GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT

Over the past month, St John’s Beaumont has hosted Georgetown University student Kartikeya Unival as part of UK-wide study about the impact of the Jesuit Pupil Profile in learning outcomes. Kartikeya has become a familiar face around the school and has been actively involved in life at St John’s. He talks more about his research project and experience below:

My name is Kartikeya Uniyal and I am a final year undergraduate student at Georgetown University. I study International Politics at the School of Foreign Service, and I will be beginning an Accelerated Master’s Program in Learning Design and Technology in August at Georgetown’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. I was born and raised in India where I studied across schools in Mumbai and Delhi.
 
I am visiting St. John’s as a part of my research on the Jesuit Pupil Profile implemented by Jesuit schools across the UK. This research is part of the Education and Social Justice Fellowship, which has been administered annually since 2010 by the Center for Social Justice and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. In the last 12 years, 45 fellows have researched Jesuit education in over 39 countries. The purpose of my project is to study the impact of the Jesuit Pupil Profile (JPP) on learning outcomes in England. More specifically:

• Study the relevance of the JPP at St John’s Beaumont in the context of the academic and co-curricular experiences of students.
• Define and analyze the experiences of SJB community members as they seek to achieve the goals of JPP.
• Contextualizing the JPP in relation to in-class and outside learning
• Comparing the effectiveness of JPP’s implementation across some of the 11 Jesuit-run schools in England and understanding its effect on educational outcomes

 
I have been observing the daily life of students at SJB over the past week. My research plan includes meeting with the students, teachers, administrators, staff, and parents over the next few weeks. The SJB community has been very supportive and welcoming to my visit and I hope to reflect the experiences of all stakeholders in my findings.

I have caught a few fixtures, attended a lot of classes, and am really looking forward to the Lion King production. I enjoyed running across London with the boarders last weekend and visiting sites like the St. Paul’s Cathedral and Marble Arch (my knees have a different story). I will also compare the experiences of students here with other Jesuit schools in the country, including Stonyhurst College, Mount St. Mary’s College, Wimbledon College, Donhead Preparatory School, and St Ignatius College. I hope my findings are able to help the schools center their decisions around social justice and contribute to the ongoing implementation of the Jesuit Pupil Profile.