Dr. Paulette Kidder, Director
This quarter is a significant one for us. It marks Matteo Ricci’s inaugural quarter as an Institute, the introduction of our new core focused on peace and justice, and our first term as part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Though this is a major moment in the life of our academic unit, it does not have an effect on things like students’ degree requirements. It has so far brought on changes in other ways. For instance, it has brought us into closer relationship with our colleagues in related fields. Matteo Ricci now has a representative on Executive Committee, a faculty governance body within the Arts and Sciences. And of course, Matteo Ricci students are now advised by Lauren Van Fossen in the Arts and Sciences Advising Center (more on Lauren below!). Please join me in commemorating this significant quarter!
During this transition in July 2018, we took the opportunity to integrate the advising model and practices of Arts and Sciences and Matteo Ricci to best serve students. The peer advising model transformed into a peer mentor program where students create opportunities to build community within Matteo Ricci and provide guidance for first and second year students. Each student within Matteo Ricci is assigned two advisors: Dr. Paulette Kidder as their faculty advisor and me as their professional advisor. Dr. Kidder and I work as an advising team, along with a student advising assistant, to provide educational planning, guidance, and mentorship to students.
"With the transition of Matteo Ricci College integrating with the College of Arts and Sciences, I was excited to begin working with the faculty, staff, and students of the Matteo Ricci Institute, and I have felt very welcomed by the Matteo Ricci community." - Lauren Van Fossen, Academic Advisor
Lauren is an academic advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and has been with Seattle University for a little over three years both as a graduate student and as a staff member. Before moving to Seattle, she lived in California and earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology at UCLA. As an alum of the Seattle University College of Education’s Student Development Administration graduate program, she feels very connected to the mission of Seattle University and the Jesuit values of this education.
Welcome, Lauren!
Grace Wall, Humanities for Leadership Class of 2019
My name is Grace Wall and I am a graduating fourth-year student in Matteo Ricci’s Humanities for Leadership (BAHL) degree program. One of the many impactful aspects to the BAHL degree is that we complete two internships related to our chosen specialization track, providing immense practical working experience and formative relationships with mentor-supervisors. My specialization is focused mainly in Humanities for Teaching as I will be an elementary school teacher. I completed my second BAHL internship this summer by working for more than 234 hours with the Product Innovations and Marketing Teams at Hatch Early Learning, a family-owned educational supplies business in North Carolina. I had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects that were all applicable to my future teaching career. I developed small-group early childhood teaching activities featured in Hatch’s newest proprietary technology update release and evaluated educational products for alignment with Hatch’s rigorous academic, safety, durability, and quality standards while working with the Product Innovations Team. I also designed an original Outdoor Classroom section for the Hatch catalog and wrote copy for posts on Hatch’s official LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Blog sites while working with the Marketing Team. I was able to apply what I have studied with Matteo Ricci to the professional world. I learned a great deal about my abilities, my values, and my future goals as well as cultivated valuable relationships within the field of education."
Isaiah Powell, Humanities for Leadership Class of 2019
"For my summer internship I found myself in the UK working for the major pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. My eight weeks in London were 
filled with ups, downs, and countless surprises, all of which served as opportunities to demonstrate some of my skills and knowledge while also stretching me in new and exciting ways. The bulk of my time on site was centered around building and revamping two different leadership development programs for AstraZeneca. This allowed me to get a up close look at how large organizations view and understand leadership, and also gain some hands-on experience designing and leading a few programs of my own. My ability to communicate effectively, adapt to new situations, and manage many different time constraints were all tested here and are just a few examples of areas where I experienced a tremendous amount of growth. My hope is that as new opportunities begin to show themselves I will be able to carry many of the lessons I learned forward and apply them in new and interesting ways. This summer really served as a spring board for the future, both preparing me for what is to come and propelling me forward in a way no single classroom experience can."
Jonathan Choe, Humanities for Teaching Class of 2020
Over the weekend of November 3-5 Jonathan Choe (Humanities for Teaching, third year) attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington, DC, with five other students from Seattle University. Jonathan reports: "Focusing on themes of social justice, the conference begins with two days of talks and breakout sessions, on themes such as student advocacy, welcoming LGBT people into the church, restorative justice in our criminal justice system, immigration, and many more! The conference concludes with an Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill, when students meet with the offices of their representatives to discuss issues of social justice such as health care, employment discrimination, and immigration.” And perhaps the best part: a celebrity moment with Fr. James Martin, SJ, author of 'Jesus: A Pilgrimage', 'The Abbey' and 'Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity'!
The Seattle University Ethics Bowl team, directed by Dr. Ben Howe of the Matteo Ricci Institute, has qualified for the national Ethics Bowl competition for the second year in a row. On November 10, SU's team took second place in the Northwest Regional competition of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, held at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. The competition, sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, engages teams of students to respond to urgent and provocative issues of the day through the lenses of ethical theories. This year's cases included topics such as the use of DNA data uploaded to genealogy websites to identify crime suspects; news outlets that disable their comments sections; voting rights for felons; claims of transracial identity, and algorithms governing self-driving cars.
Dr. Paulette Kidder, who serves as a judge in the regional competition, notes, "It's impossible to do well at Ethics Bowl without doing extensive research into the complexities of the cases, or without working to understand the reasons why someone might disagree with your analysis of a problem. In those respects, Ethics Bowl promotes the kind of deep thought and mutual understanding that we need for the health of our democracy." Dr. Howe expressed pride in the accomplishments of the SU team, who have bridged their political differences to become a cohesive group.
The team will be travelling to Baltimore in early March, 2019 for the national competition.
Congratulations to Matteo Ricci faculty member, Jimmy McCarty, for his recent appointment as Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA). Jimmy has served as the 
Interim Director of OMA for the past year while also teaching for the Matteo Ricci Institute. His dedication to inclusivity is apparent in his interactions with students, staff, and faculty as well as his approach to teaching. This Winter Quarter Jimmy will be teaching a new course titled “Introduction to Peace and Justice.” This course will examine the key terms, ideas, and theories that are at the heart of peace and justice studies as an academic discipline. We are excited for Jimmy to share his expertise with students in addition to his continued leadership in the Office of Multicultural Affairs as Director. Please join us in welcoming Jimmy McCarty to this important role.