Loyola Neighborhood Newsletter Fall 2014

A newsletter for the neighbors of Loyola University New Orleans

FALL 2014

UPCOMING EVENTS calendar.loyno.edu Tickets: available online at montage.loyno.edu or by calling (504) 865-2074

Loyola Ballet Fall Concert NOVEMBER 21 – 22, 8 p.m.

Roussel Hall $12 general admission $8 students/seniors/faculty/staff

Sneaux @ Loyola Honorary campaign co-chairs Anne Milling and Lt. General Russel L. Honoré, U.S. Army (Ret.) celebrate the launch of “Faith in the Future: The Campaign for Loyola University New Orleans.”

DECEMBER 3, 6 p.m.

Marquette Horseshoe

Christmas at Loyola

Loyola launches historic Faith in the Future Campaign The university publicly launched the

historic “Faith in the Future: The Campaign for Loyola University New Orleans” $100 million effort Oct. 9, which has raised nearly $45 million so far in its “leadership phase.” Local donors as well as alumni and supporters from around the world via video from Panama, China, Salt Lake City, and Dallas joined in for the historic announcement.

Overall, the Faith in the Future campaign will enhance academic programs, enrich campus life, ensure financial aid for deserving students, transform Loyola’s physical campus, and strengthen its Jesuit identity. Those fundraising priorities for the campaign stem from the university’s new strategic plan, “Transforming Loyola 2014,” which won unanimous Board of Trustees approval in mid-October.

“Loyola is making history in its efforts to transform the lives of students— both now and for years to come.

The Faith in the Future campaign is first and foremost designed to benefit our students, who are at the heart of the university,” said Loyola President Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Ph.D. Students are already benefiting from the historic campaign. For example, Loyola’s Monroe Hall—included in the campaign’s funding priorities—is undergoing a multimillion dollar renovation. The completion of the interior construction of the building is set for December 2014 and will result in a complete transformation of Loyola’s signature teaching facilities, creative spaces and science laboratories.

The new interactive campaign website is available at campaign.loyno.edu

DECEMBER 7, 3 p.m.

Holy Name of Jesus Church

Loyola Opera presents

Suor Angelica/ Gianni Schicchi JANUARY 23, 7:30 p.m. and JANUARY 25, 3 p.m.

Roussel Hall $40 preferred seating $25 reserved seating $15 Loyola faculty/staff/students

Loyola Theatre presents

Alice in Wonderland FEBRUARY 5 and 6, 7:30 p.m.

FEBRUARY 7, 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.

FEBRUARY 8, 2 p.m.

Lower Depths Theater $12 general admission $8 students/seniors/faculty/staff

PROUD TO BE PART OF THE PACK

Loyola pumps more than $174.1 million into area economy Loyola University New Orleans continues as a major economic engine for New Orleans, leaving a $174.1 million economic footprint over the region during its 2013-2014 academic year.

The majority of those dollars went directly into the Greater New Orleans and Louisiana economies, according to a report prepared by the university’s College of Business.

Student interpreters help New Orleans attorneys aid influx of child migrants Loyola opens city's only full-service university Starbucks and local favorite Slice Pizzeria This fall, Loyola University New Orleans unveiled the city’s first full-service university-based Starbucks and local favorite Slice Pizzeria.

The Starbucks, located in the Danna Student Center on Loyola’s main campus, is only the third fully licensed, university-based Starbucks in the state.

Starbucks offers its full line of coffees, teas, and blended drinks, including organic, Fair Trade, and ethically sourced products.

Slice Pizzeria opened on the ground floor of Carrollton Hall on Loyola’s main campus. The campus location for Slice was previously occupied by another campus-based eatery, La Divina Italian Café, which has now moved to the Broadway Activities Center on the Broadway campus.

All are open to the public.

Student interpreters at Loyola University New Orleans are lending their skills to help local lawyers and other immigration advocates aid an influx of unaccompanied minors fleeing Central America.

The group of at least 17 student interpreters from Loyola’s new Spanish/ English Translation and Interpreting Certificate Program are joining in on a pro bono project led by the New Orleans-based immigration law firm, Ware | Gasparian and managing partner Kathleen Gasparian ‘95, J.D. ‘02. The project, called PB&J—Pro Bono and Juveniles—is a way to connect these child migrants with not only the free legal help they so desperately need, but also the interpreters necessary to break through the language barrier.

The student interpreters are gaining hands-on experience and volunteering their skills for what many in New Orleans see as a developing humanitarian crisis. The city’s immigration court, for example, is handling more than 1,200 cases of unaccompanied minors fleeing Central America, according to The Lens, a nonprofit news organization with offices at Loyola.

“Loyola puts student interpreters at the forefront of not only addressing an urgent need in the local community,

but the university is also helping its students hone skills that are in high demand all across the U.S.,” said Lisbeth Philip, Ph.D., academic director of Loyola’s Translation and Interpreting Program. “When our students help interpret for child migrants coming into the New Orleans area, they are not only volunteering their skills for a great cause, but are also practicing the Jesuit ideals they’ve learned at Loyola—to think critically and act justly.”

The project, in its beginning phases, is currently determining the most vulnerable of these children and how to help them through the U.S. immigration system. At least some of the children may qualify for a relief called Special Immigrant Juvenile status, which is available for abused, abandoned, or neglected children, allowing them to stay in the U.S., as opposed to facing deportation.

Loyola student translators such as Lisa Ponce de Leon, who is pursuing certification to be an interpreter in the health care and legal fields through Loyola’s program, says helping the child migrants is not only a service to the community, but also a way for her to put herself in their shoes and help them when they need it most.

The Princeton Review ranks Loyola’s diversity, community relations, and student newspaper among top 10 in nation

Loyola students led young students from Anna's Arts for Kids, a Treme-based organization, to inspect the insects and pollinators at the iconic Gumbel Memorial Fountain in Audubon Park.

Biologists, students to develop iPad nature discovery app for Audubon Park Loyola University New Orleans biologists Aimée K. Thomas, Ph.D., and James Wee, Ph.D., are helping college students teach younger children the wonders of nature right in their own backyard through an iPad app they are creating for the popular New Orleans urban park, Audubon Park.

The first phase of the project is an interactive nature hike through Audubon Park that teaches children— and people of all ages—about the seemingly invisible world of microbes.

The “Nano Safari,” developed by Wee and his students, is being beta tested this fall. After testing, it will be available as an additional component to an already existing nature app created by Thomas, the “GO to Lake Thoreau” iPad app.

This past summer, Thomas and her Loyola biology students began laying the groundwork for the next phase of the iPad app—which will be a standalone Audubon Park nature app. Five Loyola students volunteered to serve

as naturalists, leading groups through Audubon Park for a “hands-on and minds-on” nature walk the group is testing in order to convert for the app.

For example, Loyola students led young students from Anna’s Arts for Kids, a Treme-based organization, to inspect the insects and pollinators at the iconic Gumbel Memorial Fountain in Audubon Park. The group discovered in an interactive way to explore why flowers are shaped in certain ways to encourage insects to participate in the pollination process, according to Thomas.

“Nature is there, it’s just getting children to look at it in a new way and get engaged,” Thomas said.

“This is a way to get them to think about how they look at nature and learn about science.”

Thomas hopes to secure funding for the second phase of the project and make the Audubon Park iPad app template available to others for adaptation to parks in other cities.

Loyola University New Orleans was named one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review’s 2015 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 379 Colleges.” Among The Princeton Review’s accolades, Loyola is ranked in the top 10 in the nation for its race-class interaction and diversity, No. 2, best college newspaper, No. 5, and is ranked No. 6 for town-gown relations, which gauges how well students get along with members of the local community.

Loyola is also ranked for the easiest campus to get around and the best quality of life. The rankings were tallied based on the data from The Princeton Review’s surveys of 130,000 students at the 379 schools in the book.

New for Loyola this year is the national ranking for its student newspaper, The Maroon. “This has been a stellar year for the Loyola School of Mass Communication. For The Maroon to be named one of the top college newspapers in the country is another testament to the quality of education that students are receiving at Loyola,” said Sonya F. Duhé, Ph.D., Loyola professor and director of the School of Mass Communication.

The accolade for The Maroon is the most recent in a long line of awards and recognitions for journalism education at Loyola. The School of Mass Communication recently became the first Jesuit university program in the U.S. to hold national accreditations from both the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and the Public Relations Society of America’s Certification in Education for Public Relations.

Office of Public Affairs 7214 St. Charles Avenue Campus Box 909 New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 861-5888

Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 121 New Orleans, LA

www.loyno.edu

facebook.com/loyno

foursquare.com/loyola_nola twitter.com/loyola_NOLA

flickr.com/photos/loyolanola

Loyola Opera brings to the stage the popular double bill of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Both hourlong masterpieces are from Il trittico, the composer’s cycle of three short works based on contrasting themes. Suor Angelica, centered on life in the convent, is the moving tale of a young nun who finds redemption for her tragic life at the very moment of death.

Puccini lavished hauntingly beautiful music on his personal favorite of the three operas. The comedy Gianni Schicchi features a title character who brilliantly manipulates a family squabbling over the estate of a deceased relative, as well one of the most famous of all operatic arias— “O mio babbino caro.”

The performances will be sung in Italian, with projected English supertitles. New York stage director Bill Fabris and Loyola’s Carol Rausch will lead the production.

January 23, 7:30 p.m. | January 25, 3 p.m. | Roussel Hall $40 preferred seating | $25 reserved seating