T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle may 24, 2012
8
Aquino Scholarship
Coming to Terms with Cultural Heritage By Michael Maloney Special to the Chronicle
Alem Wins Fr. Joyce Award By Reid Oslin Staff Writer
In her native Ethiopia, Feven Alem’s first name is translated as “God’s Gift.” Already, the newly minted graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences has more than fulfilled that endearing appellation. After contributing countless hours of volunteer service on campus, in her church and in the greater Boston community during her four undergraduate years, Alem was selected as recipient of the University’s second annual W. Seavey Joyce, SJ, Award for Service and Citizenship. The award, which includes a $5,000 stipend to support the recipient’s post-graduate civic engagement, was presented last Friday by representatives from the University’s Offices of Campus Ministry and the Volunteer and Service Learning Center. Yesterday, Alem returned to Ethiopia to participate in the Millennium Cities Initiative project, an effort to connect academic and cultural interests with social justice. Alem will work with young girls in the region, teaching them English and urging them to remain in school instead of entering into the traditional early marriage. Alem says she will use the Joyce Award stipend to cover travel and living expenses while working in Ethiopia. She plans to donate any funds left over at the end of her volunteer term to the organization so her work can continue. Alem’s road to Boston College was a unique one. Her father, Alem Kahsay, was a world-class marathoner who represented Ethiopia in elite running competitions around the world. “He came to America and decided that our lives would be better if he could bring his family here,” she says. “Unfortunately, my mother became sick and died and I travelled to America by myself. I was only six years old at the time, and my father was not even able to meet me when I arrived at the airport. He had left New York to run in a big race in Australia, but he had friends meet me and take care of me when I arrived.”
Her dad eventually retired from the world marathon circuit and accepted a staff position with the famed New York Road Runners Club. He raised his daughter in the Harlem section of the city and sent her to St. Jean Baptiste High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Manhattan. At St. Jean Baptiste, Alem started getting involved in service activities. “Sacrificing for others has a lot to do with my own background,” she says. “I had seen the lives that my cousins, aunts and uncles were living in Ethiopia. My Dad was able to escape from that, but then he sacrificed his whole life for me. I learned what sacrifice means from my Dad. He’s my No. 1 role model.” Another mentor in her life was Sister Peggy, a nun in the Congregation of Notre Dame who was the school librarian at St. Jean’s. “She was everything for me,” Alem says. “She helped me get through high school and then she was the one who motivated me to go to Boston College. I was deciding between BC, Georgetown, Wesleyan and Boston University, and she kept pushing me to BC.” Once she got to Chestnut Hill, Alem became involved in a whirlwind of service activities in addition to her studies in sociology and communication: the African Students Organization; Black Student Forum; PULSE program; tutoring in Boston’s Bird Street Community Center; volunteering in a food pantry project at Michael Orthodox Church; and raising money for an education and counseling program for orphans in her native Ethiopia. “Feven was so passionate and so enthusiastic about going back to Ethiopia,” says VLSC Associate Director Kate Daly, a member of the Joyce Award selection committee. “She had some great plans and had really researched the programs that she wanted to be involved in.” Alem hopes to go to graduate school and perhaps work for the United Nations — “something of a humanitarian nature,” she says. “I have many goals.”
Krystle Jiang describes her first three years at BC as a “very intense and exciting journey of self-discovery.” (Photo by Frank Curran)
Jiang is a representative of the Chinese Students Association and serves on the executive board of the “Backgrounds of Boston College” Committee, which is developing a seminar to help freshmen become more open to diversity. She has taught classes on ethnic identity to Boston-area high school students through the “Splash” program. Her other formative experiences have ranged from undertaking an internship in Honduras to participating in an Ultimate Frisbee team. Jiang says she was humbled and surprised at being named the Aquino Scholarship winner. She did not work deliberately to achieve the honor, she explains — instead, the honor found her, and is recognition for doing everything that she loved and found interesting in the first place. “I was just overcome with a sense of gratitude and love for BC for not only helping me realize and develop my passions — and having the avenues to do so — but also
recognizing my unconventional path,” she says. “I’ve never felt such appreciation before, and it feels fantastic.” In her final year on campus, Jiang will work on helping launch “Backgrounds of Boston College.” She also plans to continue serving on the Chinese Students Association, and confidently engage students in the world and empower them to share their passions. She may not yet have an inkling as to what lies beyond graduation next spring, but Jiang promises to work towards her vision of an open and accepting society. “As an Asian American with the blessing of multiculturalism and the responsibility of sharing the diversity, I engage the world every day, proud of my identity as a Chinese American woman, yet humbled by the greatness of people and ready to live my life in service to others.” Contact Michael Maloney at michael.maloney.3@bc.edu
Fishman Wins BC Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award By Kathleen Sullivan Staff Writer
Associate Professor of Communication Donald Fishman has been honored by the Boston College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa with its 2012 Teaching Award. A faculty member at Boston College since 1973, Fishman teaches courses in crisis communication and media law, with a focus on intellectual property. Each year, PBK members nominate an outstanding teacher who has positively influenced their experience at BC; winners are selected for the award based on the cumulative nominations from students over multiple years. Students who nominated Fishman for the award called him “an excellent teacher” who is “passionate about his work.” Another student wrote: “He is extremely knowledgeable and
Lee Pellegrini
Feven Alem, shown at the ceremony where she received the Seavey Joyce, SJ, Award, calls her father her “No. 1 role model.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Rising senior Krystle Jiang is this year’s recipient of the Benigno and Corazon Aquino scholarship, which honors students who represent the highest ideals and aspirations of the University and the Asian American community. But there was a time not long ago when Jiang felt trapped, rather than empowered, by her Chinese heritage. Growing up in a predominantly white, upper-middle class New Jersey suburb, Jiang often endured taunts — for eating dried seaweed as a snack, for example — and racial jokes aimed at her cultural background. So, as Jiang explains, “I quickly learned how to fit in. But unfortunately, my way of doing that was in sequestering my Chinese-ness to my house.” This caused tension at home, as Jiang’s parents — Cultural Revolution-raised Chinese immigrants — wanted their daughter to embrace her culture. Jiang just wanted to get along with other kids. Then she found comfort through befriending other Asian Americans who faced similar struggles, and after reading a series of books about racial identity development before her freshman year at Boston College, Jiang felt ready for what she describes as a “very intense and exciting journey of selfdiscovery” at the Heights. Today, Jiang makes a point of boldly representing her passions, values, and unique perspective as an Asian American. She has not only embraced her culture, but has pushed forward to learn as much as possible.
Donald Fishman
always readily available for help and support.” “I’m very honored,” said Fishman, who received the award on May 20 at the academic honor society’s annual induction ceremony. “Phi Beta Kappa has always stood as a beacon of integrity to me, so this is special.” Fishman said the biggest change in teaching has been the arrival of new media and tech-
nology. “The velocity of change is amazing. Students born after 1990 expect a certain level of interactivity and are comfortable handling multiple images. The challenge is to take the virtues of the old lecture system that moves students to think critically and whet it with the use of new technology. “This is the communication century,” he added. The Communication Department is no longer a place only for “the students who were the high school debater or worked on the school paper. Innovations have brought communication to the masses.” *** Boston College’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter also inducted its new members for 2012. The list of inductees is at http://bit.ly/ KCLaFV. Contact Kathleen Sullivan at kathleen.sullivan@bc.edu