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student gives 3 CSON medical aid in Japan 4/5
Six seniors to remember
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Head, heart and FISTS MAY 12, 2011 VOL. 19 NO. 17
Senior Earns Another Top Honor
With a Goldwater and National Science Foundation grant under her belt, Anne Kornahrens is first BC student to land Skaggs-Oxford Scholarship
Senior chemistry major Anne Kornahrens has become the first Boston College student to win the prestigious Skaggs-Oxford Scholarship, a joint five-year PhD/D. Phil. program of study at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, Calif., and the University of Oxford, which trains researchers in integrated biosciences. Kornahrens, a Presidential Scholar from Minnesota who earned a Goldwater Scholarship
as a junior and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship earlier this year, will study organic chemistry at Oxford for the next two years before embarking on three years of chemistry studies at TSRI’s Kellogg School of Science and Technology. Established in 2003, the Skaggs-Oxford Scholarship funds 10 students in total “whose research will help to develop drugs and treatments to alleviate human suffering.” It accepts just one or two students each year. “I was looking to study abroad when I discovered the Skaggs-
Oxford Scholarship,” said Kornahrens. “I have always wanted to work in pharmaceuticals developing medicines that can save people’s lives. This program will help me to achieve my goal.” Kornahrens has been conducting research since her freshman year, working with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jason Kingsbury on a methodology study that expands molecules’ frameworks through carbon insertion. She credits Kingsbury as a mentor who helped her to fall in love with organic chemistry. “He treated me Continued on page 6
Anne Kornahrens ’11 has compiled an impressive array of achievements during her undergraduate years at Boston College. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)
Burgess Aids Initiatives on Internet Safety for Children
TIME TO GO FORTH
BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER
School of Theology and Ministry students who will graduate later this month, as well as December and August 2010 graduates, received a special blessing as part of a Sending Forth ritual performed during Mass at St. Ignatius Church on May 5. STM Prof. Rev. Richard Lennan presided over the Mass, and Associate Dean for Student Affairs Jacqueline Regan and Prof. Thomas Groome called forth the graduating students for the blessing. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Student Group Plays Big Role in Campus Safety Eagle EMS Program contributed 4,200 hours of service in past year BY REID OSLIN STAFF WRITER
Few student-run organizations at Boston College can boast the size – or the operational impact – of Eagle EMS, a division of University Health Services made up of some 170 undergraduates who provide basic medical assistance at campus events and emergency services instruction to the entire BC community. Leaders of the Eagle EMS organization estimate that members contributed nearly 4,200 volunteer hours of service this past year – whether assisting medical response crews at Alumni Stadium football
games or holding state-certified continuing education classes for students and staff interested in becoming licensed emergency medical technicians. Eagle EMS president Christopher Faherty ’13 says that about 80 Eagle EMS volunteers have already received EMT certification at the state or federal level and most other club members are taking courses to qualify for the license. Members of the group also visit local elementary and middle schools, teaching students the basics of first aid and accident prevention. “You name it, and if there are a large amount of people expected to be there, we will put it on our schedule,” says Faherty, a certified EMT in New Jersey as well as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Little Silver.
“My heart is set on being a physician,” says Faherty, who is studying psychology and is in the pre-med program. “But not every member of Eagle EMS is in pre-med; we have lots of students studying business or education, too. It doesn’t really get much more basic – if you want to give something back and you want to be a student leader, there are not many places where you can do it like this. “Helping a stranger, meeting them for maybe 20 minutes, giving everything you have to them and then saying good-bye, probably never to see them again – it’s kind of the definition of ‘giving back,’” he says. “It’s very fulfilling.” Eagle EMS was founded in 1997 by Mark Ritchie ’00, who launched the organization after his attempts to assist a fellow student Continued on page 6
Lee Pellegrini
BY JACK DUNN DIRECTOR OF NEWS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Connell School of Nursing Professor Ann Burgess and a team of researchers have released several law enforcement bulletins as part of a US Justice Department-funded project aimed at improving Internet safety and reducing online sexual victimization of children and adolescents. The bulletins are intended to assist law enforcement officers and other frontline officials in apprehending offenders and preventing Ann Burgess criminal activity. “We can do nothing about the fender who also had a history of advance of cyber technology or the non-sexual antisocial behavior from cyber sophistication of some child childhood to adulthood (expulsion molesters. However, we can im- from school, fighting, cruel behavprove considerably our understand- ior toward an animal, etc.) is more ing of the offenders, or would-be likely to also be a child molester, no offenders...who use the Internet as matter how much time he spends a vehicle for identifyon the Internet. ing, locating, grooming, “We can no longer say However, if the and assaulting children,” Internet sex offender write the researchers in ‘Don’t talk to strang- has a high level of their bulletin. ers.’ Kids are talking to Internet preoccupaBurgess and her coltion but no previous others online and, in leagues examined data antisocial behavior, on more than 460 child their minds, these peo- he is less likely to be molesters and Inter- ple are not strangers.” a child molester. net sex offenders. They For another bul—Ann Burgess letin, the researchers identified characteristics of Internet sex offendused data collected ers that can help law enfrom thousands of forcement officers and prosecutors middle school, high school and colin preparing for suspect interviews lege students to better understand and depositions and in developing how some children become victims better Internet safety programs. of Internet sex offenders while othThe researchers honed in on the ers do not. question: What is the likelihood that One of the more startling stasomeone charged with an Internet- tistics was that more than half of related sex offense is also a hands-on middle school students (grades 6-8) child molester? They determined reported meeting someone in perthat two variables, Internet preoc- son that they had previously only cupation and antisocial behavior, known online. best led them to be able to predict “We can no longer say to chilthat outcome. An Internet sex ofContinued on page 3