Because, I, too, once didn’t know what a Jesuit education entailed. Now, I can’t imagine who I’d be without it.

By way of background, I’ve been a Catholic school kid pretty much my whole life—since second grade, technically—and I actually liked it. When my parents offered to switch me to the local public school after we moved when I was nine, I chose to stay where I was. I wanted to keep wearing my jumper and tie (yes, girls could wear ties too) and keep going to religion class.

When it came time for high school, I followed my older brother’s lead and chose to attend a Catholic school forty-five minutes away in the city (shoutout Saint Raphael Academy). It was there that I got to participate in service opportunities, learn about Catholic Social Teaching, and see how theology could shape not only a curriculum but also a moral framework.

But when college decisions rolled around, I didn’t really think about choosing a Catholic (let alone Jesuit) school. I guess I thought that “values and morals” were things you learned in grade school and high school, not college. When the opportunity came to attend Boston College, I jumped at it, without realizing just how much personal and professional formation was waiting for me there.

My first introduction to BC’s Jesuit character came at the Mass of the Holy Spirit, a tradition that marks the start of each academic year. I’d been to plenty of Masses before, but this one felt different. Sitting on metal chairs in the hot August sun, I listened as Father Leahy (our University President—I was geeking out a little at the time) shared the famous questions posed by Fr. Michael Himes that have come to define the BC experience: “What are you good at? What brings you joy? Who does the world need you to be?”

Those three questions took root in my mind that day and have guided me ever since, through undergrad, through law school applications, and through my growth as a person.

And I didn’t just notice the Jesuit spirit at BC. I dove headfirst into it. (You could say I drank the Kool-Aid, figuratively speaking.)

Beginning freshman year, I sought out courses, guest speakers, and retreats that invited us to go beyond our BC experiences and wrestle with bigger questions about love, faith, purpose, and ethics. I joined the Appalachian Volunteers, a weeklong service trip during spring break that helps build homes along the Appalachian Trail. Even during my senior year, right after finishing my last law school application, I went on a four-day silent retreat to reflect, pray, and listen for how God was working in my life.

Whenever I went home on breaks and talked about BC—the retreats, the service trips, the deep conversations that shaped me—I realized that many of my friends didn’t have anything like that. Their college experiences just didn’t sound the same. That’s when I understood how different BC really was.

Now, you might be thinking: okay, that’s all great. You’re a double eagle, we get it. But what does this have to do with law school?

Everything.

The heart of a Jesuit education isn’t just professional formation, it’s personal formation.

As a K-JD, I knew I’d be spending some of my most formative years in law school. When it came to considering where I’d spend the next three years, I wanted to be in a place that wouldn’t just train me to think like a lawyer but would also challenge me to live with integrity, empathy, and purpose. A place that pushes students to grapple with ethical dilemmas, intellectual challenges, and life’s most valuable moral questions.

BC’s Jesuit values—cura personalis (care for the whole person), magis (striving to be more for God and humanity), being men and women for and with others, and setting the world aflame (to name a few)—are all about using our gifts for the good of people beyond ourselves.

And honestly, if that’s not what it means to be a lawyer, I don’t know what is. No matter where you fall on the spiritual spectrum, we as future lawyers are called to use our knowledge, advocacy, and skills to make a difference, be it for an individual, a company, or an entire community. That call to serve is, in many ways, the essence of Jesuit education.

So yes, I’m biased. But I truly believe there’s no better place to be formed both as a lawyer and as a person than a Jesuit institution like Boston College.

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Bella Calise is a first-year student at BC Law. Contact her at calisei@bc.edu.