Guillermo Garcia-Tunon, President, Belen Jesuit Preparatory School

Invest: sat down with Jesuit Father Guillermo Garcia-Tunon, president of Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, to discuss how the school is reinforcing its Catholic Jesuit identity while modernizing curriculum, expanding student support, and preparing young men for a fast-changing economy in Miami and beyond. “If we can educate the mind, educate the body, and educate the soul, we’re talking about educating the whole person,” Garcia-Tunon said.

How do you see Belen Jesuit’s mission of forming “men for others” evolving over the next decade?
At the core, our mission remains unchanged. We are committed to forming leaders who understand that their professional success and personal fulfillment are tied to service. The challenge is not redefining the mission, but ensuring it remains relevant in a world that is changing at an extraordinary pace.

We want our students to be prepared not only for leadership in Miami, but nationally and internationally. That means emphasizing servant leadership, ethical decision-making, and a sense of responsibility to the broader community. Those principles are woven into academics, athletics, extracurriculars, and religious formation.

One of the most significant challenges today is responding thoughtfully to emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. We have to ask how these tools shape learning, how they should be used ethically, and how they can support rather than undermine our mission. The pace of change makes long-term planning difficult, so our focus is on adaptability and clarity of purpose rather than rigid long-range projections.

What are the key priorities of your current strategic plan, and how are you measuring progress toward those goals?
We are entering the final year of our current strategic plan, with the next year dedicated to preparation for the next cycle. The first and most important priority has been strengthening and clarifying our identity as a Catholic Jesuit school. In a world where values are often blurred, it is essential that families, students, and alumni clearly understand who we are and what we stand for.

That clarity strengthens our culture and reinforces a shared value system across the school community. Belen is part of a religious tradition that spans 2,000 years and a Jesuit educational legacy of more than 500 years. Our responsibility is to ensure that identity is present in every aspect of school life, without exception.

Academically, we focus on high performance and critical thinking. Our goal is not simply content delivery, but empowering students to analyze, question, and engage thoughtfully with the world around them. Investments in technology, facilities, and modernized classrooms support that goal.

We also pay close attention to engagement beyond the classroom. Parents, grandparents, and alumni are deeply invested in the student experience, and we measure progress not only by outcomes but by the strength of those relationships. With more than 8,000 alumni worldwide, we’ve expanded mentorship and internship programs that connect students directly to professional networks. Alumni involvement is one of our greatest strengths. It brings high expectations and frequent questions, but it also brings extraordinary support, including mentorship, internships, fundraising, and a deep commitment to the school’s long-term success.

In a time of rapid cultural and social change, how does the school maintain and deepen its Jesuit Catholic identity in day-to-day practice?
We don’t need to reinvent our identity, but we do need to pass it on intentionally. All students receive theological instruction throughout their seven years at Belen, and we recently completed a full redesign of our theology curriculum. It ensures doctrinal integrity while addressing contemporary moral and ethical questions students face every day.

Equally important is understanding that religious formation is not limited to theology classes or clergy. Every faculty and staff member is an active agent of our Catholic Jesuit identity. Through professional development, we equip teachers in all disciplines to integrate faith and values into their classrooms.

A science teacher should be forming men of science and men of faith. A social studies teacher should explore the role of religion in history and global affairs. Students are encouraged to bring questions about faith and ethics into every academic space. This shared responsibility is essential to sustaining our identity and creating a consistent culture across the campus.

How is Belen Jesuit strengthening its academic program to prepare students for an increasingly complex world?
We are in the process of a comprehensive curriculum review. We began by re-evaluating theology, with the idea that it sets the standard for how we think about mission across the curriculum. From there, we launched a review of every subject area, with a committee evaluating one discipline set at a time.

We also launched a Catholic entrepreneurship program in partnership with The Goizueta Foundation, The Catholic University of America, and Florida International University. Students earn dual-enrollment credit while learning how to build businesses without compromising ethical principles. Entrepreneurship, in our view, should not require abandoning a value system. We bring in speakers, including alumni, and incorporate pitch programs and competitions to make the learning real and relevant.

In addition, our STEAM initiatives have expanded, supported by The Goizueta Foundation. Roberto Goizueta, the longtime CEO of Coca-Cola, was a Belen alumnus, and his legacy continues to support programs that build innovation and applied learning for our students.

What role does artificial intelligence play in your planning, both academically and operationally?
We established an AI committee because the impact is not limited to the classroom. We are evaluating how artificial intelligence affects teaching and learning, but also how it affects the business office, development, admissions, and the day-to-day work of staff. The goal is to approach this thoughtfully, with ethical standards and practical guidance, rather than reacting after the fact.

AI is moving quickly, and schools have to keep pace without losing their identity. For us, the question is always how to use tools like this to support formation, critical thinking, and responsible leadership.

How does the school integrate leadership development, mental health, and overall student well-being into its educational model?
Student well-being is central to everything we do. We have a robust counseling structure that includes both academic and mental health support, beginning as early as middle school. Our college counseling begins in ninth grade, which reflects the realities of today’s admissions landscape. Every student is supported through a long-term process rather than a last-minute senior-year sprint.

We also have school counselors assigned by grade level, working directly with students and families as needs arise. We know the pressure is real, so support has to be proactive, not reactive.

A structural change that helped was moving to block scheduling. Instead of six short classes, we have four longer class periods, which allows deeper engagement, more mentoring in the classroom, and less fragmentation of the day. It also creates space for required programming that supports leadership, including public speaking and practical life skills.

Athletics play a major role as well. More than 75% of our students participate in sports across 55 teams. Physical activity, discipline, and teamwork are essential components of leadership development. Our new athletic facilities support both students and faculty, reinforcing the idea that health and balance matter at every level.

If we can educate the mind, educate the body, and educate the soul, we’re talking about educating the whole person, and that’s the idea.

Miami is often described as a uniquely diverse city. How does that reality shape Belen Jesuit’s approach to education?
Miami’s diversity is not a statistic; it’s a lived reality. While 96% of our students identify as Hispanic, that label oversimplifies an extraordinary range of cultures, histories, and national identities. Our campus represents practically every country in Latin America, along with broader Caribbean representation, and those distinctions matter.

That complexity challenges simplistic definitions of diversity and forces us to be intentional about cultural respect and inclusion. Our responsibility is to honor those differences while building a shared sense of purpose and civic responsibility.

It also affects how institutions are evaluated. Schools can be labeled as not diverse based on broad categories that overlook what is happening within them. From our perspective, diversity is not about checking a box. It is about preparing students to operate in environments where cultural fluency is essential and where dignity and background must be respected.

In many ways, it mirrors the broader evolution of Miami itself, a city whose future depends on its ability to translate diversity into collaboration and opportunity.