President Kevin O’Brien: Questions Define an Adventure

“We transform students who will then transform the world. There’s no better mission to be involved in.”

Fr. Kevin O’Brien is the president of Santa Clara University, and former dean of SCU’s Jesuit School of Theology. O’Brien served as Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Georgetown for 8 years before joining Santa Clara. O’Brien wrote a book “The Ignatian Adventure” in 2011 which sold over 40,000 copies and has been translated into three languages.

Check out this article for more background, but here are a few fun facts:

• O’Brien’s late father, Larry, spent 35 years as personal manager to the legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus—for whom O’Brien’s older brother Andrew still works.
• During his Jesuit formation, O’Brien served as a chaplain for the Jesuit Refugee Service in immigration detention centers in Los Angeles and worked serving migrants on the Arizona-Mexico border.
• O’Brien was featured in a Mic video in 2017 debunking the “war on Christmas.” The video received over 10 million views.

In this conversation, we discuss how Silicon Valley innovation squares with Jesuit values, how students should choose a career, the importance of what O’Brien calls “decentering experiences,” why spirituality is like an adventure, O’Brien’s improbable journey to becoming a Jesuit and more. 

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