The Torch, Summer 2016 | Dominican University of California

Summer 2016 News and features about and for the Dominican community

Dominican University of California

COLLEGE DEBATE 2016 INSPIRING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. PG. 8

The Torch Summer 2016

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In this issue 3

News in Brief

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Student Scene

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College Debate 2016

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Athletics

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Advancing Dominican

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Alumni News

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Campus View

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Class Notes

Dominican University of California educates and prepares students to be ethical leaders and socially responsible global citizens who incorporate the Dominican values of study, reflection, community, and service into their lives. The University is committed to diversity, sustainability and the integration of the liberal arts, the sciences, and professional programs.

Guzman Library, Corinthian Column, circa 1934 Photograph by Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams Photograph Collection, University Archives Š 2016 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Each issue, we comb through the Dominican archives to share a moment of history. In this issue, you'll find a photo from Dominican's Ansel Adams collection on the inside front cover (pictured to the left). We hope you enjoy it. If you have a photo from your archives that you’d like to share, please send them to: editor@dominican.edu.

Dear Friends, As you will read in this issue, Dominican is leading an important initiative focused on engaging young voters in the upcoming presidential election. We are charged with this important task by the Commission on Presidential Debates —the nonpartisan organization that produces debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates—at a time when young-voter turnout is at its lowest level in 40 years.

The Torch The Torch is a publication presenting the news, people and progress of Dominican University of California. The symbol of the flaming torch, representing truth, is rooted in the history of St. Dominic. The University’s motto is “Truth, a flaming torch.”

The torch is carried by one of the “hounds of the Lord,” or, in Latin, “Domini canes.”

President Mary B. Marcy, DPhil Editor Nancy Bulette Art Direction Shelley Hunter Production Shelley Hunter Writers Dave Albee Nancy Bulette Brandon Davis ’06 Dan Fost Sarah Gardner Photographers Dave Albee Nancy Bulette Brandon Davis ’06 Shelley Hunter Stuart Lirette Mimi Utley Photo Archivist Anne Reid Published By Dominican University of California 50 Acacia Ave. San Rafael, CA 94901 415-485-3239 www.dominican.edu

Members of the millennial generation often are portrayed as cynical, apathetic, and disengaged. However, those of us who work closely with college students know this is not the case.

Young voters care about health care, access to education, immigration, economic growth, civil rights, social justice, and the environment, among many other issues. They volunteer in their communities more than any prior generation. They donate time and money to large and small organizations around the world. They are civically engaged across a spectrum of activities, except one: voting. College Debate 2016 will give students a national platform focused on amplifying their voices.

This is an ambitious project for Dominican, yet it is one I feel is closely aligned with our mission and our core values of community, study, service, and reflection. Higher education has a responsibility to weave civic engagement into their students’ experience.

In recent years, we have excelled at meeting our students’ desires to serve the greater community. Our work is innovative and important and has been applauded at the national level. We are one of five institutions in the nation selected for The Washington Center 2015 New York Life Civic Engagement Award. The University is a recipient of the 2015 Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and has been recognized multiple times with the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

College Debate 2016 offers students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the social issues that matter most to young voters, practice essential civic skills through leadership and collaboration, and the chance to engage in political discourse and promote civic engagement.

Dominican is the perfect partner, and this is the perfect time, for this first-of-its-kind initiative to put college student voices at the center of the 2016 presidential election. Please visit us at collegedebate16.org for more information about our work.

Sincerely,

Mary B. Marcy President

Dominican Welcomes New Hires Ashley Finley (PhD, University of Iowa), whose research focuses on student learning and student success in higher education, joined Dominican last year as the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean for the Dominican Experience. Dr. Finley previously worked at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), based in Washington, DC, where she served as Senior Director of Assessment and Research. Dr. Finley’s work with colleges and universities across the United States has focused on engaging faculty and staff in developing student-centered, sustainable practices that support student learning and success with an emphasis on equity and evidencebased standards for improvement.

In 2013, Dominican initiated a campus planning process to create the Dominican Experience, an educational model designed to provide all students with an education that purposefully integrates high-impact practices (such as service-learning, internships, research, leadership development, global education), with academics and student support services. Dr. Finley will collaborate with Dominican faculty and staff to “ensure that the Dominican Experience is rooted in learning that happens inside and outside the classroom, provides consistent support and reflection, and provides every student with the opportunity to find their passion and to succeed.”

Tammi Jackson (MBA, JD, EdD), joined Dominican as the Vice President for Finance and Administration following a comprehensive search.

Jackson previously held leadership roles at Mills College, where she was vice president of finance and also held several budgeting and finance positions at the University of Maryland, where she was also an alumna. During her tenure at the University of Maryland, Jackson worked during the day and went to the university’s law school at night, earning her Juris Doctorate in 2000 with a concentration in corporate and commercial transactions. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Business Administration from Sacred Heart University, and a Doctorate of Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Jackson has spent more than two decades in finance in higher education and the private sector.

Patrick Woods (MPA, University of Colorado), a non-profit fundraising and management consultant joined Dominican last fall as a Campaign Consultant and was later appointed as the Interim Vice President of Advancement.

Patrick has held leading development roles at the University of San Francisco and Marin Community

NEWS IN BRIEF

News in Brief Foundation, and most recently served as the Vice President for Advancement at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Dominican Selected as a College of Distinction In recognition of outstanding student engagement, quality teaching, a vibrant campus community, and the success of its graduates, Dominican was selected as a College of Distinction for the 2015-2016 academic year. Colleges of Distinction is a college guide focused on colleges where students can best learn, grow, and succeed. The selection process reviews such factors as the school’s first year experience, general education program, experiential components of the curriculum, the strategic plan, and alumni success and satisfaction. Schools are nominated by high school teachers and college counselors.❖

Athletics Program Receives Sixth Consecutive PacWest Academic Achievement Award Dominican Athletics continued their remarkable run with a sixthconsecutive PacWest Academic Achievement Award. The Penguins displayed their prowess in the classroom once again with the highest grade point average in the PacWest of 3.40.❖

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Professor Receives NIH Grant for Breast Cancer Research

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | News in Brief

Rolf Lewis

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Former Dominican Trustee and San Francisco restaurateur, Rolf Lewis, passed away on November 22. He was 91 years old.

His gift of $8.5 million in 2012 was the largest donation in the University’s history at that time. His bequest helped to renovate Meadowlands Hall and create a state-of-the-art health sciences center.

A native of Germany, Rolf lived in Hamburg with his parents until 1937 when they fled the Nazi regime and wound up in Shanghai. A decade later, Rolf arrived in San Francisco “with only hope in his pocket” as he said later.

He worked as a house painter, busboy and dishwasher before opening Rolf’s in 1960, a restaurant on San Francisco’s Beach Street that went on to cater to the likes of Bing Crosby, Kim Novak, Glenn Ford, then-Mayor George Christopher and Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. He said he settled on a career in the restaurant business because he remembered being hungry during the war.

Rolf was introduced to Dominican by his wife, Valerie, a nurse who once cared for the elderly nuns at Our Lady of Lourdes Convent on campus.

As President Marcy has said, “Rolf found in the Dominican community a personal connection, a common set of values, and an opportunity to positively influence future generations.

The University owes a great debt of gratitude for the life and legacy of Rolf Lewis.”❖

Dr. Maggie Louie (center) with Dominican student Hongye Zou and Sabah Francis, a collaborating student from Touro University

Dr. Maggie Louie, associate professor in the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has received a third grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in support of her ongoing research focused on the role environmental contaminants play in breast cancer and new studies examining how oxidative stress impacts the development and progression of breast cancer cells.

Dr. Louie has been studying how environmental contaminants promote cancer progression since joining Dominican’s faculty in 2005 in the School of Health and Natural Sciences. Louie involves both her undergraduate and graduate students in her research. She and her team have received more than $1 million in grants from the NIH to fund their work.❖

Dominican Receives Prestigious Civic Engagement Award Dominican was among five colleges and universities chosen from nearly 100 nominees to receive the 2015 Higher Education Civic Engagement Awards presented by The Washington Center and the New York Life Foundation.

Dominican President Marcy was presented with the award October 5 during The Washington Center’s annual awards luncheon in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club.

The Washington Center, in partnership with the New York Life Foundation, established this award to celebrate institutions that are reaching beyond their own campuses to achieve sustainable civic impact. The award aims to highlight innovation and leadership in forging partnerships beyond the campus to define and address issues of public concern. Recipients were chosen based upon their leadership and innovation in civic engagement.❖

President Marcy Receives North Bay Women in Business Award; Joins CIC Board of Directors President Marcy has been recognized by the North Bay Business Journal with its 15th Annual Women in Business award. The award recipients represent a broad spectrum of professions including education, biotech, law, accounting, banking, and health care. Winners were chosen based on many factors, including leadership roles in the organization, business-related innovations, vision, and community involvement. In addition President Marcy has been elected to the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Board of Directors and will serve a threeyear term from January 2016 to January 2019. CIC is the only national higher education association that focuses solely on providing services and a broad range of initiatives directly to independent colleges and universities to help improve the quality of education and strengthen institutional resources.❖

Two New Undergraduate Scholarships Announced

New NMR Spectrometer Boosts Research Capacity The recent addition of a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer has greatly enhanced the instructional and research capacity of both faculty and students in Dominican’s Chemistry and Biochemistry program.

President Marcy recently announced the creation of two new undergraduate student scholarships. Thanks to Dominican Trustee John Boneparth and his wife, Gail Harris, the generous gift will fund a pair of $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded for undergraduate students continuing in fall 2016. Boneparth is the founder and managing partner of Corinthian Cove Consulting LLD and Harris is a national Emmy Award-winning journalist for public television (PBS) and public radio (NPR). Both are actively involved as mentors in the Barowsky School of Business.❖ Professor Graciela Carranza (right) shows students how new NMR spectrometer operates

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | News in Brief

The 400 MHz spectrometer is the only research-grade NMR in Marin County.

Its addition to Dominican’s $20 million Science Center will allow faculty and students to expand research examining the physical and chemical properties of atoms and the molecules in which they are contained.

Researchers will use the NMR to quantify the hydrogen, carbon, and other atoms present in a given molecule and gain detailed information about the structure, dynamics, and chemical environment of molecules being studied.

Previously, faculty and student researchers had to travel off campus to work at NMRs located outside Marin.

The NMR was donated to Dominican by Intermune, Inc., a small pharmaceutical company recently acquired by Roche, with the assistance of alumnus Chad Schwietert ‘97 and Mario Cortes, a former NMR engineer at Agilent Technologies.❖

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | News in Brief

Commencement 2016

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“At a time when public discourse is waning, the need for colleges and universities to empower students to be civically engaged has never been greater. This project will draw on technology and social media to give young voters a platform to voice their beliefs, become civically engaged, and have a meaningful impact on the political process.”

~ Mary B. Marcy President, Dominican University of California

President Marcy and ASDU President Navi Dhaliwal ’16 at the College Debate 2016 announcement in Caleruega Plaza.

n unprecedented gathering

of college students under the auspices of the Commission on Presidential Debates will convene at Dominican twice this year in an effort to engage young voters and inspire greater turnout.

For the ambitious initiative, known as College Debate 2016, the goal is to identify issues of importance to students that the presidential candidates will address during their debates in the fall.

In addition, organizers hope the gathering will inspire students to return to their home states and spread the word about the importance of civic engagement, including voting.

Dominican is partnering with nonprofits that specialize in civic engagement, as well as some new technology companies, to reach the millennial generation—people between the ages of 18 and 34—on their mobile phones and tablets.

The event intends to address the root causes of college students’ alienation from the political process, including a distaste for the polarization between the political parties, a feeling that their voices aren’t heard, and a feeling that their votes don’t matter.

A Novel Voter Education Project Last year, as the Commission on Presidential Debates geared up for the 2016 elections, it invited college campuses to apply to host.

“Dominican’s application was very impressive,” said Janet Brown, the commission’s executive director. “When Mary said Dominican wanted to do something around the 2016 debates, we batted around a lot of different ideas, and what they’ve come up with is a very exciting and novel approach,” Brown said.

The University teamed up with organizations already working on civic engagement on college campuses, including Campus Compact, Project Pericles, and Democracy Commitment. It also worked to include historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and Hispanic-serving institutions.❖

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Dominican aims to include at least three students from each state, representing a state school, a private school, and a community college in that state. The students will come to campus this summer to develop the tools to organize, register people to vote, network with each other, and come up with ways to solicit opinions from fellow students on their home campuses.

The same students will then return to Dominican in September for the main event, when interest in the presidential campaigns should be at a fever pitch.

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The Dominican Experience In recent years, Dominican has developed an educational model—a fully integrated educational experience—designed to prepare students for lives of purpose. College Debate 2016 fits perfectly within that model, known as the Dominican Experience, particularly in emphasizing the importance of civic engagement.

“At its core, the Dominican Experience is creating the opportunity for students to blend knowledge and the handson practical application of knowledge, inside and outside the classroom, at the University and beyond,” said Ashley Finley, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Dominican Experience.

Three main components of the Dominican Experience: Integrated advising, which assures all students will have access to advising and mentorship to ensure connections are made between the classroom and the outside world.

Electronic portfolios, which will help students to both reflect on their learning inside and outside the classroom and also highlight the products of their work.

Community engagement and signature work, which is the University’s commitment that through service learning, study abroad, internships, common intellectual experiences that emphasize community issues, and other means, all students will have access to community engagement.

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One way the signature work is highlighted is at the annual Scholarly and Creative Works Conference, which takes place in April and another way is through College Debate 2016.

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“The debate is part of the next signature activity, the University Engagement theme,” said Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, Dominican’s Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning. “The idea is that every year, the whole campus—faculty, staff, students and, as much as we can, the community—will be engaged in a theme that happens throughout the whole year. This year, the University Engagement theme is Democracy and Equity.”

The Mellon Foundation last year awarded Dominican a $100,000 grant for the community engagement initiative.

Dominican faculty will incorporate the Democracy and Equity theme into their classes, and naturally, College Debate 2016 will help put a big spotlight on the theme as well.❖

Engagement Through Technology

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he late Tip O’Neill, longtime Speaker of the House of Representatives, famously declared, “All politics is local.” Perhaps if O’Neill could see today’s electoral landscape, he might amend that notion to “All politics is social.”

Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the ubiquity of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other means of connecting, much of the work of modern politics takes place in the realm of social media. And millennials—the generation that includes today’s college students—have more means to communicate with each other and with a wide audience than any generation in history.

“I feel like I get a lot of my news from social media, when I’m scrolling through Facebook or Twitter,” said Jannel Mariano ’16. “It’s so convenient. You’re already on there.”

Mariano and other Dominican students working to promote the event are quick to remind everyone to follow @collegedebate16 on Twitter and Instagram, and to use the hashtag #collegedebate16.

For College Debate 2016, students will be using not only established social networks, but also newer services like TurboVote, Brigade and Vois, which are partnering with Dominican to make sure the message gets the broadest possible reach.

TurboVote is the flagship project of Democracy Works, a nonprofit started

by Seth Flaxman and

Military Xenophobia College costs Economic opportunities Voter rights Quality education for all Wealth gap Politicians School-to-prison pipeline Dreamers Debt K-12 public education system College access Economy/jobs Armed services Federalism Environmental degredation Working poor Paid family leave Resource development Privacy College readiness Elections College affordability Living Wages Drug policy reform Campaign finance reform Equal pay for equal work Senior citizens Relations with Russia Mass incarceration Monetary policy Clean energy Militarization of police departments Citizens United Opportunity inequality Free community college Societal issues National security Prescription drug access & costs LGBTQ rights Corruption Intolerance Discrimination Diversity Quality of life Education achievement gap

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Unity Taxes

A Social Network for Politics Another tech partner for College Debate 2016, Brigade, is a venture capital-backed company from San Francisco with a stellar Silicon Valley pedigree. Its founder, Sean Parker, was the founding president of Facebook, and investors include Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff and angel investor Ron Conway.

Parker also founded Causes, which was one of the first third-party applications on Facebook, and which “very quickly became the world’s largest online campaigning platform,” according to Andrew Noyes, Brigade’s vice president of communications. “Since Causes launched in 2007, it’s been used by 186 million people in 156 countries, raising $48 million for nonprofits, and collecting millions of signatures and hundreds of thousands of online groups,” Noyes said.

Brigade ultimately acquired Causes, as well as Votizen, a political advocacy startup, which created technology that could match an individual’s social media presence to his or her voter profile. Company leaders “wanted to take the experience of learning from Causes and from the consumer internet space and build a new social platform to help people meaningfully engage in democracy,” Noyes said.

“We want to put people back at the center of the political system.”

“Brigade is the world’s first voter network,” he said.

“Fundamentally, we’re building a social network for politics.”

For instance, much like the dating app Tinder lets people make quick and fun decisions by swiping people’s

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Kathryn Peters, who met as graduate students at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Democracy Works is dedicated to making voting easier, citing Census Bureau statistics showing that nearly 60 percent of nonvoters in 2012 missed Election Day not because of apathy, but “because of process issues,” according to Brandon Naylor, Democracy Works’ director of communications.

Only 28 percent of nonvoters cited reasons like “I can’t make a difference,” or “my vote doesn’t matter,” or “I hate all the candidates,” Naylor said.

Instead, most people who don’t vote cite reasons such as lack of time, registration problems, and inconvenient polling places.

Naylor said government needs to make it easier to vote.

“We’re not voting in 1798 any more,” he said. “Election Day does not necessarily need to be on the first Tuesday following the second Monday in November. We have these archaic rules.”

Then voters have to deal with ever-changing rules administered by elections commissioners at the local, county, state and federal levels. “It’s an incredibly large matrix for voters to keep track of,” he said.

While some states are tightening access to the polls by requiring ID and other restrictions, many others are taking steps to make it easier to vote. Naylor said 29 states allow voters to register online, and some allow registration on election day. “We have an election researcher on staff to make sure we’re on top of all election rules changes,” he said.

More than 300,000 people have already signed up for TurboVote, Naylor said.

Islamophobia Bigotry

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photos to the left or right, Brigade allows people to create positions, and then ask friends to vote on them. “It’s a very structured debate,” Noyes said. “The way we built out the system, it allows for a type of dialogue that doesn’t exist elsewhere on the Web. If you are commenting on political or potentially controversial issues on the Web, there may be trolling, or flaming, which is not a healthy debate.

We provide a meaningful and structured debate even if people disagree.”

“Anybody can create a position,” Noyes said. “If students at Dominican have really strong thoughts about anything, whether it’s national, state or local, they can create a position, share it with their friends, put it out across the Net on Facebook and Twitter, and get people engaged with them. As they do, they build influence in the Brigade system.”

Letting people rack up “impact scores” adds to the fun and should keep them engaged.

He thinks the app will be a hit with young people. “A strong percentage of our early adopters are millennials, and a healthy percentage of those are college age,” Noyes said. “We believe strongly in meeting people where they are. Mobile devices are how they connect with their friends and family, and how they receive news. We’re building a fun, friendly app platform for them to engage with each other on issues playing on the campaign trail this season.”

“We believe it is the next generation that’s going to help us reenergize public participation in our democracy,” he said.

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Making Your Vois Heard Dan Hodgeman was a software entrepreneur. Kishore Tipirneni was an orthopedic surgeon with a creative streak.

Together, the two men founded a medical company in the 1990s that was one of the first to figure out a way to help doctors view X-rays online.

When they sold that company, they started thinking about other things they could do. Tipirneni said he recalled his grandfather in India, going to the town square every night after dinner and debating the issues of the day with

other men. Could that town square be reinvented in the virtual space?

After years of development and millions in investment, they have their app, which they call Vois, pronounced “voice” with a nod to the Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, technology that they use.

“Vois allows you to host a large audience,” Hodgeman said. “It’s as if you’re on stage, and you have seats in the auditorium, and the audience is your social network.”

People can listen to the talks, and chime in with questions. A moderator can run a Voispot like a talk radio host. You could set up a Voispot with a set number of participants, or an unlimited audience. A host can record a Voispot, and use it later, as a podcast.

“It’s a live streaming interactive voice conversation app,” Hodgeman said.

At the moment, Vois is audio only—no video, as with Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangouts—and it’s mobile only as well, on iOS and Android, but not on computers.

The audio gives the conversations a linear quality, Hodgeman said. “It can be hard to follow a conversation on Twitter or Facebook, but with Vois, it’s listen, go into the queue, and be called upon by the host.”

Lynn University, in Vois’s hometown of Boca Raton, Florida, hosted a debate between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney in 2012. Hodgeman is a supporter of Lynn, whose president connected him to Dominican.

“Vois could give Dominican a means to gather people —students, delegates—and have open conversations around certain topics through a town hall-type forum,” Hodgeman said. At College Debate 2016, he said, “we can be adjunctive to the social media they already use.”

“It’s a great opportunity for us and for Dominican to have those students be able to come together and have a larger audience,” he said. “They’ll be able to have a town hall-type forum discussion at varying universities, all while driving the message of why students need to vote and understand the issues.”❖

The Youth Vote Challenge

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VOTER TURNOUT AMONG 18-29 YEAR OLD CITIZENS IN PRESIDENTIAL YEARS,

BY EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

According to CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at Tufts University, voting by 18 to 24 year olds peaked in 1972, the first year 18-year-olds had the vote, following ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1971. The Nixon-McGovern election marked the only time that age group topped 50 percent turnout; turnout for those voters topped 48 percent in only two elections since then, when Bill Clinton won his first term in 1992, and when Barack Obama won his first term in 2008.

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ne might think that, suddenly given the right to vote upon reaching age 18, young people would turn out to the polls in droves to exercise their newfound clout.

Yet it turns out the newest generation of voters can be just as jaded at the system as a hardy old-timer.

Even accounting for the tradition dip of a midterm election, in which the presidency is not up for grabs, the 2014 election marked an historic low point for young voters. Only 19.9 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds cast ballots, the lowest youth turnout rate ever recorded in a federal election, according to CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at Tufts University.

In 2012, the most recent presidential campaign, CIRCLE reports that 45 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 turned out, and the figure dipped to 41.2 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds. (Let’s not blame all ills on the young, however: only 36.7 percent of eligible voters showed up at the polls in 2014, while 58.6 percent voted in 2012. That’s a lot of potential voters sitting out the election.)

Many people have theories on why the youngest voters stay away from the polls.

“I think it’s partly due to just laziness, for lack of a better word,” said Josh Rosenberg, a sophomore at Dominican.

“People either think they have better things to do with their lives, or they just don’t think their vote will matter—that if they don’t vote, that’s only one vote out of millions of votes. That has a snowball effect, as the next person thinks their vote won’t count, and then you have half the population not voting.”

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Another possibility is that times and technology have changed, while the general election system has not.

“The challenge for the Commission on Presidential Debates is that millennials do not watch the debates, and they do not vote,” said Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, Dominican’s Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning.

“That means they are not engaged, and the debates are not a way to get them engaged. And the debates are a television show—and television is not what 18 to 34-yearolds use to get information.”

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“We’re the generation who has the means to talk to everyone, on blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter, but we don’t talk about the issues that matter,” ~ said Talia Gonzalez, 20, a junior at Dominican.

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Gonzalez was not particularly political until she took a class with Alison Howard, and now she’s a political science major.

Dominican sent Gonzalez and Rosenberg to Washington, D.C., last spring to participate in a session at the Commission on Presidential Debates, training people from emerging democracies how to establish their own debate systems. “It was just an amazing experience to be in a room with people who have such power and influence on today’s politics,” Rosenberg said.

Rodriguez-Farrar has interns working in her office to harness today’s technology to engage students, especially to attract participants to College Debate 2016. Jannel Mariano and Carly Holbrooke are constantly updating the event’s presence on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

“We have a lot of young people who are interested in the issues, but don’t care about the candidates themselves,” said Mariano, a senior. “Initially I was definitely one of the young adults we are targeting with the College Debate. I was strictly issue-based. I didn’t even register to vote until this year.”

Mariano, 22, is studying public health, and when she had an internship with Marin County Health and Human Services, she saw the connection between politics, government, and the issues that affect people’s lives. “I didn’t realize how much of an impact electoral politics had,” she said. “There were so many things we wanted to do, but none of it was getting passed.”

Her colleagues told her, “Jannel, your generation isn’t doing much!”

“Once I saw what Dominican was doing, I was super interested and wanted to jump on board and see what I could do to help,” she said.

In drilling deeper into the data, CIRCLE and its sister organization, the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE), which is also part of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts, have found that turnout will increase when the young voters are contacted and asked to participate. Getting them registered, making sure they’re informed about how, when and where to vote,

because that’s how to start a groundswell of conversations inspiring people to vote.

“What I hope is that the convention at Dominican will help build more engagement around politics and issues that helps young people to participate in a less episodic way,” said Abby Kiesa, Youth Coordinator and Researcher for CIRCLE. “The event at Dominican is an opportunity to send a message to higher education in general that political learning can be done well and in a nonpartisan way.”

The students working on College Debate are committed to those ideals. “We’re really adamant on being nonpartisan,” Carly Holbrooke said. “What really matters is that you care, whether your issue is education, or abortion, or anything else. We’re the largest voting generation out there right now. We can make such an impact.”❖

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and having voter registration laws that make it easy to register are all factors as well.

In addition, IDHE Director Nancy Thomas said campuses that have higher voter engagement tend to be those that encourage political discussions.

“One big finding has to do with political discourse —in the classrooms, in co-curricular programming, in hallways, in the community,” Thomas said. “It’s the one thing that’s common to every single campus with a high level of voting: These political conversations happen often.

They are carefully designed. They are not uncomfortable conversations because people are facilitating them who know how to have a good dialogue. There is a degree of civility without chilling speech. They deal with conflict without turning people off to the political process.”

Events like College Debate 2016 may also help,

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ADVANCING DOMINICAN The Benefit of Planning Today Of the many ways to leave a lasting legacy for Dominican, why not choose Dominican as a charitable beneficiary of an IRA or other retirement plan?

Many people do not realize that retirement plans left to heirs are subject to income tax, and for some donors, may also be eroded by gift taxes and federal and state estate taxes.

By making a provision in your will, your heirs can receive other assets not subject to income tax, and the amount left to charity in a retirement plan may be deductible from your estate.

With some simple planning your charitable desires can be fulfilled and those you care about can receive more after tax than might otherwise have been the case.❖ FOR INFORMATION, CONTACT RON STREITZ

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Advancing Dominican

IN OUR GIFT PLANNING OFFICE AT

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415-257-1333 OR RONALD.STREITZ@DOMINICAN.EDU

How Do You Sustain Lifelong Values?

Ask Jeanne Gadbois ’55

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ince graduating from Dominican in 1955, Jeanne Gadbois has never stopped “finding the good in people.” She credits this to a Dominican experience during which she learned lasting values.

After graduation, Jeanne enrolled in graduate courses at USC toward a degree in social work, and subsequently went to work for Catholic Welfare Services. Later, she served as a volunteer on the board of Rosemary Cottage in Pasadena. As a volunteer with St. Anne’s Home in Los Angeles she fostered twelve unwed mothers, while also raising her five sons.

Jeanne’s lifelong commitment to programs that empower young people has continued despite any hurdles in

her own life. She says she has never felt so honored as when one of the girls she fostered phoned her and told her that she was opening a facility in Arizona to help unwed mothers and will call it “Jeanne’s House.”

Enjoying time with her family is uppermost on her list of priorities these days, but Jeanne has still found a way to continue her commitment to the causes she cares most about.

By naming Dominican as a charitable beneficiary of her IRA, Jeanne will establish a legacy that honors her lifelong values and ensures support for students for many years to come.

She says she treasures her memories of time on campus and the friends she made, and wants “to be sure that others have the same or better opportunities that I had.”❖

President Marcy with Barney Mizel at his 80th birthday party.

Sr. Patricia Dougherty, Darla Flanagan, MacKenzie Flanagan, and Dr. Cynthia Taylor.

Barney Mizel Birthday Donors Honor Faculty Member Through Scholarship Celebration Supports arin native Mackenzie Flanagan graduated from Dominican in May with honors from the history department. She also had a great experience Dominican as a member of the Penguin tennis team. Now she and her parents,

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riends and family of Dominican donors Barney and Ann Mizel, gathered at the Silverado Resort in Napa last December to celebrate Barney’s 80th birthday.

More than $25,000 was raised for Dominican in Barney’s honor.❖

Our Honor Roll of Donors is now online!

PLEASE VISIT DOMINICAN.EDU/HONORROLL

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Advancing Dominican

Darla and Patrick Flanagan, are showing their gratitude by establishing a scholarship and a new faculty development fund.

The Cynthia Taylor Faculty Development Fund honors one of Mackenzie’s mentors; Dr. Cynthia Taylor, along with Sr. Patricia Dougherty, was instrumental in Mackenzie’s decision to major in history. Taylor is renowned on campus for her passion to keep learning and growing. “Cynthia actively pursues a continuum of learning experiences that deepen her teaching and directly engage her students,” says Dr. Mojgan Behmand, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. “The faculty development fund in her honor encourages the best of Dominican teaching.”

The Flanagans’ gift will pay for the type of faculty learning experiences that enrich student learning over the next several years.

In addition, the Flanagans, through their family foundation, established a scholarship for expanded recruitment of the women’s tennis team in the 2016– 2020 academic years.

The Flanagan Family Tennis Scholarship has already had an immediate impact on the program by helping the Penguins recruit Brooke Briseno, a competitive Division I transfer student, according to Amy Henkelman, acting Director of Athletics. Henkelman says the scholarship will also have a ripple effect, enabling Dominican to retain and recruit more competitive tennis student-athletes.

The Flanagans’ gifts demonstrate their commitment not only to the education of their three daughters, but also to helping pass that good fortune on to others. The Flanagans have always stressed the importance of supporting the institutions their daughters attend. “Dominican,” Darla says, “provided a nurturing but challenging environment where Mackenzie could develop confidence in her ability to achieve success.”❖

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CAMPUS VIEW CAMPUS VIEW

Faculty Spotlight “I’ve become convinced that emotional engagement is one of the most important facets of student learning and performance.” ~ Dan Moshavi

Business Professor Merges Workplace Research in Class

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r. Dan Moshavi is mad about his organizational behavior research at Dominican, and that’s a good thing for his students.

Moshavi, recipient of the Barowsky School of Business Outstanding Teacher Award in 2015, specializes in this area of management, which deals with the complexity of human behavior in organizations and the roles that leaders, managers, and employees play in influencing that behavior.

His particular interest in attitudes and emotions in the workplace is regularly incorporated into the classroom.

“I’ve become convinced that emotional engagement is one of the most important facets of student learning and performance,” Moshavi says.

Moshavi knows what he is talking about. He has presented his organizational behavior-related research in a TED Talk, plus more than 15 publications and 40 conference presentations. He has wrapped his hands-on, engaged learning techniques into valuable lessons for students dealing with the ambiguous nature of the business world.

“I believe that engaged experiences that focus on attitudinal and emotional awareness nurture capabilities that can lead to new solutions and opportunities for action,” Moshavi says. “Students learn to become more flexible and embrace surprise, allowing them to cope with the unpredictable—clearly valuable skills for today’s managers.”

For example, after a recent class, Moshavi introduced a typical change-related work issue first-hand to his students.

Following an exam, Moshavi purposely walked into the next class acting distressed and upset, and scolded students for

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their test scores. He told the students they shared a mutual responsibility for the poor performance and that he was throwing out the syllabus and completely rethinking the structure of the class.

In actuality, Moshavi was creating a cause-and-effect lesson that supports his research. After his rant, he told the truth (that their exam performance was fine) and explained his intention.

“We did this little exercise so they could better understand what radical change feels like. After all, blowing up the structure of the class mid-semester feels pretty extreme to a student. However, every day in organizations, radical changes are made because firms or groups or individuals are underperforming,” Moshavi says. “It was a rich and powerful discussion about change and emotion because their own emotions were front and center.”

Some of Moshavi’s most recent research focuses on attitudes and emotions in the physician-patient relationship.

He believes that managing employee emotions is one of the most important things to consider when initiating any kind of organizational change.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty among employees and therefore a lot of emotion, including anger, fear, anxiety and frustration,” Moshavi says. “We tend to think about emotions as either positive or negative, but in fact, emotions are quite complex. Anger is a great example.

Most of us conceive of anger as a negative emotion, but it has some significant upsides. There’s solid evidence which suggests it can increase optimism, enhance creativity, and make people more willing to accept risk.”❖

Unique “Cave Animal" Research Focuses on Eye Degeneration

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Asellus aquaticus is unique in that one species has two forms. The surface form has pigment and eyes; the cave form is unpigmented and does not have eyes. Protas and her Dominican students are investigating the genetics and developmental biology behind these morphological differences in order to understand how and why these characteristics evolved, and how certain cave-related traits are gained and lost.

“Cave animals are one group with immense potential to address the mechanisms of evolutionary change,” Protas said. “Similar morphological alterations, such as enhancement of sensory systems and the loss of eyes and pigmentation, have evolved multiple times in many different species.”

The cave animals are bred and maintained in Protas’ Dominican lab, living off dead and decaying leaves and stored in incubators kept at 12 degrees Celsius. Master’s student Hafasa Mojaddidi is assisting studying the animal’s embryos—comparing the embryos of the surface animals and the cave animals in order to determine when genetic changes occur.

Protas is also working on studies with a collaborator in Slovenia on research that examines different cave populations, asking whether the same or different genetic changes are responsible for similar characteristics, like eye and pigment loss. Earlier research conducted by Protas has supported the prediction that significant morphological change can be mediated through one or a few genes.❖

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Campus View

r. Meredith Protas’ research at Dominican University of California, examining the genetic basis of eye and pigment loss in cave-dwelling crustaceans, could eventually provide important insight into eye degeneration in humans.

Protas is one of only a few researchers nationwide focusing on the genetic basis of eye and pigmentation differences in the isopod cave crustacean, Asellus aquaticus. Collected from Slovenia, the crustacean has both surface dwelling and cave dwelling populations with extreme morphological differences in eye size, pigmentation, and appendage length. Her goal is to investigate the genetics and developmental biology behind these morphological differences, and to understand how and why these characteristics evolved.

Protas, who joined Dominican’s Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in 2014, began studying the invertebrate Asellus aquaticus as a postdoctural student at UC Berkeley. She received her doctorate in genetics from Harvard Medical School, where she studied the genetic basis of morphological evolution in the vertebrate cavefish, and while doing so “became hooked on studying cave animals."

“Most people who study cave biology in a genetic manner study the species of cave fish I was working on in graduate school. I wanted to develop another system to study the genetic basis of cave characteristics, so I picked this unique species from Slovenia.”

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Nursing Professor’s Research Focuses on Military Veterans

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Campus View

hortly after receiving her PhD in nursing from Yale University, where her dissertation research focused on the link between sleep disturbances and falls among military veterans who have experienced strokes, Dr. Nancy Knechel found herself drawn to teaching and continuing her research at Dominican for many of the same reasons that appeal to undergraduates seeking their perfect college.

“I was interested in staying in a small private university where I could develop a more meaningful rapport, and provide higher quality teaching and mentorship to nursing students than I would be able to provide at a larger university,” says Knechel, who joined the faculty in Dominican’s Department of Nursing in the School of Health and Natural Sciences this fall. “I also really appreciate the diversity at Dominican. Not to mention, Dominican is a beautiful and peaceful campus, yet close to all the activities of a big city.”

Knechel, an assistant professor in the nursing department, plans to involve her students in her ongoing

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“I was interested in staying in a small private university where I could develop a more meaningful rapport, and provide higher quality teaching and mentorship to nursing students than I would be able to provide at a larger university.” ~ Nancy Knechel, PhD

research. Her long-term goal is to develop interventions aimed at reducing the risk of injury to older adults. With falls being a major public health problem, fall prevention is the focus of many local, state, and national policy initiatives.

Last month Knechel was invited to present her dissertation research as a Bloomberg Scholar at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing Emerging Nurse Scholars Forum in Toronto. The forum is an invitation-only program in which developing nursing scholars present their doctoral/postdoctoral research to an international audience of peers and faculty. She also was elected as the one presenter to be highlighted in the Forum’s Pulse Magazine.

Knechel earned her bachelor of science in biology from California State University, Chico; her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Maryland, Baltimore; and her masters of science in nursing – adult acute care NP from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.❖

Faculty & Staff Accomplishments Professor Marianne Rogoff’s new book has just been published by Shebooks. Love Is Blind in One Eye: 7 Stories is available in ebook and print versions.

2016 Staff Award Winners Leona GeorgeDavidson received the Kathryn McGovern Award for Community Service. Amy Gladstone received the Sister George de Lorimier Award for Service.

Dr. Andrea Boyle has been named a Distinguished Practitioner & Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP).

Membership in the NAP is an honor extended to those who have excelled in their profession and are dedicated

Christina Mayes has been named the University’s E-Portfolio Specialist. In this role she will be rolling out the use of e-portfolios as innovative tools for Dominican students to reflect on their learning experiences as they progress through their academic careers.

Collegiate Advertising has awarded Dominican’s marketing department with a Gold award for their design of the Dominican calendar created for the Office of Advancement and designed by Shelley Hunter, Sr. Graphic Designer.

Lu Sweeney recently achieved status as a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE) based upon her continued commitment and advocacy for excellence in simulation education.

Dr. Luanne Linnard-Palmer was named an Excellence in Education Award winner by the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Laura Stivers has two new books out: Earth Ethics: A Case Method Approach which focuses on cases that explore issues related to the environment; and, Disrupting Homelessness: From Charity to Community.

Rosemarie Michaels presented her research at the World Association of Lesson Studies International Conference in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

The title of her presentation was “Incorporating Lesson Study into Teacher Education: Collaboratively Linking Theory to Practice in Teaching English Language Learners.”

Dr. Randall Hall is the co-author of “Sign Learning Kink-based (SiLK) Quantum Monte Carlo for molecular systems,” recently published in the Journal of Chemical Physics.

Wolfgang Schweigkofler recently gave a talk at the 62nd Annual Conference of Soilborne Plant Pathogens.

In addition, he spoke at the Northern California Botanists Symposium on invasive plant pathogens. Wolfgang also coauthored a report on plant pathogens of apple trees.

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Campus View

Dr. Roland Cooper was awarded a travel grant from Berkeley’s Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases and will use it to help support summer 2016 malaria projects in Uganda. In addition, Dr. Cooper and his collaborator at UCSF secured a contract with the Medicines for Malaria Venture for screening the latest antimalarial drugs in development against parasite isolates. Two Dominican students, Frida Ceja and Stephanie Rasmussen, will be joining Dr. Cooper to work on these projects.

to furthering practice, scholarship and policy in support of interprofessional care.

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STUDENT SCENE

Graduating Penguin Profiles NBC Spotlights LINES Ballet BFA in Dance Student

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inning a coveted Princess Grace Foundation (PGF) Award in 2015 was a blessing for LINES Ballet BFA in Dance student Lani Dickinson ’16, because she won it on merit. The award is validation for 13 years of hard dance training that began at the age of eight when Lani, born in China as a left arm amputee, developed scoliosis and was led to ballet by her mother to combat Lani’s warped spine. She takes comfort knowing dance has helped her overcome adversity and numerous surgeries, and has led her to new heights in the field through Dominican's BFA in Dance program. © Lani Dickensen

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“I’ve gained more leadership and confidence in what I’m doing,” says Lani, whose remarkable story was featured in an NBC Bay Area newscast on December 11. “I’m pretty stoked about that.”

Lani, who is from Massachusetts, is the third LINES Ballet BFA in Dance student to receive a PGF award. She follows Jeffrey Van Sciver, now a member of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Katie Scherman, who graduated from the University of Oregon with her Masters of Fine Arts in Dance last June.

“The Princess Grace Foundation scholarship is the most prestigious dance scholarship in the country,” says Marina Hotchkiss, Director of the LINES Ballet BFA in Dance program in the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Dominican. “They are looking for young artists who will have an impact on the future of the art form.

As a differently abled dancer, Lani pushes choreographers to think differently and audiences to see differently. I am so

excited to see her career blossom from this moment.”

It was while attending Idyllwild Performing Arts School in California as a high school junior that Lani was first approached by Marina. Lani was drawn to Dominican by potential dance workshop opportunities in San Francisco and by the beauty, intimacy and close-knit feel the Dominican campus offered. She has developed close relationships with faculty, particularly her adviser, Gay Lynch.

Lani also is tight with and well respected by her fellow BFA in Dance students.

“When we first started with Lani, we were all blown away,” says BFA in Dance senior Rebecca Lillich.

“Watching her take barre is a humbling experience since half the time she doesn't even use it. She is physically, mentally and emotionally one of the strongest people I know and while some see her missing arm as a disability, it's given her more strength and story throughout her life than any of us.”❖

“I was always interested in other people’s culture and at the same time I have a longing to help people grow from the position that they are in.” ~ Tegist Worku

Tegist Worku ’17 and Dr. John Duke Anthony, Founder NCUSAR

Political Science Student on the Right Course to Be a Diplomat

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egist Worku ’17 received a Paul Findley Fellowship while interning in Washington D.C. at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) last summer.

Recently she was a Dominican Semester Abroad student in Greece and she has her eyes set on applying for a two-year internship with the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Program. was a student in Gokcek’s Politics of the Middle East class during the 2015 spring semester.

“It was clear to me that she had a sincere desire to know everything about the political systems of other countries. Every day she sat in the front of class asking poignant questions about political culture, non-democratic governments, societies, and economies of the countries we covered,” Gokcek says. “She is quite serious in her desire to build bridges between different cultures and ethnicities.

She wants to become a global citizen and a career diplomat who can play a vital role in changing people’s perceptions of those who are foreign.”

In Washington, D.C., the National Council on U.S.Arab Relations placed Tegist in the Syrian American Medical Society where she conducted research as well as updated facts and figures related to the conflict in Syria.

The internship also consisted of biweekly seminars from professionals within the Foreign Service and foreign policy sector along with site visits to places such the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Islamic Center, Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Embassies and the State Department.❖

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Student Scene

“I was always interested in other people’s culture and at the same time I have a longing to help people grow from the position that they are in,” says Tegist, who emigrated from Ethiopia when she was seven years old.

Tegist, who is also studying for a minor in business administration, joined the Black Student Union, Campus Ministry, Global Ambassadors and the Debate Team at Dominican.

“The teachers at Dominican are very welcoming and they encourage you to be involved,” says Tegist, who is now president of the BSU Club.

Last year Alison Howard, Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Studies, shared the opportunity to intern in Washington, D.C. for 10 weeks at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations with her students. Tegist took the opportunity to apply for the competitive internship that led to an extraordinary life and learning experience.

Gigi Gokcek, Associate Professor in the Deptartment of Political Science and International Studies, wrote a letter of recommendation for the NCUSAR internship for Tegist, who

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Business Student Busy Giving to All Things Dominican

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Student Scene

essy Marshall ’16, a senior business administration major in the Barowsky School of Business, is intertwined with everything Dominican on campus and off. She has taken advantage of opportunities and challenges to engage faculty and staff, as well as classmates and teammates. She has passed on her passion for helping and leading to leave her mark in many ways in the spirit of giving.

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“I definitely grew here at Dominican,” says Jessy, who is pursuing a minor in leadership. “I wanted to make a difference in others’ lives and give and give and give.”

Recruited to play basketball at Dominican, Jessy has developed into a leader on and off the court while being selected multiple times to the Pacific West Conference AllAcademic Team and helping the Penguins win the Pac West Academic Achievement Award for the sixth consecutive year. She has been a member of the Penguin Student Athlete Advisory Committee (PSAAC) for four years and has attended conferences from Florida to Hawaii. During her sophomore year, Jessy represented the PacWest Conference at the NCAA Division II Identity Workshop in West Palm Beach. As a junior, she was selected as social media director for the PacWest Conference Student Athlete Advisory Committee and in 2015 was voted its president.

Currently Jessy is a captain on the Penguins women’s basketball team and in December was one of 257 studentathletes nationwide to be nominated for the Allstate Good Works Team, an award recognizing a select group committed to making a difference in their communities.

A profile of her appears on Page 67 of the NCAA Division II 2015 Annual Yearbook.

However, Jessy’s impact on Dominican transcends sports. Since her freshmen year, she has been a leadership host/ambassador for the Institute for Leadership Studies (ILS) in the Barowsky School. Last year, Jessy participated

in the ILS’ summer LeaderShape Institute on campus and this year, as ILS’ student social media director, she helped start a peer mentor program.

Jessy also worked for the English Language Services (ELS) program through the Global Education Office (GEO) at Dominican, leading tours for new foreign students and tutoring them in English. In addition, she works as a marketing assistant in the marketing department at Dominican, and as a retail clerk at the campus bookstore.

For the second year in a row, she is a resident assistant in Dominican’s dormitories.

Jessy embraces and embodies the Dominican values of study, community, reflection and service.

“Everything I have done at Dominican has been for a reason, whether it was for a financial benefit or something that is going to make me a better leader and prepare me for my future,” she says.

Jessy’s goal is to pursue a career in organizational development in all four sectors: corporate, nonprofit, government, and education. Her activities and interactions at Dominican are prepping her to transition from a student leader on campus to a transitional leader after graduation.

“Everyone I have met has made this experience rewarding for me. Everyone I have met has impacted me so positively. Everyone’s such a bright light,” Jessy says.

“There are so many unique people who come to Dominican.”❖

Gilman Scholar Studies in United Arab Emirates

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“I went there representing the United States with a goal of working globally to have a bigger impact,” Josef said before leaving.

Josef’s career path at Dominican has been leading him on a pre-med course. He has participated in the Kaiser Permanente Scholars and Mentors program, presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and, last summer, Randall Hall, chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, recommended Josef serve an internship in a National Science Foundation sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where Josef worked with a team to

advance algorithmic investigations by researching particle pathways, which predict how different molecules will behave and interact.

“Josef has great intellectual curiosity and finds something of interest in almost anything,” Hall says. “His questions demonstrate an excellent ability to synthesize information from different sources. Combining this with his top-notch technical abilities in math, biology, and chemistry has made him the type of student that can have his choice of professions. I think, for example, that he could go to grad school in theoretical chemistry just as easily as he could go to medical school.”❖

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Student Scene

osef Baylis ’16 aims to attend medical school, yet as a Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship recipient he traveled the world first. With a Gilman International Scholarship through the U.S. Department of State, the senior biochemistry major studied language and culture in the United Arab Emirates, cultural capital of the Arabic world. He fulfilled a dream to study abroad, but also a burning desire to meet and learn from different people in foreign countries.

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Dominican Scholars Share University of Oxford’s Experience

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Student Scene

or Dominican Scholars Kylie Walsh ’16, Donovan Hernandez ’16, and Alex Pollok ’17, the opportunity to study at Oxford University last semester was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to grow academically, intellectually, and spiritually.

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“I would have to describe my experience as magical.

Every day at Oxford was a new adventure,” says Kylie, an English major who studied Irish novelist James Joyce and Victorian literature at Oxford. “I was given the opportunity to travel across the world and learn so much, especially about myself. It's renewed my confidence and has refocused my goals. The entire experience was just so intense and wonderful.”

The students were afforded the privilege of attending Oxford for a semester as part of a new agreement between Dominican and St. Catherine’s College, one of the University of Oxford’s 44 autonomous colleges and permanent private halls.

The program was launched by a gift from Marin residents Thomas and Joanne Peterson in support of The Thomas and Joanne Peterson Endowed Scholarship for Dominican Scholars at Oxford.

Alex, Kylie, and Donovan were all impressed and challenged by the unique and highly personalized tutorial method of instruction at Oxford and discussions that followed.

“I got so much out of the experience academically and it made me remember why I love learning so much.” Kylie explains.

The Dominican Scholars did manage to find time to

explore and embrace the history and tradition of Oxford.

They shared their experiences with peers and the diverse international student population.

At Oxford, Donovan, Kylie, and Alex were all engaged in the Oxford ideal of learning. For example, Kylie reveled in sharing perspectives with fellow students and Donovan was amazed to experience Oxford as “an equal rather than a foreigner.” Alex spent an inordinate amount of time doing research in libraries on and off campus as he was required to write a 3,000 word paper every week, sometimes twice a week.

“Being able to go to these old libraries and take in all of this knowledge and then discuss and argue the finer details as well as the broader points with someone who has dedicated their entire area of study around this topic was such a real treat.” Alex says.

At Oxford, Alex studied the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the history of ancient Rome. Kylie focused on creative writing and modern short stories. Donovan explored ancient Greek art and archaeology and anthropological and sociological studies.

Another Dominican Scholar, Victor Chan ’17 in the School of Health and Natural Sciences, is currently studying organic and biological chemistry at Oxford during the spring semester.❖

Service-Learning Class Inspires Student to Form Music Club

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hen Julia Sayavong ’18 enrolled in a Service-Learning Advanced Writing and Research class as a freshman, it opened her eyes to new ways to pursue career goals.

“My Service-Learning class really changed the way I view education,” says Julia, a sophomore liberal studies major in the Department of Education in the School of Education and Counseling Psychology who aspires to be an elementary school teacher. “With our instructor, Caroline Hanssen, we talked about flaws and social injustice in the education system, but it inspired me to become a teacher even more. I want to do something about it. I want to do something good.”

The desire to act is evident in Julia’s role at Venetia Valley School in San Rafael. In 2014 through her ServiceLearning class, she worked as a teaching assistant and had such a positive experience with the students that she returned this fall as a Service-Learning Program Leader

to devote more hours. Julia, who plays the piano, guitar, ukulele and cow bell, decided to share her love of music with students at Venetia Valley. She established a music club; her students are in the process of producing a music video on bullying.

Julia’s goal is for students to express their voices through music.

“Music is a great way to inform people or promote change so I asked them,‘what are some things you want to change?’” she explains. “I want them to be more confident and make something that they are proud of so they can feel a sense of accomplishment and feel like each one of them can bring an idea to life.”❖

“My Service-Learning class really changed the way I view education; it inspired me to become a teacher.” ~ Julia Sayavong

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Student Scene

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ATHLETICS DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA

PENGUINS department of athletics

Dominican Student-Athletes Earn Regional and National Honors

By Brandon Davis ’06

Dominican Athletics finished 2014–15 strong with a sixth consecutive PacWest Academic Achievement Award, the conference’s Make-A-Wish Award, and named a Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award Winner. In 2015–16, Dominican’s student-athletes were making quite a name for themselves, not only in the community but also in the West Region and on the national stage.

At the end of 2015, junior volleyball player Amanda Lee was named PacWest Libero of the Year and to the D2CCA Division II Women’s Volleyball All-West Region Second Team. She finished the 2015 season ranked 18th in the nation in digs per set (5.86) to set the single-season program mark in the DII era and become the first Dominican player to win PacWest Libero of the Year. She had five matches with at least 30 digs, including a program record 39 in a five-set win over Cal State Dominguez Hills. She is already the program’s all-time career leader in the DII era in reception percentage, digs, digs per set, and third in service aces.

Sophomore teammate Aimee Steinwand was named to the All-PacWest Second Team as an outside hitter. The Colorado Springs, Colorado native set the single-season mark in the DII era with 4.06 kills per set, which was fourth best in the PacWest. She also averaged 4.81 points per set, which set another single-season mark in the DII era for the program.

Senior women’s basketball player Allyssa Weatherd was named to the D2CCA All-West Region Second Team and All-PacWest First Team. She was named USBWA Women’s Division II National Player of the Week, Feb. 2 and PacWest Player of the Week for Jan. 25–31. Weatherd became the first Dominican women’s basketball player in the DII era to score 1,000 points with a 20-point first half in the first round of the PacWest Championships First Round versus HPU. She went on to tally career-highs of 37 points and 14 rebounds versus HPU. Her 37 points set PacWest Championships and Dominican program single-game scoring records and garnered her HERO of the Week honors from HERO Sports News. She was also named to the PacWest Championships All-Tournament Team. She finishes her career as Dominican’s all-time leader in the Division II era in points (1,038), scoring average (18.9 ppg), field goal percentage (56.7 percent), free throws made (325) and attempted (480), rebounding average (7.3 rpg), and minutes average (34.7 mpg). This season she set program single-season records for points scored (575), scoring average (19.8 ppg), field goals made (197), free throws made and attempted, minutes (1039), and minutes average (35.8 mpg).

Sophomore teammate Sandra Ikeora was named to the All-PacWest Second Team.

Senior men’s basketball players Matt Hayes and Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten were named to the 2015–16 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District™ Men’s Basketball Team. The honor recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. Both players reached 1,000 career points this season. Schwartz-Edmisten was named to the AllPacWest Third Team and Hayes earned All-PacWest Honorable Mention.

Josh Ramirez also earned All-PacWest Men’s Basketball Honorable Mention. The Chino, California native averaged 14.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

Junior softball player Catlyn Cavender was named to the 2016 PacWest Preseason All-Conference Softball Team at second base. Cavender was a 2014 All-PacWest Second Team selection at second base and NFCA Division II All-America Scholar-Athlete.

Sophomore cross country runner Anthony Sassano was appointed to the NCAA Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), following the NCAA Convention in January. He begins his term immediately and will serve through January 2019.

Like Dominican University of California Athletics on Facebook.

Follow the Penguins on Twitter and Instagram at @dominicansports.

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Alumni Honored During Warriors Night

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uring halftime at a recent men's basketball game, Chris DeMarco ’09, MBA ’11 was honored as part of Warriors Night. The former Penguin All-American served as an advance scout during the Golden State Warrior's championship run in 2014–15.

How did a kid from Wisconsin who played basketball at Dominican end up with an NBA ring? In his first season with the team (2012–13), the Warriors earned their first playoff appearance.

That success translated into a full-time job for DeMarco as a video coordinator in 2013–14 and this season he worked as an advance scout for head coach Steve Kerr's staff.

DeMarco may even go down in Warriors lore for being there during a

crucial moment of decision-making.

After the Warriors fell behind 2-1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, DeMarco went to dinner with Assistant Coach Luke Walton, Special Assistant to the Head Coach and Manager of Advance Scouting Nick U’Ren. U’Ren suggested that the Warriors go small so Walton texted the suggestion at 3:00 a.m. to Kerr. The suggestion was heeded and the rest is history.

For DeMarco, a successful high school basketball and football career landed him at Edgewood College, a NCAA Div. III program in Madison, Wisconsin. After his junior year though, DeMarco decided he needed a change and discovered Dominican, which was coming off a first-place finish in the California Pacific Conference.

“San Rafael and the Bay Area, Dominicans' International Business 4+1 program, and the successful basketball program all attracted me,” says DeMarco. “My collegiate basketball experience taught me how to work with others and work within a team. Some of my Dominican teammates are my best friends to this day.”

As a power forward, DeMarco led Dominican to another winning season in 2008–09. His parents, Patti and Sal, flew out nearly every home game to watch as their son averaged a team-high 14.93 points per game on .544 shooting. He started all 29 games and led the CalPac with 9.62 rebounds per game, which was nearly a pair higher than any other player in the conference and 16th best in the nation. For his efforts, DeMarco garnered NAIA Div. II All-America Honorable Mention and was named Cal Pac Newcomer of the Year.

Dominican transitioned to NCAA Division II the next season while DeMarco graduated and wrapped up his MBA. He reconnected with former Edgewood teammate John Fahey, who had moved to the Bay Area to become the Warriors’ assistant video coordinator. Fahey got in touch with DeMarco when another opportunity within the Warriors organization became available. Being involved with the highest level of the game has provided invaluable experience to DeMarco and given him the opportunity of a lifetime that most people dream about.❖

Balancing Basketball and Chemistry: It’s All in the Teamwork

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Division II Academic All-District first team. Recently, Matt became the alltime leading scorer and also scored his 1,000th point for the Penguins in

his four-year career.

Academically, Matt is eyeing medical school. He had a rare opportunity as a sophomore to earn selection into Kaiser Permanente’s Scholars and Mentors Program. That allowed him to shadow doctors and

observe their interactions with patients and inspired him to pursue a career in medicine.

Along the way, Matt has been impressed by the support he has received from his professors in the School of Health and Natural Sciences for his work in the classroom and his coaches for his play on the basketball court.

“I’ve shared a lot of experiences I would not have shared at a bigger school, especially with the teachers,” he says.

After graduation in May, Matt will study for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). He is interested in sports medicine and aims to be a physician or a physicians assistant.❖

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Athletics

s a chemistry major at Dominican and a star on its men’s basketball team, Matt Hayes ’16 believes in the power of teamwork.

“In chemistry we work in groups and learn how to do lab projects together. There is definitely a team effort on both sides,” the 6-foot-2, 200-pound senior co-captain says. “At Dominican, I’ve learned the importance of teamwork, communication and how to represent yourself in a positive manner.”

Matt has represented Dominican extraordinarily. He is a threetime member of the Pacific West Conference All-Academic team who has twice been named PacWest Player of the Week. Last year he was named CoSIDA Capital One NCAA

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ALUMNI NEWS Dear Friends, This year we are in the midst of celebrating our 125th anniversary by honoring the Dominican values of community, service, study, and reflection in unique and exciting ways. Two programs that are particularly popular with alumni are College Debate 2016 (see story on page 8) and the quarterly alumni networking events.

Dominican is a Voter Education Partner of the Commission on Presidential Debates and will host College Debate 2016. College students from across the U.S. will convene at Dominican over the summer and again in the fall and will present to the U.S. presidential candidates issues that are forefront on the minds of college students. We are planning alumni events around this initiative.

Our quarterly networking events have expanded to include Marin and Sonoma. We have some great venues lined up for the fall. These networking events are especially crucial in getting together a professional network to provide mentorship and internship opportunities for graduating seniors.

It was good to see many of you at Reunion in April. I hope you enjoyed reconnecting with your classmates and celebrating your Dominican experience.

As I end my term as Alumni Board President, I am pleased to introduce you to incoming Alumni Board President, Mike Davis MBA ’02. As you can see from the article on the next page, Mike is already a leader on the Alumni Board and is spearheading efforts to build an alumni-student mentoring program.

Regards,

Melroy S. Atkins President Alumni Association

CALENDAR SEPTEMBER 9–10

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 10:00 AM

College Debate 2016 Viewing Party for Alumni More details to come.

28th Annual Dominican Golf Classic The Meadow Club, Fairfax

Stay tuned for our full fall 2016 calendar of networking events, holiday gatherings, career webinars and cultural events.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ALUMNI EVENTS: Visit dominican.edu/alumni, or contact Claire Schwartz, Alumni Communications Manager at 415-482-1948 or claire.schwartz@dominican.edu

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10 Ways Alumni Can Support Dominican 1. Mentor a current student.

2. Support athletics— join the Penguin Booster Club.

3. Cheer on the Dominican Penguins.

4. Hire a student intern at your business.

5. Take a continuing education course.

6. Remember Dominican in your will.

Mentor Mike Davis MBA ’02 and mentee Bret Alan Johnson MBA ’12 at Charles Schwab networking event.

Alumni Mentoring

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8. Visit campus and say hello to a professor who touched your life.

9. Sign your child up for a summer camp.

10. Host a foreign student for a holiday dinner.

Refer-A-Student Do you know a student who would be a good fit for Dominican?

Call our Admissions Office at 1-888-323-6763 and let us know.

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

id you have a mentor when you were a college student? Did someone mentor you when you were new in your career field?

At Dominican, mentorship is one of the foundations of the Dominican Experience. This year, first-year students were paired with a peer mentor to help them navigate the transition to college. During their junior year, these students will be paired with alumni or community mentors to expand their career and professional development.

Several members of the Dominican University Alumni Board of Directors are already mentoring juniors and seniors as part of a pilot program. One of these mentors is Mike Davis MBA ’02, the incoming Alumni Association President.

Mike is a lifelong advocate of the value of mentoring and is currently mentoring several students. “Mentoring offers alumni the opportunity to serve as a both a role model and as a sounding board for students,” Mike says. Mike is currently working with two students on interview and job-search skills. Mike notes that mentoring does not only benefit the mentee. “One of the biggest rewards is the mutual benefit of sharing our experiences and learning from each other.”

One of Mike’s mentees, recent alumnus Bret Alan Johnson MBA ’12, said that mentoring has “helped me navigate my desired career path and stay connected with my school." Along with countless other recent graduates, the world of résumés, career tracks, and job search skills is daunting. In the coming years, Dominican alumni will have the rewarding opportunity to help students navigate this new terrain through mentoring. As Mike says, “Even the most subtle guidance can alter the trajectory of a student's academic and professional career.”❖

7. Become an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute member.

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Reunion Weekend 2016

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ach year we welcome hundreds of alumni back to campus to re-engage with Dominican, connect with classmates, and celebrate the strength of the Dominican spirit. This year, as Dominican continues to celebrate its 125th anniversary, we were especially pleased to recognize those classes celebrating their 50th class reunions. Last year, the class of 1965 celebrated their 50 years with a robust turnout and inspired storytelling (see photo). This year we welcomed the class of 1966 into the Golden Circle with a special dinner on Friday night.

On Saturday, President Marcy hosted the Alumni

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

Class of 1965

Class of 1966

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Awards Reception where four outstanding alumni were honored. Major General Angela Salinas, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret) ‘76 received the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award. Pepe Gonzales ’02 received the Sr. Patricia Lyons Distinguished Alumni Service Award. Gigi Gillard ’06, MBA ’07, received the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award.

Paul Raccanello ’96, Dean of Students at Dominican received the Sr. Aquinas Nimitz Service Award.

Congratulations to these honorees who exemplify the Dominican values in their communities and professions.

Join us next year for Reunion 2017 on April 21 and 22.❖

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

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Alumni Profiles

Dominican Experience Impacts Adam’s Career at Apple

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

pple employee Adam Mahoney ’07 was a senior in high school trying to make a decision about college, when he heard an advertisement for Dominican on the radio. He discussed it with his father, who encouraged him to visit campus.

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“During the tour,” says Adam, “I could really see myself there.”

Although some of his friends were heading off to bigger universities, it was the small campus and class size that appealed to Adam.

“I wanted to be a big fish in a small pond,” he laughs. “I also liked the close relationships with professors and classmates and the sense of community.”

Although a psychology major, Adam’s favorite class was a Christianity and contemporary film class taught by his favorite professor, Father Robert Haberman.

A huge Star Trek fan, Adam reveled in a class that analyzed scripture and religion in the context of contemporary science fiction.

While his first few months at Dominican were challenging— he was envious hearing about the exciting parties and activities his friends were experiencing at the big universities—he soon realized there was plenty going on at Dominican, he just needed to get more involved.

So Adam became a resident advisor, joined the PRIDE club as well as the Associated Students of Dominican, eventually becoming ASDU’s vice president.

“I extended myself and made connections with a lot of different people. New doors opened up for me and I walked right through them,” he says.

In his sophomore year, Adam got a part-time job at the local Apple store. A self-proclaimed ‘geek,’ he found his calling. Eleven years and a Master’s degree later, Adam still works at Apple, this time in their headquarters as a business analyst supporting an HR technology system utilized by 90,000 employees worldwide.

“It’s a dream job,” he says. “I get to meet some very smart people, work in a challenging and fast-paced environment, and learn about how Apple works globally.”

Reflecting on his time at Dominican, Adam says his Dominican Experience had a deep impact. In addition to teaching him work skills that he uses today, most importantly it taught him how to create, maintain, and value relationships.

“I always felt accepted there and I was proud of the fact that Dominican was full of students like me who didn’t necessarily ‘fit the mold.’ We all learned how to connect and communicate, which directly applies to the work I do now.”❖

Political Path Led Kelsea to S.F. City Hall Fellowship

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elsea Vaughan ’15 enrolled at Dominican as an English major with the goal of eventually becoming a teacher. Then, she did what a lot of students do. She explored her options, discovered new interests, set her sights on new goals, and happily found herself on an unexpected path that has led her to San Francisco’s City Hall.

integrating hands-on, full-time local government work experience with intensive training in how cities work and insight into the people, issues, and organizations that influence local policy.

Kelsea’s placement in the San Francisco Public Library’s Facilities Division puts her at the center of a network that includes 27 branch libraries, a main library, book mobiles, and an administration building. Throughout the year she will produce reports to monitor the efficiency of operations and manage projects that will impact the library for years to come. She will dive deep into the government structure, the local policy-making process, and the relationship and interactions between both local and state, and local and federal government.

The work draws on the applied skills she honed at Dominican. And, working in the library fits well with her passions for democracy and education: “A public library is a hallmark of democracy,” she says. “It is a place where people from all walks of life can come together and access information. It is a home of equity and community.”❖

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

It was an introductory political science course that changed everything for Kelsea. She was fascinated by the subject and inspired by her professor. She realized that through politics and public policy she could become a difference maker.

By the end of her freshman year, the honors student had declared herself a political science major—keeping English as a minor and later adding international studies as a second degree—and set about immersing herself in politics both on and off campus alongside peers and faculty mentors.

However, it was the semester she spent in Washington, D.C. as a 2014 Panetta Institute Congressional Intern in the office of Congresswoman Doris Matsui that helped shape Kelsea’s future plans. Dominican has enjoyed a long-term partnership with the Panetta Institute, and many former Panetta interns have continued into careers focused on public service at the national, state, and local levels.

“I had been playing around with the idea of going into law, but I decided that what I really wanted to do was work in government so that I could work on projects where I could see the direct impact on people’s lives,” Kelsea says.

“I loved D.C., but I was ready to come back to the Bay Area and make a change in my local community.”

After graduating summa cum laude with departmental honors, Kelsea earned a coveted spot as a San Francisco City Hall Fellow. She was accepted into the program following an intense interview process, during which 175 applicants vied for 16 spots. The year-long program expands upon Kelsea’s Dominican Experience by

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Alumna Links Coffee, Women in International Business

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

s vice president of operations at Equator Coffees & Teas, Maureen McHugh ’01, MBA ’11 first enrolled at Dominican in 1999 to earn a BA in human resource management in the adult degree completion program.

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In 2009, she returned to Dominican to earn her MBA in Sustainable Enterprise.

“The MBA program absolutely changed me. It gave me a platform to recommit to my professional and personal goals,” she says. “It reignited my passions for social justice and sustainability.”

In the time since graduating from the Barowsky School of Business, Maureen has supervised dynamic growth at Equator, an award-winning coffee roasting company that in 2011 became a certified B Corporation and, in 2016, was named both Small Business of the Year in California and National Small Business of the Year by the Small Business Association. Equator has grown to a 90-person operation, with a 5,000 square foot roasting facility, three retail cafes, and more in the pipeline.

“Our intention was always to create a company that was aligned with our values,” Maureen says. “We wanted to utilize our business as a way to address social issues.”

It was during her time at Dominican that Maureen gained the skills and expertise to apply sustainability principles in business, integrating the social, environmental, and financial impacts.

One of Maureen’s own impacts has been her involvement in the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women in coffee, which began in 2004 when she joined the group on a tour to Guatemala for women in the coffee industry.

“The IWCA fueled my desire to be of service and address the needs of women in the coffee producing communities,” Maureen says. “IWCA has provided access to resources; from technical training and business education, to microcredit loans for coffee capital development and community improvement.”

Maureen now sits on the Board of Directors of IWCA, which has grown to 19 chapters internationally. Last fall, she attended the fourth international IWCA Conference in Bogota, Colombia.

“It was about creating something that was going to be different than business as we had experienced,” Maureen says.

With her help, Equator has created something unique, a thriving women-owned operation using the power of business to do good in the world. Like Dominican, Equator is committed to ethical leadership and promoting socially responsible citizenship.❖

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dominican.edu/events

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Alumni News

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CLASS NOTES

In Memoriam Alumni and Friends

Eugenia Smith Pitcher Butts ’33 Sister Patricia Lyons, O.P. ’37 Marianne Gagliardi Ruffo ’37 Evelyn Eaton ’40 Mary Botts Marx ’41 Sister Marie de Lourdes Bessac, O.P. ’43 Lois Virgil Graham ’44 Bernice Barry O’Brien ’44 Neva Sohl Salter ’45 Mercedes Foley Kelly ’46 Sister Dorothy Albee, O.P. ’47 Marie Madonna La Tulippe Collins ’47 Sister Elizabeth Mary Hagmaier, S.N.D. ’47 Colleen Collins Sheets ’47 Nancy Young Brands ’48 Jane Webb Crum ’48 Alston Ahern Horrocks ’48 Jacqueline de Lorimier Pickett ’48 Dolores Ryan Dana ’49 Ursula Hulbert McCauley ’50 Lydia Karam Taheny ’50 Cecile Ann Paynter Erickson ’51 Mary Sweet Keating ’51 Verde Devincenzi Tonelli ’52 Joan Mahoney Page ’53 Aileen Fitzpatrick Keegan ’56 Alita Castor Wall ’56 Paula Plank Little ’58 Maria Paz Cojuangco Teopaco ’58 Patricia Rennie Dahl ’61 Sonja Katheryn Gustafson Duffy ’61 Nancy Thomas Pagni ’61 Elizabeth A. Coman ’63 Sister Theresa Elizabeth Kuss, O.P. ’63 Celinda Lyon ’63 Sylvia Schaefer Benn ’64 Janet Porter Follett ’64 Ann Clark Stiefvater ’64 Bernardine Herrera Fein ’65 Nancy Vasconcellos Hickok ’65 Mary Michele Mohr Savage ’68 Jean Reba Bass Bradman ’69 Bettye Jean Forbish Young ’69 Elizabeth Dwight Richardson ’70 Pamela Jo Beatty ’73 Dorothy Hyde Clifford ’75 Sister Diane M. Carroll, O.P. ’76 Martha Colburn ’77 Roger Lim ’79 Donald W. Matisek ’82 William Fraser ’83

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Hermina Rosskopf ’85 Marie Coyne ’88 Ronald Singer ’88 Linda Chatham ’93 Ruth Clifton Ejchorszt ’98 Billy Williams ’00 Jay Brebner ’04 Shauna Lee Comer ’11 Juan Manuel Chavez ’13 Hugo Rinaldi Gideon Sorokin

Sympathy to: Alice Karam ’46 and Ann Karam ’58 on the death of their sister; Mary Purcell Murphy ’63, Helen Purcell ’64, and Elizabeth Purcell ’69 on the death of their cousin; and Ann Marie Taheny Miller ’74 on the death of her mother, Lydia Karam Taheny ’50.

Josephine Bessac Landon ’47 on the death of her sister, Sister Marie de Lourdes Bessac, O.P. ’43.

Barbara J. Albertazzi McDonald ’58 on the death of her husband and Joan Ann McDonald ’61 on the death of her brother, Cyril James McDonald.

Catherine Marx Schwartz ’62 and Molly Marx Wilkinson ’64 on the death of their mother, Mary Botts Marx ’41.

Frances Sanguinetti Stone ’62 on the death of her husband, James Stone.

Barbara Coughlan Sequeira ’63 on the death of her husband, John Sequeira.

Judith Boss Del Tredici ’64 on the death of her husband, Richard Del Tredici.

Kathleen Flanagan Shaw ’64 on the death of her husband, Robert William Shaw.

Kathleen Johnson Krueger ’65 and Penelope Johnson Dominici ’68 on the death of their aunt, Bernice Barry O’Brien ’44.

Phyllis Simmons Osborne ’66 on the death of her mother, Shirley Anson Simmons.

Jane Cook Meuser ’67 on the death of her father, George Cook.

Nancy Ledden Reid ’67 on the death of her brother, Chuck Ledden.

Mary Patricia Mohr Easley ’69 and Mary Jo Mohr Savage ’71 on the death of their sister, Mary Michele Mohr Savage ’68.

Mary Elizabeth McKenzie-Forman ’72 on the death of her husband, James Michael Forman.

Rebecca Erivn Jozwiakowski ’91 on the death of her husband, Michael Jozwiakowski.

Ashlee Fontenot ’07 on the death of her father, Mayo Fontenot.

Christopher DeMarco ’09 on the death of his father, Salvatore DeMarco.

Brandi Breshears ’13 on the death of her father, Verle Breshears.

Sister Patricia Lyons, O.P. Sister Patricia Lyons died peacefully at Our Lady of Lourdes Convent on December 24, 2015. She began her teaching ministry with first grade at St. Raphael School in San Rafael. Living in one of the dormitories on the Dominican College campus allowed her to also experience older students, and led to her selection as the College’s Alumnae Director, which she enjoyed for many years.

In 1946 Sister Patricia founded and became principal of The Garden School, located on the first floor of Edgehill Mansion. The Garden School became a beloved Marin County institution for generations of families with pre-school and kindergarten age children.

Sister Patricia received many awards for her dedication to early childhood development, including the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Marin Education Foundation in 1982; the Rotary Citizens Honoree in 1988; and Marin County’s Private Schoolmaster of the Year from the California Schoolmasters Club in 1996. The Dominican University Alumni Association created the Sister Patricia Lyons Alumnae Award that is given annually to a distinguished graduate.

Sister Patricia is survived by her cousins, Cathleen Woodson and her husband, Dan, Mark Berto and his wife, Ingrid, and Maryanne Swineheart and her husband, Gary, and by her Dominican Sisters.

Correction, with apologies: Anne Werts Morrisey ’64 and Jennifer Morrissey Dallasta ’88 on the death of their aunt; and Caroline Bader-Hepting ’95 on the death of her cousin, Sister M. Judith Vaughan O.P. ’45.

CLASS NOTES

Photos, left to right: Haley Anderson and Winnie Coleman ’57; Janet (Filippi) Adam ’73, and her classmates Eileen (Schiller) Paine ’73, Alicia (Snyder) Solano ’73, Linda (Coleman) Magnani ’73 and Mary (Fletcher) Wahlberg ’73; Nancy (Reynolds) Burrington ’77, and her daughter, Margaret Mann, who attended classes with her mother at Dominican.

1950 Winnie (Turner) Coleman ’57, a former alumni board member, is thrilled to have another penguin in the family.

Her granddaughter, Haley Anderson, started classes in the Dominican nursing program in January.

Gloria (Rosso) Chi ’56 has just moved to the over-65 community at Linden Ponds. She has a very light apartment that will keep her plants happy.

1960 Vima deMarchi Micheli ’60 and her husband Paul, celebrated 50 years of marriage last September.

Barbara (Coughlan) Sequeira ’63 has taught Religious Studies at Notre Dame High School in Belmont for 30 years. After 51 years of marriage, her husband John passed away last August. Barbara’s three grandchildren have helped her considerably during this time. Barbara sees Ann Williams Regan ’63 regularly and they talk about how their Dominican experience formed their lives. Barbara also talks to her twin sister, Margaret Coughlan Graham ’63, every day.

In addition, Joan Gallagher ’63 lives in the same complex in Redwood City with Barbara.

Helen Purcell ’64 lives at the Ananda Community in Mountain View—a spiritual community—and works as the principal at the Ananda Living Wisdom School. Her two daughters have two children each and she loves being a grandmother. In addition, Helen loves staying in touch with her classmates, Mary Lu McGuire ’64 and Joanne (White) Walsh ’64. “My experience at Dominican is very dear to me. Being in a loving, spiritually

oriented community during college is something I treasure to this day.”

Ed Cunningham MA ’66 taught English at San Rafael High School from 1962–1996, was given the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the Department of English in 1996, ordained to the Permanent Diaconate of the Roman Catholic Church in 1999, and now serves at St. Anselm Church. Ed has worked at San Quentin State Prison and at St. Anselm Grammar School. He and his wife Catherine celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2012, and they have two married daughters and five grandchildren.

Madeleine (Kim) Albade Grote ’66, a retired medical technologist has returned to her home in San Clemente, California after being gone for ten years due to her husband’s job as a construction safety manager. Kim and her husband lived in Guam, three of Hawaii’s islands, and East Pretoria, South Africa.

Barbara (Carpenter) McDonald ’66 is completing her 14th year as executive assistant to the associate vice chancellor of development at UC Santa Barbara and is looking forward to retiring in the summer of 2017. In April, Barbara is taking a cruise along the Rhine River along

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Class Notes

Sue Gorman Pierce ’56 and Yolanda Sanchez-Peterson ’75 will be joined by Sisters Marion Irvine ’53, Katherine Hamilton ’56, Aaron Winkelman ’59, Adele Gerlach ’60, Gervaise Valpey ’61, and Abby Newton ’76 on a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela this coming June. They begin the pilgrimage in Bilbao, Spain and will walk the well-trod path to the Cathedral of St. John visiting important sights along the way. Most of the group are currently in training for the ten days of seven mile walks.

Vima continues to take small art groups to Italy several times a year, which she has been doing since 1980.

Vima also recently published a book, Italian Needlework Treasures available from Amazon.

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with Karen Flynn ’68. Barbara still plays tennis and piano and sings in the Santa Barbara Master Chorale, an auditioned choral group.

Donna (Guerra) Howe ’68 flew back east to see Pope Francis. She attended the Canonization Mass of Junipero Serra in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, she visited her daughter, Christine, in New York City who had two tickets for the pope’s drive through Central Park.

“It felt like a Super Bowl for Catholics,” said Donna, “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Rose Silva King ’69 had her book, A Cow for the Holy Spirit, an Immigrant’s Journey: The Azores to California translated into Portuguese.

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THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Class Notes

Susan Burns Stephenson ’70 is in good health and reveling in the joy of her son’s upcoming wedding this May. Afterwards, they leave for a cruise to the Greek Islands.

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Eleanor (Nelle) White ’70 and her husband, Raymond, will celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary this November and will take a cruise in Asia. Eleanor is the president of Swire Travel Philippines Inc., a top-20 ranked travel agency in the Philippines. Eleanor travels to the U.S. every year to visit relatives and her youngest daughter who is based in San Francisco. They have nine grandchildren, three of whom are in College in Manila. Eleanor is still in touch with Diann (Zimmerman) Ells ’70, Anne Hobbs ’70, and Mary (Hilligoss) Nelson ’70.

Claire (Edelman) Douglas ’71 and her husband, Bruce, went on a 64-day cruise from Sydney to New York in May and celebrated their 44th anniversary in December.

Mari (Brown) Tustin ’72, journeyed for a month in Iceland in 2015, biking, hiking, and touring. Mari also adventured through Tasmania for a month in 2013.

Ellen (Gargiulo) Gillen ’72 moved to Sacramento from Marin and retired in March 2016 from Bank of the West.

Ellen lives close to her daughter, sonin-law and her three granddaughters and loves being a grandmother. In November, Ellen and her husband, Greg, went on a 41-day road-trip through the Midwest, East Coast, and the South.

Janet (Filippi) Adam ’73 and her classmates Eileen (Schiller) Paine ’73, Alicia (Snyder) Solano ’73, Linda (Coleman) Magnani ‘73 and Mary (Fletcher) Wahlberg ’73 recently met at the Camelia Tea Room in Benicia to catch up on family, travel plans, and “retired” life, and of course, the current number of grandchildren.

“We’ve covered a lot of ground since gathering in the Bertrand Commons,” says Janet, “but this bond is still strong!”

Philip Walters ’73 and his wife Marjorie started their new life in Portland, Oregon two years ago after living in Marin County for over 40 years. They love the Portland city vibe and enjoy walking to the local restaurants and shopping districts.

Both are "semi-retired” with Marjorie still practicing psychology and Philip still practicing landscape design.

They enjoy their time off hiking, walking, traveling, and visiting family in California.

Thomas Thompson ’73 has been teaching English and history at Marin Catholic for 43 years where his son, Andrew, recently started as a freshman. Thomas is very thankful for the education he received from the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael at St. Raphael’s School and during the year he earned his credential at Dominican College. Thomas remembers the demanding and rewarding English courses he took with Sister Nicholas and Sister Martin. In addition, he still keeps in touch with Mary Jane Burke ’74 and Mary (Hermosillo) Holsberry ’73.

Louis Parnell ’74 is successfully pursuing a career in the arts. He is an

actor and director in theatre as well as a former instructor of acting and film theory. He recently performed in The Nether at the San Francisco Playhouse and continues to work in the restaurant industry.

Kristen von Kreisler MS ’75 published her newest novel Earnest, a story about a couple in conflict over custody of their beloved labrador retriever.

Yolanda Sanchez-Peterson ’75 released an album of songs from Latin America in November of 2012. It’s now available on iTunes and CDBaby. Her website is www.yolandaalicia.com.

Nancy (Reynolds) Burrington ’77 worked at Sonoma State University from 1984–2002 as an admissions evaluator, academic advisor and administrative assistant in the provost's office. While there she earned an MA in psychology. After retirement Nancy became active in the League of Women Voters and is now president of the League of Women Voters of Sonoma County.

Michele (Lane) McDonough ’78 says Dominican inspired her to become a special educator and open her own private practice, Lane’s Learning Center, in Novato in 1980. Michele and her husband Edward have lived in Novato for 35 years. They have three children, and a granddaughter named Eloisa.

Michelle traveled to China in 1995 to study special education at University Hangzhou and Beijing Normal University. She continues to enjoy traveling to national parks in the United States.

Dr. LeeAnn Bartolini ’79, psychology professor at Dominican for over 30 years, and recipient of the 2015 Sister M. Aquinas Nimitz, O.P. Distinguished Service Award, has been selected to join the American Psychological Association (Division 2– Teaching of Psychology) International Relations Committee. She will serve a three-year term.

Photos, left to right: James Salter ’01, MBA ’03 and Tom Pareto ’01; David Rodrigues ’80; Perry Hyatt, Rebecca (Merjil) Hyatt ’04, Jaina Hyatt and baby Victor Lawrence Hyatt

1980 Jeanne Remy ’80 is now enjoying retirement and her grandson, Benjamin.

David Rodrigues ’80 has been interested in penguins ever since graduating from Dominican. He has been married since 1988 and is the manager of the recognizance program at the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project since 1989. David feels that his Dominican education prepared him very well for his work at a non-profit agency.

Bernard Zylberberg ’85 celebrated the 20th anniversary of his business CompuCoach last year. He anticipates big changes this year as he trains new associates to take over the work and

Andrew Miner ’86 opened Miner Law Offices in December 2014, and focuses on estate planning.

Donna (Boone) Malliett ’89 is enjoying her newly elected role as president of the governing council of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS). Donna attained the CEBS designation in 2002 and is an ISCEBS fellow. She is a past president of the Northern California chapter and has served the society as an at-large member of the governing council, a member of the professional development committee and the symposium planning committee.

1990 Kim Culbertson ’96 is proud to report that Scholastic published her fourth young adult novel, The Possibility of Now, in January 2016.

Jacqui Coryell ’98 is currently working with the U.S. Air Force at a mental health clinic in Italy after doing the same in Germany for the past three and a half years. Jacqui loves her life and her job.

Marilyn Orlova-Zitzer ’99 has 14 grandchildren and two godchildren.

She loves to travel and has traveled extensively across Europe. Marilyn also sponsored a couple from Russia and Armenia making it possible for them to become U.S. citizens.

Marilyn has passed several advanced certifications for APRN, and now possesses a NPF, CNS, CNOR, and CRNFA. Marilyn is also board certified as first assistant to the surgeon and an independent contractor.

2000 Past Alumni Board President James Salter ’01, MBA ’03 and Alumni Board Member Tom Pareto ’01 met up at the 49ers game at Levi Stadium.

Jonathan Delano ’03, Harvard men's associate head soccer coach, was selected as the 2015 NSCAA East Region Assistant Coach of the Year.

Megan Marietti Heller ’03 opened Purple Monkey Hair, a children’s hair salon in Tiburon.

Rebecca (Merjil) Hyatt ’04 and her husband, Perry Hyatt, welcomed their baby boy, Victor Lawrence Hyatt on November 15, 2015. With big sister, Jaina Hyatt, they are a very happy family of four now.

Sabrena (Carrington) McCarley ’04, MBA ’09 received the Luella

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Class Notes

Michael Pelfini ’84 has launched Michael Pelfini Consulting to help business owners and their companies as they cross thresholds to maximum achievement. His services include leadership coaching, strategic planning, communication, training, and building team effectiveness.

Michael was interviewed on the Novato Soroptimist Sounding Board television program, which aired on November 9, 2015. The topic was “Leveraging the Power of Whole Brain Thinking for High Achievement,” which highlighted the framework that guides the work Michael does with executives and their companies.

begins traveling around the world. His first planned stop is Southeast Asia in December 2016. He will be sure to visit Dominican friends all over the world, so let him know where you are in 2017 and beyond.

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Photos, clockwise left to right: Patrick Jackson ’08 and Marie (Raffo) Jackson ’11; Marc Yu ’07 and Claire (Munzer) Yu ’08 were married by Fr. Bob Haberman; Jenna Hunt ’08 and Nicholas Abraham; Amanda (Drumheller) Smith ’07 and Shaun Smith; Claire (Neenan) Schwartz ’08 and Mark Schwartz

Grangaard Political Action Award at the Occupational Therapy Association Conference in Sacramento this year.

The award recognizes a member of the association who has made significant contributions in promoting occupational therapy in the political arena.

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Class Notes

Amy (Crockett) Willemsen ’05 and Matt Willemsen ’05 welcomed their second son, Nathaniel Davis Willemsen, on October 2, 2015.

Big bother Marshall could not be more proud.

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Melisa Reyes ’06 is a counselor and volleyball coach for the Hawaii State Department of Education and Maui recruiting coordinator for Summer Institutes.

Amanda (Drumheller) Smith ’07 met her husband, Shaun, in her senior year of high school. They married in 2014 and Kaylee (Carroll) Miller ’07 was one of her bridesmaids. Amanda and Shaun live in South Pasadena, California with their dog. Amanda is

the director of mental health services at Aviva Family and Children's Services in Los Angeles—a 36-bed residential facility for severely emotionally disturbed teenage girls.

She became a licensed MFT in October 2014.

Jennifer (Simonson) Fallo ’07 and her husband Erik welcomed their third child, Reagan Hope Fallo, on November 20, 2015.

Marc Yu ’07 and Claire (Munzer) Yu ’08 were married by Fr. Bob Haberman on August 22, 2015 at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park, Calif. Martin Tabije ’11 was best man and CJ Singson ’07 was a groomsman. Marc is the online and print designer for Cal Alumni Association at UC Berkeley and Claire is a production coordinator, DVD Sector at Pixar.

Claire (Neenan) Schwartz ’08 married Mark Schwartz on May 30, 2015 at Deer Park Villa. Jena Hunt ’08 was the maid of honor and

Dominican’s career services manager Vanessa Ioannides was a bridesmaid.

Claire is the alumni communications manager at Dominican and Mark is the director of content and social media at The Wiseman Group.

Jena Hunt ’08 married Nicholas Abraham on December 19, 2015 at the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco with a reception following at Greens. Claire Schwartz ’08 was her bridesmaid. Jena and Nick live in Los Angeles with their one-eyed Chihuahua named Boombi. Jena is a writer for magazines and online publications, and Nick is a doctor of emergency medicine at the LAC and USC Medical Center.

Patrick Jackson ’08 married Marie (Raffo) Jackson ’11 on June 26, 2015 at the Vine Hill House at O'Connell Vineyards. They live in San Francisco. Patrick is the vice principal at Vallemar Elementary School in Pacifica, and Marie is an art approver at Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates in Santa Rosa.

Photos, left to right: Jordan Parker; Milana Rozella Todd; Christian Peralta, Damby Peralta, Tiffany Dure Peralta ’08 and Justin Peralta

Alumni Board Member Cameron Parker ’08 and MBA ’10 and Michaelia (Baskerville) Parker ’10 and MBA ’11 welcomed their son Jordan Parker on May 22, 2015.

Angela (Beebe) Todd ’08 and her husband Kenny welcomed their daughter, Milana Rozella Todd on September 24, 2015.

Tiffany (Dure) Peralta ’08 and husband Damby Peralta welcomed their baby boy, Christian, on December 29, 2015. He has an older brother, Justin.

Christina (Morales) Evans ’07 married Brandon Evans at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in San Diego on November 14, 2015. Alyze (Veliz) Bellucci ’07 and Suzette Toscano ’07 were bridesmaids.

Christina is the recreation supervisor at The Ranch in Tiburon, and Brandon is the clubhouse assistant for the San Francisco Giants.

Anthony Urroz ’09 and Cassandra (Gafa) Urroz ’09 welcomed their baby Isadora Josephine Urroz on February 7, 2016.

Analisa (Lujan) Darrow ’10 married Sam Darrow (attended ’09-’10) on June 20, 2015 at the San Rafael Mission Chapel. Michaelia (Baskerville) Parker ’10

Ashley (Mills) Cozens ’09 married Benjamin Cozens on June 6, 2015 at the Suisun City Waterfront. Kristin Kennedy ’09 was the maid of honor and many DU alumni were in attendance.

Amanda (Wagner) Munoz ’09 and her husband Marc welcomed their daughter, Kennedy Ann Marie Munoz in September 2015.

2010 Casey Lee Thorne ’10 and her company—Inside Out Contemporary Ballet—in association with the BFA in Dance program at Dominican, presented If I Were You—Project Israel in Angelico Concert Hall last October.

BFA in Dance alums Brittany Hernandez ’15, Yoshie Fujimoto Kateada ’15, Maddie Matuska ’15, Linda Steele ’13, and Samantha Anton ’13 danced in the production, and alumna Lisa Boling Huntsman ’12 created the set design.

Marie Kristine Aguilar ’12 is specializing in neuroscience within the intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City.

Jaime (Castner) Libby ’12 married Geoffrey Libby on October 17, 2015 in San Francisco on the Eureka Ferryboat. Jenn Krengel ’15 and Amanda Grey ’09 were her bridesmaids. Jaime is special assistant to the vice president of academic affairs at Dominican and Geof is the producer and operations director of The Speakeasy. They live in San Francisco.

Kristen Sullivan ’12 graduated with a Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion and is now a chaplain resident at UC Davis Medical Center.

Francesca (Hamilton) Whitcomb ’12 started a new position as human resources manager with Healdsburg Unified School District on July 1, 2015.

Heather Kernahan MBA ’13 was promoted to president at Eastwick, an award-winning tech-focused communications agency.

Jessica Milligin ’13 was accepted into Stanford’s Master of Arts in Latin American Studies. She begins her studies this fall.

Chris Galbick ’13 was accepted to all four of the osteopathic medical schools he interviewed with and has decided to attend the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Class Notes

Christina Mayes ’09 and her husband Eric welcomed their son, Eiro Joseph Robert Mayes October 9, 2015.

and Monica Ferrufino ’10 were bridesmaids. Analisa is a mental skills coach and the administrative assistant at the Contra Costa County Office of Education and Sam is a licensed real estate agent at Blue Mountain Realty and the head women's lacrosse coach for the UC Davis club team.

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Photos, left to right: Eiro Joseph Robert Mayes; Jaime (Castner) Libby ’12 and Geoffrey Libby; Robin (Castro) Ryan ’15 and Aaron Ryan

Cameron Evangelho ’13 was accepted into graduate school at University of Western Australia, masters program in Marine Biology.

Cecilia Jordan ’15 started working with NBC sports in January and will travel to Arizona, Texas, and Florida with the PGA Tour.

Tanya Abughazaleh ’14 was accepted into the PsyD Program at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Barbara Kesell ’15 was accepted in the PhD Clinical Psychology program at CSPP.

Ian Lancaster ’14 was accepted into medical school at the University of North Dakota and will start in fall 2016.

Jacob Levine ’14 was accepted into the PhD Clinical program at University of South Florida in Tampa.

Robin (Castro) Ryan ’15 married Aaron Ryan on August 15, 2015.

Robin is an account auditor for the County of Monterey.

THE TORCH SUMMER 2016 | Class Notes

Mindy Chin ’15 was accepted into Touro University’s PharmD program and will start this fall.

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Kayleigh Crow ’15 moved to San Francisco and recently received a promotion in her new job: working for a growing tech startup and utilizing her psychology degree in the field of human resources and people operations.

Maryam Fallatah ’15 was accepted into the University of the Sciences PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology program.

Victoria Grajeda ’15 is an admissions counselor at Dominican and studying for her master’s degree in the counseling psychology program.

Lisa Witte ’15 is working as a labor and delivery nurse at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System.

William “Bill” Merkle ’15 graduated last year at 82 years of age. Due to a career promotion in 1979, his goal of completing a bachelor’s degree at Dominican was interrupted. After a 40-year career with the California Department of Corrections, Bill retired in December 1996 and spent time extensively traveling six of the seven continents. In 2014, he returned to Dominican to finish his education.

Bill’s message to all is that “you are never too old.”

McKenna (Kimball) Coletti ’15 was accepted to the University of Utah School of Medicine where she currently works as a lab technician.

She starts school in the fall. McKenna married Connor Coletti, whom she met at a theme park at the age of 15, on July 11, 2015. Megs Herring ’15, Kendra Corsberg ’15, Megan Hansen ’15 and Rocky Ramos ’15 were bridesmaids.

Jennifer Tapping ’15, is a clinical nurse at UCSF Benioff Children's

Hospital in the Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology/BMT Unit.

Elizabeth Cermak ’15 was accepted into U.C. Hastings Law School and will begin her studies this fall.

Meghan Nelson ’15 is working as support advisor at Taddei, Ludwig & Associates, a wealth management firm located in San Rafael. With the backing of TLA, Meghan is continuing her education at UC Berkeley to become a certified financial planner.

Magdalena Fitipaldi ’15 is pursuing a master’s degree in latin american studies at Stanford University Graduate School.

We welcome class notes from alumni who have news, announcements or life events to share.

Please fill in the Class Notes Form online or email your news to the Alumni Office at alumni@dominican.edu.

Photographs are always welcome. (Please note we need high resolution photos.) Class notes will be shared on our website as well as in the next edition of The Torch. Thank you!

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2015

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2015-2016 COLLEGE OF DISTINCTION

Our exceptional teaching, vibrant campus community, and the success of our graduates earned Dominican a spot on Colleges of Distinction’s 2015-2016 list of top schools.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AWARDS

Dominican was one of only five U.S. universities to receive The Washington Center’s New York Life Higher Education Civic Engagement Award. Additionally, we received national recognition from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and were named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

VOTER EDUCATION PARTNER

Dominican was named a voter education partner of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Students will play an important role in 2016 as we lead an initiative to utilize technology and social media to energize a new generation to be active in our democracy.

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD SCHOLARSHIPS

Dominican launched the Thomas and Joanne Peterson Scholarship supporting selected students to study at St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.

Oxford joins the more than 80 university locations available in Dominican’s study abroad programs.

NATIONALLY-RENOWNED SPEAKERS

Our students enjoyed lectures by singer Patti Smith; political activist Gloria Steinem; ABC’s Nightline anchor Ted Koppel; New York Times columnist David Brooks; Academy Award-winner Diane Keaton; author Kazuo Ishiguro; and former U.S. Congressman Barney Frank. Sponsored by Dominican’s Institute for Leadership Studies.

TOP TIER UNIVERSITIES IN THE WEST

Dominican again ranked in the top tier of universities in the west, according to U.S. News and World Report.

PAC WEST ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Our student athletes earned the NCAA Division II Pacific West Conference’s Academic Achievement Award for an unprecedented sixth consecutive year for earning the highest GPA in the conference.

FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH

Dominican students worked with faculty mentors on research supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Food and Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

INVITATIONS TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Dominican President Mary B. Marcy participated in two important White House meetings on higher education. In the fall, she and other selected university presidents committed to increasing the number of students graduating in the sciences. In the spring, President Marcy presented our advances integrating community service into the curriculum.

STUDENT RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

Our students continued to excel in research and scholarship: 83 students received travel grants to present at conferences nationwide; and more than 130 undergraduates presented at Dominican’s annual two-day Scholarly and Creative Works Conference.

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID

50 Acacia Avenue San Rafael, California 94901 www.dominican.edu Address service requested

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s a graduate of Dominican, I know first-hand one of the University’s many strengths is the opportunities students

receive beyond the classroom. In that spirit, I established an Endowed Fund for Internship Support that will provide future students with the financial means to explore areas of interest they develop during their years at Dominican.

Stephanie Fonseca ’16, a biology major who is interested in becoming a wildlife veterinarian, was the recipient of financial support last summer.

She was accepted into the Oakland Zoo’s internship program where she gained knowledge and experience with captive primates. Stephanie has been accepted at and will be attending the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences, this fall. She exemplifies the kind of student who really benefits from the experience of an internship. I hope other people will see the value of providing internship support for students such as Stephanie.

Robin Pryor ’93, MA ’98

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CREATING A SCHOLARSHIP AT DOMINICAN, PLEASE CONTACT THE ADVANCEMENT OFFICE AT 415-257-1396.