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Posted: October 22

Nothing common about Messina

(Omaha) There are probably few people in the world who would fly from Rome to Omaha, Nebraska, just for a long weekend. And probably fewer still who would be happy to do so. Well, count me among that small group, perhaps the only one. Thursday morning I left Rome and spent the next 19 hours flying from Italy to Amsterdam to the heartland of the United States. Tomorrow evening I will retrace my steps, and will go with a very happy smile on my face. The reason for such a brief if lengthy trip was to be part of the second planning session of a new organization we are trying to create: Messina Commons. The name refers to the first school that St. Ignatius ever founded, back in the sixteenth century, in Messina, Sicily. Today we are trying to found a new approach to education, not so much a school as a way to use modern communication technology to communicate people who live far apart but have something in common. One example that has already started comes from the university diplomas that Burmese refugees in Thailand have gotten from a Catholic university in Australia.

There are many other possibilities, such as a nursing school that might help home health care volunteers in Africa learn how to care for their neighbors suffering from AIDS. Programs for this are already in place and doing great work, but they could be better if they had the support of teachers who might actually live half way around the globe but are willing to share what they know. Sixteen people from various U.S. Jesuit universities met here in Omaha on the Creighton U. campus to think through the issues of starting an organization that would make this kind of cooperation possible. We talked a lot about different metaphors that could describe what we are trying to do, and pondered the various issues involved.

We are just at the start of the development process, but things are already starting to move very quickly. And there is a great spirit of entrepeneurship among the folks. That certainly disproves the misperception that academics are stuffy people opposed to innovation. At least these people break that mold, or that stereotype. Many of them are already experienced in distance education, like Mary McFarland and Mike Carey from Gonzaga University in Spokane, who have seen their graduate program in educational leadership grow exponentially. Several members of the group form the Jesuit Net group from the organization that assists the Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States; Jesuit Net has developed a unique method of developing online courses that marries Jesuit tradition and modern pedagogy.

And then there is me, and I am learning all the time about the new possibilities. Mostly what I bring to the table is what I have learned from traveling all over the world. I know people who should meet other people because they really have a lot in common, they just have not met, yet. Hopefully they will. I get excited by this because we are just scratching the surface of what can be done. Jesuits have a world-wide network that has mostly stayed focused on local concerns. I hope that Messina Commons will widen our perspective and help us to use the incredible resources we have in ways that will soon seem obvious. And that is worth spending 19 hours cooped up in an airplane.

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