Ignatius Seminars

“My Ignatius Seminar pushed me to accomplish things I did not know I was capable of. The pride I felt after accomplishing all of the research and the intimate attention I received in a small seminar classroom are irreplaceable. It was a great way to start off my college experience.”
—Michelle Laughlin, College ’10

For many incoming students, the wealth of educational options and courses of study offered at Georgetown College can be both incredibly energizing and at the same time a bit imposing. Georgetown College’s Ignatius Seminar Program —so named for Saint Ignatius of Loyola, on whose philosophy Jesuit education is based — offers first year students the opportunity to delve into one-of-a-kind courses of study that provide interaction with College faculty in a way that makes very real the Jesuit educational theme of Cura personalis: educating the whole person.

Professor Mak Paranjape of the physics department teaches a seminar that combines his own interest in cooking with scientific concepts. "The Ignatius Seminar allowed me flexibility to choose a topic that was of interest to me—and that is cooking," said Paranjape. "So I combined cooking with some science background, and the first 'Art of Cooking: Practical Science in Action' course was conceived. The course also allowed me to show that science is truly everywhere, and that by understanding the underlying principles in something as common as cooking, anyone can become an expert chef."

These personal expressions of each professor's scholarly pursuits show the academic exchange of their mind and spirit—an important aspect of college to share with incoming first year students. Furthermore, each seminar seeks to cultivate the two goals associated with the teachings of St. Ignatius. The first is to cultivate an academic environment in which a faculty member can mentor each student in a personal, even individualized manner. The second goal is to elicit in the student an intellectual response that is both integrative and holistic. The professor’s own particular intellectual pursuits provide students with real-life, tangible examples of the interplay of the physical and spiritual, of disciplined work and intellectual excitement, of academic rigor and creative play.

You can dowload a .pdf of the 2010 First Year Option brochure here!

Professor Peter Charles of the Art and Art History Department teaches the Ignatius Seminar "An Artist's Perspective: The Creative Process."