Title:Opening doors

Capitol Campus Mission & Ministry offers an invitation for reflection, service, and community engagement.

In August 2025, Jamie Kralovec, director of Mission & Ministry for Georgetown’s Capitol Campus, welcomed the community to the newly opened Multifaith Center at 111 Massachusetts Ave., which provides a contemplative space for group worship and personal prayer and meditation, as well as staff offices and meeting rooms.

During the center’s inaugural semester, Kralovec drew inspiration from an early Jesuit, St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (1532–1617). For 46 years, Rodriguez served in the humble position of porter at the Jesuit university on the island of Majorca. As Kralovec explains, Rodriguez believed the act of opening the door was a sacramental gesture, and he received each visitor with grace and compassion.

“We want to maintain a real ministry of presence,” says Kralovec. “Half of my work in these few months has just been opening the door, being available for whoever might come in. I’ve been giving impromptu tours to students, faculty, and staff, to programs and units coming down to visit Capitol Campus, to curious comers and goers.

“In true Ignatian inculturation strategy, going back 500 years, the listening has to begin first as we carry out this project of integrating a campus and developing a community identity— growing in awareness of what is working, what needs to improve,” adds Kralovec.

The establishment of the Multifaith Center marks a new phase for Mission & Ministry on the Capitol Campus. Its location at “111 Mass”—a 230,000-square-foot building that is a new hub of educational programs for the downtown campus—underscores the significance of incorporating Georgetown’s core values into the fabric of community life.

“As we develop a campus culture downtown, it’s important to find ways to articulate and embody the values that we talk about as a Jesuit and Catholic university, everything from spaces for contemplation and action, to faith that does justice,” says Father Mark Bosco, S.J., vice president for Mission & Ministry.

“It’s essential for the culture of the campus to grow organically, and that means growing with the communities that surround it, using all the talent and resources available to us as Georgetown,” he adds.

‘Listening to understand’

Bosco notes that the Law Center, a longstanding pillar of the university’s downtown presence, will play an essential role in the continued evolution of the Capitol Campus, building on its 150-year history of living out Georgetown’s values—particularly through its renowned clinics. “They’ve been there for the long haul, so they live it in their bones,” he says.

Kralovec works closely with the Law Center’s director of Mission & Ministry, Amy Uelmen (C’90, L’93, ’16). Uelmen, a longtime advisor to Dean Emeritus William Treanor, is the first person to serve in the position, taking on the role in the wake of the pandemic with the intention of rethinking the Law Center’s approach to campus ministry. Her role combines coordinating campus ministry activities with mission integration, in addition to teaching and scholarship, she says.

Kralovec and Uelmen came to know one another a decade ago when they both participated in an Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat offered by Mission & Ministry. “We’ve been really good friends for 10 years and already had a shared vision,” says Uelmen. “Jamie’s got incredible strengths, and those are pouring into this space.”

Uelmen and Kralovec envision developing some shared programming while creating distinct offerings where it makes sense. For example, Capitol Campus Mission & Ministry will join the Law Center’s established Mass on Sunday afternoons at Holy Rosary Parish.

“It doesn’t make any sense to have two Catholic liturgies when there’s plenty of room at the church across the street. And it’s just organic to do fellowship together afterwards,” says Uelmen.

The two offices are also experimenting with a shared Capitol Campus/Law Center book group for staff. “We’ve had nice, robust participation,” she notes, adding that the past year “has been a real work of constant discernment, to read the needs on the ground.”

In focusing on specific needs of the Law Center, Uelmen’s office launched an Interfaith Advisory Council in 2023 with representatives from student religious organizations, including long-standing groups such as the Christian Legal Society and the relatively new Dharmic Life group. Activities such as interfaith Shabbat and Iftar dinners, as well as service work in the surrounding neighborhood, have helped to foster communication and understanding during a particularly fraught time for university campuses nationwide.

Both Uelmen and Sonia Robledo, program coordinator for Mission & Ministry at the Law Center, are members of the international Focolare community, which promotes interreligious dialogue.

“A large part of our work is just deep attention to hospitality,” Uelmen says. “That starts from warm human relationships. Focolare in Italian means hearth or family fireplace. We want to make sure that anyone who walks into our suite feels welcome, finds a cup of coffee, finds an ear.”

Uelmen notes that her colleague Michael Goldman (L’69), who has served as the Law Center’s Jewish chaplain since 2002, has made these opportunities for hospitality, such as drop-in brown bag lunches, the centerpiece of his work. Goldman was instrumental in developing the Lawyers in Balance program, which introduces students to a variety of mindfulness practices.

She emphasizes that the office’s work extends beyond students. For example, interfaith reading groups and Goldman’s Torah study both help to extend the community building “so that the mission integration work reaches staff and faculty, too.”

As part of that work, Uelmen co-teaches a seminar, Religion, Morality, and Contested Claims for Justice, which focuses on what she calls “listening to understand” others’ viewpoints on controversial issues ranging from immigration to campus speech. “The skill that we need to lean into is the capacity to just hold the tension when an issue isn’t going to be resolved right away.”

Mission in motion

Like Uelmen, Kralovec brings more than a decade of experience on the Capitol Campus to the Mission & Ministry position. After working in the Obama administration on the Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative, he came to Georgetown in 2014 to serve as program director for the newly created Urban & Regional Planning master’s program at the School of Continuing Studies (SCS).

Completing the spiritual exercises retreat the following year was a life-changing experience for Kralovec. “The retreat illuminated for me the greater potential to put my gifts and talents to work in the service to the universal mission of Georgetown,” he says. He went on to earn a master’s degree in Christian spirituality from Fordham and pursue Ignatian spiritual training at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in DC.

In 2018, with the support of SCS Dean Kelly Otter and the Office of Mission & Ministry on the Hilltop, Kralovec took on the role as associate director for mission integration at SCS, a newly created position, while continuing to teach in the urban planning program.

Serving a population of more than 12,000 students, many of whom are non-residential and working professionals, required innovative strategies. “The realistic way of integrating mission is for the most part creating opportunities for adults to reflect on the meaning of their experiences and to bring that reflection back into their busy lives,” says Kralovec. “The approach is bottom up—it’s invitational.”

“Jamie is extremely giving of his time,” says John Lauinger (G’30), a graduate student in the SCS urban planning program. Lauinger enrolled in the program after working for two decades as a journalist in New York City and DC, wanting to work more directly with the community. “I had a number of one-on-one calls with him where we talked not only about my classes, but my trajectory as a graduate student and my role in the community. He has a natural way of connecting with people.”

In his new role, Kralovec has expanded programs he began while at SCS in serving the broader Capitol Campus community. He offers a daily mindfulness meditation at noon, which he started when the pandemic began, and has developed an in-person/online hybrid version as well. He has also continued weekly postings on his “Mission in Motion” blog, begun six years ago.

Working with Luciana Paz, the new assistant director for inter-religious student engagement, Kralovec is collaborating on programming with the new schools and units that have taken residence on the Capitol Campus.

In October, for example, the office sponsored a highly popular “Rest, Recharge, Renew” retreat for all graduate students at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center in Bluemont, Virginia. Early in the spring semester, Mission & Ministry held a weeklong “Ignatian Prayer in Daily Life” on-campus retreat, pairing individual faculty, staff, and students with spiritual directors for daily prayer and meditation.

Kralovec also developed what he terms a “Walking Examen” for students, faculty, and staff during Jesuit Heritage month in November. “It’s taking the core spiritual practice of the Jesuits, the examen prayer, and transforming it into a reflective walking experience of the buildings and places on campus and the Jesuit significant sites nearby,” he says.

Another key staff addition on the Capitol Campus is Kathryn Jennings, who was appointed associate dean of students in March 2025 after working in student affairs at Catholic University for nearly two decades.

“I saw Jamie and Mission & Ministry as an instant partner in how we move forward,” she says. The university’s decision to place Student Affairs and Mission & Ministry resources downtown right away “says a lot about how we want to focus our student life, how we want them to engage, and what we want them to take away.”

•••

Engaging with the community

With his expertise in both urban planning and Catholic social thought, Kralovec—who is currently completing a doctoral dissertation on Ignatian urbanism—brings a singular perspective to his work.

“I see a bridge coming out of this office at the intersection of urban planning principles and the social mission responsibilities of a Jesuit university, to inform and guide the university’s ongoing community engagement efforts,” he says.

“We’ve talked a lot about where we can be both helpful to and learn from the community,” notes Jennings. “Jamie and I are both on a community engagement committee that is partnering with DC business development districts—we’re uniquely situated here between three of these districts.”

“There’s an intense sensitivity to our footprint here in this neighborhood and what it means to be a good citizen,” adds Uelmen. “I think the Law Center has always been primed for this through addressing the housing, criminal justice, and human rights challenges in this space.

“So I think there’s a real opportunity as these other programs come in to continue to build on that embeddedness in the community.”

Kralovec sees great potential for community engagement with neighboring faith-based organizations. In Summer 2025, he taught a studio course on the topic for urban planning students, among them John Lauinger.

“The question for the class was ‘How can learning about communities of faith in the neighborhood influence a potential strategy to position the Capitol Campus within the downtown community?’ I thought that was an intriguing, insightful way of thinking about the future of the campus,” says Lauinger.

For his class project, Lauinger chose to focus on Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, a historically Black congregation that established a sanctuary in the early 1920s a few blocks north of Georgetown’s present-day Capitol Campus. “I attended Masses and had a number of interviews with the longtime pastor. This part of DC was buffeted by urban renewal, and the congregation has been adjusting to that changing reality ever since. They’ve developed a significant social justice ministry.”

Another student in the class, Anna Harty (G’29)—who works full time as an office manager for several Law Center clinical programs—conducted a broader survey of the approximately 35 faith-based organizations in the neighborhood, which include Christian, Muslim, and Jewish places of worship as well as service organizations.

“Our takeaway was that faith-based organizations have remained the mainstay of providing a strong sense of community. They are core to serving needs that over time the city hasn’t been able to meet, such as homeless outreach,” says Harty.

“As the university develops a broader presence downtown, it only makes sense to build on Georgetown’s own identity as a faith-based institution to develop partnerships with these organizations. It seems like a very logical entry point,” she adds.

On-the-ground experience

Those partnerships are already underway. The Mission & Ministry Office, for example, offers volunteer opportunities for students at the nearby Father McKenna Center, which provides support for the unhoused and families experiencing food insecurity. Lauinger has volunteered in the food pantry, helping individual clients in meal planning.

“In researching downtown DC through classes, there’s always a potential to think about it in theory,” says Lauinger. “But I know from my experience as a reporter that you have to speak directly to people—you have to have that first-hand, on-the-ground experience. So that was a really enriching experience for me.”

“Ignatian pedagogy always begins in context,” adds Kralovec. “It’s very important to point out that the decisions we make—whether it’s Mission & Ministry strategic decisions, or academic, community engagement, or operations decisions—all of those have to fundamentally begin by honoring the unique context of this place.”