2008 Woodie Awards
Ignatian Corner: Politician guided by principles of Jesuit education
Daniel Joyce, S.J.
Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: Features
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Jesuit education strives to create leaders who are willing to be creative, take risks and serve the under-represented. Therefore, it should produce some graduates who are willing to seek positions in some of the most powerful institutions of society in order to influence decisions that affect the most vulnerable.
The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is arguably one of the most influential academic institutions in the world. Any number of national governments set policy using the advice of "K School" experts. One such expert is Jesuit alumna Mary Jo Bane, Ph.D. She is unique among the long list of those esteemed academics that grace to rolls of the faculty at the Kennedy School.
It is not just because she is the Academic Dean or because she is a woman working in a place that is dominated by a male presence. Bane is unique among her peers because she has taken some big risks in her life and come to be an expert in social policy from the ground up.
Bane graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in 1963. In the early 1960s, most women were not majoring in International Relations or willing to enter into such a male-dominated field as foreign service.
Rather than launch into a career as a diplomat or academic, Bane went off to join the newly established Peace Corps in Liberia where she gained a great love for working directly with children in need. These two years in Africa inspired her to return home and teach in the public school system.
While teaching Bane worked on her master's degree and doctorate degree in education at Harvard where she discovered that her experience gave her an insider's view of public policy. Bane made a commitment in graduate school to change things and went on to serve as a policy expert in research institutes at the University of Massachusetts, Harvard, Wellesley College and M.I.T.
Not one to stay in the ivory tower of academe, Bane decided to accept a position in the U.S. Department of Education as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget Analysis.
The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is arguably one of the most influential academic institutions in the world. Any number of national governments set policy using the advice of "K School" experts. One such expert is Jesuit alumna Mary Jo Bane, Ph.D. She is unique among the long list of those esteemed academics that grace to rolls of the faculty at the Kennedy School.
It is not just because she is the Academic Dean or because she is a woman working in a place that is dominated by a male presence. Bane is unique among her peers because she has taken some big risks in her life and come to be an expert in social policy from the ground up.
Bane graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in 1963. In the early 1960s, most women were not majoring in International Relations or willing to enter into such a male-dominated field as foreign service.
Rather than launch into a career as a diplomat or academic, Bane went off to join the newly established Peace Corps in Liberia where she gained a great love for working directly with children in need. These two years in Africa inspired her to return home and teach in the public school system.
While teaching Bane worked on her master's degree and doctorate degree in education at Harvard where she discovered that her experience gave her an insider's view of public policy. Bane made a commitment in graduate school to change things and went on to serve as a policy expert in research institutes at the University of Massachusetts, Harvard, Wellesley College and M.I.T.
Not one to stay in the ivory tower of academe, Bane decided to accept a position in the U.S. Department of Education as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget Analysis.
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