Boston College Chronicle

PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

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Pinnacle Lecture

‘For God and Country’

‘The Great Resignation’

Connell School Dean Katherine Gregory makes first major address to University community.

BC Jesuit’s journal provides personal view of WWII and those who served in it.

The Lynch School’s David Blustein discusses why record numbers of people have quit their jobs.

NOVEMBER 18, 2021 VOL. 29 NO. 6

PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

BCSSW Partners with Mass General Brigham

Tantsovo Parti (Dance Party)

BY JOHN SHAKESPEAR SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Students gave Bulgarian folk dancing a try during Boston College’s observance of International Education Week. More photos on page 5. photo by caitlin cunningham

No Stopping Her Graduating senior Urwa Hameed wants to improve the lives of women in her native Pakistan and beyond. Her new book is just the beginning.

BY ALIX HACKETT SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

When Urwa Hameed ’22 was 12 years old and living in Pakistan, her teacher asked to speak with her father. Hameed’s first thought was “I’ve done something bad,” but it turned out that her teacher, a middle-aged Pakistani woman, needed legal advice, and Hameed’s father happened to be a lawyer who did pro bono work from a tiny office in the village center. Hameed led her teacher there after class.

“She was a Quran teacher and believed

in Islam very literally,” Hameed recalled, “so she told me, ‘I’m not going to talk to him directly, I want you to translate all that I have to say.’”

The meeting was Hameed’s first introduction to how women navigate the legal landscape in Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim nation where traditional gender roles dictate most aspects of daily life. It led to her spending more and more time at her father’s office, serving as an intermediary between him and his female clients, many of whom were dealing with stolen inheri-

Continued on page 10

The Boston College School of Social Work’s Latinx Leadership Initiative is partnering with Mass General Brigham to improve care for Latinx communities in Massachusetts.

In social work and behavioral health settings, a level of shared cultural and linguistic understanding is vital for promoting clients’ health and well-being. For the Boston area’s diverse and growing Latinx communities, however, it is not always easy to access culturally-fluent, bilingual therapists and social workers. To address this critical gap, the Latinx Leadership

Initiative (LLI) in the BC School of Social Work (BCSSW) has received a $600,000 Community Fellows Grant from the Mass General Brigham health care system to develop the workforce of bilingual, bicultural social workers in Massachusetts. The grant is part of a new $50 million investment by Mass General Brigham—Massachusetts’s largest health care provider—to improve mental health care capacity, workforce development, chronic disease management, nutrition security, and equity through partnerships with 20 community-based agencies and institutions of higher education in Massachusetts.

Mass General Brigham approached the

Continued on page 5

CSON Presence Aids Boston School’s Vax Rate

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER

Outreach by students and faculty from the Boston College Connell School of Nursing has helped a Boston high school increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate among its student population from 50 percent to 82 percent since the start of the school year.

Leaders from Cristo Rey Boston High School (CRB), a coeducational Catholic school in Dorchester, met with CSON Clinical Assistant Professors Catherine Conahan and Donna Cullinan in midSeptember to strategize ways to increase the COVID vaccination rate among its

202 students. Only about half of the students—all of whom are eligible for at least one version of the vaccine—had gotten at least one shot.

The first step involved sending a letter from CRB President Rosemary J. Powers and Principal Thomas Ryan to all the parents/guardians urging them to get students vaccinated. A mobile vaccination clinic was scheduled at the school, giving students convenient access to vaccines. Then, Conahan enlisted undergraduate and graduate students from the Connell School to take part in a vaccine education campaign for CRB students and their parents/guardians in advance of, and on the day of, the Continued on page 4

This is a contemplative program. We want the participants to slow down and engage in this new vocational moment. We are focused on interiority but doing so in accompaniment with others.

– ignatian legacy fellows program co-director john fontana, page 8

Chronicle

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November 18, 2021

Around Campus

Tonight: Gaelic Roots Spotlights Irish Dance (and You Can Even Join In) Tonight at 6:30 p.m., Boston-area Irish dance performer, teacher, and choreographer Kieran Jordan, a 1996 Boston College alumna, will present the in-person premiere of her documentary about a stalwart group of individuals that has shared a love for Irish dance across time and distance— and in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The free event, hosted by the Boston College Gaelic Roots series, will take place in the Theology and Ministry Library Auditorium on BC’s Brighton Campus.

Following the screening of “The Dan Furey Group and a Circle of Squares,” Jordan will lead a Q&A, and demonstrate and teach some of the dance steps featured in the film.

Produced, directed, and narrated by Jordan, the film honors the legacy of Dan Furey, a County Clare fiddler celebrated for his knowledge and teaching of Irish set dancing and old-style step dancing. After Furey’s death in 1993, a group of his dance students resolved to keep his memory alive by gathering regularly to share and remi-

nisce about what he had taught them, and passing it along to others. Over time, their numbers grew and expanded well beyond Ireland to the United States—including Boston—Canada, many parts of Europe, and even Japan and Taiwan.

“The Dan Furey Group and a Circle of Squares” had its official debut earlier this year in virtual format through the Leitrim Dance Festival, which commissioned Jordan to put the film together. The “Circle of Squares” refers to a vital, if improbable, means by which the Dan Furey Group kept its link intact during COVID-19.

When the pandemic shut down international travel and most in-person gatherings in 2020, more than 70 dancers turned to the Zoom platform one day in June to communicate, and to keep dancing. Instead of dancing to pre-recorded music, the Furey Group dancers were accompanied in real time by accordionist Dan Accardi ’12, a local musician.

The documentary comprises excerpts from the Zoom session as well as various

Irish dance performer, teacher, and choreographer Kieran Jordan ’96 screens her documentary at tonight’s Gaelic Roots event.

photos, videos, and film clips. In addition to providing narration, Jordan interviews some of Furey’s friends and others who were inspired by him—among them Michael Tubridy, a founding member of Ireland’s world-renowned band The Chieftains.

“It’s a personal, compelling story about Irish step dancing—not as a performance art or competition, but rather as a social activity that has united dancers internationally, even during the pandemic,” said Jordan. “I think there is something comforting in the idea that, for all the changes in the Irish dance world, and in the world itself, you have a group of several dozen people from different generations and backgrounds that has found joy in a very traditional style of dance.”

Information on tonight’s event is available at events.bc.edu/group/gaelic_roots_ series. For more about Kieran Jordan, go to kieranjordan.com.

—Sean Smith

Geologically Speaking, Plenty of Good Vibrations at Alumni Stadium Can you measure excitement?

Well, maybe not, but Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Alan Kafka can somewhat quantify the effect of excitement, at least where Boston College football is concerned.

Kafka estimated that the seismic vibrations generated by the excitement of the crowd during the November 5 BCVirginia Tech game at Alumni Stadium were equivalent to that of an earthquake of approximately between magnitude 1 and 2.

He based his estimate on recordings made

by BC’s Weston Observatory—of which he is the director—of football games, earthquakes, and a variety of other seismic events recorded by seismographs, including one located in Conte Forum.

Such readings shouldn’t be confused with those used in ranking the “loudest college football stadiums” (like the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, where the game-time volume was once measured at a whopping 133.6 decibels), however.

“What the seismograph records is not typical audible ‘sound,’ so it’s not really normal ‘loudness,’ but rather the strength of seismic vibrations—similar to vibrations generated by earthquakes,” explained ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Jack Dunn SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

A seismographic record of the BC-Virginia Tech game, compiled by faculty member Alan Kafka.

Kafka, who shared his finding, along with a graphic of the seismograph, on Twitter.

“In the case of a football game, the source of the seismic waves are vibrations from activity associated with the game, such as the crowds of fans and the football players in the stadium, as they move during the game. But in the case of an earthquake, the source of the waves is an abrupt fracture in the Earth across a fault.

“Thus, the physics of a football game are so different from that of an earthquake

CONTRIBUTING STAFF

Christine Balquist Phil Gloudemans Ed Hayward Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan

Chronicle

PHOTOGRAPHERS

www.bc.edu/bcnews chronicle@bc.edu

Patricia Delaney EDITOR

Sean Smith

that it’s hard to accurately estimate the equivalent earthquake ‘magnitude’ of the seismic waves generated by the game. But my rough estimate is between about magnitude 1 and 2.”

Kafka noted that a seismograph in the Yawkey Athletics Center gave a similar reading during the 2017 game between BC and Central Michigan in Alumni Stadium.

In fact, the “football stadium standard” is part of a guide Kafka once devised to

Caitlin Cunningham Lee Pellegrini

give people a better sense of levels of seismic activity: A magnitude 1 earthquake, for example, was estimated to be the equivalent of about 3,500 students jumping a foot, compared to a magnitude 2 earthquake, which would be equivalent to about 110,000 students jumping—a number roughly the capacity of a large football stadium (Michigan Stadium, which holds a little more than 107,000, is the biggest by that measure); magnitude 5 would be about 3.5 billion students jumping, or almost half the population of the planet (which could fill roughly 32,710 Michigan Stadiums).

A more compelling comparison is to view seismic readings in terms of more common human activities, said Kafka, who co-authored a report in the journal Science last year showing that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction of up to 50 percent in “seismic noise” around the world. In that context, the strength of the seismic vibrations from the BC-Virginia Tech game was about 10 times higher than it was in April of 2020, the quietest point in time during the COVID-19 lockdown.

—Sean Smith

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Chronicle

November 18, 2021

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Lecture Provides Greeting for Connell School Dean

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER

Presenting her first major address to the University community since becoming head of the Connell School of Nursing, Dean and Professor Katherine Gregory shared leadership lessons she has learned from her experiences as a clinician, nurse scientist, and member of the Boston academic-clinical ecosystem.

Gregory was the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speaker at the Connell School’s fall Pinnacle Lecture on November 2, a hybrid in-person and Zoom event which drew more than 300 audience members. A 2006 Ph.D. recipient who taught at the school between 2006 and 2014, Gregory assumed the deanship last summer.

In her talk, titled “Babies, Biomes, and Boston: A Journey in Leadership,” Gregory traced the course of her nursing journey, beginning with a 1995 New York Times Magazine story she read as a young college student about a preterm baby struggling to survive in a Boston hospital. The article depicted the challenges of preterm birth, medically and ethically, for the baby, the parents, and the care team.

Invoking the language of the Ignatian Year commemoration, Gregory called reading the story as a “cannonball moment”— defined as a moment of discovering a new dream or to change one life’s fundamentally—that sparked her desire to be a newborn intensive care unit (NICU) nurse in Boston.

According to Gregory, one in 10 babies is born too soon and “preterm birth is a major public health issue.”

Being a NICU nurse requires excellent assessment skills, said Gregory, since a very small change could be a harbinger of big problems: “I learned that being a good NICU nurse meant being precise, prepared, and cool under pressure.”

But, she added, the most important leadership competency she learned from her

clinical experience in the NICU was from the parents of her patients. Statistics show that 60 percent of parents of babies in the NICU experience anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I realized that no parent expects to have a baby in the NICU,” said Gregory. “My job was to care for their baby and support them and help them get through what was a very unexpected and stressful experience.

The only way I could do this was to develop a great sense of empathy and compassion.

“This learned sense of empathy is the most important thing I can draw from clinical experience to my role as a leader.”

Gregory’s focus on preterm infants eventually pivoted from bedside care to research.

She has studied necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), an inflammatory bowel disease that can have catastrophic consequences for preterm babies. She looked at the connection between NEC and the gut microbiome, bacterial cells and their DNA which play an important role in human health and disease, including digestion and the immune system. Gregory and her colleagues identified a biomarker for NEC that can indicate which infants have an increased risk for developing the condition.

Gregory said her scientific career has taught her patience and persistence, citing the journal articles and grant applications that have been rejected. “But the ability to be a good communicator is the most important thing I bring from my scientific career to my leadership practice. You can have the most brilliant ideas, the most ground-breaking research findings, but if you cannot communicate them to the relevant audience, you will not succeed.”

Gregory said good communicators need to commit to clear and concise messaging and adapt their communication to their audience.

Her final leadership lesson she credited to the collaboration and mentorship she has benefited from in Boston, both in the academic community and clinical settings.

photo by caitlin cunningham

“This learned sense of empathy is the most important thing I can draw from clinical experience to my role as a leader.”

—Katherine Gregory “This is what I learned from Boston: You need to have lots of different types of colleagues and mentors. You cannot accomplish anything on your own.”

Gregory concluded her talk by briefly touching upon some priorities she has for the Connell School: to advance academic excellence across all curiculums, generate new knowledge for practice, and learn and be open to change.

Two of Gregory’s former students and research assistants, Christine DeForge, M.S. ’10 and Gururaj Shan ’12, offered introductory remarks ahead of Gregory’s talk, praising her ability to inspire, create strategic partnerships, and advance nursing science.

They both credited her mentorship as being instrumental in their educational and career paths.

DeForge, a staff nurse at New YorkPresbyterian Hospital and a Columbia University School of Nursing doctoral student, cited Gregory as a motivating factor in her

decision to transition from nurse to nurse scientist. She said Gregory has made a lasting impression on her, inspiring her to excel as a clinician, to serve her patients, and become a leader herself within her discipline.

“Working as a research assistant in the school gave me an early appreciation for the value nurses provide, not only at the bedside, but also in research, education, and administration,” said Shan, a physician and clinical instructor in emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Specifically, I watched Kate wear all of these hats and unify those talents to advance her career and those she mentored. Kate was unique in her ability to open doors for me that I did not know I needed open.”

Each semester, the Connell School hosts the Pinnacle Lecture where a widely recognized nurse leader gives a talk on an issue at the forefront of health care. For information on past Pinnacle Lectures, see bc.edu/pinnacle.

University President William P. Leahy, S.J., foreground, participated in a discussion with University of Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., on November 3 at the Boston Seaport Hotel. BC Trustee Associate Charles Clough ’64, center, served as the moderator for the event, which was titled “A Conversation on the Catholic Church,” and Notre Dame Board of Trustees Chairman Jack Brennan was the emcee.

photo by lee pellegrini

NOTE: Boston College Chronicle will publish its final edition of the fall semester on December 9.

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November 18, 2021

“There is a lot of misinformation out there. Our role was to listen, explain, and not to shame. Many guardians had understandable concerns, but talking with a trusted health care provider, in a convenient setting, helped. We were happy to have the conversation.”

—Catherine Conahan

Connell School Outreach Helps Boston High School Boost Its COVID-19 Student Vaccination Rate Continued from page 1

clinic.

Students in Cullinan’s Population Health Practice in the Community class— graduate student Brandon Onyechefule and seniors Shannon Croly, Natalie Dalla Riva, Celia Jotte, Tristan Louria, and Nora Markey—came to the CRB classrooms and conducted Q&A sessions with the students. CSON students also talked oneon-one with CRB students and parents/ guardians who had concerns.

The COVID vaccination campaign was supported by additional outreach and education conducted by Conahan and the Connell School students who regularly staff a primary care clinic at CRB. The students were master’s program student Megan Fickes ’18 and DNP (doctor of nursing practice) students Sara Bowen, Emily Bower, Elizabeth Cilia, Vy Hoang, Caitlin Martin, Katlyn Noonan ’17, and Jennifer Schmitz.

The efforts paid off: As of October 22, 82 percent of the school’s student population was fully vaccinated or had received at

least one dose of the vaccine.

“There is a ton of misinformation out there,” said Conahan, a nurse practitioner who was part of the Connell School’s first DNP graduating class last May. “Our role was to listen, explain, and not to shame.

Many guardians had understandable concerns, but talking with a trusted health care provider, in a convenient setting, helped.

We were happy to have the conversation.”

She noted that the outreach was also helpful for CRB students who, due to transportation or other logistical barriers, had not gotten their second vaccine dose, leaving them not fully vaccinated. The onsite clinic and electronic guardian permission slips addressed those obstacles.

“The COVID vaccine effort has truly been a game-changer,” said Powers.

“Achieving an 82 percent vaccination rate among students and 100 percent among staff is just incredible. We are deeply grateful to the Boston College nurses.”

“We’ve really flipped the script, and now it is considered ‘cool’ to have gotten

Connell School of Nursing faculty members Catherine Conahan and Donna Cullinan (left and right in center of back row) with Connell School students involved in the outreach program to the Cristo Rey School: front row, L-R, Sara Bowen, Vy Hoang, Emily Bower, Katlyn Noonan, Megan Fickes; back row, L-R, Jennifer Schmitz, Caitlin Martin, Shannon Croly, Natalie Dalla Riva, Conahan, Cullinan, Celia Jotte, Nora Markey, Brandon Onyechefule. photo by caitlin cunningham

vaccinated,” said Conahan.

The Connell School started its partnership with Cristo Rey Boston in the fall of 2020. Unlike many public schools, Cristo Rey Boston was open for in-person learning throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. Conahan operates a primary care clinic at CRB two days a week and is regularly joined by one or two DNP students. They conduct physicals, which allow students to participate in sports. They also offer emergency care when needed.

“Partnering with the Boston College Connell School of Nursing throughout the pandemic has been invaluable in terms of helping us meet the needs of our students,” said Powers. “Many of our students do not have consistent access to health care, so the

in-school clinic helped us safely stay open throughout 2020-2021.”

“The Connell School of Nursing partnership with Cristo Rey High School is truly one of the silver linings of the pandemic,” added CSON Dean Katherine Gregory. “We look forward to continuing to evolve this partnership, which gives the students of Cristo Rey greater access to health care and our nursing faculty and students access to a school-based clinical practice setting. Improving COVID vaccination rates is just one of the many health outcomes that we can achieve together.”

“I love it at Cristo Rey,” said Conahan.

“We are both Jesuit schools, and it makes sense for Boston College to be here.”

A Second Season for Lynch School Dean’s Podcast “Pulled Up Short: Gadamerian Conversations at BC,” the assumption-upending podcast launched in March by Lynch School of Education and Human Development Dean Stanton E.F. Wortham, kicked off its second season of provocative episodes on November 1.

Based on the notion that regular, intentional challenges to our habitual perspectives are crucial to the development of critical thinking—what St. Ignatius called discernment—“Pulled Up Short” will present seven weekly episodes before the holiday break, followed by five installments early next semester.

Hosted by Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean, each 30-40-minute podcast features a primary guest and one or two discussants, drawn from among Boston College professors and experts from outside the University, addressing a single topic.

The new season started with a segment focused on the question, “What Is the Complexity in Simplicity?” featuring developmental psychologist and Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Professor Howard Gardner. He was joined by former

Lynch School Assistant Professor Gabrielle Oliveira, now an associate professor of education and Brazil Studies at HGSE. Other season two topics include “What if Art and Science Aren’t Opposites?”; “Is Expertise Dangerous?”; and “Do We Need to Stop Teaching?”

“The conversations explore the insight and its implications for how listeners might change their understanding of and stance toward some aspect of experience,” said Wortham. “Being pulled up short requires that we recognize deeply held or unquestioned positions, and that we entertain the possibility that they may be incomplete or distorting.”

The first season’s titles ranged from “Should 6-year-olds Get to Vote?” and “Does Neuroscience Mean That Humans Have No Free Will?” to “Are We All in Arranged Marriages?” BC faculty featured in the first season included School of Theology and Ministry Professor Thomas H. Groome; Seelig Professor of Philosophy Richard Kearney, and Lynch School Professor Rebecca Lowenhaupt.

The spring podcasts were downloaded

by more than 2,000 listeners from 10 countries.

“Pulled Up Short” is based on German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer’s notion that regular, intentional challenges to our habitual perspectives are crucial to the development of critical thinking, explained Wortham.

“Jesuit education is a process centered on attentiveness, reflection, and being loving. We strive to develop young men and women for whom discernment is a habit,” he said. “BC faculty work to create moments when students and colleagues must wrestle with alternative ways of experiencing the world. Gadamer’s philosophy is thus attuned to a crucial component of the University’s mission and practice.”

Find all “Pulled Up Short” episodes on the podcast website [pulledupshort.org] or across an array of podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Pandora, Podchaser, Podcast Addict, and TuneIn + Alexa.

—Phil Gloudemans

Stanton Wortham photo by lee pellegrini

Chronicle

November 18, 2021

BC Scenes

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PHOTOS BY FRANK CURRAN, CAITLIN CUNNINGHAM, AND LEE PELLEGRINI

International Education Week

Boston College’s extended observance of International Education Week included (clockwise from top left) a painting class hosted by Il Circulo Italiano (BC’s Italian Club); a Balkan Culture Night, with a performance and workshop in Bulgarian folk dance by Ludo Mlado; and a talk on “Race, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice” by Nichola Minott, a part-time faculty member in the International Studies Program. Other events included a Colombian Music and Dance Night; an international colloquium on the inter-American system of human rights; and a reading by prize-winning novelist Yang Huang, M.A. ’98. More International Education Week events are scheduled for November 22 and 29. Information is available through the Office of Global Engagement [bc.edu/global].

Project’s Goal Is Improved Health Care for Latinx Community Continued from page 1

Latinx Leadership Initiative because of the work the BCSSW program was already doing to recruit and train social workers to work with Latinx communities, said Associate Professor Rocío Calvo, the LLI’s founding director and the new grant’s principal investigator.

“There is an acute need for behavioral health providers in Latinx communities, especially after those communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID,” Calvo said. “Mass General Brigham’s goal is to address that need, and we have a history of training professionals to do that work successfully.”

Since Calvo founded the LLI in 2013, some 185 master of social work (M.S.W.) students have graduated from the program, completing all eight of Boston College’s core social work courses entirely in Spanish. Under the stewardship of Calvo and Assistant Director Ximena Soto, the initiative has been recognized as a Model Program for Diversity Education by the Council on Social Work Education’s Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice, and it received a top national award from Excelencia in Education in 2020. The Mass General Brigham grant will allow the LLI

Rocio Calvo, founding director of the BCSSW Latinx Leadership Initiative. photo by lee pellegrini

to provide living stipends and professional development to fellows within BCSSW’s M.S.W. program as they complete their behavioral rotations in community health settings that predominantly serve Latinx communities.

The partnership’s inaugural cohort of four fellows will be selected this fall.

After this cohort graduates in 2022, LLI and Mass General Brigham will select at least 10 fellows each academic year. The grant will also help fund Calvo’s ongoing research on effective strategies for training and supporting bilingual, bicultural social workers, which she conducts in collaboration with the LLI’s students, alumni, and partner organizations.

“The interventions of this grant target the systemic issues that prevent Latinx social workers from developing their careers and Latinx clients from accessing adequate care,” Calvo said. She points to the monthly professional development workshops the LLI is developing with its community partners. “These workshops will help LLI students learn how to navigate systems to overcome the barriers that often prevent Latinx social workers from advancing in their careers.”

The LLI’s alumni work with Latinx and Hispanic communities in diverse settings across the United States and abroad, from schools and hospitals to clinics and prisons.

Their impact is surely felt locally: Nearly 20 percent of Boston’s residents identified as Hispanic or Latinx on the 2020 census, and this percentage is projected to continue growing, both within the city’s limits and in surrounding communities.

BCSSW Dean Gautam N. Yadama said that the LLI’s new partnership with Mass General Brigham contributes to BCSSW’s varied efforts to increase access to evidencebased interventions and improve the quality of life in local communities.

“Such efforts require enduring partnerships with a network of practitioners, health systems, and communities,” Yadama said. “In partnering with Mass General Brigham, we are extending the reach of our premier social work training that is evidence-based and culturally attuned to serving our Latinx populations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

John Shakespear is a senior digital content writer in the Office of University Communications

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November 18, 2021

‘For God and Country’ War diary of former BC dean John P. Foley, S.J., depicts the “horrors and heroism” of those who served in World War II

BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR

John P. Foley, S.J., had already taken one momentous journey very early in his life: At just six weeks old, he had traveled with his Irish-born parents from Scotland to the United States, settling in the city of Somerville, Mass.

In the spring of 1942, Fr. Foley—by then the 37-year-old dean of admissions and assistant dean of freshmen and sophomores at Boston College—set out on another fateful journey, one that would last three years and take him through the conflagration and chaos of World War II as a U.S. Navy chaplain. Along the way, Fr. Foley diligently recorded his observations and experiences in a notebook, documenting horrors and heroism alike while chronicling the life and times of the many young men he served, comforted, and buried— many of them half his age.

Fr. Foley’s journal has now been developed into a public document, “For God and Country: The War Diary of Lieutenant Commander John P. Foley, S.J.,” edited by retired BC senior administrator Joseph P. Duffy, S.J., and former Boston College Magazine Editor Ben Birnbaum, who held several leadership positions at the University.

“Through Fr. Foley, you get a sense of the sacrifice these young men made, what they felt and experienced.”

—Joseph Duffy, S.J. The entries typically include Fr. Foley’s notes on his schedule for the day (“0600Mass”; “1000-Protestant Church Service”; “1500-Rosary and Benediction”) as well as accounts of the day’s events, some of them mundane, even given the circumstances (“I stay aboard this afternoon cleaning up a lot of odds and ends that were clamoring for attention”)—but many others marked by fierce combat with enemy ships and aircraft, or by severe weather.

Fr. Foley also relates encounters and conversations—from the casual to the indepth—with various officers and enlisted men and gives often vivid descriptions of the places he and his comrades visited, such as the beautiful yet battle-ravaged Solomon Islands and the ruins of Tokyo, and the people they found there. Other entries are of a more personal nature, in which he reflects on larger questions of faith and muses on the joys and sorrows of his job: helping an enlisted man sort out his complicated emotions about being in combat; giving last rites to soldiers for whom he had said Mass earlier that same day; writ-

(Left) John P. Foley, S.J., with three missionaries and two of their wards who had been rescued during fighting in the Solomon Islands. (Above) Fr. Foley’s journal was edited by Joseph Duffy, S.J., left, and Ben Birnbaum. photo at left from foley family; photo above by peter julian

ing letters to families informing them of a loved one’s death.

“A rooster far away crows his tune with no echoing reply,” he writes during a stopover in New Zealand. “The summer wind is sighing in the pines. The whole scene breathes of peace and happiness. I can’t help thinking of the boys up north, pouring out the red sweet wine of their youth on Bougainville and those others who died in Tarawa recently.”

Part of what makes Fr. Foley’s journal such a unique window onto World War II is its very existence: American officers and enlisted men were forbidden to keep diaries, for fear these might fall into enemy hands and provide useful intelligence. But Fr. Foley carried his notebook throughout his training at Chaplain’s School in Virginia and subsequent service in the North Africa and Pacific theaters of war, and brought it back with him when he returned to his post at BC. His secretar-

ies transcribed and typed the entries, and the diary was preserved in the Society of Jesus New England Provincial Archive at the College of the Holy Cross, where Fr. Duffy—a devotee of 20th-century Jesuit history—came upon it.

“What struck me about the diary is that it realistically captures the on-the-ground reality of war,” said Fr. Duffy. “Through Fr. Foley, you get a sense of the sacrifice these young men made, what they felt and experienced. That is something worth remembering, especially during this month of Veterans Day, and as we approach the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

“You also see the important role of religion, of faith, in the lives of the soldiers, what it meant to these young people who were facing death. And there with them is a Boston College Jesuit providing spiritual care at this critical time of their lives. Fr. Foley’s great respect for all of them, whatever their religion, is very apparent.”

Birnbaum, who worked with Fr. Duffy on his three previous digital publications of Jesuit history—housed at the Jesuit Archives and Research Center—said the insights into Fr. Foley through his journal make for another compelling thread.

“He was trying to figure out what kind of a man he was, and how he could endure the terrible things that come with war.

What becomes clear is that the soldiers didn’t look at him as somebody privileged by the fact of his being a Jesuit chaplain; they judged him as a peer, as one of them. That was terribly important to Fr. Foley. He comes across as an astonishingly thoughtful, resilient, and generous person, someone who recognized the common humanity of others, including the Japanese.”

“For God and Country,” which includes photographs and explanatory footnotes, can be viewed as a flip book online at bc.edu/ content/bc-web/bcnews/campus-community/ faculty/for-god-and-country.html.

Journal Pays Tribute to Fr. Bernauer A special issue of the journal Philosophy and Social Criticism has been published in honor of the Philosophy Department’s Kraft Family Professor Emeritus James Bernauer, S.J., on the occasion of his retirement from full-time teaching. The volume contains original essays by Fr. Bernauer’s former students and colleagues that honor the life and work of the Jesuit priest, whose areas of study include Arendt and Foucault, the philosophy of religion, and Holocaust Studies.

Fr. Bernauer retired in 2020, after a 40-year career at Boston College. He is the author of numerous publications, most recently the award-winning book Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance, a historical and philosophical study of the anti-Judaism that flourished within the Catholic Church prior to the Second World War. “I am very appreciative of and humbled

by the interest that such eminent scholars have taken in my work,” said Fr. Bernauer, who served as the director of BC’s Center for Christian-Jewish Learning from 2008 to 2020. “It is also an acknowledgement of the importance of continuing Jesuit engagement with contemporary thought.”

The guest editor for the special volume was University of Hawaii at Manoa Professor of Philosophy Joseph Tanke, who graduated from Boston College with a master’s degree (2002) and a doctorate (2007) in philosophy.

“The essays contained in this volume can be understood as attempting to put into practice Bernauer’s longstanding search for an ethics of thought,” wrote Tanke, who also contributed to the special issue. “Bernauer’s writings seek to sensitize readers to the power of discourse, the weight of ideas, and the consequences of (religious) belief by explaining how the

production of knowledge is also a production of subjectivity. Taken together, the essays contained in this special issue of Philosophy and Social Criticism illustrate how perilous it can be to think, speak, and act under the auspices of truth.”

The other contributors to special issue are: Francis X. Clooney, S.J. (Harvard University), who taught at BC for 21 years; former BC visiting scholar Agustin Colombo (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium); Thomas W. Laqueur (University of California, Berkeley); Corey McCall, M.A. ’00 (Cornell University); Edward McGushin, M.A. ’96, Ph.D. ’02 (Stonehill College); Ladelle McWhorter (University of Richmond); Alexander Means (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Gary Shapiro (University of Richmond); and Dianna Taylor (John Carroll University).

—Kathleen Sullivan

Chronicle

November 18, 2021

7

Helping Students Find Their ‘True North’

BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER

“True North,” a curriculum with digital application created by Boston College faculty member Belle Liang and her research team to help students explore significant questions of their young lives, has demonstrated more versatility than a Swiss Army knife in recent months: Three BC programs or courses incorporated the program into their curricula.

Developed in 2019 by Liang, a professor of counseling psychology in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, True North uses evidence-based best practices in youth intentionality and formative education to help students investigate and discover personal pathways to finding “purpose,” going beyond the narrow definitions of success in a society that frequently emphasizes personal fame and fortune as the definitive measure of achievement. The program’s name derives from a term often defined as the force that guides and fuels a person’s ambitions.

According to First Year Experience Director Ali Bane Hammond, True North was a hit with students and parents during orientation webinars this past summer.

“Although it wasn’t required, significant numbers of both incoming students and their parents chose to watch the True North presentation conducted by Belle and project manager Tim Klein during the virtual summer program,” she said. “Their message particularly resonated deeply with the parents, many of whom reached out to express their

Lynch School Professor Belle Liang’s “True North” curriculum with digital application “fills a gap” in students’ formation process, according to a BC administrator.

photo by lee pellegrini

appreciation for the webinar. It’s unusual to get such passionate, unsolicited feedback about an element of the orientation program.”

She added that True North effectively “fills a gap” in the formation process “by cultivating opportunities for discernment,” and as a digital platform, “offers a contemporary means for students to collect their thoughts in a central location.”

True North workshops were highlighted in a July 23 Washington Post article on a current trend among some American colleges to ease up on pushing freshmen to immediately select a major. Noting a Gallup survey finding that more than one-third of bachelor’s degree recipients would change their majors if they could, and only about half of college students strongly agree that their major will lead to a good job, the Post reported

BC Historian Richardson Is Selected for a Pair of Honors Professor of History Heather Cox Richardson (right), a leading national commentator on American history and politics, recently received two noteworthy honors.

Richardson was selected as one of four recipients for the 2021 Massachusetts Governor’s Awards in the Humanities, which recognize individuals for their public actions, grounded in an appreciation of the humanities, to enhance civic life in the Commonwealth. The awards were given in a virtual celebration livestreamed on October 24 and available for viewing on YouTube at youtube. com/watch?v=CGJpsX6YeHk. She also was the winner of the Ruth Ratner Miller Memorial Award of Excellence in American History. The award was established in 1998 by Concord, Mass., resident Richard Miller to honor the legacy of his mother, civic leader, businesswoman, and philanthropist Ruth Ratner Miller, who believed that understanding history was not merely desirable but a civic and religious duty. The presentation to Richardson on October 16 was held as part of the Concord Festival of Authors.

A faculty member at Boston College since 2011, Richardson is the author of

photo by caitlin cunningham

the acclaimed 2020 book How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America and the popular daily newsletter “Letters from an American.” Two of her previous books, West from Appomattox and To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party were Editor’s Choice selections of the New York Times Book Review. She has shared her expertise with numerous local and national media outlets, including WGBH, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN.com, BBC, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and HuffPost.

—University Communications

that some universities are developing the infrastructure to help students explore their options, rather than “stick with a major that might not be the best fit for them.”

The same Gallup poll, the Post continued, revealed that just over a third of the students think they will graduate with the skills they need to be successful at work, and only a quarter felt their education was relevant to their daily life.

In a longer version of the article published in The Hechinger Report, Liang referenced the dissatisfaction among students and graduates suggested by the survey: “They don’t have high levels of meaningfulness in their work, which is a terrible outcome for students and their families [who] spend so much money and time on higher education.”

Klein told the Post: “How about if we help students make meaningful decisions?”

True North was also fully incorporated into the Experience, Reflection, Action (ERA) Program, a weekly, formative

education-focused course within the Lynch School that introduces first-year students to elements foundational not only to their time at BC, but to the rest of their lives.

“ERA guides students toward how to become complete individuals, including suggesting ways to cultivate community, to design solutions to solve complex global and local issues, and discover purpose in their vocations and beyond,” said Julia DeVoy, Lynch School associate dean of undergraduate programs and students. “Given it’s so aligned with the ERA’s mission, True North was a great fit to integrate as a program element.”

She noted that 140 students—the most ever—are participating in ERA this year, plus 28 peer mentors (upper-level undergraduates) and 12 instructors, and that Klein meets with ERA staff during the semester for training and counsel.

True North also has been assimilated into the Lynch School’s Applied Psychology Practicum courses, where students learn how to apply psychological theory and research to their own process of vocational discovery, said Liang and DeVoy. Liang noted that True North’s integration plans are only its first phase, as discussions with other BC schools and colleges are ongoing: For example, Klein is training staff and faculty at three large and demographically diverse community colleges in evidence-based practices that align with True North.

“As excited as we are about bringing innovative technology into the classroom,” she said, “we’re even more excited about the philosophical and practical shifts it represents towards building bridges between academic material and students’ sense of purpose beyond the classroom.”

Faculty/Staff Art Show Now On Display in Carney Hall In a busy first-floor Carney Hall corridor, members of the Boston College community have a good reason to pause and peruse diverse works of art on view in the BC Art Club’s fall Faculty/Staff Art Show.

The show “is one of Art Club’s most exciting and oldest traditions,” according to Minseo Kim ’23, the club president.

“This gallery provides a wonderful opportunity for the faculty and staff of Boston College to showcase their talents in the arts.”

On display are 14 works by 10 BC faculty and staff which include photography, painting, and mixed media.

“Our hope is that by displaying the works of faculty and staff across multiple disciplines, the community can appreciate how integral of a role art can play in everyone’s life, no matter what field they are in,” said Kim. “It is also an opportunity to appreciate and celebrate the wonderful artists in the BC community.”

Though most of the submissions

came from members of the Fine Art, Art History, and Film Department, Kim noted that artists from other areas of the University also were excited to share their talent with the BC community.

“I believe it’s important to showcase these works, because art is an integral part of life and human experience,” according to Kim, who has been involved in the Art Club since her freshman year.

“By providing faculty and staff the opportunity to share their artwork, we hope to bring together many interdisciplinary fields and foster a sense of community through the arts.

“It was a lot of fun to see their amazing works,” Kim said. “As people who love art, it was also a very rewarding experience to be able to organize and curate an exhibition that celebrates the artistic talents of the BC community.”

The exhibit is on display in the Carney Hall 103/104 Hall, through December 10.

—University Communications

Chronicle

8

November 18, 2021

Ignatian Legacy Fellows Relish Engagement During BC Visit

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER

With statistics suggesting that Americans on average can expect to spend 22 years in retirement, a new program cohosted by Boston College seeks to use an Ignatian lens to help retirees discern an intentional and meaningful post-work life where they can use their gifts in service to their families, communities, and the world at large.

The Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program— hosted along with BC by Loyola University Chicago, Santa Clara University, and Georgetown University—brings a small group of retirees and soon-to-be retirees together in a learning community where they embark on a journey that is both interior and global. For the interior work, the Fellows read selected books, learn about the four universal apostolic preferences guiding the mission of the Society of Jesus, engage in the Spiritual Exercises, and reflect and share with other members of the cohort.

They each write a spiritual autobiography that provides a basis for their statement of desire—a personal mission statement for what the Fellow sees as his or her plan of action for retirement.

“This is a contemplative program,” said Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program Co-Director John Fontana. “We want the participants to slow down and engage in this new vocational moment. We are focused on interiority but doing so in accompaniment with others.”

The Fellows’ global journey brings them to sites in the United States and beyond to witness the works of the Jesuits and their partners in areas of higher education, secondary education, health care, and social services. Over the course of the yearlong program, the Fellows visit each of the four Jesuit higher education host institutions to learn from and engage with Jesuits, administrators, faculty, and students.

The inaugural cohort—15 Fellows, ranging in age from 58 to 80 and repre-

Snapshot

School of Theology and Ministry Professor of the Practice Colleen Griffith led the Ignatian Legacy Fellows and program leaders through a guided examen in the chapel in Simboli Hall. photo courtesy of catherine tatge

senting all regions of the country—spent a week at Boston College in late September, where they met with University President William P. Leahy, S.J., School of Theology and Ministry Dean Thomas D. Stegman, S.J., and other BC faculty, administrators, and undergraduate and graduate students.

“Everything at Boston College was so special, so meaningful,” said Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program Co-Director Mariann McCorkle Salisbury, who expressed gratitude to Fr. Stegman and STM Associate Dean Maura Colleary for organizing the sessions and events for the BC residency.

“We were so moved by the hospitality and the excellence in everything. There was great intellectual and spiritual content.”

“STM was pleased to facilitate the Fellows’ visit to Boston College and to host them for a day,” said Fr. Stegman, who met the participants months earlier when he PHOTOS BY JUSTIN KNIGHT

First-Gen Week

Boston College celebrated “First-Gen Week” November 5-12 with a series of events featuring first-generation students and alumni, including a panel discussion in the Cadigan Alumni Center with (above, L-R) Michael Gaines ‘91, Ina Howard-Hogan ’90, Lorena Lopera ’08, Joseph Vecchio ‘22, and moderator Peter Alvarez ‘06.

presented a virtual talk based on his book Opening the Door of Faith, which was assigned reading for the Fellows. “There were a number of profound exchanges. I look forward to seeing how this relationship develops and evolves.”

When the Fellows visited STM, Fr. Stegman shared a personal story about Ignatian spirituality in the context of his life-threatening medical diagnosis and subsequent treatment. He cited how he has had to depend on his medical team and the STM leadership team. “In an odd way, I find myself more grateful than I was before. Life is a gift.”

“Fr. Tom’s attitude in the face of his health situation is inspirational, not only during those times when/if there is a major problem in our lives but also when there is no major problem in our lives,” said Fellow John Dewan. “His message is to see God in

all things and always be grateful, regardless of life’s hardships.”

The Fellows heard from Associate Professor of Moral Theology Daniel Daly about the ethical and religious directives that guide the mission of Catholic hospitals, and part-time faculty member Walter Smith, S.J., a clinical specialist in palliative and end-of-life care who has held a variety of positions over the course of his 59 years as a Jesuit. Associate Professor Andrew Davis and Professor Emeritus Richard Clifford, S.J., gave a presentation on Wisdom from the Old Testament. A guided examen in the STM chapel, led by Professor of the Practice Colleen Griffith, concluded the Fellows’ day at STM. Other members of the BC community who gave presentations to the Ignatian Legacy Fellows throughout the week included Center for Retirement Research Director Alicia Munnell; Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life Director Mark Massa, S.J.; Church in the 21st Century Center Director Karen Kiefer; and Barton Geger, S.J., a research scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and an assistant professor of the practice at STM. The Fellows also connected with Vice Provost for Global Engagement James Keenan, S.J., Theology Professor Kristin Heyer, and Jesuit scholastics from the St. Peter Faber Jesuit Community.

“We’re trying to form wisdom leaders.

Part of what a wisdom leader is, is a purveyor of hope. What [the Fellows] saw at BC was hope,” said Fontana.

Participants in the Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program also learn about the work of the Society of Jesus beyond the U.S. They spent time in Lima, Peru, meeting with representatives of Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, a Jesuit university. They also saw firsthand the ministry work done in the Jesuit parish of El Agostino, which does outreach with the poorest of the poor.

The cohort closed out their program in Spain and Italy, where they spoke with faculty and leaders at Esade, a Jesuit business school and law school in Barcelona, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; followed Saint Ignatius’s footsteps in Manresa and Montserrat; and met with Jesuit Superior General Arturo Sosa, S.J., in Rome, among many other activities.

A second cohort, which will include two BC parents, is scheduled to begin their residencies in January or February, and plans are already underway for a third cohort.

“This program makes you think,” said Fellow Thalia Doherty. “You have all these tremendous exposures and fascinating discussions, so you think more critically about a lot of things. You remember to do things that maybe you weren’t doing before: thinking about the four apostolic preferences, thinking about the poor, thinking about how you can make a difference in someone else’s life, every day.”

The Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program is supported in part by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. To learn more about the program, go to www.luc.edu/ilf.

Chronicle

November 18, 2021

9

A Platform to Empower As Miss Massachusetts, BC master's student Elizabeth Pierre is using her crown to help young people find their voice

BY ALIX HACKETT SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

In addition to wearing many hats, Elizabeth Pierre, a master’s student at the Boston College School of Social Work and program coordinator at the Center for Teen Empowerment in Somerville, also has a few crowns—or, more specifically, tiaras—in her closet.

After winning a local Miss Cambridge pageant in 2020, Pierre was crowned Miss Massachusetts this past summer, becoming only the second Black woman to win the title since the competition began in 1921.

In December, she’ll walk the Miss America stage at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, in hopes of taking home the national title and a $50,000 scholarship.

“Miss Massachusetts has never won Miss America,” Pierre confided during a recent interview, “so I’m going to work really, really hard to take it home this year.”

Despite her success, Pierre is a relative newcomer to the pageant world. As an undergraduate student at Syracuse University, she signed up for the Miss Black and Gold scholarship competition on a lark with friends—and won. After placing second in the statewide competition, she began taking pageants more seriously as opportunities for personal growth and community service.

“A lot of people think we’re like princesses and queens,” she laughed, “but we really are servant leaders and we value giving back and leaving an impact.”

In the 100 years since its founding, the Miss America pageant has evolved from a beauty competition known for swimsuits and evening gowns to an event where

“It’s really important that the message I share is one I really mean, and it takes a lot of introspection. You have to know yourself and what you believe in, in order to be fully yourself on that stage.”

—Elizabeth Pierre photo by lee pellegrini

women are judged on their artistic talent and leadership skills. Each contestant develops a social impact initiative which, if they receive the title, becomes their focus for the next year.

In developing her initiative, “We Hear You: Empowering Youth Voices,” Pierre drew from her personal and professional experiences. Growing up, her Haitian family expected children to defer to adults, a dynamic that made Pierre feel stifled at times.

“I love my culture with all my heart but I didn’t necessarily feel like my voice was heard,” she recalled. “Even in American culture, I think the adult is often the voice you listen to.”

At the Center for Teen Empowerment,

which encourages young people to lead social change, Pierre helps teenagers identify issues they care about—whether it’s the environment or LGBTQ+ rights—and figure out how to make a difference. As Miss Massachusetts, she’s continued that work online, hosting Instagram Live sessions and connecting with youth through social media platforms such as TikTok (where she has more than 78,000 followers) to discuss issues like food insecurity and inequalities brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Eventually, I’m hoping to go into different schools and programs and meet young people all over the state and help them find their voices,” she explained.

“Our young people are engaged and they

know what’s going on. It’s just a matter of listening to them.”

At Boston College, Pierre is studying to be a licensed clinical social worker with the goal of helping youth and their families work through trauma. As one of 15 students selected for BCSSW’s recently launched Black Leadership Initiative, Pierre’s classroom and fieldwork experiences will include a focus on issues faced by the Black community.

“In a lot of the spaces I’m in, I tend to be the only Black woman, and I feel like the education I’ve gotten has been very Eurocentric,” said Pierre. “As a social worker, I want to be an advocate for all identities, so I’m looking forward to seeing things through a different lens.”

Balancing classes, a part-time job, and the Miss Massachusetts crown means a packed schedule and lengthy to-do list, but each item has contributed to Pierre’s growing sense of purpose. Pageants, in particular, have forced her to identify and articulate who she wants to be, and the impact she wants to have on society.

In the talent portion of the competition, Pierre shows off her dance skills (she does everything from tap to jazz) but the interview portion is what she spends the most time preparing for.

“Every single day it’s a battle of ‘What is Liz?’ and ‘What does Liz believe?’” she said. “It’s really important that the message I share is one I really mean, and it takes a lot of introspection. You have to know yourself and what you believe in, in order to be fully yourself on that stage.”

Alix Hackett is a senior digital content writer for the Office of University Communications

Grid Legend Returns to BC to Press Drive for Bone Marrow, Stem Cell Donation On the day before the Boston College football team wore its special red bandanna-trimmed uniforms versus Virginia Tech to honor late 9/11 hero Welles Crowther ’99, former BC and NFL star Luke Kuechly ’15 returned to campus to press forward on his own life-saving mission.

Kuechly, an ambassador for the Project Life Movement (PLM), was recruiting BC students to join the global registry of potential bone marrow and stem cell donors.

The three-time All-Pro Carolina Panthers linebacker urged the many healthy passersby to sign up and swab their cheek, the modest but critical first step toward possibly serving as a match for an ill patient suffering with leukemia, lymphoma, or sickle cell disease.

“It’s something so easy, so simple to do, and it can save people’s lives,” said Kuechly in 2016, when BC last hosted a PLM regis-

tration drive. “When you meet people who have survived because they were helped by receiving bone marrow, you can really appreciate what a difference doing something like this makes.”

Kuechly’s passion for the project was ignited in 2013 after meeting PLM Co-chair Steve Luquire, whose 41-year-old wife died of myelodysplasia; her only match was her brother, but at age 60, the fit was not ideal.

PLM is based in Charlotte, N.C., home of the Panthers.

Joining Kuechly, who retired in 2019, was Undergraduate Government of Boston College President Jack Bracher ’22, a previous registrant who worked with Kuechly to enlist students on the Global Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Registry.

Bracher told The Heights that he had been alerted that he was a match with a leukemia patient, but the patient went into

Luke Kuechly ’15, right, with Undergraduate Government of Boston College President Jack Bracher ’22 at the Project Life Movement drive earlier this month.

remission, negating the need for a donation.

“I wanted to find a way to bring back the stem cell drive to BC’s campus and register more students,” Bracher said.

According to Bracher, nearly 780 individuals registered during the two-day

event, with 480 swabbings on the first day, the most on any single day during a college campus recruitment drive.

In addition to UGBC, PLM partnered with BC’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

—Phil Gloudemans

Chronicle

10

November 18, 2021

Urwa Hameed’s Long Journey Is Entering a Whole New Phase Continued from page 1

tance or property. Most days, Hameed was one of the only women in the building, which housed social services for the entire village, but she felt very much in her element.

“I was very engaged in that work,” she said. “I found it very rewarding, very intimate—it was something I really enjoyed doing. So naturally, I wanted to do it when I grew up.”

In December, Hameed will graduate from the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in political science and international studies. Her experience has included many of the tried-and-true elements of college life—study sessions, research papers, karaoke parties—but it’s also empowered Hameed to pursue a deeper understanding of the culture she grew up in, and begin establishing herself as a global advocate for immigrant and women’s rights.

A focus on education Hameed grew up in Multan, a city in central Pakistan known for its plethora of Sufi shrines, in a house with no running water. Her family (Hameed is the eldest of four children) spoke multiple languages at home: Urdu, Punjabi (her father’s parents were from India), English, and Saraiki, the regional language.

Hameed’s father was passionate about education and sent Hameed to an elementary school located more than two hours from home. Later, dissatisfied with local options, he enrolled her in middle school in Islamabad, the nation’s capital, where she lived away from her family for three years.

In 2011, Hameed’s family moved to Connecticut, joining five of her father’s sisters who lived on the same street. Hameed has fond memories of her early teenage years, which were spent surrounded by extended family members who would drop by unannounced at all hours.

School administrators, unsure how to interpret her school paperwork from Pakistan, used standardized testing to determine Hameed’s grade level, and she became the youngest person in her ninth-grade class by three years. Undaunted, she thrived academically, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. At the age of 14, when most of her American peers were preparing to enter high school, Hameed was accepted at Boston College.

Looking back, Hameed feels she owes much of her success to her father, who emphasized her education and involved her in his work despite cultural pressures to do the opposite.

“He always really supported me, and he brought me into circles where no woman would normally be,” Hameed said. “A lot of that has to do with who I am today.”

Telling women’s stories At Boston College, Hameed took courses in gender and women’s studies, political

science, and sociology, and discovered a passion for research while working as a professor’s assistant. The summer after her sophomore year, Hameed traveled back to Multan and stood outside her father’s old law office. She was awash in memories, but also equipped with a new intellectual framework with which to interpret them.

She returned to the Heights the next fall, buzzing with inspiration.

“I realized the highest glass ceiling a woman can break in a country like Pakistan is the political realm,” she said. “For a woman to be able to come up from adverse circumstances and claim one of those positions? That’s a story I wanted to investigate.”

With support from her professors, Hameed spent the next year conducting preliminary research and seeking approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board to travel to Pakistan and conduct inperson interviews with female politicians.

Once the paperwork was in place, she applied for grants and scholarships—ultimately securing five—and began emailing members of the country’s national and provincial assemblies, explaining what she wanted to do.

The response was better than she expected. By July, when Hameed boarded a plane for Islamabad, 20 women had agreed to speak with her about the role education, religion, and financial dependence had played in their political journeys. When she arrived in Pakistan, Hameed was able to secure 30 additional interviews, bringing her total to 50. For the next month, she traveled from state to state, speaking to the politicians in their offices, homes, and in the case of one woman, in the hospital where she serves as the region’s only surgeon.

“There was one woman who was in prison,” said Hameed. “I traveled wherever it was required for me to speak with almost every woman who was serving at the time.”

Hameed conducted her interviews in Urdu and used her knowledge of regional customs to put her subjects at ease. In more conservative areas, she donned a traditional South-Asian outfit known as a shalwar kameez and a full hijab, but in liberal Islamabad, she knew politicians would fear being judged by someone in conservative dress.

Each woman signed a translated consent form, but many waited until after their interviews when they were confident their responses weren’t misinterpreted.

“They had to be able to trust me,” Hameed said. “I don’t think they’d be able to share that narrative with anyone they perceived as an outsider because as Muslim women they tread cautiously.”

Hameed treated each session as an opportunity to conduct qualitative research, but she was also moved by the personal stories of women who had overcome poverty, patriarchal oppression, and abuse to achieve their political goals. One of the most pow-

photo by caitlin cunningham

“I realized the highest glass ceiling a woman can break in a country like Pakistan is the political realm. For a woman to be able to come up from adverse circumstances and claim one of those positions? That’s a story I wanted to investigate.”

—Urwa Hameed erful politicians Hameed interviewed was married at the age of 14 and had given birth to four children by her early 20s.

Around her 43rd interview, Hameed began considering the possibility of compiling the stories into a book that could serve as inspiration for young Pakistani girls like herself, and offer insights to fellow researchers. She returned to the U.S. and started editing. In October, Steering Towards Change hit Amazon’s virtual shelves in English and Urdu, its pages containing the first-person accounts of 45 women “challenging patriarchy, class, and power in Pakistan.”

Future changemaker When Hameed sees a problem, she can’t help but try to fix it. Last winter, she realized that BC had never had two women of color leading its student government, so she launched a campaign for student body president (and ultimately came in second). As a teenager living in Connecticut, she spent weekends helping her mother’s co-workers who didn’t speak English file governmental paperwork. When her language skills weren’t enough, Hameed contacted the Internal Revenue Service.

“I told them, ‘This is something that’s really bad in my community,’” she recalled.

“The government offers translation services in Spanish and Arabic and a few other languages, but that’s it. If you want more help, it’s a really cumbersome process.”

With IRS support, Hameed launched Free Tax Prep, Inc., a nonprofit connecting immigrants with volunteer translators in more than 40 languages. Two of her codirectors are fellow Boston College students.

Hameed is currently in the process of applying to BC Law School, where she hopes to study international law. If she’s accepted, she’ll begin her law journey at the age of 19 and start amassing the skills to make an even bigger impact. Someday, she envisions working for an intergovernmental organization like the United Nations, promoting women’s rights around the world.

“I don’t exactly know what that position would look like, but I know I want to take it up a notch from advocacy,” she explained.

“I want to be able to do something concrete to fix the injustices that happen every day.”

Alix Hackett is a senior digital content writer in the Office of University Communications

Chronicle

November 18, 2021

OBITUARIES

James Halpin, 89, Former CSOM Associate Dean A funeral service was said on October 31 in St. Ignatius Church for James F. Halpin, a former associate dean and professor in the Carroll School of Management who also served as minister of the Boston College Jesuit community. Dr. Halpin died on August 18 at the age of 89.

A Pennsylvania native who grew up in Waterbury, Conn., Dr. Halpin was interested in moral philosophy and ethics, and their relevance in many contexts. He entered the Jesuit order in 1949, and studied in Belgium, Spain, and Italy before being ordained. (He left the order in 1993.) He began a life of service in higher education in 1968 as a faculty member at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, where he taught Christian ethics.

Dr. Halpin came to BC in 1971 as director of the University’s Program for the Study of Peace and War, which was created by students as a response to issues arising out of the Vietnam War. The program offered interdisciplinary courses through the Physics, Sociology, Political Science, History, Anthropology, Theology, and Philosophy departments, delving into wars across the centuries—from the Peloponnesian War to the American Civil War and World War I—and the nature of conflict itself, as well as studying concepts around defense and negotiation, and Christian thought on war.

In 1974, the program sponsored a conference for Boston parents and others affected by the crisis over court-ordered desegregation in the Boston Public Schools.

Explaining the program’s interest in holding such an event, Dr. Halpin told The Heights “[it] has to do with peace and violence in the City of Boston: How do we overcome this problem?”

Dr. Halpin also served as a chaplain at the University, and in this role he vigorously promoted BC’s formational mission. In a 1971 interview with The Heights—which depicted him as a busy man “always at a typewriter and answering endless telephone calls”—Dr. Halpin expressed concern about undergraduates who only focused on academics and extracurricular activities: “Let’s face it, the University must be more

than this; it must serve as a value center for those there, where students can look into themselves, figure out just who they are, and what they want to do with their lives.”

A member of the Theology Department at first, Dr. Halpin later transferred to the Carroll School’s Operations and Strategic Management Department. Among other ethics-related courses, he taught Introduction to Ethics to first-year students—covering topics like moral development, cultural relativism and Kant’s Categorical Imperative—and a course in social responsibility to M.B.A. students. All the while, he provided counseling and assistance, showing a propensity to relate to students’ interests and well-being.

Ever mindful of his own formational experiences, Dr. Halpin believed business and management education benefits from exposure to the liberal arts tradition, as he told The Heights in 2010, two years before he retired.

“Liberal arts develops critical thinking abilities in a way business education does not.

Whereas majors in business provide for career preparation, courses in the arts and sciences aid in personal development and thinking. If space in a schedule allows, I always encourage CSOM students to consider a second major or minor in a liberal arts field. There are just a multitude of benefits with the study of liberal arts that can assist one not only in their career, but in life.”

Dr. Halpin was predeceased by his brothers, Thomas and Jackie Halpin, and his sister, Mary Halpin Ignacio.

—University Communications Read the full obituary at bit.ly/james-halpinobituary

Kent Wosepka, Part-Time Faculty Kent J. Wosepka, who served as a parttime faculty member in the Finance Department of BC’s Carroll School of Management from 2017-2020, was killed last month after being struck by a vehicle while riding his bike with a group of cyclists in Liberty County, Tex. According to news reports, he was one of three cyclists struck by a vehicle on a crosscountry trek on October 30. Another rider was injured in the crash but survived. Mr. Wosepka was airlifted to a hospital where he died on October 31, according to Liberty County’s Bluebonnet News.

At the Carroll School, Mr. Wosepka taught graduate sections of Management of

BC in the Media Environmental Studies major Julia Horchos ’23, part of Boston College’s delegation to the COP26 conference on climate change, was among young attendees at the summit interviewed by the Associated Press and The Boston Globe.

Though the coronavirus is unlikely to be eradicated, the day will come when it’s no longer a pandemic. Global Public Health Program Director Philip Landrigan, M.D., discussed the transition, and also commented on vaccines for children, in interviews with CNN Health.

photo by harvey egan, s.j.

Financial Institutions from the fall of 2017 through the spring of 2020, according to Finance Department Chair Ronnie Sadka.

“Kent was a great guy and stellar teacher who was highly organized, and very popular with students,” said Sadka. “He came to us after he retired from Goldman Sachs; right off the bat, he received fantastic teaching evaluations from his students. He stopped teaching in 2020 so that he could spend more time travelling, but he knew he could come back to teach here at any time. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and many friends.”

—University Communications

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Assoc. Prof. Betty Lai (LSOEHD) was among the researchers who shared advice with APA Monitor on the important process of seeking out and applying for grant funding.

Canisius Professor of Theology James Keenan, S.J., vice provost for global engagement, outlined seven lessons learned from the Vatican’s recent symposium on artificial intelligence in a piece for National Catholic Reporter.

Murray and Monti Professor of Economics Peter Ireland spoke with Reuters on the question of whether central banks have gone soft on inflation risks.

COVID-19 delayed the graduation ceremony of Molly Cahill ’20 and her classmates. In an essay for America magazine —where she is now an assistant editor— she reflected on what returning to campus for Commencement this semester meant to her.

As his views seem set to become more influential, will Clarence Thomas fill the shoes of the Supreme Court’s former leading conservative, the late Antonin Scalia?

Prof. Kent Greenfield (Law) shared his thoughts with Newsweek.

Woods College of Advancing Studies Associate Dean and M.S. in Applied Economics program director Aleksandar Tomic discussed strategies for organizations weighing opportunity costs, and the pros and cons of no-annual-fee credit cards, in Q&As with personal finance site Money Geek.

As the two-year global consultation process leading to the 2023 Synod begins, Assoc.

Prof. of the Practice Rafael Luciani (STM) highlighted the event in a story for Vatican News as a turning point in the life of the Catholic Church.

Why are Joe Biden’s approval ratings dropping in U.S. opinion polls? Assoc. Prof.

David Hopkins (Political Science) talked about presidential popularity in a polarized age in an interview with The Signal.

The campaign for justice outlined in the newly launched Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries, co-authored by Assoc. Prof.

James Smith (English), was described as “deeply inspiring” and “a much-needed exercise in truth-telling” by The Irish Examiner. The book also has been highlighted by RTÉ.com, The Dublin Review, TheJournal. ie, and The Tablet (U.K.) Assoc. Prof. Gerald Smith (CSOM), author of the new book Getting Price Right, discussed rising inflation and related price hikes on Bloomberg Baystate Business.

Debbie Hogan, an instructor in the Woods College of Advancing Studies M.S. in Sports Administration program, discussed the impact of the pandemic and fantasy sports on the athletics industry, and what makes a good sports city, in a Q&A with WalletHub.

Jobs The following are among the recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources. For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see www.bc.edu/jobs.

Administrative Assistant, Office of Vice President for Institutional Research and Planning Program Nurse Program Director, Ever to Excel Assistant Director, Athletics Annual Giving

Fiscal & Grant Administrator, Morrissey College Service Center Graduate Programs Assistant, Connell School of Nursing Assistant Director, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement Senior Associate Director, Digital Marketing Senior Applications Developer Creative Graphic Designer, Athletics Assistant Director, NMR Center

Associate Director, Urban Outreach Initiatives

Assistant Director for Career Education (Health Care and Nursing)

Residential Life Administrator

Lead Teacher, Pine Manor College

Color Guard Instructor

Library Applications Developer

Operations Coordinator, Marching Band

Administrative Assistant, Chemistry

Technology Consultant

Post-doctoral Research Fellow (multiple positions)

Chronicle

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November 18, 2021

Q&A

What’s Behind ‘The Great Resignation’ in U.S. Workforce The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that a record 4.4 million Americans, or about three percent of the entire workforce, quit their respective jobs in September. Texas A&M psychologist Anthony Klotz is credited with coining the term “The Great Resignation” to describe this conspicuous and perplexing labor shortage. To find out why so many Americans are resigning, and how several million Americans who were employed prior to the pandemic are surviving without a paycheck, Chronicle’s Phil Gloudemans spoke with Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor David Blustein, author of The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty: The Eroding Work Experience in America.

It’s common to see a surge in resignations when the job market is tight and there are numerous open positions, but today’s situation seems remarkably different. What’s driving the numerous, trend-busting exits, in your opinion?

The Great Resignation is clearly a fastmoving and powerful trend, one that has surprised many experts, including myself.

Like most macro-level phenomenon, the Great Resignation is likely due to a confluence of factors that has coalesced to create a transformation in how people engage in work. One of the most prominent factors driving Americans to quit their jobs is that the labor market is now characterized by competition for workers in many (but not all) fields. As such, people feel more confident in being able to find better jobs.

However, this particular phenomenon also has been shaped by the pandemic. In addition to many other stresses associated with work, people have had to face possible exposure to a deadly virus; in my view, this has been a game-changer in the world of work. Workers also are leaving jobs that do not pay well and do not offer decent work conditions. Facilitating this move toward greater worker self-determination is the increased level of savings that people have

photo by peter julian

“The pandemic has stripped away the illusion of security that many people maintained, which may be evoking a ‘Great Rethinking’ of the institution of work.”

—David Blustein amassed (especially during the pandemic when it was difficult to spend money, aside from necessities) as well as the emergence of creative ways to downsize one’s expenses.

For example, during the pandemic, people discovered that they could move in with family members or friends, which lowered expenses.

Pundits have credited “pandemic epiphanies” with motivating many workers to leave jobs for greener pastures.

What do you think has been the impact of the pandemic on the job market?

The pandemic is likely the elephant in

the Great Resignation room. While some of the people leaving their jobs are looking for better ones, others are considering early retirement or different lifestyles and priorities that do not include or that diminish the role of marketplace work. My students and I have been conducting research on the impact of the pandemic on work, which has revealed that many people are experiencing a sense of existential threat and precarity. The pandemic has stripped away the illusion of security that many people maintained, which may be evoking a “Great Rethinking” of the institution of work. Conversations about the meaning and impact of a highly work-oriented life have moved from the margins to the center, leading to a questioning of the contemporary enterprise of work. For many people in the U.S. and across the globe, work has often resulted in stress, tedium, health risks, interpersonal conflict, and disempowerment, particularly for people who have been marginalized. In fact, the role of poverty, racism, and other forms of social exclusion have been prominent in the work lives of far too many people. A rethinking of how our society engages in work, survival, and sustainability is needed as institutions and people seek to rebuild after the losses and disruption of the pandemic.

Are workers simply angling for a raise after decades of stagnant pay?

A key factor in the Great Resignation is that people are no longer willing to work in indecent conditions and for low wages.

A particularly positive outcome of this period is the notable increase in pay for lower wage workers, which is clearly a plus. Due to decades of neglect of working people, this period could be auguring in a needed equalizing force in salaries and working conditions, particularly for those who have been mired in precarious, low-wage work with few opportunities for advancement or collective advocacy.

Businesses need workers but they’re struggling to find them. Has the $2.5

million in extra cash from government stimulus checks—and the rising home values—actually encouraged workers to quit?

This is a common, but inaccurate, narrative during this period. Empirical data do not support the view that government support has encouraged people to quit. In a recent column in The New York Times, Paul Krugman noted that states that refused additional federal benefits continued to have labor shortages at the same rate as other states. Workers are starting to take back power in labor relations that had been diminishing for many decades. In my view, there is some hope that the Great Resignation can lead to better employment conditions for all working people.

Millions of baby boomers are retiring and will retire in the coming years; how might this impact the current and future job market?

Retirements among baby boomers are in fact increasing and are responsible for some of the exits from the labor market. It is not clear how the predicted retirements of the large baby boomer population will affect the labor market in the coming years. For example, some of these losses in the job market may be mitigated by automation and artificial intelligence, which may be able to assume some of the tasks of retired workers.

How much of a factor is work-life balance in this current spate of job departures? Does the opportunity to—or not to—work remotely play a role?

The pandemic has evoked a critical questioning of the role of work in people’s lives. Being forced to stay home (or, for many, forced to work in unsafe conditions) has underscored the reality that work has consumed an unbalanced role in our lives.

Moving forward, work-life balance issues will remain in the forefront of policy debates and individual considerations about work.

BC Scenes

Remembering BC veterans Boston College last week held its annual Veterans Day Mass and Remembrance Ceremony, which included the playing of “Taps” by Zachary Jekanowski ’23, below. Near right, a veteran examined the newly inscribed name of First Lt. Thomas Redgate on the BC Veterans Memorial. A former BC student and Korean War hero, Lt. Redgate was killed in combat and missing in action for several decades until his remains were returned earlier this year. His surviving family members were present at the ceremony.

PHOTOS BY CAITLIN CUNNINGHAM