A Full Team
Effort By NICK BARONE ’16
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n March 11, 2020, I lost my senior year of t the time of my writing, students roam college. Believing a few weeks of lockdowns the halls of Xavier, reconnecting with their would stop the spread of the coronavirus, brothers, playing sports, and attending students were met with the promise of an meetings of their favorite clubs. Faculty are April 20 return-to-school date. We didn’t get that. We in their classrooms, teaching and making memories with didn’t get senior week. We didn’t get graduation. We students. Administrators are in their offices, supporting didn’t get a make-up graduation. We didn’t get any of our the community. These feats would have been impossible “lasts.” It was easy to be mad—it’s still easy to be mad. I a year ago. None of this would be possible now if not for look back now, a year after my college’s closure, and ask the full team effort that has gone into reopening Xavier. myself, “What could have been done?” The From clubs and activities to sports and Barone is an alumni answer—nothing. At least, nothing for the retreats, Xavier has continued to encourage fellow assigned to time being. students to pursue excellence in every communications and Much like me, Xavier’s Class of 2020 endeavor, no matter what’s going on in the alumni relations. He didn’t get many of their “lasts.” No prom, world around them. is a 2020 graduate no senior week, no in-person Baccalaureate “At the beginning of the year, I stressed of the University of Mass. But Xavier undertook a remarkable the importance of hosting club and activity Scranton. effort to care for its quarantined seniors, meetings at least twice a month so students with faculty and staff traveling across five states to deliver them gifts and cheer. That effort culminated in a distanced but in-person graduation at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on July 31, the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola. And Xavier continues to engage in an impressive effort to truly care for its students now, in the midst of a still-raging global pandemic.
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have a way to stay connected to each other while doing something they’re passionate about,” Director of Student Activities Alicia Psillos told Xavier Magazine. This year, many new clubs—such as the Culinary Club—have emerged, allowing students to do something fun, learn something new, and socialize with their peers and faculty members. Existing competition clubs like
During an AP 2-D Design class in February, fine arts department chair Denise Iacovone and James Murray ’21 displayed Murray’s digitally painted self-portrait for students at home. Each student in AP 2-D Design selects a topic to delve into visually over the course of the year. Murray chose “a 21st century teenager,” working primarily on his iPad with a program called Pro-Create.
