The tradition of scholarship and the desire to learn remain deeply embedded in Jesuit
education. Four hundred years after Ricci, at a major international conference that
foregrounded the 21st Century, the Congregation asserted that ‘In all of its endeavours,
Jesuit education is distinguished by intellectual excellence and academic rigour’2. And
because of this, ‘the schools set demanding standards for both students and faculty’3.
It is this ethic that drives the education program at Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview
and generates the quality of work contained in this publication.
Named after Athanasius Kircher SJ, a man of colossal intellect in the 17th Century, The
Kircher Collection is testament to aspirational scholarship that is alive and well at the
College. It profiles key fields of intellectual pursuit and endeavour—Literature, Visual
Arts, History and Musical Composition. More than just a compendium of student
work, it is a manifestation of the desire to enquire, to experience, to comprehend, to
analyse, to interpret—all corollaries of creative cognition in the quotient of learning.
