Cura Personalis (translated from Latin as “Care for the Whole Person”) is a required one-semester course for freshmen focused on a multi-dimensional understanding of personal wellness. Students explore a variety of topics in the areas of mental health, social health, drug & alcohol awareness, sexual health, and physical fitness. Students are encouraged to explore their own personal values and beliefs while also learning new information and identifying resources that support each student’s aspirations to maximize their potential. Throughout the semester, students are instructed in mindfulness, including the establishment of a meditation practice. Cura Personalis is a Pass/Fail class that does not impact a student’s GPA.
Mathematics Teaching Assistant
Math Teaching Assistants provide support for the math department (1 hour/week) either before school, after school, or during resource period in one or more of the following ways:
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- Assist students taking courses in which the Teaching Assistant has demonstrated mastery.
- Assist with grading assignments that require no teacher interpretation.
Students interested in being a Teaching Assistant are required to fill out a short application available from their teacher or the math department chair. Teaching Assistants are typically supervised by an individual teacher, whose signature is required at the time of application. Students will be selected based on department needs and student qualifications. In some cases, students taking AP math courses will have priority in being a Teaching Assistant due to their qualifications in offering peer assistance.
Honors Linear Algebra Multivariable Calculus
This course covers differential, integral, and vector calculus for functions or more than one variable. These mathematical tools and methods are used extensively in the physical sciences, engineering, economics and computer graphics. The course opens with a unit on vectors, which introduces students to this critical component of advanced calculus and will culminate in Green’s Stokes’ and Gauss’ Theorems. We will study partial derivatives, double and triple integrals, and vector calculus in both two and three dimensions. Students are expected to develop fluency with vector and matrix operations. Understanding of parametric curves as a trajectory described by a position vector is an essential concept, and this allows us to break free from one-dimensional calculus and investigate paths, velocities, and other applications of science that exist in three-dimensional space. We study derivatives in multiple dimensions, we use the ideas of the gradient and partial derivatives to explore optimization problems with multiple variables, and we consider constrained optimization problems using Lagrangians. After our study of differentials in multiple dimensions, we move to integral calculus. We use line and surface integrals to calculate physical quantities especially relevant to mechanics and electricity and magnetism, such as work and flux, and we employ volume integrals for calculations of mass and moments of inertia.
The study of systems of linear equations, the algebra of matrices, determinants, vector spaces, linear transformations, the algebra of linear transformations with an introduction to dual spaces, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and the applications of vectors and matrices to linear equations and linear transformations.
*Class receives honors weighting in SI weighted GPA and UC/CSU GPA calculations (UC/CSU Subject C Approval Pending)
Studio Art B/C: Sacred Symbols
Instructor: Katie Wolf
An experiential class focused on the exploration of the human desire to remember and recognize the Creator. Through our exploration of symbols used as visual expressions in art, architecture and religious imagery, we will study various faith traditions to gather an understanding of praise older than language and the written word; to “see God in all things.” In this integrated approach to learning about culture, religion and the arts, each student will create 15 major art pieces that represent the faith traditions studied and their own original works that express an understanding of aesthetics. Through research, studio work, field trips (Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, S.F., First Church of Christ Scientist, Berkeley, St. Mary’s Cathedral, S.F.), written papers, prayer, and reflection, each student will gain an ability to understand the role of the Creative spark in our lives. An understanding of their own creative process will allow them to embrace the universal call of the Beloved to us, His instruments, and our response – an expression of praise.
Religious Studies 471: Telling Stories – Faith, Film and Fiction
In this semester course students explore and examine the “Catholic Imagination,” investigating the presence of God in everyday life. Catholics believe that we inhabit a sacramental world, where God can be seen, heard, observed and felt in the ordinary. By examining the works of writers, artists and filmmakers, we will deepen our awareness of God’s sacramental presence in creation. We will work together to understand how sacraments are “outward signs of an inward grace.”
Religious Studies 477: Ecological Justice and Spirituality
This semester-long course will explore connections in religious experience, social justice, and spirituality that we discover through the study and experience of nature. We study the natural world- and our place in it. That leads to a creative response (literature and art), a spiritual response (prayer and connection with the divine), and an ethical response (stewardship). Students will experience nature first-hand through weekly field trips, read texts that examine the quest for meaning through nature, and begin (or continue) their own journey of becoming stewards of creation.
Religious Studies 476: Community Engagement and Social Justice
Jesuit education encourages students to live as women and men with and for others. Service and community engagement support this goal. This semester course explores how community service promotes solidarity and spiritual development within the context of Christian faith and commitment to social justice. Specifically, students will study responsible civic partnership, discerning God’s presence in service experiences, living a faith that does justice, promoting social justice through service relationships, and contributing to the common good through civic engagement. The course uses a service-learning method of instruction. Students will receive release time from a portion of classroom instruction for service in the community. SI will organize partnerships with community organizations to support specific learning objectives. The course requires students to participate in one of these partnerships as part of a cohort. Students will learn from their service experience through a process of intentional reflection and interpretation. In addition to their service experience, students complete traditional coursework designed to complement and enrich the experience. The course assesses students on their professionalism, their ability to make skillful observations of their experience, the intentionality of their reflections, their ability to use course concepts to interpret their service experience, research about the strengths and needs of a community they serve, and communication of their learning.
Religious Studies 472: Science and Religion
Are science and religion enemies, strangers, or partners? We investigate this fundamental question in a semester-long course that introduces the philosophical, theological, and ethical relationship between science and religion. Both science and religion are quests for understanding that fundamentally shape our world, but these disciplines ask different questions and follow different methods. While they may appear to conflict, closer examination reveals room for a deeper engagement through fruitful dialogue and constructive integration. Students will grapple with several of the “big questions” which animate the relationship between science and religion, like: “Does the universe have a purpose?” “Is faith compatible with evolution?” “Does science make belief in God obsolete?” and “What does it mean to be human?”
Religious Studies 470: The Ignatian Way
In this course, students will elect to undergo the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. In a retreat-like format, students will engage in meditation, contemplation and other forms of prayer in order to come to a better understanding of themselves as young adults in the 21st century and to recognize and respond to Ignatius’ invitation to “find God in all things.” Students should come with a desire to develop or deepen their personal relationship with God/Jesus under the guidance of St. Ignatius. With prayer as the daily foundation, students will use readings, film, discussion, and daily journaling to encounter God through the person of Jesus Christ. Students should be willing to share their faith journey and prayer experiences both in journaling and in small group sharing. With the Exercises, a student chooses to undertake an intensely personal and oftentimes arduous journey, one that is shared with others in a structured and supportive environment.
Religious Studies 460: Human Sexuality
This course is an exploration of the study of human sexuality as an all-embracing, all pervasive gift of God to each and every human being. Viewed from the physical (biological and psychological) and spiritual (moral) points of view, this class will treat sexuality as it is dealt with in modern science, contemporary society, the Word of God, and the teachings of the Church. Emphasis will be placed on helping students develop a healthy appreciation of their own sexuality and stress the importance of integrating values that promote self respect and integrity in both the way they reason and ultimately in the way they choose to live.