MARCH 11, 2021 VOL. 28 NO. 11
PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
BC Among Leaders in Theology, Religious Studies BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Students in BC’s Appalachia Volunteers program participated in a community service project at St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children in Dorchester last weekend. photo by frank curran
Closer to Home With the pandemic halting most national and international travel, BC is reexamining service learning trips For decades, early March has seen Boston College students travel throughout the United States and to other countries, assisting people and communities affected by poverty-related problems or the aftermath of natural disasters. While these service learning experiences can take place just about any time of the year, spring break week is arguably the peak period for such activity. With most service trips for the 20202021 academic year shut down due to COVID-19, the groups that organize them, at BC and elsewhere, have sought to come
INSIDE 3 Forum on Racial Justice
Racial trauma expert Resmaa Menakem to speak March 25.
5 Bilingual Teachers
Lynch School’s Bilingual Education Certificate program drawing interest from Massachusetts public schools.
up with alternatives—working with local or regional service and charitable organizations instead of going farther afield, for example, or doing some projects in a virtual format. But the pandemic also has prompted a deeper examination of the service-trip model itself, and whether its goals and benefits—for the students and the communities being served—can be realized by other means, according to BC administrators. Not that the University doesn’t delve into such questions already: Service learning is connected to BC’s Jesuit mission, encouraging students to contemplate the world beyond them by working for others. However, according to Daniel Ponsetto, the Welles Remy Crowther Director for BC’s Volunteer and Service Learning Center, service programs need to focus more than ever on those needing the help. “Obviously, the disruption caused by COVID not only affects our programs and our students, but it has had a devastating impact on the communities and organizations we have historically visited. I think this reality—that the vulnerable communities we typically visit, as well as the
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Boston College rose to seventh overall in Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies in the 2021 QS World University Rankings, an improvement of three positions from last year’s rankings. Boston College is one of only three Catholic institutions among the top 10 schools in the prestigious international survey, along with the University of Notre Dame and Universite’ Catholique de Louvain in France. The Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies ranking is based on academic and employer reputation and global research impact. The top 10 schools in the 2021 rankings are: University of Notre Dame, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Duke University, Durham University, Universite’ Catholique de Louvain, Boston College, Yale University, University of Cambridge, and Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen in Germany. The QS rankings recognize the
combined contributions and academic reputation of the School of Theology and Ministry (STM) and the Theology Department in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. STM Dean Thomas Stegman, S.J., said the University’s strong showing in the rankings is attributable to the school’s excellent faculty and students, and validates the University’s 2017 strategic objective to become the world’s leading Catholic university and theological center. “As the STM enacts our own strategic directions—the first of which is to ‘continue efforts to establish Boston College School of Theology and Ministry as a premier Catholic institution for theological scholarship and for intellectual and pastoral formation of priests, religious, and lay women and men’—it is gratifying to receive the recognition and affirmation from the QS World University Rankings. Of course, that recognition includes our colleagues in BC’s outstanding Theology Department.” Added Theology Department Acting Chair Professor Kenneth Himes, O.F.M.,
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University Promotes 24 Faculty University President William P. Leahy, S.J., announced that 24 Boston College faculty members have been promoted during the 2020-2021 academic year. Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences faculty promoted to full professor were John Baldwin (Mathematics), Mark Behn (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Dawei Chen (Mathematics), Sara Cordes (Psychology and Neuroscience), Ashley Duggan (Communication), Jan Engelbrecht (Physics), Christina Klein (English), Michelle Meyer (Biology), Sylvia SellersGarcia (History), Owen Stanwood (History), Eranthie Weerapana (Chemistry), and Liane Young (Psychology and Neuroscience). Also promoted to full professor were
Karen Lyons of the Connell School of Nursing and Lynch School of Education and Human Development faculty Lillie Albert, Karen Arnold, and Paul Poteat. Morrissey College faculty members promoted to associate professor with tenure were Mattia Acetoso (Romance Languages and Literatures), Keerthi Madapusi Pera (Mathematics), Katherine McAuliffe (Psychology and Neuroscience), Christopher Polt (Classical Studies), and Matthias Waegele (Chemistry). Also promoted to associate professor with tenure were Angela Boatman and Betty Lai of the Lynch School and Samantha Teixeira of the Boston College School of Social Work. —University Communications
There is still much more work to be done, but one thing this tells us is that we should be teaching young girls to advocate for themselves in the context of negotiation from as early as elementary school. – assoc. prof. katherine mcauliffe (psychology/neuroscience), page 4
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March 11, 2021
Around Campus
Romero Scholarship to Be Awarded on March 25 The Saint Oscar Romero Scholarship Award Celebration will take place in virtual format on March 25 at 6 p.m., with School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor Hosffman Ospino—who has led nationally recognized studies on the impact of the Hispanic Catholic presence on parishes, schools, and organizations—as keynote speaker. Highlighting the event will be the presentation of the Romero Scholarship, named for the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, an advocate for social justice and the impoverished who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass. The scholarship, which covers a significant portion of senior-year tuition, is given annually to a BC junior who has demonstrated superior academic achievement, extracurricular leadership, community service, and involvement with the Hispanic/Latinx community and Hispanic/Latinx issues both on and off campus. This year’s Romero Scholarship candidates are Lazaro Alvelaez, Paula Sanchez, and Daniela Vazquez Loriga. A native of Colombia who earned a master’s and doctoral degree from Boston College, Ospino researches the dialogue between faith and culture and the impact of this inter-
Hosffman Ospino will be the featured speaker at the Saint Oscar Romero Scholarship Award Celebration. photo by lee pellegrini
change upon Catholic theological education, catechesis, and ministry. He served as the principal investigator for the National Study of Catholic Parishes in the United States and co-principal investigator for the National Survey of Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families. Ospino also played a leadership role in the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/ Latino Ministry. Last year, the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada presented Ospino with a second-place Best Regular Column-General Commentary (Spanish language) Award for his Catholic News Service column, “Caminando Juntos.” His previous honors include the Lumen Gentium Award from the Conference on Pastoral Planning and Council Development, the Virgilio Elizondo Award from the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, and the Catechetical Award from the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. To register for the Romero Scholarship Celebration, and for more about the scholarship, go to bc.edu/romero. —University Communications
Filmmaker Lulu Wang, a 2005 alumna, will discuss her 2019 hit film “The Farewell” with Professor of English Christina Klein on March 25 at 7 p.m., a webinar sponsored by the Institute for the Liberal Arts, American Studies, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, and the Literature Core. Based on a “true lie” from Wang’s life, the film tells the story of a ChineseAmerican family that, upon learning their grandmother has cancer, decides not to tell her and instead stages a mock-wedding to bring the family together before she dies. Register for the event at http://bit. ly/3bfstxv.
Graduate Students Run the Show at Feb. 27 Boisi Center Conference In its more than two decades of existence, the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life has held innumerable lectures, conferences, symposia, and other events to foster conversation and reflection on compelling issues of the day. Recently, the center achieved another milestone in its array of offerings, when it sponsored its first-ever graduate student conference. “Pandemic and Religion,” which was held in virtual format on February 27, focused on the impact of COVID-19 on religious life in the United States. “Religious gatherings have been restricted, worship has shifted online to significantly reshaped formats, hospital chaplaincy faces new challenges, complaints of infringed religious liberty have emerged, churches have actively subverted mask or social-distancing orders, and the future of in-person worship might be forever changed,” the conference website noted. The conference featured presentations from multiple disciplines by graduate students representing 17 institutions across the nation, including BC, Marquette University, Duke Divinity School, Loyola University of Chicago, and Princeton TheoASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Jack Dunn SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
logical Seminary. Among the respondents were Boisi Center Director Mark Massa, S.J., Professor of Theology Kristin Heyer, and School of Theology and Ministry faculty members Professor John Baldovin, S.J., and Associate Professor Hosffman Ospino. BC graduate student Anthony Harrison presented “Individual Liberty and the Common Good: COVID-19 Orders and Civil Disobedience”; other topics included “Basic Human Communities: An Interreligious Alternative to Zoom Worship in the Era of COVID,” “Liturgy in Lockdown: Expanding the Notion of Church,” and “Pandemic and Wealth: A Theological Exploration.” Masterminding “Pandemic and Religion” was Zac Karanovitch, now in his second year as the Boisi Center’s graduate research assistant, who said the conference was a logical progression from the center’s traditional yearlong graduate symposium on religion and politics. Maintaining the initial group of symposium participants for the whole year has been an enduring challenge, he said: “Grad students are busy, their schedules are amorphous, and this
CONTRIBUTING STAFF
Sean Smith
Seeking a new model, Karanovitch raised the idea of a one-day graduate student conference, which would give more incentives for participating: “a conference presentation to add to students’ CVs, feedback from a scholar respondent that could be valuable for making their papers publishable, and it’s a one-day commitment, not a yearlong one.” Fr. Massa supplied the conference
Christine Balquist Phil Gloudemans Ed Hayward Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan
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Patricia Delaney EDITOR
had resulted in lower turnout over time, often with a wholly new set of students at each meeting.”
Lee Pellegrini Peter Julian
theme, said Karanovitch. “Obviously, the pandemic was on everyone’s mind, but being able to explore that in a more interdisciplinary and academic manner was important. Given the number of proposals we received and the ultimate size of the conference, it was obviously something graduate students had been engaging or were interested in engaging. We were pleasantly surprised by the response. “The center’s expansive program history made it possible to attract students from across the country and to find featured respondents,” he added. “In the end, without them, I’m not sure we would have had a conference.” “The Boisi Center has undertaken an important new component in its programming: a commitment to sponsor an annual graduate conference addressing specific aspects of religion and American public life,” said Fr. Massa, who praised Karanovitch’s organizational efforts. “We hope future conferences will attract participants with the same breadth of institutional affiliations and intellectual sophistication we witnessed on February 27.” —Sean Smith
The Boston College Chronicle (USPS 009491), the internal newspaper for faculty and staff, is published biweekly from September to May by Boston College, with editorial offices at the Office of University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135 (617)552-3350. Distributed free to faculty and staff offices and other locations on campus. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to The Boston College Chronicle, Office of University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135. A flipbook edition of Chronicle is available via e-mail. Send requests to chronicle@bc.edu.
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Forum’s March 25 Event Will Focus on Racial Trauma Resmaa Menakem, a social worker and leading voice on racial trauma, will speak to the Boston College community virtually on March 25 at 6 p.m. about his framework for understanding racial trauma and his vision for a pathway to healing and systemic change. The event is being held as part of the Forum on Racial Justice in America, a University-wide initiative to address structural racism in the United States and explore how Boston College can promote greater understanding about race and racism. Menakem is the New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, a self-help book that examines white supremacy in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. He is the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions, a leadership consultancy firm through which he coaches leaders through civil unrest, organizational change, and community building and shares the impact of intergenerational and racial trauma. This event is co-sponsored by the BC School of Social Work, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Connell School of Nursing, Morrissey College of Arts and Science, School of Theology and Ministry, and BC Law School. “We’re thrilled to be welcoming some-
BC Physicist Receives NSF CAREER Award BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER
Resmaa Menakem, an expert on social trauma, will be the featured speaker at the next Forum on Racial Justice in America event.
one of Resmaa’s stature to Boston College virtually,” said BCSSW Assistant Professor of Macro Practice Samuel L. Bradley Jr., a co-organizer of Menakem’s talk. “His work on trauma and the human body is truly groundbreaking and we’re hoping that our faculty, staff, and students will be inspired by his approach to mental health. Resmaa’s work not only acts as a signal for how we might tackle the ever more complex problem of racism in society, but will help us to understand how we might, all of us, manage our mental health personally.” Launched last fall, the Forum on Racial Justice in America sponsors speakers, panels, and seminars to address key issues regarding race, and encourages scholarly exploration of conditions that result in racism and racist behavior, while suggesting appropriate responses and solutions. More information on the initiative is available at bc.edu/forum. To register for the event, go to bccte. zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_B7rJpY3ISfCd20sxTJwEBQ —Christine Balquist
BC Seventh in QS Rankings for Theology, Religious Studies Continued from page 1
“The QS rankings and BC’s position as one of the highest-rated schools in the world is a welcome affirmation of the leadership of STM Dean Tom Stegman, S.J., and MCAS Dean Greg Kalscheur, S.J., the first-class scholarship of our faculties, and the excellent educational experience enjoyed by our students in theological and ministerial studies. I know that all who share in this honor will be motivated to recommit themselves to maintain excellence in the work we do.” Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley said the ranking is a tribute to the recognized strength of theology and religious studies at Boston College. “The Boston College community of theologians spans the University and connects us to transnational networks of scholars and practitioners,” said Quigley. “This latest ranking affirms the profound impact that our faculty and graduates continue to have in service of the global Catholic Church.” The School of Theology and Ministry prepares lay and religious graduate students from throughout the world for
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careers and vocations within the Catholic Church through its eight degree programs and numerous certificate and non-degree programs. Its graduates pursue leadership positions where their theological foundation and professional preparation support mission-based careers. The STM places 95 percent of all its graduates in careers within six months of graduation. The Theology Department provides undergraduate and graduate students with the knowledge and skills necessary for reasoned reflection on their values, faith, and tradition, as well as on the religious forces that shape society and the world. The department’s five primary areas of research include biblical studies, historical theology/ history of Christianity, comparative theology, systematic theology, and theological ethics. The QS Rankings are prepared by the British firm Quacquarelli Symonds, which is considered to be among the most influential providers of international university rankings. Its Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies ranking was launched in 2017.
Assistant Professor of Physics Brian Zhou has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, which supports junior faculty in the sciences through the Faculty Early Career Development Program. The five-year $567,000 grant will support the project “Imaging Light-Matter Interactions in Quantum Materials with Nanoscale Quantum Sensors.” Zhou and his team will spatially image the flow of photocurrents inside materials and determine how nanoscale variations affect their generation and transport, according to the NSF announcement. In addition, Zhou has received a threeyear $345,000 award from the NSF’s Directorate of Engineering for his research to develop a quantum-based platform for characterizing nanoscale magnetic materials. “I am thrilled to receive the generous support from the National Science Foundation,” said Zhou. “These awards will empower the training of students for emerging careers in quantum science and the development of transformative approaches for understanding materials technologies.” Classical technologies, such as a computer memory or a quartz watch, make use of huge numbers of electrons or atoms, but recently scientists have realized that even a single electron or atom, if it can be harnessed and protected, is enough to serve as a memory or a clock, Zhou said. “Moreover, these devices would not merely be replacements for classical technologies, but they would allow fundamentally different functionality—a memory with more depth and complexity, or a clock that is as accurate as nature allows,” Zhou said. “This is because matter at these small scales is governed by a totally different set of rules: the laws of quantum mechanics. This is the theme of the field of quantum information science, the field that I work in.” One focus of his current research is to develop quantum-based systems for measuring magnetic fields. “You can think of the magnetic needle in a compass as the most basic magnetometer,” Zhou said. “The magnetometer I work with, called the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, is actually a magnet made out of a single electron trapped in diamond. Smaller magnetometers not only enable higher spatial resolution magnetic field measurements, but they can be intrinsically more sensitive.” The two grants will support the exploration of applications of these magnetometers for materials and device development, a core strength of the Boston College Physics Department. “We are excited about Brian’s research at the interface between quantum and device engineering, as well as the educational opportunities he will provide our students,”
Assistant Professor of Physics Brian Zhou photo by lee pellegrini
said Professor of Physics and Department Chair Michael J. Graf. “These awards are a recognition of both the scientific innovation of Brian’s group and the commitment of our department to fundamental research directed towards impactful future technologies.” Through the CAREER award, Zhou will try to harness these quantum magnetometers to image magnetic fields produced by photocurrents and learn how they flow inside optoelectronic materials, which are used in cameras and solar cells. Zhou also plans to integrate themes from quantum science, materials physics, and data analysis in his teaching. The other NSF-funded project will involve developing a higher sensitivity system for characterizing ultrathin and microscale magnetic materials, which are very promising for new magnetic memories but cannot be studied by commercial instruments like bulk materials, Zhou said. The research poses significant challenges because single electrons are very difficult to control and measure, Zhou said. Zhou said he looks forward to engaging students in this work, citing the contributions of four undergraduate students who helped shape the direction of his lab with support from the University’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship program. “The research provides fantastic opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students to gain cross-cutting skills for emerging sectors, such as quantum information and nanomaterials,” Zhou said. “Students in my lab learn skills through goal-oriented projects using programming, microwave electronics, optics, and nanofabrication. They often work in the cleanroom, which will soon be housed in the new Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society building in the heart of campus.”
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An Early Start to the Gender Gap A BC psychologist finds that boys and girls as young as eight negotiate differently BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER
A gender gap in negotiation emerges as early as age eight, a finding that sheds new light on the wage gap women face in the workforce, according to new research from Boston College’s Cooperation Lab, lead by Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Katherine McAuliffe. The study of 240 boys and girls between ages four and nine, published recently in the journal Psychological Science, found the gap appears when girls who participated in the study were asked to negotiate with a male evaluator, a finding that mirrors the dynamics of the negotiation gap that persists between men and women in the workforce. The researchers say this study is the first to identify a gender gap in negotiation among children. “We found that—consistent with adult work—girls asked for less than boys when negotiating with a man,” said McAuliffe. “We did not see this gender gap when children were negotiating with a woman. There is still much more work to be done, but one thing this tells us is that we should be teaching young girls to advocate for themselves in the context of negotiation from as early as elementary school.” The results point to a disparity that takes root in childhood which may help explain the well-documented gender gap in pay that separates women and men, said McAuliffe, who co-authored the study with New York University graduate student Sophie Arnold,
who spent two summers working in McAuliffe’s Cooperation Lab, which studies how attributes like fairness develop in children. McAuliffe and Arnold say the findings reveal a need to determine if cultural signals sent to girls are to blame and whether there should be interventions in childhood to ensure that both girls and boys feel comfortable advocating for themselves, regardless of the gender of the person with whom they are talking. “Boys and girls performed equally between the ages of four and seven,” said Arnold, whose work on the project became her undergraduate honors thesis at the University of Chicago. “But by age eight, we see girls are requesting less than boys when they are negotiating with a man. It’s not that girls are negotiating less overall—it’s only when children are negotiating with a man that we see these gender differences emerge.” Prior studies of adults have found gender differences in negotiation, but could not explain their origins, said the authors. The researchers tested children between the ages of four and eight to determine whether girls in the age range would negotiate differently than boys and whether girls, like women, would ask for less from a man than a woman. “Although adult research supports the existence of gender differences in negotiation, it cannot reveal their origins. Learning when these gender differences emerge is imperative for understanding what individual and societal factors lead to these gender differences in adulthood,” write Arnold and McAuliffe. The experiments were modeled on realworld scenarios, the authors said. In phase one, children completed a task and then were allowed to ask for as many stickers as they liked as a reward. Unbeknownst to
Park Street Corp. Series Event to Spotlight Firearm Violence The Park Street Corporation Speaker Series in Health, Humanities, and Ethics will present a virtual talk later this month by prominent economist David Hemenway, recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 as one of the 20 “most influential injury and violence professionals over the past 20 years.” Hemenway will speak on “A Public Health Approach to Reducing Firearm Violence: Finding Solutions to a Complex Problem” on March 25 at 7 p.m. A Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor, Hemenway directs the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Currently a Radcliffe Fellow, he has received 10 teaching awards from Harvard and in 2018 won the inaugural Community Engagement award given by HSPH students. Established in 2016, the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series convenes distinguished professionals, scholars, and activists from medicine, health care, and other related fields around timely subjects related to the intersections of health, humanities, and ethics. Sponsored by the Park
Katherine McAuliffe
photo by lee pellegrini
them, the evaluator would always accept requests for two stickers or less, and always reject requests above that threshold. If a request was rejected, negotiations would progress to the next phase. In the second phase, the evaluator explained the rules of negotiation to the children and spelled out how their next sticker requests could be handled in a way that highlighted the risk and reward inherent to negotiations. The results revealed a significant interaction between age, participant gender, and evaluator gender. For girls, the number of stickers initially requested decreased with age when the evaluator was a male. When the evaluator was female, girls requested more stickers with age. Boys, on the other hand, made requests that did not change with age or the gender of the evaluator. In measuring persistence, a proxy for negotiation length, the study found that girls’ persistence decreased with age when the evaluator was male, but remained the same with age when the evaluator was female. For boys, persistence did not change with age or
depending on the gender of the evaluator. “Our study is the first to show that gender differences in negotiation emerge in childhood,” the co-authors write. “Older girls in our paradigm differed from boys in how much they were willing to ask for from a male evaluator, showing a striking resemblance to findings in adults. Girls are not asking for less from both evaluators but instead are negotiating less only with the male evaluator.” “Our findings add negotiation to the list of early-developing gendered behaviors that may lead to and magnify the wage gap in adulthood,” the researchers report. McAuliffe said the next steps in this area of study include trying to determine why these differences emerge. She and Arnold highlighted two potential avenues for future research: status and gender stereotypes. It could be the case that the gender differences observed in this study are not unique to gender but reflect a more general dynamic due to perceived status of social groups: Namely, that individuals perceived to be a part of a lower status group (in the United States, with respect to gender, this would be girls or women) request less from individuals who are perceived to be part of a higher status group (men). With respect to gender stereotypes, it could be that girls are adopting gender stereotypes about communality or modesty that in turn shape their behavior with men. More research is needed to understand how these avenues contribute to the development of gender differences in negotiation. The challenge of the next steps in this research are clarifying exactly what explains the development of this behavior and trying to develop interventions that could help remedy the imbalance, said McAuliffe. McAuliffe was recently selected for the Human Behavior & Evolution Society (HBES) Early Career Award, which according to HBES, “recognizes excellent young scientists who have made distinguished theoretical and/or empirical contributions to the study of evolution and human behavior.”
Laetare Sunday Hosts Matt Malone, S.J.
David Hemenway
Street Corporation and BC’s Institute for the Liberal Arts, the series seeks to engage students in exploring values and ethics related to health and health care practices. Links to Park Street Series event information and registration are available at bc.edu/parkstreet. —University Communications
Boston College’s Laetare Sunday celebration this year joins the list of University community events going virtual. Marking the mid-point of Lent, the annual communion breakfast—the BC Alumni Association’s oldest tradition—will take place as an online service this Sunday, March 14, at 10 a.m. University President William P. Leahy, S.J., will preside at Mass and offer a special reflection following the service. In addition, the event will feature a keynote address by University Trustee Matt Malone, S.J., president and editor-in-chief of New York City-based America Media, which publishes the magazine America: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture, a leading Catholic journal of opinion in the United States; America Media also provides content in web, digital, and social media platforms. Fr. Malone became the youngest editorin-chief in the history of America magazine when he was appointed to the position in
2012. He served as an associate editor, covering foreign policy and domestic politics, and received the 2006 first place Catholic Press Association award for essay writing. He has participated in a number of events and collaborations at BC, including the Church in the 21st Century Center’s “Revitalizing Our Church” series, where he and Crux Editor John L. Allen Jr. were guest speakers at a discussion, “Ideas from the Catholic Series.” He also was among a panel of editors from America Media that explored the Catholic perspective on American politics in a webinar sponsored by the School of Theology and Ministry in the latter stages of the 2020 presidential election campaign. For more information about Laetare Sunday, and to register, go to bc.edu/ alumni. —University Communications
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Lynch School Program Supports Bilingual Ed. BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER
“We’ve collaborated with large
Eliminating the ban on bilingual education in most Massachusetts public schools in 2017 gave school systems and parents greater flexibility to choose programs that best suited their students. But the new policy also exposed the glaring scarcity of qualified, bilingual teachers for the more than 90,000 Massachusetts schoolchildren then classified as English language learners—nearly 10 percent of the state’s public school enrollment, according to estimates. Fortunately, says Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor C. Patrick Proctor, the Lynch School stood ready to address the need. Proctor, co-director of the Bilingual Education Certificate (BEC) program, and Lynch School faculty colleagues Maria Estela Brisk, Anne Homza, and Mariela Páez had spent the previous three years developing and running the Teaching Dual Language Learners (TDLL) program, an in-house bilingual certificate curriculum. TDLL was not tied to state endorsement, because such a certification didn’t exist at the time, explained Proctor. “When bilingual education became legal again, we were able to quickly pivot, create two new courses, and apply for state approval to be a bilingual education endorsement provider. Now we have the state-approved Bilingual Education Certificate which offers more in-depth course work and a deep bilingual education experience.” The BEC is a four-course, synchronous, and asynchronous instructional series designed for student teachers, practicing teachers, administrators, literacy specialists, coaches, and paraprofessionals seeking Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education endorsement
ages of bilingual students that
districts serving high percentare expanding their bilingual education options.” —C. Patrick Proctor photo by chris soldt/mts
for bilingual education. Often completed within a 12-month timeframe, the first two courses focus on bilingualism’s history, theory, and research; bilingual education; and second-language acquisition. The latter two courses concentrate on instructional applications of the theory and research, stressing a critical focus on language, race, and equity in relation to literacy instruction in bilingual education settings. “From a professional development or in-service perspective, BEC has been very successful,” said Proctor. “The state made bilingual education grants available to districts, and we’ve collaborated with large districts serving high percentages of bilingual students that are expanding their bilingual education options. Given the relatively small numbers of pre-service, bilingually endorsed teachers graduating from universities, districts want to ‘grow their own’ bilingual educators, so they’ve sanctioned the state-endorsed BEC for
their teachers.” Currently, BEC district partners include Boston, Lynn, Milford, Salem, and Worcester, and approximately 200 teachers from those districts enrolled in some or all BEC courses, noted Proctor, acknowledging the contributions of doctoral students Jasmine Alvarado ’22 and Rachel Moody ’23, in program organization, course instruction, and bilingual practicum supervision. Rebecca Westlake, director of English learning and bilingual education for Salem Public Schools, lauded the BC partnership with SPS. “We’ve deepened our knowledge of pedagogy for emerging bilingual students and engaged in collaborative projects that directly impact the work of launching our two-way immersion, Spanish-English dual language program, and used our coursework to better inform how to recruit and engage families of bilingual and Spanish-speaking students, plan lessons for our first kindergarten class, and to better position ourselves to start and sustain a culturally affirming dual language program.” Because the University doesn’t attract many bilingual students from bilingual homes and communities, the BEC program enrollment for new bilingual teachers is relatively small, noted Proctor, clarify-
ing that there are separate sections for BC student teachers and for practicing teachers. But a productive partnership with the Lynch School’s Charles F. Donovan Urban Teaching Scholars program—an intensive, one-year Master’s in Education program that prepares K-12 teachers to work with students and families in the nation’s urban schools—has resulted in a steady flow of four to five participants each year, he said. Puerto Rican native Mariam Gorbea Ramy ’18, M.Ed. ’19, now a third-grade Spanish teacher at Boston’s Hurley K-8 Dual Language School, was one of those Donovan Scholars, and among the first BC students to earn the BEC. “As a multilingual and multiracial student, the BEC was a safe haven for me during my formation as an educator,” said Gorbea Ramy, whose mother is Lebanese. “It was one of the only spaces I encountered during my five years of BC undergraduate and graduate study that truly celebrated me as a bilingual individual, that understood the academic and identity formation challenges that bilingual students face, and constantly provided access to research on non-monolingual populations. Almost two years out of the program and now a teacher, I feel just as supported and encouraged by the BEC faculty as I did while a student. “ Proctor said the BEC leadership hopes to make the program more accessible to multiple language speakers in Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, and Mandarin, among others. “We want bilingual teachers who are representative of the bilingual students they will be teaching, so our program doesn’t replicate the demographic problem of a majority white teaching population working with a majority non-white student population.”
BC Service Learning Trip Programs Adapt to Pandemic Continued from page 1
organizations that facilitate our work, have suffered great losses as a result of the pandemic—has caused those of us who run our programs to examine the nature of our commitment to what we often refer to in Jesuit education as ‘solidarity.’ “What does it mean for us to practice solidarity with the most vulnerable? The pandemic has highlighted the truth that there has to be a mutuality or reciprocal element to our relationships. These are organizations and communities of people who provide strong experiences and facilitate important learning for our students. But hopefully we bring something of value to them as well. I think we have been making the most of what we can accomplish, but there is an invitation to really ask ourselves if we are truly committed to the people we hope to serve and learn from.” Chronicle reached out to three BC service learning programs, two of them traditionally centered around spring break, to see how they are confronting such issues. Facing a pandemic that could poten-
tially paralyze its long-running service immersion program, Boston College Appalachia Volunteers seemed to heed presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman’s words, “Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” In a more typical year, more than 400 BC students would travel nationwide during spring break, conducting community service and living in solidarity with the families it serves in under-resourced urban areas such as New Orleans and Detroit, as well as rural areas throughout the South and the Appalachian region. More commonly known as “Appa,” the 42-year-old program’s roots—and its name—are embedded in the central and southern portions of the range. But this year, Appa has adapted its program structure and opted for service weekends in March throughout Eastern Massachusetts, “where we can safely and effectively address community needs,” said Campus Ministry Associate Director Ryan Heffernan, who leads the program. Launching what Heffernan calls “our first deep dive into the Boston area and
beyond” over the first weekend of March, 71 student volunteers sorted and packed food at Catholic Charities’ Yawkey Center in Dorchester, Our Daily Bread-Mansfield Food Pantry, and Kylee’s Kare Kits for Kidz in Leominster, and helped transport food donated by Boston-area restaurants to local social service agencies, all to address food insecurity—“a skyrocketing need during the pandemic,” according to Heffernan. Another team conducted deferred maintenance work at Dorchester’s St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children to round out the first slate of activities. Nearly 250 students will participate throughout the month. Future projects include sorting donated children’s items collected through grassroots community drives and corporate contributions at Newtonville-based Cradles to Crayons, which then distributes them to local disadvantaged children; preparing evening take-out meals for the hungry and homeless at Mustard Seed Catholic Worker in Worcester; and sorting and packing food donations at Catholic Charities’ Friends Feeding Fami-
lies in Boston and the Centre Street Food Pantry in Newton Centre. Return visits to Our Daily Bread, and Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, the restaurant food donation program, are also scheduled. An on-campus group will pack “welcome baskets” composed of non-perishable necessities purchased by Campus Ministry for former Pine Street Inn guests who have moved from the Boston homeless shelter into their permanent residences. BC was one of the first universities to undertake an alternative spring break when 20 students traveled to Kentucky in 1979 for an eight-day trip centered on service and solidarity. “We’re out to raise the awareness [among] BC students in terms of the people of Appalachia,” Gregg Cassin ’80 told The Heights at the time. “People can’t conceive of Third World conditions existing in our own country.” Today, 15 percent of BC students participate in one of Campus Ministry’s three service-immersion programs, which also include 4Boston and Arrupe International
Continued on page 8
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‘The Babysitter of Last Resort’
Asst. Prof. Joshua Hartshorne (Psychology and Neuroscience): “Screen time is a symptom of a family in distress. The COVID data seems consistent. Take parents. Take away child care. Stress and screen time go up.”
Screen time is up among kids during COVID. BC psychologist Joshua Hartshorne studies the impact. BY ROSANNE PELLEGRINI STAFF WRITER
Early results of a timely pandemic study by Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Joshua Hartshorne show that increased screen time by children is likely an indicator of family distress. When the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly changed life for American families due to school and daycare closures, children began spending dramatically more time engrossed with cell phones, computers, and televisions, noted Hartshorne, the study’s co-principal investigator. “As it turns out, screens are the babysitter of last resort. I was surprised how closely the increased screen time results tracked school and daycare closures. It was basically instantaneous.” His study, funded by the National Science Foundation, addresses implications for policy and for the ongoing scientific debate about whether screen time is actually problematic for child development. “Screen time is a symptom of a family in distress,” said Hartshorne. “The COVID data seems consistent. Take parents. Take away child care. Stress and screen time go up.” Prior to the COVID crisis, increased screen time for youths already was of concern to parents, educators, and policymakers, given its association with negative developmental outcomes. Interventions over the past few decades have focused on educating parents about these dangers and
advising them on how to limit screen time. But during the pandemic, screen time spiked as a direct result of the sudden decrease in adult caretaker availability, according to Hartshorne, who is head of the University’s Language Learning Lab. “This indicates that lower screen-time rates prior to the pandemic were not merely a function of well-informed parenting but of well-resourced parenting. “Since lockdowns and school closures proliferated late last winter, there has been extensive discussion about their effects on children among policymakers, educators, scientists, parents, and the public at large. People have been particularly concerned about a potential rise in screen time, especially TV and social media,” Hartshorne said. “We set out to answer two questions. First, is screen time really increasing? Second, why is it increasing? Without answering the second question, it’s hard to know what to do about it.” A third question—whether screen time is actually bad for children—will be examined in the second phase of the project. “Despite consensus among the general public, scientists are actually pretty uncertain about that,” he said. Hartshorne’s team queried both kids and parents about screen time, through its own surveys and those of other researchers. The team also employed public data sets about COVID and data on actual screen time usage from Reelgood, a company that manages streaming subscriptions.
March 11, 2021
photo by peter julian
Findings confirmed the team’s premise that screen time had increased during the pandemic, a dramatic shift in family behavior not due to millions of parents nationwide changing their minds about the dangers of screen time, but largely due to lack of child care—a term the team used broadly to include schools—and the resulting stress on parents. “This matters for the pandemic, obviously,” Hartshorne said. “Policymakers have treated screen time as a public information problem. Not just during COVID, but historically, the primary way of addressing screen time has been teaching parents that it is bad and giving them tips for controlling it. But if screen time is really about parents not having another option, then all these public education campaigns are likely to do is make parents feel bad.” These conclusions, he said, are of national importance beyond the COVID-19 era. “We need to be realistic about our options. If we want to decrease screen time among the nation’s kids, that may require investing in child care. Either helping parents work shorter hours or providing universal daycare or after school programs. Our study suggests that this is much more likely to work than simply educating par-
ents.” He cautioned that although the public consensus seems to be that screen time is bad for kids, the data is uncertain and scientists are unsure. “This project was really the first part of a project to use COVID-19 to study whether this huge increase in screen time matters: will we see effects on child development?” Via a related nationwide NSF-funded study, Hartshorne developed and launched a tool to track these effects: the KidTalk app, through which his team is collecting data about development to determine how COVID-19 disruptions—from school closings to canceled playdates—are changing children’s language learning environments. Parents are engaged as “citizen scientists” to create timelines of their children’s evolving speech development: this data will help developmental psychologists better understand language development and how it may be affected by the pandemic. Hartshorne’s team comprises researchers from the University of Maryland, including co-principal investigator Associate Professor Yi Ting Huang. Like many COVID-19 researchers, they made their peer-reviewed results available as quickly as possible through preprints, prior to journal submissions.
OBITUARY
John Wissler, 85; Led Alumni Association for Three Decades
A funeral Mass was celebrated yesterday at St. Ignatius Church of Loyola in Chestnut Hill for John F. Wissler, who guided the Boston College Alumni Association for more than three decades during its largest growth in University history. Mr. Wissler died on March 5 at the age of 85. Recalled by friends and former colleagues as gregarious and ever smiling, Mr. Wissler kept his affection for BC literally close to the heart, often sporting a maroon and gold tie. “I’ve had one of the greatest jobs in the world,” Mr. Wissler told the Boston College Chronicle when he announced his retirement in 1998. “Not everybody can say that they truly love the place where they work. I loved Boston College from the very first day I stepped foot on campus.” Yet when Mr. Wissler applied for the position of BC Alumni Association executive director in 1967, he wondered how much of a shot he had at the job. Up to that point, as he would later recall, all the previous Alumni Association directors were Bostonians who had graduated from BC’s College of Arts and Sciences, whereas he
John F. Wissler
file photo by lee pellegrini
was a native New Yorker and an alumnus of the School of Management (where he would later earn an M.B.A.). But, perhaps presaging BC’s transition from its commuter college roots to a nationally focused university, the selection committee unanimously chose this self-proclaimed “outsider” to head up the Alumni Association. At that time, the association counted
some 30,000 alumni; when Mr. Wissler stepped down, the number had grown to nearly 120,000 members —the most of any Catholic college in the United States—who were all over the world. During that span of time, Mr. Wissler oversaw an expansion of alumni services, from the traditional receptions and class reunions to innovative programs of social service, midlife employment counseling and retirement education classes. One of his first acts was to ensure the involvement of Boston College’s growing number of female graduates in the Alumni Association. In 1967, 17 percent of BC alumni were women, a significant increase for the once all-male institution, and Mr. Wissler encouraged women to take a leadership role in alumni affairs. The first female member of the Alumni Board of Directors, Wilma Fallon Lane ’59, was elected within four years of Mr. Wissler’s appointment. In addition to traditional activities, Mr. Wissler and his leadership group added extensive opportunities to provide a wide variety of benefits to alumni. These in-
cluded issuing them Boston College library cards, and the establishment of a career advisory network and numerous alumnidriven community service projects such as “Second Helping,” a food collection and redistribution program that benefited Boston’s homeless citizens. The association also established a series of seminars on a wide variety of topics of interest to seniors and those in retirement. In 1994, the Alumni Association was named winner of the Grand Gold Award for alumni programming, the highest honor in its field accorded by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In addition to his wife, Jean—whom he met at BC and married in 1957, the year he graduated—Mr. Wissler is survived by his daughter, Anne Merrow; son, Thomas Wissler; three grandchildren and one greatgrandson. He was predeceased by his son John Francis Wissler and sister, Valerie Bartolacci. Read the full obituary at http://bit.ly/johnwissler-obit —University Communications
Chronicle
March 11, 2021
WELCOME ADDITIONS
BC in the Media
An Introduction to New Faculty at Boston College Ran Duchin
Professor of Finance, Carroll School of Management DEGREES: Hebrew University (B.A., M.B.A.); University of Southern California (Ph.D.) WHAT HE STUDIES: Corporate finance, corporate governance, and political economy; investment decisions, including internal capital allocation, acquisitions, and government bailouts; factors that shape investment policies and corporate decisionmaking, including political economy and financial regulation, and agency conflicts and human behavior. WHAT HE’S TEACHING: Fundamentals of Finance; Advanced Topics in Corporate Finance.
What fuels your interest in uncovering the many factors that influence corporate decision making?
“My work is motivated by the unprecedented availability of micro-level data on companies, managers, and financial assets that has been growing rapidly in recent years. These data allow me and my co-authors to revisit fundamental economic questions and shed new light on the complex, multifaceted mechanisms that shape the policies, performance, and value of companies.”
Renée Pastel
(M.A., Ph.D.)
Assistant Professor of Communication, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences DEGREES: Harvard University (A.B.), University of California, Berkeley
WHAT SHE STUDIES: Film theory; memory
and media; new/digital media; media politics and culture; television studies. WHAT SHE’S TEACHING: Memory and Media; Film Theory and Criticism.
You are revising your doctoral dissertation, “War in Pieces: Narrative Figures Across Media in the ‘War on Terror’”—which focuses on the screen treatment of the Iraq/Afghan Wars and the shaping of public opinion—into a book. How have the media’s representations of the “War on Terror” reflected the fragmented nature of contemporary visual culture?
“By focusing on the three narrative figures around which media representations of the first phase of the ‘War on Terror’ center—the journalist, the soldier, and the veteran—I examine the genres and modes that shape how the United States population tells itself stories about war. To do so, I compare the reach and impact of different media forms, analyzing, for example, the disparity between YouTube videos with millions of hits and feature-film box office flops. I am interested in considering the ways in which the rise of narrowcasting and the proliferation of media options converges with the early years of the ongoing conflicts. Ultimately, this project proposes that, while the narrative conventions bestow unifying legibility to the fragmented representations and provide a continuity in storytelling that affirms the United States as democratizing ‘good guys,’
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those narrative conventions ultimately serve to mask the fracturing and loss of a unifying mythology of American national identity, signifying in part that the divides so apparent today can be traced much further back.”
Ilya Volkovich
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences DEGREES: Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (B.A., Ph.D.) WHAT HE STUDIES: Computational complexity with applications to cryptography and machine learning, in particular algebraic complexity, randomness in computation, and computational learning theory. WHAT HE’S TEACHING: Logic and Computation
Do you think that all undergraduates can benefit from courses in computer science— even those who aren’t planning to major in the subject? Why?
“Computer science has grown beyond programming. Therefore, everyone will benefit from taking coursework in computer science because computation literacy is actually a mindset for problem-solving and part of a skillset necessary to be productive in today’s professional world.”
Huiquing (Jane) Zhou
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences DEGREES: Nankai University (B.S.); University of Michigan (M.S.); Duke University (Ph.D.) WHAT SHE STUDIES: Developing and applying new technologies to visualize spatial and temporal distributions of chemical modifications in nucleic acids that direct cellular functions; molecular mechanisms, particularly how chemical modifications and their regulatory networks control gene expression; modulating transcript-specific RNA modification levels to revert dysregulated RNA biochemical changes in diseases. WHAT SHE’S TEACHING: Principles of Chemical Biology
To what do you attribute your research interests in RNA and the development of potential gene therapies?
“I have been fascinated by genetics since I first learned about it in my high school biology class. It was amazing to learn that such simple rules in genetics can govern the most sophisticated machine in nature, the biological system. As I continued learning and understanding more about biology, I started to realize that the rule is never as simple as I thought and we still only understand very little about biology. I believe that deciphering the genetic code will lead us to understand how biological machineries function and how they are dysregulated in many deadly diseases, and eventually that will enable the development of cures.”
—Ed Hayward, Rosanne Pellegrini, Sean Smith photos of duchin, pastel, zhou by lee pellegrini
One of America’s most famous, but often misunderstood, military battles will be the subject of an online history lesson sponsored by the Boston College Veterans Alumni Network on March 18 from noon-1 p.m. Brian Cummins ’82 will explain how the Battle of Bunker Hill—or was it that “other” hill?—was fought in error and contradiction, where the defeated won the laurels of liberty while the victorious incomprehensibly lost a colonial empire. The story of the Battle of Bunker Hill serves as a cautionary tale of great power overreach, replete with heroics, valor, incompetence, deceit, and hubris. Following Cummins’ talk will be breakout sessions to network with others and to discuss lessons learned. Registration is available through the “Events” section of the BC Alumni Association website, bc.edu/alumni.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine gives the United States another badly needed tool at a critical time in the pandemic, according to Global Public Health Program Director Philip Landrigan, M.D., who weighed in for The Washington Post. President Biden’s executive order requiring a 100-day review of key aspects of the nation’s supply chain reminds all business leaders of the importance of being prepared for any crisis situation, Aleksandar Tomic, Woods College associate dean for strategy, innovation, and technology, told Forbes. Women of color are increasingly leading Boston, which is on the cusp of having its first Black woman as mayor. Clough Millennial Professor of History James O’Toole and Irish Studies Program interim director Robert Savage commented on Boston’s political history and evolution for the Associated Press. PsyPost featured a study of the politicization of health and science, co-authored by Asst. Prof. S Mo Jones-Jang (Communication) and published in the journal Health Communication, which found that political leaders can have a notable impact on vaccine risk assessment.
program, which expands opportunities and access for highly qualified veterans transitioning to higher education. He talks about the program and his experience at BC so far in a Q&A with S2S. It isn’t uncommon to have feelings of depression and alienation after losing a job. Duganne Faculty Fellow Prof. David Blustein (LSOEHD) discussed coping mechanisms with The Wall Street Journal. A new analysis co-authored by Assoc. Prof. Betty Lai (LSOEHD), published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, sheds new light on the trajectory of post-traumatic stress that youths experience after a natural disaster. She discussed the findings in an interview with Gizmodo. “I went on a date in college for extra credit. What it taught me about love and worthiness was priceless,” wrote Morrissey College graduate Molly Cahill ’20 in a piece for America magazine—where she is serving as an O’Hare Fellow—about her experience with Assoc. Prof. of the Practice Kerry Cronin’s (Philosophy) storied dating assignment.
Carroll School of Management student Enmanuel Cabrera ’23 transferred to Boston College through the University’s partnership with Service to School’s VetLink
Jobs
Nota Bene
The following are among the recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources. For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see www.bc.edu/jobs.
Boston College’s Margot Connell Recreation Center has been recognized by a leading national technical and trade association. The center, which opened in 2019, received a Design Award for Best Higher Education/University Building from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). The PCI Design Awards have “showcased and recognized the creative and innovative use of precast concrete for the past 58 years,” according to PCI. A panel of industry experts that includes engineers, architects, and precast concrete producers judges all nominees on aesthetic, structural, and use versatility; site, energy and operational efficiency, and risk reduction; and resiliency, such as structure durability, multi-hazard protection, and life safety and health. This year, judges awarded 26 projects and 12 honorable mentions for design excellence in building and transportation categories. The recreation center “is helping to redefine the academic institution’s culture of fitness and recreation,” read the PCI award description, which noted that the 245,000-square-foot facility houses a fitness center, rock-climbing wall, jogging track, aquatics center, sport courts, yoga studios, and more. “It will provide students with a one-stop destination for all of their fitness needs.”
Associate Director, Career Advising & Programming Manager, Recruitment and Operations Academic & Student Services Assistant Development Assistant, Participatory Giving Director, Financial Aid Quarantine and Isolation Assistant Assistant Director, Strategic Sourcing Senior Benefits Specialist Learning Designer Administrative & Program Specialist COVID-19 Housing Coordinator Recovery House Manager Assistant Director, Living-Learning Programs Research Economist, Center for Retirement Research Liaison Librarian for Engineering Associate Director, Young Alumni Giving DevOps Systems Administrator Dean, Connell School of Nursing Engineering Projects Manager Post-doctoral Research Fellow (multiple positions)
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March 11, 2021
Service Learning Faces Challenge of COVID Era Continued from page 5
Immersion. Students annually raise more than $250,000 to underwrite Appa’s associated costs, and contribute to community partners, both products of the University’s long tradition of charitable involvement, reports Heffernan. The commitment to these programs goes beyond the service work itself. Participants meet biweekly throughout the school year to learn about the structural injustices and social realities that marginalize people, and to draw on BC’s Jesuit tradition of asking how faith might motivate us to respond. One of the program’s key learning outcomes, says Heffernan, is for students to formulate a plan to continue participating in acts of service and solidarity beyond Appa involvement. “Our hope is that these aren’t isolated moments of community or experiences of service,” he said. “Appa strives to transform the ways students interact in the world and reflect on how they might use their gifts for the common good.” This academic year, noted Heffernan, “our meetings have been a space in which to discuss the intersection and impact of twin pandemics—both COVID-19 and racism in the United States—and underlined the need to be more fully present to the lived realities of unheard voices and under-resourced communities via direct encounter and shared service.” Clinical Assistant Professor Donna Cullinan typically leads a group of Connell School of Nursing students on a trip to Haiti, where they set up clinics and provide care for hundreds of children and adults living in rural parts of Haiti who have limited or no access to health care. Undergraduates fulfill their community clinical requirement, while nurse practitioner students earn patient care hours toward their certification. Although COVID travel restrictions made the trip impossible this year, the Haitian people are very much in the hearts and minds of the CSON community, according to Cullinan, a 2011 Boston College Community Service Award winner who has been providing care in Haiti for about 20 years. As an alternative clinical experience, Cullinan will lead a contingent from the Connell School on a trip to the northernmost part of Maine to provide care and health education to the residents of Aroostook County. Working in partnership with Catholic Charities Maine and the Maine Department of Public Health, the CSON cohort will visit locations including Caribou, Presque Isle, Houlton, and Madawaska during the week of April 18. Cullinan said they expect to assist with vaccine clinics, blood drives, and oral health assessments. They also will conduct health education classes and make health care visits to homebound residents. The CSON group consists of 19 undergraduates in the Population Health Practice in the Community course and five graduate students in the nurse practitioner program. Joining Cullinan will be Connell
School faculty members Colleen Simonelli, Maureen Connolly, and Kellie LaPierre. “I think it’s going to be a really good trip,” said Cullinan. “This part of Maine is really remote and there is a lot of need there.” For almost 30 years, Boston College has partnered with St. Theresa’s Catholic Church to work in solidarity with the various communities around Annotto Bay in Jamaica’s St. Mary Parish. BC students have traveled there during spring break and other times of the year to assist in projects like summer camps, tutoring, and, in January 2020, a series of free public health clinics and home visits. The pandemic’s impact on the St. Mary’s area, along with COVID travel restrictions, prompted a new collaboration formed late last year between BC’s Center for Student Formation with the May River Primary School, whose students
a chance to form deep relationships in the community. Through the May River Scholars Project, the students will each have about 16 hours with the same child, and they provide a very important, tangible service in assisting the kids with reading and math. Along the way, the BC students learn about the child’s joys as well as sorrows, and may gain insights into them and their families’ lives.” May River Primary School Principal Alcia Moore-Reid said the partnership with BC is a timely and necessary one: The project has helped mitigate some technical difficulties in keeping the school connected with its students while providing a valuable supplement to May River faculty’s efforts to serve a significantly increased student population. “The partnership is working tremendously,” said Moore-Reid, who has worked with several BC service learning trips.
The Appalachia Volunteers service learning program “strives to transform the ways students interact in the world and reflect on how they might use their gifts for the common good,” says Associate Director for Campus Ministry Ryan Heffernan. Above, “Appa” members worked on a community service project in Dorchester last weekend. photo by frank curran
have been forced into remote learning. Through the May River Scholars Project, 24 BC undergraduates have each been paired with a child for two hourlong tutoring sessions a week via Zoom or Google Meet; the project also provided new tablets, with Internet access, to the school for the children to use. The BC tutors employ virtual worksheets, videos, learning apps, and other tools to work with the children on reading and mathematics. Sessions began last month and will continue into early April. The value of in-person service experiences is indisputable, said Center for Student Formation Executive Director Michael Sacco, who has been on more than a dozen service-related trips to Jamaica: Students witness for themselves the human cost of poverty and injustice, as well as the resilience of communities in dealing with such issues. But the multi-week virtual approach has its own advantages. “If this were a spring break trip, it would be a very intense, concentrated week for the students, with not much of
“Based on information from teachers, we have seen improvements among these students. And what is more, by interacting with the BC tutors, the children are learning about other cultures and having an opportunity to talk about their own—they are doing some teaching themselves.” While eight of the BC volunteers are students in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, not all of the remaining cohort are experienced in teaching or working with children. They underwent concentrated preparation before beginning their tutoring sessions, familiarizing themselves as much as possible with the school’s curriculum and May River teachers’ notes on each child participating in the project. The BC students now meet regularly to reflect on and discuss their tutoring experiences—four of the Lynch School undergrads serve as group leaders—and offer one another advice, and sometimes commiseration. Ultimately, each tutor has to draw upon his or her creativity, empathy, and patience, whether helping a child navigate a subtrac-
tion problem or a reading exercise game, or simply striking up a casual conversation. A BC student received a litany of polite “No, Miss” and “Yes, Miss” replies once when she tried to get her young friend talking about his weekend activities. “That’s the best thing to hear—it just makes my day,” laughed Victoria Denaro ’22, an International Studies major with an English minor from West Newton, Mass., recalling the exchange with Junaid, a third grader. “I feel that, even in our short time together, we’ve been able to make a connection. I respect that he’s a shy kid, or just doesn’t want to talk about himself sometimes; it’s about respecting boundaries.” Denaro said she’s seen indications Junaid enjoys their interactions, especially when he sent her a message via What’sApp: “Good night, Miss Victoria.” (Students and tutors are not permitted to communicate outside of their sessions.) The details she’s picked up about Junaid have compelled Denaro to reflect on the differences in their day-in/week-out lives, and the perspectives about poverty and equality she’s carried with her. “But it’s not about me, it’s about him. If I can challenge my preconceptions, that’s fine. What I really want is for Junaid to get something out of all this. I’m not going to go around congratulating myself, ‘Wow, I taught Junaid subtraction’; it’s far more important to be able to say, ‘Junaid knows how to do subtraction.’” Although Natasha Munroe, a sophomore from West Palm Beach, Fla., majoring in political science, is no stranger to Jamaica—both her parents were born there, and she’s made many visits to the island—she was largely unfamiliar with the part where her tutee Alexxis lives. “I see it through Alexxis’ eyes. Everything seems so far from her and her family. They don’t have access to the opportunities and resources that other people have had, including my parents.” For Gerald Mastellone ’23, a biology major from Cleveland, hours spent working with Kelvin on memorizing and spelling out the days of the week or reading books are full of “little moments” that point the way forward. “Life is all about making a plan, and what you do when that plan doesn’t work out. You just keep looking for the door that can lead to something better, and when you do you build from that. Service is about education, and I’m learning about my patience and ability to make plans, but also about how Kelvin sees things. And I want to make sure he knows people care about him and are proud of him.” Sacco said the program, when it ends in the second week of April, will have some kind of closure for the tutors and children, such as a group Zoom session, along with certificates and other mementoes. Hopes for the partnership to continue are strong all around, including with the May River Primary School and the children’s parents, he said.