccination is tolerance of high-avidity T cells specific to tumor antigens. In keeping with this notion, HER-2/neu (neu)-targeted vaccines, which raise strong CD8+ T cell responses to a dominant peptide (RNEU420-429) in WT FVB/N mice and protect them from a neu-expressing tumor challenge, fail to do so in MMTV-neu (neu-N) transgenic mice. However, treatment of neu-N mice with vaccine and cyclophosphamide-containing chemotherapy resulted in tumor protection in a proportion of mice. This effect was specifically abrogated by the transfer of neu-N–derived CD4+CD25+ T cells. RNEU420-429-specific CD8+ T cells were identified only in neu-N mice given vaccine and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy which rejected tumor challenge. Tetramer-binding studies demonstrated that cyclophosphamide pretreatment allowed the activation of high-avidity RNEU420-429-specific CD8+ T cells comparable to those generated from vaccinated FVB/N mice. Cyclophosphamide seemed to inhibit regulatory T (T reg) cells by selectively depleting the cycling population of CD4+CD25+ T cells in neu-N mice. These findings demonstrate that neu-N mice possess latent pools of high-avidity neu-specific CD8+ T cells that can be recruited to produce an effective antitumor response if T reg cells are blocked or removed by using approaches such as administration of cyclophosphamide before vaccination

Novel mutations expand the clinical spectrum of DYNC1H1-associated spinal muscular atrophy

OBJECTIVE To expand the clinical phenotype of autosomal dominant congenital spinal muscular atrophy with lower extremity predominance (SMA-LED) due to mutations in the dynein, cytoplasmic 1, heavy chain 1 (DYNC1H1) gene. METHODS Patients with a phenotype suggestive of a motor, non-length-dependent neuronopathy predominantly affecting the lower limbs were identified at participating neuromuscular centers and referred for targeted sequencing of DYNC1H1. RESULTS We report a cohort of 30 cases of SMA-LED from 16 families, carrying mutations in the tail and motor domains of DYNC1H1, including 10 novel mutations. These patients are characterized by congenital or childhood-onset lower limb wasting and weakness frequently associated with cognitive impairment. The clinical severity is variable, ranging from generalized arthrogryposis and inability to ambulate to exclusive and mild lower limb weakness. In many individuals with cognitive impairment (9/30 had cognitive impairment) who underwent brain MRI, there was an underlying structural malformation resulting in polymicrogyric appearance. The lower limb muscle MRI shows a distinctive pattern suggestive of denervation characterized by sparing and relative hypertrophy of the adductor longus and semitendinosus muscles at the thigh level, and diffuse involvement with relative sparing of the anterior-medial muscles at the calf level. Proximal muscle histopathology did not always show classic neurogenic features. CONCLUSION Our report expands the clinical spectrum of DYNC1H1-related SMA-LED to include generalized arthrogryposis. In addition, we report that the neurogenic peripheral pathology and the CNS neuronal migration defects are often associated, reinforcing the importance of DYNC1H1 in both central and peripheral neuronal functions