Below are approved co-curricular experiences that satisfy the Cura Personalis 2 (CORE 2500) requirement for the Saint Louis University Undergraduate Core. Please note that each experience has a separate registration process conducted by the sponsoring department — students do not sign up for these using the traditional course catalog method.
After completion of the experience, sponsoring departments submit the names of students who should receive credit toward their graduation requirements.
Departments may submit their programs for approval as a Cura Personalis 2 experience online here.
Building Community
Campion Nights are weekly events hosted by the Edmund Campion Society of the Catholic Studies Program at SLU. These nights include opportunities for the sacrament of reconciliation, the rosary, Mass, dinner, a weekly speaker, personal reflection and small group discussion. The Edmund Campion Society is a co-curricular group that complements the Catholic Studies major and minor, though students do not need to study Catholic Studies to participate in the Campion Society and Campion Nights.
- Contact: Jen Sanders
- Sponsoring Department: Catholic Studies Program
- Offered: Ongoing throughout each semester
On Micah Program Community Nights, first-year students meet in small groups facilitated by upper-class Micah students for one hour every Monday that the University is in session. The purpose is for students to build a stronger community, reflect upon and discuss their Micah service, learn about social justice topics. They also build their self-awareness and understanding of their fellow Micah members and their role in the larger St. Louis community. Programming provides opportunities for reflection, analysis, relationship-building and personal growth. Topics center around the program pillars of service, community, interfaith, academics and leadership.
- Contact: Emily Komos
- Sponsoring Department: Micah Program
- Offered: Ongoing throughout the year
Leadership Development / Training Opportunities
The Billikens Act circle process brings students together for a facilitated discussion around the mission and values of SLU, engagement with the campus community, and how we might better live our espoused values in the context of the unique mission and identity of SLU.
- Contact: Bill Bowey
- Sponsoring Department: Student Responsibility and Community Standards
- Offered: Each academic year
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an 8-hour training program that teaches individuals to recognize early, worsening and crisis mental health symptoms and respond accordingly.
- Contact: Tori Harwood
- Sponsoring Department: Campus Recreation and Wellness
- Offered: Ongoing. Multiple training sessions are offered throughout the year.
Policy Pods are groups of about seven students who meet once a week to prepare for legislative advocacy meetings with elected officials.
Students look at bills and research the impacts of the bills, practice advocacy pitches, and meet with district legislators on topics such as immigration, criminal justice, health equity, education equity or environmental issues.
- Contact: Jessica Trout
- Sponsoring Department: Center for Social Action
- Offered: Once each academic year, sign-ups are in the fall.
The Social Justice and Advocacy Training consists of four hybrid workshops (in-person speakers, small group discussions/application, and online prep work) that will be held during the spring semester.
This training covers various tactics and strategies o utilize when working for social change, using both an advocacy lens and a community-organizing lens. It is structured with a Jesuit framework and supports students in thinking about how to do long-term justice work in a healthy way while walking them through creating action plans for advocacy.
- Contact: Jessica Trout
- Sponsoring Department: Center for Social Action
- Offered: Once each spring semester.
Retreats
This day-long retreat, run by Jesuits in formation from the Bellarmine House Jesuit community, in collaboration with and under the auspices of Campus Ministry, builds on the popularity of "Java with the Jesuits" and provides students with an opportunity to reflect and pray in the Ignatian tradition, following themes from the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, led by Jesuits close in age to the students themselves.
- Contact: Nick Leeper
- Sponsoring Department: Bellarmine House Jesuits and Campus Ministry
- Offered: Occasional Saturdays throughout the academic year
Through community-building activities and story-sharing, the Fresh Look retreat provides you a chance to take a fresh look at your life: who you have been, and who God desires you to be in your future. Within this retreat community, you will also explore the concept of gratitude, and the ways that you — through a variety of approaches to prayer — can encounter and converse with God in everyday life. For first-year students only.
Contact: Jim Roach
Sponsoring Department: Campus Ministry
Offered: Each Fall.
The Connections Retreat invites you to explore how God calls you into greater vulnerability, courage and authenticity in your relationships with your friends, family, romantic partners and yourself. Through small groups and reflection activities, you will have the opportunity to dive into the themes of identity, vulnerability, shame, loneliness, attraction, sexuality, boundaries and intimacy through a lens of faith.
- Contact: Julia Erdlen or Becca Muder
- Sponsoring Department: Campus Ministry
- Offered: Each November.
The Ignite Group Retreat offers an introduction/deepening to some of the key aspects of Ignatian Spirituality in a group setting. During the retreat, participants will be invited to explore the Ignatian pillars of prayer, discernment, reconciliation and “Finding God in All Things” through talks, large group activities, small group discussions and time for personal reflection.
- Contact: Erin Fitzpatrick
- Sponsoring Department: Campus Ministry
- Offered: Each October.
The Ignatian Silent Retreat introduces the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. During the retreat, you will be invited to explore the Ignatian style of prayer by reflecting inward and taking a closer look at your own experience of God through imagination and scripture. You will meet with a spiritual director individually to reflect on and discuss your prayer experiences.
- Contact: Sue Chawszczewski or Patrick Cousins
- Sponsoring Department: Campus Ministry
- Offered: Each January.
This retreat centers on the LGBTQ+ experience, particularly how LGBTQ+ identities interact with religion and spirituality. It is primarily for LGBTQ+-identifying and questioning students, but we welcome heterosexual, cisgender-identifying people who are engaged in accomplice/ally work with the LGBTQ+ community. The retreat will include talks, small groups, solo time, reflections and activities.
- Contact: Patrick Cousins
- Sponsoring Department: Campus Ministry
- Offered: Each February.
The Mission Meets the Market Retreat is an Examen-structured retreat for students majoring in business to explore their vocation/calling as a business professionals. Focusing on reflection of gratitude, experience and proceeding, the retreat experience includes speakers from the business community and/or vocation stories of current faculty and staff.
- Contact: Ben Smyth
- Sponsoring Department: Service Leadership Program, Chaifetz School of Business
- Offered: Once each year.
The Micah Program Spring Retreat is a weekend-long retreat that all first-year Micah students are required to attend. The retreat talks, reflections, and activities all revolve around three of the five pillars of the program: community, service and social justice, and interfaith engagement. The retreat is led by upperclassmen Micah students and Micah Program staff.
- Contact: Emily Komos
- Sponsoring Department: Micah Program
- Offered: Spring semester.
The DICE Student Staff Retreat is offered to student employees of the Center for Social Action and Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement.
- Contact: Jessica Trout
- Sponsoring Department: Center for Social Action and Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement
- Offered: Once each year.
Success and Wellness
- Blueprint for Success: Blueprint for Success is a free student success series designed to help first-time
freshmen students develop effective strategies to maximize their academic potential.
In groups of 12 or fewer, students will be guided through sessions and activities
to learn strategies for managing time, finding motivation, gaining confidence in academic
abilities, wellness/self-care, and vocational discernment. All students will be enrolled
in a Canvas course, where they can explore additional resources for success, complete
out-of-group assignments, and instructors can track attendance.
- Contact: Brittany Ludwig
- Sponsoring Department: Student Success and Academic Advising
- Offered: Spring semester
- Learn More About Blueprint for Success
Opportunities at SLU-Madrid
CURA in the Library Book Club is conceived as a space for students to be contemplative in action, that is, to reflect on their day-to-day life in conversation with a set of chosen books and with each other. The experience will be guided by the Saint Louis University — Madrid Library staff, and moderated by the student participants.
- Contact: Sara Perez
- Sponsoring Department: SLU-Madrid Library
- Offered: Fall semester
Cura Personalis for Athletes provides students in Madrid participating in athletics/club sports a chance to reflect on their life experiences both on the field and off. Students meet five times over the semester and discuss such topics as vocational discernment, wellness, self-identity, values formation and spirituality.
Contact: Cesar Rioja
Sponsoring Department: SLU-Madrid Athletics
Offered: Each semester
The Ignatian Pilgrimage Retreat to Loyola traces the life of St. Ignatius, visiting his birthplace, family home, the hospital where he worked and — perhaps most notably — the spot where he converted to Catholicism and gave his life to God. During the three-day retreat, both visiting and permanent students of different faiths shared their thoughts and made new friends, all while learning about the rich history of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order.
- Contact: Paloma Gómez de Salazar,
- Sponsoring Department: Campus Ministry - Madrid
- Offered: Once each semester