The Hoya: May 15, 2015 Graduation Issue

GRADUATION ISSUE

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920 thehoya.com

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 96, No. 49, © 2015

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

GUIDE TO SUMMER

EDITORIAL

FITTING FINALE

Peruse our handbook to Washington, D.C. for the key to summertime success in leisure.

On-campus construction should not remain a perpetual obstruction.

Senior pitcher Megan Hyson threw a no-hitter in her final career start.

TABLOID

OPINION, A2

SPORTS, A12

Admission Yield Steady At 47.6% Shannon Hou Hoya Staff Writer

The university’s undergraduate admissions yield for the Class of 2019 stands at 47.6 percent, an approximate 1.6 percent increase from last year’s rate, as of May 1.

Before moving to the wait list, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions received 1,525 acceptances of admissions offers, the exact same number as last year at this point. Students have since been moved off the wait list. The target enrollment per class is 1,580, given the stipulations of the 2010 Campus Plan agreement.

“The states that yield the highest are the ones that are in the more typical areas in the Northeast.”

Charles Deacon Dean of Undergraduate Admissions

The slight increase in yield may also be attributed to the marginal decrease in acceptances this application cycle, from 3,235 for the Class of 2018 to 3,205 for the Class of 2019.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon emphasized the relative consistency in recent years’ yields.

“It’s pretty predictable, so when you get to numbers of the size we have, unless we behave differently, or the world behaves differently, it’s going to be pretty predictable, and it’s coming out that way,” Deacon said.

Early action yield boosted the overall rate, with around 56 percent — approximately 570 students — accepting early action offers.

Students admitted during the regular decision round accepted at a rate of roughly 44 See ADMISSIONS, A6

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) delivered the commencement address for the McCourt School of Public Policy Thursday, receiving an honorary doctorate. Commencement ceremonies for the undergraduate and graduate schools continue through Sunday.

Speakers Offer Rich Policy Experience Jess Kelham-Hohler & Daniel Smith Hoya Staff Writers

The university announced the speakers for the 2015 commencement ceremonies, including United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon, journalist Charlie Rose, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and global

mental health expert Vikram Patel, on May 4.

The ceremonies began Thursday with the McCourt School of Public Policy hosting Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).

Saturday’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies will begin on Healy Lawn with Ban at 9 a.m. for the School of Foreign Service, followed by Rose

for Georgetown College at 12 p.m., Patel for the School of Nursing and Health Studies at 3 p.m. and Chao for the McDonough School of Business at 6 p.m. Each speaker will receive an honorary doctorate.

Ban has been secretary-general since 2007. Ban also spoke at Harvard University’s 2004 commencement while serving as

South Korea’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, as well as at the University of Denver’s graduate school commencement in 2013.

The U.N. Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General did not respond to requests for comment on the content of Ban’s speech.

See COMMENCEMENT, A7

After 43 Years of Distinct Attention, Sullivan Retires

In Transition, But Incomplete

Karl Pielmeier

Hoya Staff Writer

Hoya Staff Writer

For many students in the Georgetown University Class of 2015, the year’s upcoming commencement ceremonies will reflect an incredible life steppingstone, serving as the culmination of their undergraduate experiences. For College Senior Associate Dean

Anne Sullivan, however, the upcoming commencements will mark a different milestone: her retirement, coming after a dedicated 43-year career in the Georgetown College Office of the Dean that has left a tremendous impact on the university and its students.

Previously, Sullivan served as See DEAN, A7

Despite accommodations, transgender campus policies remain inconsistent Molly Simio

On her first day of classes at Georgetown in 2012, one of Celeste Chisholm’s (COL ’15) professors called her “Jonathan.”

Chisholm corrected the professor, explaining that she prefers to be called Celeste. She assumed that after the exchange, her situation was obvious and her classmates understood that she is a transgender woman.

She was surprised when she spoke with a friend who had overheard a conversation later that day between two students who were laughing about a woman being named Jonathan.

“These kids at Georgetown

were so oblivious that I could tell them to their faces that my name was Jonathan, and they still wouldn’t get the idea that I was transgender,” Chisholm

“Administrative changes have to come before people are going to start coming out of the woodwork.”

CELESTE CHISHOLM (COL ’15)

said. “That’s how the culture was when I came to Georgetown.”

Chisholm went on to become the first trans* representative on

GU Pride’s board in September 2013 and established herself as an advocate for transgender students’ rights and protections at the university. In this role, she worked to increase awareness among students and administrators of the issues that transgender students face.

Chisholm, who will graduate tomorrow, said that she has seen the lack of awareness among students that she observed three years ago begin to recede throughout her undergraduate career.

“I’ve noticed that there’s a common understanding.

There’s a common knowledge of See TRANSGENDER, A7

FEATURED NEWS SFS-Q Commencement

NEWS Valedictorians

Six students from the four undergraduate schools were named as the top performers.

A8

Opinion Crossing the Finish Line ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Anne Sullivan, a senior associate dean of the College, will retire after four decades at Georgetown with an unparalleled reputation for student care.

Newsroom: (202) 687-3415 Business: (202) 687-3947

As the final moments of their undergraduate careers elapse, seniors reflect.

A3, A4 Published Tuesdays and Fridays

The decade-old SFS-Qatar graduated 57 seniors May 7 in its seventh class.

A8

Sports Mid-Distance Stars

Katrina Coogan and Joe White earned victories at the Big East Championships.

A12

MULTIMEDIA Obama on Poverty

President Barack Obama participated in a summit on poverty at Gaston Tuesday. thehoya.com

Send Story Ideas and Tips to news@thehoya.com

OPINION

THE HOYA

C

A2

Founded January 14, 1920

C Put ‘Alert’ in HOYAlert C C EDITORIALS

The on-campus armed robbery on May 6 and the subsequent arrest on May 7 shocked the Georgetown community, both with the crime itself and the apprehension of one of the suspects through the actions of the Georgetown University Police Department.

While the resolution reflects well on the department, this case exposed several serious safety issues facing the Georgetown community.

The largest of these was the lack of a HOYAlert notification to alert the campus of the ongoing situation. The crime, along with a description of the suspect, should have been released sooner than three hours after the incident occurred.

GUPD cited witness statements and the on-scene investigation by GUPD and the Metropolitan Police Department as reasons to believe that the suspects had left campus.

And yet, at least one of them returned the very next day, wearing the very same clothes and armed with the very same weapon.

Had the notification gone out sooner, GUPD or the MPD may have tracked the suspects down sooner, instead of acting

only after receiving a witness tip. The handling of the campus-wide notification was also disturbing in its format, as it had nearly the same layout as a generic laptop theft in an unlocked dorm room.

The robbery also demonstrated quite clearly that Georgetown students take their safety and security for granted.

Washington, D.C., is a large, interconnected city, and just because students live west of Rock Creek Park does not mean the community is magically protected from the inherent risks of living in a big city.

The infrequency of such crimes on campus gives rise to concerns that GUPD is inadequately prepared to respond to serious crimes.

While Georgetown students should commend the officers for properly closing the case with the arrest of the suspect, students should also learn from this experience to properly stay alert. Similarly, GUPD should work to quicken its campus-wide notification system to keep Georgetown’s community as informed as possible.

Friday, May 15, 2015

THE VERDICT American Looking Glass — In a visit to Gaston Hall this past Tuesday, President Barack Obama acknowledged major similarities between racial segregation and today’s prevalent class segregation.

Vintage Wings — The largest flyover of World War II planes occurred over the National Mall last Friday to commemorate Victory in Europe Day. HBO, Here We Come — Taylor Mansmann (COL ’15) and Evan Sterrett (COL ’15) premiered a television pilot exploring LGBTQ student life at Georgetown last week as part of a film and media studies capstone.

One More About the Weather — With the daily temperature hovering around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, Georgetown University seniors are free to enjoy their last few days on campus in comfort.

EDITORIAL CARTOON by Jess Kelham-Hohler

Campus Claustrophobia Georgetown University has a sizable problem: It is too small. As the university continues to cram more students to live in the same, relatively tiny amount of space, campus has become unbearably crowded.

Construction this year has cut off spaces to students, inducing claustrophobia on an already small campus while simultaneously lengthening travel times.

This fall, construction on the Northeast Triangle residence hall, scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, required the closing of the Leavey Center bridge and Reiss walkway areas, removing key arteries for student travel and replacing them with less useful pathways. The ensuing logjam of students in those areas on class days was by no means crippling, but it was an impediment to student traffic. With graduation upon us, many seniors and their parents will face the same issues as they traverse the campus.

The construction projects themselves cause a significant amount of noise pollution, which can prove disruptive to student life in a variety of ways. Any student who lived in New South last year during the construction of the Healey Family Student Center or in Henle Village during the ongoing construction of the NET this year can attest to this.

If these inconveniences were only temporary, there would be little reason to fret. However, to meet the student housing requirements outlined in the 2010 Campus Plan, which aimed to house 90 percent of George-

town students on campus by 2020, the university has essentially promised to be in a perpetual state of construction. This move seems without much consideration of the plan’s impact on students given on the part of the university and without mobilization on the part of students in voicing their concerns in negotiations. Such a state entails logistical issues under which currently enrolled students will finish their undergraduate careers.

Georgetown students have an opportunity to lessen this burden by voicing their concern over these construction projects as the new campus plan negotiations take shape. The information sessions and town hall discussions that will presumably take place as the 2018 Campus Plan comes underway require the presence of a unified voice speaking out against this rapid escalation of construction, which will hopefully prevent intensification of already existent problems.

However, with many of the projects already in progress, the university administration has a role to play, as well. By taking steps with students in mind and ensuring an efficient flow of student traffic and completing construction of buildings adjacent to residences over the summer, the university can exhibit its commitment to student life.

These efforts would go a long way to show that the relationship between students and the university does not have to be sacrificed in order to maintain the one between the university and its neighbors.

End the Fight to Work With students from over 100 countries, Georgetown proudly touts its international status; the campus’ cultural vibrancy, further augmented by its investment in international programs, makes for an especially unique college experience. As graduation approaches, then, it is necessary to realize that, despite a strong desire to stay in The United States, many of these talented international students will not be able do so.

The Byzantine-esque visa system all but ensures that many international students will eventually be forced to return to their native countries.

Sharang Rai (MSB ’15) and Kritasha Gupta (COL ’15), from Australia and Hong Kong, respectively, are emblematic of this struggle.

Despite securing a job at Audi in Virginia, Rai did not get his work visa approved and is returning to Australia. Gupta will be working in Brussels due to difficulties in obtaining employment in the United States. Rai laments that the extremely high cost of an American education was a “poor investment,” as he must return to his native country, where a degree would have been exponentially cheaper.

Katherine Richardson, Executive Editor Daniel Smith, Managing Editor Molly Simio, Online Editor Toby Hung, Campus News Editor Kristen Fedor, City News Editor Tyler Park, Sports Editor Michael Fiedorowicz, Guide Editor Daniel Almeida, Opinion Editor Isabel Binamira, Photography Editor Shannon Hou, Layout Editor Becca Saltzman, Copy Chief Courtney Klein, Blog Editor Laixin Li, Multimedia Editor

Editorial Board

Daniel Almeida, Chair

Francisco Collantes, Ed Crotty, Gabi Hasson, Charlie Lowe, Parth Shah

This disconnect is a significant problem. Although the U.S. offers an incredible collegiate education, this education is not put to good use in this country. The immigration system is a complex amalgam of bizarre bureaucratic rules and regulations that is nearly impossible to traverse, and it renders a significant loss for the country.

The Cawley Career Education Center recognizes these difficulties and attempts to match students to several niche industries that would benefit from international students’ backgrounds, such as intergovernmental agencies and private security contractors. But the career center could do more to help students find companies or immigration lawyers to help them stay in the United States. More extensive information sessions on the H-1B visa process in addition to the standard career workshops, as well as other alternatives for international students should be entertained and targeted at underclassmen as well as upperclassmen.

International students have many skills to offer to America, and other countries are in need of these high-caliber individuals, too. We should remain competitive by keeping them here.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

What Has Become of Us? To the Editor: My undergraduate class will celebrate its 20-year reunion at the end of May. Though I have attended in the past, I’ll stay home this year for the sake of my classmates. I would be such a downer complaining about what the university has become. (I’m sure they’ll say my absence makes for more fun, whatever the reason may be.)

Georgetown was once the crown jewel of Jesuit education. Now its religion is Harvard envy and its Bible is the Social Justice Warrior handbook of antiintellectual bullying.

Smarter people than me may select an earlier date, but I trace the rapid change in Georgetown’s values to the appointment of a layman as President in 2001. I’m sure he’s a good person and genuinely loves the university. But at the end of the day, the temptations and pressures of competition with other Harvard-chasing schools are too much to resist if you don’t have the bright-line, non-negotiable moral anchors of the Jesuits. The result is more money, more buildings, more famous speakers, more administrative bloat and more specially endowed “centers” whose purpose is to generate more money, more buildings, more famous speakers and more administrative bloat. Georgetown was already one big school of public policy — my

four years in the SFS felt like one continuous foreign policy discussion — without needing a $100 million ego-stroker that might as well have been named the Department of Redundancy Department.

And of course there is the politics. Who decided it was great to have our most high-profile faculty member be an Al Sharpton wannabe? Which philosophy class teaches white students they deserve to be mugged? And now there’s embarrassing spectacle of students, bureaucrats, and even The Hoya trying to render mainstream conservative thinkers as “unpersons” rather than risk the catastrophe of changing one’s mind. Who needs a $100 million public policy school when these totalitarians already know the correct public policy?

I always try to keep in mind some wisdom from Billy Joel: “The good ol’ days weren’t always good, and tomorrow’s not as bad as it seems.” But this is a disgrace.

The Jesuit tradition’s culture of curiosity, engagement and humility takes many generations to build, but evidently only one generation to tear down and throw away.

Travis Blais SFS ’95

Corrections A previous version of “Faculty Letter Backs Fossil Free” (The Hoya, A5, April 4) stated that the letter had circulated among faculty members for months. Faculty began signing it on Wednesday, April 15.

Mallika Sen, Editor-in-Chief

Brian Carden, General Manager

Deputy Campus News Editor Tom Garzillo Deputy Campus News Editor Ashwin Puri Deputy City News Editor Emily Tu Features Editor Andrew Wallender Deputy Features Editor Maureen Tabet Deputy Sports Editor Madeline Auerbach Deputy Sports Editor Molly O’Connell Paranoia Editor Andrew May Deputy Guide Editor Elsa Givan Deputy Guide Edtior Jasmine White Deputy Opinion Editor Lauren Gros Deputy Opinion Editor Jonathan Marrow Chatter Editor Sarah Kim Sophie Faaborg-Andersen Deputy Photography Editor Deputy Photography Editor Dan Gannon Deputy Photography Editor Kathleen Guan Deputy Layout Editor Nick Bailey Deputy Layout Editor Cleo Fan Deputy Layout Editor Charlotte Kelly Deputy Layout Editor Matthew Trunko Deputy Copy Editor Katherine Cienkus Deputy Copy Editor Nick Greco Deputy Copy Editor Sarah Wright Deputy Blog Editor Catherine McNally Deputy Multimedia Editor Reza Baghaee Deputy Multimedia Editor Rachelle Moon

Joseph Scudiero, Director of Accounting Addie Fleron, Director of Corporate Development Genie Douglass, Director of Marketing Ellen Zamsky, Director of Human Resources Katherine Seder, Director of Sales Matthew De Silva, Director of Technology Laura Tonnessen Monika Patel Sean Choksi Tessa Guiv Kristen Chapey Natalia Vasquez Caroline Gelinne Sarah Hannigan Gregory Saydah William Lowery Casandra Schwartz Zoe Park

National Accounts Manager Local Accounts Manager Accounts Manager Alumni Relations Manager Market Research Manager Public Relations Manager Personnel Manager Organizational Development Manager Local Advertisements Manager National Advertisements Manager Systems Manager Web Manager

Contributing Editors & Consultants

Sam Abrams, Kara Avanceña, Katy Berk, Zoe Bertrand, Alexander Brown, Jinwoo Chong, Nick DeLessio, Robert DePaolo, Lena Duffield, Ben Germano, TM Gibbons-Neff, Michal Grabias, Chris Grivas, Emma Hinchliffe, Emma Holland, Penny Hung, Nicole Jarvis, Sheena Karkal, Hanaa Khadraoui, Hannah Kaufman, Natasha Khan, Hunter Main, Carolyn Maguire, Emily Min, Jackie McCadden, Suzanne Monyak, KP Pielmeier, Zack Saravay, Eitan Sayag, Katherine Seder, Kshithij Shrinath, Sharanya Sriram, Sean Sullivan, Laura Wagner, Emory Wellman, Michelle Xu, Jason Yoffe, Janet Zhu

Board of Directors

Christina Wing, Chair Brian Carden, David Chardack, Chandini Jha, Jess Kelham-Hohler, Lindsay Lee, Mallika Sen Letter to the Editor & Viewpoint Policies The Hoya welcomes letters and viewpoints from our readers and will print as many as possible. To be eligible for publication, letters should specifically address a recent campus issue or Hoya story. Letters should not exceed 300 words.

Viewpoints are always welcome from all members of the Georgetown community on any topic, but priority will be given to relevant campus issues. Viewpoint submissions should be between 600-800 words.

The Hoya retains all rights to all published submissions.

Send all submissions to: opinion@thehoya.com.

Letters and viewpoints are due Sunday at 5 p.m. for Tuesday’s issue and Wednesday at 5 p.m. for Friday’s issue. The Hoya reserves the right to reject letters or viewpoints and edit for length, style, clarity and accuracy. The Hoya further reserves the right to write headlines and select illustrations to accompany letters and viewpoints.

Corrections & Clarifications If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of a story, contact Executive Editor Katherine Richardson at (310) 429-5752 or email executive@thehoya.com.

News Tips Campus News Editor Toby Hung: Call (202) 315-8850 or email campus@thehoya. com.

City News Editor Kristen Fedor: Call (908) 967-3105 or email city@thehoya.com.

Sports Editor Tyler Park: Call (973) 7180066 or email sports@thehoya.com.

General Information The Hoya is published twice each week during the academic year with the exception of holiday and exam periods. Address all correspondence to: The Hoya Georgetown University Box 571065 Washington, D.C. 20057-1065 The writing, articles, pictures, layout and format are the responsibility of The Hoya and do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University.

Signed columns and cartoons represent the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of The Hoya.

Unsigned essays that appear on the left side of the editorial page are the opinion of the majority of the editorial board.

Georgetown University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for student editors.

The Hoya does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, color, national or ethnic origin. © 1920-2015. The Hoya, Georgetown University twice weekly. No part of this publication may be used without the permission of The Hoya Board of Editors. All rights reserved. The Hoya is available free of charge, one copy per reader, at distribution sites on and around the Georgetown University campus. Additional copies are $1 each.

Editorial: (202) 687-3415 Advertising: (202) 687-3947 Business: (202) 687-3947 Facsimile: (202) 687-2741 Email: editor@thehoya.com Online at www.thehoya.com Circulation: 4,000

OPINION

Friday, May 15, 2015

THE HOYA

A3

VIEWPOINT • Crenshaw

VIEWPOINT • Mohr

Georgetown Without Absolutes I

alexander brown/The hoya

College’s Valuable Open Ends T

he Jesuit motto Ad maiorem dei gloriam, or “for the greater glory of God,” has stuck with me since the first time I heard it. “WHAT for the greater glory of God?” I remember thinking, assuming that I had missed the first part of the phrase.

The open-endedness of this phrase is what I love the most about it. There is no set formula for what we are called to do “for the greater glory of God.” Rather, this is something that we define for ourselves, and which can, and probably should, change again and again over time.

However, this is an idea that I struggled with when I first came to Georgetown.

When I arrived on the Hilltop, I thought I had my four-year, maybe even 10-year, plan figured out. I knew my major, the clubs I wanted to join, even what I wanted to do post graduation — everything fit perfectly into this image of my college life.

I will never know exactly why this is what I thought I should do with my time, but I definitely did. I think it may just have been almost a sense of comfort to have this “plan” tucked away in my head.

Especially at Georgetown, surrounded by people driven by passion and blessed with extraordinary talent, it is incredibly easy to feel lost amidst the everyday life of the university.

One of the most frequently asked questions is “What do you do?” and I found that the easiest way to answer to this daunting question was just to fall back on the identity that fit in with my plan.

Yet, this was the worst possible thing that I could have done to myself. It limited me to the mindset of the 18-year-old who had initially conceived this plan and made it impossible for me to fully recognize the new opportunities that I was being presented with at Georgetown.

But the idea of abandoning my plan was too frightening to even imagine.

In my head, that was the equivalent of failure, and I was much too scared to admit that I had failed.

However, through my time at Georgetown, I gradually came to realize that “failure” to stick to my plan was actually just part of the process of growing up and that the vulnerability I was feeling was just a sign that I was becoming more open to new possibilities.

One of the many reasons that I now call Georgetown home is because it is here that I learned that feeling vulnerable is okay. It might not be fun at times, but it is okay. Through vulnerability, I came to realize what I truly wanted from my Georgetown experience: to grow. Not to grow into whom I thought I should be, but simply to grow in a way makes me more humble, kind and giving.

Georgetown offers opportunities that can only be dreamed about by others. From interning on Capitol Hill to attending basketball games at the Verizon Center, Hoyas’ college experiences are unlike those of any other college.

Yet what truly sets our university apart is this unfailing mission statement of the Jesuits: to serve the greater glory of God. This allowed me to realize that it is okay to not have life planned out step by step and to take each day as an opportunity to serve.

To the underclassmen, the best advice I received before coming to college was to “be open to new experiences.”

However, the best advice that I can give is to “be open to a new you.” I wish I had figured this out sooner during my time at Georgetown, and I’m incalculably jealous that you still have time left on the Hilltop that we call home.

However, as sad as I am to be graduating, I am so excited for the next step. Not having the next five years entirely planned out doesn’t seem as frightening as it used to, and I credit this entirely to the way that Georgetown has prepared me to embrace with open arms whatever comes my way.

Michelle Mohr is a senior in the College.

n my freshman spring, I took “Intro to Justice and Peace Studies” with Professor Andrea Wisler. In one of our first sessions, she had us do an exercise that evaluated our beliefs in various spiritual or moral concepts through a series of statements. JUPS has changed the way I think countless times, but one particular statement in this exercise, and my reaction to it, has stuck with me more than most things throughout the rest of my education: “There is such a thing as evil.”

I left it blank until I had completed the exercise. When I returned to it, I thought for several moments and gnawed on my pen before circling “1: strongly disagree.” Belief in pure evil requires a strong belief in some pure higher being, too, and since I had no idea where I stood on that front, I went with my optimistic gut. Spiritual and moral absolutism always seemed irrational to me, anyhow; every circumstance I can think of is far more complex than is allowed for by simple labels like good and evil.

After four years at Georgetown, I have never been surer of absolutism’s irrationality. For reasons that I have neither the space nor the desire to explain here, much of my time at this school has been very, very hard.

There have been entire years during which the campus did not feel like mine and nights when I have been afraid to leave my dorm. There have been multiple classes in which I have cried and tried very poorly to hide it — which, if it has ever happened to you, is the worst feeling; don’t look at me unless I’m perfectly coiffed and composed, thanks. No one knows this, but there were even a few days where I thoroughly researched what it would mean for me to take a leave

of absence.

That said, some aspects of my time at Georgetown have been wonderfully uplifting and I encountered many of them because of the same circumstances that made me miserable. I have learned a boatload about friendship from several wonderful people, from one friend who sat up with me until 5 a.m., crying along with me and making me laugh at stupid Dove chocolate wrapper quotes, to another who knew exactly when to push me out of my sullen spells and when to leave me be. I have built relationships with a legion of inspiring, kickass women: Jen Schweer (my on-campus mother figure), Carol Day (whose belief in me is seemingly endless), my thesis mentor Sarah Stiles (who deserves all the hype she gets and then some), my goddess of a therapist (whom I count among my friends), Stacy from Leo’s (who crafts near-masterpieces without pomp and circumstance) and many more.

My relationship with my parents has shifted from one of loving utilitarianism into one of mutual respect. Best of all, I have changed, too. Freshmanyear me might have hardly recognized the stronger, wiser, braver and more curious person I have become.

As you have probably noticed on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat and Pinterest and Yik Yak and Ask.com and Jeeves and Tinder and Webkinz and Real Human Interaction, absolutism about the Georgetown experience is positively infectious this time of year. It is so easy to whitewash our time on the Hilltop when the sunshine makes your skin all warm and the blossoms on the Copley Lawn trees fall just right. But graduation, just like all major life transitions, should not be

Alexander Brown/the Hoya

that easy. I would bet all the money in my wallet ($6.84) that I am not the only one with complex feelings about their time at Georgetown, and hey, guess what? It’s cool. Life is complex.

If you are one to sentimentalize the last four years, maybe take some time to reflect on your tougher Georgetown moments and how you have changed for the better because of them. If, like me, you are inclined to think of the whole shebang as a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots fight where your guy’s arms don’t work properly, maybe take some time to sit in the warm sunshine on Copley Lawn and remember why you came here in the first place: to experience

things you could not quite conjure and, in turn, to be somehow transformed.

No matter what, remember that building up your time on the Hilltop as impossibly perfect or impossibly tragic ultimately diminishes the massive accomplishment that graduation is meant to represent.

The Georgetown experience, for me, has been so many things: exhausting, isolating, deeply sad, illuminating, zany and full of love. I deserve to celebrate my perseverance despite the bad as well as my luck for having found the good. So do you.

Emlyn Crenshaw is a senior in the College.

VIEWPOINT • Maitner

VIEWPOINT • Wang

Confessions of a Certified NHS Unicorn

How I Defined a Successful Career

‘H

s I reflect on the four years I have spent in this whirlwind, I ask myself: was I successful?

On a campus filled with over 7,000 undergraduate students, I don’t think I have the energy, nor my fingers the stamina, to write all their varied goals down.

It is safe to say that Georgetown is a passionate community. And it is this intensely committed student population that drew me to Georgetown over four years ago. But in a place that is so large, with so many dedicated students who have so many ambitions, knowing your own place can be intimidating.

Back in high school, I used to think success could be measured. Like many students who walk the halls of Healy, I was a bit of a superstar in high school.

I won a lot of awards. I danced lead roles at my home studio. I even graduated salutatorian of my class. I was lucky. I had teachers and principals and dance instructors hand me pieces of paper or medals that told me I was a success.

And then I came to Georgetown.

No longer was I a superstar. I was just another one of the 7,000 students trying to find her footing in a large and varied swarm of opportunity. And while it was easy to be heard in a high school graduating class of 180, finding my own voice amongst so many more was not so simple.

As I adjusted to life on campus and joined activity after activity, I actively looked for ways to show my success. I obtained officer positions, sat on councils, became a featured dancer and choreographer and sought out leadership opportunities at every turn. Yes, at times my pursuit was a little excessive.

On a number of occasions, my roommate had to comfort me as

ey, what school are you in?”

“Oh, I’m in the NHS, human science, pre-med.”

“Oh my God, you’re like a unicorn.”

“Wait, what?”

Freeze. Rewind. Looking back on those moments when I was a first-year student, I am taken aback. On the one hand, I felt respected; on the other, I was unintentionally pushed off to a distance.

As Hoyas, we are constantly on the go, putting more on our plates, juggling innumerable responsibilities and wearing multiple hats for a variety of social and academic occasions. We set high standards for ourselves, but we must also shoulder and confront the expectations of faculty, family, friends and others.

As a pre-med student from the School of Nursing and Health Studies, I am considered a rarity in the overall population at Georgetown. Being pre-med carries a hefty weight of respect and responsibility, but there are considerable assumptions that others make of us before we even utter a single word.

“Why are you doing this to yourself?

“Oh, so you’re going to cure cancer?

“Hey, what do you think about Obamacare?

“Hey, I have this rash on my arm; can you tell me what it is?

“Shouldn’t you know this already?”

“But beyond these academic expectations, we actually assume a lot more about other individuals.

“Where are you from? No, where are you really from?

“How come your parents aren’t coming to graduation?

“Wait, you’ve never used a Mac before?

“I’m confused, how can you like boys and girls?”

From the moment we enter into a community, we find ourselves measured and defined against the pre-established norms of that group. Yet, we are an ever-changing, ever-progressive society. We can recognize the natural diversity of humanity, rich with detail and variation.

These expectations, whether intentional or not, place an enormous burden on those who live outside the precast molds. The stresses and pressures have the capacity to gradually chip away at an individual’s physical and mental health. They have the power to isolate and ostracize individuals, preventing them from finding a home, all because of labels.

“You are such an Asian.

“You are a workaholic.

“You are a nerd.”

Labels certainly are useful when you are trying to find something quickly in a drawer. But when we enter into a society, is it fair to assume that individuals are created from the same design? Putting professional titles aside, social labels and confinements of thought can have widespread negative consequences.

But how do we even go about fixing these preprogrammed tendencies that are so deeply ingrained in our everyday lives?

The conclusion I have reached as a graduating senior is that we simply need to have more conversations, not just with our close friends, but with those outside of our inner circles. By breaking the barriers of communication across science and legislation, social and political thought, and diversity and privilege, we expose ourselves and can draw out new forms of acceptance, ideas and understanding.

When I came to the Hilltop four years ago, I never expected how much I would be pushed to find myself. We all wrote college entrance essays to say how we could be differentiated from the other applicants, but the fact that we each came from such unique backgrounds never really hit until years later. We should not be subject to predestined paths of past, present or future.

Instead, we need to learn to shape our own opportunities, prioritizing our own desires while still being willing to synthesize the advice and needs of others. We need to see beyond what is apparent.

In our everyday lives, now and in the future, we will engage in countless interactions. Expect diversity and develop a welcoming attitude. Welcome the unexpected and entertain both new faces and new thoughts. Find yourself and care for others. Build a home and share it with those around you. Spread the community and carry the ideals of cura personalis that we have developed here on our Hilltop to wherever you may go in the future. Embrace your individuality and rejoice that we are all unicorns in our own respects: unbelievable, unique and, quite frankly, undefined.

I am an Asian American. I am an academic. I am a Georgetown University graduating senior.

But, I am so much more.

A

I complained about my packed schedule, and she always asked, “So what are you going to quit now?” But I could never seem to stop myself. My success was contingent on how many titles I could gain. I was not really successful unless I had the recognition to prove it, right?

As I looked back at some of the proudest moments I have had here at Georgetown, I have come to realize that my definition of success was completely wrong. The moments that have given me the greatest feelings of accomplishment over the last four years have absolutely nothing do with any titles or awards or recognition. They instead consist of the small things — like watching the dancers that I helped bring into the Georgetown University Dance Company thrive. Or hearing one of my dancers comment on how she could dance my piece for an entire show since she enjoyed it so much. Or giving a friend a hug and having her tell me I made her day a little bit better. These are the moments I cherish the most and how I choose to measure success. Not by the titles I’ve gained but by the people who (I hope) had a little bit better experience here because of something I did.

If there is anything I have learned over the past four years, it is that recognition is fleeting, but being a man and woman for others is endless.

So for all of you who still have time left here at Georgetown, go out there and make someone’s life a little bit better. Smile at others as you walk through Red Square. Spontaneously give someone a hug. If you do, every day you have here will always be a success.

CathArine Maitner is a senior in the College.

Victor Wang is a senior in the School of Nursing and Health Studies.

Alexander Brown/the Hoya

Alexander Brown/the Hoya

A4

Friday, May 15, 2015

THE HOYA

VIEWPOINT • Kao

VIEWPOINT • Goldberg

The Story of My Jobless Graduation

Alexander Brown/the Hoya

College On the Field M

y mother never wanted me to come to Georgetown. When I was deciding where to go to college, my mother pushed for the University of California, Berkeley. Every one of my conversations with her that April revolved around why Berkeley was a better school than Georgetown. After a few months of college, it seemed like my mother was right yet again — I nearly dropped out of Georgetown after my first semester.

I began my college career with a bang: on my 30th day at Georgetown, I was wrongfully arrested for domestic violence after my roommate attacked me outside of our dorm room (he is no longer at Georgetown). A month later, I was knocked out cold on the rugby pitch and spent most of the rest of the semester recovering from the resulting concussion. The semester reached a new low when, recovering from illness, I woke up an hour and a half into my two-hour comparative political systems final.

Nobody wanted to be friends with an alleged criminal, my mother was worried that I would sustain a permanent brain injury and my GPA was in shambles. So why did I stay?

I stayed because I found a family in the rugby team. The seniors on the team took me under their wing — they explained to me that an arrest was not the end of the world, they taught me how to work around my injury and they told me how to bring up my grades. The other upperclassmen on the team helped me in other ways, teaching me how to work out in order to mitigate injury and how to make the most of my academic and athletic career. My fellow freshmen helped me fit in and gave me a nonjudgmental group of friends I could hang out with day in and day out.

As cliche as it sounds, I have never before or since experienced such a close-knit group of friends.

This team’s camaraderie paid off in a big way for me, as well as for the rest of the team.

In what can only be described as a team effort, we won the 2014 Cherry Blossom Rugby Tournament and remain the reigning champions. We are nationally ranked in both our fifteens program and our sevens program.

On a more personal level, my teammates’ encouragement got me into shape — I started as a freshman very much overweight and dropped nearly 20 pounds my first semester at Georgetown.

A few years later, it also got me a job — an alumnus of the team coached me through the recruitment and interview process and vouched for my application.

Is the team maybe a little too reckless on and off the field? Sure — our injury count and number of minor student conduct violations attest to this fact. Does the team have an irresponsible amount of fun? Most definitely — though I tried to be one of the more responsible members of the team, I’ve had more than my fair share of “Sunday fun day” and the occasional “Tuesday booze day” in my time at Georgetown. But despite these shortcomings (and some might call these strengths), I owe everything to the team. Getting in shape, learning social skills, finishing my undergraduate career and finding a job can all be attributed, directly or indirectly, to my membership on the rugby team.

Although the team still makes fun of me for my predisposition to injury (one of my senior gifts was a box of tissues to cry into), I know that it is all in good fun. Being on the rugby team has undoubtedly defined my college career, from my personal development to my wide range of experiences in college. Even my mother, giving me preemptive approval to join a social team in the future, has come around. What started as a miserable beginning has given me most everything I have now. Given my track record, I’m anticipating more accidents, injuries, and unfortunate circumstances, but I hope to learn from them as much as I have learned and gained from coming to Georgetown.

Monchen Kao is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.

‘W

hat are your plans for after graduation?”

“Do you have a job?”

“Are you going to grad school?”

These are the questions that seniors hear over and over this time of year. These are also the questions to which I do not have an answer. Having not yet landed my post graduation job, I answer this question with some humor in order to cover up my disappointment. The reactions I get are all across the spectrum: pity, judgment, support, optimism, pessimism. And with every negative reaction I get, graduation seems more and more daunting.

Since I had no luck with the job search, my next step is to move back home to Vermont and keep applying to jobs. I’ve narrowed my search to Boston so I can end my six years of long distance and finally be with the love of my life.

But that’s it; that’s all I can say. Essentially, my whole life after Saturday, May 16 at 5 p.m. is a blank canvas. I have no plans. If I were to buy a calendar, I cannot think of one thing I would write on it. This is both terrifying and thrilling at the same time.

If you think about it, up until now our whole lives have been mapped out for us. From ages 5 to 22, we have had a predetermined path to follow in pursuit of our final destination: success and happiness. Every September we have started our next grade in elementary, middle and high school, and then again in college. When every year ended, we knew to expect the next.

As we approach college graduation, this pre-determined path ends ,and there is nowhere to go. It feels as if we are being thrown into open water after years of floating down a river.

It feels as if we are being expected to know where and how to swim to find our success and happiness.

But, we do know how to swim. We have navigation skills. We are going to have a degree from Georgetown University, for goodness sake! Once I started to trust that my past 22 years have taught me these skills, I finally began to see my present unemployment as a wonderful opportunity. As

Alexander Brown/The Hoya

graduating seniors, the whole world is our oyster. There is no pre determined timeline or path. Everything we look forward to, for the first time, is completely up to us. Since I have yet to land a job, I have been blessed with time to reflect and determine in which direction I want to swim.

So far, I have figured out that love and a job I am passionate about will define my success and happiness.

Finding the path that brings me to Boston, to love, along with happiness in a job, is important to me and completely worth the extra time to figure it out. And while I figure this out, I get one last beautiful Vermont summer with my family and dogs. What more could a girl want?

So, I am done dreading the pos graduation-plans question. I will no longer answer it with embarrassment. I will no longer feel ashamed that my journey to success and happiness is following a different timeline than others.

With no predetermined path, we finally get to watch ourselves and our peers pursue our dreams in our own unique ways. This is certainly one of the most exciting parts of our lives.

I swear by this quote and will carry it with me throughout my journey: “Attitude is the only difference between an ordeal and an adventure.”

It is our choice to either feel miserable when obstacles come our way, or to see them as some sort of opportunity. Whether it is graduating jobless or something else, we can choose to see the open ocean as daunting or incredible. I choose incredible.

Rebecca Goldberg is a senior in the School of Nursing and Health Studies.

VIEWPOINT • Mazumder

The Defining Power of Failure F

ailure has defined my Georgetown experience. Sure, things have turned out fine for me in the end. I have amazing friends. I am privileged to be able to continue my education at the school of my dreams. I am gainfully employed. But underneath this layer of success lie events and experiences that have gone quite poorly.

This wouldn’t be an op-ed if I did not make at least one sweeping generalization.

I would contend that Georgetown students are primed to think about our experiences in terms of our successes. The raison d’etre is to continuously crush the work we do and put on a happy face while doing it. We aim to become the chair of Georgetown College Democrats or Republicans, land that dope job at McKinsey & Company, beat the curve in “Principles of Microeconomics” and so on. Seeing the wild success of our peers is simultaneously awesome and terrifying.

How can I ever measure up to these people? What the heck am I working so hard for? Is college supposed to be this lonely?

Will I have a job? Will I fail? These are all questions that I’ve had since day one at Georgetown. As I’ve (hopefully) grown older and wiser than my 18-year-old self, I have come to realize one thing: failure is what has pushed me to succeed.

In my experience, I have dealt with three types of failure: professional, social and personal. The first type of failure is one that is not readily apparent at Georgetown. I am at this school because someone else read my application and said, “This person is going to do big things.” But for me, that person’s expectations have not consistently been aligned with reality. I have gone zero for 25 during not one but two internship application seasons.

I even messed up the one job I did land.

The second type of failure has been social.

There were times when I was not there for friends when they most needed someone to talk to. I have let relationships with friends and significant others fall by the wayside because I could not find a healthy balance between work and life.

Perhaps most importantly, however, I have failed personally. I lost sight of my punk roots and that it is not just about my personal liberation; rather, it’s about our liberation from oppressive systems. I have failed to fiercely stand beside sexual assault survivors at Georgetown even though I, too, experienced that tragedy. I have not stood in solidarity with the LGBTQ community at Georgetown despite realizing my queer

Alexander Brown/the Hoya

identity. I have failed to embrace my heritage, customs and culture. I have failed to know who I really am.

So, yes, my Georgetown experience has been marked with a lot of failure. But you know what? These failures only push me to prove everyone as well as myself wrong.

I will become an authority on international relations even though I got a B on that one paper. I am going to reply all with a rejection letter of my own to an internship rejection email because I know I deserve something better. When a friend texts me asking if I’m free, I am going to put down whatever I’m doing and go grab a beer with the people I love. I’m not going to give up on the communities that matter to me even when times get rough. I am going to embrace my multiple identities and not care what others think about them.

When we first came to Georgetown as freshman and transfers, we sat in McDonough Arena and were told to “go forth and set the world on fire.” Throughout our time at Georgetown, we were all finding that spark that was going to help us “set the world on fire” and do monumental things.

For some, perhaps the success stories are the fuel for their fire.

But for those of you who have also failed quite a bit like me, I think we can find currency in failure as well. Maybe my story is not the traditional #georgetownstory, but I firmly believe that it is my failures that have stoked that fire inside of me.

This Saturday during commencement, we will be celebrating our individual and collective successes as we rightly should.

But we would all be remiss if we did not embrace the failures that we have faced on our way to this moment. When we all run to The Tombs for potentially the last time in a while, let’s toast to our failures a whole lot more. I know I will.

Shom Mazumder is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.

NEWS

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

PAGE FIVE

THE HOYA

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE The 2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women in Peace and Security were presented in Riggs Library.

Your news — from every corner of The Hoya.

IN FOCUS

A5

CAMPUS PROTECTORS verbatim

“

I just worked hard my first semester and got all As. ... So if you work hard, you get all As.” College valedictorian Paul Bucala (COL ’15) on his GPA. Story on A8.

from

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

President John J. DeGioia and Chief of Police Jay Gruber awarded three members of the Georgetown University Police Department with medals of honor for their work arresting an armed robbery suspect in Leavey Center.

GUPD Catches Suspect, Uses Instagram GUPD notified the community that a suspect in an armed robbery case was arrested by reaching students where they are: Instagram. blog.thehoya.com

Obama Discusses Moral, Economic Costs of Poverty KATHERINE RICHARDSON Hoya Staff Writer

President Barack Obama discussed the moral and economic costs of poverty in a panel in Gaston Hall on Tuesday.

Moderated by The Washington Post columnist and McCourt School of Public Policy professor E.J. Dionne Jr., the panel included Obama, Harvard University public policy professor Robert Putnam and American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks.

The conversation is part of a threeday Catholic-Evangelical leadership summit on campus hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and the National Association of Evangelicals. The summit, which has brought many academics and clergymen together from around the country to discuss poverty, will end May 13.

This is the third time Obama has spoken at Georgetown. He previously spoke in Gaston Hall in 2009 and in Dahlgren Quadrangle in 2013.

University President John J. DeGioia introduced the panelists and explained the pertinence of the topic of poverty.

“We have the second-highest percentage of children living in poverty in all developed nations,” DeGioia said. “One in five children in our nation lives below the poverty line. Here in the District, one in four. … The human cost, the moral cost of this issue is pervasive and demands our most serious attention.

We all have a stake.”

Dionne began the discussion by asking Obama about his plans for the future of policy in regard to the nation’s poor.

“We are at a moment, in part because of what’s happened in Baltimore and Ferguson and other places, but in part because a growing awareness of inequality in our society where it may be possible not only to focus attention on inequality but also to bridge some of the gaps,” Obama said.

Obama said the conservative and liberal stances on poverty are often seen

CHRIS GRIVAS/THE HOYA

President Barack Obama spoke at a panel discussion on issues surrounding poverty to a full Gaston Hall on Tuesday.

as polarized, despite the fact that many policymakers on both sides of the aisle are passionate about the issue. He said that he knows many conservative policymakers who “deeply care about the poor” alongside their liberal counterparts.

He also stressed that the United States can make strides in addressing poverty, given the country’s poverty rate has been reduced by 40 percent since 1967.

“I want to emphasize that we can do something about these issues,” Obama said. “I think it is a mistake for us to suggest that somehow every effort we make has failed and we are powerless to address poverty. That’s just not true.”

Obama said that that he believes his job is to “guard against cynicism,” particularly in regard to combatting poverty.

Dionne continued the discussion by asking Putnam about American children living below the poverty line and his book “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.” Putnam said that his book presents evidence of the growing gap between rich and poor children. He said that the gap is growing in terms of family stability, investments of time and money parents make in their children, the quality of schools children go to and the community support they receive.

“All of that evidence suggests that we do face a serious crisis in which, increasingly, the most important decision that anybody makes is choosing their parents,” Putnam said. “My grandchildren, the smartest decision they ever made was to choose college-educated parents and great-grandparents. But out there are a group of kids that are just as talented and just as hardworking, but who happened to choose parents who weren’t very well educated or high income. Those kids’ fate is being determined by things that they had no control over. That’s fundamentally unfair.”

Putnam said that Americans faced a wealth and opportunity gap like this once before, particularly during the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century.

To continue the discussion, Dionne asked Brooks about his views on safety nets, or programs that prevent the poor from falling beneath a certain poverty level, and how the left and right can work together to address and improve these programs.

Brooks said that he joined the free enterprise movement, advocating for an economic system in which few government restrictions are placed on business and enterprise, because he deeply cared about combatting poverty. He added that partisanship has prevented groups who want to fight poverty from making progress.

“We’ve gotten into a partisan moment where we substitute a moral consensus about how we serve the least of these our brothers and sisters and we pretend that moral consensus is impos-

sible,” Brooks said. “We blow up policy differences until it becomes a holy war.”

Brooks said that this problem could be stopped if policymakers talk about poverty with a series of principles in mind. He said each side must not “otherize” poor people but should instead humanize them and consider their motivations.

“When you talk about people as your brothers and sisters, you don’t talk about them as liabilities to manage,” Brooks said. “They’re not liabilities to manage, they’re assets to develop, because every one of us made in God’s image is an asset to develop.”

He said that policymakers should support the safety net, but use the net only for the indigent and pair it with the “dignifying power of work” to best combat poverty in America.

Obama responded to the other two panelists by discussing how he plans to reduce the wealth gap and combat partisanship. He said that the best anti-poverty system is a job, and that policymakers must consider the macro-economy as a whole to develop solutions.

He added that although he agrees with Brooks that the free market has lifted many out of poverty, the wealth disparity leaves many people behind in terms of receiving opportunities to progress. Obama said that the opportunity disparity seen today has been occurring for many years, particularly with the black population.

“In [Putnam’s] day, this was also happening,” Obama said. “But it was happening to black people. Part of what’s changed is that those biases or those restrictions on who had access to resources that allowed them to climb out of poverty: access to the firefighter’s job, to the assembly line job, the job that paid well enough for them to be in the middle class and got you to the suburbs. All those things were foreclosed to a big chunk of the minority population in this country for decades.”

He said that both parties must find common ground on investments in public schools, early childhood education and expanded economic opportunities in isolated communities.

Dionne asked about how to tear down the partisan walls to increase investments in the programs Obama championed.

“Elites in a very mobile, globalized world are able to live together away from folks who are not as wealthy, so they feel less of a commitment to making those investments,” Obama said. “In that sense, what used to be racial segregation now mirrors itself in class segregation, and that creates its own politics.”

Obama also criticized the media for propagating negative stereotypes about poor people.

“I think that the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, don’t

want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction. … If you watch Fox News on a regular basis, they will find folks who make me mad,” Obama said. “I don’t know where they find them. They’ll find folks who say, ‘I don’t want to work, I just want a free Obamaphone.’”

Brooks continued the discussion by talking about the morality behind capitalism and how it must be established to create a snowball effect of progress.

“Capitalism is just a system. It’s just a machine. It must be predicated on right morals, it must be. … We’re talking about right morality toward our brothers and sisters, and built on that we can have an open discussion about how to get our capitalism right,” Brooks said.

“Then, the distribution of resources is only a tertiary question.”

Dionne then narrowed the discussion in on race, prompting Obama to discuss how he hopes to communicate with black youth.

“I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the cost that I paid for that. And I also know that I have the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence I think that my daughters are better off,” Obama said.

“For me to have that conversation does not negate my conversation about the need for early childhood education or the need for job training or the need for investment in infrastructure or jobs in low-income communities.”

He added that both political sides must realize that an investment in these communities will help children in every aspect of their lives.

“If we do those things, the values and the character that those kids are learning in a loving environment where they can succeed in school and they’re being praised, they’re less likely to drop out,” Obama said. “When they’re succeeding in school and do have those resources, they’re less likely to get pregnant as teens, to engage in drugs, to be in the criminal justice system. That is a reinforcement of values and characters that we want. That’s where we as a society have the capacity to make a difference.”

Dionne ended the discussion by asking Obama about the role of faith-based groups and the religious community in combatting poverty in the U.S. “Faith-based groups across the country and around the world understand the centrality and the importance of this issue in an intimate way, in part because they are interacting with folks who are struggling and know how good these people are and know their stories,” Obama said. “It’s not just theological, but it’s very concrete. They’re embedded in communities and they’re making a difference in all kinds of ways.”

The panel was closed to the public, and 186 Georgetown students were selected to attend through a lottery system.

A6

news

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

Seniors End College 2019 Yield Remains Constant Career With Week, Gift ADMISSIONS, from A1

Ryan Wolfe

Hoya Staff Writer

The Class of 2015 kicked off graduation ceremonies after Senior Week at the senior convocation ceremony in McDonough Arena Thursday.

William G. Goodwin (COL ’07) director of external affairs at One Chance Illinois, delivered the convocation address, and Citlalli Alvarez Almendariz (COL ’15) and Alexander O’Neill (COL ’15) offered senior reflections.

“One day, you and those whose lives you’ve touched will remember a life well lived, a life that made a difference, a magnanimous life whose purpose moved beyond you, a life worthy of the learning you’ve been blessed to receive,” Goodwin said.

Another highlight of the convocation ceremony was the presentation of the senior class gift. This year’s class raised a total of $146,475.61, combining the help of 1,276 donating seniors and an additional gift of $75,000 from the Board of Regents.

Over 75 percent of the Class of 2015 contributed to the gift, exceeding the Class of 2014’s participation rate of 73 percent and allowing the class to unlock a higher gift from the Board of Regents, which has donated $1,000 to the class fund for every percentage point of seniors who donate since 2013.

Last year, the Class of 2014 broke both the previous record for the number of seniors donating to the class gift and the donation total for the class gift, with 1,249 members of the Class of 2014 raising $155,640.40 with the help of a $73,000 gift from the Board of Regents.

The last class to donate a physical item or space to the university was the Class of 2008. The university moved to a cash donation system in 2009, which allows students to fund both scholarships and individual academic departments or student groups of their choice.

Senior Class Fundraising Committee Co-Chair Casey Reinhart (MSB ’15) said she hopes this year’s gift will leave a legacy on scholarship funding.

“Every student who is admitted to Georgetown should be given the opportunity to have the same Georgetown experience as me, regardless of their financial situation. Last year the Class Fund received enough donations to fund six scholarships through the 1789 Scholarship Imperative and we would like to fund even more this year,” Reinhart said.

Fundraising committee co-chair VP Dao (SFS ’15) said this year’s senior class continued to use creative methods to reach out to seniors and to encourage them to donate.

Methods included engaging students on social media platforms, utilizing peer-topeer contact and emphasizing outreach to

groups who have historically been less involved in alumni activities, such as foreign students and minorities.

“We try to emphasize that seniors can designate their individual gifts to specific groups, organizations or departments on campus. Having started a small club on campus, I understand that even $20 make a difference for new student groups, and we encourage our classmates to help make that difference where they can,” Dao said. “In the end, we want to emphasize that we’re not just giving money to Georgetown, we’re enabling Georgetown students, faculty and communities to do things, to enrich the Georgetown experience.”

Undergraduate Tropaia ceremonies will be in Gaston Hall on Friday, during which awards will be given to students, staff and faculty for various accomplishments. Valedictorians from Georgetown College and the McDonough School of Business will offer remarks at their respective ceremonies.

The School of Nursing and Health Studies and the School of Foreign Service do not have valedictorians, but students with the highest GPAs are named as dean’s medal recipients.

In the week leading up to formal commencement exercises, graduating seniors took part in Senior Week, gathering as a class for several planned activities.

Festivities began with a barbecue on the Leavey Esplanade and included several other events such as a Casino Night in the Healey Family Student Center, a keg party in O’Donovan Hall, freshman floor reunions, the President’s Picnic at Smokey Glen Farm in Gaithersburg, Md. and “Georgetown Day 2.0” on the Copley Lawn. The week will conclude Friday night with the annual Senior Ball at Union Station.

Senior Class Committee Events Chair Helen Li (MSB ’15) and her team have been planning for Senior Week since the end of Senior Disorientation 2.0 in January. Senior Class Committee Chair Bridget Mullen (COL ’15) said this year’s goal was to increase participation rates.

Senior Week is open to all graduating seniors, and in line with the committee’s goal of high participation, this year saw a record number of online pre-registrants, with more than 1,350 students signing up for the events, according to Mullen.

While students may see Senior Week as one last chance to let loose before entering the world as college graduates, Mullen emphasized how it serves as a time for contemplation and a chance to look back on the past four years before transitioning to a new stage in life.

“Ultimately, Senior Week is a time for us to unite as a class, reflect on our time at Georgetown, and prepare for what lies beyond the front gates,” Mullen said.

percent.

Minority student yields across the board were slightly lower than the total yield.

The yield for black students, who will make up nine percent of the entire class, was around 37 percent. The yield for Asian-American and Hispanic students, who will make up 14 percent and 12 percent of the total class, respectively, was around 35 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

The yield for international students, who will compose 8 to 9 percent of the freshman class, was around 35 percent. According to Deacon, the fact that the university does not guarantee full financial aid for international students may contribute to the lower rate.

He added that yields also vary by geographic location, attributing this trend partly to legacies and recruited athletes, who tend to come from closer regions.

“In general, the states that yield the highest are the ones that are in the more typical areas in the Northeast: New York, New Jersey, Maryland,” Deacon said.

Of the 1,200 to 1,300 students who attend a Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program weekend event, around 75 percent will choose to attend Georgetown. Deacon said he believes that much of the student-to-student contact from GAAP weekends helps students choose Georgetown.

“There’s a lot of things that I think are done pretty much student to student,” he said. “We obviously are encouraging that, and helping to facilitate it or whatever we can do.”

Deacon also said he believes that the GAAP Facebook page, alumni reception events and Georgetown Scholarship Program special communications help admitted students with their decision.

Tanner Davis (SFS ’17), GAAP director of national prospective student outreach, said increasing yield is a goal of the program, which involves hundreds of volunteers and months of preparation.

“I’m glad to hear that the weekends have such a high yield because it means that we are doing something right,” Davis said.

“Nevertheless, we are constantly working to improve the experience for both the students and parents in order to achieve even higher yields in the future.”

Spots for the Class of 2019 in the McDonough School of Business and the School of Nursing and Health Studies have been completely filled, with a 55 percent yield for each school. Wait list offers will be awarded to select applicants to the School of Foreign Service and Georgetown College, which yielded 45 percent and 41 percent of offers, respectively.

In the College, science classes and incoming science major spots have all been filled. A recordhigh of 25 students in the Class of 2019 have also indicated that they intend on becoming physics majors. Because of the high number of intended science majors, Deacon said the College wait list is expected to see movement only for students with undeclared majors.

The admissions office first offers around 2,000 people wait list spots, and roughly 1,200, or 55 percent of those applicants, will accept. By the end of April, around 1,000 students will opt to stay on the wait list.

By May 15, the admissions office will have offered around 100 students on the wait list a spot for the fall semester. Deacon estimated that around 80 will accept the offer.

Additionally, 100 to 150 students will also be given the opportunity to stay on an extended wait list through June 30, of which Deacon estimated around half will accept. The final spaces in the Class of 2019 will be filled from this pool of students.

Deacon said that unlike many other universities, an enrollment cap set by the 2010 Campus Plan agreement tightly constricts the Georgetown undergraduate admissions office to a set number.

“With the enrollment cap outside the gates being a big issue, we can’t take the chance of being over so we always try to be conservative and the wait list is the way we fill [the class] up to the top,” Deacon said.

He also estimated that around 60 to 65 of the students who originally committed on May 1 will not end up joining the Class of 2019 in the fall. He said roughly 25 of these students are expected to defer admission, while approximately 40 will likely withdraw after receiving wait list offers from other schools or in the face of financial difficulties or illnesses.

According to Deacon, there are 10 schools that Georgetown will most likely lose a student to if he

or she receives a competing offer, including the seven Ivy League schools, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke.

He added that Georgetown tends to lose admitted students to schools with more competitive financial aid packages. Around 45 percent of students at Georgetown receive financial aid, and although around 25 to 30 percent receive aid with reduced loan packages, admitted students will still tend to pick schools with grant-based packages rather than Georgetown’s loan-based ones.

Due to Georgetown’s gentleman’s agreement with its peer schools in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will stop all wait list action

by June 30. To fill the remainder of the class, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions often uses the transfer wait list to help round out the final numbers for the undergraduate enrollment.

Just under 2,100 students applied for transfer to the university, and 190 applicants received offers. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions aims to matriculate around 150 transfer students, and works closely with the registrar to determine how many seats are still available for classes in the fall.

The transfer wait list lasts until August, with some students receiving acceptances the first day of registration during the fall semester. Starting last year, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions created an extended wait list that selects a few students for admission. “[For] about the last 25 transfer students on the wait list, we said, ‘If you’re willing to stay on the wait list and would be willing to accept enrollment on the first day of registration, we will give you a place if there’s space, and if there’s not, we will guarantee you admission in January,’” Deacon said.

Other students on the transfer wait list are accepted for the spring semester. Last year, around 12 students accepted this enrollment plan, and four students were able to enroll in the fall.

The remaining eight students enrolled in January.

Deacon said he does not plan to use this system with freshmen. “[Transfers] are a little more willing to take it to that edge,” Deacon said. “That’s the ultimate precision with enrollment.”

NEWS

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

THE HOYA

A7

Diversity of Speakers Sullivan Leaves Legacy Highlights Commencement DEAN, from A1

COMMENCEMENT, from A1 Rose, a talk show host and journalist, has hosted his eponymous interview show on PBS since 1993 and has co-anchored “CBS This Morning” since 2012. Rose could not be reached for comment through his program.

College Dean Chester Gillis said that each speaker is welcome to discuss any topic he or she chooses.

“I think that Charlie Rose will speak to the graduates about the privilege and experience of a college, and specifically a Georgetown education, encourage them about their futures and congratulate them,” Gillis wrote in an email.

“That said, with all College graduation speakers, the speech is his or hers to create and deliver. I do not specify content.”

Patel, a professor of international mental health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health and a psychiatrist based in Goa, India, said he will use his vast experience working on global mental health to inform his speech for the NHS graduation.

“Global mental health is really a different way of thinking about mental health care and what mental illness means to ordinary communities,” Patel said. “The field is primarily concerned with notions of equity and fairness in terms of improved opportunities for people with mental illness in all parts of the world, but also in terms of the distribution of resources that are available for mental health care.”

Patel explained that, with this in mind, his talk would be based on two central themes.

“The first theme is about how people with the power of knowledge that comes from higher education should democratize that knowledge by sharing it with other people in the community and to have the humility to learn from other people in the community,” Patel said.

“The second important message is about acting locally, but always thinking globally, to keep your mind open to innovations and approaches to address problems that affect our world.”

The NHS Dean’s Office originally approached Patel to speak at last year’s ceremony, but he was unavailable, and American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Alan Leshner addressed the graduating class instead.

Patel admitted he was surprised that Georgetown approached him.

“It’s a tremendous honor for me, as an Indian academic,” Patel said. “I know that it’s not common for foreigners to be invited to give this address, and I think it’s a great honor especially given that it’s one of the most world-class universities in the world, especially in the area of health.”

Chao made history in 2001 as the first AsianAmerican woman to be appointed to a U.S. president’s cabinet, serving as the 24th Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush until 2009. She is also the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Before entering the political world, Chao held high-ranking positions at Bank of America and Citicorp.

In addition to speaking at this year’s commencement, Chao has attended numerous events at the university in the past, including when she received the Georgetown Business Leader of the Year award in 2001.

Chao praised the university’s commitment to service.

“Georgetown is a wonderful university,” Chao wrote in an email. “The Georgetown tradition of emphasizing leaders dedicated to serving others is an ideal I’ve always believed in and have dedicated most of my career to embody.”

She detailed how her speech will focus on the role of business leaders in the free enterprise system.

“Business leaders should be positive role models, and help shape the image of the free enterprise system by becoming leaders who are ethical and worthy of the public trust who bring hope, employment opportunities and a better life to everyone, their families and communities,” Chao wrote.

MSB Dean David Thomas described meeting Chao shortly after she was appointed as Secretary of Labor and praised her selection to speak at this year’s commencement.

“We shared an interest in the importance of diversity in leadership positions,” Thomas wrote in an email. “She is an inspirational person, and I was happy to nominate her as our speaker this year to the university’s leadership.”

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will host R. Timothy Ziemer, retired Rear Admiral of the United States Navy and U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator. Ziemer will speak Friday, May 15 at 9 a.m. on Healy Lawn.

The speaker for the McDonough School of Business MBA commencement will be President and CEO of the American Red Cross Gail McGovern. She will deliver her address Friday, May 15 at 12:30 p.m. on Healy Lawn.

Friday’s final ceremony will feature the commencement for the School of Continuing Studies. Retired Admiral Thad Allen, executive vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, will make his remarks on Healy Lawn at 3:30 p.m.

The ceremony for Georgetown University Medical Center will feature remarks from President and CEO of Trinity Health Richard Gilfillan on Sunday, May 17 at 11 a.m. at the National Theatre.

Stephen Bright, president and senior counsel of the Southern Center for Human Rights, will speak at the Georgetown University Law Center commencement on Healy Lawn Sunday, May 17 at 2 p.m. Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey, former attorney general of Guatemala and current distinguished scholar in residence at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and GULC, will receive an honorary doctorate as well.

assistant to the dean, assistant dean and associate dean before assuming her current role as senior associate dean, advising students majoring in government and theology, as well as women’s and gender studies, whose major and minor programs she helped create and design.

Additionally, Sullivan has taught several English classes and “Introduction to Women’s Studies,” both on Georgetown’s main campus and at Villa Le Balze in Florence, and has tutored with the Georgetown Community Scholars program.

“She’s made a remarkable contribution to Georgetown, and it’s one of longevity,” College Dean Chester Gillis said.

“She’s not merely an administrator — she’s an intellectual, and one thing that will leave when Anne Sullivan leaves is a lot of wisdom.”

A Decade-Spanning Career Sullivan, who received a Bachelor of Arts from Radcliffe College and an master’s in teaching from Harvard University, originally intended to become a high school English teacher. She arrived at Georgetown in 1971 after briefly serving in the Teacher Corps, a Great Society development program that aimed to improve teaching in lowincome school districts.

Her first position at Georgetown was as a recorder, with responsibilities including sorting through academic transcripts and course catalogs to ensure that College seniors met the university’s graduation requirements.

The handwritten systems of Sullivan’s recording days have since been phased out by newer, more efficient record systems — transformations that she has largely overseen during her time in the dean’s office. For years, Sullivan has focused her administrative work on improving, updating and maintaining the university’s student record systems, including Georgetown’s MyDegree audit tool.

She credits her coworkers for filling her years with vibrancy.

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

A Legacy of Living for Others Sullivan’s legacy, however, stems from her years of mentorship. Her colleagues and those she has mentored said her service has been defined by dedication to her students.

“Out of everyone I have met at Georgetown, Dean Sullivan has been the one who has helped me the most.”

KIMBERLY BLAIR (COL ’15)

“I’ve always loved working with students,” Sullivan said.

“They’ve delighted me. They’ve driven me crazy. And they’re always different, one from another.”

One of those students is Kimberly Blair (COL ’15), who said that Sullivan was there to guide her when a family health condition put a strain on her Georgetown studies.

“My mom and I both have endometriosis [a painful condition characterized by abnormal tissue growth],” Blair said. “It’s been stressful on my academics, because I worry about my mom.

I always work a lot in case I need to take a random flight back to her if she’s really sick.”

When Blair did not have enough money to fly home when her mother needed surgery, Sullivan helped produce the funds necessary for the flight. Later, when Blair needed surgery herself, Sullivan was there again, providing comfort while ensuring that she would still graduate on time.

“Out of everyone I have met at Georgetown, Dean Sulli-

van has been the one who has helped me the most,” Blair said.

It is a sentiment shared by Bryan Mendiola (COL ’15), another student who said his life was touched by Sullivan’s dedication. When he arrived as a freshman in 2011, Mendiola originally planned on becoming a doctor. A year later, he met Sullivan, after realizing a career in medicine was not his passion.

“Here I was, a biology major one class away from meeting my pre-med requirements and head of the Georgetown Pre-Medical Society, and I didn’t want to be a doctor anymore,” Mendiola said.

“And I walked into the dean’s office one day and I told the receptionist I just needed to talk to anyone, because I had no idea what I was doing.”

He ended up speaking with Sullivan, who grew to become a trusted adviser during his time at Georgetown. Mendiola will now graduate this year and receive his degree in political economy — something he largely credits to Sullivan.

Helping students like Mendiola and Blair is what Sullivan regards as the most fulfilling aspect of her career at Georgetown. She found a calling in helping what she said were “ambitious students who just need some guidance to find their footing.”

Gillis said Sullivan was an effective mentor who provided useful guidance for students.

“Anne gives you what you need when you need it. On one hand, she might say to a student, ‘You poor thing, I want to help you,’ and in their next meeting she may say, ‘Get over yourself,’” Gillis said.

“She was like a caring mom and a strict mom,” Blair said.

“With her, there was always a plan of action. First she’d be the caring mom and give me her words of compassion, and then she’d be the strict mom and get down to business and say, ‘Now what can we do? How can we make this thing happen?’”

Sullivan’s first plans for retirement include traveling to Luca, Italy, where she and her husband will spend three months this fall.

Trans Rights Gain Ground TRANSGENDER, from A1

University Registrar John Q. Pierce speaks to graduating McCourt School of Public Policy students before their commencement ceremony outside Healy Hall Thursday.

“I have always enjoyed my colleagues and the humor they bring to the office environment.

They way you get through a lot of dull work is that you laugh and have fun with it, and then you get it done,” Sullivan said.

[transgender issues] that is obviously still burgeoning and not mature, but that’s progress,” Chisholm said.

Lexi Dever (COL ’16), a transgender woman who has previously served as GU Pride’s trans* representative and the Georgetown University Student Association undersecretary of LGBTQ affairs, agreed that there has been increased awareness of transgender issues among students.

“This year, pretty much all of the GUSA [executive candidates] came up to me to make sure they had trans protections written into their platforms, which is something that I don’t think has been done in the past because it wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” Dever said.

Policy changes have also come about at an administrative level, with transgender students now being able to change their names on their GOCards and live with students of their same gender.

However, both Chisholm and Dever said that while many students have been receptive to transgender advocacy, change has been slower on the administration’s end.

In a September 2013 interview with the Georgetown Voice, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson asserted that the university would not support gender-neutral living arrangements, citing the Catholic Church’s teachings about gender and sexuality.

“There is an emerging view that gender identity is sort of something you play with. I think that is quite a different view than the Catholic view of identity and of human sexuality,” Olson told the Voice.

Olson wrote in an email to The Hoya this week that administrators have become more aware of transgender issues on campus because of the advocacy of students and LGBTQ Resource Center Director Shiva Subbaraman.

“I believe we are more aware of and responsive to the needs of our trans students now than we were five years ago,” Olson wrote.

Chisholm, who was the first openly transgender student at Georgetown, attributes some of the administration’s hesitancy to change its policies to the fact that there is only a small number of vocal, openly transgender students on campus.

When she experienced problems with her GOCard after changing her name on the university’s records this year, she realized that the university may not have been willing to update its electronic system to benefit one student.

“It costs a good amount of money to revamp the logistical, technical systems, and they don’t want to do that for a single person,” Chisholm said. “I’m not the only transgender person on campus; I am the representative.

By definition, transgender people are one of the most hidden groups of people.”

Many transgender people are hesitant to come out because of the risks associated with it.

Transgender women are among the most at-risk people in the LGBTQ community to be the target of hate crimes. According to GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, 53 percent of victims in the 25 documented cases of anti-LGBTQ homicide in the U.S. in 2012 were transgender women.

“Speaking up at all is an invitation for major problems. It’s really been difficult to say that I want to take that risk and let people know who I am,” Dever said.

During the 2014-2015 academic year, the university made two landmark policy changes for transgender students.

Chisholm learned last summer that she would be able to live in university housing with other women. After transferring to Georgetown her sophomore year, she lived in a single in the corner of the basement of Copley Hall. During her junior year, she lived in a single on the men’s side of a coed floor.

Chisholm decided not tell her three female roommates in Alumni Square that she was transgender for the first five months that they lived together.

“That was such a fear that the Georgetown administration had, that they would let a transgender person live with cisgender people, and the cisgender people not only would know immediately, but they would … be so disturbed by the fact that they were living with a transgender person, that they would complain,” Chisholm said.

“So to subvert that logic completely, I figured that what would be best would be to see how long it took.”

Dever, who has lived in singles throughout her Georgetown career, was also given the opportunity to live with women in the coming academic year, but chose to live off campus.

Additionally, transgender students are now able to have their chosen names, rather than their legal names, reflected in university records, including GOCards, class rosters and Blackboard.

“This move was based on a desire to meet students’ need to be known and addressed by the name they prefer,” Olson wrote.

Both policies have been points of student advocacy for the past few years.

Chisholm said that she would like to see gender-neutral housing at Georgetown in order to better accommodate transgender students – especially those who do not fit into the gender binary.

“You still have to present as a man or present as a woman, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Chisholm said. “Some people at Georgetown are gender neutral. Some people at Georgetown can’t find the confidence or the resources or the conveniences to present as their desired gender every day.”

Dever said that she hopes to change club sports teams’ policies so that transgender students have an easier time joining the appropriate teams.

Subbaraman added that the university is working for a more uniform signage for gender-neutral, single-stall bathrooms.

“You will see the signs the new buildings. We will work to retroactively do them across campus,” Subbaraman wrote in an email to The Hoya.

While the university may be less inclined to take action on transgender issues in the absence of a larger community of openly transgender students, Chisholm stressed that it is difficult for transgender students to feel comfortable coming out without policies that will accommodate them already n place. “[The Georgetown community] doesn’t realize that the administrative changes have to come before people are going to start coming out of the woodwork,” Chisholm said. “People will be more inclined to feel comfortable and confident coming out as transgender if they’re not having to out themselves all the time.”

A8

NEWS

THE HOYA

Friday, MAY 15, 2015

Valedictorians Talk Exemplary Academic Records Brian Carden & Lena Duffield Hoya Staff Writers

Six students will be honored as valedictorians and Dean’s Medal recipients this weekend for achieving the highest GPAs in their respective schools, with a tie between three students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Aletha Smith (COL ’15), Elise Widerlite (COL ’15) and Paul Bucala (COL ’15) were jointly named the valedictorians of the College, all with perfect 4.0 GPAs. Smith was selected to speak at the College’s Tropaia ceremony after she and Widerlite submitted sample speeches.

Evan Fierstein (MSB ’15) was named valedictorian of the McDonough School of Business with a 3.99 GPA and will speak at the MSB Tropaia ceremony today.

Mina Pollman (SFS ’15) also maintained a perfect 4.0, while Blake Meza (NHS ’15) had the highest GPA in the School of Nursing and Health Studies, a 3.967. Both will be awarded their school’s Dean’s Medal, as the School of Foreign Service and the NHS do not appoint valedictorians.

Smith majored in German and English and played the piccolo in the pep band. She spent both semesters of her junior year abroad, with one semester in Germany and the other at SFS-Qatar.

Smith did not set out to become valedictorian, and she said that her academic success was a result of curiosity and a strong work ethic.

“Each class was never really about getting the A ¬— it was about learning as much as I could from the class and putting as much of myself into it [as possible],” Smith said. “There’s a lot more to college than just your GPA.” In her speech at the Tropaia ceremony today, she will focus on how Georgetown’s Jesuit values set it apart from other universities.

“It was a surprise to me that the Jesuit education would become so important,” Smith said. “The core requirements ended up being really interesting and ... sparked my general passion for different things and changed the path that I thought Georgetown was going to take me on.”

After graduation, Smith will likely move to Seattle to look for paralegal work. She aspires one day to work in international law.

Widerlite, originally from Bethesda, Md., majored in English with minors in journalism and psychology and studied in Copenhagen for a semester.

A former staff writer for The Hoya, she also is a dancer with the Georgetown University Dance Company, the creative director for Spoon University, a peer ad-

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Clockwise from the top left: Aletha Smith (COL ’15), Paul Bucala (COL ’15), Elise Widerlite (COL ’15), Blake Meza (NHS ’15), Mina Pollman (SFS ’15) and Evan Fierstein (MSB ’15) were named the six valedictorians and Dean’s Medal recipients from the graduating Class of 2015. visor for the College and gave summer tours for the Office of Admissions.

“It’s not just about the grades. There’s so much more to Georgetown, so I’m glad I was involved in as many things as possible,” Widerlite said.

Although she was accepted to the Georgetown University Law Center through its early assurance program, Widerlite deferred her offer and instead will work at NBCUniversal’s page program in New York City for a year.

“I worked at ABC News last summer, and I’m more interested in learning about the entertainment side, so that’s why I’m really excited about the page program because you get to learn about all different facets of the industry,” Widerlite said.

Bucula, a government major, worked as a research assistant for the government department, interned for various think tanks in the D.C. area and was involved with D.C. Reads. For a nine-

month period, he studied abroad in Tajikistan, where he studied Farsi.

Bucula, like his co-valedictorians in the College, credits his success to a strong work ethic.

“I just worked hard my first semester and got all As and thought, ‘Oh, that’s not that bad,’” Bucula said. “So if you work hard, you get all As.” He does not yet have plans for after graduation.

Pollman, originally from Vancouver, Wash., majored in international politics with a concentration in foreign policy. She was involved with Truth and Human Rights in North Korea before spending her junior year at Oxford University. In her senior year, she was involved in the Vietnamese Student Association while simultaneously writing two theses about Japan’s foreign relations.

Despite her devotion to her research, particularly for the Institute for the

SFS-Q Honors Graduates Emily Tu

needed to fulfill the ambitions of their communities,” Nonneman said.

“We are so proud of all of their accomplishments, and we look forward to the many more they will no doubt achieve as Georgetown alumni.”

Her Royal Highness Princess Ghida Talal of Jordan (GRD ’86), chairperson of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation, delivered the keynote address. She reflected on her time at Georgetown and how it influenced her career.

“Georgetown gave me the education, the direction and the strength of character to face my challenges head on and not only overcome them, but ultimately transform them into some of my greatest achievements,” Talal said.

University President John J. DeGioia conferred the degrees to the graduating class and offered closing remarks, highlighting the 10th anniversary of the school.

“On this special occasion to celebrate our graduating seniors, we are also so pleased to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of our campus in Qatar,” DeGioia said. “GU-Q represents the very best of our commitment to excellence and the conviction that, in working together, we can build a better world. As our seniors embark on the next step in their life’s journey, I wish to express my warm congratulations and deep gratitude for their many contributions to our community over the past four years.”

Guests at the ceremony included Chairperson of Qatar Museums Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, as well as several Qatari dignitaries and Georgetown visitors from both the Doha campus and the main campus in Washington, D.C. Since its establishment in 2005, Georgetown’s Qatar campus has graduated 272 students from over 50 countries.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Hoya Staff Writer

Seniors at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar graduated during an official commencement ceremony held on the university’s Education City campus Thursday, May 7.

The seventh graduating class of 57 seniors received their Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degrees, available in international politics, international economics, international history and culture and politics. The graduating class was composed of 19 men and 38 women of a range of nationalities, including 22 Qataris.

SFS-Q Dean Gerd Nonneman opened the formal proceedings with an introductory speech, praising the graduates.

“This graduating class has the prestigious honor of marking Georgetown’s first decade of excellence in Qatar, a class of young, hardworking, global citizens with the critical skillset

The 57 students in the School of Foreign Service in Qatar’s Class of 2015 celebrated their graduation at the school’s commencement ceremony on the Education City campus May 7.

Study of Diplomacy, Pollman has always held academics as her priority.

“I was always going to put schoolwork first,” Pollman said. “Decisions about internships, jobs, club commitments, all of that would come after I knew that I could do the best that I could do in the courses that I chose to make a commitment to.”

After graduation, she will work as a producer at TV Tokyo, a Japanese television network in Foggy Bottom, though she aspires to eventually return to academia.

Meza majored in human science and completed the pre-med track.

He studied abroad over a summer in Argentina, performing bedside visits with local patients and lab research with NHS professor Dr. Pablo Irusta.

After graduation, Meza will attend the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, where he will pursue a combined M.D./Master of Public

Health degree.

“Ideally, I can see myself using the masters in public health to do some type of clinical research. For my senior internship this year I did some sports injury prevention research looking at surgery in Major League Baseball pitchers. ... I think with the masters in public health, I really want to focus on something that will make an impact on the population,” Meza said.

Fierstein majored in accounting and finance in the MSB. Outside of class, he is involved with Georgetown Collegiate Investors and Sigma Phi Epsilon.

After graduation, Fierstein will begin a full-time position as an analyst at Perella Weinberg Partners, where he had internships the summers after his sophomore and junior years.

“Once I worked there, I liked the culture, and I liked the fact that I could see that I would be getting a lot of responsibility from day one,” Fierstein said.

A10

SPORTS

THE HOYA

Team of the Year

friday, may 15, 2015

Coach of the Year

Resilience, Leadership Drive Warne Leads Resurgence Men’s Soccer’s Elite 8 Run Elizabeth Cavacos Hoya Staff Writer

Andrew May Hoya Staff Writer

Even after battling through a series of difficult opponents, the Georgetown men’s soccer team’s combination of talent and grit earned it consistent success and national recognition.

The Hoyas played against 10 ranked opponents in 2014, including half of the postseason top 10.

Their 14-4-5 overall record came against the best that college soccer had to offer. At the end of that gauntlet, the Hoyas were ranked fifth in the country and had an Elite Eight appearance to their credit.

“It was a really gritty team. It was a really gritty performance. But I think having a record that strong against the strength of schedule that we had was a real accomplishment,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said.

Teams with the amount of talent that is on Georgetown’s roster are not often described as gritty. Among the Hoyas are elite recruits and professional prospects. The team’s style of play — centered on possession and dominating the pace of the game — does not evoke images of scrappy performances and hard-fought results.

Nevertheless, “gritty” perfectly describes what Georgetown had to be in order to find success last season. It battled through fluke deflections, late deficits and a brutal schedule. A core group of athletes built the resilience and work ethic that Georgetown needed.

“You give a lot of credit to the seniors. [Midfielder] Tyler Rudy was the heart and soul of the team. … He carried the team on his back in large stretches. [Midfielders] Austin Martz and Jared Rist had some really key moments. Rist beat Syracuse [with] one of the biggest goals in the history of the program,” Wiese said.

Though Rudy, Martz and Rist were crucial to Georgetown’s success in 2014, none of them was initially expected to be a star. Wiese and his staff did not recruit Rudy until his senior year of high school, and Martz and Rist only began starting and playing regularly in their final seasons at Georgetown.

Of course, the other talent and individual awards on the team cannot be ignored. Georgetown boasted two All-Americans, eight All-Big East selections and two seniors who went on to sign with teams in Major League Soccer. For sophomore defender Joshua Yaro, however, individual success results from the team’s performance.

“When you do something that is not even great, people will think it is great just because of who is around you. Playing with good players makes you a better player,” Yaro said.

For the older members of the team, both the stars and the role players, performing in key moments became the hallmark of the season. Rist’s goal in overtime against Syracuse in the NCAA tournament was one of nine game-winning goals by a junior or senior. That goal would never have happened if not for junior defender and co-captain Keegan Rosenberry’s game-tying goal late in regulation. And of course, Rudy assisted on both.

“I thought it was our older guys, our junior class and our senior class, that really got ahold of the team and said, ‘We aren’t going to allow the team to struggle,’” Wiese said.

Despite finishing the season without any hardware to show for its efforts, Georgetown certainly did not struggle. A 3-1-1 postseason record culminated in a sold-out home game against Virginia for a spot in the NCAA tournament semifinals.

That match ended in heartbreak for the Hoyas.

A last-minute equalizer sent the game to overtime.

Freshman midfielder Arun Basuljevic, who had a breakout season and earned the Big East Rookie of the Year award, missed his penalty kick, and Georgetown’s season ended just short of the College Cup. Even after such a difficult defeat, Yaro finds positivity in Georgetown’s performance.

“That’s one of the games where you come out, and you lost, but it felt like a win. The fact was that we went out as a team and did all we could,” Yaro said. “The silver lining is that it is just going to motivate us to go to the College Cup and hopefully win it next year.”

Despite the loss, the 2,000-plus students and fans that saw Georgetown fall had plenty to be proud of that day. The Hoyas’ performance in overtime after giving up the buzzer-beating equalizer summed up what got the team to the quarterfinals in the first place.

“We came back from being behind against Old Dominion in the tournament. We came back from being behind against Syracuse in the tournament,” Wiese said. “Our guys responded to losing that late goal [against Virginia] really, really well.”

The combination of experienced leadership, top talent and resilience in the face of adversity may have fallen short that day, but the team’s achievements stood out in the realm of Georgetown sports this year.

COURTESY GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

Georgetown’s men’s soccer had a 14-4-5 record in 2014, earning NCAA tournament wins over Old Dominion and Syracuse before falling to Virginia in penalty kicks in the Elite 8.

feature

Hyson, GU Benefit Each Other in Standout Career HYSON, from A12

but one game [as a kid] they just needed someone to pitch, and I halfway pitched,” Hyson said. “Then I just all of a sudden started learning pitching, so I kind of just kept with it.”

Hyson did more than that; she became dominant. In college she regularly pitched late into games and kept her ERA low while giving Georgetown a chance to compete offensively.

According to Hyson, Georgetown did just as much for her as she did for it. She plans on pursuing a career in nursing and credits Conlan with encouraging her to pursue her passions on and off the field.

“I don’t think there would have been another school [where] I would have been that successful, especially doing both school and softball,” Hyson said. “It hasn’t hit me yet — I still think I’m coming back next year.”

There are many who wish she could return once more to the field and lead the charge because of the tremendous impact she had on the Georgetown program.

“She loves to play and you could see that every day of her career. Megan holds numerous records and holds the most honors of anyone who has played here,” Conlan said. “It was a privilege to coach her, and I am so thankful that Megan took a chance on us.”

CLASSIFIEDS NEED A CAR, TRUCK OR SUV? Specializing in Second/ Third Chance Financing!

All vehicles are from 2010 - 2015 -Income must gross a minimum $2k monthly or more -Two current pay stubs & one bill required Call Jason @202.704.8213 Laurel, MD

The Hoya Classifieds Line Ad Rates Regular line classified ads are $0.50 per word.

Optional Extras Bold words: $1.00 per issue. Make individual words or an entire ad stand out.

Large headline: $1.50 per issue. One line of 16-point bold, centered and capitalized.

Two-line large headline: $2.50 per issue.

Boxed ad: $2.00 per issue. Add a one-point box around your ad.

Deadlines & Payment Copy and payment must be received by 12 noon, one business day before publication.

All classified ads must be paid in full at the time of placement. Visa, Mastercard, cash or personal checks are accepted. Cancelled ads may be removed from the paper if notification is made before deadline. No refunds will be given, but the unused portion of the payment will be held as a credit.

For more information, please email classifiedads@thehoya.com

2015 was a milestone year for the Georgetown men’s lacrosse program in many ways. In just his third year on the Hilltop, Head Coach Kevin Warne led the Hoyas to a winning record, a national ranking and an appearance in the Big East Championship.

However, success has not always come easy to the program in recent years; after former Head Coach Dave Urick’s retirement in 2012, Georgetown faced the difficult process of adapting to a different team culture under an entirely new coaching staff.

Urick stepped down after a 23-year tenure marked by 11 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances between 1997 and 2007 and 21 winning seasons. Warne took over with big shoes to fill and many challenges for the seasons to come.

Georgetown struggled in 2013 and 2014, but after two losing seasons and adjustments in strategy and leadership, 2015 was the year to turn it around.

“It’s definitely nice to have a winning season. … We’ve learned from our past and have been able to move forward and succeed,” senior attack Bo Stafford said.

Since the beginning of his time as head coach, Warne has emphasized the importance of his players buying into every part of the program — game strategy, unselfishness and team unity — in order to find success. Warne says this year’s senior class, which is the last class on the team that played for Urick, epitomized this dedication.

“Georgetown lacrosse started way before me. Coach Urick … built an unbelievable foundation for our program, and I’m fortunate enough now to build on top of that foundation. I’m looking forward to the years to come,” Warne said. “I think [our success] started with our senior class this year. They did an awesome job leading us along the way.”

The 2015 senior class was just as fundamental to the

team’s success on the field as it was to cementing team unity off the field. The seniors saw significant time playing time this season, and from the role players to the stat leaders, the class was packed with talent and dedication, as well as a team-first attitude.

“Something we talk about every single week is that it doesn’t matter who gets the credit. As long as we produce, that’s all that matters. I think that starts with our coaching staff,” senior attack Reilly O’Connor said.

Though the Blue and Gray reached the Big East Championship and recorded doubledigit wins for the first time since 2007, the program still has a lot of room to grow. After suffering losses to several ranked teams — including conference rival Denver, the reigning conference champion over the past two seasons — Warne emphasizes that there is still much to accomplish.

“I think we have to look ahead but always learn from our past,” Warne said. “We don’t have it all figured out yet; there’s still probably some different ways of doing things or some different ways for our guys to understand some concepts. We’re going to look at everything we did this year to give our guys the best opportunity to put themselves in the position to win some of those bigger games.”

Those bigger games include the Big East Championship, of course — but Warne has his sights set on something more.

After dropping the conference championship game to Denver May 2, Georgetown waited until the following day to hear the results of the 2015 NCAA Tournament selections — only to find out that its season was over.

“You always want to take the next step,” Warne said.

“Obviously we won a bunch of games this year, which was awesome … but I think that next year the guys will understand that they were pretty disappointed on Sunday night during the [NCAA Tournament] selection show when they didn’t hear their name get called.”

COURTESY GU SPORTS INFORMATION

Head Coach Kevin Warne led the Hoyas to 10 wins.

The road to the 2016 postseason starts now. Warne says that with each training session and each fall ball game, the Hoyas will build off of what this year’s seniors will leave behind.

“Every senior class gets to leave their legacy, and their legacy was to get to the Big East final, which we haven’t been able to do in the past couple years. They leave the program in a great place, and [they] helped to build our future success. … They leave a blueprint for the classes to come,” Warne said.

Georgetown’s future certainly looks bright. The program brings in a new group of experienced seniors and talented underclassmen fresh off of breakout rookie seasons — as well as a promising recruiting class.

Warne says that 2016 holds many opportunities for him to grow alongside his players, the first team that he exclusively has recruited and coached.

“As a coach, it’s pretty simple: I want to get better individually, and the guys all want to get better, and they understand that we did a good job, but it still wasn’t enough. …

It’ll be a brand new season and a brand new team, and we’ll have different leadership. Every team has a life of its own,” Warne said.

SPORTS

Friday, may 15, 2015

THE HOYA

Male Athlete of the Year

A11

Track & Field

With Speed and Skill, Yaro Bolstered Defense Coogan Andrew May Hoya Staff Writer

National acclaim has flooded in for sophomore defender Joshua Yaro after his second season at Georgetown. As part of a series of postseason recognition for the best center back in the country, he was named a Hermann Award Semifinalist, first team All-American and Big East Defensive Player of the Year.

The most important recognition of all came when Major League Soccer and Orlando City SC offered Yaro a chance to leave school early and become the first overall draft pick, which he turned down to return to Georgetown. He is quick to credit his teammates for his success.

“I remember last year, when I turned down the Generation Adidas [contract], one of the things that came up was ‘if you do well individually next year, you should be fine. As long as your team does well.’ It always comes back to the team,” Yaro said.

In soccer, no single player can win games without the 10 other players around him. But no player consistently impacted the game as much as Yaro did this season. His elite speed and ability to cover mistakes — both those of his teammates and, very occasionally, his own — served as the last line of defense between the opposition and senior goal-

keeper Tomas Gomez.

“I trust myself to not panic under [pressure], and I try to be really calm when I play because that is something that is needed in my position as a center back,” Yaro said. “If I make a mistake back there, it is going to go.”

Fortunately for the Hoyas, Yaro rarely made a mistake. Georgetown recorded 10 shutouts, allowing an average of 0.61 goals per game over the course of the season. That number ranked Georgetown eighth in Division I, even after playing one of the most difficult schedules in the country.

Central defenders rarely involve themselves in non-set piece offense, but Yaro’s darting runs from the back have caused fits for opposing defenses. It is a skill that has some experts wondering if he might be better suited to a role as a defender or a midfielder. Meanwhile, fans at Shaw Field have seen his worldclass pace and confident touch render visiting defenders useless.

Yaro’s quickness, skill on the ball and confidence under pressure may make him the most highly rated prospect in college soccer, but his success is not limited to physical talent. Named a team captain for the 2015 season, he has received as much praise for his conduct off the field as he has for his play on it.

“He does everything right,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “His professors love him, his teammates love him [and] his peers love him. He just handles himself really well in all arenas of his life.”

The emphasis Yaro places on academics and obtaining a Georgetown degree has been well documented. He still finds areas of his game to study up on, as well. Having received the title of captain, he wants to improve his leadership and organization on the field.

“I think I can do a lot more getting some of the guys on the field going because I’m often really quiet on the field. As a center back, one of [the] roles is to organize … I feel like I haven’t been doing that a whole lot, which is something I look forward to improving for next season,” Yaro said.

Whether or not he grows into a vocal leadership role — though the safe bet is that he will — Yaro will continue to anchor a back line that enters its third season as a unit. With continuity that most professional teams would envy, Georgetown’s defense will once again be the foundation of its success.

Statistics have a difficult time revealing the importance of individual defenders.

Yaro’s one assist over 23 starts last season hides the fact that he was visibly the best player on the field throughout the year.

Sets Meet Record CHAMPIONSHIPS, from A12

FILE PHOTO: JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA

Sophomore center back Joshua Yaro was an All-American in 2014.

The numbers also do not show his success off the field and in the classroom. In his impressive sophomore season, Yaro achieved at the highest level both as an athlete and as a Georgetown student. For Wiese, he represents the best of Georgetown soccer.

“He is very much emblematic of what you like to get in a player,” Wiese said “He is a poster child for our program, and we are proud to have him be that for us.”

Female Athlete of the Year

Dynamic Corboz Spearheaded GU’s Offense Chris Balthazard Hoya Staff Writer

Senior midfielder Daphne Corboz, lauded as an impressive player for and leader of the Georgetown women’s soccer team in a successful season, will sign with Manchester City Women’s Football Club in the upcoming summer transfer window.

The club, which finished fifth in last season’s eight-team FA WSL 1, the first division of English football, will gain the Big East Midfielder of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, who earned her third All-American nod in her senior season.

Corboz, who was also named Female

FILE PHOTO: DAN GANNON/THE HOYA

Senior midfielder Daphne Corboz is the Hoyas’ all-time leading scorer.

Athlete of the Year after her sophomore season, scored some gorgeous and important goals for the Hoyas, in addition to notching a single-season schoolrecord 18 assists en route to an 11-5-6 overall record and appearances in the Big East tournament final and the second round of the NCAA championship.

She leaves the Hilltop as the all-time leader in points and goals for Georgetown women’s soccer.

“I’m very excited to be joining Manchester City,” Corboz said. “Obviously, I’m really sad to be leaving Georgetown, but I’m fortunate to have an opportunity that I’m really looking forward to.”

Before joining up with the Manchester City squad when its season resumes in July, Corboz will travel to Norway with the United States U-23 team to play against Sweden, Norway and England in the Four Nations Tournament.

Georgetown Head Coach Dave Nolan believes City will provide Corboz with a good place to start her professional soccer career, as the up-and-coming program looks to begin challenging for the Champions League places in the next couple years.

“Manchester City, much like their men’s program, are the most ambitious women’s program over there,” Nolan said. “Their facilities are probably better than any of the MLS men’s programs here, and I’ve seen them up close.”

Corboz said that during her time as a

1 6 5 6

9 9

3

5 8 9

7 2

3 6

9

7

4 2 4 8 1 5

5

Last issue’s solutions

6 8 5 1

work ethic, and the desire to get better, that Daphne has.”

Nolan also said that he has never coached a player better than Corboz.

“I’m going to miss her on and off the field; she’s such a great kid,” Nolan said.

“If you watch some of the last 15 minutes [of the Barcelona-Bayern Munich Champions League semifinal first leg], if you watch some of Messi’s goals … there are certain players that just excite you, whether you’re a coach or a fan or a player. And Daphne was one of those.”

Corboz leaves the program in good hands, especially with a rising sophomore defensive corps consisting of defenders Drew Topor and Liz Wenger and midfielders Taylor Pak and Chloe Knott. Corboz’s own sister, Rachel, excelled this season as an offensive midfielder as a freshman and will look to carry on the Corboz legacy for the next three seasons.

In a moment of reflection, Corboz also noted that she has grown as a person through her time on the soccer team, as well as a player.

“Over the past four years, the experiences on the field, whether it be going to Big East finals or qualifying for NCAAs, situations that you have to deal with [regarding] teammates, and balancing everything academically and athletically … I’ve definitely matured a lot more, and I’ve learned a lot since I was a freshman,” Corboz said.

Women’s Lacrosse

SUDOKU

1 4 3

Hoya her confidence has grown significantly and her game has evolved for the better.

“I think I’ve improved exponentially here at Georgetown,” Corboz said. “Playing with some great players, learning from them, competing with them every day, and then obviously having the instruction from Dave, has really been beneficial to my development. … Technically speaking, soccer-wise, Dave has helped me a lot with playing bigger.

I came here and just liked to combine and dribble, and Dave really showed me how important it is to open up the game.”

Many inferior teams this season attempted to stifle the Georgetown offense by packing their players in front of the goal and playing defensively; Corboz often provided the creative spark to break down their defenses, providing a bit of brilliance to change the game.

Nolan noted that even after the end of the Hoyas’ spring practices and matches, Corboz’s competitiveness and fire remain apparent.

“Daph has always been someone who leads by example,” Nolan said.

“She’s always been someone who works hard. This week alone, I’ve been coming in to work at 7:30 a.m.-8:00 a.m. in the morning to get some things done, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen her out on the field in the morning. … I’ve never met anyone who had the

2 9 1 3 7 4 9 2

4 1 7 5 3 8 2 9 5 7 6 4 6 8 3 9 2 1 7 4 8 6 5 3 3 6 2 1 9 7 9 5 1 8 4 2

4 5 7 3

8 6

3 8 2 6 9 4

5 1 2 9 4 7 6 1 5 7 4 3 8 9 7 8 3 6 2 1 5

7 Hoyas Earn AllBig East Recognition HUSKIES, from A12

once, didn’t quite tie it the second time and fell just short at the end of the day.”

The loss does not diminish the Hoyas’ remarkable late-season accomplishments. A deep senior class, including attacks Sammy Giordano and Caroline Tarzian and defenders Adrianne Devine and Megan Marinelli, led the Hoyas throughout the season, particularly in times of adversity. Devine and Tarzian earned All-Big East First Team honors, Devine receiving the honor unanimously.

“The seniors really kept the team together, and I’ve said this a number of times, but we started off really poorly and people could have checked out and packed up. They were able to stay focused and were rewarded with that championship at the end of the season,” Fried said.

Bandos also earned All-Big East First Team recognition, and Marinelli, junior attack Corinne Etchison and sophomore goalkeeper Maddy Fisher earned Second Team honors.

Individual recognition reflected the strong play of several of the team’s standouts, particularly in conference play, but Bandos was more focused on the Hoyas’ resilience as a group.

“I think the one thing that helped us the most was even after we went on a losing streak, we didn’t let that affect the rest of our season,” Bandos said. “We went into the Big East knowing that we could win the regular season, go on to the championship and get into the NCAA tournament. I think we used that and got our first goal of winning in the regular season.”

It will be difficult to replace the nine graduating seniors, but Fried

FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA

Junior midfielder Kristen Bandos led the Hoyas with 29 goals in 2015. is optimistic about the program’s future. The Hoyas will bring in nine freshmen next season to bolster the roster, and will return several standouts from this season, including Fisher, Etchison and Bandos.

“It’s going to be a whole new dynamic with a loss of nine seniors and nine freshmen coming in. That’s the biggest challenge in the fall, to bring that group of people together to form a team while focusing on the lacrosse aspect,” Fried said.

Adjusting a team’s lineup to replace graduated players is always difficult, but Fried, who just earned his seventh Big East regular-season title, seems well equipped to lead the program to continued success. Fried has a 124-77 overall record in his 11 seasons as Georgetown’s head coach and has won more games than any other coach in program history.

Hoya Staff Writer Claire Schansinger contributed to reporting.

and Field Coach Pat Henner, it is these types of races that are most important.

“I think for us, as a program that revolves around the NCAA meet, we’re not really going to look as much at the team results rather than how we ran in our individual events,” Henner said.

Freshman Piper Donaghu, sophomore Heather Martin and sophomore Emma Keenan finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively in the women’s 800m finals. Freshman Aleta Looker and sophomore Jocelyn Hubbard joined Martin and Donaghu later in the 4x800m event, in which they finished first with a time of 8:39.98. The men also won their 4x800m relay, with a team comprised of sophomores Amos Bartelsmeyer and Ahmed Bile and juniors Cole Williams and Andrew Ogle.

“That’s an event area we take a lot of pride in, and we’re arguably one of the best teams in the country in that event,” Henner said of the Hoyas’ performance in the 4x800m.

Besides the victories in the 4x800m, one of the key highlights of the meet was senior Katrina Coogan’s first-place finish in the women’s 1500m, setting a meet record of 4.13.70. Coogan beat out the second-place finisher, Villanova’s Siofra Cleirigh Buttner, by nearly 10 seconds. Coogan’s time beat the record previously held by Georgetown’s Maggie Infield (4:16.37), which was set in 2009.

“That was my first track individual championship that I’ve won in my time at Georgetown, so it was really special to be able to do that for the first time,” Coogan said.

“My coach and I decided that I wanted to run it hard from the front to try and drop the other people in the race.”

KATRINA COOGAN Senior Runner

Henner did not hesitate to praise Coogan’s victory.

“I would say Katrina Coogan had the best performance of the meet,” Henner said.

Coogan led the race from start to finish, executing her preferred strategy to perfection.

“My coach and I decided that I wanted to run it hard from the front to try and drop the other people in the race, and so I just led it from the very beginning and tried to run as hard as I could leading it by myself, and I was able to do that, so I was happy with it,” Coogan said.

Another impressive individual performance came from freshman Joe White, who won the 800m with a time of 1:49.38. As a freshman competing in his first outdoor track championships, White’s victory is quite impressive. He sealed his victory with a burst of speed in the final stretch of the race.

“We initially wanted to go out pretty slow, and just let the Villanova boys take over the race, and follow in their footsteps,” White said. “In the last 150 meters, we were supposed to work off them, and just accelerate through the last 150 really well, and I feel like me and my friends did that.”

Graduate student Billy Ledder finished second in the 800m, and Bile finished fourth. In addition, Sophomore Ryan Gil finished first in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase with a time of 8:58.67.

The Georgetown men finished first in the 4x400m relay thanks to the efforts of Ledder, White, sophomore Nate Gordon and sophomore Daniel Anderson.

“It’s nice being able to win those races, because it’s real team-oriented.

The crowd is always the loudest for the relays, so it’s nice winning those,” White said.

Villanova’s victory marks the ninth time that the Wildcats have completed a “track double,” winning both the Big East indoor championships as well as the outdoor championships in the same calendar year.

“They have some big time quality athletes in distance and middle distance,” Henner said of Villanova.

“They’ve got a great program.”

Georgetown’s program has a bright future, as several accomplished runners, including White and Coogan, who has an extra year of eligibility because of a redshirt, will return for at least one more season. Still, the team will have to replace several important members of the program.

“I think that [the seniors] are a really good group of leaders, and the people under them have some pretty big shoes to fill,” White said.

SPORTS

Baseball Georgetown (24-24, 7-8) vs. Seton Hall (22-25, 7-8) Friday, 1 p.m.

South Orange, N.J.

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

WOMEN’S SOCCER Senior midfielder Daphne Corboz will sign with Manchester City in June.

See A11

TALKING POINTS

“

NUMBERS GAME

I don’t think there would have been another school [where] I would have been that successful.”

SENIOR PITCHER MEGAN HYSON

7

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

TRACK & FIELD

Close Loss Ends Winning Streak TYLER PARK

Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team suffered a blowout 18-4 loss at the hands of the Florida Gators on April 4, dropping its record to 1-9. At the time, the Gators and the Hoyas seemed like the furthest thing from equals.

Yet at the end of the season, that’s exactly what they were, as Georgetown turned its season around almost overnight, reeling off five consecutive Big East wins to equal No. 11 Florida’s 6-1 conference record and earn a share of the Big East regular season title.

The Hoyas’ strong performance late in the season earned them the second seed in the Big East tournament, which was a significant accomplishment after the team’s slow start. In the semifinals, however, the Hoyas’ win streak ended in a hard-fought 1110 loss to third-seeded Connecticut (11-7, 5-2 Big East) in Storrs, Conn.

Sophomore attack Colleen Lovett led Georgetown with four goals and three assists, and junior midfielder Kristen Bandos added two goals to finish her season with a team-leading total of 29.

The game featured a number of scoring runs. UConn took an early 4-1 lead before Georgetown responded

The number of seasons since Georgetown’s men’s lacrosse team last had double-digit wins.

The Hoyas won 10 games in 2015.

with four goals, two by Lovett, to retake the lead. The Huskies then went on an extended 7-2 run to take an 11-7 lead, but the Hoyas staged a late comeback. Bandos’ goal with 2:14 left to play brought Georgetown to within one goal, but it was unable to complete the comeback.

“It didn’t go the way we thought it was going to go, but it was kind of predictable. If we allowed them to get out in transition we knew they could get their goals,” Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “We’re proud of the way our team fought; we fought back twice from three goal deficits, tied it See HUSKIES, A11

COURTESY GU SPORTS INFORMATION

Freshman Joe White won the 800-meter race and was part of Georgetown’s 4x400-meter relay team, which also finished first.

GU Finishes 4th, 5th In Conference Meet MADELINE AUERBACH Hoya Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO: CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA

Sophomore attack Colleen Lovett led Georgetown with four goals and three assists in the team’s 11-10 loss to thirdseeded Connecticut in the semifinals of the Big East tournament. Lovett had 21 goals and 12 assists this season.

SUPERLATIVES JOSHUA YARO, A11

No-Hitter in Finale Caps Pitching Career Hoya Staff Writer

DAPHNE CORBOZ, A11

FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR MEN’S SOCCER, A10

TEAM OF THE YEAR KEVIN WARNE, A10

COACH OF THE YEAR TOP THREE: FILE PHOTO: JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA BOTTOM: COURTESY GU SPORTS INFORMATION

See CHAMPIONSHIPS, A11

FEATURE

JULIANA ZOVAK

MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Although the Georgetown outdoor track and field teams swept the 4x800 meter events and grabbed two individual titles at the 2015 Big East Championships, the Hoyas finished fourth out of seven teams on the men’s side and fifth of eight teams on the women’s side.

The Villanova Wildcats won the meet on both the men’s and women’s sides, scoring 243 and 247 points, respectively. Marquette came in second for both

teams with 183 points for the men and 138 points for the women. DePaul (164), Georgetown (114), Xavier (68), Providence (53) and Butler (23) rounded out the rest of the men’s field, while St. John’s (130), DePaul (124), Georgetown (72), Providence (62), Butler (45) and Xavier (35) made up the remainder of the women’s rankings.

Despite a middling overall finish, Georgetown runners submitted multiple impressive individual performances. According to Track

It was the kind of moment every kid dreams about. Even if it had been scripted, it could not have been much better. With three outs to go, Georgetown senior pitcher Megan Hyson retired the last three Seton Hall batters in order to complete a no-hitter and record her final win, a performance that brought meaning back to a largely forgettable season for Georgetown softball.

Hyson led the Blue and Gray (1532, 5-14 Big East) to a 7-1 victory to close out the season, striking out six batters and recording only one walk en route to the second no-hitter of her career. But she did not even realize how good she had been until the game was over.

“I had no idea because I remember people being on base and I thought that one girl got a hit,” Hyson said. “I found out because one of the parents came up to me and congratulated me, and the coach on the other team said something.

That’s when I figured out I had the no-hitter.”

The only blemish came in the fourth inning, when Seton Hall capitalized on a walk and an error to score an unearned run. But Georgetown came out swinging, scoring two runs in the first inning on the way to seven overall. Hyson helped herself out by providing production at the plate, driving in three runs.

“Not only did I think Megan had a great game in the circle, I think we as a team played one of our best games of the year,” Head Coach Pat Conlan said. “We played the Seton Hall weekend the way I believed we could play all year.”

For her efforts, Hyson was named Big East Pitcher of the Week, recording a 0.81 ERA over the weekend in 17 innings.

It was an emotional game for Hyson, playing the last game of her collegiate career in a season when Georgetown, selected in the preseason to finish third in the Big East, instead finished last and failed to make the tournament.

“The season wasn’t exactly the way I wanted it to turn out, because I felt like this year was going to be the year we were going to win the Big East tournament,” Hyson said.

But her teammates did not let her down.

“The team chemistry was awe-

some at the end, and everybody got along, and I think that’s why it made it so upsetting at the last game,” Hyson said. “But it was good that we got the win at the end, end our season on a good note.”

It was a brilliant close to a brilliant career. Hyson won 11 games this season and recorded a 3.19 ERA with 182 strikeouts. Over her four years, she struck out 596 batters. In her junior campaign, Hyson was named to the All-Big East Second Team after leading the Hoyas in multiple batting categories as

well as on the mound, recording a 2.36 ERA. Hyson received Big East Pitcher of the Week honors twice last year.

“She is one of the best to wear our Hoya uniform,” Conlan said. “She could do it with her bat and on the mound, which you do not see much anymore. Most pitchers today just focus on their craft.”

Maybe it is because Hyson didn’t always see herself as a pitcher.

“I didn’t always want to be a pitcher, See HYSON, A10

FILE PHOTO: JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA

Senior pitcher Megan Hyson threw a no-hitter in the final start of her collegiate career against Seton Hall.

She struck out six batters, allowed only one walk and drove in three runs as a hitter in her team’s 7-1 win.

Visit us online at thehoya.com/sports