Ignatian Service, Minor

Saint Louis University’s Ignatian service minor integrates reflection, leadership and professional formation through project-based community engagement. Be challenged to help transform a city while the city transforms your education.

Also known as iSERV@SLU, the Ignatian service minor serves under-resourced schools and helps to end the cycle of poverty in St. Louis with innovative after-school programming that exercises students’ minds and bodies. The minor’s three required courses examine the Jesuit tradition, Ignatian spirituality and servant leadership, and professional and vocation discernment.

SLU’s Ignatian service minor is for students who:

• Come from any background and see spirituality as a way of life
• Desire to be a catalyst for change
• Seek a practical way to take a theology course
• Know that theory and practice go hand-in-hand

Write Your Own Path

Working with faculty, students can create a custom pathway through the Saint Louis University Undergraduate Core that locates service as the integral component of the entire educational experience. Electives can be coordinated into focus areas by submitting contracts for elective courses so long as the instructor agrees to adopt a syllabus to meet the program requirements.

Hands-on Learning: ​Participate in The Clavius Project  

The Clavius Project was started in 2014 by St. Louis University High School students. It brings robotics and STEM enrichment programming into underserved elementary and middle schools across St. Louis. Middle school students learn robotics, coding and 3D-printing through this after-school project.

Curriculum Overview

Students enrolled in Saint Louis University’s Ignatian service minor complete three required courses that help them complete the University core, supplement their major fields of study and enhance their educational experience through service and reflection.

• SERV 1000: Ignatian Spirituality and Service 
• SERV 3000: Ignatian Leadership and Service
• SERV 4960: Ignatian Vocation and Service

Three Ignatian service electives round out the minor. Service-site selection and academic advising require that students begin the minor with the required SERV 1000 Ignatian Spirituality and Service (0,3 cr). After working at a service site, students become “servant leaders” who help coordinate the project-based learning among the various partnering service sites as part of SERV 3000 Ignatian Leadership and Service (0,3 cr) . The capstone helps students imagine their “mission after SLU” via SERV 4960 Capstone: Ignatian Vocation and Service (3 cr).

Since this minor is cross-disciplinary, no student can complete the minor without taking elective coursework in more than one department. All eligible elective courses meet two criteria. Electives must fulfill at least two of the five learning outcomes of the Ignatian service minor and require at least 25 credit hours of service learning as an academic part of the syllabus.

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REQUIRED: For SERV 1000 Ignatian Spirituality and Service (0,3 cr) and SERV 3000 Ignatian Leadership and Service (0,3 cr) students must enroll in a lecture (3-credit LEC) and a service-site "internship" (0-credit INT).

Non-Course Requirements

All six courses include service learning.