Dominican University Magazine, Fall 2017

FALL 2017

THE MEANING OF MORE

BRINGING RESEARCH TO LIFE

Faculty Consider the Implications of DU’s New Tagline

A Look Inside the URSCI Expo

An Anthropologist’s Lifelong Fascination with Identity

table of contents

The Magazine of Dominican University Fall 2017

Graduate students from the Brennan School of Business inspect the operations of a mining company during a week-

PRESIDENT

long study trip to Chile

Donna M. Carroll

in May.

VICE PRESIDENT FOR MARKETING

Where Learning Demands More No one said it was easy. In this issue, we explore the meaning of Dominican’s new tagline—Where Learning Demands More—and the many ways this community of learners asks more of itself and its students.

A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S

DU news 3

A new endowed chair will boost faculty research in the Brennan School of Business 4

Brennan transforms business education with new graduate and undergraduate curricula

Jim Winters MANAGING EDITOR

Jason Keyser

6

MAJOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Cristal Ortega ’17, cancer and an epic bike trip

Ryan Pagelow DESIGN

Jim Bernard Design

Dominican University 7900 W. Division Street River Forest, Illinois 60305 dom.edu magazine@dom.edu Dominican Magazine is published twice yearly by Dominican University for its alumnae/i and friends. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. © 2017 Dominican University

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“Yes, It’s Hard. That’s Why You’re Here.”

Take four professors. Put them around a table. Throw out a phrase.

Watch lively debate ensue.

18

7

A Part of Something Bigger Ten ways Dominican’s distinguished graduate programs demand more of faculty and students.

24

The Thrill of Discovery At Dominican’s annual research expo, undergraduates get to show t ir t nt i r n t g a rt t an memory.

DU Culinology’s artful blend of science and food is getting noticed 9

Meet Luke Spicer ’18, “the face of” Stars volleyball; plus highlights from a big year in DU athletics

30

Big Hearts, Where Nothing Comes Easy nt n t d nt nd ring r a Orleans, 12 years after Katrina.

arning t

n

38 •

In Her Mother’s House ina r tti an ag ant r gi t and a r a nt a distinguished career exploring issues of identity that began at home.

departments 41 Celebrating 20 years as a university.

B Dominican Magazine FALL 2016

class news

55

in sympathy Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 1

from the president

Short takes on a season at Dominican

A Promise of More It is no secret that I am enamored of a well-crafted sentence. And so, when Dominican University decided to refresh its brand, I felt possessive of the words that would express it. I also felt, from the get go, that the articulation of a new position statement would only be successful if the faculty and staff believed in it. This is a magazine about language and ownership—and more.

“What does it mean when we say, “Dominican University: Where learning demands more”? It is a promise of quality and of the opportunity-rich, engaged learning environment that defines a Dominican education.”

—President Donna M. Carroll

So what does it mean when we say, “Dominican University: Where learning demands more”? It is a promise of quality and of the opportunity-rich, engaged learning environment that defines a Dominican education. There is an extra punch to the statement, however, which is deliberate, because achieving excellence in today’s complex, interdependent world is hard work. We challenge our students to give more (of themselves) in order to get more, intellectually and experientially.

The more is about rigor, support, purpose and community. In a recent roundtable discussion, Dominican faculty members shared their sense of the meaning of the new brand. Excerpts from that conversation are included in this magazine, and you can see how faculty are beginning to explore and own the brand, and also, how the brand is sufficiently robust to encompass the professional programs, as well as the arts and sciences.

One exemplar of more is a cluster of activities that we in higher education describe as high-impact practices. Dominican is a connoisseur of this pedagogy, utilizing international study, community-based learning, internships and collaborative research to augment student learning. Again, you can see more in action throughout this magazine.

This year the Dominican academic community is celebrating the 20th anniversary of university status. We also are finishing a $65 million campaign and launching a new strategic planning process. It is no coincidence that all these activities dovetail with the new brand—because learning today demands more of the university and its stakeholders, as well as its students.

Thank you for your continuing support and enthusiasm.

Donna M. Carroll, President

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Brenan 2.0: The prestigious business school is aiming even higher

A 2017 graduate who battled cancer completes a grueling cross-country bike trip to help others

Dominican’s Culinology program hits a tasty milestone at a renowned research competition

PA G E F O U R

PA G E S IX

PAGE SEV EN

Brennan Turns

Ruth and Norm Carroll

Since its founding in 1977, the Brennan School of Business has launched the careers of generations of innovators and leaders in an amazing range of fields and enterprises, from neighborhood nonprofits to multinational corporations. Today, Brennan has grown to about 500 students and extended its reach globally through overseas partnerships and study opportunities. In this 40th-anniversary year, here is a look at some other points of Brennan pride.

Top 5% in the World Brennan is among the fewer than 5% of business programs worldwide to earn accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the world’s largest and most prestigious business education alliance.

65+ CEOs Brennan has produced more than 65 chief executive officers across a wide spectrum of industries and nonprofits.

Top Employers Just a few of the big corporations where Brennan graduates are making a difference: Allstate

KPMG

Bank of America

Kraft Heinz

CDS

MB Financial

Comcast

McDonald’s Corp.

Deloitte

Morgan Stanley

Discover

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Exelon

Tribune Publishing

Groupon

Walgreens

$1.5 Million Gift Endows Chair in Business and Economics The Norman and Ruth Carroll Chair in the Brennan School of Business will enhance the school’s scholarship and growing network of international partnerships.

The Brennan School of Business is establishing an endowed chair in business and economics to honor the legacy of the late Norman E. Carroll and his wife, Ruth. The chair was made possible by an anonymous gift of $1.5 million to the Powerful Promise campaign.

Norm Carroll was an academic visionary and a revered member of the Dominican family for nearly half a century. The founding dean of the business school, he also served as professor of economics and as provost and vice president for academic affairs. n the latter role, his entrepre neurial spirit drove the expansion of the academic enterprise to include not only the School of Business but also the School of Education and the School of Social Work. Ruth Carroll, his wife of 52 years, is a former teacher at Trinity High School and an admired member of the campus community. The couple’s eldest son, Mark Carroll, is a Dominican trustee.

Holders of the Norman and Ruth Carroll Endowed Chair in Business and Economics will collaborate closely with other Brennan faculty on research, academic presentations and publications. The inaugural holder will be recruited in 2019 from nationally and internationally recognized scholars in economics.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 3

Brennan’s Got Talent

Brennan 2.0

THESE THREE BUSINESS FACULTY ARE HAVING A STELLAR YEAR

Now more than ever, the programs of the prestigious business school are preparing students to hit the ground running—as leaders, innovators and change makers.

APPOINTED:

HONORED:

AWARDED:

Al Rosenbloom

Molly Burke

Professor of Marketing and International Business

Professor of Management

Assistant Professor of Marketing

The first John and Jeanne Rowe Distinguished

Honored with the 2017–18 President’s Distinguished

Awarded a Fulbright to teach and study in Romania

Professor, appointed September 2017

Service Professor Award

Along a road in Nepal’s Himalayan foot-

As dean during Brennan’s pivotal growth

surge in volunteerism—in some cases

hills, Al Rosenbloom looked from a bus

years, Molly Burke forged academic

more than they can handle. That is not

window and saw something that changed

partnerships in China, India and Europe.

the case in other parts of the world.

his life. Three “low caste” women were

She recruited all-star faculty and the

Brooke Reavey wants to understand why,

bashing rocks by hand into gravel to sell.

brightest international students. Now

and whether strategic marketing can

“I thought, there’s got to be a better way,”

Burke has returned to her first love:

help. An intrepid globe-trotter, Reavey

he recalls. “Businesses can work with

teaching. She savors that moment when

is spending the year (accompanied by

those women and with construction com-

her management students realize the

her husband, one-year-old son and dog)

panies, and alleviate poverty at the same

story behind the story. Last semester,

on a Fulbright to research the issue in

time.” The revelation, while teaching as

for example, the incident of the United

Romania. The work is timely because

a Fulbright scholar in 2001, led Rosen-

passenger dragged off a plane led to a

a strong nonprofit sector is seen as a

bloom to devote his energy to the role of

lesson about “formalization,” a concept

potential buffer against Russia’s resur-

businesses in improving individual lives.

under which some companies adhere

gent influence in Europe. And Romania

“Our students at Dominican are receptive

to rules and regulations at all costs—or

still struggles with issues NGOs are well

to that; they come with a good sense of

in this case, despite the potential P.R.

positioned to address, including care for

values,” he says. He takes them to col-

firestorm. Other examples include Ama-

orphans and integrating the Roma ethnic

laborate with entrepreneurs everywhere

zon’s war with Walmart, or the question

minority. “All over the world nonprofits

from Chicago’s Austin neighborhood,

of why a McDonald’s hamburger tastes

would like people to contribute more

four miles east of campus, to Nairobi,

different in Italy. Together, Burke and

money,” Reavey says. “But in Romania,

Kenya. Whether students end up working

her students deconstruct corporate

in particular, they are just not contrib-

as social entrepreneurs or at Fortune

strategy and concepts. Her approach is

uting. Agencies are trying to figure out

500 companies, Rosenbloom wants

to facilitate, guide,

why. But I think it’s key to look at it from

them to understand “businesses

back. As she puts

it: “Try not

can earn profits while also work-

to talk so much,

tell them

understand the value that the

ing for the common good.”

less, ask more

questions.”

consumers are missing.”

Brooke Reavey Across the U.S., nonprofits are seeing a

The Brennan School of Business last year articulated a vision to be the Chicago-area leader in experiential business education.

It is not just a lofty goal. Together with their partners in the business world, Brennan faculty and graduates have been hard at work devising new ways of capitalizing on what has long been part of the school’s DNA: hands-on experience.

For starters, the school introduced rigorous new undergraduate and MBA curricula that ensure that students, now more than ever, wrestle with real-world business problems and develop the specialized knowledge and leadership skills that hiring managers most value. “I tell my MBA classes that they are consultants, not students, for the semester,” says Assistant Professor Brooke Reavey, whose marketing research graduate students present strategic ideas to board members at real companies.

The school is finding additional ways to connect students with the real world—in part by deepening its engagement with a robust network of Brennan graduates who include leaders at companies such as MB Financial Bank, Bosch, Sloan, KPMG and Ernst & Young. For the students, this means better internships, stronger scholarships and exposure to tales from the front at events

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such as Brennan’s popular C-Suite Speakers Series. or the firms, the partnerships are opening up a host of resources, not least the chance to recruit top Brennan graduates, tap the latest research and offer their employees direct access to a reasonably priced MBA with the discipline’s most prestigious accreditation, from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Only 5 percent of the world’s business programs are accredited by the AACSB.

The new Brennan MBA At the heart of the academic enhancements is the reimagined MBA. It moves working professionals through the fundamentals more quickly, leaving more time to dig deep into seven newly expanded concentrations, including trending sectors such as data analytics and health care administration. Brennan has also taken its former management concentration, turned it into a leadership track and loaded it with new content. The track has less focus on personnel management and more emphasis on leadership development, negotiation and entrepreneurship. The MBA program, presented in a e i le online and evening format, now can e completed in as little as 18 months.

At the undergraduate level, the school has added ma ors in finance, mar eting and man agement, and intensified its focus on career readiness. Undergraduates now are required to complete an internship and take a series of sequential career-development courses, beginning in the freshman year.

Other recent Brennan highlights: An Executives-in-Residence program brings to campus business leaders with executive and C suite-level experience to coach and mentor students one on one.

and stand

a marketing perspective and

The Adopt an Entrepreneur program enables students to help local businesses solve real-world challenges.

An expanded program of international study exposes students to business practices and innovations in places like Johannesburg, Strasbourg and Chile.

The school, meanwhile, is doubling down on its hallmark emphasis on ethics and corporate social responsibility. “You will get a course on business ethics in any business school, but it’s part of our academic DNA to really bring ethics to life,” says Al Rosenbloom, professor of marketing. “We keep coming back to it. It’s a part of every course.”

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 5

“She looked near death at Loyola hospital. Now look at her! She just went 4,500 miles on a bicycle.”

—Sister Melissa Waters

Cristal Ortega ‘17

“We Talk about Miracles. Here’s One.” The incredible journey of Cristal Ortega, alumna, graduate student, cancer survivor, and cross-country cyclist for a great cause. ours efore setting off on a cross country i e tre to raise money for cancer patients, Cristal Ortega lost another “cellmate.” That’s what she called her fellow young patients in the cancer ward. This time it was Blake, who only days earlier had received his high school diploma in a ceremony around his hospital bed.

So, Ortega, who by then had beaten her cancer and earned her bachelor’s degree, from Dominican this spring, wrote Blake’s name in marker on her calf and dedicated Day One of her 70-day, 4,500-mile journey to him.

That literally ro e me heart, she said. t urned a fire in me.

Ortega and 22 other cyclists rode from Baltimore to San Francisco this summer, helping raise more than $783,000 for the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, which supports an often overlooked age segment of the cancer population. Ortega is back at Dominican this fall, working toward a master’s degree in social work, thanks in part to faculty and staff who stood y her through a long fight.

The first signs of trou le appeared in her unior year during a semester a road in Salamanca, Spain, in the fall of 2014. Ortega tried to ignore the pain in her belly, but went to a hospital at the urging of her roommate, who could hear her groaning in her sleep. The Spanish doctors advised her to return immediately to Chicago, where she was diagnosed with stage 3 Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer that was attacking the soft tissues in her abdomen.

She endured weeks of chemotherapy and radiation at Loyola University Medical Center, where, at the age of 21, she was one of the oldest patients in the pediatric cancer unit. She became like an older sister to patients like 15-year-old Feyza, who was

6 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

distraught at losing her hair—Ortega got her excited about wearing a purple wig.

A few patients became dear friends but didn’t make it; their deaths left her with survivor’s guilt.

“The sad part is that when doctors told me I was in remission,” she recalled, “instead of being happy, I said, ‘Why me?’”

Though already steeped in lessons of endurance, Ortega discovered while biking across the country there was more to learn about the “mental game” of pushing through pain. Mountains, monotony, hundred-mile days. Searing desert heat. And injuries, including a helmet-cracking fall she endured while crossing railroad tracks. But she also experienced camaraderie and the unbelievable beauty of mountain passes, waterfalls and prairie. Along the way, the team delivered care packages to cancer patients, including a terminally ill woman whose zest for life rivaled Ortega’s.

“That’s when I realized that I mattered there,” she said. y presence made a difference.

She plans to continue working with the cancer community, especially young adults, whose lives are interrupted y illness ust as they are finding their way in the world.

Back at Dominican, on the second day of classes, Ortega biked through the campus gates and was mobbed by cheering classmates and faculty for an o cial welcome home ceremony. n the crowd was Sister Melissa Waters, OP, the associate academic dean for advising, who had visited Ortega in the hospital and had worked to help her continue her studies.

“We talk about miracles. Here’s one,” Sister Melissa said. “She looked near death at Loyola hospital. Now look at her! She is beautiful, she is well and she just went 4,500 miles on a bicycle.”

Ortega hugged Sister Melissa, thanked the crowd for their donations and made a pitch to other students to register for next summer’s bike ride, known as the 4K for Cancer. “You will learn a lot about yourself, and you will be helping out a great cause,” she promised.

Then she headed off. t was time to get to class.

WHAT IS CULINOLOGY?

Food + Science = Awesome!

From molecular gastronomy to the Unicorn Frappuccino, it is clear that the worlds of science and food have collided in strange and marvelous ways. We have Dominican’s young Culinology® program at least partially to thank for that.

For the non-foodies out there, Culinology blends the culinary arts and food science. The result is all sorts of innovation in developing new products and solving conundrums like: How do I make a no-nonsense meringue without egg whites for my vegan friends int Google a uafa a and prepare to have your mind blown. You’re welcome).

Dominican’s Culinology program is one of only in the .S. there s a th in alaysia accredited by the Research Chefs Association, the organi ation that pioneered the discipline and gave it its trademarked name. Dominican hit a milestone this spring when, for the first time, it sent three students to a high profile competition at the RCA’s annual expo, which took place this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

It’s a bit like TV’s MasterChef minus the foulmouthed Gordon Ramsay. The Dominican team earned a silver medal with its interpretation of a traditional brazo gitano Gypsy s arm in Spanish , a rolled spiced sponge ca e filled with guava paste and coquito cream cheese, dri led with passion fruit gel and topped with pieces of fried plantain and coconut meringue.

The task was to create one version for an upscale restaurant using traditional ingredients. But the real challenge was to transform that elegant dessert into a commerciali ed version that could be mass marketed as a single serving, microwava le fro en food item.

The two versions had to look and taste exactly

the same. That’s where the science came in.

Fortunately, team leader Dylan Donovan is a veteran of food competitions. Joseph Oh brought food service experience and the third team member, Morganne Schmidt, has an especially strong science background as a double major in food applications and chemistry. “I’m really interested in the science of food and knowing the processes of cooking— and answering questions like, ‘Why does my sou eep falling Schmidt e plained.

To get the two versions to match, the team made about 25 revisions, painstakingly testing and tweaking everything from the amount of sugar to the consistency of the guava jelly. “It’s very scientific in that way, Schmidt said.

At the competition, oor udges scrutini ed techniques and teamwork, and tasting judges sampled the finished product. oseph h, who has dabbled in sushi, was in charge of delicately rolling the cake. Everyone’s attention was on them as they suspensefully cut the perfect spiral.

Team coach and nutrition sciences lecturer Caren Messina-Hirsch is now working to establish a pipeline of students to travel to the event each year.

Donovan graduated in May and is working in product development, but Schmidt and Oh are back and thinking of taking on another competition, perhaps one that challenges emerging chef-technologists to create a product from food waste. “One of the guys I met at the expo was using the grains left from producing eer to ma e granola ars, h said. “That’s technically garbage. But now you can actually make a product out of it. That’s pretty awesome. Than you, science.

in g i ar nt d d d that blends the culinary arts and the science of food. Culinologists shape the future of research and development in the food industry by combining the artistic abilities of culinary artists with the in-depth knowledge of food scientists.

The U.S. has only 15 culinology programs that are approved by the Research Chefs Association. Dominican has the only such program in Illinois.

Product Development A Culinology graduate is one-stop shopping for food manufacturers in need of employees steeped in the culinary arts, the sciences and marketing. They can develop winning products, get them to market faster and stay ahead of consumer demands for things like alternatives to nitrates, sugar and GMOs.

Flavor Houses The labs where food chemists mix compounds and extracts into such things as the mysterious “essence” that makes cans of LaCroix so addictive. Dominican’s Culinology team went to one when they needed a natural coconut rum a or

Food Safety and Quality Assurance QA specialists help keep our food supply safe, and ensure quality, safety, sanitation and compliance with government regulations.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 7

A YEAR OF MILESTONES The 2016-17 season saw many notable firsts and other achievements for the Dominican Stars.

The women’s volleyball team finished third in the NACC regular season despite playing the 17th-toughest schedule in the country. The Stars appeared in the NACC Tournament for the ninth straight season, advancing to the conference semis for the eighth consecutive year.

Dominican’s student-athletes earned the highest collective GPA in Stars history.

In all, 112 students were named Scholar Athletes for the season, maintaining a minimum 3.25 grade-point average for the academic year while lettering with one of Dominican’s 13 varsity intercollegiate sports.

Cool Hand Luke Graduating senior Daniel Supple was named to the Jewish Sports Review All-America First Team as a starting pitcher.

The Stars as a whole posted a 3.28 combined grade-point average for the year, the highest GPA in their history.

Six student-athletes maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Men’s basketball was back in the NACC Tournament for the first time since 2013 and won the most games in a season since the 2007–2008 season.

The softball program went 30–13 on the 2017 season, equaling the program record for wins in a season and setting the program mark for winning percentage (.697).

Women’s soccer played in the NACC tournament championship match for the first time since 2010. On the year, the Stars went 13-6-1, posting the third-highest winning percentage (.675) in program history.

The men’s soccer program returned to the top of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, as the Stars won their first outright conference championship since 2012 and the program’s tenth NACC championship in 11 seasons. Dominican’s rise to the top of the regular season standings earned head coach Erick Baumann NACC Coach of the Year honors for the sixth time in conference history.

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The baseball team won the last eight games of the regular season, and 14 of their last 18, to qualify for the NACC Baseball Tournament for the fourth time in six seasons.

The men’s volleyball team made its first appearance in the NCAA Division III championship, in Springfield, Massachusetts—a rapid rise for a program only in its fourth year.

Volleyball Star Luke Spicer has control of his game, on and off the court.

The expectations are high this year for Dominican’s men’s volleyball team. They are especially high for right-side hitter Luke Spicer. But you wouldn’t guess it when you meet this tanned, relaxed senior as he shows up for practice in late August after spending the summer on North Avenue Beach, working for a beach volleyball league.

For all his nonchalance, Spicer knows he has a formidable record to uphold. Last spring, he played a major role in getting the team, in just their fourth year of existence, to the CAA tournament, where they finished sixth in the country. He also was named most valuable player in the 2017 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League Tournament, which the Stars won.

“He’s the face of the team,” says the Stars assistant coach, Douglas Burchett.

Over the last two seasons, he adds, Spicer has regularly produced the most “kills” per game. (Kills are defensive attacks not returnable by the opposing team.)

As the Stars enter their fifth year on the court, half of the founding players are gone, having graduated in the spring—and the face of the team is a little nervous about what the new season will bring. But he’s not letting it get to him. “We’re just going to keep the tradition moving,” he says.

His belief in staying the course, even when it’s bumpy, comes from personal experience. hen he first oined the Stars, Spicer was, as Burchett puts it, “a great athlete, but not yet a volleyball player.”

“I could jump high and hit the ball hard, but I didn’t have a ton of control,” Spicer confirms.

The turning point came in his junior year, when Spicer studied the films from a road trip to Ohio and worked to make changes to his game, with the help of the head coach at the time, Dan Ames, who had also coached Spicer in high school. “I realized I was always

trying to do too much,” Spicer recalls. hen figured out how to eep things simple and stop overthinking everything, things fell into place.”

His goal of keeping things simple has spilled over to other aspects of his college life. Instead of letting a busy schedule stress him out, Spicer views a packed day as a positive. “Being in-season gives me a structure to plan my time around,” he says. He also is motivated by something he noticed from the first time he met the team’s founding freshmen back in 2014. “They set high standards for themselves, oth on and off the court.

Everyone held each other accountable for keeping their grades up.”

A history major, Spicer maintains a GPA of 3.6. He plans to become a high school history teacher and coach. “History is important because it tells us who we are and where we’re from, the mistakes we’ve made and the greatness we’ve achieved,” he says.

Spicer plans to spend his final year at ominican e panding his co-curricular horizons. “I don’t only want to focus on the team. I want to be part of other campus activities and meet students who are doing other things,” he says. “What I love most about Dominican is the community. The students and the professors and even the alumni are all connected.

Everybody cares. There’s a good neighbor quality.”

He misses those founding members of the ominican volley all team, ut is confident that he will be able to stay in touch with them.

“Oh yes, they will be at all the games,” he says. “They will always be around.”

Alyssa Domico was named a Top 30 honoree for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Award—a first in DU history. Domico maintained a perfect 4.0 in the classroom over eight semesters as a neuroscience major while batting .345 over 154 career games. This fall she entered the University of Kentucky’s College of Dentistry with plans to become an orthodontist.

Gabriel Gongora closed out a tremendous career as a soccer goalkeeper, earning Scholar AllAmerica honors from the NSCAA after landing on the NSCAA All-Central Region Second Team and All-NACC First Team.

Gongora logged a 0.68 goals against average in over 1,500 minutes in goal. In July, he started work at MB Financial Bank.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 9

WHERE LEARNING DEMANDS MORE +{ A Faculty View }+

“I tell students,

this

is what everybody signed up for. Yes, it’s hard.

That’s why you’re here.”

As part of a refreshed “brand platform,” Dominican adopted a new tagline: Where Learning Demands More. What does it mean? As the academic year began, we asked four professors to share their thoughts on the phrase and its implications for faculty, students and the university.

+{ T H E F A C U L T Y P A R T I C I P A N T S }+

Using random samples of fish from local restaurants and grocery stores, students in a molecular and cellular biology class extract the genomic DNA of the fish samples to send out for sequencing. Of 52 fish samples tested, 16 were identified as species that did not match the menu description or product label.

Anjali Chaudhry Professor and chair, Department of Management, Marketing and International Business.

Joined Dominican in 2013. PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez Associate professor of history and associate dean of the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences. Joined Dominican in 2000. PhD, Tulane University.

Clinton Nichols

Mickey Sweeney

Assistant professor of sociology and criminology.

Joined Dominican in 2013. PhD, Northwestern University.

Professor of English and co-director of the Mazzuchelli Scholars Honors Program. Joined Dominican in 2006. PhD, Trinity College Dublin.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 11

Christopher Anderson, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Danielle Jones, a natural science major, collect Ischnura verticalis, the Eastern forktail damselfly, in Cricket Creek Forest Preserve in Addison for a summer research project on how parasites affect the damselflies.

and really push ourselves and our students.

We do an excellent job with the caritas part of caritas et veritas. We are a compassionate, caring, nurturing community. But I think we sometimes compromise the idea that we need to really challenge our students as well.

Q: When you first heard the new tag-

line, what was your reaction? And has your perception changed at all over the last year?

Mickey Sweeney: I hated the tagline—

absolutely hated it. Maybe it’s the English major in me, but I struggled to understand the positive connotations of the word “demand.” I thought that demand came across as negative, which is ironic for me, because most of my students think of me as exceptionally demanding. It’s not “Where Learning Inspires More,” which I would have preferred.

It took me a long time to come to the idea the phrase is actually meant to be a challenge. I like it more now. I think it gives me license to be demanding—because that is who we are. It allows me to say, “This is the bar Dominican has set.” I get to be less apologetic and more honest and open about the fact that I’m demanding. I can say, “This is what everybody signed up for. Yes, it’s hard. That’s why you’re here.”

Anjali Chaudhry: I didn’t like the tagline

either at first. It struck me as incomplete. I thought, “Demand more what? Give me the full sentence.” But I came to like it. I think it expresses a great aspirational goal for the university. It challenges us to look inward 12 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Clinton Nichols: The tagline really speaks to the tradition of Dominican, to the kind of learning community that the sisters created and sustained. From the start, they demanded a lot of one another and of the young women who came to them for an education. They offered a rigorous curriculum at a time when a lot of women’s colleges were finishing schools, where you went to get your “M-R-S degree.” It means a lot to us, for example, that this institution was a pioneer in international study opportunities back in the 1920s. It means that when we talk about the value of experiential education today, we are drawing on a legacy that is almost a century old.

Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez: My first

thought was, “This certainly is not your typical university tagline.” Most taglines emphasize what the school gives the stu-

“I tell students to think not only about the subject matter but also about their

fundamental

values

and beliefs.”

Clinton Nichols

dent. This one suggests that the school will ask a lot of the student. It was a bit jarring at first. Saying that you’re harder than the competition is not generally a selling point.

It took me a long time to come to a different view. It does speak of high standards, of consistent expectations across the board.

Now, I see a lot of ways in which it can work. It requires context and explanation, but that’s not a bad thing.

Q: In different ways, you all seem to be

suggesting that the tagline says to students, “Dominican is going to be more challenging than you might expect.” A small college or university doesn’t always lead with academic rigor; it’s often more about the warm and fuzzy. This tagline, intentionally, goes against that perception.

Mickey Sweeney: Well, if that’s the

case—and no one’s ever said that to me before—then I love it. Because I do think that Dominican suffers from a perception that it is a gentle, gracious, lovely place and nothing more. We need to let students know that, in fact, this a place where they will be not only challenged but also quite possibly transformed by their academic experiences.

Anjali Chaudhry: It reminds me of an ad

that Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer, put in a newspaper about a hundred years ago, when he was looking for a team to take to the South Pole. It said, “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in event of success.” He had hundreds of people apply with that pitch. So, I think this tagline could inspire people to say, “You know what? This is not an easy school. And I’m not looking for one.” That’s what we need to happen.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 13

Mickey Sweeney: That’s exactly what

I think. I couldn’t have said it better. We need to be demanding and to be seen as demanding, to stand apart from some of the competition.

Q: About half of our undergraduates are the first person in their families to seek a college degree. Many are juggling their studies with jobs and even family responsibilities. Life already is demanding a lot of these students. Can we really demand more of them?

Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez: We have

to—and they are up to the challenge. We have a lot of natural risk-takers in our classrooms. If you are the first person in your family to do anything, you are taking a risk.

Our students possess a certain toughness and resiliency that we need to tap into. We also need to be very intentional about connecting our students with internships and opportunities for jobs after college, because if we don’t, nobody else will.

Clinton Nichols: A lot of our students

need to think about the material costs of a college education in ways that more privileged students never have to consider.

Our students feel the hours they put into jobs to pay for their tuition; they know what their families are sacrificing; they even understand the value of a scholarship. They realize what it all costs, and they know that they are the ones who are sitting in the chair, who have to do the work, who stand to benefit the most. At the same time, they know that all these other people have dreams and aspirations for them. That in itself demands more of them.

14 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Q: Does the less-than-privileged back-

ground of a lot of our students demand a lot of faculty?

Mickey Sweeney: We have lots to do for

our students, from making sure they can get work to keeping them engaged on campus.

To take just one example, we have a lot of students who commute to campus. How do we make them feel more connected to the campus community, not just show up for class and leave to go home or go to work?

“We have a lot of natural

risk-takers in our classrooms.

from families with networks of their own.

They need us to be a resource for them.

Clinton Nichols: That raises the point that “Where Learning Demands More” also can apply to the friends and graduates of Dominican. It suggests that the university is going to start demanding more of you.

You’ve graduated from here, you’re in a good career—now can you facilitate an internship for a student?

Q: We take a distinctive approach to

career preparation. When we talk about it, we are as likely to use the words “vocation” or “calling” as the word “job.”

Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez: We are

It’s hard because their outside work and family obligations are so intense. We haven’t cracked that problem. But that’s one of my goals for this year.

countercultural in that way. Our current national culture puts a lot of emphasis on credentialing. It’s more about earning a credential than about having an actual, transformative educational experience.

Dominican really goes against the grain in that regard. We talk a lot in our seminars, for example, not only about finding a calling but also about what it means to build a fulfilling life. Of course, to be fulfilled you also need to be useful, to have a marketable set of skills. It’s one thing to dream of being fulfilled as a designer; it’s another thing to actually know how to design something.

Anjali Chaudhry: At the business school,

Mickey Sweeney: When you first talk to

we now require students to complete an internship as part of the curriculum. That requirement puts a significant burden on the faculty. We need to locate and develop a lot of new internships. All of us have networks, but it will not be easy for us to create a meaningful internship for each and every business student. But that is what our students need. Most of them do not come

students about careers, they seem very practical and driven. Maybe they get that from their parents or their community. Then, five minutes into the conversation, they say, “You know, I really want to start my own business so I can give back to the community.” I just had a conversation like that with a student. “I want to buy a building in the Austin neighborhood so I can house the

Our students possess

toughness and resiliency.”

D o u g l a s K e b e r l e i n G u t i e r re z

homeless.” I said, okay, but first you need to graduate! Our students are practical, but when you give them an opportunity to dream, to think more broadly about what they can be, they often move to something both more idealistic and pragmatic.

Q: Idealism certainly has a place on this

campus. This year, for example, the faculty have decided to assess “student demonstrations of socially responsible behavior and civic engagement.” How do you assess that?

Mickey Sweeney: It probably means

something different for each faculty member. As a medievalist, I think that to be socially responsible you need to know how we got where we are as a society. It is not good enough to say, “We have problems.”

You need to understand how we came to have those problems. You need to know the historical context and comprehend in basic ways how the society works. This is especially important in a time of “fake news.” Now, in my class, I don’t teach anything about contemporary America; but I understand that America sprang from British colonies that had a particular set of values, and that we are still responding to those values. And if you don’t understand that history and those values, you don’t get why blue-collar people feel a certain way, or how white privilege plays out in the workforce. And if you don’t understand all that, you are at a practical disadvantage in our society. I want to give our students every single advantage we can. I want them to understand how the world works. That matters to me.

Clinton Nichols: I also think that knowing

history, and just knowing how to think clearly, are good skills for anyone to have if they are going to be a useful, contributing

member of society, from the neighborhood to the national level. I try to encourage my students to do whatever they feel is right for their communities, regardless of what their individual politics are. I try to help them develop their skills so that they can be active and effective in making the world better.

Anjali Chaudhry: We need to model be-

havior, to teach students that it is perfectly okay to be on a different page and still respect the other person. We also need to

“The tagline expresses a great

aspirational goal

for the university.

It challenges us to really

push

ourselves and our students.”

Anjali Chaudhry

to class all dressed up and looking professional. They learn the material by teaching it to others, not just by reading about it.

Q: The value that Dominican places on

original research—even by undergraduates—suggests that we set the academic bar pretty high. What do research opportunities mean to our students?

Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez: I knew a

student two years ago, a freshman, who was intensely interested in neuroscience. She said she was thinking of going back home to Texas to finish her studies in part because she thought there might be more opportunities there for her to engage in neuroscience research. I said, “Well, you may well find a lot of opportunities there, but you probably will have to wait in line for them, and you may not get a chance to do any real research until you enter graduate school.” I encouraged her to go to our undergraduate research expo in April and just see how many of the student presentations were about neuroscience. Most years, you find multiple teams presenting original neuroscience research. She decided to return in the fall.

Mickey Sweeney: What we have at

create meaningful experiences where they can engage real people and seek to address their problems. When students work with other people face to face, they come to internalize a sense of social responsibility.

They become part of the community and they learn they can make a difference. That is why experiential learning is so important.

In one of my classes, I have my students teach case studies from Harvard Business School to high school students. They take the responsibility very seriously. They come

Dominican is the opportunity for a student to really get to know a faculty member and say, “I would like to do a research project with you.” And we will work to facilitate it. That is a huge thing, and you will not find it everywhere—certainly not at large universities. When a student gets to work alongside a faculty member on original research, it is transformational. I use that big word deliberately. I’ve seen students go on to do things they never dreamed of doing, to earn master’s degrees, to study in

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 15

York and Liverpool. That is life-changing.

Our honors students have always been good students; they know how to read the books and write the papers. That part isn’t hard for them. A research project presents them with a challenge that is much more like the challenges they are going to face in the real world.

Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez: Research

opportunities also allow students to bring together what they learn over time. These projects can cross over from the junior to senior year, for example. The culture of assessment in higher education forces

“A research project presents students with challenges like the ones they will face in the

real world.”

Mickey Sweeney

students and faculty, in some ways, to compartmentalize learning. It’s kind of analogous to a basketball practice where all you do is run drills and you never get to play a game. For a lot of students, college ends up being like that. These research projects enable students to get in the game. And it’s not just research—community-based learning and other forms of experiential education can be as important and transformational as a big research project. They all force you to apply your learning in real time and bring it all together.

16 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Q: Fifty years ago, nearly all of our

students were practicing Catholics and most of the faculty were sisters. Today, 55 percent of our undergraduates are Catholic, and 45 percent identify with another religion or none at all. How important is the university’s Catholic Dominican identity today, in the context of this discussion about a demanding community of learners?

challenged. That might even be one of the draws for them. But that is not Dominican.

Mickey Sweeney: You’re right, that is not

us. The tradition of the Dominican order has an incredible heritage of intellectual inquiry. Some people think of the Catholic tradition as restrictive, but intellectually it has been a thousand years of challenge. It is

good preparation for challenging times. A lot of us on the faculty were challenged by the election last year. We were challenged to respect people who profoundly don’t agree with us on important matters. It was a painful exercise, but a very good one. I had to find ways to make sense of how so many good, smart people could think so very differently from me.

Anjali Chaudhry: I am not a Catholic or

even a Christian. Not long after I joined the faculty, I served on the Interfaith Committee. That experience taught me that at Dominican, we not only talk the talk, we walk the walk. We allow people to be different from us and still be respected for their values, experience and point of view. When we talk about the importance of diversity, equality and social justice, we

mean it. We never say, “We have the best religious tradition.” We look for commonalities.

We bring all students into the conversation, including those who are not religious. That approach really appeals to me. The fact that we are a Catholic institution helps us to be values-based. It helps our students to feel part of a community, and it encourages them to make a difference.

Clinton Nichols: As a faculty member and a non-Catholic, I’ve chosen to learn about the Dominican tradition and about certain aspects of Catholic social teaching. This learning has informed the way I teach criminology. Some of my students are thinking about working in law enforcement. When we talk about the criminal justice system, I encourage them to think not only about the subject matter but also about their fundamental values and beliefs, and how they might shape their work and sustain them in their profession. Is the work of law enforcement deeply compatible with their beliefs? Will they feel compelled to become an activist and seek to reform the system?

I want our students to be alert to all the challenges they are likely to face out there.

Douglas Keberlein Gutierrez: The ideas

found in Catholic social teaching are reflected in a lot of our curriculum, especially in the liberal arts and sciences seminars. At the same time, the Dominican experience is also catholic with a small “c.” It is not parochial. It works to encourage students to think about communities beyond their own as they make decisions in life. That kind of ethos runs through the institution and shapes what it tries to instill in students. At some institutions with a religious foundation, students feel that they have entered an environment where their beliefs will not be

Jessica Perez, a graphic design major, at work in Assistant Professor Frank Spidale’s painting class.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 17

WHERE LEARNING DEMANDS MORE +{ Graduate Study }+

A Part of Something Bigger Dominican offered its first graduate program in 1949. Today, the university offers 21 master’s programs and one doctoral program (in library and information science).

Across disciplines, the programs stand out for their combination of rigor, real-world applicability and advanced learning on an intimate scale. They also stand out for foundational qualities that make them distinctly Dominican. “I am so grateful to Dominican for helping me understand the importance of leading an ethical life dedicated to serving others,” says Hedi Belkaoui ’04, MA ’09, the regional director for turnaround schools at the Archdiocese of Chicago. “Caritas et veritas are two of the pillars grounding my life.”

Ten Ways That Dominican’s Graduate Programs Demand More of Faculty and Students

18 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Crossing Borders, Pushing Boundaries

Dominican’s graduate programs emphasize global thinking and experience through academic programs in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. The School of Social Work, for example, offers field placements in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Ireland and South Africa. “The reason is simple: social work today is a global profession,” says Charlie Stoops of the social work faculty. “Economic trends, immigration policies, the refugee crisis—all of these phenomena impact the lives of people whom social workers serve every day.” Kathleen Odell, associate dean of the Brennan School of Business, says, “Our international residency program is an important dimension of our efforts to serve as an innovative leader in experiential education and prepare students for service in a global economy.” Last year, Odell accompanied 12 MBA students to Nairobi, Kenya, to examine the operations of a major telecommunications company, a flower export farm and a microbusiness.

“Dominican really pushes the boundaries of what graduate studies can be,” says Maxine Davis, who completed a residency in Guatemala and presented research in Italy on her way to earning a joint MSW/MBA degree.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 19

Graduate study at Dominican is no ivory-tower endeavor.

Engaging the Real World

Through intensive practicums, students gain not only knowledge but also experience in team building, problem solving and thoughtful, ethical leadership.

Master’s students in library and information science, for example, serve in schools, corporations, law firms and military facilities as well as public and private libraries. In the MSW program, field placements encompass the full expanse of the social work profession; students work at Catholic

Setting High Standards

Charities, Adoption Link, Deborah’s Place, the West Side Domestic Abuse Project, the Polish American Association,

Our graduate programs have sought—and earned—the most prestigious accreditations in their fields. The Brennan School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a global organization that has been synonymous with high standards since 1916. Of the 17,000 business programs in the world, fewer than 5 percent are AACSB-accredited. The School of Education is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the gold standard in teacher education. Its voluntary peerreview process involves a comprehensive evaluation of each school based on a set of research-based national standards developed across all sectors of the teaching profession. The School of Social Work is accredited by the Council on Social

Addressing Society’s Pressing Needs

20 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Palos Community Hospital, the Mercy Home for Boys and

Work Education (CSWE), the only accrediting agency for social work education in the United States that is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The School of Information Studies offers the only program in library and information science in the Chicago area that is accredited by the American Library Association (ALA). The school also is a member of iSchools, a prestigious consortium of more than 80 information schools on five continents. “When we say that Dominican is ‘where learning demands more,’ we are challenging ourselves as well our students,” says Interim Provost Jeffrey Carlson.

In the 800-year-old Dominican tradition, the purpose of study is to make a person not only knowledgeable but also useful.

With that in mind, Dominican designs graduate programs that prepare students to work in high-demand, highimpact professions. The physician assistant studies program, for example, was started in 2016 to meet the needs of a profession that grew by 27 percent over the prior decade. The information studies program, another newer entry, educates students for careers in fields—such as cybersecurity—that barely existed when they were born.

The conflict resolution program, a distinctive offering of the College of Applied Social Sciences, helps society meet a need for professional mediators. Last year, 100 percent of the university’s social work graduates were employed within nine months. Even the most established professions, such as teaching, are primed for growth. The U.S. Department of Education projects K–12 enrollment will increase by 5.2% by 2023, and the School of Education is ready to address the need. “I can’t tell you the number of times the principals who hire our teachers have told me that Dominican students are the best prepared,” says faculty member Ben Freville.

Girls, the DuPage County Juvenile Detention Center, the American Red Cross and scores of additional organizations and agencies. At the Brennan School of Business, graduate students are embedded in local corporations and community organizations, working to solve real-world problems. The school “aspires to be the innovative leader in experiential business education,” in the words of its vision statement.

Crossing Disciplinary Lines Combined degrees in different but complementary fields address some of the subtleties and complexities of the modern workforce. Dominican offers eight combined degrees, interweaving fields such as business and nutrition, library science and social work, and business and law (in partnership with the John Marshall Law School in Chicago). These opportunities enable students to expand their knowledge and skills in ways that make them more useful to their professions and more attractive to employers. One combined degree program, the MBA with a coordinated program in dietetics, is unique to Dominican, and draws students from around the United States. “The program provided me with a rare lens for a registered dietitian,” says Julio Flores, a 2016 graduate. “It challenged me to critically analyze current business issues within the world of nutrition.”

Assuring Access to Excellence The students in Dominican’s graduate programs represent a microcosm of American society, providing the classroom with the dynamics of different cultures and viewpoints, and preparing professionals for the 21stcentury workplace. Minority students represent 37 percent of graduate enrollment in social work, for example, and 20 percent in physician assistant studies. The latter program purposefully recruited highly qualified applicants from populations that traditionally have been under-represented in the health care professions, as well as U.S. military veterans.

In the MBA program, 67 percent of the students are women, the highest percentage in the Chicago area. “The student is at the center here,” says Anjali Chaudhry of the Brennan School faculty. “Our classes are small and our students bring varied perspectives. That results in a rich, immersive learning experience.”

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 21

An Authentic Learning Community

Meeting the Needs of the Individual In addition to graduate degrees, Dominican offers a range of learning opportunities leading to specific certificates and endorsements in essential disciplines.

For working teachers, for example, the School of Education offers endorsements in special education, bilingual education and technology specialist. The School of Social Work offers certificates in gerontology, school social work and working with the military. The School of Information Studies offers certificates in informatics, digital curation, youth services, web design and four additional fields. Certificate programs enable working adults to use their time efficiently to gain the precise knowledge they need.

High Tech, High Touch

To prepare for the workplace of today and tomorrow, graduate students need access to the all the high-tech tools of modern scholarship. Dominican’s campus is not only elegant and stately but also fully equipped for 21st-century learning. Students in the physician assistant studies program, for example, use exceptional new tools, including the Anatomage Table, an anatomical visualization system that allows students to examine virtual cadavers in meticulous detail. It is the most technologically advanced system for teaching anatomy in the world. At the same time,

no amount of advanced equipment can substitute for expert and engaged faculty. The graduate programs at Dominican are taught by scholars with a deep commitment to teaching, to scholarship and to the success of their students in the classroom and beyond. “We have a very low student-toteacher ratio in our master’s program, so we’re able to give a lot of attention to each student,” says Rose Ann Mathai of the nutrition department faculty. “It’s a highly personalized approach to graduate education.”

At Dominican, graduate education is not about passing through a large, impersonal institution. It is about forming a community of learners. “The Dominican mission and the whole idea of being part of a community—I felt it in my classes,” says Clem Martin MA ’01, president of Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School in Chicago. “It wasn’t just about what you were learning. You became part of something bigger.” The university fosters community in part by keeping classes small (average size: 14 students). “The learning here at every level is centered on relationships,” says Interim Provost Jeffrey Carlson. “It’s an intimate way to learn.”

Graduate Programs at Dominican

BRENNAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS..

Master of Business Administration (MBA) Master of Science in Accounting (MSA)

COLLEGE OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES..

S S c h o o l o f I n f o r m a t i o n S t u d i e s n.

Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) Master of Library and Information Science with School Library Media Licensure and Endorsement

C O L L E G E O F H E A LT H S C I E N C E S . .

Master of Medical Science in Physician Assistant Studies Master of Science in Nutrition

Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM)

Real Options for Busy People 22 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Many graduate students at Dominican enjoy the convenience of evening classes and online and hybrid course options. Full- and part-time academic schedules are available through the College of Applied Social Sciences and the Brennan School of Business. Several programs allow students to set their own pace; the master of science in accounting, for example, can be completed in as little as 15 months or more gradually, over several years. As much as possible, the university seeks to offer graduate students— who often have families and full-time jobs—the flexibility they need to keep their lives in balance as they work to build productive and meaningful futures.

COLLEGE OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES..

S S c h o o l o f E d u c a t i o n n.

Master of Professional Studies in Library and Information Science (MPS)

Master of Science in Special Education with LBS 1 Endorsement

Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science (PhD)

ADDITIONAL DEGREE OPTIONS..

Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution MBA with a Coordinated Program in Dietetics

Master of Arts in Education

MBA/Juris Doctor

Master of Arts in Teaching with Secondary Endorsement

MBA/Master of Social Work MBA/Master of Library and Information Science

Alternative Licensure Programs

COLLEGE OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES..

Endorsements in Bilingual Education, English as a Second Language, Technology Specialist, Learning Behavior Specialist

School of Social Work .

Master of Social Work (MSW) Post-MSW Certificates in Gerontology, School Social Work, Working with the Military

MLIS/Master of Social Work MLIS/Master of Divinity MLIS/Master of Arts in Public History MSW/Master of Arts in Confict Resolution

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 23

WHERE LEARNING DEMANDS MORE +{ Undergraduate Research }+

THE THRILL OF DISCOVERY At Dominican, student research and creative work start early, go deep, and find public expression at the annual URSCI Expo.

The best scholarly research is only as good as the article or presentation that brings its findings to the world. After all, if your brilliant idea or game-changing theory never leaves your notebook, you might as well have spent your time watching Seinfeld reruns.

That lesson is at the core of the URSCI Expo, an annual highlight of the spring semester at which Dominican undergraduates get a shot at transforming their scholarly and artistic work into engaging presentations that inform and inspire others.

Students conduct the research throughout the academic year (and often over the summer) in collaboration with faculty mentors. These intense learning partnerships are unusual opportunities for undergraduates; at large universities, they are reserved for graduate students. Younger students who participate in original research not only grow intellectually but also materially enhance their chances of admission to graduate school.

The faculty-student partnerships are at the center of everything that goes on at Dominican’s Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Investigations—universally known as URSCI. In addition to the expo, URSCI awards grants and class credit to support student research across the disciplines, and connects students with faculty seeking research assistants.

The university held its sixth annual URSCI Expo in April. It featured presentations by more than 100 students on subjects as diverse as fashion, gene therapy and (we’re not making this up) whether a chemical in garlic can increase the lifespan of worms.

Here, in five snapshots, is a day in the life of the URSCI Expo.

24 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 25

The Power of Play Listening to Adam Janusz wax poetic on the importance of play is a bit like teleporting into the audience for a TED Talk. In a high-energy presentation that touches on everything from neuroscience to evolution and psychology, Janusz delivers a riveting discourse on how the spirit of play can

plunge you into the unknown and shatter your worldview. “With play you can confront the unknown. You can stand in front of caves and acknowledge there might be a dragon inside,” he says, with the gusto of an actor on a stage. A crowd packed with his buddies from the volleyball team is totally into it.

For her project, Arlet Aguilar, a sculpture major, sought to evoke the experience of undocumented students by creating a wall and draping it in barbed wire.

She invited students to complete the installation by adding graffiti.

26 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Janusz majored in elementary education and American studies. He came by his interest in the uses of play as a student teacher, watching kindergarteners play and realizing that they were making meaning out of the world around them. It is an evolutionary advantage, he explains, one that is woven into the great capacity of human beings for adaptation, abstraction and creativ-

ity. Janusz received the prestigious Mulroy Award at commencement in May, and now teaches first grade at the St. Francis Center in Redwood City, California. Before he left Dominican, he delivered a message to his fellow undergraduates at the expo. “The one thing I want you to take away,” he says, “is to walk out of this room and play more often, be a little more playful.”

The Experience of a Wall

Watch Out for Those Muons!

Arlet Aguilar, a sculpture major, wants to make you a little uncomfortable. She wants you to know what it’s like to be an undocumented student, as she is. To evoke the experience of barriers and her own struggle to overcome them, she built a wall across the Parmer Hall atrium and draped it in barbed wire.

Arlet crossed the U.S. border with Mexico when she was just six months old. She likes the irony of an immigrant creating a border wall. Hers is made of faux brick paneling, two-by-fours and chicken wire. She hands out chalk for students to complete the installation by adding graffiti. By afternoon nearly every inch of the wall is covered in chalk, and Arlet has a knot in her throat. Students take selfies in front of the barrier; one flashes a V for victory sign. A man bends at the knee and scribbles the words “I work very hard to live in this country!” Other messages appear: “Lucha!” “Undocumented, unafraid, unapologetic.” “Tear it down!”

Stephanie Flores, a nursing student and a native of Mexico, wanders up with a curious look, at first not realizing that the divider signifies a border wall. She laughs at her obliviousness. “I tried to look over the wall, the same way people from Mexico look over the wall, wanting to come to a better side.” She takes a piece of chalk.

“We are all Americans,” she writes.

“You are welcome.”

In the 19th century, explorers in Egypt used gunpowder to blast holes in search of chambers in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Fortunately, today’s archaeologists have less destructive means of exploration, including robots and scanners. Jose Rangel is part of a team developing an advanced type of scanner that he hopes will be used to search for hidden chambers in pyramids in Mexico and Central America.

Older devices have been used to find such chambers in the pyramids at Giza by detecting changes in density. But Rangel’s prototype would produce an actual image in high definition. It also could be used by geologists mapping magma chambers in volcanoes and by security personnel scanning trucks for contraband.

Rangel is studying math and mechanical engineering in Dominican’s joint program with the Illinois Institute of Technology. He used the URSCI Expo to polish the elevator pitch he and his partners will use to attract more research funding. His prototype is “like something out of a Batman movie,” he says with a laugh.

“In simple terms, it’s basically an X-ray machine.” In fact, though, the prototype uses muons, which penetrate far deeper than X-rays. Pronounced MYOO’-ahns, muons are giant electrons produced when cosmic rays collide with particles in the earth’s atmosphere. “They’re everywhere.

They’re all around us,” Rangel tells his fellow students. “They’re hitting you right now.” “Oh, I can feel them!” a classmate says, and gets a laugh.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 27

Food Apartheid in America If you lived in the North Lawndale apartments located on the site where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. lived for most of 1966, you would find yourself smack in the middle of one of Chicago’s food deserts, a distressingly common feature of the city’s poorer areas, predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. North Lawndale has only one full-service grocery store, and it’s more than a mile away from the apartments.

That is a problem for the residents.

Statistically speaking, if you live in that North Lawndale apartment complex, you probably don’t have a car, and your income

puts you at about the poverty line. This makes fast-food restaurants and corner stores the appealing dinner options. Their fare is less nutritious but also less expensive than the fresh produce for sale in that one grocery store.

Gabriel Neri, a sociology major, calls this phenomenon “American food apartheid.” He describes it as “a relentless social construct that limits availability of nutritionally adequate food on grounds of race, age, income, household status and geographic area.”

Neri is now a first-year student at the John Marshall Law School. In his Expo talk, he sounded a bit like a like a lawyer building a case. He not only indicted the present situation but also presented possible

policy solutions and initiatives, such as using retired buses as mobile grocery stores.

He remains an URSCI Expo enthusiast.

“You learn more through these independent research projects,” he says. “You research what you want to, and so you go deep.”

Flower Money Leticia Vargas is barely 25 seconds into her expo presentation when she begins to tear up. She is describing the experience of her father, an immigrant from the Mexican state of Michoacán, who works long hours making snack food in a sweltering factory so Leticia and her sisters can pursue their education and their passions.

A digital cinema major, Vargas used her father’s sacrifices and love for his family as the inspiration for a short film, Dinero de Flores, or Flower Money. The film is touching in its simplicity. With sparse dialogue, it captures the unspoken but almost palpable love of a man selling flowers to motorists at a busy street corner to support his daughter’s dream of becoming a competitive swimmer. The film is fictional, not a documentary, but Vargas cast her father and sister in it.

“My dad works so hard,” Vargas says softly. “I wanted to portray the struggle he goes through to provide for us, and the struggle that people are facing in the United States right now.”

A highlight of the spring semester, the URSCI Expo gives undergraduates a shot at transforming their scholarly and artistic work into engaging public presentations. Last

HOT TOPICS Founded in 2012, the URSCI Expo showcases the best research by Dominican undergraduates.

Here is a sampling of notable projects.

spring’s expo featured work by more than 100 students, on topics ranging from gene therapy to fashion design.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Bipolar I Disorder in Children, Adolescents and Adults: A Comparative Analysis

Pillage and Plunder: How the Nazi Regime Hijacked the History of Art and Its Impact on Contemporary Museum Collections

The First Rung: The Economic Imperative of Sweatshops in Developing Nations

A Simple Approach to Controlling a Robot with Body Movements

Gender Issues in Hemingway

Guatemala: How the Coffee Industry Makes a Difference in the Lives of the Poor

Saudi Arabia vs. Iran and the Sunni-Shia Conflict

Doing Business in the Muslim World

Women in Power: A Feminist Examination of Obama’s Foreign Policy Team

Assessing Current Head Start Policy on Overweight and Obese Children in Chicago

Dante and the Human Condition: A Study of The Divine Comedy through a Modern Psychological Perspective Family Leave Policy and Child Health: Evidence from 25 Countries Chemical Analysis of Crude Oil Refinery Processes and the Effects on the Environment The Biochemistry of Nicotine Addiction

Haiti: The International Community and Response to Natural Disasters An Investigation into the Production of Biofuels Modeling Cancer Stem Cell and Non-Stem Cancer Cell Population Growth Bear Stearns and the 2008 Financial Crisis Human Trafficking: A View of Modern Day Slavery and an Economic Boom Dementia: Are We Closer to a Cure?

28 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 29

WHERE LEARNING DEMANDS MORE +{ Learning and Service }+

where nothing comes

Seventeen Dominican students spend spring break learning the lessons of New Orleans.

By Jason Keyser

In the darkness just after nightfall, Cheyenne Dyer looked out over New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and saw the Chicago neighborhood where he grew up. The vacant lots, the deteriorating housing, the guys standing on the corner: it was a mirror of his own world, a dispiriting facsimile of the neglect and discrimination on Chicago’s West Side, playing out 800 miles away.

P HOTOG R A P HS B Y RYA N PA G E L OW

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Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 31

For graduate student Cheyenne Dyer, the Lower Ninth Ward reminded him of the neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago where he grew up standing on street corners, having to look and act a certain way “to fit in with the wolves and not be eaten by them.”

IT WAS EARLY MARCH, and Dyer and 16 Dominican classmates had reached the end of a weeklong service trip to repair homes still damaged nearly a dozen years after Hurricane Katrina sent levees tumbling, water cascading and people clawing holes to their rooftops. The students gathered for a moment of prayer and reflection at the site of one of the levee breaks, a sacred space that can take the mind in many directions. For Dyer, it brought home much of the burden of black Americans’ centuries of struggle.

“It kind of takes the spirit and the hope out of you,” he said. After a moment, he added, “Still, there’s plenty of ways to do positive things.”

This kind of learning— hands-on, close-up, community-based—is at the heart of the university’s mission to take students beyond the classroom and immerse them in challenging real-world issues. Often called community-based learning, the concept cuts across the curriculum.

The goal is to help students connect course material with real-life situations. The service can take many forms: tutoring youth, serving in soup kitchens, advocating for communities, helping low-income citizens prepare their taxes, and on and on. Service trips, like the one to Louisiana run by University Ministry, are especially intense and impactful, and often take place over breaks.

University Ministry, for example, also takes students over the fall, spring and summer breaks to rural West Virginia; Selma, Alabama; and the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego and Tijuana.

32 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Some of the people who sign up for these alternative break immersions are typical middle-class college students.

Others come from communities grappling with challenging circumstances of their own. For all of them, the dynamic is one in which student volunteers find themselves closely relating to those they are serving and accompanying them, rather than alighting momentarily from a place of privilege to help “the other.”

John DeCostanza, the director of University Ministry, led the service trip to Louisiana, which took the students not only to New Orleans but also to Baton Rouge, which suffered a flood in August 2016. His own service work has taken him everywhere from a busted coal mining town in Kentucky to Chimbote, Peru, where he worked in prison ministry.

“The idea behind our alternative break immersion program is to accompany the people in these communities and to really explore the ways they live and work,” he said. “They have deep strengths, and we can learn from those strengths. I mean, of course, we also learn about the social problems and the systems that create them—government inefficiency, uneven economic development, the systemic racism that makes the situations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge what they are, the historic disinvestment in African American communities.” Oftentimes, students return from the trips inspired to explore new research topics. “It’s important that the things we do out in the field become part of our research,” DeCostanza said. “We need to

unpack them within a body of scholarship.”

DeCostanza led the trip along with Kate Schmidt, the assistant director of student involvement, and two graduate students in social work, Dyer and Kayla Jackson.

A 2016 Dominican graduate, Jackson is a veteran of the university’s community-based learning programs. She is up front with newcomers about the harder realities of service work. “The emotional labor can be just as heavy as the physical,” she said.

The emotional labor often begins with listening. On their first day of work, after a grueling, two-day drive from Chicago in a pair of vans, the students split up to work on two flood-damaged homes in Baton Rouge. One of the groups turned up at Wendy Johnson’s house in East Baton Rouge Parish. The 57-year-old grandmother greeted each of the students with a hug. The students’ presence alone seemed to bring healing to her. After months of uncertainty, a whole group of volunteers suddenly was at her service. They even cared enough to ask

about her story.

In more than 20 years of living in a one-story brick house under towering trees, she told the students, she had never seen flooding. This storm was different. It stalled for days, unleashing thunderstorm after thunderstorm and overloading the rivers, streams and bayous. Water coursed up tiny canals and drainage ditches and into the cul-de-sac at the low end of her street.

Her daughter and grandson, who had just moved in with her, had left for safer ground. But Wendy stayed, in part to help worse-off neighbors with sandbags.

She had lain down for a nap when a frantic knock woke her up. The man at the door told her to leave; her backyard was inundated. “When the water finally came up the street, it was like someone had opened a fire hydrant,” she said. She got into her truck and barely made it past a car sideways in a ditch and around a highway where rooftops became islands in a sea of murky water. “I was so afraid, because I

can’t swim.” But she made it safely to a friend’s house.

Days later, when the water receded, she found her house and belongings soaked in two feet of water. She remembered the smell and the shame she felt dragging her ruined possessions out into full view in the yard. Her ruined home had been at the heart of happier times: bridal showers, birthday parties (including one with a pony) or just watching out for the neighborhood children as they waited for the school bus. Across town, she learned, another daughter and grandson had barely made it out; they had to be rescued by boat.

“This is hard for me, it’s hard,” she said.

Months went by. She struggled to find a contractor who would even give her an estimate, but she couldn’t afford the work anyway. Then her pastor told her about the United Saints Recovery Project, a group with roots in New Orleans that works to restore homes in communities devastated by natural disasters. United Saints relies on free labor supplied by students from Dominican University and other schools, and engages experienced contractors to supervise the work.

On a late winter day, steamy from the collision of cloudbursts and Gulf heat, the Dominican volunteers got to work on Wendy Johnson’s home, having obtained a sense of its history and importance. They installed and spackled drywall as music blasted from a stereo and work lamps sent beams of light through the dark, dusty, mostly empty interior.

Brian Manjarrez, a social work graduate student wearing a Superman cap, coated

the drywall in a room with a history all its own. When the storm hit, Wendy had only just gotten it ready for her younger grandson, Grayson, who was four months old at the time. GRAYSON was spelled out in colorful letters on a wall; pink and blue flowers were painted on another wall, and a metal butterfly twirled from the ceiling.

Manjarrez, who spent a year working with Dominican Volunteers USA at a shelter for the homeless and mentally ill in Racine, Wisconsin, loves connecting with the people he meets as a volunteer. In this house in Baton Rouge, he found himself connecting with the space itself. “It almost seems like each room is telling a story,” he said, his hands white with spackle.

Mylisha Harvey, a double major in psychology and black world studies, was amazed by Wendy’s character and reserves of strength. “She’s the type of lady who would give the shirt off her back,” she said.

“That really inspired me.”

The volunteers penciled notes on the drywall encouraging Wendy to think of the future memories she would create when she got back in her home. The notes would be painted over, but in the moment, the messages made Wendy cry.

She inspected the work appreciatively.

“I feel so much better now,” she said. “It’s beginning to look like my home again.”

After their first day of work, the students returned to New Orleans for the night and gathered around a fire pit. As a train whistle groaned somberly in the distance, they took Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 33

“WHERE THE WORK IS GREAT AND DIFFICULT” Dominican’s service and cultural immersions, like the one to New Orleans, transport students into pressing social concerns beyond campus. They also inform student research and scholarship. A snapshot of other offerings: GUATEMALA SERVICE IMMERSION

Students learn about Mayan culture and history. Service includes building homes, picking coffee and working with a women’s group.

HAITI SERVICE IMMERSION

At the Wings of Hope residence, students work with developmentally disabled children and young adults.

SELMA

Students visit hallowed sites of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the South and meet Civil Rights leaders.

BORDERLANDS

This trip explores the two worlds along the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego and Tijuana.

NAZARETH FARM

Participants join other college students for home repair and community building in West Virginia.

34 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

turns unloading what was on their minds: everything from insecurity over whether they were coating the drywall correctly to the shock of seeing how a single storm can affect people for the rest of their lives.

They saw that the disaster in Baton Rouge had been both natural and man-made. The second homeowner they met that day, Helen Wade, an 80-year-old grandmother and retired school teacher, lived a 10-minute drive from Wendy Johnson. Wade had been able to afford a contractor to repair her home, but the contractor had taken her money and left without finishing the work. It was a common story around Baton Rouge and also in New Orleans after Katrina.

The “once-in-a-1,000-year storm” that hit Baton Rouge on August 11, 2016, killed 13 people and damaged 150,000 homes. It hit in the midst of a tense summer in the Louisiana capital. On July 5, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old father, had been shot by police while selling CDs outside a convenience store. The videotaped killing set off days of unrest and triggered a civil rights investigation by the Justice Department.

Reflecting on the people he had met that day, student Antoine Carter told the group gathered around the fire, “It’s devastating to try to put yourself in their shoes.” At the same time, Carter, like Cheyenne Dyer, had been struck by how much the surrounding circumstances reminded him of life back home in Chicago.

Poverty, neglect, people with few options—“the exact same vibe,” Carter said. “These aren’t the jolliest of neighborhoods.” He recalled visiting his cousins in Englewood and never knowing where to walk, because you’d be associated with a gang regardless of whether you’re in one, and one block this way or that way can put you into rival territory. Several friends had died this way. “I really wish we could figure out how to stop that,” he said. “But where do you even start?” His time in Louisiana had made him think, “all right, maybe I should start getting a little bit more involved with my own city.”

Trevi Matthews, a leader of Dominican’s Black Student Union, said the things she had seen and the stories she had heard broke her heart, but at the same time made her grateful for her own life. “I’m going to take home an appreciation for everything that I have, like my home,” she said.

On their first day of work, after a grueling, two-day drive from Chicago in a pair of vans, the students split up to work on two flood-damaged homes in Baton Rouge. The homeowners shared tales of hardship and expressed appreciation for the group’s help.

“I feel so much better now,” said Wendy Johnson. “It’s beginning to look like my home again.”

In New Orleans, the students worked on an urban organic micro-farm in the Lower Ninth Ward that supplies residents with fresh produce, and helped out at an animal shelter that first began rescuing dogs during Hurricane Katrina. They also worked on the Katrina-damaged home of a woman who remained displaced nearly 12 years later.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 35

Rebekah Rayas said the experience strengthened her ambition to build on her studies in biochemistry and enter the medical field. “I want to go to medical school and help communities in need,” she said, “communities that are sometimes forgotten about.”

“The idea behind our alternative break immersion program is to accompany the people in these communities and to really explore the ways they live and work,” says John De Costanza, director of University Ministry. “They have deep strengths, and we can learn from them.”

36 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

After a dozen years, racial tension still simmers in New Orleans over the response to Katrina, along with other legacies of the city’s fraught history. It’s a place where workers removing Confederate monuments this spring had to act under cover of darkness, with police protection, while wearing military-style helmets and body armor.

During their stay in New Orleans, the students journeyed through that terrain, bunking for the night in the barracks-style housing of the United Saints Recovery Project in the Central City neighborhood. Far from the tourist trail, the neighborhood is dotted with shotgun houses and steeped in the city’s black history; it was the headquarters of the local civil rights movement and the home of jazz pioneers like Charles “Buddy” Bolden. As it turns out, those were the good old days; the neighborhood now is gripped by drugs and violence.

United Saints was formed by Daryl Kiesow, a roofer from Minnesota who came to New Orleans to help out after Katrina. He set up United Saints in a Methodist church that was established in the 1830s by slaves. More than a decade later, Kiesow and United Saints are still at it, rehabbing homes, serving communities and completing art and beautification projects. It is one of the few truly grassroots nonprofits still doing this work here, and it often arrives first on recovery scenes, as it did in February after a tornado tore through New Orleans East.

In the church chow hall each morning, Kiesow meets with the volunteer groups to brief them on the day’s work. He ties his hair back into a pony tail and wears a United Saints T-shirt with an angel wings logo on the back, and holds court before a whiteboard, sipping an energy drink and speaking with a Minnesota lilt. “It’s hard for me to express how deeply appreciative I am,” he told the students. “You’re helping make this city and community better.”

“If more groups were focused on relief and not profit, we could get things done,” said Mitch Madorin, one of

the Saints’ veteran contractors. Burly and mustachioed, Madorin can work himself into volcanic tirades when he gets going about Louisiana’s epic levels of corruption, the exploitative “disaster capitalism” that followed Katrina and the thieving contractors who made him ashamed of his own industry. “Almost everybody we work with has been bitten by contractor fraud,” he said.

New Orleans—the Lower Ninth Ward, in particular—still has a long way to go. As other neighborhoods recover, the Lower Ninth has regained less than half its preKatrina population of 14,000 people. The destruction was near-total here and is still most evident in this corner of the city where African Americans built a once-bustling neighborhood on land that had been sugar plantations and cypress swamps.

At Café Dauphine, the Lower Ninth’s only restaurant, the Dominican students sat down with community activists. The conversation pivoted between hard truths and motivational uplift. “No matter how you romanticize it, this city was founded on slavery, and the remnants are here,” said Greer Mendy, a lawyer, dancer and Ninth Ward resident. She was talking about the barriers residents have faced trying to return and rebuild—the man-made disaster that followed the storm. The residents’ frustration has been amplified as they have watched developers profit and wealthy newcomers gentrify parts of the city. By some estimates, 100,000 fewer blacks are living in New Orleans today compared with before Katrina.

Earlier in the day, Sakura Koné, a community activist with United Saints, led the students on a four-hour tour across the city to explain the causes of the exodus, including the way government measures made it hard, if not impossible, for many

to hold on to vacant, damaged properties.

It’s an unsettling, not-for-tourists tour past the dilapidated neighborhoods rich in black cultural history but slow to recover, even as other neighborhoods boom all around them. Koné used terms like “ethnic cleansing,” called the recovery a lie, and decried the disaster profiteering and how it has altered the city.

Even in the Ninth, though, the students could find hopeful signs. A few beautifully renovated cottages, brightly painted in pastel blues, yellows and mint greens are mixed in among the derelict structures and vacant lots. Atop a grassy earthen levee where the Industrial Canal empties into the Mississippi River, residents walk dogs, jog and stroll along an almost pastoral pocket of the city. The occasional pelican sails past. You can hear insects buzz in the tall grass, birds chirp, the sound of ducks’ wings slapping the water and the soft rumble of barges gliding by.

It is in this corner of the Lower Ninth Ward that the Dominican students met Tim Hearin and Betsy Sedlar, a young couple who had just started an urban organic

micro-farm that delivers fresh eggs and greens to residents, who pay a seasonal subscription.

They built garden beds next to their 1930s cottage in an empty lot they bought from a displaced resident who decided she could not return after such trauma. They send the former owner cards and photos of all that is now growing in the lot, which she appreciates.

On one of their last days in Louisiana, the Dominican group worked the farm, digging in the vegetable beds and painting and sealing the barn’s roof above a squad of clucking chickens. Micro-farms have been touted as a way to address the problem of “food deserts” like the Lower Ninth. “There are no grocery stores here,” said Hearin, wearing a sweat-soaked T-shirt. But it will take a lot more sweat and a lot more time to fix what is broken.

That realization hit Cheyenne Dyer as he stood at the site of the levee breach, where a massive new concrete wall now holds back the waters and encircles a marginalized community.

The story of New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward was his story, he saw, was the story of all black Americans. This could be the neighborhood where he grew up standing on street corners, having to look and act a certain way, to “fit in with the wolves and not be eaten by them,” as he put it.

In Dyer’s case, his spirit and the hope could rebound. He had found a safe haven in a youth center and a mentor who took him on college visits. Now, he is launched on a master’s program in social work, with a Horizons Project scholarship. He plans to work in the neighborhoods where he grew up. Already, he is helping out at the same youth center that once had opened doors for him, accompanying kids on college visits and serving as a different kind of mentor— one in whom young kids can see their future selves. “They know I come from that area and can sympathize with them and understand the struggle that they might be going through,” he said.

Dyer knows the history and significance and dignity of that struggle. It’s a lesson straight out of New Orleans.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 37

mylife’s work or anthropologist and filmmaker Lina Fruzzetti, a lifelong fascination with identity reached new intensity when she began using the medium of film to explore her own family’s confounding mix of worlds. She was born in 1942 in Eritrea to an Italian father and Eritrean mother, just as the colonial era in East Africa was beginning to come to an end. She grew up as a refugee

In Her Mother’s House

in Sudan, where she had to navigate life as a Christian in a predominantly Muslim land. Her improbable journey to Rosary College, she says, was a doorway to an entirely different life and, eventually, to a career as a professor of anthropology at Brown University. In 2017, she received an hon-

Lina Fruzzetti ’66, an Ivy League anthropologist and filmmaker, has spent a distinguished career exploring issues of identity that began at home.

orary doctor of humane letters degree from Dominican and delivered the commencement address. In books and film, the ethnographer has focused extensively on the experiences of racial and religious minorities as well as women, particularly in India and northeast Africa. But in her latest film, In My Mother’s House, Fruzzetti goes in search of two mysteries: the mother who had long remained quiet about the past, and the Italian side of her family she barely knew. Here, in her own words, is her story.

Lina Fruzzetti says her improbable journey from Sudan to Rosary College was a doorway to an entirely different life and, eventually, to a career as a filmmaker and professor of anthropology at Brown University. Making her latest film, In My

Mother’s House, was a quest to learn more about her mother’s experiences.

38 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Making In My Mother’s House was not just doing a film for me. It was really a search to know more about my mother. It actually started in 2005, during one of the times my mother was visiting us in Rhode Island. I don’t know why, but I asked her to let me videotape her and tell me something about her life. She spoke for a whole hour without interruption.

In making the film, I learned what amazing strength my mother had. My father died in an accident when I was three, leaving an 18-year-old widow with two children. Barely a year later, the Italians lost World War II and their colony in Eritrea.

My mother was advised to leave Eritrea and go to the Sudan, because her children were half Italian, half Eritrean and were not welcomed in a country where the Italians had just been defeated. In the Sudan my mother worked so hard, doing odd jobs. Eventually she had a stroke of luck. A priest told her about a group of Italian engineers coming to the Sudan to build a dam and suggested that, with her fluency in Arabic, English

and Italian, she could help them settle in and be their cook. She uprooted herself to the Blue Nile province and lived there for 20 years, earning a fortune just by feeding these Italians. That gave her the means to help many other people.

In the last scene of the film, you begin to understand who my mother really was. More than 700 people came to her funeral. All of them had stories to tell me about her.

I was five years old when we arrived in the Sudan. I was immediately put into Catholic boarding school in Khartoum. The life of the school taught me a lot and shaped the way I think about the two halves of the world—the rich and the poor. We lost our family wealth after the death of my father. We became dirt poor, and had to accept assistance from others. Many of my schoolmates were the children of government ministers and British colonial officials. My brother and I were the scholarship kids; a few of the nuns knew my father and remembered his generosity, thus they in turn extended their hand to help his children.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 39

class news

You Always Belong to Dominican Class News provides Dominican alumnae/i with an Fruzzetti left Eritrea for

opportunity to share news and celebrate life events.

neighboring Sudan with her

Class News is prepared through the Office of Alumnae/i

mother and brother after

Relations in cooperation with class agents. If you

Italy, the colonial power

would like to be a class agent, have news to report or

that controlled Eritrea, was

have questions, please contact the Office of Alumnae/i

defeated in World War II.

Relations at alumni@dom.edu or (708) 524-6286.

Watching her widowed mother build a new life for herself and her children was a lesson in strength and resilience. It also kindled Fruzzetti’s intense interest in the lives of women.

Class News items are submitted by alumnae/i and do not represent positions, policies or opinions of the Office of Alumnae/i Relations or Dominican University.

The class news published in this issue was collected before July 1, 2017; news submitted after that date will appear in the Spring 2018 issue. To access Class News and selected news media items about Dominican alumnae/i, go to dom.edu/alumni.

Thank you for sharing your news!

In my school, every Sunday night we used to watch movies. All of the films were about cowboys and Indians. Movies have a kind of magic when you’re a kid—so when I chose to come to the Chicago area for college, it was in part because I thought I’d see some of those cowboys and Indians. Wow! What a surprise. I didn’t find any. But I forever surrendered myself to the magic of movies.

Rosary College was my entrance to a life that I knew would not allow me to return to the Sudan. Now I had opportunities, I had chances. You can’t understand how great it is just to be able to make your own decisions. That was an amazing freedom for me. Back in Eritrea or the Sudan, you don’t make decisions as a woman. Somebody else makes them for you.

In the U.S., I began to confront a problem that I didn’t really think was my issue, though it became mine. The Civil Rights Movement taught me some lessons in the 1960s. The color issue coupled with

40 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

unequal treatment of nonwhites affected us foreign students, too. So, for the second time, I was confronted with notions of difference. In the Sudan it was religion; in the U.S. it was color. I learned to consider being a black person, not an Eritrean-Italian or a member of a tribe, our way to identify and define who we are. Some of my classmates joined the protest marches; but we foreign students were advised not to take part in the civil rights marches or express our solidarity in any way. We were afraid we would be sent back home. It was years before I became involved with the issue, not as a political activist but as a teacher. I gained the strength and the grounding to speak out. At Brown, I am one of the most outspoken people on questions of racial justice.

I was the first black woman to become a tenured professor at Brown. It’s not something I’m particularly happy about.

This shouldn’t be something to celebrate because there should have been many others before me.

My own identity is complicated. I’ve experienced colonialism and post-colonialism.

I have lived as a Christian in the Muslim world, and I have refused to convert. All this shapes my work as an anthropologist.

I can see and understand the world around me so clearly, often in ways my friends cannot see. I understand what the colonial history left behind. I discern subtle levels of discrimination and racism. I understand what a person like me—half and half, a person of two different worlds—experiences.

I have focused much of my writing and filmmaking on the experiences of religious and ethnic minorities in India and Africa, on interreligious and intercaste marriages, and on the lives of women. Why women?

First—forget the color part—it’s not easy being a woman. Second, I focus on women because of my mother. For me, everything begins with her. She is my anchor. She enables me to look at how other women see themselves and understand what it takes for them to progress from one point to another.

Undergraduate Alumnae/i Class News

1962

Elizabeth Freidheim, Kay Pielsticker Coleman, Mary Beth Vander Vennet Tallon, Carolyn Sweeney Judd, Gloria Adams Mills and Corrine Carnivele Hanley Class Agents Marilyn Power It seems impossible that five years have gone by since our 50th reunion. We moved from our house in Oak Park (where we lived for 40 years) to a condo in River Forest.

We also have a lake house in central Wisconsin where I spend four months, and recently purchased a condo in Naples, Florida, in a complex where we were previously renting. I spend three months there. Husband, Fred, is still working, so he “visits” me when I am not in River Forest. When here, I am busy with our St. Giles Family Mass Community coordinating liturgies. I have preached four

times in the past few years. I am also part of a Rosary group that goes out for breakfast or lunch once a month. When I am in Wisconsin or Florida I golf, swim, play tennis and/or pickleball and entertain family and friends. Best wishes to all!

as U.S. copyright, ISBN #, Library of Congress and the Amazon listing, where it is now available.

The book is about finding a better, more meaningful life by uncovering deeper meaning in everyday events. The 24 real-life tales are taken from his own personal experiences; some are about his Catholic faith, some about his acting career and some as simple as filling up at a gas station. The short stories are wise, humorous and heartwarming, while the lessons learned are eye-opening.

In reading the latest edition of Dominican Magazine, including the history of Santa Clara College/ Rosary/Dominican, I’m reminded how grateful I am to have attended Rosary and what a remarkable institution it was/is. We all sure were lucky!

Elizabeth Freidheim Still bumping along, working full time. Thank Providence the court activity has slowed because so have I. My current plan is to wait until I feel a lost edge or suffer a drop-off event or feel the attraction of some other compelling activity. Meanwhile I enjoy the work and life’s other little pleasures.

Corrine Carnivele Hanley Robert and I spent a relaxing couple of days in Ojai, about 1½ hours north of our home in Los Angeles.

We then attended a wedding in charming Healdsburg, north of San Francisco, and visited the elaborate Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Guerneville and the inspiring Armstrong redwood forest.

In May we celebrated our wedding anniversary in Lake Tahoe (where we had gone on our honeymoon); in July we’ll be guests at a trade show reception in Las Vegas, then to Connecticut for a nephew’s wedding in September.

One activity was attendance at a nephew’s graduation with an MS in accounting from DU. The alma mater has changed. DU held the event at the UIC campus Forum building (on Halsted at Roosevelt), a venue large enough for roughly 530 undergraduates in the morning and over 430 graduates in the afternoon. The large group is also diverse. DU is not the little Catholic girls school that Rosary may have been. Since I live within striking distance, I expect to attend the luncheon for the 55th reunion—and will report anything notable if any alums from ’62 are also present.

Robert is in the process of publishing his book Do You See What I See? Discovering the Obvious.

I’ve helped him with details such

Carolyn Sweeney Judd We just returned from a wonderful celebration of the 80th birthday of my husband, Larry. Our children planned the weekend at New

Braunfels, Texas, a lovely old town with lazy rivers that run through it.

The families of our three children swam with each other, tubed down the river, caught crawfish from the river with long-handled nets and shared meals. The oldest granddaughter made a lovely birthday cake for Larry. It was a chance to be with each other for a fun reason. Families came from Seattle, Houston and Austin.

This summer two of the families will join Larry and me at our family cabin in Colorado while the other family tours Spain and Germany. Our lives are full of joy and love, for which we are so grateful.

Oh, and did I mention that my 13-year-old granddaughter has fallen in love with chemistry and wants to be a chemistry professor!

I think of my college sisters often and hope for good, peaceful and blessed lives for all of you.

Mary Beth Vander Vennet Tallon We just returned from New York (we’ve been there several times since our last exchange of news), where we spent three weeks caring for our four “Poughkeepsie” grandsons while our son, Andrew, recovered from his third surgery for brain cancer. While the surgery was successful in a limited way, his situation is serious—the cancer has spread and there are no new major trials available to him. Now it is faith that must heal him. PLEASE pray for him and his family! Love to all of you.

Gloria Adams Mills I spent New Year’s Eve in Chicago with family and friends. My nephew/godson, Michael, and his wife were my guests at a dinner that night with a dozen of my old friends that I hadn’t seen in years.

It was a wonderful evening with lots of laughing and great food and wine. I may just go back for a repeat at the start of 2018! The only downside of that whole trip was bringing home the germs that gave me a lovely case of bronchitis a few days later. But the good

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 41

class news

“It was difficult to teach all day and then take classes at night, but it was also exciting to learn things that were so relevant to what I was experiencing—often that very day.”

Olivia Flores MAT ‘16

with our church choir. We just sang Vivaldi’s “Gloria” in a concert in June. Fred is 84, a retired pastor, and still keeps active buying tractor mowers on Craigslist, reconditioning them and selling them. At heart he is still an Iowa farm boy. He is my Renaissance man. I tried Zumba dance classes last spring, loved it, but had to quit after two months. Now I just do the treadmill. The mind is still like the Rosary days but the body is lagging! I enjoy hearing all the news of our classmates.”

memories were well worth it.

The rest of the intervening months have been pretty quiet. Just the usual activities have kept me busy—hosted my book club; had the one-year checkup on my latest hip replacement (all good); attended a dinner at Montpelier, Vermont, where Thomas Friedman was the speaker (I read his bio of Andrew Jackson); had a nice long visit from my niece, Donna, and her daughter; attended my first (and hopefully my last) military funeral for the husband of a friend; met some new neighbors; had a railing installed on the pool steps (have reached the age where getting in/out isn’t as easy as it was a few years back); and am still working out regularly at the local fitness center.

My sister, Pat, planted the garden early this year instead of starting her veggies here in the house first. The weather cooperated, and everything is coming up nicely.

The asparagus crop was huge and lasted almost a month. The black raspberries are now ripe, and we’re trying to get as many of them as we can before the birds devour them. All the apple and peach trees are loaded with fruit, so we’ll be busy with eating and preserving them later in the year.

In the meantime, the lettuce and Swiss chard are yummy.

Best wishes to you all for the coming months!

1963 Susan Flynn Class Agent

Lots of news! As we mark number 76, and our younger classmates mark 75, I often think about the historical and personal events we have experienced.

Susie Thompson Drane does more than just think about it.

She volunteers at a retirement

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For the Love of Hockey By day, Kevin M. Killips ’79 is CFO of The PrivateBank and the U.S. region of its parent company, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. By night—one night a week, anyway—the chair of Dominican’s Board of Trustees takes to the ice to play “the greatest sport there is” as a member of Franklin Park’s Huff ‘n’ Puff hockey club. As tired and sore as he may be, Killips is not about to let down his buddies, about 25 guys from all walks of life who have been putting the biscuit in the basket since the 1990s. A longtime Blackhawks fan, Killips has been on skates since he was a toddler on Chicago’s West Side. He played on and off through the years, but when he joined the club, it became religion. “I do it for the tremendous exercise, to keep my sanity, and most of all for the togetherness—on the rink and beyond,” he says. “These are friends for life.”

complex in Wisconsin and drives residents to appointments. Better than Uber!! While there, she interviews them for Story Corps and captures their stories and memories via cell phone. The recordings are kept at the Library of Congress. Check out www.storycorps.me to enjoy the stories, and consider capturing the memories of your favorite old people.

Susan Hartnett Lutz, one of our class artists, wrote to say: “I can’t believe that I still teach art to two classes of 8- to 10-year-olds at the neatest art school in Prescott,

Arizona. It’s run by the ’Tis Art Gallery on the plaza. We have our own building, which was just remodeled this year, and is painted in bright colors. We just had our art show and our students are delightful and so lovable! I love what I do.” Susan continues, “I gave up subbing in the public schools in August. I then visited my son and daughter-in-law in Pennsylvania for the birth of my first grandchild, a beautiful little girl, Brynn. I was there five weeks. We are all going to meet again in Evanston in July.

My husband, Fred, and I keep busy

Marianne Brabec Powers is also active in her church choir, and busy with California family including First Communion, Confirmation and graduation for grandchildren. She will be traveling on the California Zephyr to Chicago this summer for a family reunion. She said she and her cousins grew up in Berwyn and are a “close-knit bunch.” Marianne will also visit friends in Iowa, Minnesota, Sinsinawa and Mount Carmel.

Mary Ann Beuthin called to say she will be teaching a class at Dominican this fall in the Department of Nursing. Mary Ann earned her nursing degree in 1990. The class is a one-hour-credit course for seniors titled “The Transition from Nursing Student to the Work Environment,” and covers practical tips such as time management, working with one’s supervisor and working with one’s preceptor. Mary Ann met many of the students when she spoke to their class and showed them the device she has for managing back pain following surgery. She noted there is a big interest in careers in the health sciences.

Judy Jedlicka Hilgendorff’s daughter, Lin, graduated from Bentley University near Boston on May 20, 2017. She got a job with Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston in their technical management program. Judy says she “decided that it was time to have one more adventure in my life.

So we are selling our Princeton, New Jersey, home and our Pocono Lake property and moving back to Chicago.” Judy is looking forward to travelling more, seeing her Chicago classmates and getting more involved with Dominican. She concluded: “To the next 25 years!”

We all toast that!

Our email group recently had an exchange about being Irish.

Sheila Fitzgerald Riley told us her grandmother came from Ireland and married a Chicago policeman, also from Ireland. Many years later the whole family moved to Oak Park where they lived in a two-flat.

Sheila added this story: “When my grandmother went to vote, her citizenship was questioned. She decided not to try to get all the paperwork together and never voted again. The family joke was that she was a closet Republican and the voter registrar thought she was a Democrat. She lived to be 105 years old.”

Mary Lynn McGough Eckl wrote that her grandmother also immigrated from Ireland. Mary Lynn’s husband, Wray, is 80 and retired from the practice of law, and they enjoy being together and traveling. They recently visited family at their grandson’s graduation from eighth grade. They are planning a trip to Hamburg and Berlin.

Martha Amen Daly sent in the following news: “I recently volunteered as the Faith Outreach Ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Association at the St. Francis Xavier College Church on the campus of St. Louis University.

The purpose was to educate and provide support to those parishioners affected by this disease. Please pray that this goes forward in the most positive way.”

Martha has always played golf and said, “For fun, I just signed up as a volunteer for the PGA Golf tournament that will be held in St. Louis next August—the 100th anniversary for the PGA, so it will be a major event here. I am excited!!!

I’m also looking forward to a golf trip with my brothers to French Lick, Indiana. It’s always good to get together with them, especially at a golf venue!”

Pat Klapperich Montone recently spent some time in Germany visiting her son and his family. She said she felt safe travelling there, and loved catching up with the grandchildren.

Kathy Markley Scruggs and husband Max celebrated their 50th anniversary on a Danube River cruise from Sofia to Prague. They visited with friends in Paris and then visited the reconstructed and captivating town of Saint-Malo.

Back home in Arlington, Virginia, Kathy continues her “advocacy for housing that’s affordable for moderate-and low-income families, millennials, seniors and persons with disabilities.” Kathy said that Arlington has good schools and is a desirable location, which makes it difficult to find housing in Arlington, especially homes costing less than a half-million dollars.

The buy, tear down, build bigger occurs there as it does in Chicago.

Pam Balow and two of her sisters went to Spain and Portugal in April. “Fatima was impressive and although it is quite grand, the churches, the chapel where the apparition of Our Mother happened and the huge plaza were all quite lovely and the thousands of people very quiet, reserved and religious. Good Friday service in the modern church at one end of the plaza was very moving.

Coimbra, the old university town, is a joy to explore. I walked alone through the streets of the old Roman town that was discovered and excavated under the university—fabulous! Andalucia is an amazing region, full of history, art and architecture, especially of the Moors, Jews and Spaniards, but also of the Romans, and the Roma.

Sevilla and Granada are two very charming and interesting cities,

and, of course, the Alcázar and the Alhambra are magnificent! The food was great and the flamenco music and dance very exciting.

Driving through Andalucia and the towns was a challenge at times—finding our hotels a real adventure, including driving down a narrow lane and stopping in front of our hotel only to be told by the hotelier that I couldn’t drive on that street!”

Another moving story from Mary Ann Minar Damm, who is preparing to move from Madison, Wisconsin, to Rockford, Illinois: “Going through 40 years

of accumulation has been fun, in a way; the Christmas cards, other correspondence and the pictures from the family trips bring back many memories. The new house is near our son Tim and his two boys. We will also be close to our two grandsons in Madison, three grandchildren in Milwaukee and three grandchildren in Minnesota.

Our son Jeff and his family have built a new home on the farm where I grew up.” Mary Ann also wrote about being recognized as a National Merit Finalist in high school and how two teachers helped her do well on the test:

A Fulbright Assignment in Colombia Olivia Flores MAT ’16 is not interested in easy; she wants to make a difference. A teacher in a Chicago public high school, she chose Colombia—a country just emerging from five decades of war—for her Fulbright assignment. Flores is teaching English on a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant this fall. She earned her undergraduate degree at DePauw University and completed her master’s as part of Dominican’s program with Teach for America, which placed her at a predominantly Latino school on the South Side. “It was difficult to teach all day and then take classes at night, but it was also exciting to learn things that were so relevant to what I was experiencing— often that very day,” she says. One of her bigger goals is to erase educational inequities. Flores chose Colombia because it’s a place “where children are expected to succeed in school despite difficult circumstances—a situation with similarities to Chicago.”

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class news

“Sister Cathan gave me a workbook focusing on Greek and Latin roots to study before I was to take the PSAT. I diligently studied all that summer. Sister Vincent Mary encouraged girls to take higher math courses, and advanced algebra and trig also helped me on the test.” The scholarship enabled Mary Ann to attend Rosary, where she majored in philosophy, graduating in May 1963. Mary Ann goes on to say: “I married Michael Damm, a medical student at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, during the Christmas break of 1962, and had my first child, Michael, in November of 1963. We lived in Chicago while Mike finished his studies. We then moved to Detroit with our two children (Jackie had arrived in 1965) for his internship. I taught English and religion classes at St. Agnes High School. The country was in the throes of the Vietnam War when Mike finished his internship and the Doctor Draft was in force. We were lucky to go to Berlin, Germany, for three years. While there, we had two more children, Jennifer and Chris.

I was active as a board member of the Berlin American Nursery School. We were able to see much of Europe. Being behind the Iron Curtain was not a great hardship when one considered the alternative (Vietnam). We returned to the States in 1969 when Mike began his residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Two more children were born here—Jeff and Tim. I volunteered at the various schools and kept the home fires burning.

When Tim began kindergarten, I took classes to become a braille transcriber and I was certified by the Library of Congress in 1983.

I worked for several years in the Madison schools as a braillist and was president of Volunteer Braillists and Tapists, Inc. I joined the board of the National Braille Association (NBA) and later served as its president. I developed and presented many workshops for

44 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

other transcribers at NBA conventions and other venues. I received NBA’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. However, I am most proud of my other career: Mike and I have been married for almost 55 years; our six children are all exemplary human beings who are contributing to society in huge ways.”

Mary Ellen Hughes called from Florida to say she would be in Chicago in June and could we meet? We met at Rosary and toured around campus, which looks great. Lots of good talk and memories. Mary Ellen is retired from teaching, still active in Opus Dei, looking wonderful after lung surgery last December. It was great to see her. She is making plans to attend our 55th reunion next June.

We 63ers remain active, engaged, vocal, humorous and generous.

So many in the class are generous to Dominican. Remember, the number of alums donating is a valuable metric, so give whatever you can. Do plan to attend the reunion in June 2018. I look forward to seeing each and every one of you there.

Caritas et veritas.

1964

Mary McGough Schultze Class Agent Dear Classmates, Happy Birthday! By the time you read this, most of us will have celebrated a milestone birthday.

Barb Kuenn Hudson and I have a few months to go. Our grammar school group has a group birthday party each year. We can’t afford to wait for five-year reunions.

I heard from Vicki O’Hara Swaney, who is quite active in her parish as lector, eucharistic minister, soup kitchen volunteer and helper at a women’s shelter.

Where would the priests be with-

out women like Vicki? She does enjoy retirement with husband Hal and finds time for water aerobics and checking out DC restaurants with former coworkers. She enjoyed seeing an article on Donna Carroll and DU advocacy for undocumented students in the National Catholic Reporter. Mary Lou Campbell Hartman and I are also proud of DU’s stance.

Pat Connery Koko is also a whirlwind of activity. This spring she was a speaker at the American Society on Aging national conference. Introduced by Judy Colohan Blatherwick, she and Paul celebrated their 50th anniversary with an Amtrak trip to Florida to catch a cruise through the Panama Canal, where she was able to use her lapidary skills to make emerald jewelry. Pat teaches lapidary at the senior center and is treasurer of the Celebrating Seniors Coalition, continuing her untold hours of assisting seniors.

Seeing the movie Hidden Figures made me think of another group with limited employment options.

How fortunate were we to learn from the brilliant nuns. To have Oxford PhD Sister Cyrille grading my mediocre compositions. Or to have Sister Bonaventure, PhD, teaching my physics class for two.

Neither Joyce Weissmueller nor I dared cut that class. No TAs for us!

I could go on and on. We received an education that ranks against any Ivy. The movie resonated with me because I was the first female in my engineering group at Boeing Aerospace.

So think of that wonderful education and give Dominican the resources to continue its mission of providing a first-class education to today’s and tomorrow’s students.

Now that most of us are retired, please, please think about writing your memoir. I had hundreds of questions I never asked my parents and now I regret it. Our kids

gave Bob a memoir writer package as a gift and it was wonderful.

We don’t have the same roots our folks did. We move and start over each generation. We have important stories to tell.

Hugs, Mary McGough Schultze

1966

Judy Purvin Scully Class Agent Terry Wilkinson Pawlik’s son, Ray Jr., was home on a 30-day leave in March after a nine-month training/support mission to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. Terry and her husband were able to visit while he was home. Ray enjoyed family time, especially having a picnic in the living room with 3-year-old Madeline that included grilled-cheese sandwiches! Terry noted that it’s the little things that are so special after being away from family for so long.

Lina Fruzzetti, a professor of anthropology at Brown University and an award-winning documentarian, was at Dominican University on April 27 for the screening of her latest documentary. Earlier in the day, several classmates, including Ann Canale, Maureen Connolly, Beverly Doherty, Jeanne Heinen and Judy Purvin Scully, along with students and faculty, met in Parmer Hall to hear Lina’s lecture, entitled “Crossing Continents—Crossing Cultures,” during which she shared her personal journey from a childhood in Northern Africa to a career as an award-winning documentarian.

Listening to her lecture provided such insight into a young girl’s, and then woman’s, journey from Eritrea to Sudan as a refugee and then on to Rosary and beyond.

The strength and resilience she demonstrated throughout was amazing.

After a small dinner gathering hosted by Donna Carroll, class-

mates met in Lund Auditorium for a photo with Lina, which included Ann, Beverly, Jeanne and myself, along with Maureen O’Rourke Cannon, Lou DiSalvo Hartman, Alice Kuehne Finn and Suzy Wills Kessler, who came for the evening events. Prior to the screening, Lina was awarded an honorary doctorate. Her very proud classmates were delighted to witness a very accomplished classmate recognized for her many achievements. Following the awarding of her honorary doctorate, her latest documentary, In My Mother’s House, was screened. Lina, the daughter of a mother from the African nation of Eritrea and an Italian colonial officer father, was educated in a boarding school in Sudan before attending with the expectations in the different countries and cultures and has been screened at universities in the UK, Italy and India, as well as the United States. After seeing In My Mother’s House, it was obvious where Lina got that strength and resilience. When I was talking to her before her lecture, she said it was a very difficult documentary to make. She found family she didn’t know existed and opened so many doors, but wasn’t sure some of them should have been opened and was still dealing with all that she discovered. She may have struggled in the making of the documentary, but the result is remarkable, and she noted that having her husband be part of it all made it easier for her.

The honorary doctorate was the icing on the cake. I know she was moved, as were all of her proud classmates there to witness her receiving it.

Over the next several days, I heard from several classmates who had attended the screening: Alice Kuehne Finn: “I was very happy and honored to celebrate and support Lina’s great accomplishment as one of her classmates! My husband and I really enjoyed the documentary

Magic on the Magnificent Mile For a kid from Minneapolis who for years just wanted to play baseball, it was an unusual career choice, and it brought remarkable early success.

Quinlan Milne Rojek ’17, a pitcher on Dominican’s baseball team, graduated in May with a major in fashion design. Within weeks, his menswear collection was featured in the windows of Neiman Marcus, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

“It’s crazy. This is the best, most insane thing that could happen,” he says. Milne Rojek won Neiman

and felt that we learned so much about that time in history as well as about Lina’s family’s struggles at that time. Her mother certainly was an amazing woman for all she did for her children and especially in her encouragement of Lina’s acceptance of the Rosary scholarship. I don’t think I could be so ‘generous’ in allowing my son to go so far away and not really knowing if he would come home again!”

Maureen Cannon: “I can’t stop thinking about what an amazing evening we had yesterday. Lina

Marcus’ Distinguished Designer Award during the annual Driehaus Design Initiative. He started out as a psychology major, moved to graphic design and finally found a love for fashion after taking a sewing class—more or less on a whim. “I had no interest whatsoever in fashion at the time, aside from dressing myself,” he recalls. But the profession appealed to his meticulous sense of detail. Before long, his baseball teammates were asking him to repair their uniforms.

made that documentary to honor her mother, but in doing so her own generous spirit and great achievements shine! She has her mom’s spirit and is an incredible example for all of us. What a brave person she is! Only wish she could have shown it at our 50th reunion!”

Lu Hartman: “It was a fascinating story! What courage and determination she had to open doors to a past that was unfamiliar to her!

Her spirit shone through the difficulties of her past while she was at Rosary through the present! So

glad I didn’t miss this!”

Jeanne Heinen: “I had known very little about Lina’s life before Rosary and nothing about her mother‘s accomplishments. This film, being so personal, must have been more challenging to make than her other documentaries. I’m sure all who attended feel honored to have seen it and to have heard Lina’s comments. A wonderful experience, leaving us with much to contemplate.”

Lina herself responded and commented on her experience. “It

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class news

“No, Wearing Red Doesn’t Make You Hotter.”

Salon.com’s take on research by Gabrielle Lehmann ‘16

Lina herself responded and commented on her experience. “It felt so good to be around friends and family and having met new people. I must confess I was overwhelmed, I am not good nor do I welcome attention to that extent. I was humbled to receive the recognition, but more so to be surrounded by old friends, from my past, a good past that had so much in forging my identity and my persona.” Lina had not been back to campus since graduation and was on our “lost list” for many years, noting, “This time, I will not be lost to my friends.” (We’re expecting to see Lina at our 55th in 2021!) She shared the following website where you can find out more information about the documentary and leave comments: https://www.inmymothershousethefilm.com.

Jan Ciastko Lane, who lives in Minneapolis, reported seeing the documentary at the University of Minnesota, in December 2016, and wrote that it brought her to tears, noting that it was great to see Lina after 50 years.

Other classmates who were not able to attend sent their regards: Vicki Scott Conley wasn’t able to attend but thinks of Lina often; Mitzi Battista Witchger was in northern Minnesota on the date of the screening and wished she had been able to be in two places at once. She was delighted to hear Lina was receiving an honorary doctorate prior to the screening of her documentary. Mary Redmond roomed with Lina for a semester and thinks of her often.

She wanted her congratulations and regards conveyed to Lina.

Pat Carey was pleased to hear the good news (about Lina). Terry Wilkinson Pawlik would love to have come to Chicago to hear Lina, but wasn’t able to do so. She requested that we share pictures!

I had lunch in Naples, Florida, in March with Sandy Kern Cyr and Kathy Pudik Rey. Kathy had just moved into a townhouse near

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she and Doug spent Easter with Sandy’s son along and his family.

They all enjoyed watching Brodie, John and Kim’s son, hunting for Easter eggs with three of the neighbor girls. Meanwhile, Doug is quite happy to finally be walking without pain. (I wouldn’t even try to report how many replacement joints we and our spouses have had over the years. This aging sure isn’t for sissies, but we do what we can to keep moving along and enjoying life to the fullest.)

Research That Grabs Headlines Gabrielle Lehmann ’16 was just hoping to gain an edge in applying to graduate school when she signed on for a research project with Professor Robert Calin-Jageman, the director of Dominican’s neuroscience program. Lehmann certainly was not looking to make headlines. But the replication research she completed with Calin-Jageman disproved a number of much-hyped research studies that claimed to prove that wearing red makes people more attractive to the opposite sex. After their findings were published in Social Psychology in May, Salon.com cited the team’s work under the headline “No, Wearing Red Doesn’t Make You Hotter.” Lehmann is now finishing a meta-analysis of the study. This fall, as that work is submitted to scholarly journals, she will be starting an MFA in printmaking and book arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. “I’m going to back-burner psych research to do this program,” she says. “But who knows what the future will bring?”

Siesta Key, noting that downsizing was definitely not easy! Her kids are excited about the pool and tennis and basketball courts that are available at her new place.

Sandy and her husband, Doug, didn’t have any family visiting from “up north” this year because Doug wasn’t feeling well. We weren’t able to get together last year because the date interfered with a Dominican gathering Kathy hosted at a nearby club. We met halfway between Sarasota on the west coast and Hillsboro Beach on the east coast, which is where we were visiting my parents for two weeks. They will be celebrating

their 94th and 99th birthdays in September. Dad is already looking forward to their 75th wedding anniversary in May 2018. His optimism is boundless!

Sandy later wrote to say that Doug’s knee replacement and rehab went well. His daughter Heidi came after the surgery and kept him company at the end of March when Sandy flew to Phoenix for a long weekend visit with her daughter Lisa and her husband Clint, noting that it was great to see Lisa’s new home and discover some of her favorite places, one of which was the butterfly conservatory. Back home in Sarasota,

In June, Kathy Albright Roth, Kathy Kahler Matthews, Lou DiSalvo Hartman, Linda Miller Drennan, Maureen O’Rourke Cannon, Joan Condon (our adopted classmate who graduated from Mundelein), Mitzi Battista Witchger and myself met at Seasons 52 in Oakbrook for lunch. It was fun catching up with everyone after our incredible 50th reunion a year ago. We’re not planning to wait until our next reunion to get together again.

Chris Campbell McCuen visited her sister, Mary Lou Campbell Hartman ’64, in Princeton, New Jersey, in early July. She was delighted that Marcia Millrood Connelly and her husband, Dick, drove up from Philadelphia for a get-together. Chris and Mary Lou have another adventure planned for February. They’ll spend two weeks in the Grand Caymans before traveling to Cuba.

Kathy Matthews is traveling to London for a needlepoint conference.

As usual, John and I spent the summer in Minocqua, Wisconsin, with family rotating in and out.

We returned for a family wedding in July, followed by our Purvin Family Reunion, held here rather than in Minocqua this year. Our Rhine River cruise with Viking in late September exceeded all expectations and was followed by a week on the East Coast visiting my brother in Myrtle Beach, ex-

ploring Charleston, then driving to Clemson to visit our granddaughter, Grace, who is a freshman. We took her out to dinner on Friday evening before her parents arrived and all enjoyed the Clemson vs.

Georgia Tech game the following day. It was fun to see her in her new environment.

1967

Elizabeth McGrath Class Agent Jane E. Duggan was awarded the prestigious Caritas et Veritas Award from Dominican University in June. Since graduating from Rosary, Jane has fought for civil rights for women, minorities and wounded veterans.

Mary Boyle Callow was awarded the Ruth McGrath O’Keefe Outstanding Volunteer Achievement Award from Dominican University in June. For many years, Mary has served her alma mater with distinction as past president of the Alumnae/i Board and active member of the Board of Trustees since 1990.

1968

Mary Duncan Gemkow Class Agent Class of 1968, your 50th reunion is scheduled for June 8–10, 2018! If you are interested in being a part of your reunion planning committee, please email Alumnae/I Relations at alumni@dom.edu.

Carol Anderson Kunze and her husband, Jack, marked five years since moving from Chicago to their former second home on Lake Michigan between St. Joseph and South Haven, Michigan. She says, “We enjoy life on the lake, our third season as power boaters, involvement in some local organizations and exploring the many beautiful, interesting spots in our adopted state. We also appreciate

the convenience of the less-thantwo-hour drive to Chicago for cultural activities and to keep in touch with family and friends. I have a bit of a wanderlust, and so far 2017 is cooperating well. In February, Jack and I broke up the winter with a trip to Portugal. The scenery, architecture and art were all lovely, and the people were some of the nicest and friendliest we’ve ever met. I was also able to take advantage of a great airfare to France and enjoyed a spring trip with a couple of girlfriends.

Our activities included a cooking class in a private estate, a daylong wine tour in the Loire Valley and a ballet performance at Palais Garnier, in Paris. In April, I joined Marilyn Freehill Jancewicz and Joanne Moore Kiewicz to celebrate Eleanor Seitter ’69’s milestone birthday over lunch in Oak Park. It was one of many celebrations for “Mouse” and a delightful time for all of us. I look forward to reading news from other classmates!”

Kristin Arneson, MFA ’69 performed piano music for the Mass at the Minnesota State Convention of the Daughters of Isabella April 21, 2017.

1969

Susan Kreuz McCoyd Class Agent Peggy Garrity had her book, In the Game, reviewed by Brit + Co and was listed as one of the “10 Memoirs by Women You Need to Know.” She mentioned that she worked on the book for most of her adult life and it finally came to fruition. She also mentioned that her memoir won first place in the Beverly Hills Book Awards for autobiography and was a finalist in the 2016 Best Book Awards for women’s issues. Her time at Rosary College figures in as a big part of the story.

I received some news from our classmates this time around. So, here goes . . .

For many of us, 2017 marks our 50th high school reunion year.

Nancy Sidote Salyers received her invitation from her alma mater and said “I’m sure I’m not alone when I shook my head upon opening an invitation to celebrate my 50th high school reunion, wondering how that could possibly be?

Congratulations to all of us who kept up friendships from the years which shaped our individual decisions to choose Rosary College.” If you attended your reunion, I hope that you had a great time!

Congratulations are in order for Linda Gentile Korbel, as she became the dean of liberal arts at Oakton Community College. Her division has added two departments, Behavioral and Social Sciences and Historical and Policy Studies, as part of a reorganization. This past July, she and Gen Ramirez visited classmate Sue Kororski Bielawski in Windsor, Colorado.

Mary Rita Luecke wrote with congratulations of another sort.

On June 4th, she attended the wedding of our classmate Mary Farmer and her partner of 30 years, Laura Flegel, in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at Temple Shalom. Our best wishes to Mary and Laura.

Annie Vonderhaar had a busy summer. She attended a grandson’s birthday in San Diego, caught up with old friends there and squeezed in a quick trip to La Quinta to see her sister, Michelle.

It’s been Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride this past year with her new teaching assignment. She taught 5th-grade catechism, a lay faith formation class (10 months!) and Catechist Certification. She loves teaching theology and has both freshmen and sophomores this current school year. Her granddaughter,

Rebekah, graduated this past spring and sang the National Anthem at the ceremony. Annie reached for tissues and I can’t help but think that her granddaughter has a little of Grandma Annie’s theatrical ability in her!

In the same teaching vein, Paulette Fabianski Stith sent word that she retired this June after 45 years of high school teaching. It feels great right now but she is wondering how it will feel in August when “she will not have started a school year for the first time since I was 5 years old.”

Her parents are in their 90s and she has 11 grandchildren who will keep her busy. In October, she and her husband celebrated 40 years of marriage and both of their retirements with a Hawaiian cruise.

Keeping in great physical shape are Kathy Schwall Boley and her husband, Paul. This past summer, they traveled via motor home with recumbent bikes in tow. They pedaled seven great off-highway “rails to trails” in the Pacific Northwest.

They also hoped to ride one of their favorites, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, in Idaho. Hats off to them for quite an adventure!

Al and I joined another Viking River cruise this summer. We departed from Amsterdam and ended up in Bucharest. Wonderful trip, great company and great food!

1979

Hilary Ward Schnadt Class Agent Karen Allegra has written a humorous novel that will be published by the Park Row Books imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in March 2018. The title is The Reluctant Fortune-Teller, and Karen is writing under the pseudonym Keziah Frost.

Bill Dicker and his wife, Suellen, are living in Prescott Valley, Arizona, not far from Sedona.

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class news

“We perform music at least twice a month—a variety of folk, blues, country and rock. We call it ‘Americana.’ We also are busy as Santa and Mrs. Claus from Thanksgiving on. We are the official Clauses for Prescott doing the parades, tree lighting and a showcase of music and pictures four days before Christmas.” A busy and creative life—and those are just the side jobs! Bill went on to say, “We both are counselors. I work in a family-oriented agency and Suellen has her private practice. Our son Keith gets married in October and I hope to arrange seeing some Rosary/Dominican people then.”

Nancy Greco made a spring 2017 trip to Germany with Carl Grapentine from WFMT, visiting Leipzig, Dresden, Eisenach and Berlin. “I have lots of photos and got to use my German and attended many concerts and operas.” Sounds like fun.

Congratulations are owed Laura Holden, who wrote to say, “I was elected chair of the National Kidney Foundation Council on Renal Nutrition. I have served on the national council for 10 years and on my local council for over 20 years. This year at the National Kidney Foundation Clinical Meeting, which was held this past April in Orlando, I received the Outstanding Service Award from the Council on Renal Nutrition. This spring I also decided to change jobs after 28 years with my previous employer. This was scary and I was surprised to be homesick for my old job but am making the adjustment. I’m glad many of our classmates are able to retire. My husband retired three years ago and I hope to join him in few years.

So many projects, so little time!”

I’m sorry to report that we lost classmate Mary Ann Golembiewski in April 2017. Laura Holden noted, “I was very sorry to hear about Mary Ann. She was always such an upbeat person and I thought of her often over the

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years and always wondered what had become of her. It makes me grateful for my health, and that so many of the rest of our classmates are doing well.”

Perhaps some of you saw this news on Dominican’s alumnae/i website earlier this year. For those who didn’t, I’m pleased to quote it here: Katherine Heskin was featured in Madison Magazine as she leads college students on spiritual journeys to Native American reservations. The article describes how Edgewood College students gain an appreciation of Native American communities through Katherine’s work.

Katherine is a theologian and adjunct professor at Edgewood College who has taught Native American spirituality for more than 20 years. She previously taught a native spirituality class at her alma mater, Dominican University.

In a twist of fate, Katherine taught Native American spirituality for a decade before learning she was part Native American. Katherine was adopted as a child and later wrote to the adoption agency from where she had been placed. She was surprised to learn that her birth mother was of Native American descent.

Helen Hollerich and Ann Bixby embarked on The Best Road Trip Ever in commemoration of the 1977 Rosary-in-London semester that many in our class attended and of the 1997 alumni trip to London that we helped Dominican organize. They were abroad June 20–13. Before the trip, Helen wrote, “We’ve planned three days in Northern England; five days in Scotland, including a revisit to Stirling Castle (staying in a B&B at the base of the castle wall that is the former married officers’ barracks); 10 days in Ireland; and a final four days in London.

We hope to relive many of our Rosary-in-London memories from 40 years ago and celebrate our 60th birthdays together. Ann is

looking forward to a tour of Highclere Castle and stops at places special to her recently deceased parents, and I am looking forward to seeing the Glasgow Necropolis.”

(I’m sorry to add that Ann lost her father in March 2017.)

Cathy Hollatz Fitzsimons writes, “Our daughter, Kristin, just graduated from Illinois State University with a liberal arts degree in English. Does anyone know of any prospective jobs for an English major? My husband, Martin, Kristin, and son, Brendan, all celebrated by spending one week in London and one week in Ireland (visiting my husband’s family). We had a wonderful time. Hope all our fellow classmates are doing well!”

Sue Junkroski and Michelle Jackson are celebrating 60 by taking a cruise to Alaska with the Smithsonian. Sue writes, “Hope to learn a lot and see wonderful sights.” She also wrote, “I finished my first year of retirement, and, although I don’t miss the paperwork, I do miss interactions with kids. I took my first-EVER non-school-calendar vacation in October, and spent 18 days touring central Chile, the lake district between Chile and Argentina, Buenos Aires and Iguazú Falls. It meant having two springs in one year, which was fabulous. Michelle is completing a year and a half as chief human resources officer for Jewish Child and Family Services. She also lost her mom last August.”

Lynn Johnsen Mueller recently celebrated her third anniversary with husband Walter.

Mary Yu was re-elected to the Supreme Court of Washington State. “I am glad the campaign is over and now I can settle into a six-year term. It is a privilege and honor to have the job and I look forward to continuing our work on reforming the criminal justice system.”

I was surprised and pleased to receive the Past Presidents’ Award for Outstanding Service from the Illinois Council on Continuing Higher Education at its 42nd annual meeting in February 2017.

I had known that two colleagues and I were going to receive the Innovative Initiative Award for the First-Generation College Outreach Program that we developed at the University Center of Lake County, but I was not expecting a solo honor. Then, at dinner in Streeterville that night, we ran into classmate Scott Ambers, grabbing a quick carryout before seeing another patient. During the same meal I ran into a grad school classmate and former colleague from NU. It was a fun day.

Keep those emails coming. I’m expecting to hear from more of you about other 60th birthday celebrations in the months ahead.

Hard to believe that in just two short years we’ll be celebrating our 40th reunion.

Hilary Ward Schnadt

1980

1984

Scarlett Evans Perez Class Agent Phil Hesslau was inducted into the Dominican University Athletics Hall of Fame on June 10.

Phil’s career 84.1 percent shooting from the foul line ranks second in program history, while his 1,655 career points in 86 career games (three seasons) ranks fourth on the program’s all-time scoring list.

A ‘Rock Star’ Librarian Spreads His Love of Books Known as Mr. Schu to his fans—who number 47,000 on Twitter alone—John Schumacher MLIS ’10 just might have the best job in the world. As the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs, he travels across the United States talking to children, teachers, principals and superintendents about the power of reading. In 2010, Schumacher started a popular blog about his favorite books, called Watch. Connect. Read. His influence on young readers has earned him national media coverage in The Wall Street Journal and on CBS This Morning. The Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, calls him a “rock star librarian.” “I advocate for libraries out in the wild and on social media,” he says. “Many principals and superintendents have told me that my passion made them look at school libraries in a new light.”

Linda Rohde Class Agent

Mary Krier was promoted to senior vice president of communications and corporate responsibility at Flowers Foods, Inc., one of the largest producers of fresh packaged bakery foods in the United States. Mary joined Flowers Foods in 1990 and was successively assigned increasing levels of responsibility, including manager, director and vice president of communications.

Grace Dumelle checked in after a “fabulous” trip to Poland to meet relatives. She went to Krakow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Zakopane and the famous salt mines. She traveled to farms, churches and cemeteries, visiting her roots (a great opportunity for a genealo-

gist!) and had a chance to sample homemade vodka and wines.

Leonard Lloyd wants everyone to know he’s living in Evergreen Park with his two cats, Alexis and Krystal, and enjoying his retirement from the CTA after a 26-year-long career. He’s spent his free time with the Chicago Gay Men’s Choir and publishing videos on bipolar disorder on YouTube (85,000 views). Friend him on Facebook to reconnect and see the videos!

Mike Hattie reports, “My brother Knights and I had a successful spring food drive for both the parish food pantry and Chicago Food Depository. On Saturday of Alumni Weekend we will be painting the new eye clinic for the Community Nurse Health Center.

I’m looking forward to Alumni Weekend and seeing friends that I don’t see often enough, and hopefully some that I haven’t seen since back in the day. I’m grateful for Linda Rohde making the time and effort to collect and publish these blurbs. Many classes do not have someone to do it. (So don’t you dare edit this out, Linda!) I’m grateful for the friends who are still part of my life after all these years, and the way we seem to pick up right where we left off no matter how long it’s been.

Since my grade school and high school have closed, I’m grateful that at least one of the schools I attended has managed to survive the encounter with me, and even welcomes me back every spring.

Hope to see you there, too.”

1987

Rosemary Adams Class Agent Vikki Johnson shared that in 2012 she retired. She writes, “My fearless Dixie dog and I moved from Chicago’s Edgewater Glen neighborhood to Denver, and in 2014, we moved up to the mountains at 7,700’, about 40 miles south of Denver. Yes, there are bears, elk, deer and lots of wildlife to observe. I am currently working on a BFA in illustration at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and I should complete that degree in 2019. I am engaged to the love of my life, and we are planning our wedding—by a glacier lake in Rocky Mountain National Park—for 2019.”

1990

Juan Rodriguez Class Agent Declan Brett was, at long last, ordained a priest. On Friday, April 21, 2017, Bishop Ralph Heskett ordained the new priest at the Cathedral Church of St. Marie (Sheffield) for the Diocese of Hallam in South Yorkshire, England. Fr. Brett is now a curate at St. Peter-inChains, in Doncaster. Please keep him in your prayers.

Geralyn Hesslau Magrady published the book Lines last year and was the winner of the Soon to Be

Famous Illinois Author Project.

This is her second book. Her first book was of poetry and is called One Thing Leads to Another.

1993

Bridget Loar Harvey Class Agent Anna Ruffolo joined GPA as the new senior vice president of finance and operations. GPA is a market leader in substrate solutions for offset, digital and wide-format printing. Prior to joining GPA, Anna served as director of operations/CFO at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago.

1996

Jennifer Utterback Davis Class Agent Bob Osborne was featured on Fox 32 News in February. He was one of two Chicago police officers who went above and beyond the call of duty, and their act of kindness went viral on social media. Bob and fellow officer Peter White saw a man without a coat on the streets of Chicago and they made good on a promise of a warm coat.

Darlene Ward ’96, was promoted to assistant director of the Illinois College of Optometry Library on February 1, 2017.

1998 Scott Hanak Class Agent

In April, Jeff Cole was hired as the chief information officer at VASCO Data Security International, Inc., a global leader in digital solutions. Jeff has held senior management positions at leading companies in the technology field and most recently served as senior director, information management, for CareerBuilder, one of the world’s largest online employment websites.

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 49

class news

“Being a man for others has always been important to me, and Dominican reinforced my commitment.”

Conor Gee MBA ‘13

2000

Gigi Benitez and Christopher Phills Class Agents Pasquale Biondo successfully ran for a second term as board member for Norridge School District 80. Pasquale will serve as vice president of the board until 2021.

Oscar Alvarez was inducted into the Dominican University Athletics Hall of Fame on June 10. Oscar

starred for the Rosary Rebels and Dominican University Stars on the soccer field from 1996 to 1999 earning All-American honors from the NSCAA in 1997 and 1999, the only two-time All-American in program history.

Francesca Cipriano Macias and her husband welcomed a healthy baby boy, Marcello Macias, to the world December 5, 2016.

2004

Joe Bruno and Brandy Foster Class Agents

Atorina Zomaya was recently featured in a Chicago Magazine article titled “Why You Should Eat Like the Ancient Assyrians Ate.” The Assyrian Kitchen’s founder shared lessons from the world’s oldest cookbook and other stories from ancient Mesopotamia.

2006

Annie Hughes and Diane Schultz Meske Class Agents Melisa Biskup Lott, MD welcomed daughter Gwendolyn Rose Lott, born March 20, 2017.

2007

Stephanie Lieberman, Mark Carbonara and Stephanie Adams Taylor Class Agents RoJenia (Judkins) Jones was awarded the African/African American Heritage Award at Dominican University in February.

RoJenia is R&D color specialist at Naturex, a global leader in specialty plant-based natural ingredients.

The Youngest President In his early 20s, while working for a company that sold hearing aids, Conor Gee MBA ’13 attended his first Rotary Club meeting in Chicago at the request of his boss, who thought it might be a good way to acquire new customers. “I got some business from it, but more importantly, I started to become involved in service projects,” says Gee, who is now a marketing communications consultant at BlueCross and BlueShield. He became so involved that this past summer, Gee was inaugurated as the Chicago Club’s 114th president. At 32, he is the youngest president in the club’s history.

He oversees an annual grant budget of about $200,000, which the club uses to invest in everything from helping disadvantaged Chicago youth land professional jobs to delivering state-of-the-art medical equipment to Bolivia. “Being a man for others has always been important to me,” he says, “and Dominican reinforced my commitment.”

50 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Michael E. Meranda was presented the outstanding Graduate of the Last Decade, or GOLD, Award at Dominican University in June.

Michael is the owner/president and master gelatiere of Sapori Antichi International Import, Inc. (Gelato D’Oro®). Sapori Antichi is an international food import company founded by Michael and his wife, Mary, to create authentic foods directly influenced by the Italian culture.

In June, Binyamin Jones was featured on WGN News and hailed as a hero after saving a man who suffered a massive heart attack on a basketball court. Binyamin, a seven-year veteran of the Chicago police force, was playing

in an open gym. Doctors say the 53-year-old man is only alive because of Binyamin’s actions.

Binyamin says he is “always on duty.”

In summer 2016, Talia Tamason participated in Miami University’s Earth Expeditions global field course in Baja. Talia studied the desert and marine landscapes of two richly diverse biosphere reserves through ecological and social field methods. Talia, a high school teacher at one of Camelot Alternative Education’s “safe” schools in Chicago, took the graduate course in pursuit of a master’s degree from Miami University’s Global Field Program.

Grant Newman and Eileen Cahill Newman welcomed daughter Summer Joan on June 21, 2017.

Summer joins big sister Zadie Clara.

Sheila Thomas was proud to be involved in a historical event as one of 250,000 Chicago participants in the January 21, 2017, Women’s March.

2009

Lindsay Buoniconti and Shannon Sromek Hickey Class Agents Matt Kochanowski was inducted into the Dominican University Athletics Hall of Fame on June 10.

Matt was a standout in soccer for the Stars and is the second leading scorer all-time in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.

After completing General Assembly’s 10-week User Experience Design Immersive course, and acquiring several freelance design gigs, Cory Malnarick is happy to relay the news that she recently accepted a position as an experience architect with Critical Mass, an in-house agency of Apple, Inc.

2010

Ann Hussey and Michelle Schultz Class Agents Concetta DiFranco Rasiarmos was married to Steven Rasiarmos on August 13, 2016, at St. Edmund, in Oak Park. They had known each other since childhood. Bridesmaids included Danielle Nicholson ’11, Gabriella Socco ’16, Concetta Stanfa ’14, Vincenza DiFranco Spilotro ’06, Cristina Cipriano Alfano ’11 and Adriane Lewandowski.

Nico Toro married Caty Yehling on June 4, 2016. Nico and Caty are living in St. Louis, Missouri.

2011

Jaron Salazar, Fanny Lopez and Barbara Lagrotteria Class Agents Jonathan Campbell married Katherine Triner ’10 in February 2017 and enjoyed a honeymoon in Paris and London. They met at Dominican in 2010 and are best friends.

Cheran Davis was recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management for being a next-generation talent in human resources.

2012 Ali Messina Class Agent

Sarah Budz was inducted into the Dominican University Athletics Hall of Fame on June 10. Sarah, a two-sport athlete, was named an NFCA All-American and two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American on the softball diamond and gar-

nered all-conference honors on the basketball court.

2013

Karla Bayas, Marco Rodriguez and Molly Brauer Class Agents In August 2016, Maria Girgenti was named director of business development for The Conservation Center, an art restoration company in Chicago. Maria has also been involved in writing for art publications, teaching art courses and giving guest lectures on art.

Marco Rodriguez was named national champion in the closing argument competition at the National Animal Law Competitions in February. Marco graduated from John Marshall Law School in January and took the bar exam in February. Since graduation from Dominican, Marco has worked as a law clerk at the Matton Law Offices in Chicago.

Molly Brauer is working as a residence hall director at the University of Colorado Boulder. In March, she was visited by fellow alum Justin Thirstrup ’11, who is currently working as the director of campus ministry at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

2015

Tanner Strong and Katie Schmidt Class Agents Richard Green, a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual in Chicago, has been appointed a college unit captain. Richard has been associated with Northwestern Mutual since 2014. He joined

the firm as a college financial representative while a student at Dominican University and converted to a full-time financial representative upon graduation.

Ryan Waters started a new job in Seattle with Microsoft in April.

2016

Olivia Szuszkiewicz, Erin Winkeler, Andrea Hinojosa and Cutberto Aguayo Class Agents Last summer, Ricardo Ramos was named a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship. The highly competitive program recruits both recent graduates and career changers with strong backgrounds in science, technology, engineering or math—the STEM fields—and prepares them specifically to teach in high-need secondary schools.

Ricardo is a graduate student at Valparaiso University.

Berto Aguayo was profiled on the Chicago Community Trust website in an article titled “A Former Gang Member Finds New Power in Politics.” Berto was the youngest student body president in Dominican University history and has his sights on law school. Berto is pursuing a career as a civic leader.

Emilia Walasik sang at World Youth Day 2016 in Poland during the overnight vigil before the Mass with Pope Francis. Emilia also traveled with the pilgrimage organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Young Adult Ministry office and served in its spirituality program.

Graduate Alumnae/i Class News

Brennan School of Business Doug Pryor MBA ’12 was hired as vice president for the Will County Center for Economic Development in May. He previously served as the Grundy County administrator. Doug is an adjunct economics instructor at Dominican University and currently serves as a trustee and treasurer for the Morris Area Public Library.

School of Education Mytzy Rodriguez-Kufner MAEA ’05 recently finished her doctorate in teaching and learning. Since July 2013, she has been living in Nebraska with her husband, Brian Kufner MBA ’00, who is an assistant professor of business at Wayne State College, and their two boys, Nathan and Matthew, 14 and 11 respectively. Mytzy just founded Leader Avenue, LLC. She consults and coaches individuals or groups in the area of educational leadership.

Dana Pavisich MAT ’14 was selected for the prestigious James Madison Graduate Fellowship in March. Dana has been studying at the University of Chicago for a master of arts in social sciences with emphasis on American history and the Constitution. Since graduation, she has been teaching seventh grade at KIPP Ascend Middle School in Chicago.

School of Information Studies The Antioch Public Library District said goodbye to library director Kathryne LaBuda MALS ’75 after 34 years of service. Kathryne’s retirement was official in

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 51

class news

December 2016; she was only the fourth library director in the 96year history of the Antioch library.

After 37 years with the Park Ridge Library, Janet Van De Carr MALS ’77 retired as the library’s director on June 19. Janet was hired in March 1980 as Park Ridge’s manager of children’s services. She moved up to assistant director, and in 2000 to director.

Judith Nickels MLIS ’84 published a work of historical fiction, A Competent Witness: Georgiana Yoke and the Trial of H.H. Holmes, which earned a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

Lisa Pappas MLIS ’96 was named director of the Plainfield Public Library District in June. She’s held other roles at the library, including assistant director for nine years and head of reference for five years. Lisa previously worked at the Oak Brook Public Library as the manager of user services, and at the West Chicago and Warrenville public libraries.

After 18 years at the library, Tatiana Weinstein MLIS ’01 was

promoted to director of the Lisle Library District in January. She is proud to have been a member of the Lisle Library staff since 1998, starting as a reader’s advisory assistant and moving up the ranks to director of adult services and assistant director.

Jennifer Drinka MLIS ’05 was hired as the new library director of the Antioch Public Library in October 2016. She has 18 years of experience at libraries, including Crystal Lake Public Library, Barrington Area Library and Warren-Newport Public Library.

Alanna Aiko Moore MLIS ’05 received the 2017 University Libraries Section’s Outstanding Professional Development Award.

The Association of College and Research Libraries announced the honor in March. Alanna currently serves as the academic liaison coordinator and librarian for sociology, ethnic studies and gender studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Elizabeth Nelson MLIS ’07 received tenure status at McHenry County College in April. Elizabeth

has been a cataloging and collection development librarian since 2014. Elizabeth started working at MCC in 2008 as an adjunct reference librarian.

liaison for the Lake Villa District Library, Rachel works closely with classroom teachers to ensure that the library’s materials supplement the district’s curriculum.

Monica Dombrowski MLIS ’08 was named one of the Library Journal’s top 50 Movers and Shakers in the library information science profession. Monica was named for her creation of Gail’s Toolkit, a template for teaching adults about technology, at the Gail Borden Public Library, in Elgin, where she is director of digital services.

In September 2016, Ted Mulvey MLIS ’11 received an Outstanding Service Award from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Ted is the information literacy librarian at Polk Library on campus.

Tyler Works MLIS ’09 was named one of the Library Journal’s top 50 Movers and Shakers in the library information science profession.

Tyler was named for his work doing STEM programming and successful grant writing at the Indian Prairie Public Library, in Darien, Illinois, where he is assistant head of youth services.

Rachel Reinwald MLIS ’10 was honored by District 41 with the Citizen of the Year award in March. As the school services

Trixie Dantis MLIS ’12 was named one of the Library Journal’s top 50 Movers and Shakers in the library information science profession. Trixie was named for her work as teen services supervisor at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, where she spearheads the library’s “makerspace” for teens and outreach services to Newcomer Center, which provides academic instruction to local high school students new to the United States.

Genna Mickey MLIS ‘14 was promoted to assistant director of the Sugar Grove Public Library in February. She also retained her role as adult services manager.

DEMAND MORE OF YOURSELF Whether you’re looking to advance or change your career, a master’s degree from Dominican will give you the cuttingedge skills and knowledge to meet your most ambitious professional goals—and continue to make a difference.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS Business (MBA and MS in Accounting) • Education • Library and Information Science • Information Management •

S AVE the DATE Alumnae/i Weekend 2018 June 8-10 All are welcome. Special milestone celebrations will be held for classes ending in 3 and 8, including the classes of 1968 and the 1993, which will be celebrating their golden and silver jubilee reunions.

Visit dom.edu/alumniweekend for more information, or call the Office of Alumnae/i Relations at (708) 524-6286 to volunteer.

Are you receiving our emails? Send your email address to us at alumni@dom.edu so we can keep you updated on upcoming events and university news.

52 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

Social Work Conflict Resolution • Physician Assistant Studies • Nutrition • •

COME TO AN OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2017, 10 AM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2018, 10 AM dom.edu/gradopenhouse (708) 524-6829, gradinfo@dom.edu

WHERE LEARNING DEMANDS MORE Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 53

scrapbook THE LORD IS CLOSE TO THE BROKENHEARTED AND SAVES THOSE WHO ARE CRUSHED IN SPIRIT. 2

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1. Jonathan Campbell ’11 marries Katherine Triner ’10 in February.

2. RoJenia (Judkins) Jones ’07 is awarded the African/African American Heritage Award from Dominican University in February.

3. Jane E. Duggan is awarded the Caritas et Veritas Award from Dominican University in June.

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4. Declan Brett ’90 is ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on April 21 at the Cathedral Church of St. Marie in Sheffield, England.

5. Mary Boyle Callow ’67 is awarded the Ruth McGrath O’Keefe Outstanding Volunteer Achievement Award from Dominican University in June.

6. Ryan Waters ’15 starts a new job in Seattle with Microsoft in April.

7. Oscar Alvarez ’00 is inducted into the Dominican University Athletics Hall of Fame on June 10.

8. Molly Brauer ’13, a residence hall director at the University of Colorado Boulder, is visited in March by Justin Thirstrup ’11, director of campus ministry at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

54 Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

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Margaret Murphy Cahill ’39 Florence Linklater Johnson ’39 Marguerite Alice Foran Doyle ’40 Jane Jones Habib ’44 Margaret Callahan Higginbotham ’44 Rosemary Strening Rogers ’44 Patricia Weixel Gorman ’45 Sister Marie Bertrand Wright, OP ’45 Sister Jeanne Flanagan, OP ’46 Antoinette Ebner King ’46 Margaret Bonin Christopher ’47 Mary Katherine Dowd ’47 (MHS) Jean Burke Foran ’47 + Marjorie Klink Pierce ’47 Mary Capizzi Lee ’48 Patricia Hartigan Meaney ’48 Ruth Hanson Michael ’48 Sister Anne Mongoven, OP ’48 + Virginia Saigh Walther ’48 Claremarie Halloran Russo ’49 Jeanette Catalano Blackshaw ’50 Alice Malloy Gyuran ’51 Gloria Rheynard Kaz ’51 Therese Perona Brolley ’52 Mary Louise Urbain Lynn ’54 Emily Svoboda Benak ’55 Colleen Condon Brosnan ’55 Connie Laadt ’55 Betty Sabor Luling ’55 osephine on rase u ni Joan Keegan ’57 Helen Combis Maggos ’57 Rosemary Connor Peebles ’58 Nancy Lang Schlafke ’58 Sister Dorothy Wreisner, OP ’58 arlene ulas i offman Anne Courtney Moran ’59 Mary Krokus Cline ’61 Sandra Rehan ’61 Nancy Fiedler Eckerson ’62 Sister Marie Juan Maney, OP ’62 Suzanne Thorsen Schoen ’63 (MHS) Norine C. Ryan ’65 Elizabeth Tonry Manczak ’66 Celeste Gaumond Grant ’67 Ailleen Engelmann Cray ’70 (MHS) Margaret Gillispie ’74 Sister E. Lorraine Bilodeau SSA ’75, MALIS ’88 Marianne Jeanblanc ’76 Molly Mortell ’76 Joanna Fallico ’78 Therese Hogan ’78 * + Mary Ann Golembiewski ’79 Kathy Meilner ’81

Loretta Zak Teoro ’83, MSEd ’95 Ann Kolek ’89 ary T. Bur e Gri n

Current student Andrzej Taraska **

Non-graduating alumnae/i Anne Cusack Troyer

Brennan School of Business Gary Dobrino MBA ’85 Mary Krina Darley Mattio MBA ’88, MSOM ’99, MLIS ’05

School of Information Studies Rev. Robert A. Cross MALS ’63 Anne Zitkovich MALS ’65 Lois Bey MALS ’67 Judith Grams Degenhardt MALS ’68 Ronald Bean MALS ’69 JoAnn Ellingson MALS ’69 Dorothy Curylo Voros MALS ’71 Philip Cauchard MALS ’74 Mary Leaphart Carter MALS ’75 Joanne Webber Spector MALS ’75 Joan Stary Jacobus MALS ’79 oan ageol uff A S Roberta Tyska Hannon MALIS ’85 Marilyn Wolf MALIS ’86 Sheila Hagerty Day MALIS ’90 Patricia Harrison MALIS ’93 Sheryl Heidenreich MLIS ’98 Evelyn Ward MALIS ’03

Family member of Christopher Anderson * Mary Lee Kennedy Baker MBA ’84 Patricia O’Neill Baker ’78, MBA ’90 (T) Margaret Dowd Behrens MALIS ’85 Carol Lavin Bernick ^ Nancy Kelley Burke ’67 Maureen Rohr Cacioppo ’70 Claire Cusack Cronin ’49 Dan Cronin (T) Theresa Crowley ’99 Diane Donahoe Cusack ’53 Joan Crowley Cusack ’49 Frances Butler Darley MBA ’81 William J. Darley + Domenica Gueli Duszynski ’92, MBA ’93 Mary Lynn McGough Eckl ’63 Mary Ellen Sittler Gibbs ’67 iane Alfini Gust

Marianne Daniels Hansel ’75 Mary Gately Jensen ’68 Meg Cassin Kearton ’81 Matthew Kipp ^ Katherine Kahler Matthews ’66 Moira Donahue Murray ’71, MBA ’82 Joan Zurek Phelan ’56 Angela Murphy Saal ’45 Bernice Fogarty Sullivan ’52 Victoria Kathrein Theodossopoulos ’05 Martha Kahler Van Ness ’71 Jeanne Cusack Walsh ’53 Mary Caruso Waters ’05

Grandparent of Kenneth J. Black ’14, MBA ’15 Suzanne Hansel ’12

Parent of Jessica Anderson * Ann Van Hoomissen Bixby ’79 Vanessa Botsch Boedeker ’01 Teresa Michael Bruhns ’89, MBA ’04 Marijo Corpolongo ’13 Bill Crowley * Anne Deeter * Joanna DiMaio Dietz ’90 Denise Dixon Ferguson ’75 Phillip Hesslau ’84 Terezka Jirasek ’75 Judith Hansel Keeley ’75 Matthew Kochanowski ’09 Holly Hunter Lighthiser ’90 Mary Lynn Loversky MLIS ’10 Patrick Madden ’95 Geralyn Hesslau Magrady ’90 Colleen Cahill Matthys ’66 Mary Voros Muha ’96 Heather Cassin Opolony ’05 Margaret Jirasek Percival ’69, MAT ’03 Carina Santa Maria MSW ’11 * Sasha Santiago ’16 * MaDonna Thelen *

Irene Pawlowski Park ’51 Harriette Strening Reedy ’47 Josephine Capizzi Reif ’48 Sandra Gaumond Rummel ’64 Kathleen Welsh Terrien ’64 Sister Janet Welsh, OP *

Spouse of Vivienne Botsch ^ Mary Beth Keefe Cherskov ’66 Mary Jane Kahler Kelly ’73 Marguerite Kuhn Kowaleski ’49 Kathleen Sittler McCabe ’66 Therese Dunne Pawlowski ’51

University Friends Robert Canapary illis . Gri n Joseph Madden + William C. Mitchell + Barbara Skypala Theodora Vasils (MHS) Sister Lynn Welsh, OP Note: This list re ects deaths report ed to the ce of Alumnae Relations between February 1, 2017, and August 31, 2017. Please call (708) 524-6286 regarding omissions or discrepancies.

The Mazzuchelli Heritage Society recognizes and honors the alumnae and friends of ominican who have provided for the university through their estate plans. If you have included Dominican in your estate plans or would like more information, please contact the ce of Gift Planning at (708) 524-6283 or giftplanning@dom.edu.

Sibling of Judith Zurek Cisco ’76 Kathleen Kelly Combs ’73 Paul C. Darley (T) Peter F. Darley ’89 Stephen J. Darley ’82 Ross Follett ^ Carolyn Jeanblanc ’75 Barbara Brennan Kellner ’57 Grace Wright Mayer ’48 Helen McCauslin ’63 Mary Saigh O’Donnell ’57

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Former Trustee

(T)

Current Trustee

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(FS)

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(MHS) Mazzuchelli Heritage Society (NGA)

Non-graduating Alumna

Dominican Magazine FALL 2017 55

For a full schedule, go to events.dom.edu

To Redeem the Soul of America: Martin Luther King’s Vision and Its Challenge to American Catholics Rev. Bryan Massingale Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declared that the goal of the Civil Rights Movement was not just to achieve racial desegregation. Its deepest aspirations were not only political but also spiritual, in his words, to “redeem the soul of America.” This address revisits King’s vision and explores its challenges for the U.S. Catholic Church today. Rev. Bryan Massingale is a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University and a leading Catholic social ethicist and scholar of African-American theological ethics, racial justice and liberation theology. He is the author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017 7:00 p.m.

Priory Auditorium

Romeo and Juliet

Mazzuchelli Lecture: Living a Life of Depth and Meaning David Brooks New York Times columnist David Brooks has a gift for bringing audiences face to face with the spirit of our times with humor, insight and quiet passion. He is a keen observer of the American way of life and a savvy analyst of present-day politics and foreign affairs. A prolific author, his most recent book, The Road to Character, tells the stories of 10 great lives illustrating how character is developed.

The Montagues and Capulets have been feuding for lifetimes, when one glorious night, love connects the two households. Allies and enemies are forged, plans are put into action, and the heartbreaking demise of the couple creates a new day for the future of the families. Originally based on an Italian tale and translated into verse by Arthur Brooke in the mid16th century, Shakespeare expanded the story into one of the world’s most famous tragedies.

November 3-5 & 10-12, 2017

Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m.

Sunday 3:00 p.m.

Lund Auditorium

The President’s Holiday Concert Sons of Serendip

Thursday, November 2, 2017 7:00 p.m.

Lund Auditorium

Ethics and Leadership Lecture Arne Duncan Join us for an evening with former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. After seven years in Washington, Duncan returned to Chicago and was recently appointed distinguished senior fellow at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

6:00 p.m.

University Club of Chicago 76 E. Monroe Street

These soulful performers give Christmas classics a fresh sound that touches the heart and lifts the spirit. The four friends were finalists in Season 9 of America’s Got Talent.

With a unique combination of harp, piano, cello and voice, they quickly became fan favorites on the show and finished in the top four. Since then, in addition to touring, they’ve opened for John Legend, performed with the Boston Pops and released two albums, with another on the way.

Saturday, December 2, 2017 7:30 p.m.

Lund Auditorium

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Dominican Magazine FALL 2017

The World Will Be Saved

by Beauty: Reflections from Dorothy Day’s Granddaughter Kate Hennessy Kate Hennessy presents with illuminating detail the story of her grandmother, Dorothy Day, and her mother, Tamar Hennessy. She draws from memories, diaries and family letters as she explores the themes of love, suffering, voluntary poverty, pacifism and what it means to perform the works of mercy.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

WE SEE IT EVERY DAY AT D OMINICAN. When ambitious people get the best opportunities, amazing becomes inevitable. Please join us in fulfilling the Powerful Promise of a transformative, values-centered education for new generations of students.

7:00 p.m.

Priory Auditorium

The 38th Annual Trustee Benefit Concert Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty Broadway stars Megan Hilty and Brian Stokes Mitchell perform timeless standards by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and others. Dubbed “the last leading man” by The New York Times, Mitchell received a Tony Award for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, Ragtime and August Wilson’s King Hedley II. Hilty has been hailed a star since her stunning Broadway debut as Glinda, in Wicked, opposite Idina Menzel. Her other Broadway credits include 9 to 5: the Musical and Noises Off, which earned her a Tony nomination.

Dominican’s Annual Trustee Benefit Concert and Gala raises much-needed support for scholarships, celebrates world-class artists and honors those who champion the performing arts in the Chicago area.

Saturday, March 10, 2018 5:00 p.m.

Lund Auditorium

THE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT (708) 524-6283 development@dom.edu

Where Learning Demands More 7900 W. Division Street River Forest, Illinois 60305 dom.edu

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OUR MISSION

As a Sinsinawa Dominican–sponsored institution, Dominican University prepares students to pursue truth, to give compassionate service and to participate in the creation of a more just and humane world.

They Call It Boot Camp for a Reason After months in the classroom, about 30 students in Dominican’s new physician assistant studies graduate program were thrown into a week of hands-on training so intense it is known as boot camp. In place of drill sergeants, frontline paramedics and nurses gave marching orders. Students practiced everything from inserting IVs and applying casts to delivering babies in the high-tech simulation lab, where they coached life-sized mannequins to push and breathe. “That was so cool!” said Gabriela Velazquez, as she inserted an IV into a rubbery artificial limb so lifelike its veins were full of fake blood. The training was part of the students’ preparations for clinical residencies this spring. In addition to technical skills, they also learned about relaying bad news to patients, one of the most daunting tasks for a medical professional. Velazquez hopes to do a cardiology rotation.

“The experience blew my mind,” she said of the boot camp. “It gave me confidence.”