An Eventful Two Decades for C21

Continued from page 1 scandal to appear on a panel.

“I remember being so proud because we were the first Catholic university to step into the crisis and start doing the work, convening people, and having lots of hard conversations,” said Karen Kiefer ’82, who joined the C21 staff in 2008 and now serves as the organization’s director.

Early on, C21 [bc.edu/c21] made efforts to engage young people in the center’s programming. In 2005, Director Tim Muldoon ’92 launched Agape Latte, a monthly storytelling series in which speakers from the BC community shared their faith journeys with students over coffee. Now entirely student-led, Agape Latte remains one of the center’s most popular offerings and has inspired similar programs at more than 150 schools and parishes around the world.

In 2012, C21 expanded the concept into a weeklong celebration of faith on campus co-sponsored with Campus Ministry, Espresso Your Faith Week, featuring outdoor activities like “Cornhole with the Jesuits” as well as panel discussions and a candlelight Mass. Kiefer described the celebration as encouraging students “to realize the gift of God working in their minds and hearts with the hope that they will be intentional about how they spend their time here and be inspired to see God in all things.”

Earlier this year, Espresso Your Faith received the Spirituality and Religion in Higher Education Knowledge Community Outstanding Spiritual Initiative Award from NASPA (Student Affairs Administra-

Bers Elected to Nat’l Academy of Education

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) recently announced that Augustus Long Professor of Education Marina Bers (at right) was one of 18 exceptional education leaders and scholars elected for membership this year.

Bers, who joined the Lynch School of Education and Human Development last August, is widely recognized for her work at Tufts University on robotics and technological tools for children to learn. She is director of the interdisciplinary Developmental Technologies (DevTech) research group, which she launched at Tufts in 2001 and transferred to the Lynch School. Bers has a secondary appointment in the Computer Science Department.

“We are thrilled that Marina Bers has been elected to the National Academy of Education,” said Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School, who was elected to the NAEd in 2019. “It is a well-deserved honor, given the importance of her work teaching young children to code, and her tools being used in over 196 countries. She is a wonderful fit for BC since she reimagines tors in Higher Education), which recognizes a program or initiative that promotes spiritual and religious growth on a college campus and demonstrates a significant impact on a college campus by promoting spiritual and religious engagement among the student body.

C21’s audience has always extended beyond the BC campus (its twice-yearly magazine C21 Resources has a mailing list its work to address the Church’s ongoing struggle to attract young people: Last year, C21’s Student Voices Project surveyed thousands of college students nationwide about their hopes for the Catholic Church, and shared the results with Pope Francis.

In addition to sponsoring numerous campus events, the Church in the 21st Century Center has broadened its audience beyond Boston College, such as through its twice-yearly magazine C21 Resources.

The project, which included input from more than 550 BC students, was the perfect example of C21’s modern-day approach to its 20-year-old mission, Kiefer said: “We try to look at the biggest challenges the Church is facing and meet them not just with conversations, programs, and publications but also with new ideas and innovations. Then we give it all back to the Church.” coding as a humanistic, formative process.”

“This diverse group of leaders and scholars is at the forefront of those who are improving the lives of students in the United States and abroad,” said Carol Lee, president of the National Academy of Education. “At a time of great tension and political debate surrounding education, these leaders are building a strong foundation of knowledge and evidence for ways to improve education policy and practice.”

Founded in 1965, the Washington, D.C.-based honorific society consists of U.S. members and international associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education.

—Phil Gloudemans

of 180,000), but the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly broadened its reach. In 2020, with the world under quarantine, Kiefer’s team created downloadable guides that allowed people to mimic the center’s popular Faith Feeds program—which brings local parishioners together for a meal and conversation—from the safety of home. “It just took off and suddenly people were downloading hundreds of thousands of these guides,” Kiefer recalled. “It taught us that there’s a real case for intimate conversation over Zoom.”

Since then, C21 has launched Pray It Forward, a 15-minute prayer session that attracts more than 600 people via Zoom every Wednesday, and Breakfast with God, a weekly online faith program for children co-sponsored with the BC Roche Center for Catholic Education. It also continues

This academic year, C21 launched Mass & Mingle, a once-a-month opportunity for 20- and 30-something Catholics in the Boston area to meet new friends while also engaging with faith and spirituality. Offered in partnership with the BC Alumni Association and the Jesuit Parish of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Mass & Mingle invites young adults to attend the 5 p.m. Sunday Mass at St. Ignatius Church, followed by a one-hour social. Each Mass & Mingle event has food, refreshments, trivia prizes, and “a big question” to spark conversation about how participants can “find God in all things.”

As it enters its third decade, C21 plans to keep asking the big and challenging questions related to the Church, and to launch even more new initiatives that encourage young adults to connect with their local parishes.

“As long as questions prevail, there’s a need for the Church in the 21st Century,” said Groome. “Our work is far from finished.”

Alix Hackett is a senior digital content writer in the Office of University Communications. This article was adapted from a story appearing in the winter 2023 edition of Boston College Magazine.