Diversity & Kinship

List of 8 items.

• Diversity Strategic Plan

  The Regis Jesuit Diversity Strategic Plan was developed during the 2015-16 school year in an effort led by the school's diversity directors. It consisted of extensive information-gathering from all key community constituents and stakeholders including the students, alums, faculty, parents, donors, school administration and board members over a period of several months. The process produced a five-year diversity strategic plan that was ratified by the President and Board of Trustees in 2016.
  View the 2016 Diversity Strategic Plan

  Read More

• Kinship

  Kinship, as defined by Britannica, is the system of social organization based on real or putative family ties. Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ puts it more simply by saying “Kinship is we belong to each other.” He continues, saying that “we seek to create loving communities of kinship precisely to counteract mounting lovelessness, racism, and the cultural disparagement that keeps us apart.”
  
  Kinship helps to make clear that sense of community and family through that core Ignatian value of “Finding God in All Things,” which roots us in the awareness that God can be found in everyone, every place and in everything. It helps to create that culture of encounter that Pope Francis invites us to in his Encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti”. If we “belong to each other” then we should be more curious and passionate about meeting others, seeking points of contact, building bridges and planning projects that include everyone.

• Demographics & Fast Facts

  At the turn of this century, Regis Jesuit was an all-boys school with an enrollment of approximately 600 students consisting of just under 10% of students of color who came primarily from the cities of Denver and Aurora.  Since then, we have added an all-girls program to create the first known Jesuit high school that offers single-gender instruction to both boys and girls on the same campus, educating approximately 940 boys and 760 girls every year. 
  
  Demographic Overview
  
  

  

  
  Our goal is to enroll a student body that is reflective of the community in which we educate and one that helps prepare our students for leadership and service in the multi-faceted world that they will move on to upon their graduation from Regis Jesuit.

• Timeline & History of the Program

  As a school, we have long recognized that a diverse student body is critical to forming the whole person and better preparing our students to work in an increasingly multicultural world, one in which local, national and international tensions are often grounded in cultural, religious or linguistic differences. Almost immediately following the move from North Denver to Aurora, Regis Jesuit committed itself to elevating the diversity of the student body and expanding the holistic and intersectional concept of diversity for students, parents and faculty and staff. Here are the efforts and actions undertaken in support of that goal:
  

  • 1993 Parent Diversity Group is formed
  • 1996 First Diversity Director hired
  • 2006 First Annual Diversity Day Conference held
  • 2010 Student-led diversity programming incorporated into advisement program
  • 2016 Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan ratified by the Board of Trustees
  • 2018 Assistant Principal for Mission, Ministry & Diversity is hired

  See All Key Diversity Dates and Initiatives

• Outreach & Support to Families

  Parent Diversity Committee 
  Dating back to the mid-1990s, our Parent Diversity Committee (PDC) is for interested parents to join together on a monthly basis in a supportive community that fosters an environment reflecting the challenges of inclusiveness and respect for everyone including students, parents, faculty and staff. With the understanding that learning about and appreciating a diverse community is a lifelong learning process, this community continuously promotes this value at Regis Jesuit. The focus of the work of this committee is always determined by the parents in the group and specifically addresses the needs they bring. If you are interested in learning more about the PDC, please contact Chris Vela.
  
  Support for ESL Families
  We have a dedicated staff member as part of our Admissions team to help guide Spanish-speaking families through the application and enrollment process. Then, Spanish-speaking parents of students accepted to Regis Jesuit are supported by a committee, established in 2017 and led by our diversity directors and family liaison, that brings together all our ESL families regularly for support with admissions, onboarding, retention and communications throughout their four years at the school. If you have any questions, please reach out to Carmen Quintanilla.

• Hiring for Mission

  Hiring and Equity Policies
  Hiring for diversity is hiring for our mission. Regis Jesuit is committed to hiring the most talented, diverse and caring faculty and staff to guide our students. We have made tremendous strides in building a more diverse student population. One of our strategic goals currently is to assemble a faculty and staff that better reflects the growing diversity of our students. Thus, prospective employees who will help us meet the aims of inclusivity and diversity are encouraged to contact us, even if a particular position does not appear. 
  We have implemented a schoolwide policy to help ensure that candidates from diverse backgrounds are included in our hiring process. We have paired this with a policy focused on equity to ensure that we are upholding the values of our mission promise in how we conduct ourselves from the standpoint of diversity and inclusion. 
  
  Faculty and Staff Formation
  Opportunities for professional development pertaining to diversity and inclusion are numerous and offered year-round at Regis Jesuit, are an expectation for all faculty and staff and include:
  

  • Faculty and Staff Diversity In-Service Days
    Occurring at least yearly focused on diversity topics and issues 
  • Culturally-Responsive Teaching Training 
    Culturally-responsive teaching training is the instructional practice of teaching that recognize, honor and leverage cultural diversity in educational settings, with the goal of ensuring the academic success of all students, challenging us to ask ourselves: How can we validate the many aspects of identity through our teaching?
  • Implicit Bias Training
    Required for all hiring managers and department chairs
  • Diversity Conferences and Workshops
    Faculty and staff are always encouraged to attend conferences and workshops to further their understanding of Diversity & Kinship work
  • Diversity Book Clubs and Discussion Groups
    Offering faculty and staff the opportunity to read a book or have a discussion based on a Diversity & Kinship subject area to hear and learn from a variety of perspectives
  • Faculty Diversity Committee
    Participates annually in a discussion and review of the Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan

• The Profile of the Graduate @ Graduation

  Jesuit education is, has been, and always will be focused on whole person education: mind, spirit, and body. Jesuit education accomplishes this through cura personalis (personalized care and concern for the individual) and a holistic curriculum. Jesuit education aims to form lifelong learners imbued with an Ignatian approach to living shaped by the knowledge, understanding, and use of the interplay of experience, reflection and action (the dynamic at the heart of the Spiritual Exercises). Jesuit education also aims to graduate students with the desire and the personal resources to be Men and Women with and for Others.
  In their growth through the Profile, students learn to “appreciate diversity within our community and work to achieve an inclusive environment” by being:

  • Loving
    "Has begun to come to grips with personal prejudices and stereotypes, communicates more easily with others, especially peers of other races, religions, nationalities, and socio-economic backgrounds.”
  • Intellectually Competent
    "They will therefore be exposed to curriculum and experiences that will help them grow in “awareness of local and global social problems and their public policy implications and moral ambiguities.”
  • Committed to Doing Justice
    "If it is to graduate students 'committed to doing justice,' as the Profile calls for, Regis Jesuit itself must model inclusion by providing greater access to under-represented ethnic, racial and economic groups."
  • Open to Growth
    “Is becoming more flexible and open to other points of view; recognizes how much one learns from a careful listening to peers and significant others; and recognizes one’s biases, limitations, and thinking patterns.”

• Resources for Catholic Jesuit Mission-Based Diversity Work

  • USCCB "Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching"
  • USCCB "Open Wide Our Hearts; The Enduring Call to Love, A Pastoral Letter Against Racism"
  • Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ's 1967 Letter to the Provincials "Interracial Apostolate” 
  • JSN "What Great Love! An Ignatian Framework for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging"
  • Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences
  • Vatican News "Synod Retreat Meditation: 'Resurrection Fishing'"
  • Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace "The Church and Racism": Toward A More Fraternal Society
  • "The Crucible of Racism: Ignatian Spirituality and the Power of Hope" by Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ
  • "The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola" by Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ
  • USCCB "Stations of the Cross: Overcoming Racism"
  • Jesuit Central and Southern "Responding to the Call: Jesuits and Racial Justice"