CAMPUS NEWS

Photo: Lisa Helfert

Photo: Phil Humnicky

Georgetown celebrates the life of Madeleine Albright

It is always an honor to know someone who changes the trajectory of history. Georgetown was lucky to know Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, the first woman U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and cherished professor, who died earlier this year at the age of 84. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Albright was a distinguished diplomat, author, business leader, and human rights champion. A Georgetown Law parent, she joined the university as a faculty member in 1982, serving as the Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is remembered as someone who never missed a day of class, despite her global commitments and life work. Her course “America’s National Security Toolbox” was a rite of passage for generations of students. Toward the end of each semester, her students put their knowledge to the test in an all-day simulation where they developed a U.S. response to a foreign policy crisis. Her commitment to her students was evident through the pandemic, when she moved the entire course online and even added elements of the real-world crisis—the pandemic—to the curriculum. Albright’s commitment to excellence and change extended beyond the classroom. From 1993 to 1997, she served as a member of President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council and White House staff, as president of the Center for National Policy, and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In 1997, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as the first female Secretary of State. She became the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government during that era. In 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Barack Obama. Albright will always be remembered as a committed teacher, a leader in global diplomacy, and an agent of change. • —Bhriana Smith

Photo: Lisa Helfert

Photo: Phil Humnicky

Ray L. Belton (left), president of the Southern University System, and John J. DeGioia (right), president of Georgetown University, sign a memorandum of understanding in Riggs Library.

Georgetown partners with HBCU system

Georgetown has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Southern University System, a system of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), to collaborate on interdisciplinary programming, research, and training over the next five years. “Southern University has been a terrific partner,” says Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. “We are very excited to identify areas of mutual interest and to work as partners as Southern continues its 142-year tradition of excellence.”

Southern University is the only historically Black university system in the U.S., offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees to more than 12,000 students across five campuses in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Shreveport, Louisiana. Southern University’s co-founder, John Sebastian Jones, is a Descendant whose ancestors were enslaved and sold by the Maryland Province of Jesuits in 1838, some proceeds of which supported Georgetown University. This is not the first collaboration between Georgetown and Southern University. Most recently, Georgetown and Southern University System Foundation (SUSF) partnered to provide resources to communities in Louisiana impacted by Hurricane Ida. And beginning in 2018, Southern University served as the host location for the series of dialogue sessions with Jesuits, Georgetown leaders, and members of the Descendent community. The dialogue sessions, which sought to explore sustainable actions and partnerships, led to the creation of the Descendents Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, a charitable organization that focuses on racial healing and educational advancement for Descendants. Georgetown and Southern University both serve on the foundation’s board of trustees.

In the future, Georgetown and Southern University will work together on joint research and curriculum projects, the exchange of faculty and research scholars, faculty training and development, and grants and student pipeline programs. “The programming that is currently underway between Georgetown University and Southern University has made a sizable impact throughout our university communities,” says Al Harrell III, CEO of SUSF. “We look forward to exploring new lines of research and connecting our students, faculty, and constituents to meaningful programs.” The two partners signed the memorandum during the SUSF board of trustees retreat on April 22, which was hosted at Georgetown. The retreat, attended by Georgetown and SUSF leaders, included remarks and presentations from U.S. Rep. Troy Carter—who represents Louisiana’s second congressional district—and U.S. government leaders in education, policy, transportation, and agriculture. “This partnership with Georgetown offers yet another avenue of success for our students and faculty,” says Southern University President Ray L. Belton. “With the brain trust composed of these top institutions of academics and research, the possibilities are limitless.” • —Kate Colwell and Rosemary Lane

Global partnership focuses on well-being

Guided by its core values, Georgetown has joined with The Wellbeing Project, a global partnership focused on the well-being of those who advocate for social change: activists, nonprofit leaders, teachers, social workers, and health care providers. “Well-being bridges the development of the inner self with the healing of the world,” says Randy Bass, vice president for strategic education initiatives and leader of the Red House, an incubator that furthers educational innovation at Georgetown. “That is not only fundamental to Jesuit education but also essential to a sustainable future. Nothing could be more appropriate for Georgetown’s involvement and leadership.” Georgetown is the only higher education institution serving as a co-creating partner of the organization. The collaboration, which goes back several years, initially focused on Georgetown’s leadership of a Global Think Tank on intergenerational trauma and its community and systemic transmissions. The next area of research will address ecological belonging, in partnership with Earth Commons, Georgetown’s institute for environment and sustainability. In 2022, Georgetown joined the Wellbeing, Innovation and Social Change in Education Network (WISE), an extension of the Wellbeing Project that connects higher education institutions and organizations that are working to advance a culture of well-being. The move, led by Psychology Professor Jennifer Woolard, complements Cura Georgetown, a working group focused on strengthening Georgetown’s community of care for its students, faculty, and staff.

In June 2022, 20 Georgetown students, faculty, and staff participated in the Wellbeing Project’s Summit for Social Change in Bilbao, Spain. Attendees from 80 countries enjoyed the international debut of Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, a one-man play created by Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. • —Rosemary Lane

Supporting students affected by war in Ukraine

Alumni leaders Antonio Gracias (SFS’92, MSFS’93) and Sabrina Kuhl Gracias (B’93) have made a $5 million gift through the Gracias Family Foundation to immediately support the academic and personal financial needs of Georgetown students affected by the war in Ukraine.

“Aligning with Georgetown’s core value of service to others, we wanted Georgetown to be at the forefront of helping educate and offering tremendous support to both current and future students from Ukraine who are directly impacted by this crisis,” Sabrina Gracias says. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Gracias family reached out to Joel Hellman, dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service, to determine how they could help provide stability and hope to students directly affected by the war. “What I find most inspiring about these alumni is that they saw a crisis in the world, wanted to make a difference, and looked to Georgetown to make that difference,” Hellman says. The Gracias Family Sunflower Current Use Scholarship Fund focuses on current or recently displaced residents of Ukraine. It provides scholarships to undergraduate students in all schools who demonstrate financial need, as well as merit-based scholarships to SFS graduate students. The gift also provides emergency funds to cover course materials, travel, health insurance, room and board, living expenses, and visa expenses. “As graduates of the university, Sabrina and I both know that Georgetown is an institution that cares deeply about the overall development and well-being of its students,” Antonio Gracias says. “We are very confident that Georgetown will provide an excellent education and a safe environment to heal the profound emotional trauma these students have suffered.” • —Kate Colwell

PROUD HISTORY

Founded in 1919, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the largest school of international relations in the world and the oldest in the United States.

Q&A with Global Health Institute founders

In July 2022, Georgetown began announcing plans for the launch of the Global Health Institute. We spoke with two of its founding leaders, John Monahan (C’83, L’87), senior advisor to President John J. DeGioia, and Sheila McMullan (G’99, L’08), managing director of the Global Health Initiative, which began in 2017.

How did the idea for a Global Health Institute come about? John: We have many individual people working in global health at Georgetown, but we wanted to create a university-wide connected community. The last five years with the Global Health Initiative—with the vital leadership of President DeGioia, Edward Healton, and Thomas Banchoff—has been proof of concept for how we can use our collective resources to make a difference in the world.

What are some of the activities and opportunities around global health? John: We’ve sponsored many student-facing events and created opportunities for students to work on global health projects. The signature piece has been a university-wide Global Health Initiative Fellows program, a mentored research opportunity for students. There’s a lot of interest and it’s competitive—this year we had 90 applicants for 15 spots. On the faculty-facing side we’ve created a grant program to support research, with innovative projects in global health and collaboration across disciplines. We’ve had the Director General of the World Health Organization speak at Gaston Hall, and a Zoom interview early in the pandemic with Anthony Fauci. We convened a conference in 2017 on pandemic preparedness with Professor Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security. A lot of the issues raised turned out to be true, such as a lack of readiness at the senior level of the presidential administration. In 2018 we held a 100-year retrospective on the 1918 flu pandemic, including a presentation from the library archivist who brought out campus infirmary records from 1918. And we continue to lead the global health law community through the exceptional work of University Professor Larry Gostin and his colleagues at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, the world’s premier health law center. We nurtured this community of faculty, students, and staff that will soon have a permanent home—the Global Health Institute, a structure that creates a place for our regular convening. Sheila: Most importantly, students have really been impacted by this work. Faculty have been paired with 80 student fellows for these projects, and have made a substantial difference to them. Students have had unique opportunities through the initiative. That’s where we’re going to see the impact for years to come—the experience that students have here is going to translate to how they live and work and continue their studies.

Photo: Phil Humnicky

A number of global health experts have joined Georgetown in recent years, right? John: Yes, we’ve had a number of strategic recruitments: Rebecca Katz and her team, opening the Center for Global Health Science and Security; Mark Dybul, when he returned from leading the Global Fund to create his new center; Deus Bazira, who joined us from the University of Maryland with

STUDENT-DRIVEN CARE

Georgetown Emergency Medical Response Service (GERMS) is one of the largest all-volunteer, student-run EMS organizations in the country.

a group of people who have now built a substantial presence in sub Saharan Africa through the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact; and Charles Holmes, former chief medical officer at the State’s Department’s HIV program who is leading an important center working in Zambia and addressing other health policy issues.

Why is Georgetown the place for this? John: We’ve known that health outcomes are affected by many things beyond health care, but the pandemic drove this home. Diplomacy, economics, government, the private sector—all of society affects health outcomes. Georgetown is a place where people have strengths across disciplines. We’re a place where policymakers come to debate and discuss how to address these kinds of complicated cross-cutting issues. This is a moment to look at the global, national, and local ways in which our societies respond to and address health needs, and we are in a place where people can come together across disciplines to answer the hard questions. The Global Health Institute will be a convening ground to find mechanisms that create real solutions.

Sheila: Looking at global health from the lens of ethics and responsibility gives Georgetown this unique perspective on how we help the world. That’s very different from some of the other universities that are trying to take this on. Georgetown has a strong social justice mission that sets us apart.

How might alumni engage with the Global Health Institute? Sheila: We are constantly searching for volunteers from the global health community to connect students to internships, full-time employment, and post-graduation mentorship. As we help to prepare the next generation of global health leaders, it’s essential to connect students with alumni to further their exploration of global health. John: This institute will be a place where we can tap into the expertise and experience of our alumni who are interested in working with Georgetown on future projects, whether they’re looking at particular disease issues, how to communicate in a post-pandemic world, how to think about policy—for all in global health looking for a place to convene with experts, the institute will be that hub.

I am excited about the Global Health Institute. It’s what we have been aiming to do over the last several years, to take these creative ideas and form them into something permanent that’s of service to the world. •

—Jane Varner Malhotra

Exploring the link between climate change and pandemics

As the Earth’s climate continues to warm, researchers predict wild animals will be forced to relocate their habitats—likely to regions with large human populations—dramatically increasing the risk of a viral jump to humans that could lead to the next pandemic. In the April 2022 issue of Nature magazine, this link between climate change and viral transmission is described by an international research team led by scientists at Georgetown University. In their study, the scientists conducted the first comprehensive assessment of how climate change will restructure the global mammalian virome. The work focuses on geographic range shifts, the journeys that species will undertake as they follow their habitats into new areas. As mammals encounter other mammals for the first time, the study projects they will share thousands of viruses. The scientists say these shifts bring greater opportunities for viruses like Ebola or coronaviruses to emerge in new areas, making them harder to track, and into new types of animals, making it easier for viruses to jump across a “stepping stone” species into humans. “It’s unclear exactly how these new viruses might affect the species involved, but it’s likely that many of them will translate to new conservation risks and fuel the emergence of novel outbreaks in humans,” says the study’s co-lead author, Gregory Albery, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at Georgetown College. The study suggests that climate change will become the biggest upstream risk factor for disease emergence, exceeding higher-profile issues like deforestation, wildlife trade, and industrial agriculture. The authors say the solution is to pair wildlife disease surveillance with real-time studies of environmental change. “When a Brazilian free-tailed bat makes it all the way to Appalachia, we should be invested in knowing what viruses are tagging along,” says the study’s lead author Colin Carlson, PhD, an assistant research professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center. “Trying to spot these host jumps in real-time is the only way we’ll be able to prevent this process from leading to more spillovers and more pandemics.” • —Camille Scarborough

Hybrid institute supports higher education champions of diversity, equity, and inclusion

In 2019, Georgetown began hosting the Summer Institute on Equity in the Academic Experience, a free conference that supports problem-solving around issues affecting educational equity in higher education and network-building among staff, faculty, and administrators. Since its in-person inception, to fully remote, to the current hybrid model, the institute has tripled its size and national reach. This year, the institute— co-hosted in June by Xavier University and the American Talent Initiative, along with a cohort of leadership sites across the U.S.—drew 59 teams from 44 colleges and universities, totaling 425 attendees, 55 speakers, and 20 coaches. The institute’s leaders at Georgetown—Susannah McGowan, director of curriculum initiatives at the Red House, Heidi Elmendorf, director of the Hub for Equity and Innovation in Higher Education, Randy Bass, vice president for Strategic Education Initiatives, Adanna Johnson, associate vice president for student equity and inclusion, and Maya Williams, program manager for the Office of Student Equity & Inclusion—credit this growth to accessibility, affordability, and impact. “We have a lot of returning institutions bringing new projects and new people,” Elmendorf says. “We think from a sustainability and equity perspective, the hybrid model supported by a network of leadership sites is one way to go.” Participants champion effective outcomes for low-income and first-generation underrepresented students. Teams come to the institute with a goal for student success; they refine their plan by exchanging ideas with other schools and engaging in a series of workshops and customized coaching sessions. Each team leaves with an actionable plan. At one of the institute’s featured roundtables, Rosemary Kilkenny, Georgetown’s vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion and chief diversity officer, and Rosario Ceballo, dean of Georgetown College of Arts & Sciences, spoke on protecting changemakers from burnout and emphasized the importance of collaborating with key stakeholders and beneficiaries of change. “We’re not going to achieve change overnight,” Kilkenny says. “We have to take care of ourselves so we can take care of others and our institutions.”

Ceballo affirmed the importance of recruiting, supporting, and retaining faculty who reflect the diversity of the United States. “I want our community to understand that excellence in research and teaching is tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” she says. “Young faculty need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance in order to thrive in academia.”

The institute’s impact has grown with time. Justin Keen, director of assessment and student-centered analytics at the University of Dayton, first attended in 2019 as a participant. By year three, members of the Dayton team planned seven projects to increase graduation rates for students who are eligible for Pell Grants. This year, Keen presented with Drew Allen, associate vice president for institutional data analytics at Georgetown, on data-driven strategies for improving equitable student outcomes.

“This work can be tiring and taxing,” Keen says. “Having a connection to people at other institutions doing this work has really been emotionally affirming.” •

Photo: Courtesy of Penn State Harrisburg

The Healey Family Student Center held 10% of participants, while 90% tuned in from across the country; two participating school systems with multiple campuses, Pennsylvania State University and The Ohio State University, served as large, regional hubs. All sessions were coordinated through Zoom.

—Kate Colwell

College Dean Rosario Ceballo on “healing, rebuilding, and reimagining”

Earlier this year, Rosario Ceballo joined the Georgetown community as dean of Georgetown College of Arts and Sciences. She previously worked at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor as associate dean for social sciences and professor of psychology and women’s and gender studies. Ceballo’s interdisciplinary academic research has given her ample opportunities to think about how we approach challenges from a resilience mindset. She has studied infertility and reproductive difficulties among women of color, as well as how adolescents cope with community violence in lowincome and underserved neighborhoods. Both areas of study consider the strengths that enable people to endure through difficult life circumstances.

Recently, she outlined four goals for her deanship as she looks forward to the fall semester.

“My first goal is to be a fierce advocate for a liberal arts education, because I believe it teaches students to dialogue across our differences respectfully, to remain open to new perspectives, to embrace intellectual exploration, to tolerate uncertainty, and to foster concern for the greater good, for service to others, and for social justice,” she explains. “People who can embrace these skills and insights are desperately needed in our world today.” To that end, she’s excited to work on the creation of the university’s new Humanities Center. She identifies a second, longer-term priority to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into every aspect of the College. “Diversity—in terms of race and ethnicity as well as gender, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, nationality, physical ability, and political ideology —is essential to our continued excellence as a liberal arts college and to our ability to maintain the highest standards in research and teaching.” A third ongoing goal will be “to foster bridges across scholarly disciplines to address pressing world problems,” she explains. “Some of the most exciting, cutting-edge scholarship is being done by young scholars working in new, emerging fields at the crossroads of several traditional disciplines.” As an example of this interdisciplinary work, she cites the upcoming B.S. degree in International Business, Language, and Culture (IBLC) to be offered jointly by Georgetown College and the McDonough School of Business. Finally, Ceballo is looking forward to “inspiring and building a culture of purpose and well-being for all members of our intellectual community. The people in the College are our most valuable resource, and as we learn to live with the experience of a pandemic, we will need to heal, rebuild, and reimagine ways of being together. For many young people, the pandemic has taken a large toll on their sense of stability and security.” She believes that “the pandemic has also exacerbated many existing inequalities in our society and that we must search for ways to prioritize greater balance and well-being for all members of our community—students, faculty, and staff— as we move forward.” •

Photo: Levi Stroud

—Camille Scarborough

WAR HERO

“Stubby” or “Sgt. Stubby,” a dog of mixed pedigree, became the first Georgetown mascot in 1923. He served overseas during World War I with the 102nd Infantry and was decorated by both the American and French governments for his valorous service.

By Jane Varner Malhotra and Bhriana Smith Design by Wanda Felsenhardt

In spring 2019, hundreds of Hoyas came together in Boston for the annual John Carroll Weekend, honoring alumni impact and engagement. Longtime alumni leader and member of the university’s Board of Directors Tyree P. Jones Jr. (L’86, Parent’21) was one of the John Carroll Award recipients, and several friends gathered after the ceremony to celebrate. Many knew each other from their shared interest in supporting Black alumni over the years. They were affiliated with the African American Advisory Board (GUAAAB), Soul Hoyas, and the Black Alumni Summit. Before long, the friends began discussing the possibility of unifying their efforts. This conversation led to more formal meetings, and after several months, in partnership with the university and the Georgetown University Alumni Association (GUAA), the groundwork was laid for a new organization that would function as a cohesive, coordinated vehicle to amplify the voices of the Black alumni community at Georgetown. In July 2022, the GUAA proudly announced the formation of the Black Alumni Council, the first-ever affinity group to be established by the organization.

Clockwise from top left: Conan Louis (SLL’73, G’78, L’86), center, shares a laugh with LaToya Nelson Kamdang (B’97) and Donald Horton (C’72) at Reunion Weekend. • Winoka Wendy Wilkes (SFS’91) (front center, pink sneakers) organizes the Soul Hoyas reunion event each year. • Mannone Butler (B’94, L’99) and Eric Woods (B’91) co-chair the biennial Black Alumni Summit. • Tyree P. Jones Jr. (L’86, Parent’21), member of the university’s Board of Directors, accepts the John Carroll Award in 2019. • Mary Broadwater (C’87, L’91) reconnects with an old friend at Reunion Weekend

VISIT magazine.georgetown.edu2022. • Monika Dawson (B’17) and Nona Johnson (C’17)

EARLY ORGANIZING EFFORTS

Black organizing at Georgetown began with the formation of the Black Student Alliance (BSA) in 1968. When Conan Louis (SLL’73, G’78, L’86) arrived on the Hilltop as a first-year in fall 1969, he was one of a very small number of Black students.

“During my first year there were 30 Black students out of 6,000 undergraduate students,” says Louis. “Of those 30, 23 were in my class, and that was the first ‘big class’ of Black students in Georgetown history.” In the spring 1970, the BSA organized a protest at the president’s office to request changes that would help create a more supportive campus environment for Black students.

“All 30 of us marched into Father Henle’s office and, in typical 1970s fashion, we handed him a list of demands,” Louis recalls, smiling. “Among those were better recruitment of minority students, integration of support systems for minority students, and some places to congregate. That is how the university gave us the Black House.” In 1971, Louis was elected president of the Black Student Alliance, but he recalls a team of student leaders. “Some of the shoulders that I stood on include Jerry Yancey (SFS’71), Wendell Robinson (SFS’70, L’78), and Michael Barton (SFS’70).” A self-described rabble-rouser, Louis faced off with the administration in his junior year over a new housing policy. His efforts were encouraged by the university’s Vice President of Administrative Services Dan Altobello. “He said to me, ‘All that noise you’re making, that’s exactly what we want you to do because here, we teach you to speak truth to power.’ That conversation had a great impact on me.” Louis has been involved in alumni affairs since he was a student, when he worked at the records department in Alumni House. An active alumni leader, he attended his first John Carroll Weekend in 1976 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, when he proposed a Black Alumni Association. The Board of Governors approved it, but the broader base of support wasn’t there yet. “We had it, sort of, for a few years, but I couldn’t generate enough interest to sustain it,” recalls Louis. He adds that he was the only Black person at that John Carroll Weekend, and that at most alumni events, attendance by Black alumni was extremely low. “Many Black alumni held onto negative experiences from undergrad. For years, I was the lone voice saying, ‘This place belongs to us just as much as it does to anybody else. Half of what you pay for is this network, and if you don’t avail yourself of it, you are missing out.’ I made that argument for years, and it fell on deaf ears.”

INSPIRATION FROM PATRICK HEALY

Together with his wife Gail Gillis-Louis (C’75), Georgetown’s first Black cheerleader and now a prominent figure in the banking industry, Louis decided to start a Black alumni reception during Homecoming to help draw the community back to the Hilltop. “Nobody ever came to Homecoming because it just wasn’t culturally their thing,” said Louis. “So we decided to make our own thing.” In 1987 they created an event in honor of Patrick F. Healy, S.J., the first Black president of a predominantly white university, who led Georgetown from 1873 to 1882. The couple organized the Patrick Healy Dinner for several years without sponsorship from the university. That changed after three years when they invited university president Father Leo O’Donovan, S.J., who became the event’s first keynote speaker. “That year we had about 100 people in the faculty dining room at Leavey. Father O’Donovan came every year after that, and when he was succeeded by President Jack DeGioia, he came every year. The Patrick Healy Dinner was the first formal way that we were able to get Black alumni back to the campus in any kind of numbers,” says Louis. Over the years, Louis has found the event to have a unique, transformative energy. “The Patrick Healy Dinner is special because you get a lot of folks who don’t come to anything else. Every single time, you meet somebody who has some story to tell about an issue they had while they were a student that soured them on the institution, but then being at the event makes them feel completely differently,” Louis says. “Invariably, there are people who come and it’s the first time they’ve been to anything at the university and all of a sudden, they’re engaged. It’s a celebration of excellence in the African American alumni community. And it’s just a feel-good event.” The annual Patrick Healy Endowed Scholarship honors an alumnus, a university leader, and a student recipient of the Patrick Healy scholarship, and proceeds from the dinner support the scholarship. Out of the successful launch of the Patrick Healy Dinner came the formation of another trailblazing organization.

“The year before Father O’Donovan left office, he contacted Dennis Williams, head of the Center for Multicultural Equity & Access (CMEA) at the time, to create a vehicle for Black alumni involvement,” says Louis. Launched in 1999, the mission of the African American Advisory Board (GUAAAB) has been to foster inclusion, networking, and communication among Black students, alumni, faculty, and staff, and to advise university leadership on important issues and policies that will make a positive impact on the Black experience at Georgetown. REUNION REDEFINED WITH SOUL HOYAS The trajectory of celebrating the Black experience and increasing engagement continued to grow with the 2009 founding of the Soul Hoyas reunion by Winoka Wendy Wilkes (SFS’91). Nearly two decades after graduating, Wilkes and two fellow Black Hoyas—Lisa Young (C’92) and Keith Dent (B‘89)—connected over social media and decided to come back to the Hilltop for Reunion Weekend. Wilkes and Young joined Dent at his 20th Reunion festivities, and together they organized an unofficial party for Black alumni. “We literally crashed their reunion,” she laughs. “Our makeshift party was essentially the genesis of the Soul Hoyas. Every year it got bigger and more organized.” Over time, Soul Hoyas became more than just a great party. Under Wilkes leadership, the group prioritized five tenets for alumni engagement. She notes that it’s not just about contributing financially, but also about giving time and talent. “The first tenet is support the Soul Hoyas, the second is attend the Healy Dinner, the third is go to John Carroll Weekend—it’s the most expensive event so do what you can—the fourth is to be a part of Black Alumni Summit, and the fifth is to be a Loyalty Society member,” she explains. “Giving matters. It’s not about the amount, it’s about consistency. That money and activity is how we were all able to get to a table to create the Black Alumni Council.” Black and white students encounter different aspects of Georgetown, notes Wilkes, and that’s important to consider for alumni engagement. “Our experiences on campus are vastly different. The university has begun to recognize that you have to engage with us differently.”

“We all need to be engaged as alums to ensure that those who come behind us have better experiences and opportunities.” Wilkes believes that diverse alumni showing up helps the university be a better place for other alumni and for students. “It’s imperative to come back, because there are people behind us who need us to come back. We need to lead by example.” During the most recent reunion weekend, Soul Hoyas gathered on the Healy steps for an official photo to commemorate 13 years of organizing that helped lay the foundation for the new Black Alumni Council. The lively crowd that afternoon reflected the spirit of the community that has been celebrating Black Georgetown for more than a decade. Joyful and welcoming, the group cheered on latecomers who jogged up from the Healy Gates. Wilkes can’t help smiling at the memory of that moment. “On the steps, those cheers were heard from Lauinger past ICC. That scene is who we are. We cheer our family on. We cheer when they succeed. We hold them up when they are weak. And we love on them unconditionally. We cheer them home.” CONVENING EXCELLENCE WITH THE BLACK ALUMNI SUMMIT Overall, Eric Woods (B’91) had a positive time as an undergrad at Georgetown, but he notes that the same can’t be said for everybody. “Not all of my Black or Brown classmates had the same experience I had,” says Woods. “Not all of them felt welcomed by the institution. I think that carries over into their alumni engagement. We all need to be engaged as alums to ensure that those who come behind us have better experiences and opportunities.” A classmate of his attended Stanford University for graduate school, and they had a Black alumni event in New York City in 2015, Woods recalls. “We discussed how great something like that would be for Georgetown.” Soon he and classmate Tammee Thompson (C’91) pitched the Black Alumni Summit concept to the university, and the event had nearly 300 attendees.

Held every other year since 2015, the Black Alumni Summit draws hundreds of Hoyas together to celebrate Black excellence. “Our panels highlight the personal and professional experiences of Black alums,” explains Woods. “Who are the Black alums? What are they doing in their spaces? How can they impart knowledge and experience on the rest of us and the university more broadly?” BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER As Black alumni participation continued to increase, the course to a unified channel for engagement became clear. “We brought together these three points of engagement—the Black Alumni Summit, the Georgetown University African American Advisory Board, and Soul Hoyas—as an inaugural group, a governing body of the Black Alumni Council,” says Woods. “What we hope to do moving forward is create entry points for other people to be engaged, show leadership, bring in new ideas, and build upon what we’ve started. Mannone Butler (B’94, L’99), chair of the GUAAAB and current co-chair of the Black Alumni Summit with Woods, echoes the importance of the new council’s work going forward. “Our community is integral to the university. Our experiences at Georgetown shaped, molded, refined, and pressure-tested us. Our alums have gone forth and prospered,” she notes. “I say prosper because we have teachers who are exquisite. We have artists who are impeccable in their craft. We have lawyers who are leading the charge, and so on. The Black Alumni Council is an opportunity to strengthen the alumni engagement work we’ve been doing, and formally connect the dots. There is power in the collective.”

“What we hope to do moving forward is create entry points for As an undergrad, Butler was a finance major who “fell in love” with her business other people to be engaged, show school courses. “Georgetown helped me hone, develop, and exercise my voice.” leadership, bring in new ideas, and “My senior year, I made the decision to build upon what we’ve started.” pursue a law education so that I could be able to help others develop their voices. The ethos of the university helped to cement that for me.” Today Butler is head of programs and partnerships for the NBA Social Justice Coalition. The work to establish the Council has been underway for a little over two years now, and the leaders emphasize that the success of its implementation would not have been possible without the participation of Georgetown leadership, specifically President John J. DeGioia. “His generosity of spirit, his commitment to service, to leading from a space of values, has always been a north star in my relationship to the university,” says Woods. Council leaders also note that this historic next step in Black organizing on the Hilltop was also made possible by the active participation of Julia Farr (C’88, Parent’19, ’21, ’24), executive director of the Alumni Association. “I invited Julie to be in on the formation discussions very early on in the process. She never missed a meeting,” says Louis. “She’s been a great partner every step of the way.” “Over a two-year period, we worked hand-in-glove with the Alumni Association to craft the first-ever affinity group,” says Butler. “It’s not lost on me that we are blazing a trail, finding even more ways to bring community members in. There’s this spiritual saying, ‘plenty good room at this table.’ We’re creating a table with plenty good room for the breadth of our community.” HOPE FOR THE FUTURE This idea of working together, of truly being “people for others,” is one of the most important components of the Black Alumni Council, leaders say. The Council will encompass voices of the Black community across main, medical, and law campuses. “Having had experiences on both the main campus and Law Center, I know how different the vantage point

The Black Alumni Council is led by seven alumni: Mannone Butler (B’94, L’99), chair of Georgetown University African American Advisory Board, co-chair of the Black Alumni Summit, and member of the Georgetown University Alumni Association Board of Governors; Tyree P. Jones Jr. (L’86, Parent’21), member of the Board of Directors and past chair of the Georgetown University African American Advisory Board; Gail Gillis-Louis (C’75), member of the Georgetown University Alumni Association Board of Governors; Conan N. Louis (SLL’73, G’78, L’86), member of the Georgetown University Alumni Association Board of Governors; Tammee Thompson (C’91), co-founder of the Black Alumni Summit and former vice chair of the Board of Regents; Winoka Wendy Wilkes (SFS’91), co-founder and chair of the Soul Hoya Alumni Group; and Eric Woods (B’91), co-founder and co-chair of the Black Alumni Summit and member of the Board of Regents.

is,” says Louis. “Those different voices make for a fuller engagement and ultimately a much more vibrant decision-making process.” Butler notes that since the announcement, there has been an outpouring of support and interest. One of the ways the council is gauging the feedback of the Black community is by hosting focus groups. “We want to hear from those who are figuring out ways to plug in and be engaged as alumni, but also those who have not yet raised their hand,” says Butler. “Let’s talk about your experience. Let’s talk about the ways that the council can support you.” “I’ve been pleased to see Black alumni engagement grow,” notes Woods. “The Black Alumni Council will continue to catalyze that growth, because we aim to meet people where they are.” “It’s about bringing the entire Black alumni community together in service of each other and also the university,” says Louis. The Black Alumni Council aims to engage not just alumni, but students, faculty, and staff as well. It will also centralize events and programs hosted by the Black alumni organizations, including We Are Georgetown: Celebrating Our Black History. The oral history project launched by the GUAAAB in 2021 documents the rich experiences and contributions of Georgetown University’s Black community. The African American Advisory Board, the Black Alumni Summit, and Soul Hoyas celebrate Georgetown’s Black community but also highlight the challenges within it. The establishment of the council is not to deconstruct these organizations and events, but to add to them—to better organize the vehicle that carries these voices to other branches of the university. Louis sees common threads among all alumni in the pursuit of justice. “When we say we are ‘people for others,’ we’re serious about that. Everyone who graduates from here understands that that’s in your DNA now.” •

BY KAREN DOSS BOWMAN | DESIGN BY SHIKHA SAVDAS

Georgetown became a national leader in U.S. Fulbright student awardees by coaching students to follow their passions and present a strong plan

As a student in the School of Foreign Service, Daniel Breslow (SFS’22) always planned to study abroad to build intercultural skills. But when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered travel programs at Georgetown University and around the globe, the international politics major began looking for alternatives. Breslow’s dream of an enriching, cross-cultural experience will soon come true. In September, Breslow will travel to Białystok, Poland, to begin service as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). He is one of 47 Georgetown students and alumni receiving a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award for 2022–2023—a record number of Hoyas selected in one year. Georgetown, consistently named a “top producer” of Fulbright student awardees, ranks once again as a leading institution for Fulbright recipients for the current award cycle. “Recognition for this achievement goes directly to our outstanding students and alumni who applied for a Fulbright on the belief that cultural exchange is fundamental to expanding mutual understanding and striving toward a more peaceful and tolerant world,” says Lauren Tuckley, director of Georgetown’s Center for Research and Fellowships.

FULBRIGHT CONNECTIONS START EARLY Breslow first heard about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program as a freshman, in his Russian language course taught by Iwona Sadowska, assistant teaching professor and director of Polish studies in the Department of Slavic Languages. During one of the class meetings, Sadowska connected her students via Skype with Samantha Blond (SFS’18), who was then serving as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Kazakhstan. Blond shared her experiences of living and working in a Central Asian nation.

Sadowska was enthusiastic about the Fulbright program, long considered a form of “soft diplomacy” by the State Department. As Breslow recalls, she promised students that she would happily write a letter of recommendation if they decided to apply to the program. “Four years later, I held her to that,” says Breslow, who minored in Russian language and earned a certificate in Eurasian, Russian, and East European studies. “I really credit Professor Sadowska for putting the Fulbright program on our radar and making students enthusiastic about it.” Moments before presenting his senior capstone project in April, Breslow received word that he was selected for the ETA. Though he had applied for the program in Ukraine, Fulbright assignments in that nation are on hold due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Fulbright selection committee instead offered him a placement at the University of Bialystok in Poland. Coincidentally, Bialystok was home to Breslow’s great-grandparents until they emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century.

Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Breslow

Pictured in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2019, Daniel Breslow (SFS’22) is heading to Bialystok, Poland this fall to teach.

“This will be a once in a lifetime experience,” says Breslow, who leaves for Poland in September. “It’s a great opportunity to gain practical teaching experience. It’s kind of like a crucible—teaching in a foreign country with students and colleagues whose first language is not English. But I don’t think there could be a better experience to really clarify whether teaching is something I want to do in the long term.”

TOP-FLIGHT HOYAS As a global university with a focus on serving the common good, Georgetown offers a rich environment for nurturing Fulbright recipients. Over the past decade, Hoyas have proven competitive for the Fulbright U.S. student program, with Georgetown consistently ranking among the top five research institution producers of Fulbright winners, including two straight years in the number one spot (2019–2020 and 2020–2021). During the same period, at least 140 students and alumni have applied each year to the program. Since the Fulbright program launched 76 years ago, nearly 500 Hoyas have participated. “Georgetown lives its commitment, as President DeGioia has described, to formation, inquiry, and the common good through classroom, campus, and community-based experiences,” Tuckley says. “We are proud of how many graduates have amplified these aims and continue to do so globally as Fulbrighters. The Center always enjoys working with students and alumni on this transformative journey, and we are committed to maintaining our strong institutional partnership with the Fulbright U.S. Student program.” The Fulbright U.S. Student Program—administered by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) in partnership with the Institute for International Education (IIE)—strives to increase mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and people from other countries through the exchange of knowledge and skills. The program offers year-long research, study, or English teaching assignments to about 8,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals each year from the U.S. and over 150 countries. Participants gain opportunities for professional development, intercultural awareness, and personal enrichment.

For Lavinia Taumoepeau-Latu, earning a Fulbright award to Tonga for the 2022–2023 academic year will allow her to hone her career skills while connecting with her heritage. A student in Georgetown’s Master of Professional Studies in Emergency and Disaster Management program, Taumoepeau-Latu has witnessed firsthand the chaos and destruction the Pacific Islands experience during extreme weather. She was working remotely in Tonga, her parents’ homeland, in 2018 when Tropical Cyclone Gita hit the island nation, causing widespread damage. Taumoepeau-Latu’s Fulbright fellowship will involve conducting research with the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) as part of an emergency and disaster preparedness project to develop a cultural curriculum and training focused on tsunami and volcanic eruptions in Tonga. She will document the project through film and foster meaningful connections across communities in the United States and Tonga.

Photos: Courtesy of Lavinia Taumoepeau-Latu

Lavinia Taumoepeau-Latu (G’22) is researching emergency and disaster preparedness in Tonga, the homeland of her parents.

“When I went to Tonga for the first time in 2011, I had this overwhelming feeling come over me, as I realized that I was walking in places where my ancestors were from,” says Taumoepeau-Latu. “Throughout all the years that I was born and raised here in America, I had always longed to see this island where my family migrated from and to experience what it was like. Being able to connect to my Tongan heritage and give back through the Fulbright project is an endeavor that is quite special and means a lot to me.”

CAMPUS SUPPORT FOR FULBRIGHT APPLICANTS Georgetown’s status as a top producer of Fulbright U.S. Student awardees hasn’t happened by accident. The Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF), which guides students and alumni in pursuing a wide range of competitive national and international fellowships, introduces the Fulbright program to students through blast emails, social media, in-person and virtual information sessions, and more. Once a student expresses interest, the CRF maintains contact through channels such as listservs. “A huge factor in Georgetown’s success in the Fulbright program is that we offer a tremendous amount of support to ensure that students and alumni end up with a powerful application,” says CRF Fulbright coordinator Meg Gardinier. “They also get mentoring and faculty support, and they end up being very competitive candidates. They get all this support to really cultivate a very powerful and compelling application.” The university’s campus culture of academic rigor, undergraduate research, and intellectual curiosity also play a role in this achievement.

“We start with a highly educated and globally engaged applicant pool, so our students and alumni are especially competitive for those awards,” Gardinier says. For Gavin Myers (C’17), receiving a Fulbright fellowship provided the opportunity to explore his interest in the connections between food and culture. His award allowed him to pursue a master’s degree in gastronomy, with a concentration in world food cultures and mobility, at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. He completed the program in March. Myers, who is active in the Slow Food Movement, is interested in social justice issues surrounding food. A South Dakota native with roots in the Sicangu Lakota tribe, Myers wants to use his knowledge to promote local and community-based food systems. Myers is grateful for the support he received from CRF. “The team at Georgetown was super helpful in guiding me and offering advice on my essays and other application materials,” says Myers, who now serves as a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador. “They had a group of faculty members review my application materials, and then we had a Zoom meeting where they lobbed questions at me to help me flesh out some weak points in my essay.”

Photo: Courtesy of Gavin Myers

Gavin Myers (C’17) studied gastronomy in Italy to learn more about how food and culture are connected, and how to support community-based food systems.

Fulbright applications are due to Georgetown’s Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF) more than a year before the actual grant commences. Undergraduates hoping to go abroad in the academic year following their graduation, for example, should begin their application in the spring of their junior year. The national deadline for the program is October 12, but the CRF deadline is September 1 to allow time for the internal review process. Any Georgetown graduate with a bachelor’s or master’s degree (but not a doctorate) is eligible to apply through the CRF.

The process begins when students or alumni reach out to the CRF and set up a one-toone advising session. During that initial meeting, the CRF team member will explain the Fulbright program and help them find an opportunity that matches their interests and language skills (some programs require language proficiency). While some students come to the CRF with a clear direction in mind, others want guidance.

Once the applicant has determined which program to apply to, the CRF team will help them develop their proposal. The CRF offers workshops and webinars on topics such as proposal writing and provides mentoring throughout the process. Additionally, they offer valuable feedback on applicants’ essays and can set up mock interviews, giving applicants a chance to practice for the real Fulbright interview, which is done by a panel of judges.

SERVICE THROUGH SURF An accomplished surfer, Emily “Emi” Koch (C’12) found her life’s purpose in the sea. As a student at Georgetown, the San Diego native founded Beyond the Surface International, a nonprofit that works with young learners from remote or marginalized small-scale fishing villages around the world. The organization promotes socio-ecological well-being, quality rural education, resilience, and ocean conservation through surfing, storytelling, and mindfulness workshops. While pursuing a master’s degree in Marine Biodiversity & Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Koch explored ways to deepen her understanding of the challenges facing the fish-dependent communities her nonprofit engages. She also wanted to facilitate participatory community-based research on the impact of declining fish stocks on fish-dependent communities. She remembered hearing about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program during her time on the Hilltop and decided she should go for it. “I thought the Fulbright sounded like just this extraordinary opportunity to immerse oneself in another culture and devote time to diving into this issue,” says Koch. Koch reached out to Georgetown’s CRF to tap into the many resources and support services it offers students and alumni seeking research and fellowship opportunities. CRF Director Tuckley worked with Koch for months, offering feedback on her application materials and setting up a mock interview to prepare her for the Fulbright interview. Koch also took advantage of the webinars, listserv, and resources on the CRF website. “Going into this, I expected that I would have to figure out everything on my own, but Georgetown was so supportive,” Koch says. “The office was so fantastic.” Koch was awarded the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship for 2019–2020, a component of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program administered in partnership with the National Geographic Society. “I had the perception that applying for and getting a Fulbright was very difficult, and I never imagined I would get one,” Koch says. “But the CRF at Georgetown was really helpful and working with them, I was able to craft a more competitive application.” In October 2019, Koch arrived in Vietnam for her project, which set out to investigate fisheries scarcity and anthropogenic stressors such as climate change on small-scale fisheries’ well-being through photography workshops with fish-dependent stakeholders. She was intrigued that many of them took pictures of “whale temples,” containing coffins filled with whale bones. The people in the fishing communities revere whales, as they are thought to bring protection and prosperity. The wordless images, revealing the perspectives of local fishers, leaves a powerful impression of some of the hardships they are facing, Koch says. “It was really interesting to learn that with

Photos: Courtesy of Emi Koch

less fish in the sea, local communities were not only sinking deeper into poverty and food insecurity, but also their spiritual well-being was eroding.” Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic forced Koch to evacuate and pause the project early in March 2020. The good news: Last month, Koch was awarded the Scientific Exploration Society’s Elodie Sanford Explorer Award for Amateur Photography for her work in Vietnam which will enable her to return and complete her research in late 2023. Koch also received a second Fulbright Fellowship for 2022-2023. This time, she will go to

Greece, where she will facilitate a similar project. The data she gathers will be used to revamp the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines to promote sustainability of their livelihood against threats such as climate change and industrialization. While Georgetown CRF was invaluable to Koch’s successful Fulbright application, she says her overall undergraduate experience also played a role in preparing her for these opportunities. “Georgetown is such a multicultural place, with many international students and so many diverse perspectives in the classroom,” Koch says. “I feel like I’ve been a bit of a chameleon, essentially being able to get dropped into a new place and being able to be receptive to these different perspectives I’ve encountered around the world. Ocean conservationist Emi Koch (C’12) led photography workshops with small-scale fisheries in Vietnam to help highlight challenges in the communities, including climate change. “Georgetown also gave me the independence to figure things out. In Vietnam, I was in charge of my research and everything related to the project. Georgetown really prepared me to be able to resolve things on my own and meaningfully engage with communities throughout the world.” For other students and alumni considering applying for a Fulbright, Koch offers this advice: “First of all, believe that it’s possible that you could get one of these awards,” Koch says. “Just focus on your passion and design your project around that. There’s so much support available at Georgetown, and if you put in the time and the effort, there’s a good chance that your application could be successful.” •

BY SARA PICCINI | DESIGN BY SHIKHA SAVDAS

Featuring contemplative practices from diverse faith traditions, Campus Ministry’s weekly Press Pause series provides an oasis of peace in a hectic world.

Students sing bhajans (hymns) while encircling the Icons with a ghee-lamp in the Hindu ritual of aarti, which asks God to bless the devotee’s heart and mind with love and compassion.

In the spring of her junior year, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Katie Ho (C’22) found herself missing a sense of community outside of her virtual classes. “I had started to take an interest in learning about different religions and spiritual practices, so I began paying attention to the opportunities that Campus Ministry offered,” Ho says. “I remember seeing an email announcing ‘Father Schenden leads an imaginative prayer experience for Lent,’” she continues. “I had no idea what an imaginative prayer was, or what Christians did during Lent. I appreciated how the email said students from any or no faith tradition were invited to attend.

“And right then and there, I felt welcome to show up,” Ho says. The Lenten prayer session was Ho’s first introduction to the Campus Ministry program Press Pause, a weekly series for students, faculty, and staff featuring contemplative practices from diverse spiritual and religious traditions. “I liked it so much that I attended every session after that one,” she says.

PLACES OF BELONGING

Ho went on to become a Press Pause student leader when the series returned to an in-person format in Spring 2022. Student leaders play a pivotal role, helping to plan overall programming and working with individual faith leaders to design the weekly sessions and facilitate the group discussion that follows the contemplative practice. Ho’s sessions included one featuring Sikh music, another focusing on the Jewish holiday Purim, and a third titled “Listening in the Sermonic Moment” led by Georgetown’s newest Protestant chaplain, Rev. TauVaughn Toney, in which participants listened to a recording of Protestant theologian Howard Thurman delivering his sermon “What Do You Want, Really?” “The beauty of Press Pause is that it gives students an opportunity to explore and find places of belonging, often in unexpected spaces,” Toney says. “They’re able to bring their gifts, their insights, and also take something away.

“In this day and age, we’re always listening to respond. We often don’t take time to really hear what people are saying,” he adds. “It was a breath of fresh air for all of us.”

In addition to promoting interfaith dialogue and exploration, Press Pause—as its name suggests—provides the opportunity for respite from the hectic pace of everyday life. Sessions are scheduled at the close of the day, from 5:15 to 6 p.m., when participants can quiet their phones, laptops, and racing minds for a few brief moments.

Student leaders as well as participants find the sessions to be an oasis. “Press Pause is work in a sense—I can be very stressed about it,” says student leader Paige Plucker (C’23). “Then I get there, and say, ‘Oh that’s right, this is all about centering myself,’ and then I feel at peace. “You need to give yourself those opportunities to just stop.”

FINDING COMMONALITY, HONORING DIFFERENCE

Press Pause, officially launched in 2019, grew out of an earlier Campus Ministry program called “Many Faces of Meditation,” held at the John Main Center for Meditation and Interreligious Dialogue on the Georgetown main campus. “We wanted to be really careful about appropriation, so we moved away from using the term meditation unless it is specifically the practice that we’re doing in an individual session,” says Diana Brown, Campus Ministry’s assistant director for interreligious engagement, who oversees Press Pause. “The emphasis on contemplative experiences has allowed us to think more broadly, to include meditation, music, prayer, chants, and sometimes contemplative forms of text studies, like the Ignatian Examen, for example,” Brown says. “We try really hard to let Press Pause be a space where we feel like we’re sitting at the feet of actual, living historical communities.” Brown and her team are careful to strike a balance, making sessions accessible to all participants regardless of their faith backgrounds, while at the same time respecting the depth of each practice.

“Press Pause honors difference as a way to reveal the complexity and the texture of how spiritual exercises are part of every tradition,” says Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., vice president for Mission & Ministry. “In that regard, it’s very Ignatian—trying to find the analogies, the similarities, but also appreciating the differences.”

Another hallmark of Press Pause, Brown explains, is the experiential aspect of the program. “We wanted participants to be able to walk into a room and hopefully have a somewhat transformative experience, so that they feel differently when they walk out. That is really the baseline goal of Press Pause.” During the pandemic, when sessions were virtual, the Press Pause team maintained the experiential element, rebranding the program as “Press Play” and including creative activities such as photography, poetry, journaling, and creative writing. The shift back to in-person programming in Spring 2022 enabled Brown to introduce another innovation: holding sessions in a variety of spaces across the Georgetown campus in addition to the John Main Center. These include the Jewish gathering space Makóm, the Islamic Masjid, Copley Crypt Chapel, the new Dharmic Meditation Center, and the newly named Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman Chapel. “It creates a richer, more meaningful experience,” Ho says. “There’s something about smelling the incense, or being in a space with particular lighting, listening to the music being played, feeling the coolness of the air on my skin, that is unique and special.”

SCENT AND SOUND

As Ho notes, the diversity of programming and venues offered by Press Pause encourages participants to engage all their senses—appreciating the sights, scents, and sounds that are integral to most religious and spiritual practices. Student leader Sargun Kaur (SFS’23) recalls a particularly memorable session held during her freshman year: a Navajo smudging ceremony, which involves the burning of herbs such as sage and sweetgrass for spiritual cleansing. “Being an international student from India, I knew very little about Native American communities,” she says. “To be able to really immerse myself in a practice, in a way that I don’t think any other opportunity on campus would have allowed me to do, was really valuable to me. Learning about how the Navajo really tie their spirituality into nature offered a different lens on faith.” This spring, Kaur joined in sharing her own Sikh faith with the Georgetown community in a Press Pause session held at the Dharmic Meditation Center, “Experiencing Naam through Sikh Music and Sound,” led by student Divjot Bawa (SFS’23) and organized by Katie Ho. “Our form of meditation is to close our eyes and remember the name of God—‘Naam’ in Punjabi means ‘name.’ Divjot incorporated music, which is integral to how we practice our faith,” Kaur says, explaining that Bawa played a Sikh instrument called the sarangi as the group engaged in the meditation practice. “We had one of the largest turnouts of the semester,” she adds. “The knowledge that there were people out there interested in learning about the Sikh community was so rewarding.” Music was also central to the spring session “Chanting and Reflecting on the Attributes of God,” held during Ramadan and led by Imam Yahya Hendi, director of Muslim Life, and resident minister Iman Saymeh. “Sister Iman has an incredible voice,” says Paige Plucker. “As she sang, I felt the sense that my life is bigger than school, that I have all I need here, that God loves me and I’m okay. It was a profound moment.”

Music often plays an integral role for the Press Pause program, such as this session on Sikhism with Divjot Bawa (SFS’23) playing the sarangi.

VISUAL CUES

Plucker had the opportunity to help design two Press Pause sessions featuring Catholic contemplative practices, as well as an Orthodox Christian session with resident minister Abigail Dean. “One thing that Diana [Brown, of Campus Ministry] had us do purposely was to choose faith leaders who were not from our respective religions,” says Plucker, a member of Georgetown’s Jewish community. For her program, Dean selected the Orthodox contemplative prayer “Grant Me to Greet the Coming Day with Peace.” “I chose that particular prayer because it’s part of my morning prayer rule. I stumbled on it, either at the end of college or in seminary, and it just blew me away. I thought the words were just beautiful,” she says. “It was almost certainly written by female monastics, which I also love. “I wanted to share it with students—I feel that if you can only say one prayer, it has everything you could possibly want in it.” Dean explained to the group that an Orthodox prayer service is meant to be a very sensory experience, with iconography, incense and candles, chanting, and movement of the body. “In the Orthodox Church, the physical is a part of God’s creation. The concept of personhood is both body and soul,” she says. Dean’s elucidation of the newly installed Orthodox iconography in Copley Crypt Chapel—a gift from Michael (B’89) and Robin Psaros (Parents’21)—was especially meaningful to the participants, few of whom had been in an Orthodox Church previously. “People loved it,” says Plucker. “They were so engaged, they asked a ton of questions afterwards. Everyone was kind of in rapture.” “Iconography is our sacred art,” Dean says. “It was something I really wanted to share with the group, so that if they ever go back to an Orthodox space they’ll have a sense of how to read it. When you walk in the door, for example, the icon that’s in the pedestal tells you what’s going on that day—what feast day we’re celebrating, what season we’re in. You get these helpful visual cues,” she explains. “By the altar, you always have Christ on the right and the Theotokos, Mother Mary, on the left. Christ is always in blue, Mary is always wearing a dark burgundy red and has three stars on her robe. Then to Christ’s right you always have St. John the Baptist. And to the left of the Theotokos is typically the patron saint of the chapel you’re at,” Dean says. “Once you know the code, it makes each space feel like home no matter where you are in the world,” she adds. “It reminds me a lot of my mother’s mantelpiece above the fireplace that’s filled with photos of our family members.”

MOVEMENT AS A SPIRITUAL EXERCISE

During her session, Dean invited participants to engage in prostrations—kneeling and touching the head to the floor—highlighting the importance of physical movement along with sensory experiences in Orthodox Christianity and many other faiths. In the final Press Pause session of the spring semester, participants were invited to join in a Zen Buddhist Mahasati movement meditation, led by student Yanlin Wu (C’24) and organized by Sargun Kaur. Wu, an international student from China and current president of the Georgetown Buddhist Student Association, leads a regular Friday night meditation session in the Dharmic Center.

“Because it was during finals, I thought we should switch up the vibe a little,” Wu says. “The Mahasati meditation involves following a set of movements of the hands. It’s easier than a guided meditation, especially for beginners. “It’s fun and relaxing, and also helps with concentration,” she continues. “It’s something they can adopt for studying. For example, they can meditate on the movement of their hands while they’re writing to keep themselves focused.”

Wu was surprised that about a dozen people came to the session, despite it being held during exam week. “One person said, ‘I really felt like my life calmed, and all the stress of finals went away. I want to pursue this kind of peacefulness more,’” she relates. “I felt glad that the meditation led him to explore something new.” She also was pleased that participants came from a variety of faith traditions—Christian, Hindu, Sikh. “It was interesting to see how Buddhist meditation was resonating with them, and how they found similar ideas in their own religions and cultures. You feel in that moment like there are so many connections between us.”

JUST BREATHE

Diana Brown and the Campus Ministry team hope to see Press Pause continue to grow and evolve. “The secret sauce is keeping it a consistent, relatively low-key affair,” Brown says. “We don’t want to lose sight of the goal of Press Pause—being an accessible space that allows everyone to just show up, walk in, and be who they are.” Plucker adds: “My message would be, if you are an undergrad, graduate student, faculty or staff member, we’d love to have you. Like everyone else, you deserve a chance to just breathe.” •

Biology professor and photographer Martha Weiss combines a gifted eye with a deep knowledge of plant and animal life and a loving curiosity about what is unfolding around her. The director of the Environmental Biology major and co-director of the Environmental Studies program leaves no stone, log, or leaf unturned (the better to find fungi and salamanders!) as she explores the Hilltop and environs. Research in her laboratory focuses on community ecology and plant-animal interactions. Currently she is investigating the indirect ecological effects of the Brood X periodical cicada emergence on the temperate forest community. She teaches a variety of courses, including Environment and Society, Urban Foraging Ecology, and Plants and Society.

This close-up of a marshmallow polypore fungus, growing on the side of a dead tree near GloverArchbold Park, has an otherworldly aura.

Above and moving clockwise:

Young castor bean leaves are expanding in the campus medicinal plant garden of Georgetown physiology and pharmacology professor Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman (M’88).

Milkweed bugs gather on the pod of a ripe milkweed fruit; the seeds are taking flight on their gossamer parachutes.

A young fawn rests in the Regents Hall garden, right outside the biology teaching laboratories, in Spring 2020 after most students returned home. The animal would never have ventured to this ordinarily bustling place during a regular semester.