Boston College Chronicle

The Boston College

Chronicle Published by the Boston College Office of News & Public Affairs may 24, 2012 VOL. 20 no. 18

COMMENCEMENT 2012

“There are a lot of questions we can’t answer. And faith never promises you that it has all the answers. It simply eases the journey.”

—Bob Woodruff at Commencement Monday

Woodruff: Rely on Faith and Family

INSIDE •BC economist on Europe’s troubles, page 3

•Grigsby wins NSF CAREER honor, page 4 •Joyce Award, Aquino Scholarship, page 8 •Christensen talks about Fulbrights, page 9 •Saying farewell — but not goodbye — to Boston College, page 10

Gary Wayne Gilbert

Award-winning network journalist Bob Woodruff, who recovered from near-fatal injuries sustained while reporting on American forces in Iraq, told Boston College graduates to let passion, faith, service and love guide their lives.

Woodruff told the approximately 4,400 undergraduate and graduate students at the University’s 136th Commencement Exercises that the traumatic brain injuries he sustained from a roadside bomb had given him more than he lost to his wounds and a difficult recovery.

“The big awful thing that

happened in my life really can’t define me,” said Woodruff, an ABC News correspondent. “It only strengthened my love for so many things. It recommitted me to what’s really important. What counts isn’t the title or the accomplishment. It’s not the medal or an award. It is the people, my friends and family – the ones who have been and will be there for the long haul. So give your family a big hug today and thank them for helping you get to this place.”

Woodruff, who in the wake of his injuries formed the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation to support soldiers recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), re- Journalist Bob Woodruff addresses the Class of 2012 at Monday’s Comceived an Honorary Doctor of mencement Exercises. At right, new Carroll Graduate School of Manage-

ment graduate Yi Zhou tries to attract the attention of family members. More

Continued on page 5 Commencement coverage on pages 5-7.

o b it u a r y

O’Connor Was Historian for Boston and BC

Thomas H. O’Connor, Boston College’s University Historian and long-popular professor emeritus of history who was widely considered “the dean of Boston’s historians” for his authorship of such critically acclaimed books as Boston Catholics, Civil War Boston and The Boston Irish, died at his Milton home on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. He was 89.

A funeral Mass for Dr. O’Connor will be held today at St. Thomas More Church in Braintree. Burial will be in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, Weymouth.

Dr. O’Connor’s distinguished teaching and writing career spanned more than half a century. He joined the Boston College faculty in 1950, after earning a BC undergraduate degree in 1949 and completing his master’s degree in history the following year. From 1962 to 1970, he served as chairman of the History Department, where he attained the rank of

Lee Pellegrini

16 Earn Fulbright Awards

Lee Pellegrini

By Ed Hayward Staff Writer

By Office of News & Public Affairs Staff

Sixteen new and recent Boston College graduates have earned prestigious Fulbright awards, which support a year’s post-baccalaureate study abroad.

In addition to the 16 confirmed Fulbright winners, two graduating seniors were named as alternates, Thomas O’Connor and at press time were awaiting full professor. His fields of interest confirmation of funding for their included mid-19th-century American history, the Age of Jackson, and the Civil War. “Tom O’Connor was a great scholar, a great teacher, a great mentor, but he was most of all a great and

By Jack Dunn good man,” said Clough Professor of Director of News History James O’Toole, who knew & Public Affairs Dr. O’Connor both as a student and history department colleague. “StuBoston College has received a dents remember him as a lively lec- $5 million gift from an anonyturer, but he was always demanding. mous donor to endow its men’s He would push a student who gave a ice hockey head coaching posiquick, easy answer to a question with tion held by Jerry York. The largthe persistent demand: ‘But why? est gift ever in support of a BC Why?’ athletics team, the donation pays Continued on page 9

projects. [A third senior also was named an alternate but did not receive funding.]

The 2012 Fulbright winners will travel to countries such as Tajikistan, Germany, Jordan, South Korea, India and Colombia. Some will serve as English teaching assistants, while others will undertake projects that include studying the role of women in Tajik government and NGOs, Jordanian media reporting Continued on page 12

$5 Million Gift for Hockey Is a Tribute to Jerry York

QUOTE:

tribute to York, a 1967 Boston College graduate, who is among the most successful coaches in all of NCAA sports, with five NCAA championships — including this year’s — and 913 wins during his storied career.

“We are most grateful and pleased to announce this magnificent commitment,” said Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo.

Continued on page 4

“I was just overcome with a sense of gratitude and love for BC for not only helping me realize and develop my passions — and having the avenues to do so — but also recognizing my unconventional path.”

—Aquino Scholarship winner Krystle Jiang ’13

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

O

U

ND

Poetry contest goes long distance

S

had.”

She added that a lot of her classmates cited the “Fr. Jack Challenge” as the reason they were giving.

“We could not have achieved this success without the help of Fr. Jack and Eagle’s Deli. The challenge brought new life to the campaign,” said Vigars, who noted that more than 600 gifts came in after the challenge was announced on April 23.

As the countdown to the “Fr. Jack Challenge” approached last week, Fr. Butler stood outside Eagle’s Deli awaiting news of the gift tally and, he added, saying a prayer. Was he praying for the participation goal to be met or to be saved from the culinary confrontation?

Fr. Butler simply smiled and said, “I’m always praying, but I’m not sharing what my intentions are.”

—Kathleen Sullivan

U

Senior class batting 1,000 Though the goal was ultimately achieved, Fr. Butler and his digestive system were spared the task of taking on the 10 patties, 20 slices of cheese, 20 pieces of bacon (and five pounds of fries) because the participation number had not yet reached 1,000 on May 15, the day designated for the Challenge Burger showdown.

Amanda Duggan ’12 said she joined the Senior Class Gift Committee Executive Board to get more involved during her senior year after spending a semester abroad in New Zealand junior year. The option to designate a gift to a specific BC program or school was appealing to seniors, said Duggan, who designated her gift to the PULSE program.

“I felt the cause – giving back — was so important. I wanted to support something directly so others coming after me could have the same opportunities I

M

Professor of Theology Fr. Michael Himes was the featured speaker at the fifth annual Senior Class Toast, held May 17 on Bapst Library Lawn.

Vice President for University Mission and Ministry Jack Butler, SJ, and representatives of University Advancement and the Senior Class Gift Committee discuss the “Fr. Jack Challenge” at the Eagle’s Deli in Cleveland Circle. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)

Whatever else its members accomplish, the Boston College Class of 2012 already has a mark of distinction: It’s given more donations to BC — 1,000 gifts as of May 17 — than any other senior class in University history, breaking the previous record of 973 gifts made by the Class of 2008.

Kaitlin Vigars, assistant director for annual giving in the Office of University Advancement, credits the Senior Class Gift Committee and their inspired challenge for the success of this year’s campaign.

The goal was to get 1,000 seniors to make a donation to the Senior Class Gift. For added incentive, the committee announced that Vice President for University Mission and Ministry Jack Butler, SJ, would eat the Eagle’s Deli’s famed Challenge Burger — a colossal five-pound bacon cheeseburger — if the senior class met its goal.

CA

P

AR

2

Photos by Caitlin Cunningham

Reminder to BC employees: Complete the HEALTHY YOU questionnaire by May 31 and receive a $75 gift card, and receive an additional $50 if you make a health plan with a Harvard Pilgrim Health Care coach by July 31.

For more information, see www.bc.edu/healthy-you

The Boston College

Chronicle

Director of NEWS & Public Affairs

Jack Dunn Deputy Director of NEWS & Public AFFAIRS

Patricia Delaney Editor

Sean Smith Contributing Staff

Melissa Beecher

For almost a quarter-century, an initiative started by Lynch School of Education Professor Emeritus George Ladd has encouraged Massachusetts schoolchildren to combine their scientific education with creative expression. This year, the annual Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest, which is coordinated by Ladd and his research assistants, added a new feature by helping establish a poetry exchange between Massachusetts and Bermuda schools.

Last month, students of the Willard Elementary School in Concord wrote and illustrated poems on scientific themes and shared them with their counterparts at the Purvis Primary School of Warwick, Bermuda, who sent along their own work.

Ladd said the Willard-Purvis collaboration represents an op-

portunity to broaden the children’s sense of the world even as they cultivate their creative selves and their grasp of scientific concepts.

“I love the idea of kids in different cultures writing on similar topics in similar modes of expression, writing about things in their worlds,” said Ladd, whose connections with the Bermuda Ministry of Education helped to launch the exchange. “On the one hand, the worlds of Concord and Bermuda are different in some respects, but the kids wrote about the stars, the sun, the moon, things in nature they observe — so there is not as much difference, after all.”

Ladd is similarly enthused about the continuing popular-

ity of the poetry contest, which was held this spring for the 24th year. The contest received more than 900 entries from students in grades K-8 representing more than 100 schools; first, second and third prizes and honorable mentions were given in eight categories, including Most Expressive Poem (“Sets a mood or conveys emotion. This type of poem is evocative and displays emotion in a creative way”), Best Long Poem (“A science ballad or poem with five or more verses”) and Most Original Poem (“Unique view or presentation of a science topic”).

Some recent winners have included third-grader Kara Culgin’s haiku: Ocean by the marsh The marsh fills with water, dark A storm is coming.

Another winner was a diamante by second-grader David Schofield: Walrus Strong, Brown Fishing, Eating, Digging Tusks, Whiskers, Flippers, Muzzle Swimming, Splashing, Diving Huge, Fat Fish-eater Ladd, who notes that poems for the Willard-Purvis exchange were not judged in the contest, said he hopes the schools consider a pen-pal program to deepen their relationship, and provide even more opportunities for students to broaden their perspectives.

“They’re not ‘different’ kids,” he says. “They’re just kids.”

For more on the Massachusetts Science Poetry Contest, see sites. google.com/site/masciencepoetrycontest.

—Sean Smith

Ed Hayward Reid Oslin Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan Michael Maloney Photographers

Gary Gilbert Lee Pellegrini

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 News & Public Affairs, 14 Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (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 News & Public Affairs, 14 Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.

Contact Chronicle via e-mail: chronicle@bc.edu.Electronic editions of the Boston College Chronicle are available via the World Wide Web at http://www. bc.edu/chronicle.

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

3

Why Europe Needs More Balance in Financial Policies BC economist says austerity measures only go so far in solving woes

By Ed Hayward Staff Writer

“You cannot exclusively rely on a policy of fiscal rigor to solve the economic problems in Europe. It is necessary to stimulate growth, and for that it is also necessary to implement structural reforms to the product and labor markets that foster competition and allow a more flexible and efficient use of the labor force.”

Photo by Lee Pellegrini

reforms could reduce barriers to entry and raise the overall employment rate by as much as 5.4 percentage points.

Over the long term, product market reforms lead also to labor market changes that improve employment levels – a so-called “double dividend,” according to the researchers, who detailed the findings in the Economic Journal

As part of the ongoing “Got Green?” awareness campaign, organized by the Office of News & Public Affairs on behalf of the Office of Engineering and Energy Management, here are a few quick and easy ways to help BC conserve energy over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

Before leaving campus: •Turn off items that consume electricity, such as lights and individual coffee makers.

•Unplug chargers and other electronic equipment.

•Shut down computers.

•Review requirements and assignments for turning off office equipment such as printers and copiers.

•Where possible, close blinds and curtains in offices and classrooms.

•Close windows.

•If a refrigerator is empty, raise the setting to a warmer temperature.

•In offices with thermostats, raise the setting to 75 degrees.

Small efforts collectively result in big savings, and every effort is appreciated!

For additional energy-saving tips, visit www.bc.edu/green.

—Fabio Schiantarelli

earlier this year.

The findings take on heightened importance as many countries in Europe and elsewhere try to climb out of the recession, battling stubbornly high unemployment, budget deficits and expanding public debt.

Austerity alone won’t generate economic growth, Schiantarelli says.

by the technocratic government led by Mario Monti (who served as Schiantarelli’s undergraduate thesis advisor at Bocconi University).

Without policies that stimulate long-run growth, Schiantarelli says, there is little hope that the European countries that have accumulated large government debts over the last 20 years will be able to experience successful fiscal consolidation that brings excessive government deficits and debt under control.

As Greece teeters on the edge of insolvency, economists fear its failure could create a domino effect toppling the weakened economies of countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. Schiantarelli says such a chain reaction would have a damaging effect on the US economy.

“We need to avoid the contagion from Greece to other exposed European countries.

Otherwise, not only Europe will suffer, but there will be negative consequences for the US economy. We have to hope that the G8 meeting will ultimately help in finding a better balance between fiscal rigor and measures for growth. Whether that will happen is, however, an open question,” he said.

Contact Ed Hayward at ed.hayward@bc.edu

CSON Dean Appointed to Major Nursing Board The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) has named Connell School of Nursing Dean and Professor Susan Gennaro to its National Advisory Council for Nursing Research (NACNR), the institute’s principal advisory board.

Members of the council are drawn from the scientific and lay communities, embodying a diverse perspective from the fields of nursing, public and health policy, law and economics. NINR, a component of the National Institutes of Health, is the primary federal agency for the support of nursing research.

Gennaro, an internationally noted perinatal nurse researcher who became CSON dean in 2008, is currently investigating risk patterns for preterm delivery in US women. Her research has been funded by the NIH for more than 20 years. She is the editor of Sigma Theta Tau’s Journal of Nursing Scholarship and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She was honored by her alma mater, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, with a Visionary Leader Award in 2010, and received Outstanding Nurse

Gary Wayne Gilbert

The economic debate roiling post-recession Europe often focuses on reigning in public debt, persistent unemployment and the largesse of the welfare state.

But leaders in European Union nations and others should consider relaxing controls on competition for goods and services in order to spark job creation and economic growth, according to Professor of Economics Fabio Schiantarelli and a team of researchers.

Twenty years of data from nations within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that stimulating competition and improving access to markets for new firms leads to improved employment outcomes, says Schiantarelli, who conducted the research with former doctoral student Giuseppe Fiori PhD ’10 and a pair of OECD researchers, Giuseppe Nicoletti and Stefano Scarpetta.

The analysis by Schiantarelli and his colleagues found that in countries with heavily regulated labor markets, product market

“You cannot exclusively rely on a policy of fiscal rigor to solve the economic problems in Europe. It is necessary to stimulate growth, and for that it is also necessary to implement structural reforms to the product and labor markets that foster competition and allow a more flexible and efficient use of the labor force.”

Schiantarelli points to his native Italy, where growth has been stagnant for more than a decade. Excessive protections shield older workers, while younger workers and women face high unemployment rates and are often relegated to a series of temporary jobs. Labor policies have effectively provided an incentive not to hire new workers with long-term contracts.

Coupled with regulations that limit competition in service sector industries – such as telecommunications, energy, and transportation – these rigid policies only handcuff economic growth.

In an additional analysis, Schiantarelli estimated reforms that make the labor market more flexible by reducing the costs of layoffs and by creating pathways for hiring new workers into permanent contracts could produce up to a million new jobs in Italy in the long run. This research provides support for the attempt

research activities.

NINR supports basic and clinical research that develops the knowledge to build the scientific foundation for clinical practice, prevent disease and disability, manage and eliminate symptoms caused by illness, and enhance end-of-life and palliative care.

—Kathleen Sullivan

BC in Top 100 for Social Media Use

Susan Gennaro

Researcher and Distinguished Service awards from the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

The NACNR provides recommendations on the direction and support of the nursing, biomedical, social, and behavioral research that forms the evidence base for nursing practice. An important role of the council is to conduct a second level of review of grant applications that have been scored by scientific review groups. In addition, the council reviews the institute’s extramural programs and makes recommendations about its intramural

Boston College has earned a spot on a scientifically calculated list that highlights the colleges best using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The StudentAdvisor.com “Top 100 Social Media Colleges” is based on a mathematical algorithm that “quantifies the social media footprint of each college and university in the United States,” according to the website. Owned by the Washington Post, StudentAdvisor. com offers free access to trusted college conversations, college reviews, college comparison and match tools, planning guides and other resources.

BC’s social media presence is directed by the Office of News & Public Affairs.

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

4

By Patricia Delaney Deputy Director of News & Public Affairs

“I am humbled and honored to lead a program where its alumni care so deeply about our commitment to excellence and developing our student-athletes as men and women for others. This gift signals that BC hockey will continue to be competitive for years to come.”

Photo by Lee Pellegrini

—Jerry York

Anonymous Donor’s Gift Will Endow Hockey Coach’s Position at BC Continued from page 1 “The donor’s generosity honors Jerry York and the great legacy of men’s ice hockey and its coaches at the Heights, and ensures that we will be able to attract great coaches long into the future.”

In addition to being the largest gift to a BC athletics team, the $5 million donation is the first coaching endowment received at any Hockey East member institution. The donor cited a long love for BC hockey, admiration for Jerry York and his leadership, and the belief that BC athletics plays an integral role in maintaining a vibrant and engaging university as the catalysts for his gift.

“I am humbled and honored to lead a program where its alumni care so deeply about our commitment to excellence and developing our student-athletes as men and women for others,” said York. “This gift signals that BC hockey will continue to be competitive for years to come.

It is certainly our hope that others will follow this lead and help BC hockey to become fully endowed.”

The gift is credited towards Boston College’s “Light the World Campaign,” which has raised nearly $900 million to date in pursuit of its $1.5 billion goal. More than $150 million of this total has been designated to athletics facilities, scholarships and programs.

Endowing key coaching positions has been a major prior-

ity for athletics during the campaign. Also included among the funding priorities are endowments in support of key positions on BC’s 31 varsity teams, fully and partially endowed athletics scholarships, currentuse funding through the Flynn Fund and facility enhancements.

Through the generosity of alumni, parents and friends, 30 endowed funds currently exist to support men’s ice hockey at Boston College. These endowment proceeds are directed towards scholarship support and operating expenses.

Under the direction of York, the men’s ice hockey team has won four of its five national championships, competed in eight national championship games and 10 Frozen Fours, and qualified for the NCAA tournament 13 times. This year’s team won the Beanpot Tournament and the Hockey East regular season and tournament championships before winning its third NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Championship in five years.

Boston College’s hockey tradition extends far beyond the college game. In the previous 26 years, 13 Eagles have been selected in the first round of the National Hockey League’s entry draft. There are 18 former Eagles currently playing in the NHL. The BC Men’s Hockey website is http://www.bceagles.com/ sports/m-hockey/bc-m-hockeybody.html

Assistant Professor of Mathematics J. Elisenda Grigsby has received a CAREER award, the National Science Foundation’s most important prize for junior faculty, in support of her work in low-dimensional topology.

The award, which recognizes “innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology,” will support a project whose broad aim is to improve understanding of the topology of three- and four-dimensional spaces, specifically the properties of these spaces that remain unchanged under stretching and contracting, but not under tearing and gluing.

Grigsby’s research focuses on knot theory, the study of loops imbedded in three-dimensional space. The mathematical objects she studies are relevant to fields ranging from information technology to DNA research.

“Topological ideas underpin the development of efficient computer chips, data structures, and information networks,” she explained, “and basing quantum computing algorithms on largescale features of a quantum system minimizes their susceptibil-

Lee Pellegrini

BC’s Grigsby Nets NSF Honor

J. Elisenda Grigsby

ity to random error.

“Moreover, the shapes of molecules and proteins determine their electrical properties and biological functions,” she said.

The prestigious NSF award, which supports the early careerdevelopment activities of teacher-scholars “who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization,” will

provide $400,000 for the project over the next five years.

“The new ways to analyze structures such as knots, braids and tangles that Professor Grigsby is pioneering have the potential to settle long-standing mathematical questions,” said Mathematics Professor and department chair Solomon Friedberg.

“They also have the potential to provide new tools for science—tools that could be applied to fundamental questions such as how DNA behaves in cells. I congratulate Professor Grigsby on her CAREER award, and look forward to the contributions to topology and to BC that it will enable.”

Grigsby, who teaches courses in linear algebra, advanced calculus and algebraic topology, holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Harvard University and a doctorate from the University of CaliforniaBerkeley. Prior to joining the University in 2009, she was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University and held a position at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Her contributions have appeared in Advances in Mathematics, Geometry and Topology, and International Mathematics Research Notices, among other publications.

Three Students Earn Language Scholarships Three Boston College students from have been awarded Department of State Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) for intensive foreign language study abroad, as part of a US government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages.

Brooke Loughrin ’14 and graduate students Bennett Comerford and Gary Winslett are among 631 CLS recipients who will spend seven to 10 weeks in intensive language study and structured cultural enrichment experiences in 14 countries mastering Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu languages. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

Loughrin, a Presidential Scholar, will travel to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to study Persian and participate in cultural excursions and community activi-

ties designed to enhance the language learning curriculum and students’ understanding of the Tajiki host culture.

Developing her Persian language skills, Loughrin says, will enhance her study of Iranian culture, history and politics. In 2010, she traveled to Iran with a delegation from the United Nations Association to interview Iranian female poets about the influence of women’s poetry on the country’s women’s movement.

At BC, Loughrin helped to start the Boston College Iranian Culture Club and will serve as editor-in-chief of Al-Noor: The Boston College Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journal. She plans to pursue graduate work in Iranian Studies and hopes to work for the Department of State as a foreign service officer.

Comerford, who is pursuing a master of divinity degree in the School of Theology and Ministry, will travel to Bangladesh and study the Bangla/Bengali language.

“Bangla is an interesting lan-

guage to me because it is spoken in Bangladesh, which is predominately Muslim, and West Bengal, India, which is predominately Hindu,” said Comerford, who will remain in Bangladesh after the CLS Program concludes to conduct research on religious violence and interreligious dialogue.

His research project is sponsored by a Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice grant.

Comerford plans to earn a doctorate in comparative theology or south Asian religions, and go on to teach or participate in interreligious dialogue and human rights work that engages the region of greater Bengal.

Winslett, a doctoral student in the Political Science Department, is also a graduate fellow at BC’s Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy. He will conduct Turkish language training in Ankara, Turkey.

“I am learning Turkish because I study Turkish foreign policy and want to be able to do research in Turkey,” said Winslett.

—Kathleen Sullivan

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

5

Gary Wayne Gilbert

Gary Wayne Gilbert

COMMENCEMENT 2012

University President William P. Leahy, SJ, with the 2012 honorary degree recipients: back row, L-R, Navyn Salem, Joseph Appleyard, SJ; front row, L-R, Bob Woodruff, Fr. Leahy, Liz Walker, Bill Campbell.

Excerpts from Honorary Degree Citations For the full texts, go to www.bc.edu/chronicle

Bob Woodruff talks with University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, OFM Cap., archbishop of Boston, upon receiving his honorary degree.

Woodruff Extols Faith, Love, Service Continued from page 1 Humane Letters degree at the and more at peace,” said Fr. Lea- later co-wrote a best-selling memAlumni Stadium ceremony, hy. “May you be forces for good oir In an Instant, and established which was attended by nearly in society and serve as powerful the Bob Woodruff Family Foun15,000 people. examples for those around you.” dation for Traumatic Brain InjuIn addition to Woodruff, Daniel J. Kennedy, a double ry. The foundation raises money Boston College also presented major in theology and philoso- to assist members of the military honorary degrees to: Joseph A. phy, was awarded the Edward H. with cognitive rehabilitation and Appleyard, SJ, a 1953 BC alum- Finnegan, SJ, Award, BC’s most care following a TBI suffered in service to their country. nus and former The Woodruffs have vice president for four children, including University MisCathryn, a member of sion and Ministry the BC Class of 2015. at BC, now socius Woodruff, who (executive assishosts the weekly ABC tant) for the New News production FoEngland Province cus Earth, urged graduof the Society of ates to consider four Jesus (Doctor of pieces of advice: follow Humane Letters); a passion in life and William V. “Bill” work; exercise spiritual Campbell, chairfaith; give back through man of Intuit Inc. and a former BC Edward Finnegan, SJ, Award winner Daniel Kennedy greeting friends service; and acknowlfootball assistant after giving a speech to his fellow Class of 2012 members before their edge love for family and friends. coach (Doctor of processional to Alumni Stadium. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini) Woodruff recalled being near Business Administration); Na- prestigious graduation honor, death and how medics and docvyn A. Salem ’94, founder of which is given to the student who tors saved his life, making Janua nonprofit that manufactures best exemplifies the spirit of BC’s ary 29, 2006, his “Alive Day,” food for treating and prevent- motto “Ever to Excel.” as members of the armed forces ing malnutrition (Doctor of SoWoodruff joined ABC News call it.

In the years since, he has cial Science); and Liz Walker, an in 1996 and covered major stoenjoyed an even greater appreciaaward-winning ries around the tion for friends, family, his career TV news anchor “Our society has never world. In Decem- and his faith. and ordained ber 2005, he was had a greater need for named co-anchor “From what I’ve witnessed minister now and experienced, having faith in working in interof ABC’s “World ‘men and women for something bigger than you can national educaNews Tonight.” others’ who are comease you through many things,” tion and women’s The following he said.

“There are a lot of quesissues (Doctor of month, he was mitted to making the tions we can’t answer.

And faith Humane Letters). nearly killed by a world more just and never promises you that it has Drawing on roadside bomb in all the answers.

It simply eases more at peace.” the Jesuit prinIraq. the journey...You will need to ciple of creating Miraculously, —Fr. Leahy find faith in ways that may not “men and women Woodruff refor others,” Uniturned to ABC seem important now, but at some versity President William P. Lea- News with an hour-long, prime- point it will serve you well.

“Faith has the power to stop hy, SJ, told graduates that their time documentary that chronyou from falling through the generation – like those before it icled his TBI, his painstaking floor.

Use it, explore it, tap into – faces many challenges. recovery, and the plight of thouit from time to time and it will “Our society has never had a sands of service members returnrenew you in unexpected ways.” greater need for ‘men and wom- ing from Iraq and Afghanistan en for others’ who are committed with similar injuries. to making the world more just Woodruff and his wife, Lee,

JOSEPH A. APPLEYARD, SJ When Joseph A. Appleyard, SJ, received his bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1953, it was the beginning of what would be a long, fruitful association for both him and his alma mater.

Beginning in 1967, he served the University for 43 years as a popular and distinguished faculty member in English, director of the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, rector of the Jesuit Community and, finally, as the inaugural Vice President for University Mission and Ministry. Along the way, he made several highly valued contributions to Boston College, enhancing its Jesuit, Catholic mission and articulating the intellectual framework for the University’s approach to student formation and engagement of faculty and staff. He impressed colleagues and students alike with his intelligence, kindness, generosity and dedication to his faith and Jesuit vocation.

WILLIAM V. “BILL” CAMPBELL Whether strategizing from the football sidelines at Alumni Stadium or the boardrooms of the world’s most innovative high-tech corporations, William V. “Bill” Campbell has always been on top of his game. An All-Ivy League player and team captain at Columbia University, he began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Boston College before serving as head coach at his alma mater. He then redirected his leadership skills to the technology field – holding top executive positions at such pioneering firms as Apple Computer, Claris Corporation, and Intuit, Inc., where he is currently chairman of the board.

A long-time and generous champion of academic and sports excellence at Boston College and beyond, he has been honored by the National Football Foundation, which placed his name on the award presented each year to the outstanding scholarathlete in all of college football.

NAVYN A. SALEM A visit to her father’s native Tanzania first brought 1994 Boston College alumna Navyn Salem face-to-face with the urgent problem of malnutrition and the horror of children dying from hunger. A mother of four daughters, she combined her compassion, business skills, and social entrepreneurship to found Edesia, a non-profit manufacturer of revolutionary food products that treat and prevent malnutrition in vulnerable children across the globe.

Edesia’s remarkable peanut-based paste efficiently delivers nutrients and calories to severely malnourished children, delivering them from near death in less than 10 weeks. Since it opened in 2010, the Edesia factory in Providence, Rhode Island has produced enough ready-to-use foods to reach nearly a million children in 26 countries, from Haiti to the Horn of Africa.

LIZ WALKER Welcomed into the homes of New England families for decades, Liz Walker has spent a career making connections, telling stories, and shaping lives.

Through her company, the Walker Group, she has worked on behalf of marginalized people – advocating for and giving voice to the homeless, survivors of domestic violence, people living with HIV, and at-risk youth. For more than a decade, the co-founder of “My Sister’s Keeper” has helped women and children in Sudan to rebuild their lives. Nearly one thousand girls now attend the Kunyuk Girls’ School, a first-of-its-kind project in southern Sudan.

BOB WOODRUFF Broadcast journalist Bob Woodruff has traveled the world to report some of the most compelling stories of our time. His journalistic style combines a mix of healthy skepticism and compassion, offering insights into people and events across the globe.

As a former co-anchor of ABC-TV’s “World News Tonight,” Woodruff has helped make sense of a world where the human spirit perseveres despite strife and conflict.

His overseas reporting has been recognized with DuPont and Peabody awards, the highest honors for broadcast journalists. While embedded with US troops in Iraq in 2006, he suffered a traumatic brain injury when a roadside bomb exploded.

His miraculous recovery, following a grueling rehabilitation, was the focus of his best-selling memoir In An Instant, which he co-authored with his wife, Lee. Together, they launched the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation for Traumatic Brain Injury to improve care for the estimated 320,000 servicemen and women who have suffered brain injuries during military service.

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

6

COMMENCEMENT 2012 BC’s newest graduates were all smiles as Commencement Exercises got underway in Alumni Stadium on Monday Morning: In photo at left, (L-R) Nicholas McMillon, Ivan Alo and Reynaldo Sylla; in photo at right (L-R) Eunice Lee, Joanna Mahfood, Tiffany Wang, Amy Walsh, Katherine Ruddy and Khloé French. (Photos

by Caitlin Cunningham) Lee Pellegrini

Caitlin Cunningham

There were plenty of signs of support for the Class of 2012, including (above) a “then and now” creation made by Peter Clabby of Middletown, NJ, whose son Peter A. Clabby was graduating.

At right, Kimberly Hines accepted congratulations from her nieces Tamara and Tarah Carrington.

Lee Pellegrini

Sean Smith

Sean Smith

Some graduates used their mortarboards as a medium for their Commencement Day sentiments.

Sean Smith

Caitlin Cunningham

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

7

Lee Pellegrini

COMMENCEMENT 2012

The Class of 2012 begins its final trek through campus, from Linden Lane to Alumni Stadium.

Above, retired Lynch School of Education Associate Dean John Cawthorne came to the school’s graduation ceremony to offer his best wishes. Left, students at the St. Columbkille Partnership School in Brighton formed a cheering section for their teachers who were receiving degrees from LSOE. (Photos by Caitlin Cunningham)

(Above left) University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and University Trustees Chair Kathleen M. McGillycuddy escort honorary degree recipient Bob Woodruff to the grandstand.

(Above right) Following the ceremony, Bill Campbell (front) departs along with his fellow honorary degree recipients Joseph Appleyard, SJ (waving), and Liz Walker, as well as Trustee Philip W. Schiller. (Photos by Gary Wayne Gilbert)

Three brand new BC graduates make their final points. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

8

Aquino Scholarship

Coming to Terms with Cultural Heritage

By Michael Maloney Special to the Chronicle

Alem Wins Fr. Joyce Award

By Reid Oslin Staff Writer

In her native Ethiopia, Feven Alem’s first name is translated as “God’s Gift.” Already, the newly minted graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences has more than fulfilled that endearing appellation.

After contributing countless hours of volunteer service on campus, in her church and in the greater Boston community during her four undergraduate years, Alem was selected as recipient of the University’s second annual W. Seavey Joyce, SJ, Award for Service and Citizenship.

The award, which includes a $5,000 stipend to support the recipient’s post-graduate civic engagement, was presented last Friday by representatives from the University’s Offices of Campus Ministry and the Volunteer and Service Learning Center.

Yesterday, Alem returned to Ethiopia to participate in the Millennium Cities Initiative project, an effort to connect academic and cultural interests with social justice.

Alem will work with young girls in the region, teaching them English and urging them to remain in school instead of entering into the traditional early marriage.

Alem says she will use the Joyce Award stipend to cover travel and living expenses while working in Ethiopia. She plans to donate any funds left over at the end of her volunteer term to the organization so her work can continue.

Alem’s road to Boston College was a unique one. Her father, Alem Kahsay, was a world-class marathoner who represented Ethiopia in elite running competitions around the world. “He came to America and decided that our lives would be better if he could bring his family here,” she says. “Unfortunately, my mother became sick and died and I travelled to America by myself. I was only six years old at the time, and my father was not even able to meet me when I arrived at the airport. He had left New York to run in a big race in Australia, but he had friends meet me and take care of me when I arrived.”

Her dad eventually retired from the world marathon circuit and accepted a staff position with the famed New York Road Runners Club. He raised his daughter in the Harlem section of the city and sent her to St. Jean Baptiste High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Manhattan.

At St. Jean Baptiste, Alem started getting involved in service activities.

“Sacrificing for others has a lot to do with my own background,” she says. “I had seen the lives that my cousins, aunts and uncles were living in Ethiopia. My Dad was able to escape from that, but then he sacrificed his whole life for me. I learned what sacrifice means from my Dad. He’s my No. 1 role model.”

Another mentor in her life was Sister Peggy, a nun in the Congregation of Notre Dame who was the school librarian at St. Jean’s. “She was everything for me,” Alem says.

“She helped me get through high school and then she was the one who motivated me to go to Boston College. I was deciding between BC, Georgetown, Wesleyan and Boston University, and she kept pushing me to BC.” Once she got to Chestnut Hill, Alem became involved in a whirlwind of service activities in addition to her studies in sociology and communication: the African Students Organization; Black Student Forum; PULSE program; tutoring in Boston’s Bird Street Community Center; volunteering in a food pantry project at Michael Orthodox Church; and raising money for an education and counseling program for orphans in her native Ethiopia.

“Feven was so passionate and so enthusiastic about going back to Ethiopia,” says VLSC Associate Director Kate Daly, a member of the Joyce Award selection committee.

“She had some great plans and had really researched the programs that she wanted to be involved in.”

Alem hopes to go to graduate school and perhaps work for the United Nations — “something of a humanitarian nature,” she says. “I have many goals.”

Krystle Jiang describes her first three years at BC as a “very intense and exciting journey of self-discovery.” (Photo by Frank Curran)

Jiang is a representative of the Chinese Students Association and serves on the executive board of the “Backgrounds of Boston College” Committee, which is developing a seminar to help freshmen become more open to diversity. She has taught classes on ethnic identity to Boston-area high school students through the “Splash” program.

Her other formative experiences have ranged from undertaking an internship in Honduras to participating in an Ultimate Frisbee team.

Jiang says she was humbled and surprised at being named the Aquino Scholarship winner. She did not work deliberately to achieve the honor, she explains — instead, the honor found her, and is recognition for doing everything that she loved and found interesting in the first place.

“I was just overcome with a sense of gratitude and love for BC for not only helping me realize and develop my passions — and having the avenues to do so — but also

recognizing my unconventional path,” she says. “I’ve never felt such appreciation before, and it feels fantastic.”

In her final year on campus, Jiang will work on helping launch “Backgrounds of Boston College.”

She also plans to continue serving on the Chinese Students Association, and confidently engage students in the world and empower them to share their passions. She may not yet have an inkling as to what lies beyond graduation next spring, but Jiang promises to work towards her vision of an open and accepting society.

“As an Asian American with the blessing of multiculturalism and the responsibility of sharing the diversity, I engage the world every day, proud of my identity as a Chinese American woman, yet humbled by the greatness of people and ready to live my life in service to others.”

Contact Michael Maloney at michael.maloney.3@bc.edu

Fishman Wins BC Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award

By Kathleen Sullivan Staff Writer

Associate Professor of Communication Donald Fishman has been honored by the Boston College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa with its 2012 Teaching Award.

A faculty member at Boston College since 1973, Fishman teaches courses in crisis communication and media law, with a focus on intellectual property.

Each year, PBK members nominate an outstanding teacher who has positively influenced their experience at BC; winners are selected for the award based on the cumulative nominations from students over multiple years.

Students who nominated Fishman for the award called him “an excellent teacher” who is “passionate about his work.”

Another student wrote: “He is extremely knowledgeable and

Lee Pellegrini

Feven Alem, shown at the ceremony where she received the Seavey Joyce, SJ, Award, calls her father her “No. 1 role model.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Rising senior Krystle Jiang is this year’s recipient of the Benigno and Corazon Aquino scholarship, which honors students who represent the highest ideals and aspirations of the University and the Asian American community. But there was a time not long ago when Jiang felt trapped, rather than empowered, by her Chinese heritage.

Growing up in a predominantly white, upper-middle class New Jersey suburb, Jiang often endured taunts — for eating dried seaweed as a snack, for example — and racial jokes aimed at her cultural background. So, as Jiang explains, “I quickly learned how to fit in.

But unfortunately, my way of doing that was in sequestering my Chinese-ness to my house.”

This caused tension at home, as Jiang’s parents — Cultural Revolution-raised Chinese immigrants — wanted their daughter to embrace her culture. Jiang just wanted to get along with other kids.

Then she found comfort through befriending other Asian Americans who faced similar struggles, and after reading a series of books about racial identity development before her freshman year at Boston College, Jiang felt ready for what she describes as a “very intense and exciting journey of selfdiscovery” at the Heights.

Today, Jiang makes a point of boldly representing her passions, values, and unique perspective as an Asian American. She has not only embraced her culture, but has pushed forward to learn as much as possible.

Donald Fishman

always readily available for help and support.”

“I’m very honored,” said Fishman, who received the award on May 20 at the academic honor society’s annual induction ceremony. “Phi Beta Kappa has always stood as a beacon of integrity to me, so this is special.”

Fishman said the biggest change in teaching has been the arrival of new media and tech-

nology. “The velocity of change is amazing. Students born after 1990 expect a certain level of interactivity and are comfortable handling multiple images. The challenge is to take the virtues of the old lecture system that moves students to think critically and whet it with the use of new technology.

“This is the communication century,” he added. The Communication Department is no longer a place only for “the students who were the high school debater or worked on the school paper. Innovations have brought communication to the masses.” *** Boston College’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter also inducted its new members for 2012. The list of inductees is at http://bit.ly/ KCLaFV. Contact Kathleen Sullivan at kathleen.sullivan@bc.edu

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

Q&A

9

A FEW MINUTES WITH...

Paul Christensen

Thomas O’Connor at a 2004 event where he was honored by colleagues, including David Quigley, left, and James O’Toole. Said O’Toole of his former teacher: “He was generous with colleagues, endlessly reading and commenting on drafts of new work in addition to his own scholarship. It will be difficult to think of Boston College without him.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

O’Connor a Prolific, Devoted Historian Continued from page 1 “He was generous with colleagues,” O’Toole continued, “endlessly reading and commenting on drafts of new work in addition to his own scholarship. It will be difficult to think of Boston College without him.”

Dr. O’Connor, a South Boston native who took his high school diploma from Boston Latin School, served in the US Army in India in World War II before returning to Boston to earn his bachelor and master’s degrees at BC, and a doctorate in 1957 from Boston University.

Best known as a chronicler of his beloved home city, Dr. O’Connor explored in-depth the richly layered history of Boston, bringing its diverse and fascinating heritage to a wide audience.

The prolific author’s books include Boston College A to Z: The Spirit of the Heights (an e-book from the University’s Linden Lane Press); Ascending the Heights: A Brief History of Boston College from its Founding to 2008; The Athens of America: Boston, 1825-1845; Eminent Bostonians; The Hub: Boston Past and Present; Boston A to Z; Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and its People; Civil War Boston: Homefront and Battlefield; The Boston Irish: A Political History; Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal 1950 to 1970, and South Boston My Hometown: A History of an Ethnic Neighborhood.

Among his dozens of volumes on his native city, Dr. O’Connor edited Two Centuries of Faith: The Influence of Catholicism on Boston, 1808-2008 (2009), commissioned by Boston College as a gift from the University to the Archdiocese of Boston in recognition of its 200th anniversary, and presented at a campus reception by University President William P. Leahy, SJ, to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, OFM Cap., archbishop of Boston. The volume of scholarly essays focuses on the various ways in which Catholicism has influenced

life and society in the Greater Boston area.

In addition to being a pre-eminent historian of Boston and a prolific publisher of books about the Hub, Dr. O’Connor was a significant educator of future historians. In 2004 at BC’s Burns Library, these identities came together when professional colleagues, including many former students, gathered to celebrate the publication of Boston’s Histories: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. O’Connor.

Frequently sought by media for commentary, and author of numerous op-ed pieces, O’Connor was

“You come upon Boston College now and it’s glorious, magnificent,” Dr. O’Connor once said. “But the story takes on greater drama when you get behind the façade and look at the work it took to build it.” the subject of a 1997 major feature article in the Boston Globe, which dubbed him “Boston’s past master.”

He won a local Emmy Award in 1996 for his role as historical consultant and narrator for the WGBH television documentary “Boston: The Way it Was.” Dr. O’Connor was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bostonian Society, a resident fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society and a member of the Massachusetts Archives Commission. In 1988 he was named by President Reagan to serve on the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, and in 1999 he received the Gold Medal of the Eire Society of Boston.

Boston College presented him an honorary degree on his retirement from full-time teaching in 1993, during the University’s Commencement Exercises. The citation read

in part: “[You] have earned renown among peers and a wide popular audience as writer, lecturer, and leading authority on the saga of the Bibles, Brahmins, and Bosses of John Winthrop’s storied ‘City upon a Hill.’

Boston College...delights to honor a resplendent career of surpassing scholarship, loyalty, and service by declaring a truly beloved, twiceclaimed son Doctor of Humane Letters.”

Dr. O’Connor was named the University’s official historian in 1999. Interviewed by the Boston College Chronicle upon his appointment, he said that chronicling the past of a university that has played a vital role in the history of the city he loves would be particularly rewarding.

“Boston College is the classic monument to the heights that immigrants have achieved in America. It is an institution that was literally built nickel by nickel, brick by brick, by penniless immigrants who wanted to make sure their children got an education.

That story is really the story of the Irish in Boston.

“You come upon Boston College now and it’s glorious, magnificent,” he added. “But the story takes on greater drama when you get behind the façade and look at the work it took to build it.”

The Office of the University Historian, he said, “serves as part of the collective memory of Boston College. It helps preserve the distinctive heritage of the institution for the knowledge and edification of future generations.”

Dr. O’Connor is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary; children, Jeanne O’Connor-Green of Milton and Michael of Newburyport; and two grandsons. He was predeceased by his son Steven.

Donations in Dr. O’Connor’s memory may be made to the James A. Woods, SJ, College of Advancing Studies at Boston College.

— Reid Oslin and Rosanne Pellegrini

Even as they contemplate the end of their Boston College undergraduate years, some members of the Class of 2012 are already looking ahead to their next big experience as Fulbright Scholars [see page 1]. Among the nation’s research universities, BC has become one of the top producers of prestigious Fulbright awards, which support a year’s post-baccalaureate study abroad. Chronicle spoke with Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science Paul Christensen, who completed his first year as BC’s Fulbright program administrator. For the complete interview, see online Chronicle at www.bc.edu/chronicle.

What does being the Fulbright administrator entail?

The job of the Fulbright Program Administrator (or FPA, in Fulbright speak) is primarily to help guide the students through the application process, but it is really a combination of planning, organizing, and advising. The process starts in the fall with contacting students who have told me they are interested and organizing presentations to various BC programs where we might find likely candidates.

During spring semester, I organize a series of meetings for students to talk with me and the other Fulbright advisors about the various types of grants and the components of the application.

The summer is given over to advising individual students on their applications — which is the most rewarding part Lee Pellegrini of the job — and keeping track of any changes in the program.

The most intense part of the job is in September and October, when all the applications are due. The FPA’s main job then is to organize the campus interviews, which entails coordinating the student, her or his advisor, and two other BC faculty (one of whom needs to be fluent in the language of the country to which the student is applying), all in the space of about two weeks. Since we typically have around 60 or more applicants, this process is always something of a circus.

What kind of insights — about Fulbrights, and the students who apply for them — have you gained as coordinator?

The main insight about the Fulbright grants themselves that I have gained is just how country-specific they really are. Fulbright grants are available to over 155 countries; some only have research grants, others have research and teaching assistantship grants. Each country is also slightly different: in terms of qualifications for applicants, sometimes in regard to what kinds of research the country either wants to support or will not support, or in terms of at what level students will be teaching. So, when a student asks if she or he can do research on a specific topic on a Fulbright grant, the standard answer is: It all depends on the country.

In many ways, the students who apply for Fulbrights reflect the diversity of the Fulbright program. While all the students I see applying are smart, self-motivated, and adventurous, they have very different experiences, interests, and goals. So part of my job — and that of all the Fulbright advisors — is to try to help students match up their ideas about the Fulbright grants to the opportunities that the Fulbright programs provides.

Many of our students who come to me to talk about the program do not know at the outset exactly what they want to do, and that is absolutely fine. One of the great things about this program is that it is as much a voyage of discovery as anything else.

Is there a benefit for BC as an institution in having its students pursue Fulbrights and other prestigious fellowships?

Without question. In my view, the most important benefit is that pursuing these grants brings out the best in our most promising students, and encourages them to push themselves even farther than they might otherwise.

A second important benefit is that the application process for these grants brings together students and faculty in a unique and pretty intense way. The Fulbright process, for example, involves the students working with their Fulbright advisors, specialists in their fields of study and on the countries to which they are applying, and language specialists, all working toward a singular goal.

And of course there are always the bragging rights — after all, last year BC was eighth in the country in successful Fulbright applications. Joking aside, I think our success in this regard simply reinforces BC’s academic reputation, which will of course help us attract more students who will be Fulbrighters in the future.

—Sean Smith

More at www.bc.edu/chronicle

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

10

RETIRING, 25-YEAR EMPLOYEES TO BE HONORED ON MAY 30

Lee Pellegrini

Four Decades Without a Bad Day Oslin’s ‘great run’ at the Heights is over

By Sean Smith Chronicle Editor

In four decades, Reid Oslin says, he has never dreaded the prospect of coming to work at Boston College — “except maybe for the commute” — whether in the Admission Office, the Athletics Department or, for the last 14 years, the Office of News & Public Affairs.

“I have never had a bad day at BC,” says Oslin, an associate director of News & Public Affairs.

“Some days have been better than others, but I’ve never had a day when I wasn’t excited about being here.”

Now, almost exactly 41 years after he began working at BC, Oslin is saying farewell to a University community he has known not only as an employee but as a student (a bachelor’s degree in 1968 and a master’s degree in social planning in 1971) and loyal alumnus. Oslin also has been a biographer of BC history, life and lore, publishing two books about the University’s football tradition (Tales from the Boston College Sideline and Boston College Football Vault) in addition to writing for the Boston College Chronicle and Boston College Magazine.

To hear his many friends and colleagues tell it, there’s no better person to tell BC’s story.

“Reid just has this great memory,” says former Senior Associate Athletic Director Ed Carroll ’56.

“He doesn’t just tell you the score of a game; he could tell you how a basket, a goal, a touchdown was scored. And then there are all the people, whether athletes, coaches, administrators, faculty, staff, that he knows — or knows about. It seemed like he could tell you something about almost everyone in the BC directory.”

Oslin’s powers of recall are by no means his only gift, Carroll adds.

“Reid’s always had this way of taking whatever situation comes along — good or bad — analyzing it, putting it in black and white.

He’s just been able to keep his wits about him, take the long view, and that really helps everybody around him.”

“We are very grateful for Reid Oslin’s many years of service to Boston College athletics,” says Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo.

“Reid is an invaluable source of historical information about our athletics program. He has an amazing memory for detail and we all enjoy

During his four decades at BC, Reid Oslin has worked in the Admission Office, the Athletics Department and the Office of News & Public Affairs.

his anecdotes about our former student-athletes and great athletics events. Even though he has not worked in our department for more than a decade, we still look at Reid as a member of the Athletics family.”

Oslin has made a favorable impression well beyond the confines of BC — notably among the numerous members of the media he dealt with as director of sports information for 24 years, after serving as an assistant director of admission.

“Reid was, and remains, a Boston College treasure, unabashedly and hopelessly wrapped up in his alma mater, always helpful, a walking encyclopedia of Eagles’ athletic lore,” says Lenny Megliola, a longtime Boston area sportswriter.

“No matter how busy it got — especially during the Doug Flutie era — where most people would’ve gone crazy, Reid smiled through it all and got it done.

“If there was anyone who was destined to be an eagle, to land at Chestnut Hill, and to dedicate his entire adult life to the school, that would be Reid Oslin.”

It is a sentiment shared by News & Public Affairs Director Jack Dunn. “Reid loves Boston College, and has dedicated his life to selflessly serving his alma mater and chronicling its stories and people. He is a wonderfully kindhearted and generous person who has given us all a lasting example of the true satisfaction that comes from committing yourself to doing something you love, something you were clearly meant to do.”

For Oslin, a Springfield, Mass. native, BC has always been about the people, whether senior administrators, distinguished faculty members or, in particular, “the ones who make the University run” — like groundskeepers, BC police officers and maintenance staff.

“I’ve always been interested in the details of the people who make things work,” he says. “To have a great college, you need somebody planting flowers on Linden Lane, or shoveling the snow on

the Higgins Stairs, or doing any of those jobs most people don’t think about. They work hard, and they’re loyal — they tend to stay at BC for years.”

Oslin sees the sense of dedication and commitment to BC as a constant in the University community, even as the school has undergone vast changes in his time: the growth in the campus and number of employees, and in the academic quality of students and faculty.

“Perhaps the biggest change is how much of a national, even international, university BC is now: You ask students where they’re from, and you’re more likely to hear ‘Texas,’ ‘Illinois’ or ‘California,’ instead of ‘Jamaica Plain’ or ‘Dorchester.’

When I was here, only about a third of students lived on campus — the place emptied out on weekends — and now there are few, if any, commuting students.”

Oslin has innumerable memories of BC moments to cherish — from the 1984 Flutie Pass to US Senator John McCain’s 2006 appearance — and plenty of mentors and friends he feels blessed to have known, among them legendary athletic director William J. Flynn; Edmond Walsh, SJ, who hired Oslin to work in Admission; Charles Donovan, SJ, who served in key administrative posts as well as University historian; and University Historian Thomas O’Connor (“I knew I’d arrived at BC when Tom called me to ask a question about BC history,” quips Oslin).

[O’Connor, 89, died this past Sunday; see story on page 1.]

Oslin’s gratitude to BC is second only to that for his family: “They deserve an award for all those years when I was on seven days, and often seven nights, a week.”

Oslin looks forward to retirement in Scituate, although he’ll still do some consulting for BC. “I’ve spent more years of my life at BC than anywhere else, and it’s been a great run. Fortunately, I’m not saying ‘good-bye’ completely; as an alumnus, I’ll certainly be around. I just won’t have to worry about the South Shore traffic so much.”

University President William P. Leahy, SJ, will host the traditional dinner for retiring and 25-year Boston College employees on May 30.

The 2012 Community Service Award winner also will be recognized at the event.

This year’s retiring administrators and staff members are: John E. Cawthorne, Maryellen Carr, Jeanne Connolly, Joan Engler, Josephine Faccenda, Ann Marie Flaherty, Elizabeth Galligan, Louise Hannah, Diane Joyce, James W. Lee, John G. Madden, Clare H. Moschella, Regina O’Grady-LeShane, Stephanie O’Leary, Reid Oslin, Culah Pellegrini, Anne F. Rockett, Joanne Scibilia, Kathleen A. Tubman, Alejandro Vasquez, Russell C. Ventura, Peter H. Weiler, Johnie E. Winfrey and Margie Wilkinson.

Retiring faculty members are: Hugh J. Ault, Robert J. Bond, Paul C. Doherty, Nancy Fairchild, Bradley K. Googins, Bonnie S. Jefferson, Richard A. Jenson, David A. Karp, Charles Landraitis, Aloysius M. Lugira, Stuart B. Martin, Larry C. Meile, David Northrup, Michael Numan, John H. Rosser, Richard H. Rowland, Dennis J. Sardella, Francis Soo and Thomas E. Wangler.

Administrators and staff members marking their 25th year at BC are: Lynn Barenberg, Sheppard J. Barnett, Mark J. Benjamin, Paul E. Cederman, James Clements, David Corkum, Debra Coughlin, Wayne Daley, Nancy Daly, John D. Derick, James Devoe, Michael J. Driscoll, Maria Francisco, John Gary, Stephen Guilmet, Pamela A. Jerskey, Roopnarain Khemraj, James Kreinbring, Vincent J. Lynch, Daniel Madden, John Martins, Laurie E. Mayville, John L. McCarthy, Manuel Miranda, Adrienne J. Nussbaum, Robert K. O’Neill, Fernando Pereira, Robert Pion, Raymond Rivera, Kevin M. Saffo, Joan Shear, Eileen M. Sullivan, John R. Thomas, Michael J. Williams, Theodore Williams, Frederick M. Winslow and Irene Woodhouse.

Faculty members celebrating a quarter-century at BC are: David Broido, Hiram H. Brownell, Donald Cox, Mary Joe Hughes, Daniel Kanstroom, Krzysztof Kempa, Ellen K. Mahoney, Diana C. Pullin, Stephen J. Quin, Alan Richardson, Mary F. Roberts, Sister Callista Roy and Alfred C. Yen. Dennis Sardella Professor of Chemistry Founding director, Presidential Scholars Program (1990-2010) Joined BC: 1967 “The experience of founding and directing the Presidential Scholars Program has been simultaneously gratifying and challenging. I am extremely grateful to have been entrusted with the responsibility of building the program from the ground up, since it allowed me to play a role in bringing to BC students of exceptional ability, and to work closely with them throughout their undergraduate years. Their varied academic disciplines (everything from humanities to business to science) required me to broaden my own perspective beyond science and to become more of a generalist, and I take great pride in their achievements. It brought me into contact with faculty and administrative colleagues all across the University — for whose friendship, support and cooperation I am especially grateful — and has afforded me a far richer and more comprehensive appreciation of Boston College than I could have dreamed.”

Paul Doherty Associate Professor of English Joined BC: 1964 “I arrived at Boston College in September, 1964. Carney Hall opened that fall, so my career is roughly coterminous with that building, which will be closed next year for rehab. Over the years, I taught a variety of courses, the basic ones of course, and elective courses in James Joyce, Shakespeare, American short story, and more recently, courses in writing non-fiction. I served two separate three-year terms as chair of the English Department. For a period of 10 years during the 1990s, I directed the Lowell Humanities Series, which, then and now, invites significant writers, scholars and public figures to speak on campus.

“The administration of Boston College has always treated me with kindness and generosity; I hope to have been worthy of its support.”

Photos by Caitlin Cunningham and Lee Pellegrini

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

11

BC’s Argueta Is a ‘Star of the Industry’

By Reid Oslin Staff Writer

Hugo Argueta, dishroom supervisor in the Corcoran Commons dining facility, has received a “Star of the Industry” award from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association in recognition of his longterm and highly skilled service to hundreds of thousands of dining patrons in the Boston College community.

Argueta, a Boston College Dining Services employee since 1989, was presented with the award by US Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) JD ’85 during the MRA banquet held May 1 at Lombardo’s restaurant in Randolph to honor the top employees in the state’s restaurant and food services industries. He was one of 10 winners of “Star” awards that recognize excellence in the field.

Argueta, who has worked in a supervisory role in BCDS for nearly 20 years, has clearly earned the coveted MRA honor, says Derrick Cripps, general manager of Corcoran Commons, BC’s busiest dining facility.

“One of the core things that makes Hugo what he is,” says Cripps, “is the complete ‘ownership’ he takes of everything he does.

“Corcoran Commons is a busy place,” Cripps explains. “We’ve got two levels – and we might be doing

Director of Governmental Relations Jeanne Levesque has been chosen as the winner of a Boston Main Streets Outstanding Volunteer Award for her work with the Brighton Main Streets program.

For seven years, Levesque has served on the board for Brighton Main Streets, a volunteer organization dedicated to the revitalization of Brighton’s neighborhood commercial district. She is a member of the board’s design committee, whose initiatives include a signage and storefront program, beautification and landscaping projects — some of which involve Boston College students — and various community events such as holiday lighting and wreathmaking and an Easter egg hunt.

Newsmakers Graduating senior Reynaldo Sylla, winner of the Dr. Donald Brown Award, was featured by the Boston Haitian Reporter, while junior Rui Soares, who earned the 2012 Archbishop Romero Scholarship, was featured in the Jersey Journal.

The Daily Telegraph, R&D Magazine and Science Blog noted remarks

by Accenture Professor of Marketing Kay Lemon in the Journal of Service Research concerning a report on “café conquerors” who use personal technology to take over spaces in cafés offering WiFi, raising issues of both customer turnover and courtesy.

lowing presentations: “Ilya Selvinsky and the Price of Bearing Witness to the Shoah” at Institut für Slawistik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; “Faces of a Crimean City in Ilya Selvinsky’s Holocaust Poetry” at Association Franco-Britannique pour l’etude de la culture russe: XXIIe colloque, Université de Caen Basse Normandie; “Ilya Selvinsky. The Poetics and Politics of Bearing Witness to the Shoah” at “Osteuropäischjüdische Literaturen im 20. und 21.

Jahrhundert: Identität und Poetik,” Ta g u n g am Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftsk o l l e g Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.

BC BRIEFING

Hugo Argueta of Boston College Dining Services — flanked by US Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) JD ’85 and Massachusetts Restaurant Association Education Coordinator Heather Carneiro — receives his “Star of the Industry” award.

‘fine china’ catering functions on one floor at the same time we are serving student meals on the other.

Hugo is the lead supervisor of all utility staff. He’ll be working with all of our staff – and that includes people from six different nations – and he’ll work well with everyone and see to it that they operate seamlessly as a team. He’s been a great employee and this is a well-deserved honor.”

“Boston College has been a great place for me,” says Argueta, a native of Guatemala who started working at the University after moving to Boston from Los Angeles 23 years ago. “I have worked in almost every dining services facility – I started

in Walsh Hall, went to McElroy Commons and finally came to Corcoran. But once I got to Boston College, I have never wanted to move.”

Boston College has become a key part of the lives of Hugo and his family. His wife Elizabeth works in the BCDS bakery in McElroy Commons and the couple’s daughter, Vivian, is a psychology and predental studies major in the Woods College of Advancing Studies.

In addition to Argueta, two other BCDS staffers, cashiers Marie Kelly (Corcoran Commons) and Ana Vasquez (Hillside Café) were nominated for MRA “Star” honors and recognized at the May 1 event.

NOTA BENE “Brighton Main Streets has many dedicated people working to strengthen our Lee Pellegrini community,” said Levesque.

“I’m happy to be part of this effort to connect Brighton residents with local businesses.”

The Boston Main Streets program was created

by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in 1995 to aid the continuing revitalization of Boston’s neighborhood commercial districts through design, technical, and financial support. Today, the nationally recognized program boasts 19 districts across Boston, including Brighton.

—Office of News & Public Affairs Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Franco Mormando discussed his recently published biography of sculptor, ar-

chitect, painter, playwright and scenographer Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) at 92YTribeca in New York City this past Sunday.

Mormando’s book, Bernini: His Life and His Rome, explores the life and works of an artist regarded as the last of the universal geniuses of early modern Italy, and placed in the same company as Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.

The presentation by Mormando was part of “Eat, Drink & Think Like...the Romans,” an immersion program in the history, art and culinary delights of Rome.

The program was sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, which through its offerings on arts and culture, Jewish life and education, health and fitness and personal growth and travel, seeks to bring together and inspire a diverse community of people from New York City and beyond.

—Rosanne Pellegrini

Center for Work and Family Director of Corporate Partnerships Danielle Hartmann spoke with Fox News Boston about the increasingly important role grandparents play in raising their grandchildren.

Thaly Germain, who next month will take the helm as the director of the Lynch Leadership Academy — a Lynch School of Education program for early and mid-career principals from Boston’s public, Catholic and charter schools — was featured in a Q&A with Education Week.

Adj. Assoc. Prof. Michael C. Keith (Communication) was interviewed on “Books and the World,” a television program produced by the Cape Cod Writers Association.

Part-time faculty member Mary Sherman (Fine Arts) was profiled in Art New England, which highlighted her work with the Transcultural Exchange, the international art organization she founded.

Publications Asst. Prof. Andrea Vicini, SJ (STM), published “Dignità umana: Parte etica (Cattolicesimo) [Human Dignity: Ethics (Catholicism)],” in Enciclopedia di bioetica e scienza giuridica. Vol. 4: Danno alla salute – Duplice effetto (Encyclopedia of Bioethics and Juridical Sciences. Vol. 4: Harm to Health – Double Effect).

Prof. Claude Cernuschi (Fine Arts) published the monograph Barnett Newman and Heideggerian Philosophy.

Grants Part-time faculty member Mary Sherman (Fine Arts) received a Fulbright Specialist grant in US Studies -Art at Koc University, Turkey.

Time and a Half Prof. Maxim D. Shrayer (Slavic and Eastern Languages) made the fol-

Part-time faculty member Mark Cooper brought the collaborative sculpture he created for the Berlin Wall commemoration to Strabane, Ireland, where it was reworked as a peace memorial for Ireland.

Ferris Professor and Physics Department chairman Michael J. Naughton presented a plenary lecture at the “Smart Surfaces 2012” conference in Dublin.

Calderwood Professors Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair chaired sessions at the conference “Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam” at the British Museum.

Assoc. Prof. Stephanie Leone (Fine Arts) chaired the paper session “Metaphor and Symbolism in Renaissance Architecture” at the Renaissance Society of America’s Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

JOBS The following are among the most recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources.

For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see www.bc.edu/offices/hr/: Director of Development, College & Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Staff Assistant, Annual Giving, Classes, Development Help Desk Specialist, Information Technology Services Senior Programmer Analyst (Software Developer), Student & Academic App. Srvs.

Speech and Language Pathology Assistant, Lynch School of Education - Campus School Assistant Program Director, Lynch School of Education Campus School Research Associate, Center of Retirement Research Research Pscyhometrician, TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics & Science Study)

T he B oston C ollege

Chronicle may 24, 2012

12

Fulbrights

This year’s Boston College Fulbright Award winners include (standing, L-R) Katherine Ruddy, Sarah Joo, Matthew Richey, Brooke Braswell, David Tapia, Kristin Canfield, Sabrina Caldwell, Ana Lopez, Zachary Zimmermann, Dorine Yang and (seated, L-R) Ryan Folio and Gregory Manne.

(Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Continued from page 1 on Middle East issues, and the impact of an AIDS/HIV initiative in India.

Brooke Braswell HOMETOWN: Tampa, Fla. DESTINATION: Tajikistan PROJECT: Research the correlation between the greater numbers of women in Tajik governmental roles and the successes of Tajik women’s NGOs. PLANS: Pursue a master’s degree in public administration with a focus on non-governmental organization management, followed by a career in international research, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia.

“I could not imagine a better beginning to my post-grad life than doing research on a Fulbright. Much of my time at BC was spent in the Middle East on different research and study abroad trips. I’ve learned so much from those experiences that I feel prepared, or at least as much as I can be, to expand my focus into Central Asia.

I’m ready for the adventure.”

Sabrina Caldwell HOMETOWN: McLean, Va. DESTINATION: Germany PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Long-term goal is to work for an international NGO. “I’m really excited about doing the Fulbright year because I feel that it basically sums up my studies at BC. What better way to put to use my International Studies and German majors than with a Fulbright award teaching in Germany?”

Kristin Canfield HOMETOWN: Oklahoma City DESTINATION: Poland PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: To pursue a doctorate in English or American Studies.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend a year in Poland as a Fulbright scholar. I decided to apply to the Fulbright program because I was looking for a fulfilling way to spend a year post-grad and since I am considering going to graduate school in English and becoming a professor, the opportunity to teach at a university level is very appealing to me. What’s more, I am very excited to live in Central Europe, which has undergone a lot of change since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Finally, I hope to improve my Polish language skills.”

Lindsay Eimert ’11 HOMETOWN: Boxford, Mass.

DESTINATION: Germany PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Pursue an MFA, strive to build career as a published author.

“Receiving a Fulbright grant was a wonderful shock. Being a relatively introverted and shy person, this Fulbright year will provide me with another chance to take a daring leap and broaden my personal and intellectual horizons, much as my years at BC did.

Furthermore, I’ll get the chance to hopefully inspire a love of language in young students just as my teachers and professors did for me.”

Ryan M. Folio HOMETOWN: Allentown, Pa. DESTINATION: Jordan PROJECT: Investigate factors accounting for diversity in Jordanian reporting of other countries in the region, through translation of Jordanian news sources, interviews with industry experts and an internship at The Jordan Times.

PLANS: Graduate studies in Middle East Studies and Arabic; work internationally in public or private sector.

“Boston College’s excellent professors and grant opportunities helped me to establish a research interest in Middle Eastern media during my sophomore year. I am happy that I will have the opportunity to work in the field as a Fulbright scholar.”

James Hurlbert HOMETOWN: North Hampton, NH DESTINATION: Germany PROJECT: English teaching assistantship, and an additional research project on the integration of East and West Germany.

PLANS: Graduate school.

“I think doing a Fulbright will be a good chance to take some time away from school while doing something useful.”

Sarah Joo HOMETOWN: Norwood, NJ DESTINATION: South Korea PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Attend medical school and ultimately work in a medically underserved area.

“I am very excited to spend a year in Korea building relationships with and teaching students. The Fulbright is a rare and perfect opportunity to immerse myself in a different culture, one that is in my blood, and bring to life my passions as an International Studies major. Teaching will help me become a better physician, better able to communicate with patients, and living in Korea will prepare me to work in Korea or another country in the future.”

Ana T. Lopez HOMETOWN: Omaha, Neb. DESTINATION: Cyprus

PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Pursue graduate studies in conflict resolution.

“My experience at Boston College as an English major and editor for The Heights will serve as a strong foundation for my work in Cyprus teaching English and establishing a journalism program for my students. The experience of immersing myself in Cypriot culture while exchanging my own will be mutually beneficial and undoubtedly shape the perspective I bring to my future academic and professional endeavors.”

Jacqueline Mabatah ’11 HOMETOWN: Houston DESTINATION: India PROJECT: Study the role and effect of the Gates Foundation’s AvahanIndia AIDS Initiative in implementing an HIV Prevention Model and fostering community-based responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in high-risk populations in the city of Mumbai.

PLANS: To pursue a dual degree in law and international public health.

“For me, studying the successes of the Avahan-India AIDS Initiative will be an invaluable experience that will build upon the foundation that I have established through my coursework at BC and international service and research. More importantly, participating in the Fulbright program represents an opportunity for personal growth, and hopefully, a chance to develop meaningful relationships with the people and communities that I will work with.”

Gregory D. Manne HOMETOWN: Weston, Fla. DESTINATION: Spain PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Attend graduate school with the aim of becoming a teacher.

“The Fulbright will enable me to experience the Spanish educational system, to see the impact of the my training in LSOE on international students, and to return to the United States with new ideas and a greater enthusiasm to share with our educational community.”

Matthew P. Richey HOMETOWN: East Aurora, NY DESTINATION: Israel PROJECT: Conduct research at Tel Aviv University and write an academic

paper analyzing the impact prophetic text creation and destruction had in Judah during the Iron Age. PLANS: Continue doctoral studies in Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East at the University of Chicago.

“I will benefit immensely from immersion in Israeli culture, especially the opportunity to take classes in Modern Hebrew. A knowledge of Modern Hebrew is becoming increasingly crucial for Western academics looking to stay on the cutting edge of the field.”

Katherine A. Ruddy HOMETOWN: Sparta, NJ DESTINATION: Germany PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Professional work for a couple of years followed by more studies in international relations or business.

“During my time as an English teaching assistant in Germany next year, I hope to continue learning about the German culture and language, and also to help students there learn as much English as they can. I also plan to travel often and make the most of this amazing opportunity.”

David J. Tapia ’11 HOMETOWN: North Andover, Mass.

DESTINATION: Germany PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Work in the field of diplomacy before pursuing studies in energy law and policy.

“By the program’s conclusion, besides perfecting my German and teaching skills, I want my students to feel a closer connection to the United States and express an enhanced confidence in their English comprehension and pronunciation.”

Ellen Willemin ’11 HOMETOWN: Arlington, Mass.

DESTINATION: Colombia PROJECT: Teach English in Colombia and develop her skills to enhance a career in education, focusing on multiculturalism in the educational environment.

PLANS: Graduate school in education.

“The Fulbright is very significant for me because it will allow me to travel and to indulge my fascination with Colombian culture while simultaneously learning to teach. I have always imagined myself going into education,

so this year will be an important formative step in my career path. While at BC, I worked as an undergraduate research assistant for two years on a Jewish Studies project, and I also look forward to continuing to delve into this area of study by way of my side project in Colombian Jewish Studies.”

Dorine Yang HOMETOWN: Woodbury, NY DESTINATION: Malaysia PROJECT: Teach English language learners.

PLANS: Graduate school in education.

“Having the Fulbright allows me learn about an amazing new culture as well as gain valuable teaching experience. I also hope to learn about another country’s education system since I will be working in this field. At BC I was an elementary education major and I knew that I wanted to teach. After going to Australia through BC’s year-abroad program and having the unique opportunity to teach while I was there, I realized how rewarding it can be in terms of academics and career. It was a way for me to learn more about other cultures and work with people and learn from others in the field.”

Zachary Zimmermann HOMETOWN: Grand Rapids, Mich.

DESTINATION: South Africa PROJECT: English teaching assistantship.

PLANS: Work as a teacher for English language learners.

“I am honored to receive the opportunity to teach English in South Africa and to represent the Fulbright program. The fellowship will enable me to carry out Boston College’s Jesuit tradition of being a man for others.”

ALTERNATES Claire Kairys

HOMETOWN: Allison Park, Pa. DESTINATION: Ecuador PROJECT: Combining an internship with study at Universidad San Francisco de Quito to analyze El Bono de Desarrollo Humano, a conditional cash transfer program with both the financial funding and federal support necessary to achieve significant poverty reduction.

PLANS: Enter a master’s degree program in international human development.

“While in Ecuador, I hope to improve my Spanish language proficiency and contribute to international development efforts in Latin America. I credit my study abroad and academic experiences at Boston College with kindling this desire.”

Ashley Schneider HOMETOWN: Moorestown, NJ DESTINATION: Ukraine PROJECT: In addition to English teaching assistantship, preserve Ukrainian churches to help guard pieces of uniquely Urkainian culture.

PLANS: Doctorate in English language and literature, with a focus in American literature, teaching position in a college or university.