Recently Dr. Barbour was asked by Father Frank Case to comment on the Gonzaga Mission. Father Case is the Vice President for Mission here at Gonzaga University. He then sent out her evocative and profound statement to the entire Gonzaga Community, faculty, staff and others.
Dr. Barbour’s statement on the GU Mission was then picked up by the national Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) because they loved it! They then posted it on the front page of their website (scroll down to see it on left):
Beautiful work JoAnn, and congratulations!
Here is JoAnn’s exquisite statement on leadership in it’s entirety, based on the first sentence of the Gonzaga Mission:
Exploring the Mission Statement
“Gonzaga University is an exemplary learning community that educates students for lives of leadership and service for the common good.”* To lead, one must understand and get to know both the self and other. One develops inherent capabilities and strengths as knowledge of the self grows, and one endeavors to acquire those abilities needed to serve the common good, the other. With self-understanding and other-understanding, a leader learns and practices the tasks, skills, and behaviors needed to serve the other, to help the self and the other flourish. Leadership and service occur within a variety of situations and contexts filled with a variety of meanings. An educated leader recognizes and values the multiplicity of understanding and practice that will ensue as she and he serve the common good.
*From the Gonzaga University Mission Statement, February 2013.