ELP Graduation Ceremony

3 July 2025

18:00-

19:45

Online of Press Club Brussels, Froissartstraat 95, 1000 Brussel

The 13th flock of fellows has successfully completed the European Leadership Program. During the graduation ceremony, Otilia Dhand will share her leadership experiences.

She is Institutional Relations Director at Temasek - a global investment fund in Brussels - and was a member of the High-Level Advisory Group to the European Union Commissioner for Economy, which assessed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the European economy and society.

The European Leadership Program is an initiative of JESC, Jesuit European Social Centres. UCSIA is one of the associate partners.

You can attend for free live on site or via the livestream. Don’t forget to register in advance.

Learn more!

Projects

Europe & Solidarity

European Leadership Programme (ELP)

The European Leadership Programme (ELP) by JESC is an intensive five-month programme in Brussels designed to train young professionals in responsible and impactful leadership. It combines work experience in EU-related institutions with ethical leadership formation, coaching, and community living.

UCSIA has been supporting the programme since 2020. Every year, we also mentor an ELP Fellow in our operation.

Europe & Solidarity

Compassion in Context

Feeling or showing compassion is typically human and has many sides. The expo ‘COMPASSION’ in Museum MAS shows how we portray this in different times, cultures and worldviews. And also, what its abrasive sides are.

UCSIA is taking the expo as a starting point to explore the concept of ‘compassion’ more deeply in this lecture series (in English and Dutch). Internationally renowned experts share their view on compassion from a religious, political, psychological and neurological angle.

Delve into the many contradictory faces of compassion with us!

Religion & SocietyEurope & SolidarityEducation & Service-LearningEthics & EconomyJesuit Heritage

The Solidarity Academy

In the Solidarity Academy, we reflect on old and new forms of solidarity and sustainable solutions to contemporary issues. We look for ways to strengthen local forms of solidarity. The substantive focus is on the just transition and the migration and refugee issue.

News

Revisit the talk on the medieval ‘tables of the poor’ and social care

23 June 2025

Religion & SocietyEurope & Solidarity

Revisit the talk on the medieval 'tables of the poor' and social care

On Wednesday evening 21 May, UCSIA and the Ruusbroec Society organised a lecture by historian Hannelore Franck on the fascinating world of medieval 'tables of the poor'.

Throwback lecture series ‘Compassion in Context’

27 May 2025

Religion & SocietyEurope & Solidarity

Throwback lecture series 'Compassion in Context'

Look back with us at the ‘Compassion in Context’ lecture series! UCSIA joined forces with MAS | Museum aan de Stroom on the occasion of their exhibition COMPASSION.

The expo explores how people throughout time and cultures show and depict compassion, and confronts visitors with the complex and sometimes confrontational aspects of compassion.

To this end, UCSIA programmed the four-part lecture series ‘Compassion in Context’, in which experts illuminated the concept of compassion from different perspectives: neurophysiology and psychology, sociology, politics, philosophy, religion and literature.

Compassion as a silent force behind innovation

14 May 2025

Religion & SocietyEurope & Solidarity

Compassion as a silent force behind innovation

On Thursday 22 May, Finnish sociologist Anne Birgitta Pessi will be our guest for the final lecture in the ‘Compassion in Context’ series. Ahead of this talk, an interview appeared in Tertio in which Pessi shares her insights on compassion as a driver of innovation in organisations and communities.