The Hoya: May 16, 2014

GRADUATION ISSUE

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Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 95, No. 49, © 2014

friday, may 16, 2014

SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS

SENIOR REFLECTION Members of the Class of 2014 look back on their time at Georgetown.

A guide to D.C. summer food, festivals, film and entertainment.

SPECIAL PULLOUT GUIDE

DAVIS DEFEATED Rashawn Davis (COL ’14) lost his race for Newark City Council on Tuesday.

BOUNCING BACK After injury, senior Michelle Konkoly thrived as a swimmer.

NEWS, A8

OPINION, A3

SPORTS, A12

Admissions Yield Dips For 2018 South Dakota leaves incoming class just shy of all 50 states Ian Tice

Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown saw a slight decline in its admissions yield this year, with 46 percent of students accepted to the Class of 2018 enrolling at Georgetown compared to last year’s rate of 47.4 percent.

Of the 3,232 students admitted to Georgetown this year, 1,525 chose to enroll and submitted deposits by the May 1 deadline, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon.

In spite of the slight decrease, Deacon highlighted the consistency of the yield and cited the figure as an improvement in comparison to the rate during the recession.

“Our yield has ranged from 43 to 49 or 50 percent over the last 15 to 20 years,” Deacon said. “We were down around 43 percent the year after the recession when financial matters were a big deal and it’s been moving back upward since then.”

The Class of 2018 has a record number of students from California, and no students from South Dakota, although four students from the state were accepted.

As of fall 2014, the Class of 2018 will be the only class at Georgetown without representation from all 50 states. The graduating Class of 2014 also only enrolled students from 49 states, missing North Dakota.

Deacon said that geographical diversity See YIELD, A7

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (LAW ’83) addressed graduates of the McCourt School of Public Policy in McDonough Arena on Thursday.

Vatican astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., speaker for the College, participated in an open house at Heyden Observatory Thursday.

Emma Hinchliffe

Many commencement speakers have past connections with Georgetown. Gates, Thibault and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (LAW ’83), who addressed McCourt School of Public Policy graduates Thursday, attended the university, and Feinberg taught at the law school from 1978 to 2010 and plans to return in spring 2015.

Consolmagno is a member of the Jesuits’ Maryland Province, which includes Georgetown, and he knows several Jesuits at the university, including Fr. Dave Collins, S.J., and Fr. John Langan, S.J. Leshner, who will address the NHS, is a long-time associate of NHS Dean Martin Iguchi. Case visited campus in April to participate in Georgetown University Women in Leadership’s Own It Summit as a

Speakers Boast Ties to Georgetown Hoya Staff Writer

After a months-long selection process led by the deans of each Georgetown school, commencement speakers for tomorrow’s undergraduate ceremonies include former Defense Secretary Robert Gates (GRD ’74), former AOL CEO Steve Case, Vatican astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., and American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Alan Leshner.

Consolmagno will speak at the College commencement ceremony on Healy Lawn at 9 a.m., followed

by Leshner at the School of Nursing & Health Studies ceremony at 12 p.m. Gates will address School of Foreign Service graduates at 3 p.m., and Case will speak to Mc-

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

JENNY HAMMER

Georgetown College Major: Psychology GPA: 4.0

Donough School of Business graduates at 6 p.m.

George Thibault (CAS ’65), president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which works to improve health care in the United States, will address the Georgetown University Medical Center graduating class at 11 a.m. Sunday. Longtime adjunct law professor Kenneth Feinberg, who served as special master for the Federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 and administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund, will be the final commencement speaker at the Georgetown University Law Center ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday.

All commencement speakers will receive honorary degrees, and none will be paid for their lectures.

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

BLAIR VORSATZ

Georgetown College Major: Chinese and Economics GPA: 4.0

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

MICHAEL REHER

School of Foreign Service Major: International Economics GPA: 4.0

COURTESY MICHAEL LEE

MICHAEL LEE

McDonough School of Business Major: Finance GPA: 3.97

panelist, and the Case Foundation committed $100,000 to the MSB’s Global Social Enterprise Initiative.

In Georgetown’s traditional vein of seeking commencement speakers, each of this year’s guests’ history and career relates in some way to the specific school he or she will be addressing.

Graduation ceremonies began Thursday with Lew’s McCourt School address, in which he discussed the importance of public service in the face of partisan gridlock.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt Jr. (CAS ’75), who donated $100 million to found the school in September, attended the ceremony.

“When Americans choose a diSee COMMENCEMENT, A7

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

CAROLINE COTTO

School of Nursing & Health Studies Major: Human Science GPA: 4.0

In 4 Schools, 5 Valedictorians Honored for Achievement Molly Simio

Hoya Staff Writer

This year’s five valedictorians and dean’s medal recipients, with a tie in the College, will be honored this weekend for their GPAs — four 4.0s and one 3.97.

Jenny Hammer (COL ’14) and Blair Vorsatz (COL ’14), both with 4.0s, are valedictorians of the College, and will speak at the College’s Tropaia ceremony Friday. Michael J. Lee (MSB ’14), who earned a 3.97, will give the valedictory address at the McDonough School of Business Tropaia ceremony on Friday.

The School of Nursing and Health Studies and the School of Foreign Service do not appoint valedictorians, but Caroline Cotto (NHS ’14) and Michael Reher (SFS ’14) are awarded their respective school’s dean’s medal for their respective 4.0 GPAs. They will not speak at their schools’ Tro-

paia ceremonies.

Each honored student will carry his or her school’s banner at commencement Saturday, leading the processional.

Hammer majored in psychology with minors in business administration and art history. She said that becoming valedictorian was never a goal that she set for herself but that self-motivation earned her that honor.

“I always just wanted to do the best that I could. I always put my best into everything that I do, and I think that persistence drove my focus throughout college,” Hammer wrote in an email.

Hammer will work at a consulting firm in New York City after graduating, and plans to pursue an MBA or a law degree in the future. Her speech Friday will focus on opportunity and persistence.

“I’m going to talk about how un-

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certainty is an opportunity, how it’s important to maintain composure in the face of a door that has closed, because the next open door might be right around the corner,” Hammer wrote.

Vorsatz double-majored in Chinese and economics and will pursue a master’s degree in regional East Asian studies at Harvard after graduation.

“I’m torn between economics and international relations, and the graduate program is really flexible so I can kind of test out both and find out what I want to do after that, probably [pursue] either another master’s or a Ph.D. in one of the two fields,” Vorsatz said.

Vorsatz, who served as the captain of the Georgetown Boxing Club for two-and-a-half years, said that his involvement with the team influenced his academic success.

“With all of the hard work that you Published Tuesdays and Fridays

put into boxing, you’re going to be able to persevere and work through adversity. That work ethic really goes over into the classroom,” he said. He plans to talk about perseverance and hard work in his address.

Lee, a finance major, completed his course of study in the MSB in December and is currently working as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York City.

“It’s a lot of fun. I’m very tired, but I have no complaints and I’m glad that I did it,” Lee said.

For Lee, having a successful career after graduation was a motivating factor in his academic life.

“When I went to college, I realized that if I wanted to have the career that I wanted, then ultimately I’d have to have the right background, so I decided to work really hard,” he said. “Something that I believe in is that there are a lot of things in life that you can’t control, but there are

some things that you can, and one of those things is how hard you work.”

Cotto, a human science major, said that she did not set out to be valedictorian, but rather aimed to explore her academic interests and take classes that were appealing to her.

“I don’t feel like I took classes with the goal of trying to get valedictorian of the NHS. I took classes that really interested me and that I was passionate about and that ended up translating into good grades because I was interested in the work I was doing,” Cotto said.

Cotto, who studied abroad in Shanghai last spring, will spend a year in Taiwan teaching English to elementary or middle school students through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program following graduation.

She was two courses short of completing a pre-medical track, but deSee VALEDICTORIANS, A7

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OPINION

THE HOYA

friday, May 16, 2014

C Founded January 14, 1920

EDITORIALS

Making the Most of Move-Out As students rush to leave campus at the end of the academic year, they are followed, at least in part, by a small but determined cohort of the District’s underprivileged, who take to dumpster diving to salvage what is left behind.

This reality is a vivid and unfortunate depiction of the contrast between the economic standing of the university and its students and the economic standing of much of the Washington, D.C. population. As a campus committed to helping those in need, it is embarrassing that students’ disregard for the value of items left behind has manifested itself in the form of the needy sifting through our garbage. The university should take a more active role in assuring that it is doing everything possible to bridge this socioeconomic divide.

The Office of Sustainability’s move-out drive is one existing program that collects fully functional items that are discarded in haste and donates them to charitable organizations.

While the program has seen increased success this year, boasting its best-ever collection, it still receives little logistical or financial support from other university offices.

The drive is dependent upon the Office of Sustainability’s single paid employee and student volunteers who are compensated only

with free late-stay housing. While the moveout drive is certainly within the jurisdiction of the Office of Sustainability, other offices — including facilities, housing and even the Center for Student Engagement — should have a vested interest in seeing the program expand and succeed in future years. Administrators should be conscious of how poorly it reflects upon the university that this opportunity to do good in the city is being so flagrantly squandered.

The success of the move-out drive is contingent upon student participation, which has often been hindered by the hectic nature of finals and move-out deadlines. These annual obstacles, however, are easily foreseen, and with more coordinated support, could be mitigated. If a more concerted and collaborative effort is made to increase awareness and convenience of the program, participation is sure to increase as well.

Under the Office of Sustainability, the moveout drive has taken strides in making sure the contents of students’ dorms do not go to waste.

But so long as it is necessary for members of the larger Washington community to dumpster dive to find what is leftover, there is still more to be done.

C C C C

Mallika Sen, Executive Editor Robert DePaolo, Managing Editor Ian Tice, Online Editor Molly Simio, Campus News Editor Suzanne Monyak, City News Editor Carolyn Maguire, Sports Editor Jess Kelham-Hohler, Guide Editor David Chardack, Opinion Editor Michelle Xu, Photography Editor Michelle Cardona, Layout Editor Zack Saravay, Copy Chief Emma Holland, Blog Editor

Contributing Editors

Katy Berk, Zoe Bertrand, Pat Curran, Victoria Edel, Danny Funt, Chris Grivas, Penny Hung, Sarah Kaplan, Hanaa Khadraoui, Hunter Main, Eitan Sayag, Sean Sullivan, Emory Wellman

Editorial Board David Chardack, Chair Kit Clemente, Taylor Coles, Ben Germano Kelly Nosé, Johnny Verhovek

Crosstown Bigotry —​A local blogger purchased ​inflammatory​ advertisements on Metrobuses that blatantly denounce Islam as a religion of racism, ​arguing that ​ ​Islamic countries are unworthy of U.S. aid.

@adamnramadan

May 7 I’ve always said that the College should be Hufflepuff and the NHS Gryffindor @thehoya

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Michelle Xu

This SUMMER on

While graduation is often a celebration of individual accomplishments, the success of the Class of 2014 that will be celebrated tomorrow would be impossible without the counsel and support of these mentors.

And just as much as individual graduates’ efforts will be validated in tomorrow’s ceremonies, the efforts of those who have offered their steadfast support and concern will be validated as well. Graduation day is an opportune moment to thank those who have provided their invaluable assistance throughout the past four years.

The champions and benefactors of our college experience deserve more thanks than we could express through mere words. Yet, on the most climactic day of college amid graduates’ own commencement, a moment of recognition is a good place to start.

Katherine Richardson Deputy Campus News Editor Deputy City News Editor Kshithij Shrinath Deputy Sports Editor Sam Abrams Sports Blog Editor Max Wheeler Deputy Guide Editor Allison Hillsbery Opinion Blog Editor Jinwoo Chong Deputy Opinion Editor Kit Clemente Deputy Opinion Editor Ben Germano Deputy Photography Editor Julia Hennrikus Deputy Photography Editor Daniel Smith Deputy Layout Editor Lucie Felder Deputy Layout Editor Kennedy Shields Deputy Copy Editor Gabi Hasson Deputy Copy Editor Katie Haynes Deputy Copy Editor Sharanya Sriram Deputy Blog Editor Emily Min

Out of Shelter, Not Out of Sight — In reaction to the report that the District’s homeless population has greatly expanded in the past year, homeless individuals and advocates rallied inside D.C. City Hall, demanding that politicians take action against these statistical spikes.

Get Baked Beyond Georgetown — Baked and Wired has started the process of opening a new location on K Street in Mount Vernon Triangle. The new location will focus primarily on selling bread, not cupcakes.

@lindseidenberg May 14 @thehoya Not surprised. That curve is dangerous! I’m always scared the GUTS buses will tip over. Hope the driver is ok.

with their goal, motivated by the 2010 Campus Plan agreement, of bringing social life back within the front gates. A pub that can successfully and consistently attract students to its doors will, in turn, ease contention by helping to relocate this loud student nightlife on campus.

To create an attractive establishment, catering to student needs must be an essential objective during the planning process. Administrators have taken care to seek student feedback in developing the pub since it was first proposed, but the transfer of the establishment from Brogan to Bon Appétit reinforces the necessity of student input.

Especially in light of widespread student disapproval of Aramark, the food services provider that operates O’Donovan Hall and other auxiliary food providers on campus, a concerted effort must be made early on to help Bon Appétit — a large-scale food service provider that bears more similarity to Aramark than to Brogan and his Mason Inn — successfully meet the needs of students.

The university has created a rare opportunity to serve the needs of students, administrators and neighbors all at once. A transparent and adaptable planning process will ensure that this opportunity does not go to waste.

Emma Hinchliffe, Editor-in-Chief

Out of Shelter — A report released Wednesday found that the District’s homeless population has increased by 13 percent in the last year and that since 2010 the number of homeless families has increased by 50 percent.

@alwaysontherive May 14 @thehoya @BenStandig It’s a good thing the Russians won’t let us use their space rockets because that driver should be on one to the Sun. ​

1,382 Degrees of Gratitude On Saturday, the 1,382 members of Georgetown’s Class of 2014 will undoubtedly share feelings of joy and accomplishment as they walk across the graduation stage.

From the moment that these graduates began filling out their applications to Georgetown more than four years ago to the last words of their senior theses and final exams, their Georgetown careers have entailed countless hours of exertion and tribulation, both academically and emotionally. Each member of the Class of 2014 deserves the moments of celebration that are sure to make this weekend especially memorable.

But, as all of us have come to learn, the trials of college have required us to seek the guidance of others, whether from a concerned friend, a loving parent, a thoughtful professor or even a considerate stranger.

A Fumbled Fix — After earthquake damage shuttered the Washington Monument for almost three years, its elevator broke down and briefly stranded visitors at the observation deck Wednesday, its second day open after renovations.

A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD US ...

Cheers to Student Input With construction on the Healey Family Student Center well underway, Georgetown students and administrators have an important opportunity in the coming months.

After Mason Inn and George bar owner Fritz Brogan (COL ’07, LAW ’10) was unable to reach a satisfactory financial agreement with the university to run a pub in the new student center, Brogan backed out of his signed letter of intent, setting the stage for the April 22 announcement that Bon Appétit Management Company will take over the space.

Bon Appétit is a food services company that offers dining service management to corporations, universities and other largescale, institutional dining venues. It is promising that Bon Appétit counts among its strengths environmentally sound sourcing policies and advocacy for workers’ rights, but Georgetown and Bon Appétit administrators must remember that student input should be a top priority in the management of this new venue.

The pub has long been a part of the plans for the HFSC, and ensuring the success of this venture will benefit more than just the students who will likely make up the majority of its clientele. Most importantly, students patronizing the pub will assist administrators

THE VERDICT

Be sure to check Chatter, The Hoya’s online opinion blog, throughout the summer for regular opinion pieces.

Every Tuesday, liberal and conservative student commentators from Georgetown go head to head on topics regarding the upcoming fall 2014 elections.

PaUL HEALY weighs in every other Thursday on topics in higher education and their affect on Georgetown, ranging from the Common Application to his case against studying abroad.

Every other Friday, Yankees fan ROB DEPAOLO and Red Sox fan CAROLYN MAGUIRE will offer their takes on the latest news in the world of Major League Baseball.

Find these columns and more at

thehoya.com/chatter

Michal Grabias, General Manager Jason Yoffe, Director of Accounting Brenna Muldrow, Director of Corporate Development Nicole Foggan, Director of Marketing Addie Fleron, Director of Personnel Brian Carden, Director of Sales Janet Zhu, Director of Technology Clara Cheng Kevin Wilson Tessa Bell Sean Choksi Laura Tonnessen Chris Amaya Dimitri Roumeliotis Natasha Patel Nicole Yuksel Kim Bussing Emily Manbeck Christine Cha Chris Hedley Gregory Saydah Matthew De Silva

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Sheena Karkal, Chair

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Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-800 words.

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senior commentary

FRIDAY, May 16, 2014

THE HOYA

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MAGGIE CLEARY

O

Through Insomnia, Finding My Georgetown

n Saturday, May 17, I will receive my diploma exactly four years to the day after I received my acceptance letter off the Georgetown waitlist. It doesn’t get more full circle than that.

In hindsight, it would be almost impossible to enumerate the things I’ve learned here. At first, when I was thinking about writing this, I felt as if I weren’t qualified. My Georgetown experience is certainly not typical, and I’m not sure that I could capture it in 600 words.

The Hilltop, for me, has been a place where, Velveteen-rabbit-style, you “become real. … It doesn’t happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges.” So instead of attempting to list the things I’ve done, or the ways that Georgetown has become “home,” or how the people here have become my “family,” I want to talk about late nights.

If there’s anything I’ve discovered about myself here, it is this: I am a night owl. This was something I’d never given much thought to but suddenly became quite the revelation. It wasn’t until the second semester of

my freshman year when I embraced a later bedtime and saw the endless possibility of the softest hours of the day.

And, as weird as this sounds, many of my most formative Georgetown experiences have occurred after sunset.

Before you jump to conclusions, allow me to explain.

There are a couple of different types of nights that exist on this campus — ones that become ingrained in your psyche and shape your thoughts for days and years.

There’s the conversation type of night, where you find yourself in Village C West, sitting on some unwashed carpet floor, passing around a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. It’s in those late hours when you learn the most about people who become your friends, where you hear stories about past relationships, hometowns, familial issues, when you really start to know them through tears and laughter. It’s these nights where people get the idea to go run and sit in John Carroll’s lap, jump in the Dahlgren fountain or go on a long walk to the monuments. When you wake up the next morning, it’s these nights

that make you smile because you feel like something is happening.

The other type of night is the Tombs night — an era that begins with the stamp on one’s 21st birthday, and then all of your friend’s stamps on their birthdays, or rather the night before (pro tip: they’ll let you in at 11:50 p.m. sometimes if you beg and

After late nights, I smile because I feel like something is happening. plead). These nights have dancing; they have music that you’ll probably never remember and a photo or two to Instagram. And then there’s the clean up, the walk back, the glass of water, the full analysis and evaluation of the night as an event, the label that follows the phrase “that night when.”

Then there are work nights — ones that we all know too well. These hap-

pen in the library or at your kitchen table when you start to hear the birds chirp and reach for another cup of coffee. But these nights can take other forms, too. They can be in the form of painting a Georgetown University Student Association campaign banner, waiting to hear election results, practicing debate presentations or finishing up a documentary production binder. These are short nights, but ones where you discover the stuff you’re made of, in addition to how quickly you can finish a paper.

There are some things about the Georgetown experience that are immutable. And although we don’t join the same clubs, or have the same friends, or all go to Tombs or Lau like Jane and Joe Hoya, we have our own experience shaped by four years of meaningful “nights,” of becoming a person through thousands of moments that collage into a diploma. We all fill in the blank differently when we reflect and choose where or when we learned the most. But no matter what embodies the experience of the Class of 2014, we all owe Georgetown thanks for the nights and days that

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taught the things we never even expected we wanted to know.

Maggie Cleary is a senior in the College. She is a former chair of the Georgetown University College Republicans and the D.C. Federation of College Republicans.

J. CAPECCHI

AMBIKA KUMAR

10 Ways the Hilltop For Those Outside the Joe Hoya Mold Challenged Me ‘H A

s a preface to this senior commentary, I must admit I enjoy social media. If the 11 endorsements I have for social media skills on LinkedIn are not enough sway, perhaps the fact that I posted on social media continuously during finals week will convince you. It is only fitting, therefore, that as an ode to this love I discovered at Georgetown, I honor my senior commentary in the form of a BuzzFeed post. (Also, I am in the MSB. We don’t write paragraphs.)

1. First and foremost: I survived Leo’s dining. To all the parents reading this, O’Donovan’s on the Waterfront is not as fancy as it sounds. It is an ominous place where they put chicken in quotation marks.

2. Academics: This is the most obvious answer but also the reason I came to Georgetown. I had never failed a test before coming to Georgetown, nor had I ever received any grade below a B. With the help of one too many all-nighters and questionable-tasting Corp coffee, I can say I fully earned every grade I received at Georgetown; I am very proud of my academic career.

3. Transferring: A formative aspect of my Georgetown experience comes from the fact that I transferred.

The transition of coming to a new place where most people your age already have an established friend group was the most difficult part of my time at Georgetown. I learned that if you want to be heard, you have to be loud.

4. Rats of Henle: Every Georgetown student here knows the sad truth about the rats of Henle. The only thing scarier than finding a live rat in your living room is finding a dead rat in your living room.

I cannot tell you how many rats or mice my roommates and I found throughout the years, but I am happy to report that we survived them all.

5. Keeping up with the Hoyas: It is clear that ambition is a prerequisite to coming to Georgetown. Everyone is always working for that next goal, and if you stop for even a second to look back on what you already have, you might miss the next opportunity. It is exhausting, but at the same time, I accomplished as much as I did because my peers were constantly pushing me to be a better person.

6. Finding a job: The top fear for every MSB student is not getting that summer internship, which invariably leads to a job. I did not get the first job I applied for; I did not even get the fifth job I applied for.

I endured 10 gruesome interviews before I finally decided on a job. Had I never received an offer, I would have had a great fallback career as a professional interviewee.

7. Toilet Troubles: Unfortunately, no college experience would be complete without the classic toilet overflow. On

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

the bright side, we finally had an excuse for the university to shampoo our carpets. For anyone looking to learn how to stop toilet floods, I am your (wo)man.

8. Finances: A Georgetown education is no easy bill to pay, especially for someone with my financial background.

I am eternally grateful for the scholarships with which Georgetown endowed me, for I would not be here without the university’s fiduciary assistance. However, I am even more grateful that they still required I work for part of my tuition. I’ve held at least one parttime job throughout the past three years and had paid job experience every summer. My Georgetown education is the most valuable thing I own, not because of its price tag, but because of everything I had to do to earn it.

9. Roommates: As with most girls, my roommates are my best friends and worst enemies. We bicker like sisters, and we love each other like sisters too. I have never had such polarized relationships with anyone before, but I would not give it up for the world.

As frustrating as they can be sometimes, you need to have people in your life — roommates who will be there for you no matter what.

10. The World: The biggest challenge I have yet to face.

Georgetown is getting ready to send me off to the outside world, and it’s scary and exciting and sad and happy all at the same time. The university has done what it can to prepare me, so the rest is up to me.

Finally, my senior commentary would be incomplete without a few “thank-you’s.”

Unfortunately, word limit restricts me in that endeavor.

Nevertheless, the one person for whom I express my thanks here — and whom I can no longer thank in person — is my grandmother, without whom I would never have realized what it meant to have a good education.

Leo’s is an ominous place where they put chicken in quotation marks.

Ambika Kumar is a senior in the McDonough School of Business.

ow do you feel about graduating?!” It’s the senior year equivalent to New Student Orientation’s “Name/hometown/major?” We all have our own canned responses, but none of them quite contain the nuances that four years on the Hilltop entail.

For those of us who bleed Hoya Blue, graduation can be a bittersweet time, full of last-minute parties, nostalgic Facebook back-stalking and late-night heart-tohearts. However, Georgetown has been more of a struggle for some of us. With appreciation and respect, I want to dedicate this piece to those of my classmates whose undergraduate careers have come at a cost and those of you who have worked to make Georgetown a better place than you found it.

Don’t get me wrong — while my time at Georgetown has often been difficult, it has also been invaluable. My academic learning has been complemented by the development of life skills and self-awareness that comes about only through experience. I came to the Hilltop as an eager yet shy, little Midwestern boy who had almost no concept of what he was getting himself into. And while I came to Georgetown for the academics, I stayed for the uphill battles of self-discovery, community formation and social justice that I found on campus.

Much of what I have learned about myself and the world around me has been in opposition to the institution.

I learned about classism and my working-class identity with each unpaid internship I turned down in favor of paid manual labor, each doctor’s appointment I couldn’t make because of issues with my insurance and each networking event I skipped out of sheer discomfort.

I learned about cissexism and my genderqueerness from every professor who thought I was two different people, from

every evil eye and snide remark in the common room, the bathroom and the lawn, and every explicitly discriminatory statement from administrators.

I learned about ableism and my anxiety, patriarchy and my survivor status, racism and my white privilege, heterosexism and my asexuality. Learning these things about myself and the world has been instrumental, though the means of learning has not always been affirming.

Therefore, I’d like to take a moment and recognize all of the incredible people at Georgetown. For all the first-generation college students. For everyone whose English was not “academic” enough. For everyone whose necessary accommodations were considered superfluous. For everyone who took a leave of absence. For everyone whose undergraduate career was more than four years but kept at it.

For everyone who had to work to support themselves or their family. For everyone who visited Counseling and Psychiatric Services or Health Services.

For the underpaid and overworked staff in Student Affairs. For everyone whose denomination is not accommodated by Campus Ministry. For every nontraditional student. For everyone who works in maintenance and food service.

For all the student parents. For everyone for whom a broken elevator was more than just a mild inconvenience. For all the veterans. For everyone who filed a bias-related incident report. For all the survivors of sexual assault on campus. For everyone who was tokenized or excluded.

For everyone who put off that paper to support a friend in need. For all of you: Thank you for everything you have done to make this campus a more just, affirming, supportive and empowering place.

You are more than just my anecdotes; you are the protagonists of your own stories. Your experiences and lessons do

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not end here. You will continue to face challenges and celebrations — some new, some you thought were long over. Many people will say that after graduation, we all come out equal with our Georgetown diplomas in hand. These people are wrong.

Not everyone’s annual $60,000 bought the same knowledge or skills or experience. I therefore encourage each of you to make the most of your unique Georgetown experiences — the meaningful friendships you’ve fostered, the challenges you’ve overcome, the skills you’ve developed, the knowledge you’ve gained.

Let these inspire your future work and help you in empowering others and spreading justice. I am so proud of everything you have already accomplished, and I can’t wait to see where your futures take you.

J. Capecchi is a senior in the College.

PATRICK BOYDEN

The Mass That Showed Me the Way ‘Y

ou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

The first time I entered Lauinger Library, I had no idea that this Latin phrase, Cognoscetis veritatem et veritas liberavit, loomed overhead. Everpresent, these words remind us of one of higher education’s greatest purposes: to help eager young minds in their search for truth. This is also ideally the goal of all incoming freshmen: to leave the Hilltop aware of and in awe of what is true, what is good and what is beautiful.

I, however, came to Georgetown with my own set of goals: to graduate with honors, to get a good job after I left, to make some new friends, to maybe meet a pretty girl, to experience the big city life … the list went on and on. Now, looking back on my four years, I am thankful for how misguided my initial aspirations for my Georgetown experience proved to be.

By October of my freshman year, I was struggling. I hadn’t found my social

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niche yet; I wasn’t really enjoying any of my classes; I was overwhelmed by all that Washington had to offer; and, most importantly, my Catholic faith had wavered. In my eagerness to embrace the college lifestyle, I had let the most important relationship in my life — my relationship with God — fall by the wayside.

Luckily, in His infinite love and mercy, the Lord wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch me flounder in my own confusion and ineptitude. One night, as I was walking from a friend’s apartment in Village B to Yates, I passed by Copley Crypt Chapel. It was around 10:15 p.m., and as I walked by, brooding over another lost day, I happened to peer through the door of the chapel.

Within, I saw a priest celebrating Mass with a small group of students. I was intrigued; at the time, I wasn’t even aware that there was a 10 p.m. Mass on campus.

I decided to wait outside the chapel until the liturgy was over and then walked in to ask the priest if he could hear a quick confession. I told him that I was struggling to adjust to college and was struggling with my faith. In response, he happily invited me to start coming to 10 p.m. Mass: “It’s only 30 minutes long!” he promised.

With that exchange, I could begin to feel God’s hand gently molding my Georgetown experience. True to its title as the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, Georgetown became the guiding foundation of my spiritual life. By the end of my freshman year, I had joined the Knights of Columbus and become a server for the 10 p.m. Mass. During my sophomore year, I started to take advantage of all the spiritual opportunities that Georgetown affords its students.

From the wonderful and diverse Campus Ministry that has enabled me to learn about other faith traditions to the vibrant Jesuit community that has taught me so

much about my own faith, Georgetown’s Catholic identity has been instrumental in forming me into the man I am today.

As I look back on my undergraduate career, I cringe imagining where I would be if I had never walked by Copley Crypt that October night four years ago.

Being at Georgetown has shown me what the truth is. I have discovered that, while having a prestigious job with a nice salary would be nice, the most important thing in life is to know, love and serve God. Georgetown crafts its students to embrace the magis, always challenging students on the Hilltop to strive for “the more.” For me, the significance of the magis has been in compelling me to dive headfirst into the unfathomably rich depths of Georgetown’s Catholicism.

I have emerged from these waters a new creation, ready, as St. Ignatius of Loyola said, to “go forth and set the world on fire.”

Throughout my time here, I have met so many people that have shown me Christ. In fact, when Fr. Pat Rogers, S.J., recently asked me to write a quick response to the question, “How have you recognized Jesus in your time here at Georgetown?” the best answer I could give was, “Really, as I look back on the last four years of my life, the hard question isn’t how have I recognized Jesus in my time at Georgetown — it’s how haven’t I? He is so clearly seen in everything here.”

In his “Confessions,” St. Augustine writes, “My heart is restless until it rests in you, my God.” Thank you, Georgetown, for showing me where to seek rest, or rather, in whom to seek rest. Thank you, Georgetown, for helping me to know the Truth.

PatRICK Boyden is a senior in the College. He is a former Grand Knight of the Georgetown Knights of Columbus.

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senior commentary

THE HOYA

Adam Ramadan

fRIDAY, May 16, 2014

VICTORIA EDEL

Vocation Above Occupation ‘In My Life’ at College, I Memories of Authenticity O

t was September of this academic year, and the Georgetown University Student Association office on the first floor of the Leavey Center was packed. About 50 eager freshmen and transfer students arrived to an open house where GUSA was speaking about student government and advocacy.

One freshman, in particular, stuck out from all of the rest.

She was asking tons of questions and was genuinely interested in everything I had to say.

It didn’t take very long, however, for me to figure out that she was there not because she wanted to be, but because she felt like she was supposed to be.

After a couple of minutes of chatting, I pulled her and a couple of other students aside. In the student government office of a top-20 academic institution in the nation’s capital — and surrounded by other students they were probably prepared to run against in a GUSA election — I told them not to join GUSA immediately.

I suggested they apply to the Students of Georgetown Inc., try to be Blue and Gray tour guides, throw their hats in the ring to walk Jack the Bulldog and scream their heads off at

Georgetown soccer and basketball games. Don’t get me wrong — I love GUSA, and I am so proud of the fact that it became such an important piece of my time at Georgetown. But I involved myself in GUSA because I wanted to, not because I felt like I was supposed to.

At a place like Georgetown, where ambition and intelligence abound, it’s very easy to lose our sense of purpose. For the past four years I have lived, taken classes and worked with intelligent, compassionate and bold people every single day, and so has each member of the Class of 2014. What we must remember, though, is to involve ourselves in initiatives, organizations and causes that we love and feel passionately about, not those in which we believe we’re supposed to be involved.

For a majority of my time at Georgetown, my passions never crossed with student government. The organization I feel the most connected to is the Blue and Gray Tour Guide Society because I got to brag about the place that I love to hundreds of eager prospective students. I was rewarded for following my passion every time a group of these strangers came

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to love Georgetown in the same way I do.

They say that if you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I recited that saying at the end of each of my tours because I genuinely believe that most Hoyas do what makes them happy. Waking up at 7 a.m. to get to your internship on the Hill after a Thursday night of partying might not be glamorous, but getting to sit in on a congressional briefing or interact directly with elected officials is what makes the job worth it.

Although Georgetown is a community full of people who do what makes them happy, the onus falls on us as Georgetown graduates to continue to follow our passion into the real world.

At Georgetown, this might be easier because the passions of students and faculty alike are on display every day. When your professor emails you back at 2 a.m. or you see a student group tabling out in the rain, it’s because they care. That is contagious, I believe — which is part of why Georgetown is such a special place.

To the undergraduates who are so lucky to have time left at this magical place, follow your passions. Work tons of hours at a job you enjoy, stay up until the sun rises studying what you love and spend time with company that makes you smile.

To the Class of 2014, remember that when you’re doing what you love, it’s an opportunity, not a job. As that famous ’80s song “Listen to Your Heart” says, “I don’t know where you’re going, and I don’t know why, but listen to your heart.” We have done our due diligence as students, and now it’s our turn to go and set the world on fire.

Adam Ramadan is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. He is a former vice president of the Georgetown University Student Association.

bebe albornoz

A University for All Seasons

H

ealy Tower is arresting.

At least, every time I pass through the front gates or cross Key Bridge from Rosslyn to return to my home on the Hilltop, I am utterly captivated by its awesome beauty.

This surface-level admiration for the physical landscape of Georgetown is only a fraction of its substance — the arresting sights are mere silhouettes of the soul of my beloved university.

Over four years ago, in one of my admissions essays, I was asked to contemplate how Georgetown would help me accomplish my goals. At the time, I could preemptively enumerate classes and cocurriculars that would give breath to my passions, and I was earnest in my hopes and ambitions. Today, the day before my graduation, I cannot formulate such a distilled picture. Simply put, Georgetown gave me the goal I never dreamt of: It introduced me to myself.

In a carpeted hallway of Copley three, silent tears fell down my cheeks as my brother and I discussed the existence of God one night in the spring of my sophomore year. Georgetown equipped me with the ontological argument of St. Anselm, weekly masses in Dahlgren Chapel and one particular homily by Fr. Ryan Maher, S.J., (COL ’82) to conscientiously combat my older brother’s doubts.

Georgetown also gave me the best friend I had met within the first five minutes of New Student Orientation, who kneeled beside me in my sorrow that night and emailed me passages from the Book of Job and C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” about our imperfect relationships with God to comfort me.

On a crisp autumn day soon after the death of my esteemed English professor, Wayne Knoll, Georgetown gave me a passageway to the National Gallery of Art for a cultural retreat with classmates. My home on the Hilltop — the very heart of the city — coursed itself through Washington, D.C., and reinvigorated me during a time of loss. In March of my junior year, Georgetown entrusted me with a senior honors

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thesis that would, in part, analyze the poetry of T.S. Eliot and, in total, pay homage to my late professor.

Georgetown gave me the week of spring break that I would spend in Lauinger Library conquering mental fatigue and frustration to reach new levels of personal growth through the completion of this thesis — it activated the philosophy of cura personalis I had written about in that

Georgetown fulfilled an unexpected goal: It introduced me to myself. initial essay four years prior.

In the cold winter of midFebruary, Georgetown gave me the opportunity to travel with the mock trial team for an unforgettable weekend of competition and camaraderie in Richmond, Va. It gave me the family of friends who would console one another upon receiving news of the tragic accident that took the life of our fellow competitor from Harvard on the drive home from that same tournament. Two months later, my Hilltop home gave our team wings to compete in Orlando, Fla., for the National Championship Tournament that would reunite us with our Crimson friends and allow us to represent our alma mater proudly.

The seasonal tides of my

Georgetown experience shed light on both the lows and highs of my undergraduate life. For all of its beauty and grace, Georgetown still testifies to transformational moments when I questioned my own happiness and sense of self. Yet in the midst of these seemingly conflicting forces, I will walk across the stage on Healy Lawn tomorrow morning with complete confidence in the sea of classmates before me and in myself, as well. Ultimately, Georgetown has transformed my morals, faith, aspirations, humor, values and emotions by elevating them to a more purposeful, authentic state. All along, I have been Bebe, but in the duration of my life here, I have experienced a development that brings me back more knowingly to who I am at the core and to whom God created me to be.

In the folding chairs of Verizon Center, the desks of Maguire Hall and the tables at Leo’s, Georgetown has given me an education about the essence of each person and our intrinsic connection to one another.

From NSO to Senior Week, it has enriched my life with experiences and friendships that will paint the picture of a profoundly rich and meaningful existence. From admission to graduation, it has revealed its soul so that I could more fully fill out the contours of my own.

Hoya Saxa. Georgetown, I will love you forever.

Bebe Albornoz is a senior in the College. She is a former president of the Georgetown University Mock Trial Team.

ne of my older brother’s favorite anecdotes is about how his eighth grade class unsuccessfully tried to convince its uptight music teacher to let “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” be their graduation song.

Only a 13-year-old would think “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is a good graduation song, though. The song is about how nothing — not wind or rain or winter’s cold — can keep love apart. Its optimism is naive, but the melody is catchy.

I appreciate the sentiment, though it might be more applicable to my past than to my future. Last week, when my friends called me, no matter where they were, no matter how far, I would come running.

I never like it when my friends are upset, but as graduation approached, dealing with their negative emotions became especially hard. Every sadness, every breakdown, every moment of vulnerability reminded me of our impending goodbye.

Even though I want my friends to live happy, fulfilling lives, there is a bright side to their negative emotions. When they express those feelings with me, I feel honored and privileged to share their emotional burdens.

In those moments of vulnerability, my most honest and deepest friendships formed. In those moments, I knew that I was not alone in my own struggles.

There are things I regret about the last four years: unnecessary all-nighters, half-hearted essay writing, an extra pitcher (or two) at The Tombs. But I will never regret secrets and stories told over milkshakes or burritos or bottles of wine.

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” fails to really honor Georgetown or the friendships I formed when I was here. And those friendships and that love are what I will carry with me. So which song is appropriate?

The Beatles’ “In My Life” strikes a deep chord. “There are places I remember / all my life though some have changed. / Some forever, not for better. / Some have gone and some remain. / All these places have their moments with lovers and friends. I still can recall. / Some are dead and some are living. / In my life I’ve loved them all.”

John Lennon and Paul McCartney capture my feelings with those words. Lennon considered it the first song he wrote that was actually art, not just pop music, because he finally allowed himself to be authentic, expressing his raw emotion. And that emotion resonates almost 50 years later, on the eve of my college graduation.

When I return to Georgetown, it will be a different place. Many of my favorite people

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will be gone. New South will hold a student center and a pub. Maybe Vittles will finally carry my favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry’s — Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Snack. But seeing Dahlgren Chapel or Healy Hall or The Tombs will remind me of these precious moments.

And when I am reunited with those friends with whom I will have parted ways, we all will have changed, for better or for worse. But today I am filled with love for my friends, for Georgetown and for the last four years.

There’s one song that might work even better: Disney’s blockbuster hit “Let It Go.” Not only did I hear it — and sing it — ubiquitously, but one line always gets to me: “I’m never going back, the past is in the past.”

Queen Elsa sings it bitterly, glad to never return, and sometimes I sing it that way too. My friends aren’t the only ones with sadness and regrets from the last four years. Rather than holding on to my anger — anger with myself, others, Georgetown, God — I need to let it go, or I can never hope for a productive and loving future.

But “Let It Go” is also a good reminder that even the good things need to be released too.

It’s over. There are many things I can’t hold on to; trying to grasp them would be a waste of time. So while I’ll carry with me lessons and knowledge and love, I’m grateful for the things and people I leave behind. I’m grateful for the love I’ve been honored to experience on the Hilltop and look to the future full of optimism and hope.

In those moments of vulnerability, my most honest and deepest friendships formed.

Victoria Edel is a senior in the College.

She is a former managing editor of The Hoya.

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

PAGE FIVE

NEWS

THE HOYA

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Executive MBA student Justin GandinoSaadein will run for Congress in Virginia as an independent. See story on A7.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

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verbatim

PRAYER FOR NIGERIA

“

It’s nice to just get away and to have all of us together.”

Senior Class Committee Chair Cody Cowan (SFS ’14) on the President’s Picnic at Smokey Glen Farm in Maryland.

See story on A8.

from online

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MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Students and faculty gathered in Dahlgren Chapel for an interfaith service Thursday afternoon in solidarity with the young Christian and Muslim women being held captive in Nigeria, praying for their safe return and peace in the region.

NEW STUDENT GUIDE ONLINE The Hoya is filling in the Class of 2018 with tips for life at Georgetown before they arrive on campus this fall. newstudent.thehoya.com

After 9 Years, Rogers Moves On MALLIKA SEN Hoya Staff Writer

COURTESY WALEED KHAN

Forty-seven seniors received diplomas from SFS-Qatar on Saturday.

SFS-Qatar Graduates Sixth Class KSHITHIJ SHRINATH Hoya Staff Writer

Students at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar graduated Saturday, May 10 – a week before commencement for seniors at the main campus – in a ceremony attended by University President John J. DeGioia.

At the Qatar National Convention Center in Doha, 47 seniors received diplomas that conferred upon them bachelor’s degrees in international politics, international economics or culture and politics. The unique graduating class, which included students from 17 nations, was made up of 19 men and 28 women.

SFS-Q Dean Gerd Nonneman delivered introductory remarks.

“Today we recognize the best and brightest from Qatar, the region, and beyond, carrying on the Georgetown tradition. I am so proud of the successes achieved here, and the success our graduates will each achieve with the knowledge and experience gained over the past four years,” Nonneman said in his speech.

His Excellency Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Saud al-Thani, a previous Qatari ambassador to the United States and current Minister of State gave the commencement address.

“For Qatar, the decision to build a relationship with Georgetown has proved highly successful. I believe it will be even more fruitful in the years to come, and that it will stand the test of time. For you, our graduates, I am confident the same will be true,” he said.

To conclude the ceremony, DeGioia offered closing reflections.

“You came to us from different parts of the world. You came to us with singular talents, individual perspectives and unique backgrounds.

You came to us seeking to learn and to expand your horizons. You came here to Georgetown to a place where people, ideas and our deepest commitments converge,” DeGioia said.

Georgetown’s Qatar campus was established in 2005. Since its foundation, it had graduated 168 students prior to the addition of the 47 students from its sixth graduating class.

Each year, a few hundred students venture into the mountains to reflect, bond and sing songs as part of the ESCAPE retreat. After nine years at Georgetown, the man largely responsible for shaping the retreat into its current success, Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J., will depart to enter the tertianship program of the Society of Jesus.

Tertainship, a period of reflection, is the last step before a Jesuit takes his final vows.

“I’ve been called to finish my formation as a Jesuit priest. … Every Jesuit has to do it and you do it postordination,” Rogers, the current director of Catholic chaplaincy, said.

“And I’ve been talking about this with my superiors and for various reasons we decided that it would be the time now to finish the process.

I knew this was coming years ago, in some sense, but it was finalized back in December.”

Having entered the Society of Jesus 22 years ago, Rogers, 50, a professional musician by trade and education, was ordained in 2002.

He worked in a parish and at Xavier High School in New York City before coming to Georgetown, his longest assignment.

He was originally hired to work with the ESCAPE program and conduct part-time ministry on the medical campus. Within six months, Rogers was asked to assume the position of director of Campus Ministry on the main campus, with the aim of reorganizing the department.

“When I first got here, there was just a lot of confusion in our own department … about who reports to whom, what’s our budget,” Rogers said. “I think what I’m proudest of is the fact that we have a really professional department.”

Under his leadership, Campus Ministry strengthened its integration with the rest of the university by engaging with a broader tapestry of departments, particularly the McDonough School of Business.

Rogers worked with MSB deans on immersion programs that entailed working with poor businesses in Latin America.

The priest held the position of director for seven years, before the appointment of Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J. (C ’88) as vice president for mission and ministry allowed for a reimagination of the department, including the creation of a Campus Ministry managing director position.

Rogers subsequently stepped down as director in order to concentrate on his coursework for a doctorate

of liberal studies, which he recently completed. He will work on his doctoral thesis after tertianship.

O’Brien and Rogers have known each other for 18 years, when the former joined the Jesuits.

“Pat joined the Jesuits before I did, so in a sense, I looked up to him,” O’Brien said. “Pat is a pastor above all. He has a very engaging dynamic and welcoming personality.

He is well-known among students, faculty and staff and well loved. He will be greatly missed because of his always friendly and uplifting presence.”

O’Brien described Rogers’ commitment to the ESCAPE program, which was echoed by Imam Yahya Hendi, the director of Muslim chaplaincy.

“I don’t know if we can understand the ESCAPE retreat very well without him. The ESCAPE retreat has become very known, very outreaching because of him. He has been able to help the retreat engage more [non-Catholics] than before,” Hendi said.

Rogers supervised former ESCAPE director Bridget Sherry for over three years.

“He’s a wonderful musician. …

We do a lot of singing on ESCAPE and that’s a real gift of Fr. Pat’s.

He really has a lot of exuberance and love of life that really comes through,” she said. Rogers extended this love of music to the larger campus community, with “Jammin’ Jesuit Java” nights.

Rogers also founded the LGBTQ Catholic Prayer Group, which predates the establishment of the LGBTQ Resource Center.

“The students that I’ve had the chance to work with in this group have changed and strengthened my faith in so many ways. Many of them live in the painful tension between their sexuality and their faith,” Rogers wrote in an email. “I always sought to deepen the students’ faith through the lens of Ignatian principles and to help them navigate that tricky road of faith that every person must walk regardless of one’s sexual orientation.

The robust faith of these students continues to humble me.”

Sherry currently serves as special projects coordinator at the LGBTQ Resource Center and has borne witness to the prayer group’s effect on students.

“Fr. Pat is someone who has been an ally and caretaker for students. I think he’s brought a lot of joy,” she said. “I think Fr. Pat’s prayer group is a really real way that Georgetown and Campus Ministry can show there’s a real place for these students and that they don’t have to

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Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J., the director of Catholic chaplaincy, will leave Georgetown in June to enter the Jesuit tertianship program. turn away from their faith because of who they are. … And I think that’s really healing in immeasurable ways.”

Another focus of Campus Ministry during Rogers’ time in the department has been interfaith collaboration, with programming featuring members of the Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic chaplaincies.

“The fact that he comes to Friday service and sits on the floor and prays with Muslims, that opened so many doors between him and the Muslim students. That made it easier for him to engage and be engaged,” Hendi said.

Hendi and Rogers led an interfaith trip to the Middle East to explore the Holy Land. The imam described the priest as the ideal travelling partner, pointing to his humility, honesty and humor, a reflection agreed upon by many of Rogers’ associates.

“I met Fr. Pat when he first arrived on campus. I remember seeing this imposing figure with a smile that welcomed everyone,” Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jeanne Lord wrote in an email. “Fr. Pat has a generous heart, that’s matched by his wisdom and kindness. He’s one of the first people we turn to when there’s a student in need, and we can always count on him.”

Rogers’ last day at the university is June 10 and he will leave for Portland, Ore., in August to embark on tertianship, which lasts between six months and one year. During this time, the Jesuit undertakes direct ministry with the poor, a silent retreat and study of the society’s founding documents, fostering a deeper connection to the order. The stages of a Jesuit formation are directed by the Jesuit’s provincial.

“Typically, five to 10 years after theology, men do enter tertianship,” Maryland Province Communications Associate Sheila Welton said. “I do think there is a kind of typical process, and it’s mutual. It’s designed so that it is an individual experience. … [The decision] is mutual between the Jesuit and the provincial through conversations and prayers.”

After tertianship, Rogers will complete his doctoral thesis from Georgetown, but his future destination remains uncertain at this point. He expressed a deep admiration and adoration of the Georgetown community and his time here, which was slightly atypical in its length.

“Usually you would do this four to five years after ordination,” Rogers said of tertianship. “At one point I just kept my head down, hoping they’d forget.”

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news

THE HOYA

FRIday, May 16, 2014

Master Plan Moves Forward College Enrollment

Dips Nationwide

Molly Simio

Hoya Staff Writer

As the academic year comes to a close, the university is preparing to advance several campus construction projects this summer, some of which will have noticeable impacts on the campus community come fall.

Preliminary work is scheduled to begin this summer for the construction of both the Northeast Triangle Residence Hall and the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center, as well as the conversion of Ryan and Mulledy Halls into student residences.

Construction on the Healey Family Student Center began last August and will enter its final stages this summer, with a completion date set for the beginning of the fall semester.

Currently, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are being installed, electrical work has begun and live wall construction has commenced. Later in the summer, hard interior finishes — such as floors, restroom fixtures and furniture — will be installed.

“By and large, a lot of the heavy demolition and some of the new construction work is finished. They’re starting to do interior finishes right now and we’re on schedule to open up in August,” Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey said.

Preliminary stages of the conversion of Ryan and Mulledy Halls, the former Jesuit residence, into a student residence will begin May 19. The housing materials abatement and demolition stages of construction will be completed this summer.

“There’s lead paint and asbestos in those buildings, so we have to go in there and properly abate those according to [Environmental Protection Agency] standards, and then the demolition of walls that we’re not going to use as part of the design, old utilities systems that we’re not going to use,” Morey said. “That’s just really demolition. There’s nothing exciting about that work other than that’s what you need to do in order to get the new stuff in there.”

After these regulatory processes are completed this summer, exterior construction will commence in the fall. The

Kshithij Shrinath Hoya Staff Writer

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

The Healey Family Student Center, under construction in New South, is scheduled to be completed by fall. conversion of the residence, which will house 160 students, is scheduled to be complete by fall 2015.

The university received Old Georgetown Board concept approval for the Northeast Triangle in March and will go before the OGB for design development approval in June. If the university receives OGB approval, it will begin site utility relocation later that month, Senior University Architect Jodi Ernst said in an interview with The Hoya last month.

“The site had all of the existing utilities running underneath the footprint, so we need to relocate them underneath the new walkway, which means putting in new pipes and switching over the electrical and the sewer and the plumbing. … That’s about a four-month project,” Ernst said.

Morey said that he hopes to break ground for the Northeast Triangle in August. The residence hall is scheduled to open in fall 2016.

In order to accommodate the construction of the Northeast Triangle, which will be located south of Henle Village, pedestrian traffic will be rerouted to the east side of Reiss Science Building beginning in the fall semester. Morey said that he does not anticipate that this change will have a major impact on pedestrian traffic.

“It’s one of our most [used] pedestrian paths, but the width of the path is no differ-

ent than the width of [the detour] on the east side [of Reiss].

It’s a minor inconvenience at best,” Morey said.

Although this walkway is among the most popular pedestrian paths on campus, some students agree that the detour will not pose a major inconvenience for them.

“I think that it will be slightly inconvenient, but I don’t think that it will add any more than one or two minutes to wherever you’re going,” Marla Abadilla (MSB ’17), who will be living in Henle Village next semester, said.

The construction of the Intercollegiate Athletic Center will also impact pedestrian traffic. Due to changes in the routes of the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle buses, pedestrian traffic will be rerouted to the sidewalks closer to Wolfington Hall and the Southwest Quad, instead of going by the tennis courts, which will be removed during the construction of the IAC. The construction of the IAC, which is expected to take about two years, will follow a similar schedule as that of the Northeast Triangle.

“We’re doing it in two phases. The first phase would be breaking ground and doing the site work and the excavation, and then the second one would be when you see it coming out of the ground,” Morey said. “We anticipate to start that in the summer, when we get board approval and all the permits.”

The percentage of students choosing to enroll in college from high school has steadily declined since the end of the recession in 2009, sparking concerns about demographic changes in the national student population.

On April 22, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report on college enrollment that found that the proportion of students from the high school class of 2013 was lower than the previous year, continuing a trend of decline from a 2009 peak.

According to the press release from the BLS, 65.9 percent of 2013 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities in October 2013.

That number was down from 66.2 percent in 2012, and showed a significant decline from the all-time peak of 70.1 percent in 2009.

The recovery from the financial crisis from 2007 to 2009 is one of the primary driving forces behind this recent shift of choosing employment over college, according to Nora Gordon, associate professor of public policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy.

“If it’s a recession, and if you’re not enrolled, you’d be unemployed, so the opportunity cost of your time has gone down, and your likelihood of enrolling has gone up,” Gordon said.

“That explains why you would really see, in an economic recovery, the likelihood of finding employment with just your high school diploma is going up, so the opportunity cost of your time has gone down.”

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said it would be unlikely, however, that most applicants to Georgetown would be faced with a decision between university enrollment and employment. Although Georgetown saw a 2.6 percent drop in applications and a 1.4 percent decline in yield rate for the Class of 2018, the applicant pool has remained relatively consistent.

“I think what this [statistic] would reflect is the bottom of the applicant pool, affecting people who are maybe in a more difficult financial decision, wondering whether they might have difficulty affording the cost of college if they have an opportunity for a job,” Deacon said. “We don’t see … that particular statistic as affecting schools at the high end of the applicant pool.”

Tamara Jayasundera, research professor and senior economist for Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce, agreed, expressing concern that those who really could benefit from the added earnings of college were often the ones choosing not to enroll.

“Over the lifetime, a four-year graduate worker, on average, earns $2.3 million compared to the $1.3 million earned by a worker with a high school diploma. Thus, it is troubling that young adults from poor and disadvantaged households are unable to afford the high price tag of college tuition [and] are opting out of a college education,” Jayasundera wrote in an email.

Though Gordon agreed, pointing to declines

at two-year colleges as the key indicator driving the BLS statistics, she hypothesized that students considering Georgetown also face a challenging decision as a result of the recession and the subsequent recovery.

“It’s people who are on that margin. It’s such a big and segmented market. I don’t think any of the students at Georgetown were deciding, ‘Should I go to Georgetown, or should I get a job?’

They’re thinking, ‘Should I go to Georgetown or my flagship state university that’s giving me a scholarship?’ Other people are on the margin between two-year and four-year college. Other people are on the margin between two-year college and working full time,” she said.

The administration thus appears to face the challenge of reaching out to students who may not apply because of increasing tuition costs or the fear of not graduating.

“Places that are selective are, by definition, at capacity: They’re rejecting applicants. Their number of enrolled students is not going to change; the composition of those students might change,” Gordon said. “They might have a harder time recruiting … students who don’t apply because they’re deterred by the sticker price.”

Deacon recognized this issue and pointed to joint efforts carried out by top universities specifically aimed to offset this problem and encourage on-the-fence students to apply.

“Many, many students who have the right credentials don’t even try getting into college. The problem is, there’s no way of specifically identifying them. … Our best effort is done through the joint recruitment program, with four other major universities [Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University], which literally goes to all corners of the country,” Deacon said.

Deacon also highlighted efforts such as the Georgetown Scholarship Program, which offers resources and networks to students regardless of socioeconomic status, as crucial to maintaining high graduation rates, which, in turn, would incentivize students to attend Georgetown.

“If you can get into Georgetown, the predicted outcome is that you can graduate at a 95 percent rate, and that changes the whole dynamic, in terms of your opportunity. If you’re going to a school where it’s predicted that only 30 percent of you will graduate, you’ll have second thoughts about whether that decision is right for you,” he said.

Jayasundera stressed the need to keep tuition costs manageable for students, as well, especially with increased media attention to the issue and state schools becoming less affordable for students.

“Though Georgetown and other selective private universities are not affected by the declining enrollment, mounting pressure can lead them to have to take steps to moderate their tuition increases. … As state budgets thinned during the recession, many states cut higher education support dramatically, and more of the burden of paying for college transferred from the state to the student,” she said.

News

FRIDAY, May 16, 2014

THE HOYA

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Ahead of Commencement, Speakers Discuss Talks COMMENCEMENT, from A1 vided government, they expect us to work out our differences, and that’s where you come in,” Lew told McCourt School graduates. “If any generation can break down those walls, it’s yours.”

Gates, who served as secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011, said he will discuss public service and the importance of international engagement in his speech to SFS graduates.

After earning his doctorate from Georgetown in Russian and Soviet studies “40 years ago this week,” Gates originally planned to pursue a career in academia.

“My plan once I got my Ph.D. was to go out and teach. I had no intention of making CIA or government a career, and literally within a matter of days or weeks of getting my degree, I was invited by [Henry Kissinger and former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft] to take the Soviet job on the National Security Council staff,” Gates said. “I told my wife I’d do that for a couple of years and then I’d go teach, and then they kept offering me interesting jobs and all of a sudden it was decades later.”

As the SFS Class of 2014 graduates, Gates compared foreign service today to when he entered.

“I think that service is more dangerous in more places than it was in 1966. We were at the height of the Cold War and we were at the height of the Vietnam War, but the rest of the world was relatively calm at that time,” Gates said. “I think that whole environment is much more challenging now. I think another aspect that has remained the same, I think unfortunately, is that congressmen don’t understand the importance of our non-military parts of our national security and foreign policy, and so funding for the State Department and [the Agency for International Development] and other such agencies continues to be a struggle.”

In his lecture to College graduates, Consolmagno will talk about the importance of joy and surprise in scholarly endeavors.

“If you don’t have any joy in what you’re doing, if you don’t have any joy in being a scholar, what’s the point of it all?” Consolmagno said via Skype from Rome.

That sense of surprise, he said, relates to his work at the Vatican Observatory, where he curates the Vati-

can meteorite collection, among other research.

“A lot of people are delighted to know that astronomy, which in one sense seems utterly useless — you’re not going to be rich doing astronomy — and yet it is something everybody’s fascinated by,” Consolmagno said. “I think there’s a deeper message there that it’s important for us as human beings to have things that are more than what’s going to get you a job or put food on the table, but something that feeds your soul.”

Leshner said his address to the NHS will cover what makes a rewarding career, as related to his own experience, which he said has followed a non-linear path.

Case hopes that MSB graduates will capitalize on unique opportunities to make a difference.

“I am confident they will take the skills and knowledge they’ve gained from their time at Georgetown and use it to solve the world’s biggest challenges — and am hopeful that many will choose an entrepreneurial path, as business (and startups in particular) can be an important agent of change,” Case said in a statement.

In his lecture to School of Medicine graduates, Thibault will discuss

Yield Down Slightly For Class of 2018 YIELD, from A1 remains a priority for Georgetown, and that the university is pursuing a student from South Dakota who is currently on the waitlist.

“It’s great to be able to say we have students from all 50 states,” he said.

Shilpa Chandran (MSB ’15), who is from Sioux Falls, S.D., noted the lack of South Dakotan presence at Georgetown, attributing it largely to geography.

“The majority of students from my high school actually went to schools in the Midwest. … A lot of students just don’t go that far,” she said. “It seems like the majority of students [at Georgetown] come from either coast.”

Chandran also pointed to the lack of available information about Georgetown as a factor that contributes to the deficit of students from less common areas of the country.

“Most students perceive those schools to be so far away geographically and culturally that they feel more comfortable applying to schools within the Midwest,” she said. “There’s just a lack of information on what these schools actually are and what they could offer students from the Midwest.”

Justin Chapman (MSB ’15), president of Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program, agreed.

“The best way for us to get a wide range of students at Georgetown is to make [the school] known throughout their area, so we have winter receptions, high school visits over winter break or Thanksgiving break so that people from all areas of the country can learn more about Georgetown,” Chapman said. Although California has provided the highest number of applicants of any state for a number of years, this year represents the first time that enrolled Californians have outnumbered students from any other state.

Deacon attributed this increase to Georgetown’s nationwide cachet and shrinkage in the applicant pool from the Northeast.

“We’re lucky, being a national university and located in D.C., we continue to see that national appeal. If you are simply located in the northeast and your pool was from New York or New Jersey, you’d be quite worried because that pool is going down quite rapidly and you can’t offset it by people coming from California,” Deacon said.

Jordan Neman (MSB ’16), from Beverly Hills, Calif., attributed the high number of Californians at Georgetown to a lack of options at home.

“If you think about California itself, especially southern California, you’re choosing between the [University of California campuses] and [the University of Southern California] and Stanford. It’s just limited,” he said. “It seems like every school besides those is on the east coast.”

The 1,525 enrolled students who are currently enrolled represent a deficit of 55 below the enrollment cap of 1,580 put in place by the 2010 Campus Plan agreement. In meeting this target enrollment, Deacon stressed the importance of careful planning and utilization of the wait list.

“Under no condition can we go over and the only way we can avoid that is by artificially lowering the number we admit. Our enrollment plan always includes enrolling 70, 80, 90 [students] from the waiting list,” he said.

The university has initially admitted 60 students off the waitlist to fill out the Class of 2018 and 190 students remain, according to Deacon. Deacon expects to be able to offer spots to a total of 75 to 100 students from the waitlist.

The McDonough School of Business had the highest yield rate of the four undergraduate schools at about 57 percent, followed by the School of Nursing and Health Studies at 49 percent, the School of Foreign Service at 47 percent and the College at 42 percent.

Deacon attributed the higher yield rate for the MSB to the current economic climate.

“There are people who would have been in the College or School of Foreign Service who are in the business school now because they still see this liberal arts-based program, but they also see that [the MSB] has that degree that they think will give them some leverage,” he said.

This year, Georgetown looks to accept about 140 transfer students, compared to 170 to 220 in past years, Deacon said. Decision letters to transfer students will be sent June 1.

Overall, Deacon expressed optimism for the Class of 2018.

“I think it’s going to be a great class,” he said. “People seem to be really enthusiastic about coming and they come from even more diversity overall than they have been because the country continues to shift little by little.

his father, who was also a doctor, and the changes in medicine that have occurred since he practiced.

“I think the prospects for helping people have never been better,” Thibault said. “A lot has changed in medicine, but that represents a lot of opportunity for the next generation to participate in medicine, to make the health care system even better and continue to make improvements not only in the science of medicine, but also how we go about delivering better care more efficiently.”

At the Law Center, Feinberg will honor the school’s former dean, Robert Pitofsky, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission who brought Feinberg to Georgetown in 1978 and will be in attendance Sunday.

“I’ll be talking about the communitarian ethic, the idea that public service is a noble calling and that serving the public interest is very important, that every individual can make a difference in their own way and that we have to get over this polarization that now grips the country and prevents progress,” Feinberg said.

When the university released its lineup of commencement speak-

ers May 1, student reaction varied, with some students expressing disappointment with the choices through social media and elsewhere. Beth Anne Kadien (COL ’14) was one of a few students to respond to these complaints with her own post.

“I saw not a ton, five or six statuses, being like, ‘Oh cool I get an astronomer who, cares about that,’ being sarcastic and whiny about it,” Kadien said. “It made me write my Facebook post because people were being ungrateful and not seeing the bigger picture, not looking into what the speaker has done. I think the general consensus was people need to stop complaining and this could be a really cool thing.”

Other commencement speakers include Seyla Benhabib, the Eugene Meyer professor of political science and philosophy at Yale University, for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ceremony; Roger Ferguson, CEO of financial service company TIAA-CREF, for MBA graduates; and University of Pennsylvania School of Design Dean Marilyn Jordan Taylor at the School of Continuing Studies.

Hoya Staff Writer TM Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting.

MBA Runs for Congress Penny Hung

Hoya Staff Writer

Executive MBA student Justin Gandino-Saadein (GRD ’15) announced his candidacy for the House of Representatives, representing Virginia’s third congressional district, on May 5.

Gandino-Saadein is running as an Independent against incumbent Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who has occupied the seat since 1993.

Scott has carried the district with over 70 percent of the vote since 1992, even taking 98 percent of the vote in 2000. The third district, which spans from Norfolk to Richmond, is Virginia’s most Democratic district.

“We have a congressman who’s a nice guy, and he’s been there for 22 years, but he’s not a leader,” GandinoSaadein said. “We have to have a leader. … I think he’s comfortable in his position, and he’s not aggressively fighting for what he needs to in the District — jobs, better wages.”

Shawn Williamson, Scott’s press contact, said that Scott is withholding comment until after all candidates are officially certified from the Democratic primary June 10 and the Republican convention May 3.

“I hope people embrace the need for leadership and are willing to step away from the status quo and only vote for one party,” Gandino-Saadein said. “We need to embrace open-mindedness.”

Gandino-Saadein stressed the importance of independent candidates and voters in today’s heavily partisan political environment.

“I’m not against large parties, but the two parties are not talking right now,” Gandino-Saadein said. “When you talk with someone, and you say you’re from a party,

there’s a 50-50 chance that person will shut down because everything is so polarized right now.”

Gandino-Saadein, who served for over 10 years in the Armed Forces, cited his previous military background as a testament to his leadership abilities.

Gandino-Saadein said he believed that his negotiation skills, in particular, would help address the current gridlock in Congress.

“My military service and that negotiation ability and leadership will allow me to bridge the gap and open the gateways of communication

“I have confidence in our ability to run a grassroots campaign.” justin gandino-saadein (grd ’15)

between the two parties,” Gandino-Saadein said.

Gandino-Saadein’s platform focuses on raising the standard of living, primarily by increasing the minimum wage and ensuring that military veterans have access to vital services.

According to GandinoSaadein, the minimum wage has not kept pace with the cost of living over the last few decades, which has reduced the standard of living for working-class families. As a result, he wants to raise the minimum wage from $7.24 an hour to $16.

While Scott and GandinoSaadein agree on raising the minimum wage, however, Gandino-Saadein criticized Scott’s lack of explanation for how he would make the hike profitable for businesses. Gandino-Saadein, who founded a digital media firm in 2013,

stressed the importance of supporting small businesses.

“What are you doing for the businesses? You’ve got to offset that with tax incentives, allow these businesses to circulate that through their employees and through the community,” GandinoSaadein said. “That combined with the health care law is putting a lot of pressure on business, and I’m not sure we’re setting them up to succeed.”

Furthermore, as a veteran, Gandino-Saadein said that ensuring vital services for veterans is one of his top legislative priorities.

“It is absolutely deplorable that we are even in discussion of cutting military benefits when we are still at war,” Gandino-Saadein said.

“There are no words. … There is waste in our government, but our waste is not with our service members, and they should receive the benefits they were promised.”

According to Georgetown Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh, while the university does not endorse any candidates because of its taxexempt status, the university is proud that so many alumni engage in public service.

Currently, Gandino-Saadein is still collecting signatures from District voters for his candidate petition; the minimum number is 1,000.

Overall, he said he was happy with the state of his campaign and the support that he has received.

“I didn’t expect the overwhelming support that I have been receiving. … I wish there was more constructive criticism,” Gandino-Saadein said. “Money is [a challenge] because I know Congressman Scott has quite the war chest, but I have confidence in our ability to run a grassroots campaign.”

Valedictorians Honored at Commencement

SENIOR CONVOCATION

VALEDICTORIANS, from A1

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

University registrar John Q. Pierce leads the student flag processional into McDonough Arena on Thursday for the Senior Convocation Ceremony. Seniors carry 67 flags from around the world reflecting the diversity of the senior class.

cided instead to take classes that seemed more interesting to her.

“I’m very much a type A planner. I think that much of my success in high school and college has come from the fact that I manage my time very well and prioritize,” Cotto said. “But when it comes to my life, I haven’t really planned beyond this year. I’m trying to be OK with that and just sort of see where it takes me.”

Reher, an international economics major, said that earning the SFS Dean’s Medal was a goal that he set for himself during his freshman year.

“As a freshman, I kind of had a vague sort of desire to achieve something like this, so it was somewhere in the back of my mind,” Reher said.

He will pursue a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard following graduation and hopes to eventually have a career either in academia or with the Federal Reserve System.

Reher ran middle distance on Georgetown’s varsity track and field team and said that the skills that he developed on this team contributed to his academic success.

“There’s difficulties in terms of logistics sometimes, in terms of travelling for meets and having to reschedule exams and homework, but I think on the whole it keeps me very regimented and organized,” Reher said.

“I cultivated a drive to succeed that I can bring to other areas of life.”

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THE HOYA

Friday, May 16, 2014

Seniors Celebrate Final Week With Record Gift Alexander Brown Hoya Staff Writer

Graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2014 kicked off as graduating seniors presented a class gift of $155,640.40 to the university during the convocation ceremony Thursday afternoon.

This record gift included both funds raised by the Class of 2014 and a percentage-match donation of $73,000 from the Board of Regents, which donated $1,000 for each percentage point of seniors that gave.

The Class of 2014 exceeded the Class of 2013’s $147,004.54 gift in both size and participation rate. Seventy-one percent of seniors contributed to their class gift last year, while a record 73 percent of graduates donated this year.

Senior Class Fund Co-Chairs Elizabeth Abello (COL ’14) and Peter Brigham (SFS ’14) presented the check to University President John J. DeGioia. “The [Regents’] Challenge has magnified the impact of senior class giving over the past several years and we’re grateful that they decided to do it again this year,” Brigham said.

While past years have focused on the percentage of the senior class that donated to the Class Fund, special emphasis was placed on breaking the record for the number of individual student donors this year.

“We decided to structure [the fundraising] a little bit differently this year. For the Regents’ Challenge this year, when we hit a given numbers of donors, we would unlock a gift from the Board of Regents,” Abello said.

“We’re more interested in creating relationships between individuals and the university. We’re more concerned with the number of unique donors.”

Marketing for donations to the senior gift this year focused largely on the impact that the donations would have for Georgetown’s posterity.

“This year, we’ve really focused on using every tool that we can — from social media to a presence on campus — to reinforce to seniors the impact of giving back to Georgetown and the importance of building our philanthropic legacy as a senior class,” Brigham said.

In recent years, the senior gift changed to a cash donation from physical landmarks around campus.

“When a senior class donates a bench or a tree, that’s it. You’ve given a gift, it’s a one-time thing, and you’re done,” Abello said.

Under the cash donation system, seniors can donate to any academic department, student organization, athletic team or other group of their choice. The $73,000 donated by the Board of Regents will go to the 1789 Scholarship Fund.

The convocation ceremony, held in McDonough Arena, also featured an address by Steve Silvius (COL ’07), cofounder and chief education officer of an education technology startup called Three Ring. His speech focused on forging unique paths and never shying away from a challenge.

“Seven years ago, I sat exactly where you are sitting,” Silvius said. “I was feeling good, like pop-your-collar kind of good, and I hope you’re feeling that way today.”

The presentation of the senior class gift followed the convocation address, after which Alumni Association President Mary Beth Connell (MED ’89) led seniors in affixing class pins to their graduation robes to represent the Class of 2014’s official induction into the Georgetown alumni network.

Tropaia ceremonies for the four undergraduate schools will occur Friday in Gaston Hall, during which awards will be presented to honor the achievements of students, faculty and staff. The valedictorians from the College and the McDonough School of Business will speak at their respective ceremonies. The School of Nursing and Health Studies and the School of Foreign Service do not have valedictorians.

The Senior Ball, which will be held Friday evening at Union Station, will conclude Senior Week, a period of festivities organized by the Senior Class Committee. Other events from the week included a class barbecue, a toga party, a field day on Kehoe Field, a keg party on Regents Lawn and the President’s Picnic at Smokey Glen Farm in Maryland.

“The President’s Picnic is the biggest, and I think most of our favorite, event,” Senior Class Committee Chair Cody Cowan (SFS ’14) said. “It’s nice to just get away, and to have all of us together.”

According to Cowan, planning for Senior Week has been underway since Disorientation 2.0 ended in January, with special attention devoted to alcohol-related events.

“The keg parties always have the biggest potential for disaster, just because

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Senior Class Fund Co-Chairs Elizabeth Abello (COL ’14) and Peter Brigham (SFS ’14) present $155,640.40 to University President DeGioia. they have alcohol, are giant and there are always worries about noise,” Cowan said.

After a fire alarm disrupted last year’s senior keg party in O’Donovan Dining Hall, this year’s two major parties have been moved from McDonough parking lot and O’Donovan Hall to the Leavey Esplanade and Regents Lawn.

For many seniors, the Senior Week festivities serve as a transitional period between life as students and life as college graduates.

“It’s the week between finals and

graduation, so it’s a celebration of being done, but also a time to get together and both reflect and celebrate,” Cowan said. “It’s not just partying, there’s a lot of prepping for life after graduation.”

Undergraduate commencement ceremonies will be held Saturday.

According to Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh, 1,429 seniors have applied to graduate. This number includes students graduating from the School of Continuing Studies and the School of Foreign Service campus in Qatar, which held its commencement ceremony last Sunday.

Davis Defeated in Newark College Admissions Look

To Socioeconomic Factors

Suzanne Monyak Hoya Staff Writer

At age 21, Rashawn Davis (COL ’14) was the youngest candidate in the race for the West Ward of Newark City Council on Tuesday, joining seven other candidates vying for two-term Councilman Ron Rice’s spot.

On Election Day, May 13, Davis earned 5.87 percent of the vote, placing him sixth out of the eight total candidates.

Since no one candidate won over 50 percent of the vote, Patricia Bradford and Joseph McCallum, who won 21.25 percent and 25.84 of the vote respectively will meet in a run-off election June 10.

Davis said that he was initially motivated to run by a desire to help, citing his hometown’s $90 million deficit and laying off 150 uniformed police officers, but was surprised to see his campaign grow at the rate that it did.

“I think initially when we started this, I wanted just to be sort of a voice to add to the conversation. I don’t think we necessarily knew it would grow into this,” Davis said.

Born and raised in Newark, N.J., in 2009 Davis was accepted into the New Jersey Scholars, a competitive, free summer program for rising high-school seniors in the state, making him the only African-American student in his class of scholars and the first student from Newark public schools to be accepted in decades. He also served on the Newark Youth Council and volunteered on President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

At Georgetown, Davis majored in government with a concentration in justice and peace studies and served as the vice president of the university’s NAACP chapter.

Before the election, Davis said that his young age could be an asset toward his campaign because it would better allow him to bring a new perspective to a city council containing members who have been in place for over a decade.

“If you look at our leadership, a lot of people who are leading have been leading for 20, 30 years … so we need a new generation of leaders,” Davis said.

“I think the reality is that with the millennial generation, there comes a sense of innovation and a sense of new and fresh ideas.”

However, with youth also came a lack of experience, name recognition and funding.

“We just don’t have as many of the networks as someone who is 40 or 50 years old, so I think what you have to do is sort of be innovative in how we kind of circumvent those problems,” Davis said.

Georgetown government professor Hans Noel agreed.

“Politics is about alliances and being in the right faction and connecting people, and having a support team and so forth,

Suzanne Monyak Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: AMY LEE/THE HOYA

Rashawn Davis (COL ’14) was the youngest candidate to run for Newark City Council, earning 5.87 percent of the vote. and you take time to build that, and it’s hard to build that when you’re also getting an education three hours away,” Noel said.

Davis added that his young age allowed him to make better use of social media, a tool he relied heavily upon to spread information about his campaign.

“A lot of other candidates didn’t know how to use social media like that,” Davis said.

Running on a platform of fresh change for Newark, Davis proposed starting a mentoring program, creating more block associations to encourage neighbors to join together, and launching a “city hall on wheels” initiative, an idea borrowed from Boston in which city hall officials would drive to different neighborhoods in a truck, thus promoting increased communication between city hall officials and Newark residents.

According to Noel, Davis’ loss should not be attributed to his age, but rather to his position as a challenger to the long-standing social structure in Newark city politics.

“It takes time to break in to shake things up and that, more than age, is the challenge,” Noel said.

Davis experienced this opposition to change and innovation firsthand, notably through the vandalization of his property and the property of his staff.

“People tearing down your signs, and vandalizing some of your property. … You just kind of got to learn … that’s what happens when you try to make serious change,” Davis said.

Noel compared Davis to former Newark councilman and mayor and current New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a young, energetic politician known for positively using social media and introducing changes to the city.

“I think there are a lot of parallels between the Cory Booker story and the Davis story in

that he too wants to make some changes … and that’s a hard thing to do, to come from the outside and try to make changes, for anyone,” Noel said.

Julie Hutchinson, a student in Georgetown’s Semester in Washington program who worked in Newark City Hall with a prisoner re-entry program, said that she thought Cory Booker’s term as mayor has paved the way for more young people to enter politics.

“I think it’s really special to see young people want to invest in the future of Newark again, and I think that that in large part was due to the way Cory Booker ran Newark,” Hutchinson said.

She added that, even though Davis lost the election, it has benefitted his political career to increase his name recognition.

“For Rashawn Davis to run, in a lot of ways, is going to be incredibly important even though he didn’t win, because I think it’s going to show that there is just a lot of incredibly competent people coming out of Newark who are just really proud to be from the city,” Hutchinson said.

Although he was accepted to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Public Policy and Leadership Program, Davis plans to work at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey before attempting to run again for city council in 2018.

Public policy professor William Gormley, whom Davis cited as one of his favorite professors, has high hopes for Davis’ future political career.

“I think that Rashawn has a great future in politics if he persists. … A lot of very famous politician have lost big races early in their careers: Barack Obama, Jeb Bush, Bill Clinton — they bounced back and I think Rashawn can too,” Gormley said.

Tuesday also saw Ras Baraka, a strong critic of Booker, elected mayor of Newark in a race against Shavar Jeffries.

On April 22, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold Michigan’s 2006 decision — which was supported by 58 percent of voters — to ban consideration of race or sex in public education and employment, a victory for states’ rights.

In a 6-2 vote, the justices ruled in Schuette v.

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action that a lower court did not have the power to overrule Michigan’s affirmative action ban, upholding Michigan’s ruling that colleges may not give “preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”

The foundation of the Michigan case rested on the assertion that affirmative action is discrimination against white people and thus a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Since the 14th Amendment applies only to state laws, private universities like Georgetown are exempt from any legal basis that threatens affirmative action in admissions. Georgetown Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon identified a clear correlation between the prohibition of affirmative action and a reduction in diversity.

“I think the evidence is very clear. In the states that have adopted these policies, the number of African-American and Latino students enrolled in state universities has shrunk significantly,” Deacon said.

McCourt School of Public Policy professor Harry Holzer explained that the ruling focused more on whether or not a popular referendum has the power to make those kinds of decisions, rather than on the fairness of affirmative action as a practice.

“This ruling was not about whether affirmative action at the University of Michigan should be allowed to exist,” he said. “The issue was whether a popular referendum is allowed to ban affirmative action.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor publicly spoke out against the decision as a step back for equal rights in a 58-page dissent.

“Today’s decision eviscerates an important strand of our equal protection jurisprudence,” Sotomayor wrote in a dissent.

Ada Meloy, General Counsel for the American Council of Education, also disagreed with the decision. The ACE submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court stressing their hope that the

Supreme Court would respect its 2009 decision in University of Texas v. Fisher, which maintained that the University of Texas had the right to consider race in its admissions process.

“We were pleased that the court did not take away that ability of institutions, but disappointed that it allowed the ban to survive in Michigan,” Meloy said.

Holzer expressed concern over the decision, as it relates to the future of affirmative action as well as the power of popular referendum to make decisions.

“You know you could make a case that it’s important to respect the popular majorities, but if you had done that in the South, you never would have gotten rid of Jim Crow laws and all that,” Holzer said.

Deacon agreed that the future of affirmative action in public universities is beginning to look grim.

“You could say it has a chilling effect on the idea of affirmative action overall,” Deacon said.

Now that eight states including Michigan have placed restraints on affirmative action in public higher education admissions, state universities will begin to look at other ways to create a more diverse student body other than looking at race.

Holzer, who supports affirmative action as a policy in higher education, addressed the psychology behind the voters’ call.

“A lot of middle-income white people think that — they know that minority kids can get in with lower grades and lower test scores, and that makes them really angry. They feel that they’re the victims of discrimination. It’s sort of a narrow view,” Holzer said.

As schools now barred from consideration of race in admissions must alter their methods to include more socioeconomic diversity, Deacon said that Georgetown’s admission process has also begun to change to focus more on leveling the playing field for students who had access to fewer resources but does not neglect lower-income white students, a demographic that is left out from affirmative action.

“The way we think about affirmative action began to shift back in the [2004-2006] period, especially when we began starting to expand what I consider our affirmative action, to socioeconomic as opposed to race … how do we think about putting the thumb on the scale to level the playing field as best we can for everyone,” Deacon said. “It has an ability to respond in a wider way but it also doesn’t leave people behind.”

fRIDAY, May 16, 2014

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Friday, May 16, 2014

Georgetown’s Top Performers of 2013-2014 Female Athlete of the year emily menges Andrew May Hoya Staff Writer

On January 17, senior defender and co-captain Emily Menges was drafted 25th overall by the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League draft. Menges had the option of forgoing the last few months of her senior year in order to better her chances at making the roster. However, Menges decided to stay in school.

“A lot of girls either graduate early or put it off until next year,” Menges said in an interview with The Hoya on Jan. 31 (“Menges Takes Game to Next Level in Pros,” B10). “I didn’t want to be one to put it off, and Georgetown doesn’t offer online classes, which is what

FILE PHOTO: CHRIS GRIVAS/THE HOYA

In her career, senior defender Emily Menges started all but three games.

some of the girls do.”

It was a decision that paid off as Menges secured one of the three open roster spots. On April 12, she made her professional debut in Portland’s 1-0 win over Houston, and in the Portland’s young season, Menges has started and played the entirety of the team’s six games. Now, on Saturday, Menges will receive a psychology degree.

Menges’ professional debut follows a storied four-year collegiate career at Georgetown, which culminated in a senior season where she received AllAmerican honors and was named Big East Defender of the Year.

In her senior campaign, Menges led the Hoyas to a 16-3-2 record and a 7-11 mark in the Big East, and the team reached the second round of the NCAA tournament before falling to Virginia 1-0. Although the Hoyas managed only one win in the tournament, the team achieved its highest end-of-theyear ranking in program history. The team’s unprecedented success was in large part because of its strong defense, which averaged less than one goal allowed per game and recorded 10 shutouts.

The team’s impressive defensive numbers resulted from Menges’ strength and consistency. The senior defender was a mainstay on the back line and was one of only five Georgetown players to appear in every game.

Her play, presence and leadership impressed Head Coach Dave Nolan.

“Emily has been an impact defender for us from day one. Exceptionally quick with a great reading of the game. … I believe she is one of the top defenders in the country and has become our leader and captain,” Nolan said in a statement on guhoyas.com.

The Georgetown coaches were not the only ones to recognize Menges’ talent. She earned all-Big East rookie honors in her freshman campaign. As a sophomore she earned Big East academic all-star honors and was selected all-Big East first team after her junior season. But this was just the beginning for Menges.

After her senior season, Menges was showered with awards. In addition to the All-American honors and being named Big East Defender of the Year, she was also named one of the 15 semifinalists for the Hermann Award, which is given each year to the best male and female collegiate soccer player in the country.

After four impressive years on the Hilltop, Menges caught the eye of the United States National Team. She trained with the U-23 national team in December in Florida along with junior midfielder Daphne Corboz. Menges had never played in the national team system, but earned the call-up with her play for the Hoyas.

Just a few weeks later, the defender was welcomed into yet another new squad. The Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League selected Menges with the seventh pick in the third round. The Thorns, which are associated with the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer, are one of the most successful teams in the young NWSL. The team won the league title last season, drew crowds as large as 17,000 and features national team stars such as defender Rachel Van Hollebeke and forward Alex Morgan.

Armed with a degree, incredible talent and a promising professional career, Menges certainly has a bright future ahead of her.

coach of the year ricky fried Molly Malone Hoya Staff Writer

In his 10th season as Head Coach of the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team, Ricky Fried has led the team to a 106-58 overall record and won six Big East regular season titles. After a disappointing beginning to their season this spring, the Hoyas composed a 6-1 record in the Big East and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Aside from the team’s success in the conference this season, Fried has claimed personal victories of his own.

In the Blue and Gray’s 13-6 win over Temple in April, Fried notched his 114th win and became the winningest coach in program history.

Much of Fried’s success can be attributed to his unique system, which calls for attentiveness from players on and off the field, substituting them in and out with each change of possession throughout the game. While the quick exchanges occur seamlessly, his focus on detail all over the field is impressive.

When a play is taking place in Georgetown’s offensive zone, Fried scans the field. He can catch an offside violation while simultaneously alerting his team of the next play to run. It may seem impossible to pay attention to each game with such awareness, but Fried can be seen doing this up and down the sideline during every single play.

This skill has not only been recognized by Georgetown, but also by lacrosse organizations nationwide and is, in part, the reason Fried was named head coach of Team USA. He led the team to its seventh championship in summer 2013. The squad has since renewed Fried’s position through the

2017 season.

Fried’s experience at Georgetown has proven to be very successful, but his career in lacrosse began long before his arrival in the District. He was an All-American at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and played professionally for seven years.

Fried’s unorthodox women’s coaching style is a clear result of his success on the men’s side of the game.

His knowledge of the game allows him to expect a lot from his players, and he never sugarcoats his thoughts on the game unfolding before him. He is the first to congratulate a player after a goal and the first to challenge a referee after a questionable call. Aside from his accolades, statistics and overall success, Fried takes pride in being a more important figure to his players.

Fried is a teacher; whether it is practice or a game, he can be found giving group instruction as well as one-onone direction in every aspect of the game. Whether the team wins or loses a matchup, he is always geared toward improvement.

“The bigger piece for us is trying to focus on continuing to improve. It’s not that we’re going to get any better skill-wise, necessarily, or tactically, but [what matters is] our concentration level and being able to maintain a level of play for a period of time,” Fried said in April.

After the team experienced a rough patch midway through the season, Fried made adjustments. The Hoyas went on to stun their opponents with a seven-game winning streak. Their final game of the season came in a second-round loss in the NCAA tournament against No. 3 North Carolina.

Although the Blue and Gray ended the

LAXALLSTARS

Head Coach Ricky Fried won his 114th game — a program record. season unranked, the squad put up strong numbers against UNC and was defeated in a 10-8 final decision.

It is obvious that Fried captivates the attention and respect of his players year after year. His dedication to his players and the game makes his team that much more excited to play for him. His influence is evident in every game that Georgetown plays. Each player buys into his system and is confident that the play he is yelling from the other side of the field is the one that will result in a goal. His unparalleled knowledge of the game makes him an invaluable asset to Georgetown. Through the development of players and evolution of the program, one thing remains constant: Fried’s desire to teach his players about a unique and effective method to win.

FILE PHOTO: ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

In his senior season, guard Markel Starks averaged 17.3 points and 4.1 assists per game. He finished with 1,246 career points.

male athlete of the year Markel Starks Tom Schnoor Hoya Staff Writer

It was mid-October in McDonough Arena, a few weeks before the start of his senior season and Markel Starks was holding court. Seven months had passed since Florida Gulf Coast had shattered Georgetown’s dream of hanging another banner on the wall of the historic gym, but the feelings of frustration were fresh in the senior captain’s mind.

“Every day when I come in here, I look up and there’s nothing there. For me, as a leader of this team, that’s heartbreaking,” Starks said.

From the first days of practice, the senior made it known that this would be a season to atone for last year’s shortcomings. But for a team that returned four of five starters from the squad that won a Big East regular-season title, the 2013-2014 Georgetown Hoyas began the season with plenty of question marks: Who would replace the production of Otto Porter Jr.? What should be expected from UCLA transfer junior center Joshua Smith? And could Markel Starks transform from Porter’s top lieutenant into a true floor general?

A November game against No. 10 Virginia Commonwealth in the Puerto Rico Tipoff Classic quickly answered the last question. With his team desperately in search of a positive to take from the tournament after a disappointing openinground loss to Northeastern, Starks exploded for 23 points, five rebounds and five assists in an 84-80 victory. Even more impressive than his point total was the 40 minutes Starks managed to play against the Rams’ high-pressure “havoc” defense.

Head Coach John Thompson III took to calling his senior captain a “machine” for his seemingly endless stamina. “Markel Starks doesn’t get tired,” Thompson declared after a February win over Butler, where the guard once again played a full 40 minutes.

The VCU game was an early intimation of how much the Hoyas would come to rely on Starks as well as his fellow guard, sophomore D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera. After it was announced in early January that academic issues would sideline Smith for the remainder of the season, Starks and SmithRivera were increasingly called on to carry the Georgetown offense.

In an 80-72 overtime loss to Marquette in mid-January,

Starks poured in a career-high 28 points to go along with Smith-Rivera’s 24. Despite being double-teamed for much of the night, the two guards generated over two-thirds of the Georgetown offense in the losing effort.

The defeat came in the middle of a five-game losing streak that dropped the Hoyas from 3-1 to 3-6 in the Big East. Starks never let the losses get to him, however, and eventually led Georgetown with 16 points in a Feb. 1 win over No. 7 Michigan State that revived the Hoyas’ NCAA tournament hopes. The senior was most impressive in the closing minutes of the game where he nailed pull-up jump shots on consecutive possessions to help the Blue and Gray hold on to a dwindling lead.

Perhaps his most memorable performance of the season came in his final appearance at Verizon Center. No. 13 Creighton, led by National Player of the Year Doug McDermott, was in town, and Georgetown badly needed a win to boost its NCAA tournament resume. Once again, Starks rose to the occasion, dropping 17 points and dishing out a career-high 11 assists while turning the ball over only once in a decisive 75-63 victory. It was a masterful performance by the captain, who knelt down to kiss the Georgetown logo at center court during the Senior Night ceremony.

Starks always played with a certain type of bravado. To call it cockiness would be a mistake, but the senior never lacked confidence. Over the course of the season he displayed a matured offensive game, complete with floaters and step-back jump shots. He had an uncanny ability to create opportunities for teammates as well, be it tossing an alley-oop to Aaron Bowen on the fast break or launching a no-look pass with pinpoint accuracy to a flashing Nate Lubick.

Five months after that midOctober day, Starks and the Hoyas found themselves not in Dallas for the Final Four, but back in McDonough for a firstround NIT game against West Virginia. It was not the senior season the captain had hoped for; he was unable to lead his team to the highs of 2007 or 1985, but along the way, Starks did manage to carve out a spot in the hearts of Georgetown fans both young and old. For his skill, toughness and leadership, Markel Starks is The Hoya’s 2013-2014 male athlete of the year.

Team of the Year softball Juliana Zovak Hoya Staff Writer

2014 was a landmark season for the Georgetown softball team — it secured its first winning record in program history and had four players earn all-conference honors. A close

loss to St. John’s ended its season in the Big East championship semifinals, but the Hoyas showed they will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Georgetown started the year with all but two of its players from last season, its five seniors providing the

FILE PHOTO: ERIN NAPIER/THE HOYA

The Georgetown softball team recorded its first winning record. The Hoyas advanced to the semifinals of the Big East championship.

advantage of experience and leadership to the team. It gives us a better foundation to work from. Coming into practice, we don’t have to relearn a lot of stuff. Kids understand it, they’ve been through the trenches, and now we have to build on that and challenge them a little bit more,” Head Coach Pat Conlan told The Hoya in August.

The Blue and Gray’s season began in Florida, a welcome change from the D.C. winter that cancelled numerous practices. Despite those obstacles, they went 2-3 on their first weekend and hit .500 after 14 games at the beginning of March. That’s when things took off.

It started with the 49er Invitational Championship. In the tournament, the Blue and Gray recorded four wins — all shutouts — and rebounded from a 23-2 loss to Charlotte to beat them 10-0 for the championship. Junior pitcher Megan Hyson went 3-0 that weekend with a no-hitter and two shutouts. Her performance earned her Most Valuable Pitcher of the Invitational and Big East Pitcher of the Week.

Their momentum continued on a spring break trip to Southern Cali-

fornia, where the Hoyas faced five strong western teams. Although they did not record a win on the trip, it was their tough play against then-No. 4 UCLA that jumpstarted their nine-game winning streak on the East Coast.

By the end of the season, Georgetown had secured a 12-8 Big East record, good for third in the conference, and went 26-22 overall, their first winning record since the program was founded nine years ago.

Georgetown’s five seniors — Elyse Graziano, Hannah Slovacek, Allie Anttila, Madeleine Giaquinto and Rachel Nersesian — led the team in terms of production but also in leadership.

“We have fantastic leadership — we have five seniors who have quite a bit of experience … so I think the leadership has helped a somewhat young team. Their dynamic is pretty incredible, they’re just fun to be around. They work hard, they have tremendous character, and I think it’s a team who is on a mission,” Conlan said at the beginning of the season.

Their mission was to make it back to the Big East championships, and they did, riding strong production

in clutch moments from a variety of players and the arms of pitchers Hyson and fellow junior Lauren O’Leary. The Hoyas took advantage of their versatile roster, receiving runs and RBIs from all nine spots in the lineup. Even though they could not pull off the victory against St. John’s to advance in the tournament, their season was filled with unprecedented success for both the players and the coaches.

Conlan has coached the team since its inception nine years ago, when she held open tryouts to field a team without a single recruit. The squad has been on a sharp upward progression since then, surpassing last year’s record of 21 wins and returning to the conference playoffs for the second year in a row. And while they’ll be losing five players to graduation, the program’s strength comes all the way from its early days, when it championed grit and hustle but lacked experience. Those efforts are still integral to today’s more polished team — Conlan takes pride in the full effort her team puts into every game, and it’s that quality that led it to its most successful season yet.

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Friday, May 16, 2014

softball

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konkoly

St. John’s Eliminates Swimmer Continues Comeback GU From Postseason KONKOLY, from A12

SOFTBALL, from A12 But St. John’s responded with an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning. After Hyson recorded the first out, she gave up a home run to senior first baseman Jackie Reed —her second of the game.

In the top of the seventh, Free retired the Georgetown batters in order, securing the 5-3 win.

Hyson pitched a season-high 4 1/3 innings in relief, giving up one run on three hits and two walks while striking out two. Free led the Red Storm, pitching the entire game and giving up three runs on two hits and nine walks while striking out two.

Although Georgetown’s season ended with the loss, it was a recordbreaking season for the program. It was the first time the team recorded

FILE PHOTO: MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Junior pitcher Megan Hyson won 15 games this season. an overall winning record and a winning record in the Big East.

She was able to get back into the pool early for rehab, and then during the summer she swam a bit in the pool in her backyard. Although she knew regaining the same abilities she had before the accident was not likely, she still was determined to give it everything she had.

“It was pretty clear when I started swimming that I wasn’t going to be as competitive as I was in high school,” Konkoly said. “But I was pretty steadfast through it, and I knew I was going to do whatever I had to do.”

When she returned to Georgetown in fall 2011, she decided to redshirt her sophomore season to give herself the time to regain as much of her form as she could. Just like with her rehab, the process was a slow and arduous one.

“We took things one day at a time. … She started off just jogging in the diving well,” Holder said.

She gradually eased her way into full practices, but it was not until after about three months that she

TRack & Field

Women Finish 2nd, Men 3rd in Big East CHAMPIONSHIP, from A12 American Deseree King successfully defended her title. After winning the event last year, King dominated the field and finished in 58.79 — a full second ahead of the secondplace finisher.

The Hoyas earned their final event title in the 4-x-400m relay. The team, comprised of King, All-American senior Chelsea Cox, sophomore Mirabel Nkenke and freshman AllAmerican Sabrina Southerland dominated the field and cruised to the first-place finish with a time of 3:39.29.

Perhaps the women’s strongest event of the meet was the 800m, as four Hoyas earned points for the team. Senior Becca DeLoache was the top finisher for the Hoyas, coming in third, while Southerland, the 2014 indoor event champion, came in fourth and senior Shanique Dasilva in fifth. Cox, the 2013 event champion, completed the scoring for the Hoyas, finishing in eighth.

Meanwhile, the men turned in an equally strong performance in the 800m, as five Hoyas also earned points in the event. Freshman

Ahmed Bile narrowly placed first, finishing in 1:49.04 — just 0.12 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Villanova senior Samuel Ellison. Junior Billy Ledder followed in third, while sophomore Cole Williams, freshman Nathaniel Gordan and sophomore Zach Zingsheim completed the scoring, finishing sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

In his final Big East championship, graduate student All-American Andrew Springer won the 10,000m run finishing in 30:01.82 — a second ahead of his teammate, junior Brian King. The win was the fourth Big East event title for Springer.

After the Big East championships, 30 Georgetown athletes — 17 men and 13 women — were named allBig East. Georgetown received the second most total honors in the Big East.

Georgetown will now turn its attention to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships east preliminary. The meet will serve as a qualifier for the outdoor championships and will be held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 29-31.

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Michelle Konkoly began swimming for the Paralympic team in 2012.

was able to participate fully. During this time, it was difficult for Holder to gauge just how much pressure to put on her.

“I think initially I was handling her with kid gloves … and she actually told me ‘Hey, tell me if I’m doing something wrong.’ That made me put her in more difficult situations,” Holder said.

To her teammates, although they knew what she had been through, she acted normally.

“She just kind of put her head down and did everything she normally would. … The effort that she puts in kind of masks [the effects of her injuries],” teammate junior Jillian Carter said.

Although Konkoly was making tremendous strides in rehab, it soon became clear she was not going to be that competitive for Georgetown, and toward the end of her sophomore year she began exploring the U.S. Paralympics team.

During spring break she travelled to Baltimore to swim for coaches of the Paralympic team, who evaluated her highly as being able to compete.

She then travelled to Ohio to get classified, meaning she would be assigned a number based on her disabilities. Classifications are from a one to 10 with one being the most disabled and 10 being the least disabled. She received a level nine classification.

Konkoly’s Paralympic career quickly took off. After swimming in a couple of meets, she found herself at the Paralympic trials in North Dakota in June 2012, competing for a spot to go to London for the 2012 Paralympics. Although she did not make the team, the opportunity was a great experience and she was not upset at not being chosen.

“I had gotten involved so quickly that I wasn’t that disappointed because this hadn’t been something that I even thought was possible,” Konkoly said.

During her junior year, she did not compete in many Paralympic events, but during the following summer she was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the Paralympics training facility in Colorado with Holder, which provided both Holder and Konkoly with a learning experience.

In February this year, Konkoly competed in a Paralympic meet in Virginia in which her times qualified her for the U.S Paralympics Team. She also competed at CanAms in Miami in March, during which she qualified for the 2014 Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships, which will be held from Aug. 6 to Aug. 10 in Pasadena, Calif.

Konkoly’s journey, however, is not over. She will return to Georgetown in the fall to complete her biology degree.

“I came in as a bio major, pre-med, and I’m able to leave as that, which is really cool because I saw a lot of people that I met in rehab that really had to change the track of their life or modify it significantly,” Konkoly said.

“Being in the hospital — exposed to medicine — really encouraged me that that was something I was passionate about.”

But with one year of eligibility remaining, she will be able to swim for Georgetown next season. Upon her December graduation, Konkoly must decide whether to continue with the U.S. National Team or to go medical school, to which she has been in the process of applying.

Whatever she decides, Konkoly’s future is limitless, which was something that was unimaginable to most after her accident in January 2011.

women’s lacrosse

North Carolina Loss Ends Season LACROSSE, from A12 said. “We got a lot of draw controls [but] there were two points in the game where we had draw controls but lost them and [North Carolina] took advantage of them.”

Georgetown’s momentum continued in the second half. Senior midfielder Hannah Franklin scored less than a minute in to tie the game at five. Fifteen minutes later, Franklin would strike again, but this time it gave Georgetown the 7-6 advantage —

its first lead of the game.

In the final minutes of the game, however, Georgetown turnovers and fouls enabled North Carolina to go on a 3-0 run and take the 10-7 lead. Georgetown mounted a comeback, managing to score a goal to make it 10-8, but the deficit proved to be too much to surpass.

“We knew they were going to go on a run and it was just an issue of trying to minimize it, and we didn’t do a very good job, and they executed better than we did,” Fried said.

The 10-8 loss marked the end of a

rollercoaster season for the Hoyas. After a disappointing beginning, Georgetown dominated in the Big East, cruising to a 6-1 record. Although they ended the season without any titles, it was a success according to Fried. “[Our season] was inconsistent but we finished really strong,” said Fried.

“We are really happy for our seniors to go back to the NCAAs and win the first round game. While it is disappointing to lose the last game of the season, I am really proud of the effort and how they responded.”

baseball

Hoyas Turn in Mixed Results Against Butler and UMBC Carolyn Maguire Hoya Staff Writer

Entering the 2014 season, there were not high expectations for the Georgetown baseball team. The Hoyas graduated 10 players and were chosen to finish fifth in the seven-team Big East in the coaches’ preseason poll.

Despite the unfavorable predictions, Georgetown (19-29, 5-13 Big East) entered its final weekend with the opportunity to make its first Big East tournament appearance since 1986.

In its Big East regular season finale, Georgetown faced off against Butler (18-29, 5-10 Big East) in a three-game series in Indianapolis. The Hoyas won the first two games of the series, but the Bulldogs managed to snag the final game.

In the first game, the Hoyas belted out 14 hits en route to a 5-2 victory. Se-

nior first baseman Steve Anderson led the Hoyas, collecting four hits in his first four at-bats. The Hoyas jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning and never looked back.

Butler tied the game in the bottom of the second after a sacrifice fly plated sophomore right fielder Bartalone, who tripled earlier in the inning.

Georgetown would once again take the lead in the top of the fourth. After an Anderson double, sophomore shortstop Curtiss Pomeroy drove him in with a single up the middle, to give the Hoyas a 2-1 lead. Georgetown went on to add three insurance runs in the middle innings, gaining a 5-1 lead, and cruised to the 5-2 win.

The Hoyas’ offensive firepower continued in the second game of the series as they dominated the Bulldogs in an 8-3 decision. Like the first game, Georgetown jumped out to a first inning lead, scoring runs on a double by

Anderson and a sacrifice fly by junior designated hitter A.C. Carter.

The Hoyas big inning came in the third. After a single, a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases for Georgetown, Carter hit a grand slam to left field, giving Georgetown the commanding 6-0 lead.

Meanwhile, junior pitcher Matt Hollenbeck dominated Butler hitters. Hollenbeck went seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits while striking out eight, and earned the win.

Unlike the first two games, Georgetown’s pitching did not fare well in the series finale, as the Hoyas fell 7-6.

Butler jumped out to an early lead in the first inning on a three-run home run.

The Bulldogs scored once more before the Hoyas exploded for five runs in the top of the third to take the 5-4 lead. With the game tied at 7-7 and a

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runner at third in the bottom of the eighth, Butler senior shortstop Marco Caponi singled to center and the Bulldogs went ahead 8-7, which would be the final score.

With the loss and wins by other teams in the conference, the Hoyas were eliminated from the Big East tournament.

Having been eliminated, Georgetown played its last game of the season Tuesday when it faced off against University of Maryland-Baltimore County (16-27, 6-15 America East Conference). The Retrievers handed the Hoyas an 8-5 loss at Alumni Field.

Freshman pitcher Chris Giordano got the start and struggled in the bottom of the first. Giordano allowed a leadoff single and walked two batters to load the bases. After a hit batter plated a run, a UMBC single followed by a Georgetown error gave UMBC the 3-0 lead.

The game remained 3-0 until the fifth inning. In the top half of the frame, the Hoyas capitalized on two Retrievers’ errors to make the score 3-2. The one-run deficit would not hold. In the bottom of the fifth, the Retrievers scored four runs on one hit to make the score 7-2.

After the teams exchanged runs, Georgetown entered the top of the ninth trailing 8-3. The Hoyas managed to score two runs on three hits.

But UMBC forced two groundball outs to end the game.

Anderson led Georgetown with two hits and two RBIs. Meanwhile, Giordano earned the loss, giving up three runs, two earned, on four hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings.

Unfortunately, the predictions for Georgetown’s 2014 season proved to be accurate. The Hoyas finished sixth in the Big East with a 5-13 conference record and 19-29 overall record.

SPORTS

ATHLETES OF THE YEAR Markel Starks and Emily Menges

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014

ATHLETES HONORED Thirty members of the track and field team were named all-Big East.

TALKING POINTS

“

NUMBERS GAME

We didn’t do a very good job, and they executed better than we did.

”

Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach Ricky Fried

KONKOLY

26

After Accident, Swimmer Thrives ROBERT DEPAOLO Hoya Staff Writer

Three years ago, doctors were debating whether senior Michelle Konkoly would ever walk again. After a horrendous accident, Konkoly was left temporarily paralyzed below the waist. But she battled; she endured several surgeries and an arduous rehabilitation program. Months later she was walking. She then returned to the Georgetown swim team before she was named to the U.S. Paralympics National Swim Team.

No one was expecting Konkoly to

achieve these milestones after the accident she experienced her freshman year. On Jan. 11, 2011, Konkoly fell out of her fifth-floor Village C West room, resulting in numerous injuries, including broken vertebrae in her spine, a couple of broken ribs and a shattered heel.

Despite these injuries, Konkoly remained positive.

“She said something about asking the doctor whether she could do flip turns or not with the rod in her back. … To ask that question, it’s just tremendous optimism. I truly believe that if this happened to someone else

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

After being temporarily paralyzed from an accident, senior Michelle Konkoly rehabbed and qualified for the U.S. National Paralympic team.

who wasn’t as positive or wasn’t as determined, they wouldn’t be where Michelle is today,” Head Swim Coach Jamie Holder said.

Konkoly spent the next two weeks in The George Washington University Hospital where she underwent a slew of surgeries. She had three major operations: two on her spine and one on her foot. Having already withdrawn from the semester, she was then moved to Philadelphia — her hometown — to rehab at the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.

Such a devastating set of injuries could have easily left even the most optimistic person dejected, but from the beginning Konkoly displayed a degree of resilience that has come to be an integral part of the success she has achieved since the accident.

That strong determination carried her through months of difficult rehab. Initially, all she could do was wiggle a few of her toes, and it took over three months for her to be able to stand and take a few steps. She first spent five weeks in inpatient care, and then she went home to wait for her foot to heal before she could put pressure on it. With some physical therapy at her house, it took over two months for her foot to heal to a point where she could slowly begin walking again.

The following April, she started doing intensive day therapy — five days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. At that point she was able to walk very slowly with a walker. After the first eight weeks of therapy, she progressed to being able to walk with two canes, and then after another eight weeks spanning into July, she was able to walk on her own.

As far as swimming goes, she did the best she could to keep in shape.

See KONKOLY, A11

SOFTBALL

TRACK & FIELD

GU Grabs Tournament Loss 11 Event Ends Record Season Titles CAROLYN MAGUIRE Hoya Staff Writer

CAROLYN MAGUIRE Hoya Staff Writer

In their final meet before the NCAA preliminaries, the Georgetown track and field programs turned in dominant performances at the Big East track and field championships. The teams collected 11 event titles including nine individual titles and two relay titles.

As a team, the women’s track and field team finished second to Villanova in the eight-team field with 128 points. Meanwhile, the men finished third behind Villanova and DePaul, who finished first and second, respec-

“I don’t think I would have wanted it to end any other way.”

AMANDA KIMBERS Graduate Student Sprinter

tively.

Over the weekend, graduate student All-American Amanda Kimbers won both the 100-meter and 200m dash. The first-place finishes capped an incredible campaign, and for her efforts she was named the 2014 Big East Outdoor Track & Field Championships Most Outstanding Female Track Performer. Kimbers is the first Georgetown athlete to win the award since 1984.

“I don’t think I would have wanted to end it any other way,” Kimbers said after accepting her award, according to guhoyas.com. “It was a lot of hard work coming back but Coach [Greg] Lambert and my teammates really pushed me and helped me out tremendously.”

In the 400m hurdles, senior AllSee CHAMPIONSHIP, A11

The Georgetown softball team’s storybook season finally came to an end May 9 in the Big East championship semifinals. At The Ballpark in Rosemont, Ill., the third-seeded Georgetown suffered a 5-3 loss to the second seed, St. John’s.

The Big East championship, is comprised of the top four teams in the Big East. DePaul (41-9) earned the top overall seed in the tournament after cruising to an 18-1 Big East record. Meanwhile St. John’s (29-22, 12-8 Big East), Georgetown (26-22, 12-8 Big East) and Creighton (29-24, 10-10 Big East) were the remaining teams in the field, finishing second, third and fourth, respectively, in the conference.

Earlier in the season, St. John’s won two games in the teams’ threegame series. The first game, Georgetown’s only win, was a pitcher’s duel. After seven scoreless innings, the game went into extra innings, where Georgetown eventually won on a walk-off sacrifice fly.

The Red Storm, however, would respond in the next two games.

They won the second game 12-2 in six innings and returned to rock Georgetown pitching in the third game — a 9-6 win for St. John’s.

In the semifinal game, junior pitcher Lauren O’Leary got the start for the Hoyas, but she immediately struggled. After allowing back-to-back singles in the bottom of the first, O’Leary walked junior catcher Erin Burner to load the bases.

The Hoyas would tie the game in the top half of the second. Georgetown loaded the bases with three consecutive walks, and a fourth straight walk forced in a run. Then, with the bases still loaded, senior center fielder Elyse Graziano reached on an error, which allowed another Georgetown run to score.

The record number of regularseason wins by the Georgetown softball team.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

FILE PHOTO: JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA

Senior midfielder Kelyn Freedman scored the game-winning goal against Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Upset Bid Falls Short in NCAAs CAROLYN MAGUIRE

we minimized our mistakes,” Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “They have a few key people but we wanted to After 10 games, the Georgetown make sure we focused on them. women’s lacrosse team’s season But really we wanted to focus on seemed doomed. They had only how we were playing. It was a close managed three wins in its out-of- game. This time it happened to tip conference schedule and failed to in our favor.” live up to its No. 10 preseason rankUnlike the first matchup, the ing.

Hoyas got off to a quick start as seGeorgetown (11-9, 6-1 Big East), nior attack Reilly Woodman scored however, responded to rally off six two minutes into the game. The straight wins to secure the second two teams exchanged goals for a seed in the Big East tournament. majority of the first half. After goals During the streak, the Hoyas were by senior attack Jody Cumberpatch not just winning — they were and junior attack Caroline Tarzian dominating games, outscoring op- in the final minutes, the Hoyas ponents by more than eight goals held a 6-4 lead at halftime. per game.

The Blue Jays, however, respondThese commanding victories ed quickly in the second half, scorwere certainly encouraging for the ing a goal just 10 seconds into the once-nationally ranked squad. In period. After a Cumberpatch goal the first round of the Big East tour- gave Georgetown the two-goal nament, the Hoyas’ dominance lead, John’s Hopkins scored two continued against third-seeded consecutive goals to knot the game Connecticut (10-7, 5-2 Big East). at seven apiece.

After a hard-fought first half, the In the final 13 minutes of the Hoyas found themselves tied with second half, Georgetown and Johns the Huskies 5-5. In the second half, Hopkins each exchanged a goal however, Georgetown overpowered and regulation ended with the Connecticut, notching 11 goals en score tied at eight. route to its 16-8 victory.

In overtime, senior co-captain The win propelled Georgetown and midfielder Kelyn Freedman to the Big East secured the to u r n a m e n t opening draw. championship The Hoyas against Louisproceeded ville (16-4, 7-0 to hold on to Big East). In a the ball unrematch of a til Freedman regular-season barreled her RICKY FRIED matchup, the Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach way through Hoyas were the Blue Jays unable to overcome an early defi- defense and scored an unassisted cit and a late goal secured the Big goal, giving them the 9-8 advanEast title for the Cardinals. The loss tage. Georgetown managed to hold marked the second consecutive Big off the Johns Hopkins offense in East tournament final loss for the the final three minutes and, in doHoyas. ing so, secured its first NCAA tourDespite the disappointing fin- nament win for the Hoyas since ish in the Big East tournament, 2006.

Georgetown’s season was not over With the win, the Hoyas adas it received an at-large bid to the vanced to face North Carolina (15national tournament. Because of 4, 5-2 ACC), the reigning national their poor out-of-conference perfor- champions. In the regular-season mance earlier, the Hoyas received a matchup, the Tar Heels overpowlow seed and were matched against ered the Hoyas and cruised to an favorite Johns Hopkins (15-5, 3-3 easy 18-11 win.

Mid-Atlantic) in the first round. It At the onset of the rematch, would be the teams’ second meet- Georgetown seemed doomed to sufing of the season. fer a similar loss — the Tar Heels, in Two months earlier, Johns Hop- front of their home crowd, rushed kins travelled to the Hilltop dur- out to an early 4-1 lead. But Georgeing the Hoyas’ six-game losing town would not be denied. In the streak. After Georgetown battled final eight minutes of the first half, back from an early deficit to force led by Woodman, the Hoyas went overtime, the Blue Jays scored less on a 3-1 run to cut the Carolina than two minutes into extra time, lead to 5-4 at the half. securing the win. But Georgetown “Draw control and possession would redeem itself in the NCAA were two major emphases durtournament. ing the course of the game,” Fried “We didn’t really prepare differSee LACROSSE, A11 ently, we just wanted to make sure

Hoya Staff Writer

“It was a close game.

This time it happened to tip in our favor.”

FILE PHOTO: MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA

Sophia Gargicevich-Almeida hit .182 in 20 games this season.

O’Leary continued to struggle in the second inning. After a St. John’s run scored on a sacrifice fly, the junior pitcher gave up a solo home run to center. In 1 2/3 innings, O’Leary gave up four earned runs on four hits and three walks while striking out one. Junior pitcher Megan Hyson relieved O’Leary and pitched the remainder of the game.

Offensively, both teams struggled in the middle innings. Hyson and St. John’s sophomore pitcher Tori Free cruised through the opposing lineups and the score remained 4-2.

Georgetown, however, would strike in the top of the sixth.

Sophomore left fielder Samantha Giovanniello led off the inning with a single to center. After two sacrifices, Giovanniello was on third and would score on an illegal pitch, which made the score 4-3.

See SOFTBALL, A11

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