From Memory to Mission: Why Alumni Leaders Should Be in Yogyakarta

Interview with Hugo Alonso Pacheco Canny.

For many Jesuit alumni, alumni life begins with memory: a school or university, inspiring teachers, lifelong friendships, retreats, sports, symbols, spiritual experiences and values quietly planted during formative years.

But today, memory alone is no longer enough. Across the world, Jesuit alumni associations are facing a deeper and more demanding question: what are we doing, together, with the formation we received?

This is one of the central convictions of Hugo Alonso Pacheco Canny, Past President of ASIA San José Arequipa in Peru, CEO and Founder of AlumniSJ, and UASIALAC Interaction Coordinator. For him, the XI WUJA Congress in Yogyakarta represents much more than another international gathering. It is an opportunity for Jesuit alumni to rediscover themselves as a global community united not only by a shared past, but by a common mission.

According to Hugo, every alumnus naturally identifies first with his or her own school, university, class, association or local community. Yet that local belonging is part of something much larger. Across continents, cultures and generations, Jesuit education has formed women and men called to leadership, service, justice, discernment, integrity and care for the common good.

The role of WUJA is precisely to bring this worldwide community together and help transform a shared heritage into a shared future. In Hugo’s words, the challenge is not to create a new Jesuit alumni identity from zero, but to recognize the identity that is already alive and organize it for the good.

A Congress That Begins Before It Starts

What makes Yogyakarta unique, Hugo believes, is that the Congress has already begun.

Through regional listening sessions, surveys, conversations with young alumni, reflections on identity and the preparation of a global Jesuit Alumni Identity Manifesto, participants have been invited to discern together before arriving in Indonesia.

Rather than simply attending presentations, alumni leaders are being called to contribute to a global process of discernment: who are Jesuit alumni today, what values shape them, how are they called to serve, and what kind of global community are they willing to build after the Congress?

For Hugo, this changes everything. The Congress is not simply an event to attend; it is a process in which every region, association and leader has a responsibility to participate. An event is measured by attendance, photographs and emotions. A movement is measured by what remains afterwards: active networks, commitments, working groups, youth leadership, service projects, collaboration and continuity.

Yogyakarta can therefore become a turning point for WUJA if it is understood not as a final destination, but as a point of departure and mission.

Identity Must Become Mission

Leadership within Jesuit alumni associations cannot be limited to preserving structures, organizing reunions or celebrating anniversaries.

The deeper challenge, Hugo says, is to transform identity into mission, affection into collaboration, memory into service, and scattered networks into an organized community capable of serving more effectively.

For him, Jesuit alumni are not only beneficiaries of an education received in the past. They are one of the most visible fruits of Jesuit formation in society. Their lives, decisions, professional work, family commitments, public leadership and service can become a living testimony of what Jesuit education is able to form.

“Jesuit alumni are the formation received made visible as testimony,” Hugo affirms.

This is why the call of Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ, for alumni to become “partners in mission” is so important. It invites alumni to move beyond nostalgia and institutional pride, and to assume a real co-responsibility in the mission: from the lay, professional, family and civic reality in which they live every day.

The question is not only whether we studied in a Jesuit institution. The question is whether our lives continue to make that formation visible.

Responding to Today’s World

Hugo speaks from the experience of Latin America and the Caribbean, a region marked by deep community bonds, strong alumni memories and great affection for Jesuit schools, but also by serious challenges: inequality, corruption, violence, migration, institutional fragility, social fragmentation and loss of trust.

Yet these realities are not limited to one region. Around the world, societies are increasingly marked by division, distrust, loneliness, superficiality and uncertainty. In this context, the Jesuit alumni movement cannot remain only a network of former students. It must become a community of witnesses.

For Hugo, one of the great challenges of our time is not only a crisis of institutions or structures, but a crisis of testimony. The world needs men and women whose lives make credible the values they proclaim: integrity, justice, discernment, compassion, service and commitment to the common good.

This is where Jesuit alumni can offer a powerful contribution. If the identity received in schools and universities becomes ethical leadership, mentorship, social service, youth accompaniment and organized collaboration, then alumni communities can become a real force for hope.

In simple terms: it is not enough to remember the good we received. Now it is time to organize the good.

Young Alumni Are Not the Future in the Abstract

For Hugo, one of the most important issues for WUJA and for alumni associations around the world is the real participation of young alumni.

Young people cannot be treated as a decorative presence or as “the future” in an abstract sense. They are already the present that can renew alumni communities today. They need to be listened to, accompanied and trusted with real responsibility.

The renewal of alumni associations will not happen only by speaking about young people. It will happen when young alumni are invited to lead, propose, discern, serve, make decisions and help shape the future of the movement.

This is why Yogyakarta should not only speak to young alumni, but also create space for them to speak, contribute and return to their countries with a concrete mission.

From Inspiration to Action

For Hugo, attending Yogyakarta is therefore an act of leadership.

Relationships, trust and collaboration cannot be built only through documents, messages or online meetings. They grow through encounter: by listening to one another, sharing experiences, praying together, discovering different cultures and recognizing that, beneath different languages and realities, Jesuit alumni share a common Ignatian root and a common call to serve.

Physical presence matters because a global community is not built only by exchanging information. It is built by creating trust.

At the same time, Hugo believes that WUJA should also find ways to listen to those who, for serious reasons, cannot be physically present in Yogyakarta. Some alumni leaders, young people, associations and communities may be unable to attend because of distance, health, family responsibilities, professional duties or economic limitations, yet they may still have valuable contributions to offer. A truly global Congress should strongly encourage physical participation while also opening complementary ways to receive testimonies, written reflections, recorded messages or virtual participation in key moments.

This does not replace the value of being present. It broadens the reach of the Congress and makes its universal spirit more visible.

The true success of the Congress will not be measured only by the quality of its sessions, but by what participants bring home: stronger networks, renewed commitments, youth leadership initiatives, closer partnerships with Jesuit institutions, concrete service projects and a real desire to continue working together after Yogyakarta.

Building the Next Chapter

As WUJA celebrates its 70th anniversary, Yogyakarta offers more than an opportunity to honor the past.

It is an invitation to shape the future.

For Hugo, alumni leaders have a unique responsibility: to bring the spirit of the Congress back to their associations, regions and countries, translating shared reflection into concrete action and helping younger generations discover their place within the global Ignatian family.

This means moving from event to continuity, from discourse to testimony, from affectionate belonging to active participation, and from scattered networks to a worldwide Jesuit alumni community organized for mission.

It also means strengthening the relationship between alumni, Jesuit schools, universities and works. Alumni should not be seen as an external or secondary community. They are living fruits of Jesuit formation, visible witnesses before society and natural partners for serving the Church and the world.

For Hugo, this is the next chapter WUJA is called to help write: a global alumni movement capable of connecting people, associations, regions, talents, professions, generations and service opportunities in a shared mission.

His message is simple and compelling:

Come to Yogyakarta because this may be the place where Jesuit alumni from around the world stop recognizing one another only by the memory of what they received, and begin organizing themselves, together, to serve the mission, their peoples and the world.

Because Yogyakarta is not simply a destination.

It can be the place where memory becomes mission, identity becomes testimony, and the Jesuit alumni community begins to organize the good.