Columnist Alli Hargrove reflects on how VR technology scares her, but can help provide the benefits of nature to those who cannot access it.
Staff writer Yoony Kim offers some tips for staying focused and productive this semester.
By Jack Bergamini Asst. Sports Editor
Boston College football scored 31 points across the first two games of the season. It took three quarters against Maine to reach that number thanks to a re-ignited Phil Jurkovec— who threw for a season-high 320 yards—and an offense that looked the best it has all season.
Both teams entered the night winless, but the Eagles (1–2, 0–1 Atlantic Coast) came out on top in a dominant fashion over Maine (0–3, 0–0 Colonial Athletic) with a 38–17 win.
“I didn’t even know [Jurkovec] threw for over 300 yards until they gave me the stats after the game,” BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. “He just led today. Motivating the O-line, encouraging … we need that, and that’s the job of a quarterback.”
It took some time to find that offensive rhythm, however. Maine sacked Jurkovec for a seven-yard loss
on the very first play of the game, reminding the Eagles of their offensive line struggles. It didn’t help that O-line starters Ozzy Trapilo and Kevin Cline were both out due to injury.
Quick offensive plays were the key in the Eagles’ game plan, taking the pressure off Jurkovec and opening up the field. It worked, as Jurkovec found a darting Zay Flowers in oneon-one coverage for a 51-yard pass, giving the Eagles the first touchdown of the game.
Flowers led BC in receptions and yards, finishing with eight catches for 89 yards, while BC’s offensive line held up better than it has, letting up three sacks compared to last week’s five.
“They played really well and they should be proud of their performance,” Jurkovec said. “It’s something they need to build off, but to feel that taste of glory … credit to them.”
The Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC) held an opening celebration for Hispanic/LatinX Heritage Month on Thursday showcasing the diversity and richness of cultures within the community.
Shawna Cooper-Whitehead, vice president for student affairs, emphasized the diversity that the Hispanic/LatinX Heritage Month celebrates, explaining that the Hispanic and LatinX community have roots in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, North America, and more.
“Hispanic/LatinX communities are one of the fastest growing populations
here in the U.S. with over 62 million [people],” she said “Our different diversities are one of our strengths.”
Each country was represented in a parade of flags with a fun fact and an interactive performance by Grooversity, a Brazilian drumming group, as well as a dance workshop held by students contributed to the festive atmosphere.
Ricardo Ponce, MCAS ’23, and Monserrat Verdejo, CSON ’23, were the appointed committee co-chairs in charge of planning the opening celebration. In his remarks, Ponce said that he was proud to help plan an event that showcases the vibrancy of what it means to be Latin American.
They hope the new facility will make BC’s programs more competitive.
Join the Campus Activities Board at this year’s Stokes Set starring Kyle and featuring DJ Jadaboo. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. on Stokes Lawn on Sept. 24. Get your tickets for $15 through the Robsham Box Office.
Analyze the religious ethics behind yoga with Liz Bucar in her lecture on Thursday from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in Higgins 300.
Join the event that will launch a year-long exploration of themes surrounding renewing journalism and democracy, with a “star-studded” panel of contributors—including CNN’s Jim Acosta—on Thursday at 4:00 in Gasson 100.
When the Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC) informed club leaders that it had already allocated its entire budget for the semester, Hollywood Eagles President Dominic Floreno said the news spread like a shockwave through campus.
“SOFC point blank is the lifeline,” Floreno said. “It’s like the IV drip … for all clubs on campus. … It is the only thing that keeps all the clubs alive because it’s where all the money comes from.”
The chairman of SOFC emailed club leaders on Thursday that the organization reached its maximum allocation after approving over 170 budget requests.
As a result, SOFC will no longer be accepting any appeals or line item requests for the semester, the email states.
According to SOFC Chairman Ethan Guell, the club is composed of 17 to 20 undergraduate students that make decisions on proposed club budgets before they are sent to
the Office of Student Involvement (OSI). The organization is overseen by a graduate advisor and a fulltime advisor.
During his three years on SOFC, Guell said he has never seen the club commit all of its funds for one semester.
Running out of money in September is unusual, he said, but it indicates that SOFC is funding a lot more than before.
“I think while I didn’t expect this to happen, it’s a great thing for a lot of clubs since they’re getting to spend more money than they have in the past,” Guell said.
Lexi Arteaga, co-vice president of Boston College’s dance club Phaymus and MCAS ’23, said she was shocked SOFC had run through its funding so quickly and worried about how it would affect her club.
The news from SOFC also caught Will Manzi, treasurer of the German Club and CSOM ’23, completely off guard.
“It almost was like a, ‘Oh shit, I don’t know what we’re gonna do,’ feeling because we had two events that we had yet to submit budgets for and now there was no funding left,” he said.
The German Club waited to
submit two requests instead of including them in its pre-semester budget because it wanted to fully work out the details, according to Manzi.
“We were under the impression that we also would be able to budget for a couple more [events] later—once we got to school,” he said.
Guell said SOFC encourages clubs to submit their budget requests in mid-August, but most submit requests at the beginning of the semester and add various line item requests as needed later in the semester.
Floreno said this expectation is ridiculous since clubs have no idea in August how many people will sign up and what new members of the club will want to do for events and activities.
For example, Floreno said Hollywood Eagles, BC’s filmmaking club, scripts its short films in September and October—months after SOFC budgets are typically due.
“The saving grace has in the past been the budget addition process,” he said.
Arteaga said as a result of SOFC’s update, Phaymus will no longer be able to request the ability to go to one of its competitions.
“It didn’t affect us as much,” she said. “We don’t have the funds for that competition anymore, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world because we had some conflicts anyway … but I can only imagine how it affected other clubs.”
SOFC will reassess its guidelines so its budget lasts longer for future semesters, according to Guell.
“We are going to be revisiting our guidelines and seeing how we can tighten up gray areas so that
this doesn’t happen in the future,” Guell said.
Floreno said SOFC might have been “overzealous” in approving budgets this summer and not thought ahead.
“SOFC is broke,” he said. “Apparently they’re out of money, which is like an unfathomable concept that the funding organization for all clubs has reached a maximum allotment for the entire semester within the first two weeks of school.”
The German Club is smaller and does not throw many large events, Manzi said, but it was still extremely frustrating to not have the funds it needed.
“If I’m upset about this, I’m sure there are more involved clubs that throw bigger events and more events … that are more pissed off about this,” he said.
Small- and medium-sized clubs—like Hollywood Eagles with its roughly 30 to 50 members—will be most affected by this update, according to Floreno.
“It’s an equality issue,” he said. “More than anything, that’s really what I’m concerned about.”
Guell encouraged clubs to consider the various ways they can collect money beyond SOFC requests, including fundraisers and gift accounts associated with the clubs’ alumni network.
“The first way is revenue,” he said. “For example, if you are a dance organization that makes money at your performance, then that money goes into a revenue account associated with the club.”
Manzi said the German Club turned to the Campus Activities Board to fund one of its events, but it had to move the other off campus.
The only other way for the club
to raise money would be through donations, but this is not something it can easily do, according to Manzi.
“The nature of the German Club is just that it’s not really within its capacity to be having revenue-generating events and donations from people,” he said. “It’s just a cultural club.”
Floreno said though OSI faculty advisors and Hollywood Eagles’ specific SOFC representative have always been excellent, SOFC as a whole is an incredibly convoluted organization.
“I think it kind of shows to a certain extent how opaque the organization is in the sense that I can’t really tell you if it’s a chair, if it’s a board, if it’s a group of people,” he said. “It’s kind of like a man behind the curtain. It’s just the shadow organization that’s in charge of all of your money.”
Unless SOFC mismanaged the funds, Manzi said he does not blame SOFC for running out of money, but he does fault it for its lack of communication.
“If we had known that this could happen, we’d have been more proactive in submitting the budget requests for our club,” he said. “There was no indication that this could happen.”
This SOFC update will ultimately translate to fewer on-campus events for students, according to Floreno.
“Clubs are basically the social backbone of the school, and to cut off what little funding they do have, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a dramatic decrease in the number of arts stuff that’s happening on campus, the number of social events, [and] the amount of opportunities for kids to find their niche groups on campus,” he said. n
UGBC’s Student Assembly discussed potential initiatives for the 2022–23 academic year in its second meeting of the semester on Tuesday.
“This is kind of our time just to share how we can all improve the undergraduate experience—things [we’ve] noticed in the last week … policy areas we want to work on,” said Julia Spagnola, UGBC vice president and MCAS ’23.
Several proposed initiatives involved creating a more inclusive environment for minority students on campus by establishing a working group to research bias-related incident responses at other schools and installing gender-neutral signage for single-stall bathrooms on campus.
Jonah Kotzen, the Council for Students with Disabilities’ (CSD) SA representative and Intersectionality Committee chair, shared his concerns about bias-motivated incidents on the Boston College–specific social media app Herrd, specifically mentioning a hateful comment toward a student with a disability that Sarah Farnan, chair of
the CSD, brought to his attention.
The SA is currently in conversation with newly appointed Dean of Students Corey Kelly regarding the incident, according to Kotzen, MCAS ’24.
“Unfortunately, we keep running into issues like this, where when a situation of bias does happen, there’s not a lot that [Herrd] can do to penalize people or to hold them accountable because they don’t know who these people are,” Spagnola said. “We’re trying to have an ongoing conversation about it.”
Other proposed initiatives centered around using technology to make BC’s campus more easily accessible to its students. Kotzen and Thompson Penn, chair of the Student Life Committee and CSOM ’25, suggested creating a way for students to track the current occupancy of the Margot Connell Recreation Center from their mobile devices.
“So anytime you can go online, check how many people are in the Plex and then go on from there,” Kotzen said.
Kotzen also suggested making BC IDs digital through Apple Pay, allowing students to scan into rooms and buildings as well as to pay at dining halls from their phones.
Penn, along with the rest of the Student Life Committee, also proposed bringing late night—which is currently only available at Lyons Hall from Sundays to Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.—to Lower and extending BC After Dark’s hours, which currently runs from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Thursdays to Fridays.
Both Kotzen and UGBC President Lubens Benjamin, however, voiced potential challenges to this proposal, mainly concerning BC Dining’s ongoing staffing issues.
“Late night at Lower wasn’t profitable for them in the past,” Lubens, CSOM ’23, said. “That’s an issue they’ve run into where if you’re staffing people from … 10 [p.m.] to 2 [a.m.], and students only come from 1 to 2 [a.m.], you’re not making money for those other hours.”
Ellie Rogowski, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee and CSOM ’24, also brought up how classes required to fill major requirements are often unavailable. She proposed that BC should create more of these classes.
“A lot of people have the issue where one of the requirements for their
major … gets filled up really quickly, or there’s simply just not enough seats in the class for majors,” Rogowski said.
Megan Heckelman, director of student initiatives and LSEHD ’25, then updated committee members on upcoming UGBC events, most notably a talk with Victoria Garrick-Browne—a former collegiate athlete who focuses on mental health work, specifically with student-athletes—on Oct. 3, as well as a collaboration with the Project Life Movement to encourage BC students to become potential bone marrow and
stem cell donors.
Before concluding the meeting, Spagnola also reminded members that there are currently three vacant SA positions—two being seats in the class
B y e rin s hannon News Editor
Boston College reestablished the Office of the Dean of Students (DOS) this year after its dissolution in 2019, consolidating four offices and reintroducing the dean of students position.
“The main goal is to provide a more streamlined experience for students, and for our DOS team to be able to address challenges, concerns and reports of incidents in comprehensive and effective ways,” Kelly said.
The office, which is located in Maloney Hall, brings together the offices of student support, disability services, student conduct, and off-campus life.
“Bringing these areas together is conducive to responding to issues and incidents that may not fall neatly into a singular area or process, or concerns that require a more thoughtful and widespread approach,” Kelly said.
Former Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Formation Tom Mogan served as the last dean of students. Mogan now serves as
the interim associate dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences.
According to Kelly, this consolidation will also give the office a more holistic role within the community in order to build positive relationships with students.
Vice President for Student Affairs Shawna Cooper-Whitehead said the first step in recreating the office was a conversation with BC’s senior leadership.
“I then spoke with administrators and students regarding their needs for centralized support for addressing both immediate needs and larger concerns,” Cooper-Whitehead said.
“After speaking with Associate Vice President/Dean of Students Corey Kelly, we proposed the recreation of the office that was met with support from campus partners and students alike.”
Kelly said she is working to construct an identity and vision for the office to share with the BC community.
The new office also hopes to proactively address issues and build a sense of community and belonging, according
to Kelly.
“As Associate Vice President/Dean of Students, my role is to have a broad view of the student experience at Boston College, to be highly attuned and responsive to student concerns, and to lead my team to do the work they do on a daily basis with students to achieve our goals,” she said.
Beyond working with the office’s four main divisions, Kelly said she will have a role in LGBTQ+ student support functions, crisis response, Title IX adjudication, bias-incident response, and response to other significant student incidents, concerns, and challenges.
One initiative Kelly mentioned was a multi-day training on restorative practices with a select group of BC community members this winter. The training will focus on providing key individuals with the skills and language to promote community and belonging, she said.
“These Initiatives will allow us not only to be caring, competent and efficient in our responses to reports
and incidents, but also to play a role in building skills, promoting respect and positive decision-making, and contributing to a strong sense of community,” Kelly said.
Cooper-Whitehead said Kelly is a major asset to Student Affairs and that she is excited to continue working with her as the new dean of students.
“As the former Director of Student Conduct, Corey Kelly was an exceptional colleague in how she navigated student behavior throughout the pandemic, while simultaneously looking for ways to enhance student
community building through practices like Restorative Justice and working with the Student Conduct Board,” Cooper-Whitehead said.
The newest iteration of the Office of the Dean of Students will allow students to more seamlessly navigate BC’s community standards, according to Cooper-Whitehead.
“Independent responsibility is a part of the formative education we provide at BC and the DOS Office serves in a crucial role for students navigating their journey into adulthood,” she said. n
After a hiring lull during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston College recruited 63 new faculty members this year—one of the largest faculty cohorts in recent years and the most diverse group of hires BC has ever seen, according to Vice Provost for Faculties Billy Soo.
the endowment fund—and one of whom is a former MacArthur Fellow—a five-year grant awarded to individuals who show exceptional dedication to their creative and academic endeavors—Soo said.
B y r achel l ee Heights Staff
“[Celebrating heritage month] means to be proud of my culture, to be proud of the people who brought me to where I am today at Boston College,” he said. “I enjoy presenting my people and giving the voices to those who are often overlooked.”
One of the facilitators of the event, Father Michael Davidson, S.J., director of the BAIC, stressed the importance of having this be a student-centered event. He said he wants both this particular event, as well as all events celebrating cultural diversity at BC, to foster a sense of belonging among students.
“It’s meaningful when things are student-centered, and so they [came] together and try to bring all the cultures together to celebrate
the Hispanic/LatinX heritage month,” he said “We appreciate these students at Boston College, we appreciate their culture, and we want them to know that we’re not only into diversity and inclusion, but belonging. So this is a celebration of gratitude.”
Emely Espadin-Marquez, CSON ’25, expressed her excitement about the opening festivities and said she felt a sense of solidarity with both the Hispanic/lLatinX community as well as other students through the event.
“I’m very excited to know that at least BC is doing something for Hispanic Heritage Month,” Espadin-Marquez said. “I think it’s just to show that our community and our ethnicity is also welcome. It’s nice to see this all come along and a lot of people who aren’t exactly a part of the Hispanic or
LatinX community just coming to support so that kind of brings me a lot of joy.”
Ponce said that this celebration is the first of many as all of the individual Hispanic/ LatinX student organizations will hold their own events celebrating the importance of this month.
“We just want people to take away from the opening ceremony the feeling that we feel when it comes to being Latino or Hispanically proud of our culture, language, music, and all that,” he said. “You know, we have a whole
“Because of COVID, we deliberately reduced the size of our new faculty hires just for contingency purposes,” Soo said. “We didn’t know exactly, at that point, how fully inperson we were going to return. And then the other thing is, every year we always have a batch of faculty who leave or retire, and that group has actually been quite high … the last two years.”
According to BC News, almost half of the new hires are people of color, including 13 Black faculty members.
“This is my first year in the role,” said Shaylonda Martin, assistant director of faculty and academic affairs. “But what I’ve noticed so far is that this is the largest AHANA group hired and the largest number of faculty that we’ve ever hired.”
Soo said he thinks the new recruits were drawn to BC’s mission of leading its students on a “comprehensive journey of discovery” and building upon its Jesuit traditions.
“Clearly, the message that we’re giving resonates with the faculty that we’re recruiting—they buy into our mission and what we’re trying to accomplish here at Boston College.”
This new group of faculty is also the most accomplished set of professors BC has ever had, according to Soo. Six of the new faculty members are endowed professors—professors whose salaries are permanently paid from
“It’s just something I’m really proud of,” said Soo. “Because, number one, there are a lot of schools out there—many of our competitors are also trying to diversify their faculty. We’re not the only ones. … We were astounded by how successful we were.”
Martin said these endowed professors will bring a lot to the University in terms of research and experience.
“[Endowed professors] are more established professors,” Martin said. “And they’re coming from all different areas of study, and I think they’re going to bring a lot to BC, especially their established research.”
Soo said that the great resignation—all-time high rates of resignation during the COVID-19 pandemic—greatly affected hiring in academics since not many people are looking for work.
“We have had to replenish our faculty,” Soo said. “So that led to this bigger hiring group of people. And I think number one, [hiring] is very important because we want to make sure we have enough faculty to cover all our classes, and given the emphasis on in person teaching, we want to make sure that they’re really full time and they’re committed to the school.”
Given this hiring shortage and
The Newton Police Department (NPD) has been inundated with misplaced calls and complaints in the past week. But the calls aren’t meant for Newton, Mass. They’re meant for Newton, Iowa.
“We recently have had numerous calls placed to our Dispatch Center and messages left on our social media pertaining to an incident that took place in Newton, Iowa,” reads a Sept. 9 NPD Facebook post.
The two Newtons are separated by over 12,000 miles, yet NPD started receiving complaints after a Facebook mixup, according to Lieutenant Bruce Apotheker, the department’s public information officer.
“[NPD] posted about an officer who had been killed in the line of duty [in 1954], and we started getting comments referencing and putting links to an arrest that happened in Iowa,” he said.
In Newton, Iowa, 19-year-old Tayvin Galanakis said police illegally detained him after he was driving with his high beams on, according to a report by local CBS station KCCI Des Moines.
An officer then performed multiple sobriety tests, which Galanakis passed with a 0.0 reading.
But police say Galanakis initially refused to be examined by a drug recognition expert. Because of this, he was subsequently arrested for driving while impaired, according to KCCI.
He was later taken to the Newton Police Department in Iowa where he was examined by a drug impairment officer.
Galanakis was determined not to be impaired. He was later released.
Facebook users in the comment section of a Sept. 8 NPD Facebook post posted a link to a video by YouTuber LackLuster.
The video—which has attracted nearly 400,000 views—shows 25 minutes of body camera footage involving the Galanakis incident in Iowa.
In a pinned comment, LackLuster mistakenly directs viewers to the Facebook page of the police department in Newton, Mass., rather than the one in Newton, Iowa.
“People were calling the station outraged at what they saw in the video,” Apotheker said. “I took one particular phone call from someone who was very irate, in which I explained to them that this was the Newton, Massachusetts Police Department, not Newton, Iowa.”
The next day, NPD clarified on Facebook that the incident in Iowa did not involve the Massachusetts city.
“We kindly remind everyone that the incident being referenced does not involve the City of Newton, Massachusetts, or our Police Department,” the Sept. 9 post reads.
Facebook comments containing the YouTube video with the misleading link are still up on the original Facebook post.
Since clarifying NPD’s relation to the incident, Apotheker said he has not received additional phone calls.
He said the situation can act as a learning experience on deciding whether to trust social media sources.
“This is a reminder to people that when you watch anything on social media … anybody can say anything,” Apotheker said. “They can make it look like something else when in fact it isn’t.” n
The City of Newton will appropriate $1.75 million of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to create a grant initiative fostering economic stability and mobility among those who were most harmed by the pandemic, according to Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s email update.
The city will partner with nonprofit organizations, which can begin to apply for the grant money later this month, to serve members of eligible populations.
The ARPA Advisory Committee defined the population eligible for the initiative’s support as those who earn 65 percent or less of Newton’s area median income.
Underprivileged Newton households—particularly those of Black and Hispanic residents—are also eligible.
Christina Citino, senior research manager at the Donahue Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, presented at a public information session Thursday night on the city’s progress on the initiative.
Citino partners with the ARPA Advisory Committee—formed in
February after the city commissioned a Community Needs Assessment—to monitor community needs for the grant initiative.
The committee will review applications for the grant from nonprofit organizations and make final recommendations to the mayor.
The assessment outlined a number of challenges that either emerged as a result of or were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Citino. These challenges include increased housing and rental costs, financial hardship, and loss of income.
Citino said one of the critical focuses of the advisory committee was to reach a clearer definition of economic stability and mobility.
The requirements for proposals will not be intensely prescriptive beyond the committee’s definition of economic stability and mobility, according to Citino, as the needs assessment advocated for flexible financial support strategies.
The city will release its call for proposals later this month.
The committee will review the proposals and make a final recommendation to the mayor in December. The grant is projected to be awarded in January 2023. n
More pedestrians died during the COVID-19 pandemic despite fewer cars driving on American roads, according to author and consultant Angie Schmitt.
“Usually when driving miles decline, so do traffic deaths, but we actually saw the opposite happen during the pandemic,” Schmitt said
at a Newton Free Library event on Thursday. “The last two years it has actually gotten a lot worse. Pedestrian deaths are up more than 15 percent.”
Schmitt, who wrote Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America , discussed the pedestrian safety crisis at the virtual event.
Schmitt is also the founder of 3MPH Planning + Consulting, a firm focused on pedestrian safety. In
her presentation, Schmitt said that this recent increase in pedestrian fatalities in America is largely due to systemic failures and inequalities. Marginalized groups nationwide face disproportionately high pedestrian fatality rates, she said.
“Many of our problems are connected to this inequality and racism we have in our society,” she said. “Black and Native American populations are almost twice as likely to be killed while walking.”
Citing a study done on traffic safety in the State of Minnesota, Schmitt said that a lack of roadway infrastructure and resources greatly contributes to increased pedestrian fatality rates in tribal lands and reservations.
“In these reservations, there’s very heavy foot traffic, but there’s almost no accommodations—there’s no sidewalks, no crosswalks, no traffic lights,” she said. “This could partly explain why we see such high
pedestrian fatality rates among native folks.”
Schmitt said that many people on the reservation were concerned about traffic safety in their community, but the state Department of Transportation did not share their concerns.
“When they spoke with the state Department of Transportation folks, they almost never brought up pedestrian safety, and even when the researchers pressed them on it, they defaulted to behavioral explanations for these pedestrian fatalities,” she said. “They were kind of blaming the victims.”
Scmitt said that the Department of Transportation’s hesitancy to implement simple pedestrian safety solutions greatly contributes to the increased fatalities.
A lone councilor voted against the proposal, just as only two members of he Newton Historical Commission (NHC) voted to nominate the building as a landmark. Total demolition was the right move, but its opponents’ concerns are valid.
As custodians of their past, Newtonians must remain cautious in their future deliberations.
Buildings exist to serve the living, and historical preservation is no exception. Historical buildings strengthen a group’s collective presence through their collective past. Their presence reminds Newtonians of the simple fact that they are Newtonians.
Daily exposure can make one take these buildings for granted, but they are integral to one’s identity. I am not a Newtonian—I am a Chinese international student, and for five years my Instagram profile picture was a pagoda in my hometown. Not a cool practice for my age—I know—but it was an expat’s ersatz for home.
Thus, because of the emotional weight historical buildings carry, Newton must be careful in deciding on which to demolish. Once demolished, the building is gone forever.
The locals’ outrage against the reckless demolition of a historical home on Greenwood Street is fully justified.
But the demolition of 345 Walnut St. is different—it is an unpleasant necessity. The building’s historical facade is incompatible with the accessibility that seniors need. As NHC member Doug Cornelius put it, the Americans with Disabilities Act is not a matter of architectural taste—it is a matter of civil rights.
Ultimately, buildings exist to serve the living. As such, the old senior center building is not historical—the seniors are, as they said themselves. Senior centers serve seniors, but the existing one does not fulfill that purpose.
Of the more than 200 sites surveyed by the Newton Center for Active Living team, 345 Walnut St. is the only site that can host a new senior center that does.
Again, buildings exist to serve the living, so it must be demolished for the greater good.
The demolition of 345 Walnut Street is a victory for Newton’s seniors and civil rights, but it’s come at a price.
The stained-glass panels on the building—inspired and christened by American poet Robert Frost—will not be the same even if they were skillfully extracted and preserved.
As Newton moves forward, new needs may arise, and Newtonians must remain prudent, lest they unnecessarily lose a part of themselves.
ALINA CHEN / FOR THE HEIGHTSJimmy McDermott’s plans for pursuing consulting while in college changed only moments after his graduation from high school. Thirty minutes after he received his diploma, McDermott, BC ’21, answered a phone call from his superintendent about building a community service tracking app, which he promptly accepted.
McDermott went on to co-found the life-readiness planning tool, Transeo, combining his passion for education with his love for technology and entrepreneurship.
Inspired by his father, McDermott said he decided to explore programming while in high school. During his sophomore year, McDermott took an iOS programming class. At the time, this type of computer science education for high school students was unheard of, he said.
After the class ended, McDermott began doing iOS app development for a number of consulting firms in Chicago—not far from his hometown of Mt. Prospect, Ill. During his senior year of high school, McDermott started his own consulting firm, where he built niche apps for industries like casinos, weight loss apps, and apps from car companies. He planned on continuing consulting in college, until receiving that fateful call on graduation day. Despite his previous plans, McDermott saw the importance of, and need for, such an idea and began developing Transeo.
Transeo started as a community service tracking app, but it is now a much broader educational program. Although it is still a core part of what they do, with over millions of community service hours logged onto their platform, Transeo has expanded beyond the service tracking module and is now a life-readiness tool, trying to help students figure out what they want to do after high school and how they may achieve that.
“[The beginning involved] a lot of ideation and talking to high school counselors since they were our primary target audience, being the ones approving the community service hours,” McDermott said.
Together, McDermott, the superintendent, and their third co-founder, Don Fraynd, began building Transeo in August 2017. By March 2018, during McDermott’s freshman year at Boston College, the group had their first customers. After entering the technology field early on, McDermott said he wanted to go to college on the East Coast, specifically in a big city with high-tech startups.
During his four years in the Carroll School of Management, multiple professors, alumni, and other students helped guide McDermott as Transeo quickly developed.
“A lot of things at Transeo work the way that they do … because of the connections and the experiences I had at BC,” McDermott said. “BC was an incredibly fundamental part to not only my life, but also the life of this company and the people that are in it.”
Among the vast list of mentors McDermott had at BC is associate professor of business analytics John Gallaugher. McDermott took one of his information systems courses as well as his class on the iOS programming language, Swift. He later became a teaching assistant for this course.
Gallaugher said McDermott’s early start with entrepreneurship made him a stand-out student from the start, so he was happy to hear that McDermott was nominated for this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list under the category for education.
“As a young person that’s done so much, Jimmy’s really distinguished himself,” Gallaugher said. “He is the only student to ever be running an active business that had employed other people as a freshman. I’m really delighted to see that he’s in this year’s list. He’s very worthy of
that.”
While working as Transeo’s chief technology officer during his four years on the Heights, McDermott was also involved with the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship.
“It was through the Shea Center that I met many people I still interact with within the BC community and have the privilege to call mentors,” he said.
One of these mentors, Jere Doyle, the Popolo Family Executive Director of the Shea Center, served as another guiding figure for McDermott, offering insight and inspiration for the company’s future.
“I think Jimmy exemplifies a great entrepreneur,” Doyle said. “He takes risks and, more importantly, thinks outside of the box. Starting a business is really, really hard, and Jimmy has that DNA that makes him want to go after something and try something new.”
Doyle said that McDermott’s prior knowledge and experience allowed him to become a great contribution to BC, even as Transeo was still growing.
“The great thing about Jimmy is he’s given back to BC already,” Doyle said. “He’s one of these kids who gave back to BC even when he was at BC. He always helped other students in the Shea Center with business ideas, and now as an alum he’s coming back and talking to students.”
Though Transeo has expanded to offer a variety of products, one branch of the company is Transeo Serve, which tracks community service with a mission that emphasizes the importance and impact of statistics, McDermott said.
“Students that do community service are more likely to finish college on time and return to the community in which they grew up,” McDermott said.
Another of the company’s branches is Transeo College, which helps students apply to college and discover schools they might be interested in, he said. The product also guides them through a process of applying to those colleges with
a focus on students who might be first generation or might not have resources to understand the college application process.
“Helping students who might find themselves on a nontraditional pathway explore what their options are post–high school is really where our bread and butter is,” McDermott said. “We have a strong internal thesis that the default high school to college pipeline can be pretty harmful in the lack of career planning and true information about costs, debt, outcomes, and graduation rates.”
Transeo’s mission has further evolved to lower the information asymmetry that exists about what high schoolers want to do and how they may get there. In school districts with inadequate resources, this previously absent information is groundbreaking, McDermott said.
“When we say information asymmetry, what we’re talking about is that students from privileged backgrounds have access to more information about what their options are,” he said. “They have access to things like more resources within their school district, private college counselors, and all these different methods of understanding what their possible pathways are.”
Since both of McDermott’s parents were teachers, specifically for students with special needs, McDermott said he has always been passionate about edu-
cation.
“Education is definitely a passion of mine,” McDermott said. “I think from a young age, our dinner conversations would be about things surrounding education. It was kind of a nature versus nurture situation where that passion was ingrained in me from an early age. I got to witness firsthand how powerful education can be when it comes to tangibly changing the lives of the students.”
Through his work, McDermott said he hopes to expand access to the types of resources he was provided in high school to more students.
“What gets me up in the morning is the ability to take what we’re doing at Transeo with our technology and use that to scale that same experience that I was so lucky to have when I was in high school,” he said.
Today, Transeo is continuing to grow their employer and user bases, McDermott said.
Currently, hundreds of school districts across the country use the program. Thus far, Transeo has raised around $4.2 million.
“There were multiple times when we wondered if it would even work or be able to stay alive,” McDermott said. “Some of our highest highs and lowest lows have happened in the span of the same day. It’s very much how a startup works.” n
By yoony Kim Heights StaffWhile it’s only a few weeks into the new semester, we can’t help but reminisce about summertime—the nice weather, the time away from school, going home.
After three long months of time away from the Heights, it can be rather difficult to return to a packed schedule and focus on schoolwork all day. So, here are a few of my tips on how to create the perfect space to focus and be productive that you can use to push through this semester.
A good study spot is, perhaps, the most important way to increase productivity. While studying in your dorm might be convenient, it’s inevitable that you get tired working in the same environment for hours on end, and lying in bed instead of sitting at your desk can be tempting. Similarly, living in a suite with multiple roommates can be just as distracting and slow down the work process.
That’s why we resort to libraries. Though O’Neill and Bapst are two of the most popular study spots on campus that students hit, there are also
other libraries on campus that many students don’t know about. Located in the basement of Campion Hall, the Education Resource Center, is a smaller, more intimate library for students who enjoy studying in a light and airy environment.
This library has a more collaborative and uplifting atmosphere compared to O’Neill or Bapst.
There is also the Social Work Library located in McGuinn Hall, which I personally love studying at for silence and privacy, especially when I have loads of work to complete. With high top tables, booths, collaborative tables, and cubicles, the Social Work Library has everything you need for a change of scenery.
I’m sure we can all agree that phones are the biggest distractions when we are trying to be productive. While we tell ourselves we won’t look at our phones, it’s easier said than done—it’s almost impossible to not peek at the screen every time a notification pops up. So, for those who simply can’t keep their hands off of their phone, here are some fun ways that
you can stay away.
Productivity apps, such as Forest, help people focus on their work by helping the environment. Forest plants real trees around the world with credits you earn as you do your work.
You can set the app to a specific time you want, and a tree will begin to grow on your screen along with the timer. Forest tracks the growth of the trees every time you use it, showing you how productive you were in a different way. The tree will die if you use your phone for anything else other than the app.
Because it is a multi-user app, you can add your friends on the app and see each other’s records. In this case, peer pressure can actually be a good thing, since it can help you and your friends keep each other in check.
Or, another way to physically get rid of distractions is to have your friend hide or keep your phone until you are done with your work.
Keeping a planner helps you keep track of all of your tasks throughout the day and week. Not only will this
help you stay organized, but it also reduces the stress of forgetting an assignment, since you have reminders written down.
If having a physical planner isn’t your thing, there are also apps like Notion and Google Keeps that you can use instead. Notion is a platform where you can write in all your assignment deadlines and keep track of them, which helps you have greater efficiency and productivity in doing your work. You can also schedule activities, like working out, which helps your day be less hectic.
Google Keeps is definitely a less fancy, but equally effective, alternative. Google Keeps is essentially a screen of digital sticky notes that you can pin around according to your priorities each day. Using a planner will definitely help you stay productive and get your essential tasks done first.
It’s crucial to remember that having a good study space and being productive is personal to everyone. The most important thing is to use methods that actually work for you, but I hope these are tips that can help you get back on track this semester. n
Boston College students are back at school, and they’re popping in their ear buds to walk down Comm. Ave., rush to their next class, or take a stroll around the Res. Everyone needs a soundtrack that captures the hope of the new semester—or maybe just makes the commute better.
The arts editors weighed in on their playlist-making philosophies and what they’re listening to at the beginning of this semester.
How do you organize your music playlists? Do you usually make playlists depending on the season?
Mood? Something else?
Katherine Canniff: I love new beginnings. I love the start of a new year, a new routine, and the excitement of new possibilities. And I’m usually looking for a new soundtrack for a new season (please refer to the opening song, “Seasons Change” by MorMor). For this playlist, I wanted to leave behind the songs that I played on repeat this past summer, so I took a deep dive into the discography of Blood Orange. That dive led me down R&B and electronic rabbit holes that gave me “Sutphin Boulevard” by Blood Orange and Dev Hynes and “Mirror” by Grace Ives. The dancing beats add haste to my daily hustle to campus.
Pat Tran: I usually organize my playlists by different genres. I have one that reminds me of the music my parents listened to when I was growing up, mostly ’90s music like The Police. Another is all the music I listened to during my first months at BC last year, which was primarily slow rock. I’ve been listening to both a lot recently because I like being reminded of where I was when I used to listen to them those first times.
Josie McNeill: I tend to organize my playlists around one song that I love. I just add the songs that come to mind when I am listening to the first one. I have a playlist based around “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd that mostly has songs from the ’70s and ’80s. It feels
nostalgic even though I wasn’t alive during that time.
PT: I love Pink Floyd. Anyway, I think that the most common playlists are built around moods like chill songs for the end of the day and new songs that people discover and categorize under specific months rather than seasons.
KC: Well, I’m not talking about patterns of weather. I’m talking about the seasons of life, man. And I want to be listening to “Choreomania” by Florence + The Machine while I’m running away from the library during exam season.
Have there been songs that you have been listening to on repeat in the last few weeks?
JM: All the songs on my fall playlist, such as “Ivy” by Frank Ocean and “Frances Forever” by Mitski, were on my On Repeat playlist on Spotify. There wasn’t really a theme in mine. Those are all the songs I am listening to going into fall. But I found “Lottery” by Romancer last year, and I feel like it is the perfect fall song because it talks about autumn leaves falling. I always think about it during this time.
PT: Mine doesn’t have a theme either. But really recently I’ve been listening to Arcade Fire, Interpol, and the Pixies—sort of the same sound that my own band wants to go for as our practices pick up again this semester.
KC: I think I’ve listened to “Catholic Country” by Kings of Convenience and Feist at least 2,000 times in the past couple of
days. “Better Place” by The Q-Tip Bandits has also been on repeat and balances out the more mellow songs I’ve tacked on the end. They’re an indie-rock group that makes songs you can’t help but dance to with trumpet and saxophone instrumentals that shine through.
What is a favorite song you have on the playlist?
PT: My favorite song on my playlist is probably “Light My Fire” by The Doors. I feel like it’s great walking music, which, going into the semester, I have to do a lot of to get to classes from Lower Campus. There is a long, four-minute instrumental in between Jim Morrison’s singing, where the keyboardist Ray Manzarek and the guitarist Robby Krieger riff and do a lot of improv. The tempo is very walking-esque.
JM: I absolutely love “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time. Listening to it always puts me in a good mood. Robert Smith also always has cool eyeliner, which is something I aspire to have.
KC: Speaking of artists whose style I’m loving and aspire to right now: Japanese Breakfast. Frontwoman Michelle Zauner is an absolute queen with a best-selling book, a world tour, and her amazing punk style. “Be Sweet” by the band was one of my favorites for the summer, but I went for an older track, “Road Head,” to close out this playlist.
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By MatthEw KEllEr Heights Staff
Jordan Peele’s Nope came out on July 22, and there’s one scene I still can’t get out of my head.
The film follows the story of a brother and sister who manage a horse farm outside of L.A. that also happens to have extraterrestrial life hovering above it in the sky. With this strange combination, it was tough to know what to expect.
In his third movie, Peele delivered the audience his wildest take on reality yet.
Not just horror and not just psychological thriller, Nope really has it all. With killer performances from actors Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, Peele creates scenes to make his audience laugh, shout in frustration, and, most importantly, leave the theater asking “What exactly did I just watch?”
While the movie as a whole leaves a lot open to interpretation, audience members—myself included—are most likely asking about a very specific scene. For people who have seen it, you understand. For all others, leave now and head to the theaters where Nope is still playing before reading on. This is officially a spoiler alert. Now for the scene in question. Throughout the course of the movie, Peele threads in a tale of a young chimpanzee named Gordy who goes wild on the set of a sitcom some time in the past, brutally murdering some
of its cast and leaving others severely injured. All but one cast member makes it out untouched.
Ricky Park (Steven Yeun), is a cast member on the sitcom, as many probably picked up on. Miraculously, though, he walks away from the whole disaster unscathed.
Why does Ricky make it out at all? Why is this scene necessary to add in the middle of the storyline of the ranch?
These are only a few of the many questions that many people have been asking since Nope hit theaters in July, and hopefully this column will provide one of the multiple possible answers to those questions.
To me, the answer lies in the floating shoe in the middle of the room. For more context, while the chimpanzee begins his rage, a shoe somehow flies up in the air and lands on its toe, standing straight up as if it were dangling by invisible thread. There is obviously a one-in-a-million chance of it landing this way, and the movement draws the attention of the audience amid all the chaos around it.
But this strange shoe phenomenon is the reason why Ricky survives the chimpanzee’s attack. The rest of the cast is focused on the murderous chimp running around set, and they make the mistake of looking the chimp in the eyes, which ultimately
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Julian Lennon has a big name to live up to. The title of his new album, Jude , is a nod to his father, John Lennon, and The Beatles’ song “Hey Jude.”
Despite a towering legacy, Lennon lives up to his father’s musical mastery in his own unique way. Jude certainly is not a redo of his father’s work.
Because his musical style is different from that of his father’s, Lennon has carved out his own niche in the music world. His smooth music adds a new layer to the pop rock label.
When Lennon starts singing on the album’s first track, “Save Me,” you can hear the echoes of his father’s voice, but the rasp and tone of Lennon’s singing are all his own. Lennon’s lyrics are filled with an artfully expressed plea for someone
to stay in his life.
“Please tell me, before I reach the end, oh won't you tell me? / Show me, the light that lives inside, oh won't you show me?” Lennon sings.
The album’s standout track
“Freedom” has an otherworldly sound, with organ music in the background and the bewitching repetition of the word “freedom,” making it sound like an incantation.
“Freedom” and “Breathe” are reminiscent of the soft tones of Sufjan Stevens’ music. Their ethereal quality and instrumentation are akin to Stevens’ dreamlike synthesizers.
Lennon also embraces this state in his lyrics on “Breathe” when he sings about a desire to take a step away from the worries and difficulties of life and take a breath.
Much of the album spreads a message of peace or includes a call to action. “Every Little Moment,” a standout song on Jude, echoes this
sentiment.
The song discusses how it takes work and commitment for us to reach peace, on it, Lennon’s voice sounds natural and unforced.
“With every little moment / Every little rain drop / Every little sun spot / Can't you see the war is over / Courage, get a little courage / Find a little backbone,” Lennon sings.
Lennon’s songs have a calm message and strong calls to action. But the songs are slower and pianoheavy, which can make the album drag at points.
The final song, “Gaia,” feels like an anticlimactic end to the album with its stripped-down piano track and vocals.
An orchestra swells in the background of the track as Elissa Lauper croons in French. The song is beautiful but offers a sleep conclusion to the album.
Jude shines in its more surprising and exploratory tracks.
Lennon’s voice does well on ballads and some of the songs with faster tempos but can sometimes seem weak when he switches into his falsetto.
The direction that Julian Lennon
takes speaks to his imaginative and experimental style.
The album stands on its own both in artistry and messaging in contrast to John Lennon’s body of work.
My point is that these things cannot be replicated with a VR screen, no matter how high-quality the definition is.
Yet, virtual reality does indeed have its redeeming qualities, kind of. I am willing to concede a few points on behalf of virtual reality on the grounds that it can be beneficial to not only human health, but also environmental health.
tween humanity and nature. One study even found that nature VR can be as effective as real nature in fostering “green” behaviors.
Virtual reality makes me nauseous. But not like the nauseous I get after challenging my stomach to another night of Boston College Dining—it’s more like the nauseous I get when I feel impending doom. There is a quintessential “VR photo” that I am sure you are familiar with. It is of a boy sitting on the beach, wearing a VR headset despite it being a beautiful sunny day. I can only hope that everyone else was as pained by this photo as I was, to the point that we all acknowledge that it should not be our future.
I want my abhorrence to be rational, though. It is possible that my opinion is not actually backed by reason, but rather just my gut reaction and emotional response to seeing such a blatant disrespect of the beauty of the outdoors. After research, my disdain was kind of validated, but also wasn’t.
My opinion surely stems from my own experiences with nature. I am not sure if many people share a similar experience, but based on my childhood I firmly believe that there is more to being outside than the visual and auditory aspects. I personally spent a sizable amount of time eating dirt, sand, and leaves (not fully encouraged).
In all seriousness, nature is filled with smells, other organisms, and tactile encounters that are integral to the full outdoor experience. If I were to ask you to think about what rain on pavement smells like or what a pine tree in winter smells like, I’m sure you could indeed conjure up not only the exact smell but also some memories you associate with it. Just think about chasing butterflies or trying to get close enough to a bunny to pet it. Think of the sensation of dirt under your fingernails or even the tickle of grass on the soles of your feet.
Nature is known to convey many health benefits to humans just by being outside. Not only is it beautiful, it is restorative. This restorative aspect has many health implications, including reduced cognitive fatigue, decreased stress, and increased focus. More studies have found that nature causes reduced mortality rates, improved mental health, and even higher fertility.
These benefits are compounded for individuals who are experiencing exorbitant amounts of stress and emotional strain in their everyday lives. This is great news and provides an incentive for people to venture outdoors and also take care of natural spaces. But what about people who don’t have access to natural spaces or have impaired mobility?
This is where I see an apt space for VR to fill. Importantly, some of the benefits of the outdoors are indeed conveyed through natural VR displays, and I guess you could eat some grass and dirt on the side to make up for where VR falls short. VR technology displaying natural scenes, if coupled with other therapeutics such as meditation, has proven to have long-term health benefits similar to those of actual nature. Further, chemotherapy patients have reported decreased pain and anxiety when viewing natural scenery via VR during treatment. Although real-world nature remains superior in its benefits, VR provides an avenue for connections with nature despite, for whatever reason, people not being able to access the outdoors.
Ecological health can also be promoted through these nature VR displays indirectly through psychology. By offering up beautiful outdoor scenery that most people don’t interact with on a day-to-day basis, VR can provoke environmentally conscious behaviors by nurturing a relationship be-
Further, Ando Shah—co-founder of Ballast VR, a company producing VR technology—contends that VR should serve as a stepping stone into actual nature experiences. For instance, people who experience Yellowstone National Park via virtual reality are more likely to want to go visit the real one. To Shah, forming these neural connections with nature through VR will lead to more empathy for nature and eventually incite action to combat climate change.
Shah’s intentions behind VR are completely in line with my hopes for it. Stirring up excitement about the outdoors and encouraging real exploration are both noble goals for VR. I can only hope that these will be its true implementations.
In the meantime I will not personally partake in VR technology, but that is more of a result of my personal fears of degenerating into a dystopian society rather than my ignorance of its combined ecological and health benefits. And these ecological and health benefits are apparent, as seen in this literature-review of sorts I conducted with the original goal of rationalizing my disdain. I kind of unraveled my fear in discovering that there are uses for VR that won’t cause the downfall of our society but will actually, perhaps, contribute to its success in terms of battling our ecological crisis.
But, because I am currently mobile and have access to outdoor spaces, I will continue to opt for real nature over virtual nature. Most of my remaining skepticism is with human tendencies to corrupt technological advances in a way that is in opposition to our well-being (social media comes to mind) rather than my disbelief in the technology itself. All that being said, if in the near future you happen to see me on a beach wearing a VR headset, I give you full permission to throw me in the ocean and force-feed me sand.
Alli Hargrove is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at allison.hargrove@bc.edu.
At the end of last semester, we collectively shed a tear for the summer-long pause of Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down. And man, goodbyes are the worst. But now it’s the start of the new semester, so we can finally say “Out with the down and in with the up!” because this beloved tradition has returned to the Heights. Stay tuned, Eagles—we’ve got more irrelevant commentary coming your way on topics ranging from why library doors are so heavy to the simple bliss of autumn days on the Quad.
In the theme of fresh starts, it’s only appropriate to celebrate a new era of housing. For many of us, this new semester brings big change—transitions from Newton to Walsh or Roncastle to an off-campus house are an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. New dorm decor, roommate drama, and routes to classes are undoubtedly exciting to the average Eagle. So buy that Taylor Swift poster, get that BC Football tapestry, and maybe even tape that 8.5 x 11 Gibby print on your bathroom wall. New housing is a time for new experimentation!
assisting people with district-expedited processes like passports or receiving updates from federal agencies. I was relieved that we were starting at a slow pace. Then, the relief was shattered by the second week.
People love asking “What did you learn from your internship?”
This quesion is asked with good intentions, and it’s usually followed up with skills that were improved or learned. My answer, however, would be that I learned how insecure I was in my own capabilities and how insecurities in college definitely follow you into the real world. The experience of the internship itself was great, but the roller coaster of emotions I put myself through wasn’t.
Taking us back a few months ago…
As my freshman year came to a close, I was scrambling to find an internship, since getting one would mean that I would be set for a successful and productive summer. Right? With as much weight as I put on finding an internship, I really only applied to one. That being said, I earned the right to be excited and scream in my Shaw bedroom when I found out I would be interning for my own congresswoman. I was set.
On the first day of my internship, I walked hesitantly into the office building where I met the other intern, who happened to be a Harvard undergrad. Harvard? Are you kidding me? Doubt started to cloud my mind. I instinctively thought I was way in over my head. We were greeted by our intern coordinator who trained us for the day on the basics of constituent services, which involved
We were trusted to take calls on our own and log them in. Don’t get me wrong—we were capable, but with each call, I felt a surge of panic because I wanted to provide every caller with the most accurate and helpful information possible, which sometimes required research. I quickly realized how un- “set” I was because now the effort, confidence, and initiative within my role all became so much more real.
The first weeks of the internship felt like my first weeks of college. I naively thought that getting into college was enough and that the rest would fall into place because I was where I was supposed to be. The hardest part should be getting in, right?
The hardest part is getting through college by challenging yourself with academics (simply passing classes), e-board positions (commiting to one of the hundreds of email lists you signed up for during the involvement fair), or simply approaching new people. These challenges would make for a perfect student, but we’re so far from that. At least I am.
I’ve taken on all of the above and each one with a surge of panic that I may be taking on more than I’m realistically capable of.
To combat my overthinking, I decided to ask for feedback. I swiveled my comfy office chair to face my intern coordinator, praying she didn’t notice my trembling. I asked with a shaky voice, “How am I doing as an intern? Is there any space for improvement?”
She assured me I was doing a good job. The ra
tional thing to do would’ve been to believe her, but like every other “impostor,” I didn’t. We were told countless times that we were the best interns they had had in a while. I instinctively thought the staff said it to everyone who interned. My insecurity lessened the initiative that I took in my role and my authenticity. Everyday my insecurity added constant worry about every interaction.
The anxiety and impostor syndrome I was experiencing wasn’t anything new. Coming to Boston College meant that being valedictorian in high school didn’t matter, averages for courses were not available until the end of the semester (so I couldn’t get constant validation), and if I didn’t believe in myself, no one else was going to.
My identity as a Hispanic, first-generation, low-income student will always be connected to these emotions simply because being in college is a dream for my family and me. I can’t say that I see myself in a lot of the students on campus or even a lot of the professors here. I got a terrible high school education while others went to boarding schools, had tutors, and still have easily accessible
Best known for his song “iSpy,” Kyle is getting more attention from BC students after CAB announced he will perform at Stokes Set on Sept. 24. Although he has an average-sized discography, the few students who knew who he was prior to the announcement are worried about getting flashbacks to 2016—hearing “iSpy” for the hundredth time. At the expense of missing out on one of the summer’s last hurrahs, it might be worth it to save the $17.50 and avoid reliving the haunting memories of Musical.ly and purple braces that defined many of our awkward tweenage stages.
While there’s nothing quite like the adrenaline rush that comes along when a “Student 9s” text lights up your lock screen, the high is always brought back down by the inevitable Red Sox loss. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or you just dragged your friends to Fenway Park to add a sporty vibe to your Instagram photo dump, the biggest W of the night will be finishing that dreamy, soft-serve ice cream cone before the score gets too brutal.
After starting its season 0–2 for the first time since 2011, Boston College football earned its first win of the season on Saturday night, defeating Maine 38–17.
Football, from A1
A big kickoff return from the Black Bears put them on BC’s 35-yard line. A 17-yard touchdown pass to tight end Shawn Bowman, who got behind BC’s Jaiden Woodbey in coverage, put the Black Bears ahead 10–7.
With the Eagles down by three, a 53-yard pass to Jaden Williams put the Eagles on Maine’s 2-yard line. Jurkovec found tight end George Takacs wide open on the left side of the end zone to put the Eagles back on top 14–10.
That touchdown gave BC 135 passing yards to finish the first quarter, matching Jurkovec’s total last week against Virginia Tech.
“Me and [Jurkovec] actually worked on the deep ball all practice,” Williams said. “If you saw the first two games, we actually missed them. So for us to get this game, it just shows the progress that we’re making.”
After mustering negative three rushing yards in the first quarter, the Eagles’ run game found a burst of energy when Hafley put freshman running back Alex Broome into the game.
The Eagles totaled 111 net rushing yards—78 more than they had the previous two games combined—on 33 carries with three main rushers: Pat Garwo, Broome, and Cam Barfield.
“I want to be more balanced,” Hafley said. “I want to be able to run the ball, throw the ball, and I want to mix more guys in so they don’t [get] worn out.”
Maine quarterback Joe Fagnano was feeling the Eagles front four all night. Defensive end Marcus Valdez came
up big with a sack—the Eagles’ third of the game —late in the second quarter, forcing Maine to punt two plays later.
Garwo punched the ball in from one yard out on the next drive, giving the Eagles a 28–10 lead to end an eight-play, 71-yard drive.
Garwo was the fourth Eagle to reach the end zone, putting on display a far more balanced offense than previous weeks. Seven different Eagles recorded a catch.
“The emphasis for me was getting guys on the field that deserve to play,” Hafley said. “We’ve got good players, and if a guy deserves to play we need to get him the ball. I like the way we spread out the ball today.”
Missed opportunities from the Eagles—including a near interception by Elijah Jones and missed field goals from 39 and 28 yards by Connor Lytton—kept Maine within reach down to the wire.
“You go up 21 and make those field goals and you run away with it, and I wish we had been able to do that sooner in the game,” Hafley said. “There were opportunities to put that thing away earlier than we did.”
But the Eagles exhaled in the fourth quarter when their defense stopped Maine on 4th-and-2, forcing a fumble and getting the ball back at their own 9-yard line. A Kam Arnold interception and a 30-yard rushing touchdown from Garwo sealed the win for the Eagles.
“I’m excited to watch the film. It was neat to be around the guys down there in the locker room. They were really excited to get a win, get some confidence, and try to get this thing going in the right direction,” Hafley said. n
By Graham Dietz Assoc. Sports EditorAccording to ESPN, Boston College football entered its Saturday night matchup against Maine with a win probability of 96.4 percent. Though the Eagles trailed 10–7 late into the first quarter, quarterback Phil Jurkovec showed off his robust arm, and BC pulled through, defeating Maine 38–17.
After getting sacked five times and throwing for just 135 yards at Lane Stadium last week, Jurkovec surpassed 300 yards for the first time this season, completing 25 of 37 passes for two touchdowns, helping secure the Eagles’ first win of the season.
Here are four observations from the win.
George and Zay Showed up to Play Tight end George Takacs and wide receiver Zay Flowers were everywhere on Saturday, darting across the field and making Jurkovec’s night resemble a game of touch football in the backyard.
Flowers, who finished with eight catches for 89 yards and a touchdown, moved into fifth place alltime on BC’s receptions list. After surpassing 2,000 career receiving yards in Week One, Flowers continued his success in Week Three.
He routinely made linebackers miss their assignments in the flat and
floated by defensive backs for easy downfield shots.
With a guy who can gracefully slip over deep-zone coverage like Flowers can, all Jurkovec had to do was throw the ball up and say a prayer. Maine got the scoring going with 6:15 left in the opening quarter on a field goal, but the Eagles responded when Jurkovec found Flowers on a pin-point strike for a 51-yard touchdown.
Flowers took the load off Takacs in the mid- to short-range offense, which maximized BC’s offensive success by sending Flowers into deep corners and letting Takacs pummel through the line of
Notebook, from A8
scrimmage in man-to-man coverage. Jurkovec identified Takacs in a variety of formations, but most of the time, you could find the 6-foot6 tight end crashing into linebackers for pick-ups of five to 10 yards.
After two weeks of sloppy play-calling and poor communication, BC’s offensive coordinator John McNulty stepped up on Saturday night. The Eagles totaled 431 yards of offense on a night where seemingly BC’s whole roster—from Flowers to true freshman running back Alex Broome—saw some action.
In addition to the triumphant efforts of Flowers and Takacs, Jaden Williams caught a 53-yard pass—the longest of his career— which set up the Eagles’ second first-quarter touchdown. Running back Pat Garwo III accumulated 78 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Six players on BC’s roster caught the ball at least twice in McNulty’s quick-play scheme.
The most notable difference between Saturday’s game and BC’s two losses to open the season was McNulty’s utilization of bubble screens and whip routes to Flowers, Williams, and Jaelen Gill.
The Sign of Three: Winning the Turnover Battle and Containing the Run
In BC’s third game of the season, head coach Jeff Hafley showed off
his defensive expertise as the Eagles won the turnover battle 3–0. BC was mostly proficient in a twodeep safety zone, with Jason Maitre hovering deep behind cornerbacks Elijah Jones and Josh DeBerry in tighter coverage. BC dominated the ground game on defense for the first time all season, holding Maine’s primary back, Tavion Banks, to just 34 rushing yards on six attempts.
At the end of the first half, Maitre logged his third career interception—his first since Nov. 7, 2020 in a win at Syracuse—and linebacker Kam Arnold picked up his first career interception, adding
a 49-yard return. Vinny DePalma forced a fumble that DeBerry recovered. It was the third forced fumble of DePalma’s career and the third fumble recovered in DeBerry’s career.
Stuck in the Pocket
Jurkovec has been known for two things in his college career: a rocket-launching arm and an ability to evade a collapsing pocket, scurry to open space, and attack the opponent’s defense with his legs. On Saturday night, his ground game was nowhere to be seen. Whether it was out of fear of injury or a shortfall of creativity, Jurkovec only lost yards on his feet, getting
sacked three times for a net loss of 17 yards.
Jurkovec was visibly upset when he couldn’t find a read downfield. Overall, Jurkovec put on a spectacle through the air, but a handful of overthrows plagued him, and he was disgruntled when a receiver came up empty.
But the offensive line—which struggled mightily in the first two weeks—stood strong even without starters Ozzy Trapilo and Kevin Cline. The O-line gave Jurkovec plentiful pocket time, and instead of stepping up to make a quick dash, Jurkovec sailed the ball well over the heads of his receivers. n
By Megan gentile Sports Editor
In a powerhouse basketball conference like the ACC, both Boston College men’s and women’s basketball have long been the underdogs. Women’s basketball hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2006, and men’s basketball hasn’t gone dancing since 2009.
With the construction of the Hoag Basketball Pavilion, though, BC women’s basketball head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee and men’s basketball head coach Earl Grant are optimistic that basketball at BC will make progress. Both coaches acknowledged that the construction of the new facility will help put BC on the same playing field as its ACC competitors.
“The new Hoag Pavilion will allow us to have unlimited access to our training facility,” Bernabei-McNamee wrote in a statement to The Heights. “Skill and strength development are essential when building and sustaining success. Having this dedicated state-of-the-art facility will allow us to attain our long-term goals of thriving in the ACC and being a consistent presence in the NCAA tournament.”
The majority of BC’s conference competitors already have basketball-specific practice facilities. Syracuse, who has made it to the NCAA Tournament eight times in the past 10 tournaments, opened the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, a $19 million facility that houses its men’s and women’s basketball programs, in 2009.
Duke, which made nine of the last
10 tournaments and won the National Championship in 2015, constructed the $15.2 million Michael W. Krzyzewski Center in 2008.
BC’s new 40,000 square foot facility, funded through a $15 million gift from University trustee Michaela Hoag, BC ’86, and her husband Jay, will be dedicated solely to BC’s basketball programs. It will connect to Conte Forum and include a 10,700 square foot practice gym, six courts, instructional areas, a strength and conditioning center, a sports medicine center, and locker rooms.
Both Bernabei-McNamee and Grant acknowledged that having a high-quality, basketball-specific space will aid BC in the recruitment process. Showing a commitment to basketball’s long-term success at BC, Grant said, will be crucial in competing for top recruits.
“Most times when you recruit anybody, one of the things they want to know is how important basketball is to the school,” Grant said. “You can talk about ‘Hey, it’s important,’ but when you put action behind it, and they say ‘Wow, I see a facility coming. I believe you. It’s important,’ I think that opens their eyes.”
Bernabei-McNamee said that when it comes to drawing recruits to campus, the facility will be another tool in BC’s shed beyond a high-quality education and a beautiful campus.
“The Hoag Pavilion puts us on an equal playing field with other Power 5 schools,” Bernabei-McNamee wrote.
Aside from its role in recruiting, the facility will help develop BC’s returning players over time, Grant said.
As construction on the facility re-
quired the demolition of Power Gym, BC’s former basketball practice location, both teams have transitioned into holding practices inside the Margot Connell Recreation Center.
“The transition has been smooth,” Bernabei-McNamee wrote. “The staff at Connell have been very accommodating to our players and coaches. We have been very fortunate to have such a beautiful facility to practice in during this time of construction.”
Grant echoed her sentiments, acknowledging that the Connell Recreation Center is a higher-quality facility than most student recreation centers.
“[The transition’s] been great because the facility is great,” Grant said. “Now, if we didn’t have that nice facility, maybe it would’ve been a challenge, but that’s a high-level facility. That may be one of the best student rec centers [I’ve seen] in 23 years of being in college athletics.”
Last season, men’s basketball made it to the quarterfinal of the ACC Tournament before falling to Miami. Women’s basketball earned the No. 1 seed in the National Invitation Tournament for its first postseason appearance since 2011.
Both Grant and Bernabei-McNamee said they are looking forward to building upon their performances from last season and are excited for BC’s future in the conference, a future in which the Eagles’ facilities compare to those of their competitors.
“It’ll restore some of … the history of the rich basketball program that we have,” Grant said. “It’ll only lift our program up.” n
Ahead of its Sunday matchup against Monmouth, Boston College field hockey head coach Kelly Doton had one goal on her mind: a strong defense.
“It was the only focus,” Doton said. “We were allowing way too many goals. There’s no way you are going to succeed at the ACC level if you’re giving up 3–4 goals a game, so I’m proud of the effort we put in all week.”
BC’s defense stepped up to the challenge on Sunday, and in just the second all-time meeting between the two teams, the Eagles (4–4, 1–0 Atlantic Coast) secured a 3–2 victory over Monmouth (2–4,1–0 Metro Atlantic).
Despite missing scoring opportu-
nities on four early corners, BC moved the ball with precision in the game’s opening period, creating multiple offensive chances and keeping the ball in Monmouth’s half.
The Eagles initially struggled to put shots past Monmouth keeper Phileine Hazen, but with just over three minutes remaining in the opening period, Victoria Arra gave the Eagles a 1–0 advantage on a tap-in finish.
The second quarter resulted in a back-and-forth stalemate. Toward the end of the first half, Monmouth earned its first corner of the game, which proved to be its best scoring chance of the half. But BC captain Sarah Johnson made a clutch defensive play to stop the Hawks from scoring.
“I always tell the players: If we don’t have the ball, it’s all out effort,” Doton said. “We’re sprinting. We’re trying to
win the ball back. Defense is where we spend all of our energy.”
Coming out of halftime, Johnson got the ball rolling on offense and scored a quick goal from outside the crease to put BC up 2–0. The Eagles’ defense finally cracked just 20 seconds later, though, as Monmouth drove downfield, answering on a shot that trickled by BC goaltender Emily Gillespie to put the Hawks within one.
After some early offensive fireworks, the third and fourth quarters proved to be much less of a spectacle. Peyton Hale scored for BC to end the third, and Monmouth scored a late goal in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough to overcome BC’s defense.
“We need to keep getting better—fixing the mistakes we continuously keep making,” Doton said. “We’re going to keep moving forward.” n
The NCAA approved a series of rule changes in men’s and women’s soccer in April. One of the most consequential rule changes eliminated overtime in the regular season: If the score is tied after 90 minutes of play, the game ends in a tie.
And that’s what happened in Boston College men’s soccer’s matchup against Louisville (3–2–1, 0–1–1 Atlantic Coast) Friday night. After BC scored in the 65th minute to tie things up at one apiece, momentum was on the Eagles’ side. But when the final whistle blew, the Eagles (2–2–2, 0–1–1) didn’t get another chance to score in overtime—as they would have last season—and the game ended in a 1–1 draw.
At the center of BC’s attack was midfielder Augustine Boadi. The freshman used his quickness to generate scoring chances early in the game, but the Eagles couldn’t find the net.
“He’s really quick. He’s really fast,” BC head coach Bob Thompson said of Boadi. “I would say he’s really skillful for being
that fast. He’s able to keep good control of the ball while traveling at a high speed, and that’s hard to find.”
Louisville center backs Josh Jones and Bryce LeBel contained BC striker Stefan Sigurdarson for much of the first half. Sigurdarson, who’s scored six goals this season, had little time and space with the ball.
“[We were] not being productive enough on the ball,” Thompson said. “[Sigurdarson] was kind of battling against two center backs more than he needed to.”
The first major scoring opportunity for either team came in the 37th minute.
From the left flank, BC left back Tyshawn Rose swung a cross that went untouched until Amos Shapiro-Thompson rocketed a half-volley from the weak side, but a lunging LeBel got in front of it. LeBel was in the right place at the right time, and he kept the Eagles off the board.
But soon after, in the 44th minute, the Cardinals broke the scoreless tie on a goal from Nico Diaz. Damien Barker John slotted a perfectly placed through ball toward the penalty spot, and Diaz converted on a one-time finish that ricocheted off the left post before it trickled into the net to put Louisville up 1–0.
Coming out of halftime, BC shifted its focus to attacking Louisville with aerial balls over the top of the Cardinals’ back line. This resulted in a few chances for the Eagles, most notably a scramble in the box that ended with a Ted Cargill shot that went just wide of the bottom-right corner of the net.
“It looked like their back line was a little tired, and [they] started having a flat line, and they weren’t really alert, so the backside runs seemed to be on quite a bit,” Thompson said.
The Eagles were rewarded for their efforts in the 65th minute when midfielder Nacho Dominguez knotted the score at 1–1, finishing a ball from 10 yards out. Center back Diego Ochoa lifted a ball toward the far post, where Sigurdarson headed it into a vacant area of the box. Dominguez pounced on the unaccounted-for ball and calmly shot it into the net.
“I saw that the goalie was very close to the near post, so I knew that I just had to redirect the ball to the far post,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez, a substitute who entered the game late in the first half, said that coming off the bench was no problem for him.
“I think the whole group was just focused on this game, especially after the loss against Clemson,” Dominguez said. “We knew that we needed to get some points, and the whole team was just so focused on the game that I feel like coming off the bench is almost like starting.”
Having seized the momentum after their goal, the Eagles generated several chances in the minutes following the equalizer. Senior captain Shapiro-Thompson had perhaps the most dangerous scoring opportunity in the 77th minute, when he moved past a Louisville defender and blasted a low shot that just missed the goal, hitting the side of the net.
Louisville stormed back with one final chance in the 89th minute when a Louisville forward connected on a header on a lofted corner kick. BC goalkeeper Brennan Klein was positioned perfectly, though, and saved the header.
“I think this is something to build on,” Thompson said. “I think the guys that are older and that have been around longer know that a point in the ACC is important. So for me, actually coming back from 1–0 down against a good team and getting a point out of it is a really big momentum builder.” n
By Madelyn lawlor For The HeightsBoston College women’s soccer was in the running to take an early lead against Florida State for a total of one minute on Friday. The Eagles trailed for the rest of the time.
Against the reigning national champion Seminoles, BC (4–2–3, 0–1–0 Atlantic Coast) wasn’t up to the task, as No. 12 Florida State dominated the entire game and defeated the Eagles 6–0. BC showed some bright spots, but it struggled to generate enough offense to keep up with the firepower of the Seminoles (5–0–2, 1–0–0).
“We have a tendency to second guess ourselves and don’t come out on the front foot,” associate head coach
Taylor Schram said. “So [we need to focus on] just continuing to instill confidence and belief in this group because we know how talented we are and [the] high level of a performance we can put together.”
Florida State held offensive control early, and BC had trouble asserting pressure. The Seminoles scored on their first possession of the game just one after the opening whistle.
Midfielder Onyi Echegini scored in the upper right corner to give Florida State an early 1–0 lead.
Throughout the beginning of the first half, the Eagles struggled to maintain possession. The Seminoles played with more intensity, higher energy, cleaner passing, and greater control of the game, keeping the ball in the BC’s half.
Florida State increased its lead to 2–0 in the 11th minute. Forward
Jody Brown controlled the ball in the middle of the field and passed outside to Echegini, who put the ball in the back of the net for her second goal of the game.
After a long stretch of Seminole control, the Eagles got possession back, powered by the dribbling of forward Sam Smith. Midfielder Samantha Agresti crossed the ball across the penalty box, but a shot by Ella Richards went wide.
At the start of the second half after a BC corner kick, Florida State pushed the ball up the field and passed to a wide open Echegini, who placed the ball past goalkeeper Wiebke Willebrandt for her third goal of the game.
The Eagles stopped the speed and poise of Florida State, which scored again in the 59th minute to take a 4–0 lead.
BC then substituted Eva Nahas
for Willebrandt. The change failed to make a difference, however, as Florida State continued to pressure Nahas. The Seminoles scored two more goals on Nahas.
BC took six shots, while Florida State finished with 24.
“For most of the season so far
we’ve had trouble starting games at the energy level that we need to be at,” Schram said. “We’re just diving into some of the details related to that and trying to put together a good string of training sessions this week, so that we can get prepared for Duke next week.” n