Vincentian Family Dialogue & Practical Social Change Reflection
5% Due by 11:59 PM May 11, 2025
Our Vincentian family extends beyond the 5 historical founders. We have much to learn from our Vincentian family members around the world who are paving the way for a more just world. Through this assignment you will have the opportunity to get to know a Vincentian family member or other social change agent. You are especially encouraged to bring any questions you are personally wrestling with about Vincentian leadership, service, peacebuilding, faith or spirituality to this research and conversation space.
For this assignment you may choose from the following options to engage your Vincentian Family/social change leader:
1.
Vincentian Family Dialogue Videos: Throughout the course you will get to “meet” various members from the Vincentian family through recorded videos. You may choose one of these videos for this assignment. If you do, please be sure you watch all of the videos.
2.
Interview a Modern Day Vincentian leader/social change agent:
1.
a. A list of potential Vincentian family members will be provided OR
b. You can identify a DePaul alumni in your professional field OR
c. Choose someone you consider a Vincentian leader from your life
3.
Attend a Mission and Ministry or Peace, Justice, Conflict Studies event: These will be opportunities for you to meet Vincentian leaders/modern day peacebuilders. Dates and details of events will be posted on D2L News. If you do attend an event please challenge yourself to ask a question.
Questions to explore:
When interviewing, watching the dialogues or attending an event, focus on the person’s commitment to living out Catholic Social teachings and the Vincentian tradition of charity, justice and peacebuilding. Questions to explore include:
· What motivated them to follow in Vincent & Louise’s footsteps/dedicate their lives to social change?
· What is their approach to peacebuilding and social change?
· How are they sustained in their service, justice and/or peacebuilding work?
· What have they learned from their life experience about the Vincentian way of leadership and social change?
· What principles of Catholic Social teaching do they live out?
· Do they have any favorite stories of our Vincentian family founders? Who/what inspired them to get engaged in social change?
Assignment Requirements:
The submitted assignment will be a reflection on what you learned from the dialogue/conversation/event. This is an opportunity for you to share the wisdom you learned with a broader audience. Be engaging and creative in your reflection and imagine you are sharing this with a DePaul student who may know little about our Vincentian heritage and what it means to be an agent of change. You have two options to choose from to summarize what you learn:
Option 1: Written Blog Reflection 500-700 words
Include the following:
1. Any interesting stories you learn, context of the issue they are/were committed to, and their approach to leadership, service and social change.
2. Identify how their responses influence your understandings of leadership, Catholic Social teaching, faith/spirituality and social change in our world.
3. Reflect on what you do or do not choose to integrate into your own vision of leadership and social change.
4. If possible, include a picture of the person and/or an image of the work that they are involved in.
5. Include some
call to action, from your conversation which could include “to learn more about X, read this, watch this, attend this upcoming lecture, think about this, get involved in” etc.
