As a graduate student working with African-American children in poor communities in Tennessee, Noni Gaylord-Harden, PhD, was struck by the fact that, even with exposure to multiple stressors, some kids did succeed.

“I started looking into factors that might explain why some kids become successful despite [such hardships],” she says. “I began to focus on the strengths and assets embedded in African-American families and communities that could buffer the effects of stressors.” These included coping strategies, parent-child relationships, and a strong extended-family network.

While conducting research on teens from under-resourced communities on Chicago’s south and west sides, Gaylord-Harden has found that stress caused by such challenges as poverty, community violence, and school struggles has a negative effect on children’s functioning, but less than might be predicted.

“Anxiety and depression are not as high as you might expect, and we’re exploring why that might be the case,” she says. “We’re also finding that some strategies typically considered to be maladaptive are actually adaptive. Avoidance, for instance. … If you understand how to stay away from dangerous people and places, you’re going to do better.”

What interests Gaylord-Harden is how positive adult-child relationships can encourage effective coping. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul, and the University of Virginia, she is developing an intervention that uses mentors to teach youth effective coping.

“We know that kids cope better when they have a supportive relationship with adults,” she says, “and we’re using mentoring relationships to support the coping efforts.”

Studying how African-American culture may influence youth’s response to stress can sometimes be controversial in the psychology community, Gaylord-Harden says, but she feels it makes an important contribution.

“Psychology has an interesting history with race,” she says. “Research has long been conducted with white middle-class kids and the findings generalized to everyone. Most research on youth of color has focused on the deficit model—there’s an expectation that if there were differences between African-American and other youth, they were viewed as deficits.”

“Now we’ve begun to challenge those beliefs and think about the strengths and assets of African-American youth and families that have been largely ignored,” Gaylord-Harden says. “We’re saying that within any cultural group there are going to be ways that people navigate their environment that are different from other cultural groups.”

Gaylord-Harden recently received a two-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how African-American and Latino boys in urban neighborhoods process the violence around them—specifically, to see if they become desensitized to it.

“A lot of people are interested in ways to stop community violence, and with desensitization, it’s believed that kids become emotionally numb to what they see,” she says. “Instead of showing distress, they actually show higher levels of violence and aggression. So we’re trying to figure out how and when to intervene and who is most at risk.”

Whether she is conducting research or teaching Loyola students the importance of viewing psychology as a science, Gaylord-Harden wants to make an impact. Top on her list is moving increasingly into school and community intervention work.

“I don’t want our research findings to just sit in scientific journals. Nobody reads those but us,” she says. “Let’s take our findings and figure out how they can be used to develop effective interventions for young people.”

Learn more about Loyola’s Department of Psychology here.

Elizabeth Matelski, PhD,had ties to St. Ignatius of Loyola before she had ever heard of Loyola University Chicago. Her hometown of St. Ignace, Michigan was named after St. Ignatius of Loyola when a Jesuit priest decreed the location as a missionary site. Now, Matelski has earned her doctorate in 19th- and 20th-century American history with a double minor in public history and women and gender history in 2011 from Loyola and is teaching history full-time at Loyola as a post-doctoral fellow.

Matelski credits her hometown, which is one of the oldest settlements in the country, as playing an integral part in helping her develop her love for history.

“While other kids were going on field trips to Six Flags and Cedar Point, we went to museums and historical reenactment sites. Really from a young age, [history] has been embedded as a culture of my hometown,” Matelski says.

This interest in history led Matelski to Loyola, which she said appealed to her because of its well-received public history program and the fact that professors offered courses on pop culture and women and gender studies. Matelski wrote her dissertation on the feminine body and beauty ideals in the post-war era.

“I started off with Marilyn Monroe. I’ve always been interested in the history of film, and Marilyn Monroe was probably one of the most complicated actresses of the post-war period. I wanted to look at how in a span of less than a decade our culture went from idolizing these voluptuous, busty blondes and then that suddenly seemed outdated, and now what is really in vogue is these really thin high-fashion models, coming after the British model Twiggy. I was curious about answering that question of how we went from one extreme to the next,” Matelski says.

Now, Matelski teaches two history courses at Loyola, American pluralism and history of U.S. sexuality.

“I just kind of caught the teaching bug and saw a real opportunity to affect a lot of people, including undergrads, and an opportunity to impart the import of history into contemporary lives,” Matleksi says.

In her teaching experiences, she says she finds a clear distinction between Loyola students and other college students in their desire to learn and continue to use that knowledge to create change in the world.

“The students are what sets Loyola apart from other schools I’ve taught at. There’s a real curiosity and passion for learning and for applying it to real-world situations. I think that really comes from the Jesuit pedagogy and the Jesuit ideals to do something with one’s education and to apply it to the real world as opposed to this never-ending struggle for a passing grade,” she says.

History is something Matelski sees as inherently valuable, both in the practical sense of navigating the job market and the broader sense of understanding the course of human civilization.

“History matters, and in particular today where the job market does seem really scary and you need practical skills. History certainly can import those practical skills: critical thinking, writing, communicating, being able to support an argument,” says Matelski. “Also, just the fact that the content matters as well; we can’t understand where we’re going and what the future holds for us if we don’t know where we have been.”

Elizabeth Esparza; Amy Bohnert, PhD; Jacob Marshall; and Natalia Hajnas traveled to Honduras to conduct research about mental health.

It was the culmination of a year of work when seniors Natalia Hajnas, Jacob Marshall, Elizabeth Esparza, and associate professor of clinical psychology Amy Bohnert, PhD, went to Honduras in March of this year. They had spent the year coming up with a research proposal to examine depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and spirituality among rural Hondurans and forging connections that would help get them into Honduras.

“Virtually nothing is known about these issues including by those who are providing medical care for these patients,” says Bohnert.

Hajnas and Marshall have worked in Bohnert’s lab since their freshman year. The idea for the project was Hajnas’s. She had been on several Global Medical Brigades trips in the past (two in Panama and one in Honduras) and was looking for a way to do more for the people the organization serves.

“The one thing that stood out to me was pain and why people experience it,“ Hajnas says. “It’s not always physical. What if physical pain was exacerbated by mental illness or stress?” Marshall had also gone on a Global Brigades trip, and, like Hajnas, he believes that health should be looked at from a physical and a mental angle.

Getting the project off the ground was daunting.

“I did not know what to expect,” Hajnas says. “At first it seemed too big to handle—my idea for what I wanted to do. I didn’t know how I’d be able to.” Hajnas had never conducted research in another country before. “It was a slow start,” she says.

The Loyolans met with Global Medical Brigades’s co-founder and CPO, Dr. Shital Vora, who was excited about their interest in mental health. They then worked closely with Global Medical Brigades personnel in Honduras to prepare and coordinate data collection efforts. The project also received a research support grant from Loyola’s Office of Research Services. Under the supervision of a fourth-year clinical psychology graduate student, Amanda Ward, and Bohnert, the undergraduates created a survey to address their questions using recently developed NIH-sponsored instruments.

In March, Bohnert, Esparza, Hajnas, and Marshall went to the rural mountainous region of El Canton. They surveyed 131 adults, ages 18-90, who were seeking medical services provided by Global Medical Brigades. The interviewers asked about pain and its relationship to mental health, as well as about spirituality and religiosity. They asked about symptoms of anxiety and depression, daily work load, stresses related to parenting, and social support.

Marshall says the experience was a new and valuable one. “In the past I’ve worked off previously collected data; this was the first time I collected my own,” he says. “This was a top-to-bottom research project, and I’m grateful to have been involved from the beginning.”

Preliminary findings suggest that those who reported higher levels of social isolation had more symptoms of depression and anxiety, and that those reporting higher social satisfaction had fewer symptoms. The survey found no direct relationship between spirituality and depressive symptoms, but it did indicate that spirituality may serve to buffer the relationship between various stressors and anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Bohnert plans to present these findings at a conference and publish several papers with these students. “I have never been more proud to be a member of Loyola’s faculty than I was watching these students,” Bohnert says. “It was inspiring to be able to see this project that they were so invested in for years come to fruition.”

Story courtesy of Loyola magazine (Spring 2013).

This year’s Founders’ Dinner will honor 13 awardees.

Registration for the 2013 Founders’ Dinner, to be held Saturday, June 8, is now open. The annual dinner, which benefits the University Scholarship Fund, pays tribute to the men and women who have shown commitment to strengthening Loyola’s legacy as a superior institution of higher education. Thirteen awardees will be honored at this year’s ceremony.

2013 Award Recipients:

• Coffey Award - Dr. Elaine M. Schuster, BA ’68
• Felice Award - John J. Kurowski, JFRC ’73–’74, BA ’75

Damen Award Winners:

• College of Arts and Sciences - Jacqueline E. Taylor, BA ’73
• Quinlan School of Business - John G. Iberle, BBA ’75, JFRC ’73–’74
• School of Communication - Brian P. McIntyre, BA ’72
• School of Continuing and Professional Studies - Alicia T. Vega, BS ’96, MJ ’99
• School of Education - Shelley M. Nizynski-Reese, MEd ’05
• The Graduate School - Dr. Marsha M. Linehan, BS ’68, MA ’70, PhD ’71
• School of Law - The Honorable Virginia M. Kendall, JD ‘92
• Stritch School of Medicine - Dr. Judith A. Neafsey, BSN ’73, MD ‘78
• Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing - Dr. Ida M. Androwich, BSN ’78
• Institute of Pastoral Studies - Rev. Jimmie L. Flewellen, MPS ‘83
• School of Social Work - Robert M. Adams, MSW ‘95

The evening begins at 6 p.m. with cocktails in the new Arnold J. Damen, S.J., Student Center and dinner will follow at 7 p.m. in the Joseph J. Gentile Arena.

To purchase your tickets, click here. For more information, call 1.800.256.9652, e-mail FoundersDinner@luc.edu, or visit LUC.edu/founders.

It’s an age-old question, but it never fails to stump hungry patrons: “What’s for dinner?” When Justin Massa (BA ’01) created Food Genius in 2011, he sought to help customers answer that same question.

It’s simple for anyone with an Internet connection to find lists of local restaurants by their type: Italian, Chinese, bar food. But Massa approached the problem in a unique way: by focusing on the meal, not the restaurant.

“We were trying to come up with a Netflix for food. The idea was that we would look at restaurants, look at menus, understand the attributes of their items, and then help customers find a dish, instead of a restaurant,” he says. “You can’t eat a restaurant; you have to eat a dish.”

Food Genius got its start as a mobile app for Android and iPhone cell phones. Users (who could download it for free) entered their favorite dishes, and received a list of other local options that were similar. However, Massa and co-founders Eric Cooper, Eli Rosenberg, and Benjamin Stanley quickly realized that they wanted to take Food Genius in a different direction.

“We realized that the business of what we were doing was in the data itself, and built a product around the data.”

The new Food Genius Reports, released in January of this year, offers food industry professionals restaurant menu data and analysis. The software, designed to provide a visual and intuitive display of data (most of which is provided to Food Genius by Chicago company GrubHub), has been described as offering an “incredible analysis of current ingredient-specific data.”

“We pay attention to the entire world of food all the time. That gives us the ability to
very quickly provide perspective and context when somebody comes up with a new idea, but more importantly it gives us the ability to sort the signal from the noise,” Massa claims. “We don’t see it as our job to tell you what the trend is, we see it as our job to give you the set of tools to understand which trends matter to your business.”

Massa, who graduated with an undergraduate degree in political science and later earned his MA in teaching at National-Louis University, never imagined himself as a CEO.

“When I look back on it, I’ve always started things. I do something and get frustrated that it doesn’t work, and I start something else—that’s my personality. While I was at Loyola, I started a radio show on WLUW and a campus group.”

Massa is quick to credit Loyola for preparing him to be a business leader.

“Loyola instilled in me an intellectual curiosity,” he says, a curiosity he claims is necessary for all entrepreneurs. He also cites his time on the debate team as invaluable. “I learned how to do quality research, extract the most important information, and effectively communicate that information.”

Concerning the future of Food Genius, Massa has an open mind.

“The next six months for us are really all about proving Food Genius as a product and building a customer base for it. Once we do that, there are a couple of different paths we may take as to what we do next.”

Story courtesy of Loyola magazine (Spring 2013).

Inside Loyola student writers: (L to R) Ashton Mitchell, Akanksha Jayanthi, and Rianne Coale

The end of the school year is upon us, and with it comes the end of a run for three of Inside Loyola’s outstanding student journalists: Akanksha Jayanthi, Ashton Mitchell, and Rianne Coale. Today, we want to introduce you to the faces behind many of the excellent feature stories and profiles that you’ve been reading in Inside Loyola.

Akanksha Jayanthi, a member of the Inside Loyola team since August 2012, will graduate with honors this week with a BA in journalism and Spanish and an international studies minor. In addition to her time at Inside Loyola, Akanksha served as editor-in-chief of Compass, a new online alumni magazine affiliated with the School of Communication advanced reporting class. Akanksha has also served as a peer tutor at the Writing Center, a Spanish tutor at the Center for Tutoring and Academic Excellence, a staff writer for the Loyola Phoenix, and an editorial intern at Fronteras, a weekly Spanish-language publication affiliated with The Columbus Dispatch. Akanksha is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Alpha Sigma Nu, a four-year Loyola academic scholarship recipient, and a consistent member of both the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Communication dean’s lists. On the fun fact side, Akanksha is a hockey enthusiast and an avid supporter of her hometown Columbus Blue Jackets (we’re doing what we can to get her to jump on the Blackhawks bandwagon). Following graduation, Akanksha will pursue a career in the publishing industry. Of course we’re biased, but some company will be very lucky to have her writing/editing skills.

Ashton Mitchell, also a member of the Inside Loyola team since August 2012, will graduate with honors this week with a BA in communication studies. During her Loyola experience, Ashton has served as the disability news intern at WLS-TV (Chicago’s ABC affiliate), a Loyola student ambassador, a storytelling workshop member for Chicago Public Media, an intern with WTTW-TV’s Chicago Tonight news program, and a reporter for WLUW-FM’s Lunchtime News radio program. Ashton is also the president of Loyola’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter, a student advisor for the School of Communication Dean’s Advisory Council, and an inductee of Loyola’s Alpha Kappa Psi (a professional business fraternity) chapter. Next week, Ashton will join WBBM-TV (Chicago’s CBS affiliate) as a desk associate, where she will work the station’s assignment desk following up on breaking stories, writing scripts, handling production work, conducting interviews, and more. A Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native, Ashton is a self-proclaimed “news addict,” and one of the more driven students we’ve had the fortune of working with in University Marketing and Communication.

Rianne Coale, a member of the Inside Loyola team since summer 2012 and a rising senior, is moving on this week to pursue new internship opportunities that will further her development as a journalist. In addition to her work with Inside Loyola, Rianne’s honed her journalism skills through a number of positions, including editor of the Loyola Student Dispatch, sports writer for the Loyola Phoenix, and news anchor for the Rambler Sports Locker, the University’s student-run sports television show that she co-founded. In her spare time, of which she doesn’t have much thanks to a retail job she also holds, Rianne serves as part of the 2012–13 Loyola 45 Kings ensemble, an on-campus improv team. Rianne was recently honored at the April School of Communication Honors Reception and Student Showcase, where she was named the recipient of the Jim Gibbons Broadcast Scholarship, Walkowicz Scholarship, and a School of Communication scholarship. Rianne has a bright future in either print or broadcast journalism and we’re excited for her as she spends the next academic year preparing for her life after Loyola.

All of us at University Marketing and Communication are proud of these three excellent students and we’re grateful for all the wonderful stories they produced as our interns. Each of them brought a unique personality and work ethic to our department and we’ll miss their professionalism, experience, enthusiasm, passion, and laughter (lots of laughter!). Good luck to the three of you!

Dear Colleagues,

Father Garanzini and I wish to share the good news that Michael E. Dantley, EdD, of Miami University in Ohio, has been named the new dean of the School of Education (SOE). Dr. Dantley succeeds Terry E. Williams, PhD, acting dean, who will return to the faculty in the School of Education later this summer.

Dr. Dantley has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, including academic appointments in the School of Education, Health and Society at Miami University and, more recently, university leadership positions at Miami. From 2004–2008 Dr. Dantley served as interim associate dean and, subsequently, associate dean of Miami’s School of Education, Health and Society. From 2008–2011 he served as Miami University’s associate provost and associate vice president for academic affairs. Currently, Dr. Dantley serves as the chair of the Department of Educational Leadership in Miami’s School of Education, Health and Society. In addition, Dr. Dantley’s professional experience includes more than a decade of both teaching and administrative appointments, including principalships, in the Cincinnati public school system. As associate provost and associate vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Dantley had responsibility for the supervision of student academic services, including admission, advising, and retention. He also co-directed a university-wide initiative on undergraduate retention, developed an evaluation process for departmental program reviews, and served on both the University’s Council of Academic Deans and its Senate. As associate dean, Dr. Dantley directed processes for faculty searches and hiring, faculty promotion and tenure, and faculty development. He also served on the school’s NCATE Steering Committee and directed graduate programs for the division.

Dr. Dantley holds a BA in history and education from the University of Pennsylvania, a MEd in educational leadership from Miami University in Ohio, and an EdD in educational administration from the University of Cincinnati. An accomplished scholar, Dr. Dantley currently serves on the editorial boards of a number of educational journals, including the Journal of School Leadership and Education and Urban Society. His research interests focus on leadership, spirituality, and social justice, and he is currently pursuing research that explores new ways to conduct qualitative research and spirituality and the link between principals’ moral development and the ways these principals define and demonstrate their commitment to social justice. Dr. Dantley will officially begin his appointment at Loyola on July 1, 2013.

Father Garanzini and I wish to extend our sincere appreciation to the search committee, chaired by Dr. Donald Heider, dean of the School of Communication, for its diligent work in identifying a highly qualified pool of candidates. Search committee members included Justin Daffron, S.J., associate provost for academic services and strategic initiatives; Wendy Johnson, program coordinator in the SOE; Dr. Therese Pigott, SOE professor and associate dean of academic programs; SOE alumnus Dr. Harry Rossi (EdD ’85); Dr. Ann Marie Ryan, SOE associate professor; Jennifer Shah, SOE graduate student; Adam Shorter, business manager, Office of the Provost; Dr. Anita Thomas, SOE associate professor; and Dr. Darrell Wheeler, dean of the School of Social Work. The committee was assisted by Dennis Barden, a consultant with the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer.

Please join me in welcoming Michael Dantley in his new leadership role at Loyola University Chicago.

Sincerely,

John Pelissero, PhD
Provost

Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, PhD, didn’t always know she wanted to be an anthropologist. Gomberg-Muñoz, assistant professor at Loyola and an applied anthropologist who focuses on migration issues, says she got interested in her field in a roundabout kind of way.

“I started waitressing at 16, and almost every place without exception had workers who were undocumented immigrants,” says Gomberg-Muñoz. “I stumbled across anthropology by reading things. It seemed like a field where I could explore migration more fully.”

As an applied anthropologist, Gomberg-Muñoz researches and works with the immigrant community with the higher aim of understanding how to help this population and serve their needs. When she was a doctorate candidate at University of Illinois at Chicago, Gomberg-Muñoz wrote her dissertation, “Labor and Legality,” as an ethnography on the network of undocumented restaurant workers in Chicago. Her current research is a three-year, National Science Foundation funded study on Latin American immigrants in Chicago who want to adjust their legal status. This project is specifically focused on understanding how people navigate the legal process and how their lives change, if at all.

She says that Chicago is a great place for this type of research because of the high immigrant population.

“My research has been geographically rooted in Chicago. There are many activists in the immigration rights movement, and it is one of the few places that has this large undocumented population. It makes Chicago a bit unusual in that regard,” she says.

Being in a city like Chicago makes it easy for people to get involved in this movement.

“That’s one of the great things about Chicago, all the opportunities,” says Gomberg-Muñoz. “The most effective way of becoming part of a movement is getting plugged into the information cycle. You can join immigration rights groups and go to all the events. It is an important display of solidarity.”

As a professor at Loyola, Gomberg-Muñoz says she feels a lot of support from the University and the community that she hasn’t necessarily found elsewhere.

“I feel very empowered to do the four things I love most. There is intellectual and institutional support for the research that I do. There is a lot of community work, and the institution supports and respects that kind of work. There is also a lot of support for teaching. The fourth is all that can be balanced with being a parent,” says Gomberg-Muñoz. “I feel really lucky.”

Kick off the summer months by stopping into the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) for a whirlwind look of art from across the world. This May, LUMA is featuring a handful of lectures that explore different elements of art and spirituality, each one focusing on a different region of the world.

“We hope [peoples' minds] are stimulated and that they have a better understanding of the roles that LUMA can play in their lives,” says Ann Meehan, curator of education at LUMA.

She adds that these exhibitions demonstrate how Jesuit values can be evident in everyday life.

“For example, the ‘Tea with the Jesuits’ program gives participants the chance to meet with a Jesuit intellectual and it speaks to one of the missions of the University: social justice. So we fulfill both the LUMA mission and the University mission with these programs,” Meehan says.

On May 3, Kevin Flaherty, S.J., director of Jesuit formation at Loyola, will host “Tea with the Jesuits” from 3-4:30 p.m. Fr. Flaherty will discuss the history of a Jesuit-staffed urban parish in Lima, Peru that hosts a largely immigrant population and how the ministries addressed the need of this specific population. Fr. Flaherty himself worked with this parish for 20 years. The lecture is free with museum admission.

The magnificence of the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay can overshadow some of the smaller and more intimate galleries in Paris. On May 7, at 6 p.m., LUMA is featuring “Small Museums of Paris: Musées Moreau, Rodin, and Zadkine,” where Christophe Boïcos, Parisian gallerist and professor of art history in American universities abroad, will talk about these smaller museums that are each dedicated to a single artist. Often times these small museums are housed in the artist’s own residence and studio, so patrons can experience the art in its place of origin. Boïcos will look at the museums and works of Gustave Moreau, Auguste Rodin, and Ossip Zadkine and how these artists attempted to bring spiritual and mythical values back to art. “Small Museums of Paris” is $15 for general admission and $5 for members and Loyola students, staff, and faculty.

On May 14, art historian and Loyola alumna Michelle Paluch-Mishur, PhD, will give a presentation called “Chagall’s America Windows: Theme and Process” that looks at Marc Chagall’s stained glass windows in the Art Institute of Chicago. She will explore the themes of the windows and discuss the technical process of transforming the designs from paper into the actual windows themselves. Paulch-Mishur’s presentation is an extension of LUMA’s current exhibition, Graven Images: Marc Chagall’s Bible Illustrations, which showcases some of Chagall’s print work. This presentation begins at 6 p.m. and is free for members and Loyola students, staff, and faculty, and $4 for general admission.

RSVP for any of these events by e-mailing luma@luc.edu or calling 312.915.7608.

For a full listing of LUMA events, please click here. Also, be sure to check out LUMA’s webpage for more information about current and future exhibitions.

Do you think a $30,000 per year stipend and tuition waiver for three years, plus summer research funding, for graduate school sounds like a great deal? Well, Loyola couldn’t be prouder to congratulate three former Loyola students who were awarded prestigious 2013 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships to attend the graduate school of their choice, fully funded.

This is the first time in Loyola’s history that three students have earned an NSF Fellowship in a single year, plus four more students received NSF honorable mentions in this time frame, another record. James M. Calcagno, PhD, director of the Fellowship Office and anthropology professor at Loyola, describes the type of help that the Fellowship Office offers its undergraduate students.

“The Fellowship Office primarily assists current undergraduate students with their applications for highly competitive national scholarships and fellowships, as well as alumni, many of whom have used the office while at Loyola,” says Calcagno. “They are more than welcome, and indeed encouraged, to come back and seek our assistance because these applications are very difficult to do well.”

Calcagno noted that more than 13,000 highly qualified students in the country applied for an NSF Fellowship this year, and only 2,000 students received one. The application is done entirely online, and most critical are the three essays that include a personal statement, previous research experiences, and one’s proposed graduate research.

“The award is meant to fund a person, not a specific research project,” Calcagno says. “It’s an award that says: given our assessment of  your intellectual merit and the  broader impacts you will likely make as a scientist,  we recognize you as exceptionally promising to help our nation’s goal of ensuring  the vitality of future scientific achievements  in the United States.”

The 2013 NSF Graduate Research Fellows include Joseph Saelens, who graduated in May 2011 with a BS in Bioinformatics. Now attending Duke University, he specializes in microbiology and focuses his laboratory research on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, using a genome sequencing approach to analyze the geographical evolution of the bacterium which has been tightly linked to ancient human migrations.

Anna Sjodin graduated in May 2011 with a BS in Biology and minors in Psychology and Spanish. In the fall she will use her NSF Fellowship to begin her studies in ecology at the University of Connecticut, where she will focus her research on bats and how ecological factors affect the spread of infectious disease. In 2010, Anna earned a Fellowship Incentive Grant through Loyola’s Fellowship Office, which helped her prepare for her first NSF application.

Caitlin DeRango graduated from Loyola with a BS in Anthropology in May 2011, with minors in biology and French language and literature. She is a biological anthropologist focusing on primatology, and will begin her graduate school studies at UCLA in the fall.

“For my NSF research, I’ll be examining coalition behavior in a long studied population of New World monkeys, the White-Faced Capuchins (Cebus capucinus), who  inhabit the Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve in Costa Rica,” explains DeRango.

Her field research will investigate  the types of communication that occur during coalition interactions, how coalition patterns vary according to various demographic factors such as age or sex, and how this variation can provide insights into capuchin social cognition.

“It’s really a rather fascinating topic–or so I think!–that can help inform our understanding of the evolution of social behavior not only in capuchins, but also in primates, including humans, generally.”

Calcagno describes his long-term connection with DeRango, and how immediately clear it was that she was “NSF material,” even though it was difficult for her to figure out exactly her research focus.

“Caitlin is an interesting story because I had her in my Anthropology 101 class in her first semester at Loyola,” describes Calcagno. “I don’t often talk directly to first-semester students about a possible NSF application in their senior year, but I not only spoke to her, but to other faculty as well regarding her potential in this regard.

DeRango couldn’t be more excited to receive this well-earned NSF fellowship because she feels it will provide the best start to her graduate study and research career while covering her education and living expenses.

“This will go a long way in providing greater flexibility in my decision making and will allow me to commit more time and effort to research and potentially collaborative research opportunities,” says DeRango. “It’s a wonderful affirmation and honor from the larger research community in the U.S.”

She described the process as a “mediation of sorts,” that allowed her to reflect on the mentors whose examples have shaped her perspectives, experiences, and goals.

“Having received the fellowship, I feel I’ve been able to bring recognition to their influences–particularly that of Drs. Jim Calcagno, Dan Amick, Anne Grauer, and Rhonda Quinn of Loyola’s anthropology department and Dr. Susan Perry of UCLA’s anthropology department,” says DeRango.

Anyone applying for next year’s NSF fellowships has until November 2013 to prepare their application. DeRango warns that “although it appears to be a distant date, the most useful piece of advice I can provide is to start this process as soon as possible.”

“Submitting a competitive application means spending a significant amount of time thinking about, writing, and editing various drafts of your application.”

With the help of the Fellowship Office, DeRango and other NSF Graduate Research Fellows were able to submit applications that set them apart from the rest of the competition.

For more information on the NSF fellowship and other prestigious scholarship applications, visit the Fellowship Office’s website.

This spring marks the 143rd annual Commencement at Loyola University Chicago. A total of 11 ceremonies will be held, 10 of which will be streamed online. Ceremonies will be held at Gentile Arena, Mundelein Auditorium, and the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom. Doors to ceremonies on campus open one hour prior to their start time.

More than 4,000 students will participate in commencement ceremonies this year, and about 20,000 visitors are expected to visit campus to celebrate the achievement of Loyola’s students. Additionally, six honorary degrees are being conferred, and four of the confirmed speakers are Loyola alums.

Here’s a look at the schedule for Commencement 2013. To access the University’s Commencement Flickr gallery, click here.

Thursday, May 9

• The Graduate School and Institute of Pastoral Studies: Gentile Arena, Noon, Speaker: *Debra W. Stewart, PhD, President, Council of Graduate Schools
• School of Education: Gentile Arena, 4 p.m., Speaker: Timothy D. Kanold (PhD, ‘02), Educator, Author, and Consultant
• College of Arts and Sciences Honors Convocation, Gentile Arena, 8 p.m.

Friday, May 10

• College of Arts and Sciences (ARTS): Gentile Arena, 10 a.m., Speaker: *Luis Alberto Urrea, Author and Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Baccalaureate Mass: Gentile Arena, 12:30 p.m.
• College of Arts and Sciences (SCIENCES): Gentile Arena, 3:30 p.m., Speaker: *Diann Jordan, PhD, Author and Educational Consultant; Professor of Biological Sciences, Alabama State University
• School of Communication: Gentile Arena, 7 p.m., Speaker: Claire Díaz-Ortiz, Author, Speaker, Technology and Innovator

Saturday, May 11

• Quinlan School of Business: Gentile Arena, 10 a.m., Speaker: *J.C. Gonzalez-Mendez, Senior Vice President, McDonald’s Corporation; President and CEO, Ronald McDonald House Charities
• School of Continuing and Professional Studies: Mundelein Auditorium, 1 p.m., Speaker: Alicia T. Vega (BS ‘96, MJ ‘99), Public Service Leader
• Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing: Gentile Arena, 3 p.m., Speaker: Sharon L. O’Keefe (MSN ‘76), President, University of Chicago Medical Center
• School of Social Work: Gentile Arena, 6:30 p.m., Speaker: Khadija Khaja, PhD, Associate Professor, Indiana University, School of Social Work

Saturday May 18

• Law Baccalaureate Mass: Madonna della Strada Chapel, 10:30 a.m.
• School of Law: Gentile Arena, 12:30 p.m., Speaker: *Gino L. DiVito (JD ’63), Partner, Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC

Sunday June 2

• Stritch School of Medicine: Navy Pier, Grand Ballroom: Noon, Speaker: *Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Takeda Pharmaceutical Corporation

Congratulations, graduates!

*Indicates the individual will also be awarded an honorary degree.

On the heels of a stirring, five-set win over Lewis in Saturday night’s Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) final, Loyola will face UC Irvine in a national semifinal on Thursday night at 8 p.m. Top-ranked Brigham Young will take on Penn State in the other semi. The matches will be held in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Both semifinals will be streamed live on NCAA.com with Saturday night’s championship match airing live on ESPNU.

“UC Irvine has established itself as one of the best programs in the country and have had another great season this year,” says head coach Shane Davis. “Our team has really come together over the last two months, is playing at a high level right now, and are looking forward to the challenge.”

This marks Loyola’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Championship and the Ramblers feature a balanced offensive attack led by 2013 MIVA Player of the Year Joe Smalzer. Smalzer ripped a match-high 20 kills in Saturday’s championship match and he enters the NCAA Championship as the nation’s leader in service aces. Outside hitters Thomas Jaeschke, the MIVA Freshman of the Year, and California native Cody Caldwell provide ample support and each racked up double-doubles against Lewis.

In addition to Caldwell, who grew up in Newport Beach, Loyola features four other Southern California products in Peter Jasaitis (Manhattan Beach), Jeff Patton (Auburn), Torey Darin (Huntington Beach), and Ryan Baine (Landera Ranch).

The teams have met five times previously with Loyola holding a 3-2 edge in the series. However, the Anteaters have won the two most recent meetings, including a 3-0 win in Irvine during the 2009 season.

For more Loyola men’s volleyball coverage, click here.

Commencement is right around the corner, and seniors are preparing to venture forth into the real world. Before crossing the stage and receiving their diploma, a group of seniors gathered at the Retreat and Ecology Campus for the Senior Retreat in early April.

The Senior Retreat is a time for seniors to reflect on their four years at Loyola and also look ahead and identify anxieties about the future.

Lauren Schwer, director of retreats, says reflection is an integral part of the Ignatian heritage and retreats offer students the opportunity to do just that.

“When we look at our Jesuit tradition, Ignatius of Loyola was all about retreat,” Schwer says. “We talk about key experiences at Loyola. We talk about highlight moments. If [students] don’t take the time to reflect on them, we have missed an opportunity to transform them.”

Schwer says retreats serve as a vehicle for recognizing these transformative events and seeing how that event can continue to shape the future.

“I never want the retreat to be the highlight moment. I want the retreat to be the moment to identify what that is,” Schwer says. “If you don’t realize how impactful something has been to you, you don’t know how to move forward. Retreats provide the place to stop and think.”

Schwer says the retreats have been largely successful since they started in 2011. All 40 spots on this year’s senior retreat were filled within four hours. The retreat actually overbooked because they could not turn off the retreat registration system fast enough. Campus Ministry did not even have to use the advertising flyers they had created.

“It’s a great problem to have,” says Schwer.

Elyssa Rossetti, a senior majoring in advertising and public relations and minoring in marketing, has gone on a retreat every year since the University acquired the Retreat and Ecology Campus in 2011. She finds retreats are a good way to connect with herself.

“Retreats are great to understand yourself better. It’s a chance to reconnect with yourself either spiritually or emotionally. It allows you to recharge and get away from our busy lives in the city,” she says.

Gretchen Heinrichs, a senior psychology major, says she went on the retreat with friends but really enjoyed getting to meet even more people.

“My favorite part of the retreat was being able to share my experiences at Loyola with some of my best friends with me on the retreat but also complete strangers that I had never met until the retreat. It was a wonderful mix of people and I felt like my Loyola life came to a complete circle,” Heinrichs says.

Heinrichs is no stranger to retreats; the Senior Retreat was her third of the semester.

“I’m a firm believer in going on retreats. I don’t think we have enough time as students during our normal weeks to sit down and reflect, and retreats give you a unique opportunity to not only reflect, but to make new friends and have a blast. I always end up learning more about myself and my relationship with the world around me,” Heinrichs says.

For more information on retreats, please click here.

Spring is sprung, and Loyola faculty and staff members will hit the pavement for the second annual University Walking Challenge from May 6 through June 16.

Throughout the six-week period, Loyola faculty and staff members will compete against each other to see who can log the most miles. Similar to last year, participants will use the WalkingWorks website to log their mileage. For those who do not own a pedometer, apps such as mapmyrun.com or logyourrun.com can be used to track mileage. Once tracked, participants will then log the information on the WalkingWorks website.

Jackson says this year’s competition will have more social media interaction to encourage competition.

“Every week, if you log miles and you ‘like’ our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter, you’re eligible to win a $25 dollar gift card,” Jackson says. “It will be fun to follow along with social media and see people come together through the competition.”

Registration for the 2013 University Walking Challenge is now open and will remain so through Sunday, May 5. To learn how to register, click here.

For more information about the University Walking Challenge and other wellness initiatives, visit the Human Resources website here.

You’re never too young to learn the importance of “being green,” and the Catherine Cook School has spun their environmentally friendly knowledge in a creative way. The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) is showcasing a unique type of recycled art created by second and third graders from the Catherine Cook School in their two-month exhibition of The Art of Recycling, which will be showcased until June 2.

The Art of Recycling exhibition is part of LUMA’s Push Pin Gallery, a space in the museum for art created by school children from kindergarten to high school that strives to stimulate a child’s creativity and build self-esteem. LUMA works with art teachers to decide what art would be the most beneficial to exhibit, and special consideration is given to students who have little access to the arts.

The Push Pin Gallery is on the third floor of LUMA in a 162-linear-foot space that can only accept two-dimensional art. This hasn’t stopped schools from submitting some truly inspirational pieces. The Art of Recycling specifically mimics 20th century artists, and it’s almost hard to believe the talent that these second and third graders used to create their works of recycled art.

“This exhibition is truly an exceptional one because the end results of these artworks mimic the tradition of 20^th century art through collages and assemblage styles,” says Pam Ambrose, director of cultural affairs for LUMA.

The second graders from the Catherine Cook School made recycled robots, the third graders made cereal box monsters, and there is a bottle cap mosaic mural by the Middle School Art Club. The two art teachers, Sandra Kane and Barbara Dawn, inspire their students to creatively reuse found objects and recycled materials.

“We’ve been doing the Push Pin Exhibit for eight years, and we try and work with different schools each time to bring variety to LUMA’s exhibitions,” says Pam Ambrose, director of LUMA. “The Catherine Cook School is known for their exceptional creativity.”

About 90 to 120 works of art are needed to fill the space in the exhibition, and LUMA’s professional art handlers are able to display the art in a way that looks full, but that gives each art piece its own place to shine and be admired by the exhibition viewers.

“They make the art in the classroom, and then LUMA hosts a reception for the students, parents, and teachers who made the artwork that is on display,” says Ambrose. “The students really become empowered when they get to see their art on the walls.”

LUMA is working hard to highlight the Push Pin Gallery and it’s Art of Recycling exhibition because of Loyola’s effort and commitment to sustainable living and the Chicago area’s efforts to go green. Showcasing student work and their recycled art puts the “art” in ‘everyone does their part’ to create a greener, more environmentally friendly city.

If you would like to recommend a school to participate in the Push Pin Gallery, please e-mail Ann Meehan, LUMA’s curator of education, at ameeha1@luc.edu, or for more information about the exhibition, please visit LUMA’s website at LUC.edu/luma.

Loyola University Chicago has accepted an invitation to join the Missouri Valley Conference it was announced today by University President Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., and Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics Dr. M. Grace Calhoun. The Ramblers will begin participation in all sports with the exception of men’s volleyball, which remains a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA), for the 2013-14 season. Loyola’s membership takes effect July 1, 2013.

“I am pleased to announce that Loyola University Chicago will be joining the Missouri Valley Conference,” Father Garanzini says. “The MVC has a great reputation and a strong competitive profile both in athletics and academics. I believe this partnership with the Missouri Valley Conference will enhance our national visibility and have a positive impact on the experience of our student-athletes.”

“We are very honored to have received this invitation to join the Missouri Valley Conference, one of the most historic and competitive conferences in the country. We look forward to reestablishing nationally competitive programs and growing Loyola’s modern athletics brand,” Calhoun says. “I am confident Loyola will not only be a strong and valued new member of the conference athletically, but will also enhance the reputation of the conference through the addition of a world-class university in a world-class city with student athletes who excel academically, athletically, and in life.”

“This is a historic moment for the Missouri Valley and for Loyola University, and we strongly believe in the commitment and the potential that is very evident with this institution,” says MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin. “Their University leadership has made a very significant investment in athletics facilities and in staffing in recent years, and we are confident that Loyola is going to be a great competitive fit in our Conference.”

Loyola’s athletics program, which is known for its storied traditions in men’s basketball and cross country/track and field, has achieved unprecedented growth in the last few years and this year the University celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic achievements of the 1963 men’s basketball team which won the NCAA championship. Since 2005, five Rambler programs have advanced to at least one NCAA Championship and entering the 2013 spring season, Loyola ranked No. 1 in the Horizon League’s all-sports standings as it strives to win the McCafferty Trophy for the first time in program history.

Founded in 1907, the Missouri Valley Conference is the nation’s second-oldest NCAA Division I athletics conference, second only to the Big Ten Conference. In its first 106 years, the Valley has had 32 members, but Loyola is the league’s first member from the city of Chicago.

The change in conference affiliation for Loyola comes after 34 years in the Horizon League, of which it was the only remaining charter member from its inception in 1979. Likewise, the Missouri Valley Conference has been known for its stability and prior to Creighton University’s announcement last month that it would be departing the league, has not had a change in membership since 1996 when Tulsa left for the Western Athletic Conference.

Other members of the Missouri Valley Conference (as of July 1, 2013) include Bradley University, Drake University, the University of Evansville, Illinois State University, Indiana State University, Missouri State University, Southern Illinois University, the University of Northern Iowa, and Wichita State University.

To view a timeline of Loyola Athletics, click here.
To read a note from Father Garanzini regarding Loyola’s new membership in the Missouri Valley Conference, click here.

The University’s third annual Weekend of Excellence will take place April 19-21. To prepare for the weekend, we want to introduce you to some of the outstanding students that will be recognized as part of the festivities. Today we introduce you to Samantha Barone. For a full list of events scheduled during the weekend, click here.

Samantha Barone, a junior nursing major, is vice president of recruitment for Panhellenic Council, a member of the Greek Conduct Board, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and the Student Nurses Association of Illinois. Recently, Barone was picked to be one of 10 nursing students that will attend a service immersion trip to Lourdes, France, this summer through campus ministry.

What has been a motivating factor for you in your work here at Loyola?
The individuals that create the Loyola University Chicago community have been a motivating factor during my time here. They are a constant reminder that I need to truly live each and every day to the best of my ability in order to achieve my goals. This is my motivation to strive for excellence; excellence is neither perfection nor brilliance, rather it is striving to be the best version of myself.

What do you think are the highlights of your experience at Loyola?
I have had so many highlights in my experience here at Loyola, but I believe that my top two will forever impact my life. Firstly, going Greek! I was lucky enough to join a group of women that push me every single day to be the best version of myself. Chi Omega is my support system, my motivation, my family, and I will forever be thankful for the friendships and inspiration. Secondly, my first nursing clinical rotation was the most nerve-racking experience, but also the most rewarding. The patients I encountered throughout the entire semester fueled my passion. I am so grateful for the opportunity to touch patients’ lives during a time when they are most vulnerable.

Do you think Loyola has been a rewarding experience? How?
Loyola has been such a rewarding experience. I was able to discover my passions and really shape my future throughout the years. I am most grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me. The Loyola experience gave me the tools I needed to discover my passion. It has given me the strength to achieve my dreams, to never give up, and to always believe in myself, even if no one else does.

What do you think differentiates Loyola from other universities?
Loyola differs from other universities because we have professors and faculty that care. It does not matter whether one is in a lecture hall with more than 100 students, a small classroom of 25, or one-on-one with a faculty member, a student is still able to build a relationship with their professor. The personal connections we are able to make with these professors and staff members drive one’s success. In my experience, my professors in the Niehoff School of Nursing have gone above and beyond their job description. These professors are so passionate about the work they do that they have inspired me to become a better person. All of the success I have been able to accomplish here at Loyola can be attributed to the interactions with my professors and other faculty.

What advice would you give students about how to get the best out of their education?
Go outside your comfort zone. Strive for excellence—not perfection. Find a passion and follow it. Make friends; friends that you will want around for the rest of your life, and remember it is quality not quantity. Don’t be afraid to fail, the most successful individuals both of present and past generations have failed at some point in their life. The way these individuals overcome their obstacles and achieve success is what actually mattered. Never give anything less than your best; another day is not guaranteed and every single moment you have is precious. And lastly, remember there aren’t any short cuts to anywhere worth going in life. Leave your legacy behind.

The University’s third annual Weekend of Excellence will take place April 19-21. To prepare for the weekend, we want to introduce you to some of the outstanding students that will be recognized as part of the festivities. Today we introduce you to Emely Reyes. For a full list of events scheduled during the weekend, click here.

Emely Reyes, a senior human resources and marketing double major, is president of the Latin sorority Lambda Theta Alpha, Inc. Reyes’s leadership duties also include serving as vice president of membership intake and retention for the Multicultural Greek Council, president of Delta Nu Chapter, and she is involved in the Human Resources Student Association and the Latin American Student Organization.

What has been a motivating factor for you in your work here at Loyola?
My family; specifically, my little sister. I am the first person in our family to physically leave Texas for school, and I’d like to set the bar high. I want my little sister to do better, but I’m not going to make it easy! Family, paired with my second family Lambda Theta Alpha and sorority and fraternity life in general, has been the push I need to make the most out of my time spent at Loyola. I am not only representing my family, but a community that I’d like to make proud. I want to be living proof that sorority and fraternity life members hold ourselves to higher standards.

What ultimately sold you on coming to Loyola?
I wanted a big change. Like I mentioned, I’m from Texas, Houston in particular, and when it came time to pick where I wanted to study, Chicago was my top choice. Looking into schools in Chicago, I liked Loyola’s size, the business school, the location, and the opportunities that were mine for the taking. It helped that Loyola also assisted me financially as well. Reflecting on it now, I also think the fact that Loyola offers a Jesuit education gave me comfort. Knowing that I would be surrounded by a big group of good-hearted people was important.

How did you get involved in research/service at Loyola?
Service opportunities at Loyola are almost hard not to find! I found my primary opportunity in sorority and fraternity life. All three councils give back to the greater community in more ways than imaginable, whether it is raising money for St. Jude, participating in Relay for Life, cleaning up Rogers Park, participating with LABRE, donating books and supplies to community organizations like Centro Romero, or visiting St. Thomas of Canterbury. I do personally like lending a helping hand when possible and Loyola has given me plenty of opportunities to do so.

What do you think are the highlights of your experience at Loyola?
My highlights would definitely have to be getting the finals prayers from Sister Jean every year, the blizzard that happened sophomore year, joining my sorority, performing in the Alumni Gym at the 1st Annual MGC Triple S Show, and the flash mob during finals breakfast!

Do you think Loyola has been a rewarding experience? How?
For sure, there’s no doubt Loyola has been a rewarding experience. Thinking about it now, I’ve grown so much as an individual, as one should after spending four years at a university. I’ve grown to be more compassionate to those around me and I want more for myself. I’ve seen opportunities at Loyola and I have the drive to go after what I want.  The saying, “You are who you are by association,” is so true. Loyola students always want more. Whether it’s a second major, third internship, or another chance to study abroad; the culture paired with its faculty and staff challenge students to literally lead extraordinary lives.

What advice would you give students about how to get the best out of their education?
I’d tell them to realize that it is their time here. It sounds so simple, but it’s true. Do what you want, with the purpose of you obtaining your degree(s) always in the back of your mind. You want to join sorority and fraternity life? Do it. Study abroad? Why not? Intern in the heart of downtown? Absolutely. Do nothing for an entire week? You can. It’s your decisions that affect you in the end.  At this moment it may not seem like you’re living the life, but reflecting back on my earlier years here, if you look back and don’t like what you see, it’s because of the effort you put in, and not anyone else. Take the reins of your life; they start here, at Loyola, the first day you walk on campus.

The University’s third annual Weekend of Excellence will take place April 19-21. To prepare for the weekend, we want to introduce you to some of the outstanding students that will be recognized as part of the festivities. Today we introduce you to Vincenzo Sposito. For a full list of events scheduled during the weekend, click here.

Vincenzo Sposito, a junior who is double majoring in finance and information systems, is enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program. Sposito has shown his drive to excel through his leadership as the current president of Tau Kappa Epsilon, president of Felice’s Roman Style Pizza, and executive member of the Interfraternity Council.

What has been a motivating factor for you in your work here at Loyola?
There is no doubt that the shear amount of opportunities provided here at Loyola has been my motivation. Not taking advantage of every chance given to me would be the worst detriment to my educational process. Everyone can read a book and take a test, but there are very few places like Loyola, which allow you to use that information and knowledge.

Is there anything that could have made your Loyola experience more meaningful?
I wish I would have realized all of the ways I could get involved as a freshman. It is one thing for everyone to tell me you can do this and you can do that, but it is another thing to feel how rewarding it is to be involved as a member or a leader of a group or classroom.

How did you get involved in research/service at Loyola?
I actually got involved in service at Loyola by joining the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity. My uncle was one of the original members who brought TKE to Loyola’s campus in 1956, and many members of my family have joined since. This was the catalyst for my drive to do well not only in my studies, but also in the service to my community.

Do you think Loyola has been a rewarding experience? How?
There is no question in my mind that Loyola has changed my life for the better. Before I came to Loyola I had only a vague idea of what I wanted to do with my life and I was in no way involved with my community. Now, with all the opportunities and chances Loyola has given me, I have taken full advantage and given my life a new purpose and meaning.

What do you think differentiates Loyola from other universities?
Loyola is very centered around its values. As the leader of a values-based organization, I noticed that it is one thing to say you follow values and morals, but it is another to actually let those values and ideals permeate everything you do. Loyola, in every facet of the University, lets these values dominate their planning, actions, and lives in such a positive way that no other university can hope to match.

What advice would you give students about how to get the best out of their education?
If you want to attend a university that truly inspires leaders and doers, then Loyola is for you. If you don’t want to get involved, if you don’t want to do something greater than yourself, then this University, as well as many others, will not have much to offer. For students who are already attending Loyola, get involved. There are so many opportunities and resources for students to either get involved in the community or simply better themselves, that it is a disservice to your education and future not to take advantage of them.

What was your “ah ha” moment here?
My “ah ha” moment was without a doubt when I became a member of my fraternity. It taught me about living my life in a way that betters me as a person and in doing so, making the world a better place. Since joining the fraternity, I have felt one of these life-changing moments almost every day, and I have realized so much about the world and myself at Loyola University Chicago.

The University’s third annual Weekend of Excellence will take place April 19-21. To prepare for the weekend, we want to introduce you to some of the outstanding students that will be recognized as part of the festivities. Up first is Marcella Perez. For a full list of events scheduled during the weekend, click here.

Marcella Perez, a junior biology and forensic science major, is the Multicultural Greek Council president, an active member and vice president of Delta Phi Lambda, section and spirit leader in Loyola’s pep band, and a dancer for “AfroDesent,” Loyola’s African dance team. Perez is also part of the women’s two-hand-touch football team “Rice Bowl,” which is part of the on-campus Filipino organization, KAPWA.

What has been a motivating factor for you in your work here at Loyola?
A huge motivating factor for me is the older generations and the future generations. Ever since I was little, I have dreamed of becoming a doctor. People said that I was too young to make such a serious decision. Now, I’m still working hard to become that doctor. I want to prove to the people who don’t believe in the students of my generation that we aren’t going to all be failures; there is still hope for our generation and future generations.

What ultimately sold you on coming to Loyola?
The great reputation the University has for its science programs was a big sell. I was recruited by other schools to run on their cross country and track teams, but in the end, academics came first. Loyola had such a close-knit community, it was in Chicago (the city I love), and it offered many new opportunities. I was looking for a school that could help me excel in my academics. Since I am on the pre-med track, I believed that Loyola was perfect for me. The fact that I received scholarships and grants from the University really helped me decide where I was going to go as well.

How did you get involved in research/service at Loyola?
Entering college, I had a passion for community service and helping people outside of school. We had a designated amount of service hours we had to complete by the time we graduated and I definitely exceeded the minimum. When I came to Loyola, it was natural for me to find service programs that I could participate in. My freshman and sophomore years, I volunteered with Loyola4Chicago at a homeless shelter off the Lawrence stop. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me since I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. More recently, I’ve be able to volunteer with my sorority, and being able to go out into the city of Chicago, volunteering for races, cleaning up neighborhoods, and helping out people who need it, puts a smile on my face.

What do you think differentiates Loyola from other universities?
I think what differentiates Loyola from other Universities is the fact that it is a Jesuit university and we are taught to uphold certain values. However, even though it is a Jesuit university, the school is still open to students from all faiths and it is accepting of all people. The diversity on campus is starting to improve as well. Also, the University is conscientious about the environment and supports protecting life on the lake.

What advice would you give students about how to get the best out of their education?
Keep an open mind. If you are close-minded, you will not get the most of your education because you are not accepting of other people’s views. The lessons you learn at Loyola might be from students, faculty, and staff that come from different backgrounds compared to where you came from.

What do you like most about Loyola?
I think the thing I like the most about Loyola is being able to be in a large city like Chicago, but still be a part of a close-knit community. Being able to enjoy the view of the lake during the year is also amazing. Chicago is a city of opportunity.

Sheryl Swoopes, who is regarded as one of the greatest female athletes of all time, has been named head women’s basketball coach at Loyola University Chicago, it was announced on Friday by Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics Dr. M. Grace Calhoun. A four-time WNBA champion, NCAA champion, and three-time Olympic gold medalist, the Brownfield, Texas native wrapped up her professional playing career in 2011.

“We are thrilled to welcome Sheryl Swoopes to the Loyola family. She is a proven winner at every level of competition, and a respected mentor of young women. Beyond her unparalleled competitive success, her vision for Loyola women’s basketball, knowledge of the game and industry, and infectious energy left us confident Sheryl will build Rambler women’s basketball into a perennial national contender,” Calhoun says.

In two remarkable seasons at Texas Tech University (1991-93), Swoopes led the Red Raiders to the 1993 NCAA championship and was named Naismith National Player of the Year that season, just two years removed from capturing Junior College Player of the Year accolades at South Plains Junior College in Texas. The high-scoring forward set a NCAA Championship game record by totaling 47 points in Texas Tech’s 84-82 victory over Ohio State in the 1993 NCAA title game and for her efforts was named NCAA Final Four MVP. Swoopes’s career average of 24.9 points per game still stands as Texas Tech’s career standard and she also ripped down 8.0 rpg. In a 1993 contest versus rival Texas, she poured in 53 points, a total that ranked 12th in NCAA single-game history entering the 2012-13 campaign.

Following her standout career at Texas Tech, Swoopes embarked on a highly decorated tenure as a professional player, beginning with a stint overseas before the formation of the WNBA lured her back to the United States. One of the WNBA’s original players, Swoopes was assigned to the Houston Comets in the first player allocations in 1997 and thus began a WNBA career that saw her also make stops with the Seattle Storm and Tulsa Shock.

The first player ever to be named WNBA Most Valuable Player three times (2000, 2002, 2005) and chosen Defensive Player of the Year on three occasions (2000, 2002, 2003), Swoopes was a five-time All-WNBA First Team pick and was chosen WNBA All-Star Game MVP in 2005. A six-time all-star, Swoopes averaged 15.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 2.0 steals per game in her 12-year WNBA career. Her 4,875 career points places her 12th on the WNBA’s all-time scoring chart.

“I am extremely honored and humbled to be chosen to lead the Loyola University Chicago women’s basketball program,” Swoopes says. “Loyola is a special place and I immediately felt welcome here. Having played for some of the game’s best coaches as well as with and against some of the most talented players in women’s basketball history, I have broadened my knowledge and hope to use those experiences to bring championships to Rogers Park. There is a lot of talent already in place and I cannot wait to get into the gym and get started.”

The first woman to have her own Nike basketball shoe named after her (Air Swoopes), Swoopes was a member of the gold medal winning USA Olympic teams in 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney), and 2004 (Athens).

Swoopes was an assistant girls basketball coach at Mercer Island High School in 2010 and most recently served as a television analyst for Texas Tech women’s basketball games during the 2012-13 season.

Swoopes was formally introduced to the Loyola community and media at an 11 a.m. press conference on Monday, April 15.

The University’s third annual Weekend of Excellence kicks off this Friday, April 19, and runs through Sunday, April 21. The weekend is meant to showcase academic and civic work that Loyola students have conducted over the past year and features a number of important events, including the School of Communication Honors Reception, School of Education Research Symposium, 2013 Senior Exhibition, Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium, Spring Honors Recital, multiple performances of Urinetown, masses, and more. A number of student awards will also be distributed, including Maroon & Gold Society (for rising seniors), Damen Student Award (for any undergraduate), Damen Student Organization Award, and the “1870″ Award (for rising sophomores).

Ann Marie Morgan, associate dean of students on the Water Tower campus, is co-chair of the planning committee for Weekend of Excellence. The committee is responsible for articulating goals of events and generating awareness and enthusiasm for the weekend. Morgan says she’s focused on bringing in a global aspect to this year’s celebration and is happy that the importance of the celebration continues to gain more recognition every year.

“Weekend of Excellence has really grown and now we have folks approaching us asking if they can hold an event, when before we were constantly asking them,” she says. “The whole schedule is meant to celebrate students and their accomplishments.”

Marian Claffey, PhD, associate provost for academic administration, is also co-chair of the Weekend of Excellence committee. She’s overseen the planning and execution of the weekend for the past three years. Claffey says that she’s excited for all the events during the full weekend, but doesn’t have a favorite.

“The events involve students across the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses, academic initiatives, as well as student development and leadership,” she says. “I have to say, coming from academic affairs, that I have particular enthusiasm for the research symposium on Saturday.”

In addition to celebrating student academic achievements, Weekend of Excellence also aims to show how students across campus are engaged in numerous extracurricular activities that allow them to discover and explore their unique talents and gifts beyond the classroom.

“I think what the weekend represents, coming when it does towards the close of the academic year, is a celebration of the culmination of academic work throughout the year,” Claffey says. “A student could be participating in a fine arts performance, a  research presentation, or a student organization, and it’s really an opportunity for us as a University to recognize student work and to celebrate that.”

For more on the weekend, including a full list of scheduled events, visit LUC.edu/excellenceweekend. Here at Inside Loyola, we will be highlighting some of the excellent students involved with the Weekend of Excellence over the course of the next four days, so please keep an eye out for those student profiles.

The Loyola community is gearing up for a handful of events to celebrate Earth Day. While Earth Day itself falls on April 22, there are events all throughout the month to encourage the beautification and preservation of our earth and environment.

Loyola Community Relations is partnering up with 48th Ward Alderman Harry Osterman, 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore, Illinois Senator Heather Steans, and Representative Kelly Cassidy to sponsor a series of events to clean up and promote environmentally friendly practices in the Edgewater and Rogers Park neighborhoods. The events, called North Lake Shore Earth Day 2013, fall on April 13 and April 20 in the 49th and 48th Wards, respectively.

There will be three projects on both days. On April 13, participants can help out at a dune restoration site on Loyola Beach, transport computers and other machines that are safe for recycling, and assess which multi-unit buildings in the Ward require recycling bins.

The projects scheduled for April 20 are weeding at the Vedgewater Community Garden, painting and beautifying the fence at Cochran Park, and preparing the Edgewater Gateway Garden for spring gardening.

Additionally, on April 16, Loyola student group Enactus is partnering with GREENOLA style, a Chicago-based fair trade and sustainable fashion brand that seeks to empower women by helping give them a greater sense of self awareness and community, to host an event promoting the eco-friendly company. The event will be held on the second floor of the new Damen Student Center and will feature feature a fashion show, appetizers, goodie bags, and a raffle.

The Loyola community is also encouraged to participate in the Morton Arboretum’s Arbor Week activities. Spanning from Sunday, April 21 to Sunday, April 28, the arboretum is hosting events to celebrate the importance and natural beauty of trees. Events include tree and plant planting, an Arbor Day 10K, learning about different kinds of trees, and a plant sale. In addition to celebrating Arbor Week at the arboretum, the Loyola community will also plant trees around the Lake Shore Campus and Retreat and Ecology Campus.

Check out all the sustainability events happening throughout the year at the Office of Sustainability’s calendar.

For more information on North Lake Shore Earth Day 2013 and to register for one or both of the events, please click here.

Visit GREENOLA style’s Facebook page to learn more about the company.

For a full listing of Morton Arboretum’s Arbor Week activities, please click here.

Governor Pat Quinn congratulates Provost John Pelissero.

Governor Pat Quinn stopped by Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus last week to praise the University’s sustainability efforts and recognize Loyola for achieving Gold status as part of the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact, which recognizes institutions for outstanding environmental leadership and innovative sustainability accomplishments.

The honor was presented during the Sustainable Schools and Higher Ed Symposium that was hosted by Loyola University Chicago, along with Illinois Green Governments Coordinating Council or (GGCC). The governor, who was the keynote speaker for the all-day event, praised the University, saying Loyola is an institution that understands how important sustainability is.

Loyola applied for the recognition through its Office of Sustainability. Director Aaron Durnbaugh was there as one of the recipients of the honor.

“The recognition goes beyond validating Loyola leadership in sustainability. What it does is really explain what we’ve done and the commitments we’ve made,” says Durnbaugh. “It shows that sustainability is happening all around the University, not just our offices.”

The symposium offered the opportunity to exchange ideas between school and district administrators, regional superintendents, school board members, facilities managers and custodial staff, teachers, school health practitioners, facility planners and architects, school-related non-profits and agencies, high school student environmental leaders, professors, and higher education administrators.

During the event, more than 100 people participated in tours of the University’s biodiesel program, ChainLinks, and other areas around the Lake Shore Campus that are partially responsible for Loyola’s top honor from the GGCC. There were also a series of break out sessions for participants to discuss different topics, such as sustainable agriculture and pedagogy.

“It was nice to talk about the academic side of sustainability and it really did cover infrastructural academics and co-curricular things we were working on,” says Durnbaugh. “It was terrific for Loyola’s sustainability efforts to be recognized by the state.”

Durnbaugh says Loyola will continue to seize opportunities to improve environmental sustainability through its  curriculum, infrastructure, and around campus, and that this recognition is just one benchmark of sustainable practices Loyola aims to adhere to.

“On a higher level, these programs help build community,” says Durnbaugh. “”We feel like we’re leading sustainability in the region and we want to look ahead nationally.”

Meeting the requirements for the gold level recognition presents the challenge of how to continue surpassing sustainability goals.

“It doesn’t mean we’re done, as there is progress to chase,” says Durnbaugh. “We’re going to keep looking forward, but it was nice to take a step back and be recognized for what we’ve accomplished thus far.”

For more information on the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact, click here.

Jacqueline Hamilton sees a lot of nervous faces in the Department of Psychology, and she makes it a point to learn the name of every one. One of Hamilton’s duties as an administrative assistant in the Department of Psychology is to work closely with the Director of Clinical Training to choose candidates to interview for the clinical psychology PhD program.

“It’s really intense because you  have students who are coming in and their whole lives are going to change. They’re on this whole new journey,” Hamilton says. “It is kind of a tradition now that I get to know everyone’s last name, really as a way of making them feel more comfortable.”

This attention to detail and compassion for others are only a few of Hamilton’s characteristics that earned her the February Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award. The award was established by the University Staff Council to recognize superior performance and achievement by staff members.

Hamilton says she finds it encouraging to be nominated and honored by her peers for this award. Marilyn Domingo, office coordinator in the psychology department, says Hamilton is a valuable staff member who works very well with the graduate directors.

Hamilton first came to Loyola in 1981 as a receptionist for the School of Nursing. She says working there helped broaden her skill set, which she then was able to transfer to different positions, such as her current position in the psychology department.

Hamilton uses her skills to oversee the faculty members and the three graduate programs, in addition to her tasks as an administrative assistant. She says her favorite part is working with all the psychology students.

“I really enjoy the students and seeing them graduate and helping them through that process,” Hamilton says. “My favorite part is seeing the students be successful.”

Additionally, Hamilton says the psychology department is very close-knit.

“What I like about the psychology department is the collegiality. There’s a lot of different people here, but it’s really like a little community within a community,” Hamilton says.

Overall, Hamilton says she just wants to give back to Loyola for helping her get to where she is today.

“One of the things that is really important to me is being able to give back to the Loyola community because I have gotten a lot from Loyola,” Hamilton says. “I’ve learned a lot, I’ve been able to move into better positions, and I got all the skills I have because of Loyola.”

Congratulations, Jacquie, on earning this honored distinction!

This upcoming week (April 6-12), Loyola is celebrating its donors through Generosity Week, a week to recognize and honor those who help make a Loyola education possible.

Tuition only covers 74 percent of a student’s education; donors contribute the rest. Generosity Week serves as a way for the Loyola community to show its appreciation for these generous donors.

Throughout the week, students can stop by tables on campus to write thank you notes to donors, parents, and supporters. Tables will be set up at both the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses.

Some of the highlights of Generosity Week fall on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday, April 10, marks the third annual Wolf + Kettle Day, a special celebration of the Ignatian heritage of giving. The Student Philanthropy Council will host tables from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the atrium of the new Damen Student Center and in the Terry Student Center at the Water Tower Campus. They will be handing out free kettle corn, coupon books for local businesses, and spreading the message of the wolf and the kettle. Additionally, from 10:15 p.m. to 11 p.m., the Student Philanthropy Council will host a study break pizza party on the east quad.

The Faculty and Staff Donor Luncheon will be held on Thursday, April 11, from noon to 1 p.m. in Kasbeer Hall, Corboy Law Center, Water Tower Campus, to celebrate those who work at Loyola and also contribute gifts to the University. The Student Philanthropy Council also delivers “Celebrate Generosity” balloons on Tuesday to staff and faculty donor offices to acknowledge their support.

On Friday April 12, seniors who donated a senior gift of $20.13 or more are invited to a Senior Donor Reception, featuring beer tastings, a photo booth, food, raffle tickets, and more. Senior gifts are a way for seniors to give back to the University and help the organizations and departments that helped form their Loyola experience.

In addition, all the Generosity Week events will be recorded and a video will be created to send to those in the Loyola community who are unable to attend the events. You can check out last year’s Generosity Week video here.

For a full list of Generosity Week events, please click here.

The University Staff Council is hosting Pizza with the President, a town hall forum that offers faculty and staff the opportunity to ask Father Garanzini any questions about the University over a pizza lunch, on April 8 and 9.  The Lake Shore Campus event will be held on Monday, April 8, at noon, on the fourth floor of the Klarchek Information Commons. The following day, on April 9, the Water Tower Campus event will be held at noon in Kasbeer Hall.

For more information on University Staff Council, including their upcoming elections, click here.

Amanda Levigne, a Junior biology major, joined Father Garanzini and others for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, the University officially unveiled the beautiful Arnold J. Damen, S.J. Student Center to the Loyola community. Couldn’t make it to the grand opening? Don’t worry. Click here for everything you need to know about the new state-of-the-art facility on Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus.

Also, be sure to follow the center on Twitter and Facebook.

The new Arnold J. Damen, S.J., Student Center formally opens its doors today, April 3, and a number of activities are planned throughout the day to introduce the Loyola community to the new facility.

Bryan Goodwin, director of the Department of Student Centers, says the goal of the Damen Student Center is for it to truly be a facility for students.

“We’re looking for it to be a home for all students and we feel like we will accomplish that through a number of new spaces, including prayer spaces, meeting rooms, and first-class dining,” Goodwin says. “The goal is to celebrate the opening of what will be an awesome student facility that features a lot of amenities that students are looking for to strengthen their student experience.”

The grand opening will kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony (9 a.m.) accompanied by short speeches from Father Garanzini, Robert Kelly, PhD, vice president for student development, and USGA President Julia Poirer. An innovative angle to the opening ceremony will be the involvement of Loyola’s international campuses, which will experience the opening via Skype and/or Face Time. “iPad Operators” will be available to take the international campuses on a rolling tour of the new facility after the doors open.

Another important feature of the grand opening is the ReImagine 3 Short Film Contest. Individuals were asked to submit a one-minute film to igNation that focuses on answering the question, “Why Loyola?,” with their film. The chosen films will be shown at the new student center on April 3. All students will have an opportunity to vote on the short films throughout the opening day celebration. In addition to the student body vote, a panel of judges, consisting of a faculty member, a Loyola alum, and a member of the University marketing team will determine the winners of the contest. The grand-prize winner will receive a $400 Adobe gift card. The top five winning films will be shown before each movie playing in the building’s new cinema over the course of the next school year.

While the film contest will be ongoing during the grand opening, there are a number of other events to celebrate the student center planned.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., students will be able to “Explore Damen” by participating in the Damen Game. Each student will get to “self tour” the facility. As they stop at different locations in Damen Center, students will collect stamps they can add to their game card, which they can turn in for a prize by 4 p.m. at the center’s information desk. Prizes include a Southwest gift card, a plasma television, Loyola sweatshirts, iTunes gift cards, and more. Winners will be announced at 6 p.m. in the Damen Student Center Atrium. Everyone who turns in their game card will receive a commemorative t-shirt.

Other activities during the day include student-artist performances in the Atrium, free lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Damen Food Court, giveaways and a gaming tournament in the Ireland’s sports lounge, and demonstrations on the new climbing wall.

The activities on opening day of the Damen Student Center aren’t solely for students. Faculty and staff can treat themselves to a “Wine Down” reception in the new Solomon Cordwell Buenz Fireplace Lounge on the second floor, from 4 to 6 p.m. Hosted by the Maroon and Gold Society, faculty and staff can relax and also enjoy guided tours during this time frame. Alcohol will be restricted to the lounge.

Finally, the opening will come to an end with the Senior HOP Party that will take place in the Schmidt Multipurpose Room/SCB Fireplace Lounge from 9 to 11 p.m. This party is hosted by the Office of the President. This event is for seniors only and tickets are required.

We hope you’ll plan to attend the opening day festivities and participate in the activities. For more on the Center, visit LUC.edu/damenstudentcenter. You can also follow the Damen Student Center on Twitter at @LUC_Damen or “like” the building on Facebook.

Fifty years ago Loyola played one of the most important games in the history of college basketball. On Tuesday morning, it was announced that the 1963 Rambler team will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame this November.

When Loyola faced Mississippi State in the 1963 NCAA tournament a half-century ago, it did so with four African-American starters, a rarity in the civil rights era. Mississippi State, by contrast, featured an all-white lineup and was banned from playing integrated teams. But the Maroons (as they were called then) left Mississippi under the cover of darkness to play the Ramblers in the Midwest Regional, a game that would become known as the “Game of Change.”

After beating Mississippi State, the Ramblers went on to win the 1963 championship, becoming the first—and only—team from Illinois to win the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. But the 1963 team’s impact went far beyond the basketball court.

As ESPN.com reporter Dana O’Neil wrote:

“When flashbulbs popped at the historic handshake between African-American player Jerry Harkness from Loyola and Mississippi State’s Joe Dan Gold, everyone realized that their March moment was far bigger than a basketball game.”

“That game, if you ask me, was key,” Harkness told ESPN.com last year. “I felt like it was the beginning of things turning around in college basketball. I truly believe that.”

In addition to winning a national championship and playing an important role in the civil rights movement, the 1963 Loyola team also excelled in the classroom. The starting five of Harkness, John Egan, Les Hunter, Ron Miller, and Vic Rouse earned a total of 11 college degrees. When the entire nine-man roster is factored into the equation, that number jumps to 19.

And now, they can all add Hall of Famer to their resumes.

More coverage in Athletics.

Visit the Loyola63.com website.

Read the ESPN.com and USATODAY.com stories about the ’63 team.

Social enterprise and responsibility will be the topic du jour at Quinlan’s Dean’s Speaker Series on April 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the University Club of Chicago. A distinguished panel of experts will tackle how government, business, and nonprofits can collaborate to respond to today’s critical social issues.

The panel will be comprised of a representative from each sector: Patricia Van Pelt, PhD, Illinois state senator; Robert Parkinson (BBA ’73, MBA ’75), CEO of Baxter International; and Neli Vazquez-Rowland (BBA ’85), president of A Safe Haven (a homeless service).

“In order to solve today’s challenges, we can’t rely on just government, just business, or just nonprofits,” says Dean Kathleen A. Getz, who curated the panel and will serve as its moderator. “Instead we must ensure strong collaboration among all three.”

Getz adds that the panel is meant to showcase how three individuals found ways to give back to their communities and how each sector’s strength can be leveraged with help of the other.

For more information on Quinlan’s Dean’s Speaker Series, click here.

For seniors, the bittersweet realization that the college experience will soon be over is fast approaching. While students prepare to move on from Loyola, they can still leave a legacy by donating a senior class gift.

The senior class gift is a donation of at least $20.13, reflecting the class’s graduating year. Students can decide what organization, department, or group on campus they want their donation to benefit. If seniors don’t have a preference, their donation will go into the Senior Class Gift Fund, which helps seniors who find themselves needing financial support.

“The senior class gift is a way for seniors to give back after their four years of being at school,” says Maddie Shearer, senior class gift officer. “It celebrates the generosity of our Jesuit tradition.”

Shearer, a junior advertising/public relations major with a minor in English, says the class gift is also a way to show appreciation for the resources Loyola is able to give to its students, such as updated technology, study areas, and scholarships.

Seniors who donate a full class gift will receive a pin to wear on their graduation robes, be recognized at Commencement, and receive an invitation to the senior donor reception, which will be held in April.

Emily Carragher, a senior double major in advertising/public relations and international studies, decided to donate a senior class gift to recognize the unique education and experiences that Loyola offered her.

“It’s important because it’s a validation by the students of the University that they are grateful for not just the opportunity, but the uniqueness of Loyola’s education,” she says.

Carragher decided to designate her gift to the School of Communication because it helped her make strong connections, including ones with her professors.

Amanda Keaney, a senior operations management major, donated her senior gift to Women’s Club Rugby, which she says played an important part of her college experience.

“Rugby is the biggest club team on campus, so we have high expenses that constraint our budget,” Keaney says. “I wanted to support the team that really helped me grow into who I am today.”

Earlier in the semester, Loyola released a video featuring Sister Jean as a campaign of sorts to try to encourage seniors to donate. Last year, there were 890 donations, including the $1 contribution to the Senior Class Gift Fund that automatically comes out of tickets for senior send-off events. Shearer says this year’s seniors are already on a good track to pass that number and urges seniors to continue to pay it forward.

“It’s really important to celebrate that generosity that we’ve experienced here for four years and give back in a way that is important to us,” Shearer says.

To learn more about the class gift and all things senior, please click here.

To donate online, please click here.

Ali Hausfeld (left) finds out her “match.”

Match Day is the most anticipated day of the year for medical school students, as they learn where they will spend the next several years of their medical training.

Recently, 141 fourth-year students at Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine received sealed envelopes containing their residency destinations. With the nervous suspense of the Oscars, students opened the envelopes to find the name of the medical institution that will become their new home. The room filled with screams, applause, and tears of joy.

But for two soon-to-be graduates, this Match Day was especially sweet.

Ali Hausfeld was in her first year of medical school at Stritch when her father and sister were killed in a plane crash as they flew to pick her up for Easter weekend. Less than three years later, Hausfeld and her boyfriend were involved in a serious car crash that left her with five broken ribs, a broken hip, and a dislocated ankle. Despite those setbacks, Hausfeld persevered—and at Match Day she was surrounded by her mother and more than 30 family members and friends when she opened her envelope. (Watch an NBC 5 video of her story.)

Sarah Bauer, another fourth-year Stritch student, was born with spina bifida and spent countless hours in doctors’ offices as a child. Although she had a milder form of the birth defect—which can leave some people paralyzed or in wheelchairs—she still underwent three surgeries while growing up, including one when she was just five weeks old. Shaped by those experiences, Bauer now wants to be a pediatrician to help other children. Read her inspirational story here in the Chicago Tribune (registration required).

Pope John XXIII

On April 11, 1963, Pope John XXIII issued his last papal encyclical titled Pacem in Terris, or Peace on Earth; a document in which he outlined the importance of working together to incite universal peace. Written in the midst of the Cold War, Pope John XXIII suggested that any conflicts that arise be dealt with through “negotiation and agreement, and not by recourse to arms.”

This encyclical was the first one to be addressed to all people of good will instead of only Catholic followers. It advocated for equality, human rights, and collaboration between states to aid one another in political and social matters.

Kathleen Maas Weigert, the Carolyn Farrell, BVM, professor of women and leadership and assistant to the provost for social justice initiatives, says this encyclical carries heavy historical importance, especially for a Jesuit university.

“As a Catholic, Jesuit institution, we have an obligation to keep educating each generation about the important documents that shape the work we do in the world, and this is one of them,” Mass Weigert says. “It’s a historic statement that we are all responsible for building peace.”

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Pacem in Terris, a handful of departments are hosting events to commemorate and enliven the message of Pope John XXIII.

On March 23, the community is invited to a working conference called “Building Peace in Chicago and Beyond,” featuring four interactive panels with Loyola faculty and Chicago community organizations from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Richard J. Klarchek Information Commons. Panelists will discuss ways the community can reduce violence and increase peace.

To help understand how this document affects the workplace, Mark Bosco, S.J., professor of theology and English and director of the Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, will moderate a panel called “Pacem in Terris and the Professional Life” on Wednesday, April 3, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in Beane Hall. Following a presentation by Robert Ludwig, PhD, faculty in the Institute of Pastoral Studies, panelists from Loyola’s professional schools will discuss the encyclical and how its themes play a role in their professional lives.

The third event falls on the exact 50th anniversary of the issuance of the encyclical. On April 11, former Maine Senator George Mitchell will speak about “Making Peace by Negotiation and Agreement, and not by Recourse to Arms,” the title of his speech coming directly from a proposition from the encyclical. His presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. in Kasbeer Hall.

“I think it’s a great honor to have someone who was so intimately involved in one of the most difficult situations,” says Maas Weigert, speaking of Senator Mitchell’s involvement in negotiating peace agreements in northern Ireland and Egypt.

Maas Weigert says the encyclical and the events surrounding its 50th anniversary highlight the Jesuit mission and identity.

“The Jesuits as an order have spent a lot of their contemporary life thinking deliberately about how to educate around justice, which has non-violence as one of its telltale signs,” Maas Weigert says. “Here’s a document that speaks to the importance of that commitment.”

All events are free and open to the public, but registration is recommended for the working conference on March 23.

Please click here to learn more about the events and to register for “Building Peace in Chicago and Beyond.”

Denise Hall’s 13 years of service to Loyola has certainly paid off, as she was honored with University Staff Council’s January Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award. Hall has worked as the office coordinator in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry since 1999, and her peers recognized her hard work and endless dedication by nominating her for this distinction.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the news of the award,” says Hall. “It means a great deal to be recognized and appreciated by those I work with.”

As office coordinator, Hall oversees everything from preparing budget reports to updating the faculty website to looking over graduation audits to coordinating schedules. The long list of duties does not phase Hall one bit.

“I find my position to be very rewarding and I am grateful to be working with such a great group of co-workers,” Hall says.

Carol Grimm, the office assistant in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is one of those co-workers and has worked with Hall for the past 11 years. Grimm says that Hall is the go-to person for anything in the office.

“She has been a great boss. She is very professional, yet still has a sense of humor,” Grimm says.

Hall’s nominators mentioned that her commitment is evident everyday. Grimm echoes these thoughts and says that Hall always brings her best game to the office.

“She gives 110 percent everyday. It’s not just here and there; it’s always,” Grimm says.

While Hall’s co-workers say they feel lucky to work with her, Hall says those feelings are mutual. Additionally, she finds being part of the Loyola community inspiring, especially in the chemistry and biochemistry department.

“My favorite part about being in Loyola’s community is working with the students and knowing that I am not just working in an office, but an office that supports future leaders; researchers, teachers, and doctors,” Hall says.

Congratulations, Denise, on earning this distinguished honor!

To learn more about the Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award, please click here.

Image courtesy of Sandro Miller and the School of Communication.

By: Emily Sandy, School of Communication Staff Writer

Photography has many responsibilities. Among them, it should seek to start conversations, spark emotions or feelings, inspire, and educate. This is exactly what internationally acclaimed photographer Sandro Miller says he wants his exhibit at the School of Communication (SOC) to do.

“If you don’t look at a piece of artwork or a group of photography and begin to think and wonder, and be able to start an intelligent dialogue with someone about the work, then I guess I haven’t done my job,” says the photographer, who works professionally as Sandro. “I want people to really be able to go deep in their hearts and begin to feel things.”

Sandro will be displaying photographs that span a 25-year history of his personal work in an exhibit at the SOC called Seen, Unseen, which will debut Thursday, March 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The photographs in the exhibit will be a collection of work that has been previously shown in exhibits, or “seen,” as well as photos that have never been displayed, or “unseen.”

“I want to raise a little bit of awareness to some of this work,” Sandro says. “Seen, Unseen is brand new. I only put a few pieces in of each project, but I like to test the power of the imagery and there’s not a better way of doing that than having them displayed and getting reactions from a lot of people.”

Seen, Unseen will include Sandro’s well-known American Bikers and Cuban Faces portraits, as well as Atropa, Massa, and his new Peering In: Photographs of an Overstimulated Society. The work in the exhibit is either of portraiture or images about human bodies.

“Believe it or not, American Bikers has never been shown in a gallery in the U.S.,” Sandro says. “So I’m giving the University a small taste of it. There’s well over 100 portraits of American Bikers, but I’m giving Loyola a small taste of it.”

Seven photographs from the American Bikers series, some of Sandro’s oldest personal work, will be displayed in the SOC.

The inspiration for this series came in 1989 when Sandro lived in a suburb near Elgin, Illinois, where a biker rally took place each year. These bikers would ride and raise money for Little Angels, a facility that housed severely handicapped children.

“I went to one of these fundraiser days at Little Angels and I saw these big, burley, tattooed bikers interacting with these children and it almost brought tears to my eyes. Here are people who you would never expect to have an exchange of feelings for these children and they were loving them, and they were taking care of them and they were raising big money for them,” Sandro says. “It just changed something in me. I was really used to what Hollywood had made of bikers and the stories of the Hell’s Angels. You really began to think that every biker was a Hell’s Angel and that’s totally not the case at all.”

Regardless of what the audience may think or feel when seeing the American Bikers series, Sandro says he wants the photographs to start a conversation.

“Maybe [people] start talking about Easy Rider. Maybe they talk about the portraits that were done by Irving Penn–of Hell’s Angels. But there should be a dialogue that gets spoken there,” he says.

In addition to the biker series, seven of Sandro’s well-known Cuban Faces photographs will be displayed on the first and second floors of the SOC.

“Cuban Faces is a haunting study of the faces of Cuba beaten down by the sun and poverty under a tough Communist government,” Sandro wrote in a statement about the exhibit. “The fear of my own mortality was awoken during these sessions. Stories of hardships can be read between the aging lines of these sculpted faces.”

Another series, Atropa, can also be seen as portraits showcasing the wear and tear of human bodies.

Sandro wrote in his statement that the word “atropa” derives from the word “atrophy,” which carries the meaning “to weaken or waste away through disuse or the effect of disease.” He adds, “The image takes on a cancerous feel, deteriorating, being eaten away, distressed.”

While some of his photographs highlight the body’s beaten down and deteriorating effects, Sandro’s Massa series emphasizes something quite different.

“The work itself for me was about landscapes–about building these beautiful landscapes from the body,” Sandro says. “And without explaining to people what they are, I like to just see their reactions.”

“Massa,” the Italian word for “mass,” is a series of photographs of large men and women taken from beneath a Plexiglas table.

“The body adheres to the glass and just kind of forms these beautiful shapes and it looks like peaks and valleys,” Sandro says. “It reminds me of flying an airplane over the desert at sunset, where you see shadows and highlights, valleys and hills. It just becomes very textured. So that’s what the shoot really became about–landscapes.”

Sandro began taking photographs of people on Plexiglas about 10 years ago when he was hired to shoot portraits of top executives of a shoe company. After finishing the shoot, Sandro says he went to bed that night thinking there must be something else he can shoot other than the executives. He then began taking pictures of dancers, specifically the Joffrey Ballet dancers, on top of the Plexiglas.

“After I shot the Joffrey Ballet dancers, I wanted to expand the work, and I started thinking about what would happen if I shot bigger bodies on this,” Sandro says. “So I reached out to this wonderful club called the Big and Beautiful Club and it was a self-help group of people working with their image.”

He said one woman from the club came out to do the shoot and broke down crying.

“She said she felt completely released of so much pain she had been carrying with her,” Sandro says. “She said, ‘I never in a million years would have ever thought of being nude in a photo shoot with my body. And the work that you’re doing is so beautiful that I feel free of what I’ve been carrying for such a long time.’”

After doing the photo shoot with this woman, Sandro says about 20 more group members from the club wanted to have their photos taken on the Plexiglas.

“So it turned out to be a really beautiful, healing process for these people,” Sandro says.

Finally, Sandro’s new Peering In series will highlight not only people, but also the overstimulation of societies surrounding people. The series developed about four or five months ago when Sandro was shooting in New York City.

“I began to see these amazing reflections in windows and along with those reflections came the intensity of busyness, of commercialism, [and] of in-your-face advertising,” Sandro says. “I started getting this somewhat uncomfortable feeling of overstimulation.”

Three photographs, one from New York City and two from Tokyo, Japan, will be displayed in the SOC.

“What happened was this intense complexity of imagery that came together that looks like it was put together digitally, … but that’s not what happened at all. It’s all what happens in front of us,” Sandro says. “If you were to take the moment and stop action, for a second you’d be able to study exactly how much we have going on.”

These three photographs are just the beginning of Sandro’s exploration into the Peering In series. Although Sandro says the series will likely be a four- to five-year project, he adds that his projects never really stop, but are ongoing.

“I don’t think I ever stop shooting,” he says. “You want to kind of cover the history of a certain project or subject and I don’t think it stops until you’re done, and that means six feet under.”

With all of these photographs showcased and displayed for the Loyola community, Sandro says he hopes that he will inspire and allow his photographs to educate students.

“We don’t know what a lot of the world looks like without photography. It’s photography that’s the big educator,” Sandro says. “And I hope that students walk away with the feeling of being educated–that they, too, can become educators of the world.”

To RSVP for the free debut of the exhibit, please click here.

Photo courtesy of Kaitlyn McGuriman, a John Felice Rome Center student.

Many in Loyola’s Jesuit community never thought they would see a fellow Jesuit become pope.

And for good reason: In the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history, no Jesuit had ever been pope—a string of more than 260 pontiffs that goes back to St. Peter.

Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., president and CEO of Loyola, was surprised Wednesday when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina—who took the name Pope Francis—was chosen to be the first Jesuit to lead the Catholic Church. (To read Father Garanzini’s note to the Loyola community about the election of Pope Francis, click here; to read Father’s op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education, click here.; to read his comments in the Chicago Tribune, click here.)

“It is surprising to us because we normally don’t want to be in church hierarchical positions,” Garanzini told the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday. “We usually ask if we can turn them down.”

Loyola’s Justin Daffron, S.J., echoes the president’s comments.

“I was surprised when I heard the news,” says Daffron, Loyola’s associate provost who helps oversee academic programs for the University. “As Jesuits, we take a special vow not to seek Church office.

“There are times when Jesuits do take on offices because of the needs of the Church and the greater good, but that’s not our primary mission. So we’d been lead to believe that it would be very unlikely that there would ever be a Jesuit pope.”

The Society of Jesus, the official name of the order to which Jesuits belong, was started in 1540 by St. Ignatius Loyola. In the centuries since then, Jesuits have developed a reputation as world-class educators dedicated to helping the less fortunate and committed to promoting social justice.

The Jesuits are also the largest male religious order in the world, with about 19,000 members internationally, according to the website Jesuit.org. Despite such numbers, a Jesuit had never been named pope until Wednesday.

“Ignatius was originally a soldier, and from the early days of the Society of Jesus, there was a special loyalty to the popes,” says Michael Murphy, PhD, an instructor in theology at Loyola and director of Catholic Studies for the University. But the Jesuits didn’t want to diminish their role as missionaries, Murphy says, so becoming pope was never a priority for the Society.

“There’s not a lot of inclination among Jesuits to join the Vatican administration,” Murphy says. “They’re more interested in service and learning.”

Students at Loyola are excited about having a Jesuit lead the Catholic Church, but some are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the new pope.

“I think it’s good for the Jesuits to have someone in the top office of the Church,” says Eric Williamson, 21, a senior from Dallas majoring in film and media studies. “I don’t see any big changes coming right now, but I’ll stay tuned.”

Ashton Mitchell, 21, a senior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, majoring in communication studies, agrees.

“It’s an exciting direction for the Church to go in,” she says. “And I think it’s good that they chose someone from Latin America, although I’m a little concerned about his age.”

Junior Rianne Coale, 21, a journalism major from Elmira, Mich., thinks having a Jesuit pope is a huge positive for Loyola.

“It gives Loyola one more thing to single us out: ‘The pope’s a Jesuit, you should come to a Jesuit school,’” she says. “I’m excited to see where this goes.”

So what does the election of Pope Francis mean for the Church—and the Jesuits—going forward?

“I don’t see a lot of change, but I do see influence,” says Patrick Dorsey, S.J., who’s been at Loyola since 2007 and is the former director of the University’s Sacramental Life department. “His service to the poor is commendable. He walks the talk. He’s with them, he supports them, he rides the bus with them.”

“I think his influence will be more subtle, just as Ignatius was. Whenever Ignatius went to churches, for instance, it was never the main altar he would visit, it was always the side altar. … It was between him and God.

“And I get the sense that’s the kind of personality that Pope Francis has.”

John Hardt, PhD, Loyola’s mission and identity officer and faculty member of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics in the Health Sciences Division, adds: “Knowing that the pope is a member of the Society of Jesus means we have some insight and familiarity with his personal spirituality. We appreciate and can understand his spiritual tradition.”

Murphy, the theology professor, is not sure what to expect from the new pope, but he believes Francis may be a unique man to take the Church forward.

“There’s a lot in a name,” Murphy says. “The fact that he took Francis is important. Francis of Assisi was a major, major reformer of the Church and the papacy. He was a down-to-earth saint for the people, very in touch with the poor.

“In the early days of the Church, Francis helped bring the popes back around to the Gospel, which is to serve the poor and vulnerable. And it was successful and has served the Church so very well for some 800 years.”

The new Arnold J. Damen, S.J., Student Center is formally opening its doors on April 3, at 9 a.m., and a number of activities are planned throughout the day to introduce the Loyola community to the new facility.

Bryan Goodwin, director of the Department of Student Centers, says the goal of the Damen Student Center is for it to truly be a facility for students.

“We’re looking for it to be a home for all students and we feel like we will accomplish that through a number of new spaces, including prayer spaces, meeting rooms, and first-class dining,” Goodwin says. “The goal is to celebrate the opening of what will be an awesome student facility that features a lot of amenities that students are looking for to strengthen their student experience.”

The grand opening will kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony accompanied by short speeches from Father Garanzini, Robert Kelly, PhD, vice president for student development, and USGA President Julia Poirer. An innovative angle to the opening ceremony will be the involvement of Loyola’s international campuses, which will experience the opening via Skype and/or Face Time. “iPad Operators” will be available to take the international campuses on a rolling tour of the new facility after the doors open.

Another important feature of the grand opening is the ReImagine 3 Short Film Contest. Students must submit their one-minute films to igNation by midnight on March 24 and meet the contest criteria, which focuses on answering the question, “Why Loyola?,” with their film. The chosen films will be shown at the new student center on April 3. All students will have an opportunity to vote on the short films throughout the opening day celebration. In addition to the student body vote, a panel of judges, consisting of a faculty member, a Loyola alum, and a member of the University marketing team will determine the winners of the contest. The grand-prize winner will receive a $400 Adobe gift card. The top five winning films will be shown before each movie playing in the building’s new cinema over the course of the next school year.

While the film contest will be ongoing during the grand opening, there are a number of other events to celebrate the student center planned.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., students will be able to “Explore Damen” by participating in the Damen Game. Each student will get to “self tour” the facility. As they stop at different locations in Damen Center, students will collect 10 stamps they can add to their game card, which they can turn in for a prize by 4 p.m. at the center’s information desk. Prizes include a Southwest gift card, a plasma television, Loyola sweatshirts, iTunes gift cards, and more. Winners will be announced at 6 p.m. in the Damen Student Center Atrium. Everyone who turns in their game card will receive a commemorative t-shirt.

Other activities during the day include student-artist performances in the Atrium, free lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Damen Food Court, giveaways and a gaming tournament in the Ireland’s sports lounge, and demonstrations on the new climbing wall.

The activities on opening day of the Damen Student Center aren’t solely for students. Faculty and staff can treat themselves to a “Wine Down” reception in the new Solomon Cordwell Buenz Fireplace Lounge on the second floor, from 4 to 6 p.m. Hosted by the Maroon and Gold Society, faculty and staff can relax and also enjoy guided tours during this time frame. Alcohol will be restricted to the lounge.

Finally, the opening will come to an end with the Senior HOP Party that will take place in the Schmidt Multipurpose Room/SCB Fireplace Lounge from 9 to 11 p.m. This party is hosted by the Office of the President. This event is for seniors only and tickets are required. Seniors will be able to purchase these tickets soon via an online invitation.

We hope you’ll plan to attend the opening day festivities and participate in the activities. To stay up to date on plans for the grand opening, keep an eye on Inside Loyola and follow the Damen Student Center on Twitter at @LUC_Damen.

If you visited LUC.edu on Tuesday, you probably noticed some big changes.

We’ve redesigned it to make it brighter, bolder, and better organized—and, more importantly, to provide a compelling window into the University and its outstanding academic offerings.

On the new home page you’ll find many academic stories about the cutting-edge research being done at Loyola; about the innovative ways that students learn in—and out of—the classroom; about how students interact with stellar faculty; and how Loyola provides students with a transformative education.

We’ve redesigned several inside pages to also highlight our academic excellence and to better display important Loyola facts and figures. To help readers learn more about Loyola, we clearly call out how to request information or apply.

We know that we reach many audiences through the web and we know that people view our website on all kinds of devices, so we used responsive web design to build the new pages—which means you’ll get all of the benefits of the improved website on any device you use. So whether you’re logging in on your work computer, reading a quick story on your laptop, or browsing on your smart phone or tablet, you won’t miss a thing. We’re also using more multi-media elements like videos and slideshows to create a better user experience.

But we didn’t change everything. Many of the links that you use the most—Directories, Human Resources, and LOCUS, for instance—are still on the website. They are either in the upper-right corner or under the Resources tab, which is now a true one-stop shop for any help you may need.

Please note there is still work to be done as many department and administrative sites have yet to be migrated to the new design. We hope to complete the update over the next several months.

We plan on watching analytics closely as they will help us massage and improve the site. You also can help us by taking a few minutes to browse the new website.  We welcome your comments at webteam@luc.edu as we continually edit and modify the site.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Kelly Shannon
Vice President for University Marketing and Communication

By Emily Study, School of Communication Website Reporter

Everyone has a story to tell, but how do we record it?

Through a combination of written word, audio and video, the School of Communication (SOC) will teach 30 high school students how to become more comfortable with multi-platform journalism at the High School Digital Storytelling Workshop June 16-21.

“The goal for the high school students [is] to expose them to 21st century journalism,” says John Slania, program director of journalism and a professor at the workshop. “To be a 21st century journalist, you have to know how to write, record and edit audio, and shoot and edit video. Then that product gets posted on the Internet.”

The free workshop will allow students to learn from top SOC faculty members, explore the city of Chicago and live in Baumhart Hall, just blocks away from Michigan Avenue.

“This is really a way for them to experience college,” says Meghan Ashbrock, SOC events coordinator. “It’s a lot of what our School of Communication students experience. It’s a week in the life of an SOC student.”

During the first three days of the workshop, the students will attend morning lectures with three professors: Slania, Aaron Greer and Ralph Braseth. Slania teaches the written word portion of the workshop; Greer, program director of international film and media studies, teaches the video portion; and Braseth, student media manager, teaches the audio portion.

After the morning lectures, the students put what they learn to the test by going out into different neighborhoods to collect their stories. This summer, the students will be traveling to Chinatown, the Lincoln Park Zoo, Millennium Park, Oak Street Beach and Navy Pier, according to Ashbrock.

“One of the most difficult things, whether it’s a high school student or a Loyola senior, is to get people out on the street interviewing people,” Braseth says. “But we take them out every single day and they are reporting every day. They come back, they write, they produce and they edit in all of these different formats, and at the end [of the week], they come up with a really nice website.”

The photos, stories, videos and interactive map that the students produced at last year’s workshop can be viewed at loyolasummerstories.com.

“I got to see Chicago and to learn skills that have helped me today,” says Natalie Laczewski, who attended the workshop last summer.

Laczewski, a current junior at Lakes Community High School, wrote her story about visitors at Oak Street Beach.

“With interviewing people, you need to get comfortable with them and have them tell their story,” she says.

Another student who attended the workshop says it helped her to do something she wouldn’t normally feel comfortable doing.

“It got me out of my comfort zone, because at school I interviewed people I either knew or knew of, but during the workshop I had to talk to total strangers,” says Stephanie Drucker, who is the editor-in-chief of her school newspaper. “It was just generally a great way to sharpen my skills.”

Not only did the students benefit from the days’ assignments, but they also developed friendships along the way.

“I just really enjoyed meeting kids from the other areas of Chicago. We all had a really fun time,” says Drucker, a senior at Niles North High School. “It’s great to see that other people are interested in journalism like I am.”

Kelsey Phillips, who attended the workshop, says she also enjoyed spending time with the other students.

“They made me feel welcome and at home,” says Phillips, a senior at Power House High.

The applications for this year’s workshop are now available at highschooldigital.com. The deadline to apply is March 15.

Have you ever wondered what makes you different from any other living species in the world? Dr. James M. Calcagno, director of the Fellowship Office at Loyola University Chicago, may just have the answer you’re looking for. In the article he co-authored, “What Makes Us Human?: Some Answers from Evolutionary Anthropology,” he attempts to answer the most fundamental question in anthropology.

“Despite its appearance as a basic question, it is exceptionally difficult to answer,” says Calcagno. “Yet I, as well as my students, are unsatisfied with being left in the lurch after countless pages of reading, and felt a desire to produce an answer in one page, or even one PowerPoint slide.”

“What Makes Us Human?” was published in Evolutionary Anthropology in October 2012. The article, which is a synthesis of essay responses from scholars in biological anthropology and archaeology, attempts to create discussion around the topic.

“There are two main components, the first dealing with what “made” us human and how we should approach the question; the second with what “makes” us human,” says Calcagno.

After being invited by Anna Vigen, an associate professor of theology at Loyola, and Patti Jung, a professor from the Saint Paul School of Theology, to participate on an interdisciplinary panel on gender and Christian ethics to provide an evolutionary perspective, Calcagno found further motivation to answer his question in the theology department of Loyola. He was delighted that theologians cared to know what an evolutionary anthropologist/biologist thought about human nature.

“Shortly thereafter, John McCarthy, an associate professor of theology at Loyola, organized another session titled “What Makes Us Human?,” again bringing together individuals from diverse fields to discuss the issue,” explains Calcagno. “By then I realized that although I had ideas of my own, I felt as though I was presenting my personal views as an evolutionary anthropologist, not evolutionary anthropology as a whole, and sensed each of us would have our own separate answers that may or may not overlap well.”

After organizing two sessions at two different conferences and assembling scholars from biological anthropology to discuss ideas related to the topic, he organized various individuals from the field to give different angles on the question but to also make sure that all areas were represented.

“I just gave them the question, ‘What makes us human?,’ and I limited their responses to 800 words,” explains Calcagno. “I thought it would work well because I didn’t want to write a book, I wanted to write a short article with a short answer, something people could assign to their classes.”

He hopes his article provides some common ground among most evolutionary anthropologists, but more importantly, when asked by undergraduates, as well as curious people outside of academia, he hopes his article will provide an answer that generates clarity on what makes us human.

“Anthropology represents a celebration, not the fear or rejection, of biological and cultural diversity,” concludes Calcagno. “To improve upon how we interact, I sincerely believe that education is the key, and perhaps the most important aspect of that education is understanding who we are as a species and how we are connected to each other.”

For more information about “What Makes Us Human?,” please contact James Calcagno at jcalcag@luc.edu. You can also view the article by clicking here.

Loyola’s Office of International Programs is excited to have been awarded a $225,000 grant, funded by the U.S. State Department, to help foster collaboration between institutions in other countries, specifically Vietnam.

With its presence in Vietnam, Loyola’s students are able to study abroad at the University’s Vietnam Center and take courses while experiencing a vastly different learning environment. The center not only offers Loyola students the opportunity to study abroad, but it also gives the University the chance to partner with Vietnam institutions.

Christopher Peterson, PhD, professor and chair for the department of environmental science, will visit Vietnam in March to interview faculty members who are interested in sustainability. He explains the significance of the grant.

“I think the grant recognizes Loyola as an institution that is collaborative and interested in providing teaching, not only in our institution, but other institutions as well,” Peterson says. “Loyola is the only non-Vietnamese university to have a campus in Vietnam, and we are trying to create an atmosphere where there are mutual benefits for the students, Loyola, and the other university scholars.”

Also in March, Alanah Fitch, PhD, Loyola professor of analytical chemistry, and Peterson will travel to Ho Chi Minh City to interview a number of Vietnamese faculties interested in sustainability and they will decide which 10 professionals would benefit the most from coming to Chicago for the summer to participate in a teaching workshop. The workshop will give attendees the chance to experience the teaching methods used in the United States, and it will also help facilitate and lead to the development of courses in sustainability for Vietnamese schools,  giving them the opportunity to eventually offer courses in environmental sustainability.

“The workshop will try and enhance course material and how information is conveyed to benefit both the student and foreign students visiting,” explains Peterson.

With a number of pressing environmental issues present in Vietnam and its cities, students that get the chance to study abroad can become involved in biodiversity research and agricultural methods to increase production. A number of environmental initiatives will be put into place to create good synergy.

The grant money will also be used to fund student scholarships. Recipients of these scholarships have not yet been chosen, but a few lucky students may get the chance to have their tuition covered.

“This is definitely a pretty exciting set of developments that is really going to enhance our ability to build educational and research collaborations,” concludes Peterson. “It benefits the students by providing them with quality environmental classes and exposes them to environmental issues that are not paramount here. Environmental problems are global, and the better understanding we have of the issues the better chance we have of getting a handle on them.”

Everyone around Loyola University Chicago knows what a treasure Sister Jean is. Today, the rest of Chicago is introduced to this remarkable woman in a Chicago Tribune front-page article.

If you are a Chicago Tribune online subscriber, click here to read the story. If you are not a subscriber, click here.

On Saturday, March 2, the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) unveiled its three exhibitions for the spring: Graven Images: Marc Chagall’s Bible Illustrations, The Truth is in the Telling: Tradition and Innovation in Passover Haggadot from the Stephen P. Durchslag Collection, and Lewis Kostiner: Choosing Fatherhood—A Photographic Journey. All three exhibitions will remain open through June 2, 2013.

Graven Images: Marc Chagall’s Bible Illustrations
Born in Vitebsk, Belarus, into a traditional Hasidic Jewish culture with no tradition of art, Marc Chagall developed into one of the most distinctive artists of the 20th century. In Chicago, he is best known for stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as The Four Seasons mosaic at 10 South Dearborn Street. Few people recognize that Chagall was also a highly skilled printmaker, having learned the technique while residing in Germany in the 1920s. Chagall’s The Bible Series represents his finest work in the print medium. When completed in 1957, the modern art critic Clement Greenberg extolled his prints as the finest by a modern artist, better even than the prints of Pablo Picasso.

The Truth is in the Telling: Tradition and Innovation in Passover Haggadot from the Stephen P. Durchslag Collection
This exhibition highlights the Haggadah, the book that for five centuries has told the story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. The story recounts the journey of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the present moment. It is read aloud by Jews throughout the world at the traditional ritual meal of the Seder and is one of the most frequently published books around the globe. Pesach Weinstein curated the exhibition that was shown in 2012 at the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery at the University of Chicago. LUMA’s presentation includes additional volumes for a total of 52 Haggadot (plural of Haggadah).

Lewis Kostiner: Choosing Fatherhood—A Photographic Journey
On view in the Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. Works on Paper Gallery, Choosing Fatherhood features a selection of photographs from Chicagoan Lewis Kostiner’s photographic project of the same name. These works explore how fathers are involved in their children’s lives. Between 2007 and 2009, the artist traveled to 17 American cities, meeting families and photographing scenes that allude to the important roles of the fathers he met.

In addition to these exhibitions, the museum will host a number of public programs throughout the spring. For a full list of programs, click here. For more on the exhibitions, visit LUC.edu/luma.

Image Credit: (detail) Marc Chagall, The Passover Feast (detail; from The Bible Series), 1957, hand-colored etching, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Haggerty, collection of the Haggerty Musem of Art, Marquette University 80.7.96. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

The historic Game of Change, an NCAA Regional semifinal game played between Loyola and Mississippi State University on March 15, 1963 in East Lansing, Michigan, has been named the No. 12 moment in NCAA Tournament history by ESPN.com.

The contest between Loyola and Mississippi State forever changed college basketball and civil rights. Loyola head coach George Ireland started four African-Americans and his Rambler team faced discrimination and racism during its national championship run in 1963. A win over Tennessee Tech in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament set Loyola up for a scheduled showdown with Mississippi State in the regional semifinals that would be remembered forever.

In December 2012, Loyola and Mississippi State faced one another at Gentile Arena for the first time since that historic game 50 years ago. Several members of both the Loyola and Mississippi State teams from that 1963 season gathered in Chicago for the December rematch.

“Now, they call it the ‘Game of Change.’ Then, Mississippi State’s 1963 game against Loyola in the Mideast semifinals was historically insignificant. In between, it lost its place, overrun by the more Hollywood-adaptable games between Texas Western and Kentucky. But the significance of the ’63 game can’t be overlooked. Bulldogs players and staff sneaked out of Mississippi under the threat of a state injunction to play the integrated team from Chicago. The players simply wanted to play a game, but when flashbulbs popped at the historic handshake between African-American player Jerry Harkness from Loyola and Mississippi State’s Joe Dan Gold, everyone realized that their March moment was far bigger than a basketball game,” ESPN.com reporter Dana O’Neil wrote.

For ESPN’s full list of top moments, click here. And, please remember that voting is still open at NCAA.com for their ranking of the top moment in NCAA Tournament history. To vote for the “Game of Change,” click here.

Confirmation Day Procession of 1895. Photo courtesy Ellen Skerrett, author of Born in Chicago: A History of Chicago’s Jesuit University (Loyola Press, 2008).

On October 16-19, 2014, Loyola will hold a conference marking the bicentennial of the Restoration of the Society of Jesus in 1814. In preparation for the four-day conference, Loyola scholars have taken to social media to attract attention to the archives they are exploring and start an interactive discussion about 19th-century Jesuits.

Restored Jesuits and the American experience is the title of both the WordPress and Tumblr blogs, as well as the Facebook page that have been created for the bicentennial conference. The aim of the conference is to delve into the impact of Jesuit activities and institutions in the formation of a new nation throughout the 19th and early-20th centuries.

Stephen Schloesser, an associate professor in the history department, is pleased with the level of interaction between students and faculty that stems from the social media sites.

“By launching it a full two years in advance of the conference, it gives scholars, especially younger scholars who are perhaps in graduate studies, the chance to get some ideas and search some archives. All of that kind of new scholarship and research takes time.”

Creating the blog far in advance of the conference allows collaboration between  faculty, staff in University Archives, undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni to work on this project. Joshua Wachuta, a humanities graduate student at Loyola, as well as a Crown Scholar, is in charge of maintaining all three social media platforms to ensure the conference keeps an up-to-date web presence.

“The posts already at Tumblr demonstrate the breadth of the conference topics, linking historical themes and  documents, and inviting people with very different interests to start thinking about this history and where they might research it further,” says Wachuta. ”I encourage people to explore the websites and see what interests them.”

Both the WordPress and Tumblr sites lay out academic work that offers numerous avenues for exploring a topic that many historians have not thought much about.

“In order to catalyze thinking about those Jesuits and have that thinking happen through various lens of recent historical trends such as urban, gender, sports, and emotions history, we set up a blog that lays out a number of various possibilities for thinking, or re-thinking, about the 19th-century Jesuits,” says Schloesser.

Despite the celebration being just over a year away, the use of social media helps promote a robust discussion of new research in the two-hundred-year history of restored Jesuit activity in America.

In addition to the restoration blog, there are several other advancements taking place in anticipation of the 2014 conference. There will be a new exhibition at the Loyola University Museum of Art and a virtual library that Dr. Kyle Roberts, a professor in the history department, has undertaken with the assistance of undergraduate research interns Brian Molitor, Zorian Sasyk, and Ed Englestad. Roberts was also one of the catalysts behind the social media endeavor for the bicentennial restoration celebration.

Check out the WordPress, Tumblr, and Facebook pages to explore the topics discussed above further.

For one year, Felice’s Roman Style Pizza has been serving up slices of Roman-inspired pizza, soups, and salads to the Loyola community. To commemorate their one-year anniversary, Felice’s is offering $1 slices, drinks, and bombas on Monday, February 25, from 4-9 p.m. They will also hand out free samples of a brand new pizza all day on the 25th.

The birthday party of sorts is being sponsored by Loyola Limited, the University’s undergraduate student-run and student-managed business enterprises, of which Felice’s is one. Asma Kadri, chief marketing officer of Loyola Limited, says the first year of Felice’s has been one of experimentation.

“We’ve done a lot of experimenting in year one; recipe development, making sure we had everything like payments squared away,” says Kadri, a senior international studies and advertising and public relations double major. “Now, not only is it all squared away, but it’s all going really well.”

Just like Loyola Limited, Felice’s is also entirely run by undergraduate students, making it the only pizzeria in the country that can say that.

“It’s something that we hold as a point of pride, not just for Felice’s, but in general  for our student run business program,” Kadri says. “In our third year of Loyola Limited being active, we’ve run higher business capital than any other student business in the nation.”

Erin O’Neill, a junior communication studies major with minors in math and Polish studies, is one of the managers and pizza artisans at Felice’s. She shares Kadri’s sentiment of being proud of the work they have accomplished.

“I’m really proud to tell people Felice’s is the only student-run restaurant and that we’re still alive after a whole year of having to figure everything out from scratch,” O’Neill says.

Kadri says there is a pretty loyal group of customers that dine at Felice’s, both students and residents in the Edgewater and Rogers Park communities, who “wholeheartedly” believe in the company. She says many of their customers are alums of the John Felice Rome Center who are looking for a slice of pizza to remind them of their days studying in Italy. O’Neill adds she will often see customers on campus and remember their names and pizza orders because they come in so frequently.

“It says a lot for our business and how we treat our customers because people are always coming back for more,” O’Neill says.

While Felice’s continues to see success, Kadri says they hope to expand its reach further into the Chicago community and right here on campus in terms of students getting involved with Loyola Limited, which also currently manages The Flats and ChainLinks.

“Loyola Limited doesn’t partner with just the business school. It’s interdisciplinary,” Kadri says. “We hire for attitude and train for skill.”

O’Neill says that she feels like she learns something different after each shift and that the lessons she learns at work aren’t confined to within the restaurant.

“[Loyola Limited] wants us to understand that this isn’t just a place you show up to and work and go home. There are a lot of things that can be applied from here to later on in life,” she says. “It’s about more than just pizza.”

In addition to prepping for the big Felice’s celebration, the Loyola Limited leadership is also in search of members for its Council of Advisors. The council provides guidance, advice, and direction to the students of Loyola Limited. Nominations for the council are now being accepted through March 1. Any faculty, staff, or community member may nominate others, or themselves, to serve a one-year term on the council.

The Council of Advisors will be fundamental in the continued growth and stabilization of the Loyola Limited program. It is a unique way to engage students, and to have an impact on one of the most unique programs in Chicago. Those wishing to nominate others, or themselves, should contact Jonathan Ferrera at jferrera@luc.edu for more information and the nominating packet. For more information, potential nominees or nominators are welcome to call 773.508.2183.

To learn more about Loyola Limited, please click here. For more information on Felice’s, please click here.

Summer is fast approaching, and while students may be focused on vacations, the summer months offer an ideal time to keep working towards their degrees.

“Summer sessions provide an opportunity for students to really move ahead in their academic career,” says Maria Lettiere, assistant director of communications and academic affairs for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Loyola offers four summer sessions, and students can enroll in up to eight credit hours per session. If planned properly, students can complete a whole year sequence, such as in math or foreign languages, in just two sessions, says Lettiere.

In addition to the lengthy course listings for the summer, Loyola is also extending its summer reach and offering classes at the Retreat and Ecology Campus and Cuneo Mansion and Gardens. While the Retreat and Ecology Campus has offered summer classes for the past three years focusing on the sciences, this is the first time summer classes will be held at Cuneo Mansion and Gardens. The Vernon Hills campus will host six core classes and one communication studies class.

John Frendreis, PhD, professor of political science, was recently appointed as the academic program coordinator for the Cuneo campus. He says offering classes at Cuneo allows students living outside of the city to take classes without having to come all the way to Chicago.

“It’s all part of the general University effort to try to make it easier for students to complete their degrees in four years,” Frendreis says. “Our research indicates that there are around 800 undergraduates who will be continuing their studies next year who live in either Lake County or in a northern Cook County zip code, which is within 15 miles of Cuneo.”

Not only does Cuneo offer a closer proximity for some students, but both Frendreis and Lettiere mention the beauty of Cuneo with its elegant mansion and blooming gardens. Frendreis says some classes, such as “Acting for Non-Majors,” have a unique opportunity to take advantage of Cuneo’s landscape and use it as a classroom tool and backdrop for their performances.

Students who enroll in classes at Cuneo can also take advantage of the free parking and waived technology and student activity fees.

Those students attending classes at Lake Shore Campus and Water Tower Campus do have the option of living in residence halls (Bellarmine and Baumhart, respectively) and enrolling in a meal plan. Additionally, students enrolled in courses at the Retreat and Ecology Campus will live in newly renovated rooms on campus.

Besides getting ahead in school and taking advantage of all of Loyola’s campuses, Lettiere says living in Chicago during the summer is an entire experience within itself.

“Chicago is simply enjoyable. It’s an eclectic city, and so there’s something to do for every interest,” she says. “We have amazing beaches, amazing parks, and people really take the opportunity to enjoy the outside.”

To learn more about summer sessions at Loyola, please click here. Registration is already underway.

Francis Cardinal George (right) talking with Sam Attoh, dean of the Graduate School, outside Madonna della Strada Chapel.

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., will help mark the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II when he speaks on the Council’s Declaration of Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humane) at Loyola’s School of Law on Thursday. Cardinal George will talk about how the historical document fits with the overall goals of the Second Vatican Council, which was convened by Pope John XXIII in October of 1962. He will also discuss the document’s interpretation of the connection between church and state.

The event will take place in the Philip H. Corboy Law Center, in the Power Rogers & Smith Ceremonial Courtroom on the 10th floor, on Thursday, February 21, at noon.

This event is sponsored by the law school’s new Law and Religion program. Pizza will be provided.

To RSVP, please e-mail lawandreligion@luc.edu. For more information, click here.

Students looking to escape city life and find their “Walden” may be hard pressed to do so in an urban environment like Chicago. However, with Loyola’s Office for Outdoor Experiential Education, students interested in these outdoor experiences now have a platform for such excursions.

In 2009, Father Garanzini initiated plans to establish an official office for outdoor education to be a resource for students who expressed desire in outdoor experiences. The Office for Outdoor Experiential Education, also called Ramble Outdoors, was officially founded in spring 2010.

Paul Miller, the director of Ramble Outdoors, says that student interest has far surpassed anything they originally imagined when beginning to shape the program.

“We continue to be surprised by students who love the city but have a deep hunger to spend time in natural settings,” Miller says. “We’ve been trying to catch up.”

Students play an integral role in Ramble Outdoors as student facilitators, the largest component of the Ramble Outdoors team. They are in charge of leading group excursions either in the wilderness or at the Challenge Course at the Retreat and Ecology Campus.

“The students make [Ramble Outdoors] possible,” says Miller. “Student empowerment is at the core of the success of the program. There are lots of places on campus for them to practice leadership, but few that provide such unique consequences and direct feedback.”

Rose Brickley, a senior anthropology major and environmental science, art history, and visual communications minor, was part of the inaugural class of student facilitators. She says being part of this initial group has been a great experience to help shape the experience of future facilitators.

“We joke a lot because the world of outdoor leadership is variable; you don’t know what’s going to happen outside, just like this team and seeing where it will go in the future,” Brickley says.

Timothy Seed, a senior environmental science major with a history minor, was also in the first class of student facilitators.

“The leadership role for my generation of student facilitators encompasses everything. We are the support team for the growing program,” Seed says.

And the program continues to grow. Brickley mentions that they are leading more trips every year. The rock wall in Halas Recreation will be staffed by Ramble Outdoors. Requests for excursions to the Retreat and Ecology Campus’s challenge course are climbing. Additionally, Ramble Outdoors is leading a kayaking trip in Florida over spring break, the first spring break trip that is open to the entire campus, instead of just a particular student group. All their trips have sold out and have had a waiting list, which speaks to their success and popularity.

Miller says the experience of outdoor education is one that mirrors Ignatian pedagogy’s four processes of knowing: experience, reflection, judgement, and action.

“Natural environments offer quiet, reflective spaces that students don’t have access to in the city,” Miller says. “It puts people in a context where true relationships happen, and meaningful and authentic communities are formed in a space that is set apart. It makes us ask the big questions.”

Brickley echoes these thoughts and adds that the skills learned in the wilderness are applicable to everyday life.

“Outdoor experiential education is very valuable because it engages diverse groups of people in learning styles, interests, and types of groups. It’s a great classroom to be used in all sorts of different contexts,” she says.

As students continue to express an interest in the wilderness, Ramble Outdoors will be able to lead them there.

“It’s not uncommon to hear people say, ‘I want to get out there. How do I do that?’” says Seed. “We help them.”

To learn more about Ramble Outdoors, please click here.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has released its list of the top donors of 2012, and this year’s list includes a strong Loyola connection. Congratulations to Michael Quinlan, who was named #35 on the list for his $40M gift to the University’s business school.

To view the Quinlan profile and read about other top donors recognized, click here.

Vivian Xu (right) was named the inaugural winner of the University Staff Council’s Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award.

At the annual Staff Recognition and Excellence Awards in November, the University Staff Council announced the launch of its Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award, which seeks to honor the achievements and commitment of staff members to the University and its mission on a monthly basis.

The recipient of the inaugural award was Vivian Xu, a senior financial analyst with the financial budgeting team.

“It means a lot,” Xu says about receiving the award. “Somebody sees you’re doing the work, and then they give you confirmation that you’re doing a great job. They know what you are doing, and they appreciate it.”

Xu has held her position since 2008, but her Loyola roots lie deeper than that. After receiving her undergraduate degree in her home country of China, Xu came to Loyola for her graduate schooling in 2004 where she received her masters in business and accounting. Upon graduating in 2008, she joined the budgeting team.

One of the main reasons Xu says she decided to come to Loyola is because Chicago is a big city that offers a lot of opportunities after graduation, and that prophecy held true for her as she was offered this position with the budgeting team.

As a senior financial analyst, Xu manages the budgeting for the University’s faculty and staff salaries and compensations. Any payroll actions for staff and budget transfers must be approved by Xu before they can be finalized.

When asked what part of her job is the most demanding, Xu says the amount of patience it requires and how detail-oriented it is.

“In terms of payment stuff, people are sensitive,” she says. “It trains your patience and your skills to interact with people.”

Xu says the rest of her budgeting team has been instrumental in her success. As the youngest one in the department, Xu says all her co-workers have helped her learn and grow in the field.

“They are treating me very well and with patience. They care about your work and how you feel about your work. They really care about you as a person,” Xu says.

Going beyond her immediate budgeting team, Xu says that the Loyola community as a whole helps to foster this idea of commitment to work and helping others succeed. She says she especially feels a pull to give back because the University gave so much to her in terms of her education.

“Everybody is committed to what they are doing. I think in a Jesuit school, people are more willing to help others,” Xu says. “I feel like I should do something for the good of Loyola because it helped me a lot.”

In his 45-minute address, Father touched on a number of important topics, including the University’s financial health, spending, capital projects, proposed budget cuts (includes a proposal to delay salary raises until January 2014), new revenue streams, enrollment, crime around our campuses, scholarship fundraising, the work of the newly formed University Senate, and more.

A replay of Father’s address is now available online and can be accessed by clicking here.

The 1963 champs return home and are welcomed by former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley.

Fifty years after its historic achievement, Loyola University Chicago will pay tribute to the 1963 men’s basketball team, which won the NCAA Championship, with a weekend-long celebration on February 15 and 16. On March 23, 1963, the Ramblers stunned two-time defending champion Cincinnati, 60-58 in overtime, to win the national title, and to this day Loyola is the only school in the state of Illinois to have won the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

The celebration kicks off on Friday night, February 15, with a screening of the documentary, Game of Change, at 7 p.m. in Galvin Auditorium. Members of the 1963 championship team will be on hand for the screening, and will participate in a Q&A session following the film. All are welcome to attend.

Then, on Saturday, February 16, the current Loyola team will host city and Horizon League rival UIC at 1 p.m., in Gentile Arena. The 1963 champions will be honored throughout the game. Later that evening, a celebration dinner will be held at the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (1431 W. Taylor St., Chicago) with cocktails to be served at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets for the dinner are $100, include food, drinks, and a commemorative giveaway item, and can be purchased by calling 773.508.WOLF or visiting www.alumni.luc.edu/celebrationgala. The deadline to register is February 15.

Lastly, have you voted for the “Game of Change” as one of the all-time great moments in the history of the NCAA Tournament? If not, please do so today, and each day for the next month or so. As part of a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the tournament, fans can log on to www.ncaa.com/75-moments and vote the Ramblers’s historic meeting with Mississippi State as the greatest moment in the long and storied history of the tournament.

For more on the 1963 champs, including articles from that era, player profiles, etc., visit www.loyola63.com.

The Department of Emergency Medical Services (LUCEMS) reached an important milestone this past January, receiving its 1,000th call. To mark the achievement, the department honored both crew members on shift at the time of the call with $500 awards. The monetary awards were made possible through a collaboration of fundraising initiatives that the program has undertaken in the past year, including their successful CPR training program that features LUCEMS members teaching CPR to students. Due to privacy laws, no further information about the details of the call can be released.

The Department of Emergency Medical Services was created in 2008 when several students expressed an interest in starting a collegiate EMS program on campus. Since the program’s inception in 2008, it has grown each year, with more and more students going through training to become EMS responders. Also, thus far, more than a 1,000 people have been trained in CPR by LUCEMS members, demonstrating the growing reach of the program outside of its individual members.

LUCEMS Director Jonathan Winarski, 22, a senior health system management major, has been with the department since he was a freshman in 2009. He says that the LUCEMS call volume has increased every year since he’s been with the program.

“We are continually improving our program, and to be a part of the program, no matter at what level, allows me to be proud of the work we do because it makes a difference,” Winarski says. “It also shows that students are being safe. Whether it is looking out for an intoxicated friend, or someone who has sprained their ankle, people know to call us and they can trust us.”

Winarski says all students working as responders are full-time students who volunteer in their free time. The average shift lasts 14 hours and is unpaid. Each year, students volunteer for hundreds of hours in order to fulfill the commitment they made as EMS responders to care for the Loyola community.

“This program is a prime example of how students can live out the Jesuit mission of service to others by continually serving and asking for nothing in return,” says Winarski.

One of those student responders is Anna Presniakov, 21, senior health system management major. She is the executive supervisor of LUCEMS  and says her studies at Loyola helped prepare her for dealing with a number of difficult calls she faces as an EMS responder.

“I knew it would be a tough job going into it, but I learned that if you develop a pattern and turn the job into a habit, everything falls into place,” Presniakov says. “This position has taught me the benefits of being positive in stressful situations, asking for help if I need it, and to always, always, always expect the unexpected.”

The 1,000th call marks a milestone for the department and is a testament to helping the Loyola community in a meaningful way. That said, Winarski looks forward to improving the collegiate EMS program in the future.

“It is important that as we continue to be a part of Loyola, we continue to develop and strengthen our program. I believe over the past five years we have grown leaps and bounds, and I’m excited to see where we are five years from now.”

For more information on the LUCEMS program, please click here.

While Loyola offers its students opportunities to study abroad at its campuses in Rome, Beijing, and Vietnam, the University also provides international students the chance to spend a semester studying right here on the shores of Lake Michigan.

The Chicago Center is Loyola’s study abroad program that introduces international students to living and studying here in Chicago. The program was initiated in 2011 by Patrick Boyle, PhD, associate provost and assistant to the president for global affairs and initiatives. Boyle says that the evolving worldwide educational landscape helped develop his idea of having Loyola host a study abroad program.

“There was a time in history when most of the strong universities were in the United States. People from all over the world would come here,” Boyle says.

However, he says in the past 30 to 40 years, most countries have developed a network of “top-notch” universities, so they do not see the need to leave their country. Even so, Boyle says some students still may want the experience of studying abroad in the United States.

The benefits of the Chicago Center are two-fold, according to Dr. Boyle.

“It is helping international students learn about the United States and Jesuit education, and Loyola students have the chance to interact with international students here on campus,” he says.

The inaugural semester started out with a small group of five international students, but it has grown to about 20 students each semester. These students live in the dorms, take standard Loyola classes, and participate in events around campus. They even take two trips a semester to other major, culturally rich cities in the United States such as New York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.

International students choosing to study at the Chicago Center are partnered up with a Loyola host student who volunteers to be a resource point throughout the semester. Browyn Sherman, a junior majoring in theatre and minoring in ceramics, says she volunteered as a host because she wanted to help an international student adjust to the culture here, as well as learn about that student’s home culture.

“I really enjoyed getting to know my student and having discussions about our cultural differences and similarities,” she says. “I think it’s educational to hear another perspective on your own culture.”

Mike Lee, another Chicago Center host, says he learned a lot by hearing his international student’s observations on the American college lifestyle.

“It puts the experience of the “American” college life into perspective,” says Lee, a senior psychology and anthropology major. “A lot of the students mention that one of the reasons they wanted to study in America, apart from traveling, was wanting to experience the American college life. I’ve learned that our college life, as unique as it is, also has its faults.”

Both Sherman and Lee agree that a program like the Chicago Center is important to helping international peers become more comfortable with American life, as well as make those international connections.

“It not only allows for an easier transition for the incoming students, but helps build a positive relationship between individuals and bridge the cultural gap,” Lee says.

To learn more about the Chicago Center, please click here.

Students are making incredible strides on Loyola’s campus every day, whether it be in leadership positions, philanthropic endeavors, or academic pursuits. As a testament to the work done here on campus, students, faculty, and staff members are invited to recognize the students who embody the ideals of a Jesuit education by nominating them for one of the Excellence Awards.

The awards, which will be formally presented to students at this year’s Weekend of Excellence, provide a way to identify and honor the accomplishments of Loyola students in the past year.

Jack McLean, vice president for student development, says students have a unique perspective on their peers, so they play an important role in nominating fellow classmates.

“Students really know who are the most effective of their peers in terms of student leadership. They have a perspective that’s very different from a faculty or staff member or administrator,” McLean says. “It’s essential for students to make these nominations.”

Students can nominate their peers for the Damen Student Awards, Damen Student Organization Awards, the 1870 Award, and the Maroon & Gold Society. Students are also being asked to nominate a faculty or staff member for the Faculty/Staff Member of the Year award.

Matthew Razek, a senior majoring in psychology and minoring in biology who was inducted into the Maroon & Gold Society last year, agrees with McLean and adds that nominating peers helps them create a lasting impact on campus.

“These awards are important because they give other individuals a way to continue leaving their legacy, as well as continue on with the great work they are currently doing,” Razek says.

As a member of the Maroon & Gold Society, Razek feels like he has been able to leave his mark at Loyola with the help of his fellow society peers. He says the society represents a culmination of his leadership experiences that helped him make change on campus.

Students don’t have to be upperclassmen to initiate change or be recognized for their efforts, which is addressed by the initiation of the 1870 Award. This brand new award will be given to a rising sophomore to recognize him or her for embodying the goals of a Loyola experience in the first year.

“First-year students may think they’re not a leader or community builder, but to have an award that formally recognizes them, it shows they’re just as much of a leader as a senior is,” Razek says.

All these awards are meant to honor past accomplishments, while paving the way for future students.

“The overall umbrella purpose is to recognize outstanding students and set these students up as role models for other students to aspire to,” McLean says.

Please click here to learn more about these awards and the selection process.

The nomination process is now open and runs through February 22.

For those unable to attend the event in Galvin, the address will also be live streamed and shown on large screens in satellite locations on the Water Tower Campus (Corboy Law Center, Lower Level, Room 14) and Health Sciences Campus (Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Lecture Hall 505). The address will also be available online, via web conference, for those unable to attend in person.

Father Garanzini will deliver his address and then take questions from the audience. Faculty, staff, and students who attend the event, either in Galvin Auditorium or at one of the community satellite locations on the Water Tower or Health Sciences campuses, will have the opportunity to ask questions.

The address will run approximately one hour, and punch and cookies will be available, in each location, at the end of the address.

For those who plan to watch the address remotely, the live stream will be available here. To be sure that your computer is ready for the live stream on February 11, please click here to run a system test.

A taped version of Father Garanzini’s remarks will be available via Inside Loyola on February 12. Anyone with questions can contact the Office of the President at 312.915.6400.

Hager’s book reveals all of the greatest untold stories from March Madness, from its inception in 1939 through the present. Each chapter in the book’s first section chronicles each school’s journey to the NCAA Championship. The second section of the book covers the 100 greatest games in NCAA Tournament history, of which Loyola’s 1963 victory over Cincinnati earned the top spot.

Led by a starting five dubbed the “Iron Men” that played the entire game, Loyola captured its first-ever NCAA Championship when forward Vic Rouse’s tip-in fell through the net as the buzzer sounded in overtime to give the Ramblers a 60-58 victory over Cincinnati at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

Les Hunter finished with a team-high 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Loyola, which also received 15 points and 12 boards from Rouse, and 14 points from two-time All-American Jerry Harkness.

A program that had a profound effect on college basketball, Loyola was the first team to start four African-Americans. In the 1963 NCAA Regional Semifinal round, the Ramblers faced a Mississippi State (MSU) squad that had previously been unable to play against integrated teams in postseason competition due to an unwritten state law. However, MSU was able to sneak out of town before an injunction could be served by Gov. Ross Barnett, and Loyola and Mississippi State played a game, in which the Ramblers prevailed, 61-51, that later became known as “The Game of Change.”

To this day, Loyola remains the only school in the state of Illinois to have won the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Ultimate Book of March Madness can be purchased online here.

At the end of each semester, many Loyola students eagerly sell back their textbooks in hopes of receiving a little bit of extra cash. A group of students, however, have been gathering their textbooks to give to universities in Cambodia to help the country improve its business education and, subsequently, its economic strength.

This group of three students is part of Enactus, a group of Loyola business students who are using the power of commerce to do good in the world. Their particular project, called Books Building Business (BBB), was just one of Enactus’s many undertakings. Over winter break, the students working on BBB received an experiential learning scholarship that allowed them to travel to Cambodia and Vietnam to see their efforts at work.

The project has been collecting business textbooks since the fall of 2010. They executed a mass shipment of more than 1,100 textbooks to The National University of Management in Phnom Penh and The Center of Khmer Studies in Siem Reap.

Austin Nugent, project manager of BBB, says the idea came to him his sophomore year after spending a lot of time in the stacks.

“I would see all these books there. People in other parts of the world don’t have access to this information,” says the senior finance, economics, and international business major. “They don’t have access to books that help them in society.”

Nugent approached Clifford Shultz, PhD, a professor in the Quinlan School of Business, to help them figure out which country could greatly benefit from these books and to help the students network in that region.

They chose Cambodia because of a recent genocide that demolished all the educational institutions and resources. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rogue, the ruling Communist party in Cambodia, targeted teachers and all other intellects, seeing them as enemies in their plan to shift to an agrarian society.

Dr. Shultz says that while the country is slowly rebuilding, the middle class needs to learn basic business skills to continue to grow.

“You need this middle class to emerge, and a middle class can’t emerge unless people have business skills,” Dr. Shultz says. “In the wake of a genocide where the middle class was completely eradicated, people need to learn basic accounting, basic finance, marketing, and other business skills.”

Nugent, along with juniors Sam Abbassi and Gabi Wilewska, the two other students who made the trip, went to the universities and saw firsthand the deficiency of Cambodia’s resources.

“The greatest challenge facing universities in developing nations is the lack of resources to educate,” says Nugent. “Somebody has to recognize a problem and progress towards the solution.”

The Loyola students were able to meet with the librarian at the Center for Khmer Studies, who Dr. Shultz says was “moved to tears” when BBB made their donation.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to see the fruits of their labor,” Dr. Shultz says.

Learn more about Enactus and Books Building Businesses by watching this episode of the Quinlan Minute.

Thierry Meynard, S.J., began his term as the third director of The Beijing Center in August. Meynard, a former professor at Fordham University, holds a PhD in Chinese philosophy from Peking University and currently teaches at Sun Yat-sen University. Loyola magazine recently spoke with Meynard about his experiences in China and at The Beijing Center.

What experiences do you have that led you to become the director of TBC?
I arrived in China in 1988, working in Hong Kong as an engineer. I discovered a very fascinating culture, especially in the local Catholic Church in South China. I decided that I felt the calling to become a priest and to work as a Jesuit in China. I went back to France to do my studies in philosophy and theology. While I was in France, I studied Chinese language and culture. In 1997, I went to Taiwan for one year to study intensive Chinese.

I arrived in Beijing in August of 1998, with the first batch of students at TBC. Of course we were only 10 people at the time, but, for me, that program was very important, because I could continue to study the Chinese language, and I took classes that had a very strong impact on me, like a class on Chinese philosophy. The class was taught by the chair of the department at Peking University. It was a chance to get deeper into the understanding of Chinese culture and history.

What attracted you to China?
I have been in China for more than 20 years and have made it my permanent home. I was initially attracted by the long history and culture of China, by its ancient texts. I slowly discovered how Chinese culture is alive today amid deep transformations. Some Chinese people feel pessimistic about the survival of Chinese culture. Culture, however, is not a rigid reality but always changing. I really believe that the economic success of China will be followed by a renewal of the Chinese culture, transformed in new ways and in further dialogue with the other great traditions of the world.

Was it difficult to adapt to life in China?
When I first came to China, I faced many challenges in terms of language and barriers. In the 1980s some Chinese people would feel the presence of a foreigner odd, or even dangerous. When I started teaching in my department, some of my colleagues could find my presence disturbing. In China, it takes time to form personal bonds with people, to develop relations which are mutually beneficial. China is a school of patience.

Where is your favorite place to travel?
Of course I am personally attached to Beijing. I lived there during my studies and developed many connections. As a Jesuit, Beijing is also an important place. Matteo Ricci [the first Jesuit to begin a ministry in China] realized very soon that the Jesuits should get acceptance in the capital in order to be allowed to work in the other parts of the country. Ricci arrived in Beijing in 1601 and since then, Jesuits have maintained a strong presence. There are many places in Beijing related to the Jesuits and I myself wrote a guide book on the subject (Following the Footsteps of the Jesuits in Beijing). Today, you can still visit three churches built by the Jesuits, two Jesuit cemeteries, and the astronomical observatory where they worked for more than 200 years.

Learning about China and Chinese history/culture is essential because of its growing influence on the world. What skills and experiences at TBC give its students an advantage in that aspect?
Today, understanding China is not anymore a matter of choice but a necessity, an absolute priority. Our future is going to be impacted and shaped by China. There is a great probability that Loyola students will be working in America for a Chinese company, or they will go to China and work there for a Chinese or a Western company. The ability to speak Chinese language, to understand with some depth the culture and society, to have Chinese friends—all these are skills and experiences that you gain at TBC that will prove vital in the future.

Story courtesy of Loyola magazine (Winter 2012).

James Kesteloot (BS ’67), Karen McCulloh (BS ’94), and James Omvig (JD ’66), all members of the U.S. AbilityOne Commission.

By: Dominic Calabrese

Out of a presidentially appointed federal commission of 15 experts, three are Loyola alumni—a fact they just recently discovered, despite having worked together for some time. Each is blind or visually impaired, and each is passionate about helping others with disabilities secure quality employment.

James Kesteloot (BS ’67), Karen McCulloh (BS ’94), and James Omvig (JD ’66) all serve on the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, which traces its roots back to a 1938 law stating that, whenever it could, the federal government should purchase products it needed from nonprofit organizations employing people who were blind. The measure has since been amended to add people with severe disabilities and to include services as well as goods. The AbilityOne Commission manages this program.

All three alumni note that the explosion in the growth of elderly Americans is already posing a public policy challenge, as many of these individuals will experience some form of vision loss and other disabling problems. McCulloh says that with an estimated national unemployment rate ranging between 70 and 75 percent among people who are blind and significantly disabled, the need to create new job opportunities is critical to their self-sufficiency and independence, as well as to the well-being of the national economy.

But all three are optimistic about the future and are hopeful that barriers will continue to fall. Citing its program to assist returning veterans who have experienced vision loss while fighting overseas, Omvig says that the AbilityOne Commission has an almost uncanny ability to come up with an innovative program to address a pressing need.

“I think that far too many people still think that because we may be blind or severely disabled, we can’t be productive,” says Omvig, who himself is totally blind. “We know that this is simply not true. All we ask for is a chance to show what we can do.”

Story courtesy of Loyola magazine (Winter 2012).

In 2012, eleven undergraduate Loyola students were chosen to receive the Gilman International Scholarship. With amounts ranging from $2,500 to $8,000, the Gilman Scholarship is awarded to students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding at a two-year or four-year college and don’t have the funding to study abroad, but are passionate about learning in other countries.

The Gilman Scholarship, established in 2000, is a special program geared at creating greater diversity among students going abroad. James Calcagno, the director of the fellowship office and an anthropology professor, describes the application process.

“You have to write a personal essay describing why you want to go and what you want to do while you’re studying there,” says Calcagno. “A big part of the selection is how well your essay conveys your aspirations to study abroad and how well you fit the mission of the program, and then, of course, your academic qualifications.”

Both the Fellowship and Study Abroad Offices help students format and edit their essays for this scholarship in hopes that students better understand the knowledge of how to put applications together, and they “see it as a stepping stone to something next.” This national award is highly competitive, so students must allow themselves enough time to prepare an excellent application.

“If they are funded, they get the added benefit of going overseas and studying abroad, which leads to them wanting to go again,” explains Calcagno. “They can then apply for scholarships like the Fulbright Award and they can use those experiences as a lead to future abroad studies.”

This Congressional-funded program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and is administered by the Institute of International Education.

2012 recipients included:

• Jackie Cash, an economics and marketing major, conducted her studies in France
• Nellie Chung, a psychology major, conducted her studies in Japan
• Kendra Cusic, a communication major, conducted her studies in Ghana
• Marian Lopez, a French; international studies; and political science major, conducted her studies in France
• David Blount, a sociology and international studies major, conducted his studies in China
• Ashley Erickson, an anthropology and international studies major, conducted her studies in Vietnam
• Ellen Hamel, an anthroplogy major, conducted her studies in Nepal
• Ariana Loehr, an anthropology major, conducted her studies in Vietnam
• Adilla Menayang, an international studies major, conducted his studies in Italy
• Coralia Davila, an undergraduate business major, conducted her studies in China.
• Michael Niewiadomski, a biology major, conducted his studies in Italy.

For current students interested in learning more about the 2013 Gilman Scholarship Program, or how to apply, please contact Loyola’s Fellowship Office or click here.

Every weekday morning, Jessica Haring takes a motorcycle taxi to work through the streets in Kampala, Uganda, dodging what she says is “the most insane traffic” she has ever seen. She walks into the Kampala Diplomatic School where she teaches literature, history, and fine arts to a diverse group of Ugandan schoolchildren in years four through six in the British curriculum. These students come from all different backgrounds; some who attended the top schools in Africa and the United Kingdom, and others who could not attend school until they were teenagers.

“They all come from different economic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. It’s a wonderful environment,” she says.

Haring had no intention of working internationally upon graduating from Loyola in 2011 with a  degree in anthropology and minors in English and studio art. After an internship in Uganda took her abroad for a year, Haring decided to stay in Africa when offered a teaching position.

Originally Haring wanted to work on human trafficking issues in Chicago. While looking for domestic work, she came across a non-profit called the Kwagala Project which offers services and resources to survivors of human trafficking and exploited minors, including counseling, mentoring, and education. Haring accepted an internship position and made the move across the Atlantic.

“I love to travel, and when the opportunity presented itself, I felt like it was what I had been looking for all along,” she says.

As an intern, Haring assisted the organization with social media and helped some of the girls in Kwagala’s vocational school establish a micro-credit-based community salon.

“The best part about the job, though, was hanging out with the girls,” says Haring. “We worked on art projects, helped with homework, had sleepovers, played games.”

At first, Haring says she was hesitant about going to Africa to do humanitarian work.

“I was afraid of having a white-western-savior complex. I didn’t want to impose my culture and my belief system on another culture,” she says. “Uganda is an incredibly diverse place, let alone the rest of Africa, and it’s silly to think that people here need people from the West to come and save them.”

Haring says the majority of the staff at Kwagala were Ugandan, which helped keep that element in perspective.

After her year with Kwagala, Haring was planning on moving back to the United States. However, she was offered the teaching position at Kampala Diplomatic School and decided to stay, partly so she could stay involved with the Kwagala Project.

Haring says Loyola has helped her navigate this chapter of her life.

“Loyola taught me a lot about diversity. It stretched me into a new person. I became much more open minded as my studies and connections diversified over my four years of undergrad,” she says. “I don’t think that I came out of my anthropology degree with a comprehensive understanding of the world, but with the right tools to begin.”

To honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s  life and fight for equality, the Department of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is hosting the 2013 MLK Celebration: Rebuild The Dream on Wednesday, January 23, featuring Van Jones as the keynote speaker. Jones is a former green jobs adviser to the White House, and he has spent the past 20 years championing causes of sustainability as a social entrepreneur.

Jones is an excellent example of Loyola’s annual tradition to host a keynote speaker who highlights Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for civil rights, equality, and commitment to social justice. Sadika Sulaiman Hara, director of the Department of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, is in charge of planning and implementing the 2013 celebration. This year, Jones was asked to serve as the keynote speaker particularly for his background in grassroots organizing and his concern for green-energy jobs, as well as his commitment to using his vision to bring equity for marginalized communities in the United States.

“Jones’s message and work is one that is beneficial for the Loyola community to hear, particularly because of the value we hold for service to others and of course, social justice,” Hara says. Last year, Loyola was honored to host world-renowned poet and activist Nikki Giovanni as the keynote speaker.

Hara was eager to host Jones for the keynote address because he has experienced, first hand, the challenges and success the country has faced in attaining equality. Jones has led a life committed to work in the social justice sphere. He is the co-founder of three non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. His book, The Green Collar Economy is a New York Times best-seller and he was named one of TIME magazine’s “Most Influential People in the World” in 2009. He was a green jobs adviser to the White House and currently is a visiting fellow in collaborative economics at Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco.

The MLK celebration is one that brings students, faculty, and staff together each year to recognize and support efforts in the ongoing fight for equality throughout the United States. Ann Marie Morgan, assistant dean of students, says that for the past five years, the students have been major supporters of the annual MLK celebration.

“It’s clear the students around campus care about social justice issues and civil rights,” she says. “I’ve seen a strong desire to hear from people who have worked for civil rights and it’s great to see so many students sitting among faculty and staff who are equally as passionate and energized about this issues.”

Jones will deliver his “Rebuild The Dream”  address twice  at  Loyola on Wednesday, January 23. A keynote luncheon will take place at Kasbeer Hall, in the Corboy Law Center on the Water Tower Campus, from noon to 1 p.m. Jones will then deliver his keynote address in the Mullady Theatre (CFSU), on the Lake Shore Campus, from 5-7 p.m. and he will stick around for a book signing after the address.

Registration for the event is not required, and entry is free. For more on Van Jones, click here. Unable to attend? The noon event will be live streamed here.

Alexandra Vecchio (middle) with her parents at the Lincoln Academy Student Laureate awards ceremony in November.

Alexandra Vecchio, Loyola’s selection as this year’s Lincoln Academy Student Laureate for the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, was recognized for her achievements back in November in Springfield, Illinois, at a ceremony to honor all of the student laureates.

Vecchio was among 52 students, each selected from a college or university around the state of Illinois, to receive this distinguished honor. She represented Loyola and was recognized for her excellence in curricular and extra-curricular activities at Loyola. With the honor, the Lincoln Academy seeks to find Illinois students that excel both inside and outside the classroom and hold a leadership role around their campus. The academy recognizes these students as bringing honor to the state of Illinois, similar to Abraham Lincoln and his effective leadership.

“I mean honestly, it’s spectacular, and I feel honored to receive this recognition,” says Vecchio. “To know I have made an impact on other students’ lives is certainly humbling, but it has been a really amazing experience.”

Vecchio is a senior environmental studies and sociology major, and she serves as the co-president of the Student Environmental Alliance, the vice president for Loyola’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, the chief sustainability officer for the Unified Student Government Association, and the learning community sustainability coordinator, among other things. With nothing less than a plate full of leadership roles in organizations around campus, Vecchio has used these opportunities to find her passion for the environment and she became a key player in the educational campaign that eventually led to Loyola’s water bottle ban on campus.

“UnCap LUC started my sophomore year, and it instantly became a passion of mine,” Vecchio explains. “I really did care about it as it became a huge part of my Loyola experience; a learning opportunity that sparked an interest area that I didn’t even know existed.”

When she’s not doing service work outside of the classroom or raising awareness about homelessness in Chicago, you can find her at the Loyola Farmers Market or working to better the Loyola recycling program as she seeks to develop her leadership skills and participate in real work experiences that further environmental projects.

“Everything I’m involved in somehow works together,” says Vecchio. “It overlaps, and I love it.”

Her commitment to Loyola and the environment also led her to an opportunity to talk with United States Congressman Mike Quigley back in September about social justice, sustainability, and the political direction our nation is headed. Following that conversation, she was invited to visit Washington DC with a few others from Loyola to meet with agencies about environmental issues.

After graduation, Vecchio is looking to do a year of service and then attend graduate school where she will pursue a master’s degree. Through working with Loyola, mentors, and the Office of Sustainability, she thinks working in higher education, with a focus on sustainability, is something that she would love to end up doing down the road.

Loyola certainly feels Vecchio is a deserving candidate for the Lincoln recognition and honors she has received and we congratulate her on being named a Lincoln Academy Student Laureate.

“I feel so honored, and I owe a big thank you to Loyola for giving me the opportunities that I’ve been given,” concludes Vecchio. “My time at Loyola has been phenomenal, and I owe so much to this University.”

For more information about the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, click here.

Dr. Christine Athans, BVM, (left) with School of Education faculty member Janis Fine, PhD, at the INSPIRE program’s “Pre Advent Day of Reflection.

Many times leaders of religious communities are so concerned with helping their parishioners with their own spirituality, they forget that their own physical and mental well-being needs nourishing. In order to care for parish pastors and their staff members, the INSPIRE program, a partnership initiative between Loyola and the Archdiocese of Chicago, hosted a “Pre Advent Day of Reflection”  in November at Loyola’s Water Tower Campus and the Archbishop Quigley Center.

The annual day of reflection is a great opportunity for pastors and staff members who are often challenged to find quiet time and space during the four weeks prior to Christmas, and the program has been held for the past eight years. The day gives those enrolled in the INSPIRE program the chance to continue building on the skills they need to develop mission-focused pastoral leadership teams. This year’s INSPIRE program was hosted by Loyola’s Institute of Pastoral Studies and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The program kicked off with principal speaker Dr. Christine Athans, BVM, a long-time scholar of Jewish-Christian studies and an adjunct faculty member in Loyola’s Institute of Pastoral Studies, discussing “The Quest for the Jewish Mary.” Athans drew from her recently published book, In Quest of the Jewish Mary: The Mother of Jesus in History, Theology, and Spirituality, during the three-hour program, reading her work aloud alongside music that was provided by highly regarded Chicagoland Cantors Janis Fine, PhD, associate professor in Loyola’s School of Education, and her partner, National Louis Professor Dr. Jeff Winter.

The musical duet shared their expertise as Cantors, storytellers, and historians of the Jewish people and culture. The musical duet sang Jewish prayers that were infused throughout Athans’s readings, which recounted what a Jewish Mary would have thought about different events in her lifetime. For their part, Fine and Winter picked the particular Jewish prayers that Mary might have said to herself during these historical events.

“What it became was this beautiful story with this beautiful music. The audience was full of priests and nuns, the ones who care for others. Afterward, people were coming up and saying, ‘This is just what I needed. I was engaged and I learned things,’” Fine recounts. “It was a new way of thinking, and everyone I spoke to said this was so beautiful.”

Fine says INSPIRE is a great example of an interfaith program and it reinforces that Loyola is truly a home for all faiths.

The unique combination of having a Catholic nun present work with Jewish liturgical Cantors was indicative of Loyola’s commitment to be a home for all faiths. Donna Curin, assistant vice president to the president and chairman at Loyola, says the INSPIRE program was very moving.

“You had Dr. Athan reading out of Mary’s voice and her experiences and Janis and her partner Jeff would sing a Jewish prayer. Combining the Catholic perspective and Jewish perspective was inspiring and it felt like you were being brought to that place in time,” Curin says.

For more information on Loyola’s Institute of Pastoral Studies and the INSPIRE program, click here.

Shawn Jackson, principal at Spencer Elementary Technology Academy, works to give students the skills they need for success.

By Jenny Kustra Quinn

There are no children playing outside in the Austin neighborhood surrounding Spencer Elementary Technology Academy. Located on the city’s West Side, and with one of the highest homicide rates in Chicago, Austin is simply too dangerous for that. Spencer principal Shawn Jackson (PhD ‘10) has taken it upon himself to provide opportunities within the school walls. And students aren’t the only ones who are benefiting. Jackson has found ways to meet the needs of their parents, which has given his students a better chance to succeed.

Jackson, a graduate of Loyola’s Administration and Supervision program and a former science teacher, took over as principal in 2007, after serving as assistant principal. Spencer serves preschoolers through 8th-graders and had been on Chicago Public Schools academic probation for several years when he took the reins. “We had a rough reputation as far as student behaviors, and we had gotten accustomed to a failing culture,” Jackson says.

But today there’s a different story at Spencer. The culture has changed, and so has school performance. Spencer came off probation last year, and scores on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test have steadily climbed, although they still have a way to go. The turnaround is in spite of tough circumstances: 99 percent of Spencer students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The students and their families deal with poverty, homelessness, crime, and unemployment. So the school’s motto—“Moving students beyond the immediate”—seems especially appropriate.

Jackson, who grew up in Austin, believes Spencer can be “the spark that takes a student to the next step.” He also thinks the school should be a “beacon of hope” for entire families and their community, a realization he made while going through the Administration and Supervision program. “Loyola changed my life,” he says. “I began to understand that being an educational leader in the building was not enough. I needed to be a voice for a community that might not have a voice otherwise.”

Jackson “exudes a sense of mission,” according to Janis Fine, PhD, graduate program director of Loyola’s Administration and Supervision program. “It’s one thing when other people believe in you, but he works with them in such a way that they come to believe in themselves.”

Jackson began by forging a stronger connection with parents. The school opened its computer labs to parents, partnering with City Colleges of Chicago so they can take courses, prepare for the GED test, and learn computer skills. They also work on resumes and search for employment. In addition to providing services for them, Jackson welcomed parents into the building as volunteers called Parent Scholars.

Jackson also applied for a grant to enable Spencer to become one of a handful of Technology Academies in the CPS system. These schools, located in struggling areas, infuse technology into instruction and curriculum. Many students don’t have computers at home, and the local library only has five. Now, at Spencer, there are seven computer labs. Jackson says he has “begged and borrowed” to set up the labs, getting used equipment and grants from companies, organizations, and universities.

Spencer also has a gymnasium full of Nintendo Wii’s, where students can play. “There’s no playing outside, and there’s no bowling alley or skating rink in Austin,” Jackson says. “So we made it our obligation to provide those opportunities in the building.”

Jackson credits the teachers with helping set Spencer on a new course. He describes himself as a hands-off leader and believes his job is to articulate where the school needs to go, provide resources to support the teachers, monitor progress, set goals, and provide motivation.

Since he took over at Spencer, Jackson has set incremental and realistic goals. “To motivate the organization to move forward, we all had to believe it was possible,” Jackson says. The school still has not met the federal target, but he believes that will come in good time.

For now, Jackson measures success based on individual student growth and whether students are learning the skills to succeed in a global society. He also measures teacher growth as a part of Spencer’s progress, encouraging them to pursue master’s and doctorate degrees. But the most important way to gauge whether Spencer is moving forward, according to Jackson, is to walk down the halls and witness the way students feel about their school and themselves. “It used to be that they wouldn’t look you in the face. Now they can’t stop talking,” he says with a smile.

Jackson says students have more confidence in their abilities, and the entire school community—from parents to staff to students—is no longer willing to accept failure. This, he says, is the accomplishment of which he is most proud.

Story courtesy of Loyola magazine (Winter 2012).

Students taking part in Greeks for a Good Cause pause for a photo break during their work with Habitat for Humanity.

As the number of students involved in Greek life continues to grow, so do the dollars these sororities and fraternities are raising to help charities nationwide.

Greek life at Loyola has recently started to become more visible on campus with the addition of several sororities and fraternities in the past few years. With added numbers, these social organizations have been able to make more of an impact with their philanthropic events. There are currently 17 Greek chapters on campus, organized under the Panhellenic Council, Inter-Fraternity Council, and the Multicultural Greek Council. Adrienne Jaroch, coordinator for sorority and fraternity life, says the Greek community has already raised more than $30,000 this semester for charitable causes.

Colleen Johnston-Berresford, president of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, says that the increase in students allows more opportunities for philanthropic events.

“This year, the Greek community will have had the largest number of philanthropy events from all of the various chapters, allowing our community to raise one of the largest amounts of money, for all our charities, in Loyola’s history,” she says.

Individual chapters are also raising record-breaking fundraising amounts. Chi Omega, a sorority that came to Loyola in fall 2010, holds a “Just Wish for It!” dodge ball tournament that benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They hosted their first tournament in 2011 and raised $5,000, which is enough to grant one wish. In their second tournament, they were even more successful and were able to grant two wishes.

Another successful Greek philanthropy event is Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s St. Baldrick’s Day, which raises money to help combat childhood cancer. Participants shave their heads to help raise funds for the foundation. Every March, they raise close to $20,000 for this cause.

Jaroch says that the heightened presence of Greek life on campus does more than just help raise more money.

“I think the greatest part of our growing community is the willingness to support each group’s philanthropic events and for the new organizations to create strong new events that will become traditions at Loyola,” she says.

An example of this collaboration was this year’s inaugural Greek Weekend, which was full of friendly competition and Greek spirit. Greek Weekend raised more than $400 for All Sports 4 All Kids, a local non-profit started by a Loyola student that gives children an opportunity to play sports.

The collective 7,000 hours the Greek community devoted to community service in the past year helps dispel the claims that sororities and fraternities are mainly centered around a college social life.

Nicolette Kennedy, director of community service for Chi Omega sorority, says the philanthropy figures speak for themselves in proving there is more to Greek life than what people may think.

“All you have to do is look at what we’ve accomplished. In the past year, Chi Omega has hosted five fundraisers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and we’ve raised more than $12,000 annually. That’s a big accomplishment,” she says. “My sorority gives me the opportunity to do something greater than I would be able to do on my own.”

To learn more about Greek life at Loyola, please click here.

Photo courtesy of www.anthonymolinaro.com

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts (DFPA) is proud to host the CD launch concerts of world-renowned pianist and Loyola faculty member Anthony Molinaro. Here, There and Everywhere will be held on Friday, January 18, and Saturday, January 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Loyola’s Newhart Family Theatre.

These performances will celebrate Molinaro’s latest album of arrangements and improvisations on music of The Beatles and features guest performer, harmonicist, and Grammy-Award winner Howard Levy. Levy is an acknowledged master of the diatonic harmonica, a pianist, composer, recording artist, teacher, producer, and Chicago-area resident. This has made him a favorite with audiences worldwide, and a recording artist sought after by the likes of Dolly Parton, Styx, Paul Simon, and many more.

Here, There and Everywhere: Arrangements and Improvisations on Music of The Beatles is a solo piano recording that re-envisions the beloved songs of the “Fab Four” through Molinaro’s innovative perspective.

“I used this project, in part, as a way to explore what I hope listeners will find to be new and innovative pianistic techniques,” says Molinaro. “I wanted to reach beyond the timeless melodies and beautiful songs of The Beatles and re-imagine something fresh, something that I hope will ultimately resonate with audiences on many different levels.”

Molinaro is the 1997 winner of the prestigious Naumburg International Piano Competition and one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. Acclaimed for his “edge-of-the-seat brilliance” and “musically imaginative mind,” Molinaro has appeared as a soloist with more than 50 symphony orchestras, he has headlined at major jazz clubs throughout the world, and he composed and arranged music in both the classical and jazz genres. 

His recordings include The Bach Sessions featuring J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and A Major and F Minor Concertos with The Academy of St. Martin in The Fields and LIVE, a duo album with harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy. Molinaro currently serves as assistant professor of music within Loyola University Chicago’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

The performances will be held in the brand new, state-of-the-art Newhart Family Theatre. General admission tickets for Here, There and Everywhere are $25, with discounts available for students. The Newhart Family Theatre is located on the second floor of the Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts at 1020 W. Sheridan Road, on Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus.

Tickets are available for purchase online at LUC.tix.com. Contact the box office at boxoffice@luc.edu or 773.508.8400 with questions or concerns, or visit blogs.LUC.edu/artsalive for more information. A preview of the album can be heard at www.anthonymolinaro.com.

With articles like this from The New York Times telling graduates that their diploma may not hold as much weight in the job force as it used to, it is no wonder that Sallyann Price was anxious about her post-graduate life. The unemployment rate for graduates in the class of 2012 was sitting right around 8.5 percent, and those graduates who landed full-time jobs were making about 4.6 percent less than several years prior.

“I just kept reading articles in The New York Times about why the class of 2012 was screwed,” says Price, who graduated from Loyola in May 2012 with a degree in English and international studies.

While the job forecast was grim, Price landed a paid editorial internship at The Rotarian, the monthly magazine produced by Rotary International in Evanston.

“My parents were concerned with the idea of it being an ‘internship,’” says Price, but their worries were appeased when she was offered the opportunity to stay on board to work full-time for the magazine as a contributing editor.

Price says she is so humbled and grateful to have this opportunity, and she has a couple of pointers for anybody else who is starting to think of life after graduation.

“Make time for professional development in school.”

“You can’t just go to class. You have to have an internship and a job,” says Price who worked two jobs during school and interned at newspapers during the summers.

Price worked her way up the ranks of the Loyola Phoenix. She first was hired as a web editor, and then became an assistant editor of the Diversions section. Her senior year, Price was hired as the managing editor of the entire paper. She says her time with the paper gave her a higher level of responsibility and understanding of the inner workings of putting together a newspaper.

“Writing for the paper is one thing, but working on the staff and editing is the only way you can get high-level experience,” she says. “Even just the responsibility. [It is a] paper that comes out every week that people have to sit in a room and produce.”

Additionally, she held a position in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts’s box office, which she says helped her become more specialized in media, another skill that she has been able to transfer and incorporate into her work now.

“Keep your expectations in check.”

“Don’t quit and move to a different job if you don’t land your dream job,” advises Price. “Get your chops where you can get them.”

When Price applied for the internship position at The Rotarian, she did so without any assumptions of being offered a job. However, her work showed her readiness for full-time work, and she took on the position. While looking for jobs after graduation appears daunting, Price says that there are still positions out there.

“We are coming of age in a media landscape where there are not a lot of jobs,” she says. “But there is still a lot of vibrant work to be done, especially in a city like Chicago.”

With the end of the semester here, many students may still be looking to earn a few more credit hours to be sure they graduate on time. January term, more commonly known as J-term, is a time where students can take a two-week (the term runs January 2-12) condensed course for a full three credits.

Since the first J-term, which took place in January 2012, students have responded very positively to it, but improvements have been made for the upcoming term to ensure that the courses are top-notch. Dr. Jeanne Widen, the faculty director for online education, discusses some of the changes being made.

“We’ve expanded the number of courses offered during J-term, as well as tightened some of the nuts and bolts of the program,” explains Widen. “In addition, we have put more information on our website about the courses and course objectives.”

With nearly 20 classes to choose from, students from any major can find a class that suits them. Widen mentions that the English, history, and music courses tend to fill up the fastest. She urges students to also look at classes they may not have considered taking before. For a full list of courses, please click here.

“Some courses do fill quickly, so we are trying to generate more interest in the courses with lower commitment,” says Widen. “The Syllabi are posted through the course title, and students can get a good sense of what the course will be like.”

J-term benefits students by giving them the opportunity to stay on track with their studies over the extended winter break. With the option to take some of the courses online, students still get to have a very intense interaction with other students and the professor even when they are studying remotely online.

Resources like the writing center, virtual tutoring for online students, and tech support are just a few of the options they will have available for students during the J-term.

“Aside from being able to earn credits in a short amount of time, the J-term is an immersion that is very rich and effective,” concludes Widen.

Anyone interested in learning more about the J-term, or the courses offered, please click here.

December 19, 2012

Dear Members of the Loyola Community,

In the midst of this holy season of Advent and Hanukkah, we are invited to reflect on the blessings of this past year. We are reminded that the gifts we have received can most fully be realized by sharing them with our students and with one another to create a world where peace and joy can be realized.

We pray in a special way for all the victims of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, last week. There are no words to ease the grief of the victims’ families and others who knew and loved them. We hope and pray that the birth of Jesus Christ and His message of peace and love will take root in all of us in an especially meaningful way this Christmas.

I wish you and your family a blessed holiday season and New Year, and I look forward to seeing you at our annual Christmas Luncheon, which will take place this Friday, December 21, at 11:30 a.m. in the Gentile Arena on the Lake Shore Campus.

Merry Christmas,

Michael J. Garanzini, S.J.
President and CEO

Dear Health Sciences Division Colleagues,

This has been an exciting year for the Health Sciences Division. The opening of the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing building and the Center for Simulation Education in the Stritch School of Medicine building put the spotlight on our commitment to collaborative learning. We’ve made great strides to stay on the leading edge of health sciences education and research. And while the year is winding down, we certainly are not.

I am pleased to announce that – after a year of thoughtful design and strategic financial planning – the Center for Translational Research and Education (CTRE) is becoming a reality. Construction should begin by summer and we expect completion in late 2015 or early 2016. Total cost will be $137 million, shared by Loyola and our Trinity Health partners.

The CTRE will be built on the parking lot between the Stritch building and Maguire Center, north of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center (CBCC). Except for CBCC research facilities and clinical projects conducted in collaboration with Loyola University Health System (LUHS), all research space will move to this facility to allow greater collaboration among investigators and trainees.

Promoting Interdisciplinary Research
The building (pictured above) is designed to promote interdisciplinary bench-to-bedside research including faculty for developing a University-wide Institute of Public Health. Bench and dry laboratory scientists will work on five research floors above ground, with adjacencies to support continuing development of research programs. These programs will be linked to LUHS clinical priorities including burn shock trauma and neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease and immunology, oncology, and public health.

Core facilities, the Office of Research Services and Graduate Programs, and related research compliance offices will be located in the building to enhance investigator access and utilization. In addition to conference rooms on each floor, the building will include a 250-seat auditorium and lecture facilities.

Added to the 29,000 square feet of laboratory and office space in the adjoining CBCC, the new facility will result in approximately 259,000 square feet of research space in the center of campus. This will provide the infrastructure required to meet our target of increasing research productivity by 40 to 50 percent.

Thanks to the Building Committee
A committee representing all of the major research components on campus was instrumental in the initial design of the facility. We are grateful for their hard work under the leadership of Richard Kennedy, PhD, vice provost for Research and Graduate Programs for the Health Sciences Division.

I will be providing additional progress reports leading up to the groundbreaking and throughout construction. Meanwhile, I invite you to share your comments or questions with us via e-mail at luc-hsd@luc.edu.

Enjoy the holidays, and rest up for what promises to be a wonderfully exciting new year!

Sincerely,

Richard L. Gamelli, MD, FACS
Sr. Vice President and Provost of Health Sciences
Loyola University Chicago

The Loyola community is pleased to recognize and congratulate Melissa Bradshaw, PhD, instructor in the English department, who was recently awarded the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars.

Bradshaw was awarded this prize for her book, Amy Lowell, Diva Poet, which explores the impact of Amy Lowell’s poetry in pop culture, literary circles, and history.

“It’s exciting and gratifying,” says Bradshaw about receiving this award. “I’ve worked a long time on Amy Lowell. I wanted people reading her poetry again.”

Lowell was more recognized for her celebrity status than her writings, and her poetry went largely unnoticed in the academic sphere after she died, according to Bradshaw. This fall from favor qualifies her as what Bradshaw calls a “diva poet,” a term she created herself. Bradshaw says society places the term diva on women who are not taken seriously and are expected to fail.

“We love it when divas fail. The way the diva is constructed is not about celebrating their femininity. It is locking them into a type of predictable narrative,” says Bradshaw.

Naming Lowell a diva gives people a sense of how famous she was during her years and also examines her eventual disappearance from literary history, says Bradshaw. Only in recent years has Lowell’s poetry started to appear again in published collections. Bradshaw says she spent most of her career trying to get Lowell recognized once more in the literary world. In 2002, Bradshaw helped compile the first ever anthology of Lowell’s poetry, Selected Poems of Amy Lowell.

Bradshaw says she is attracted to Lowell’s poems because “they are deceptively simple and immediately accessible.” Instead of being “stuffy, old poetry,” Bradshaw says her poetry is forceful and transcends generations. Additionally, although Lowell was writing 75 to 100 years ago, the messages are still applicable and relevant today, which works well in the classroom.

“You can have students who don’t like poetry. You can give them a poem by Lowell, and they’re like ‘Oh yeah, this works for me,’” says Bradshaw.

This timelessness of Lowell’s poetry allows people of all ages to relate to her work, and that encapsulates Bradshaw’s goal.

“Both the older generation and the younger generation get excited about reading Lowell,” says Bradshaw. “It is gratifying that they still like her poems.”

Congratulations again to Dr. Bradshaw. The publication prizes will be awarded in a ceremony on January 5 at the 2013 MLA Annual Convention in Boston.

Social justice is rooted in the foundation of St. Ignatius’s message, and at Loyola, education and advocacy go hand in hand for students. That is exactly why students and staff from Loyola attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in November in Washington DC. The Teach-In is an annual national conference for people who are passionate about responding to social justice issues in a way that is grounded in the Catholic social teachings and the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Jackie Arnason, graduate assistant for campus ministry, was in charge of taking students to the Teach-In conference this year. Arnason, who has previously attended the conference four times before, says the experience always renews her passion for social justice.

“The Mass is always very moving. With a ballroom full of passionate young people and amazing music, you can feel the spirit in the room, ” she says. “The homily this year was especially moving, bringing some students to tears.”

The date of the Teach-In conference each year marks the anniversary of the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador. In the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter, were killed at the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador because of their commitment to and work for social justice. The conference is a testament to the integration of the growing interest in combining educational opportunities for social justice action and legislative advocacy.

Emmy Storms, 22, senior communication and political science major, attended the Teach-In conference for the first time this past November. Storms says her experience in Washington DC helped her better understand how her Jesuit values can be applied to current social justice issues.

“I learned a lot about details surrounding current social justice issues, like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Dream Act, that I didn’t know before,” says Storms.

The Teach-In conference partnered with the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN), a foundation that promotes leadership to encourage the mobilization of national networks of Jesuits to respond to issues of social justice by promoting “service of faith and promotion of justice.”  The goal of ISN was key to developing a comprehensive program for attendees of the Teach-In conference.

The Loyola delegation was able to network with others around the country who are similarly passionate about issues of social justice during the Teach-In conference. Storms enjoyed the opportunity to find solidarity with other students from various Jesuit universities around the country.

“It’s a great opportunity to go to Washington DC to learn more about Jesuit values and social justice,” she says. “I would absolutely encourage other students to go to the Teach-In.”

Delegates from the University will be able to use the education and advocacy training they gained at the Teach-In conference at the upcoming Ignatian Family Advocacy Conference in February 2013.

For more information on the event, visit http://ignatiansolidarity.net/.

Photo courtesy of Invisible Conflicts

The icy waters of Lake Michigan didn’t stop nearly 80 students from plunging into its shores in early December to help raise money for Invisible Conflicts, a Loyola student group that raises money to send children in war-torn Uganda to school.

A seven-year long Loyola tradition, the IC Plunge gathers students who pledge to run into the lake in winter as part of a fundraising effort. Invisible Conflicts hosts the plunge to benefit the Dwon Madiki Partnership, the community organization in Uganda which the student group works with directly.

The Dwon Madiki Partnership works as a scholarship program that pays for the tuition and scholastic materials for 20 Ugandan children to attend school. Each year, the Partnership needs around $4,000 by the end of January to cover all the childrens’ school fees. The IC Plunge raised close to $2,700 in donations.

Before plungers rushed into Lake Michigan, a “pre-plunge party” took place in Crown Center that featured live music and performances from Loyola students and alumni. Two members of Mundelein, a band formed by three former Loyola students, played a song written by one of the girls in the Dwon Madiki Partnership that thanks Loyola for the opportunities the students here have given her.

Patricia Graham, development director of Invisible Conflicts, says her favorite part about the plunge was seeing everyone’s enthusiasm to gather around one cause and play a part in helping these children go to school.

“Especially because of Loyola’s commitment to social justice and the expression of ‘Go forth and set the world on fire,’ I really like that we’re in a community where people will follow through and actually come out and be supportive and do something fun and crazy for a good cause,” says Graham.

Kelly Joy, senior elementary education major and co-president of Invisible Conflicts, says the event was also successful beyond the fundraising element.

“We got a lot of people talking about what is going on in Uganda,” Joy says.

While students in Chicago can do their part in supporting the Dwon Madiki Partnership, some members of Invisible Conflicts were able to travel to Uganda in the summer of 2011 to work directly with the communities and meet some of the children that are able to go to school because of the partnership.

Graham went to Uganda as a delegate for Invisible Conflicts and worked with the community leaders and the schools to ensure the needs of the children were being met and that they are receiving the best education possible.

All of these young lives were disrupted when the Lord’s Resistance Army came through their town. Everyone in the village was affected, and many kids were left orphaned, making it impossible for many children to pay their school fees. Joy says that helping these kids receive an education is the most important thing they can do.

“We are creating a new future for Uganda because many people are not educated in that area,” says Joy. “Just providing an education can change so much.”

Unable to make it to the IC Plunge? You can purchase handmade Ugandan artisan items online at the Invisible Conflicts website, and all the money benefits the Dwon Madiki Partnership.

For anyone who is interested in participating in Invisible Conflicts, the group meets Thursdays at 8 p.m. in Dumbach Hall, room 122. Contact Invisible Conflicts at invisibleconflicts.loyola@gmail.com with any questions.

Loyola’s season-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 national championship basketball team continues this week in a big way. Up first is a screening of the film Game of Change, which chronicles the historic game between Loyola and Mississippi State, a game said to have changed college basketball and civil rights forever.

The screening will take place this Friday, December 14, at 7 p.m., in Galvin Auditorium on the Lake Shore Campus. Game of Change is a documentary about the Loyola men’s basketball team’s NCAA Regional contest against Mississippi State University on March 15, 1963, in East Lansing, Michigan (the historic meeting has been named one of the top moments in NCAA March Madness history). The film depicts how the Ramblers basketball team faced racism and discrimination throughout its national championship run as head coach George Ireland started four African-American players.

After winning against Tennessee Tech in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, Loyola was scheduled to play Mississippi State in the regional semifinals. This posed problems for the all-white Mississippi State team, which was frequently denied participation in the postseason due to an unwritten law in Mississippi that prohibited competition against integrated teams. With that in mind, Mississippi State’s head coach and president put their jobs on the line by challenging the system and allowing their team to face Loyola. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Following the film screening, a question and answer session with members of both the 1963 Loyola and Mississippi State teams will be held. If you’re interested in viewing Game of Change, admission to the screening is $10. To register, please click here. To view a short clip from the documentary, click here.

The following day, on Saturday, December 15, at 7 p.m., the Loyola men’s basketball team is scheduled to face Mississippi State in Gentile Arena for a basketball showdown that hasn’t occurred since the famed “Game of Change.” Tickets can be purchased here.

In addition to the film screening and showdown on Saturday night, the season-long celebration continues with the department’s “63 Facts About 1963″ contest.

Questions will be asked periodically between December 1 and March 23 about the players, coaches, and individual games from that historic year. Prizes include Loyola gear, limited edition bobble heads, and gift cards and will be awarded to the winners, the first responders to questions, at select basketball games throughout the season. Fans are encouraged to “like” the Ramblers’s official Facebook page and follow the Ramblers on Twitter (@LoyolaRamblers) to participate in the contest.

Fans can also visit www.loyola63.com, a website dedicated to the 1963 team that features a wealth of information on that historic season.

For information about Loyola athletics, events, and other postings, please click here.

Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business has announced the launch of The Raymond C. Baumhart, S.J., Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility, thanks to a $5 million gift from an anonymous donor.

The new Baumhart Center will provide faculty, staff, students, and alumni with opportunities for growth—including research, community outreach, and professional development—according to Kathleen A. Getz, Quinlan’s dean.

Social enterprise and responsibility is a burgeoning field in business, with companies now seeing it as vital to both the community and the bottom line.

“Over the past 20 years, there has been a real growth and appreciation that business ought to operate with a sense of appreciation and social responsibility,” says Timothy O’Connell, professor of business ethics at Quinlan.

O’Connell says social responsibility involves making sure all the stakeholders in a business are taken care of, not just the investors. These stakeholders include the employees, customers, suppliers, and financiers. Social enterprise refers to businesses whose central purpose is to help others.

“The second step beyond social responsibility involves bringing the skills of business to the organizations that explicitly are there to do good for society,” O’Connell says. “We have core competencies in the business school that could be particularly beneficial to nonprofits.”

Getz says the Baumhart Center exemplifies what Loyola stands for as a university.

“When you think about transformative education and the Jesuit approach to education, the words social justice, equality, responsibility, and community service immediately come to mind,” she says. “That’s what this is about.”

Getz says that the $5 million gift itself is a testament to the school’s belief that business can be a force for good.

“We couldn’t be doing this without our donors,” Getz says. “It shows they believe in what we are doing here. They believe in our community and want to make the future of this school even brighter. They believe in the students and want to support them.”

Per request of the anonymous donor, the Baumhart Center is named after the former dean of Loyola’s business school and former president of the University, Raymond C. Baumhart, S.J. Baumhart is one of the country’s leading business ethics scholars.

The announcement of the Baumhart Center comes just a month after Quinlan launched a Supply and Value Chain Center, the first in Chicago.

Getz says the generosity from the donors and their commitment to this school will continue to benefit and transform Loyola.

“The response has been overwhelming,” she says, “and the momentum is building.”

After students head home for the holiday break, University faculty, staff, and retirees will stick around campus to celebrate the season at Loyola’s annual Christmas Luncheon, occurring Friday, December 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., in the Gentile Arena and Norville Center.

Gary Soltys, human resources manager, says the luncheon is a time for employees working in different departments of the University to meet each other and relieve some stress.

“I think that as an institution often times we all work hard, long hours and we are in our own little niche, so this is an opportunity for Father Garanzini, as a host, to thank employees and retirees for their efforts,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to come together and celebrate the holidays and it’s a great way to put a face with a voice or name.”

Soltys says more than 1,000 people are expected to attend this year’s luncheon. There will be a holiday meal, games, door prizes, and more to entertain attendees and give them a well-deserved break.

Held in conjunction with the luncheon, University Staff Council is responsible for the planning and implementation of the annual Holiday Spirit Contest that has become a fun part of the Christmas Luncheon festivities. The Staff Council is calling all doodlers, artists, finger painters, and graphics wizards from several University departments to participate in decorating the front cover of a holiday greeting card.  The card must be on an 11″ x 17″ sheet of paper and be created electronically or by hand. All department holiday card designs will be displayed on white foam boards at the luncheon.

Travis Proffitt, community partnerships coordinator for the Center for Experiential Learning, says the card design contest was chosen in an effort to be more environmentally friendly.

“It gives different departments an opportunity to be creative. The card design cuts down on materials and helps us cut down on our carbon footprint,” Proffitt says.

The two departments with the winning holiday card design will have the opportunity to work with the Division of University Marketing and Communication to turn their design into an e-card for the 2013 holiday season. The card with the best integration of the Loyola Spirit will also win a $100 gift card for an office pizza party. To register to participate, send an e-mail to tproffi@luc.edu no later than Friday, December 7.

Proffitt also echoes Soltys’s sentiments that the luncheon is a great way to celebrate the Loyola community.

“We all work hard here and sometimes we end up staying in our departments throughout the semester. It’s important to come together for fellowship, see the people you don’t normally see during the semester, give thanks, and celebrate the holidays together,” he says.

For those driving to the luncheon, courtesy parking will be available in the Main Parking Structure, located at the south end of campus. For those not driving, complimentary shuttle service will be provided for those coming from, and returning to, the Water Tower and Maywood campuses. A shuttle will leave Corboy Law Center at 11 a.m. and Stritch School of Medicine/patient-visitor parking deck A at 10:30 a.m. Return shuttles will depart from the Halas Field at 2:15 p.m.

For more information about the annual Christmas Luncheon, please contact Gary Soltys at gsoltys@luc.edu.

Looking to enjoy a slice of delicious pizza while donating to a great cause this holiday season, all at the same time? The University Staff Council is hosting a fundraiser for the Loyola Employee Emergency Fund (LEEF) on Monday, December 10, at Felice’s Roman Style Pizza, the pizzeria on Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus (6441 N. Sheridan Rd.).

LEEF is designed to help Loyola employees (faculty and staff) recover financially from loss due to natural emergencies, accidents, or catastrophes that are no fault of the employee. The fund has already helped numerous employees since its inception, helping some families find temporary shelter after their homes were flooded.

Andrew Naylor, assistant director of residence life, says even buying one slice of pizza can help those who rely on the LEEF program during difficult times.

“The LEEF fund is important because it allows the University to extend a little extra help to employees when they may not have the means to address critical life incidents, such as fires, floods, or a death,” says Naylor.

University Staff Council decided this particular fundraiser was a great way to raise money for the LEEF fund while keeping the Loyola spirit alive. Naylor also mentioned that partnering with a local business was a better way to raise funds to support the program, as opposed to simply asking for donations.

“We decided to do it at Felice’s because it seemed like a natural first partner. It’s student-run, and part of the Loyola family,” he says. “All people have to do is show up with the flier.”

From noon to 9 p.m. on December 10, anyone can bring the University Staff Council’s promotional flyer to Felice’s and 20 percent of the proceeds, before tax, will go to the LEEF fund.

LEEF relies on donations from University staff and faculty. Every dollar donated allows LEEF to assist fellow faculty and staff members in financial need. Additionally, donating through payroll deductions, or one-time donations, is another option for employees.  For more information, or to donate, please click here. To join the University Staff Council listserv, click here.

As we dust off our mittens and winter parkas, order our coffee in holiday-styled cups, and marvel at the giant camels placed along Sheridan Road, we can only know one thing for sure: the holiday season is upon us, and Loyola celebrations are gearing up into full swing.

Kicking off the festivities is the second annual Christmas on Campus, a one-day service event where Loyola students partner up with a child from Chicago Public Schools for a day of holiday fun in Gentile Arena. Individuals and student groups sign up to participate, either to walk around with a child or to set up the activity stations. Last year, about 100 children participated.

Christmas on Campus originated at the University of Dayton almost 50 years ago. Two Loyola juniors learned of this event from a high school teacher in St. Louis who replicated it at their school. Last year, they decided to bring it to Loyola.

Alex Boesch, a junior psychology major, is one of the founders of Loyola’s Christmas on Campus. He says that organizing this event went pretty smoothly, largely due to the number of fellow Loyolans who wanted to help out.

“As soon as we expressed excitement about [Christmas on Campus], resources were laid at our feet,” Boesch says. “[Student] clubs are making up these creative holiday activities, games, and crafts for the kids to enjoy, and they are funding and manning it themselves.”

Boesch says that when students volunteer at Christmas on Campus, they are “making [a] child the center of the world for a few hours.”

Above all, this event allows the entire Loyola community to come together and give back.

“Around the holidays you bring your family together and you come together under the Jesuit ideal of social justice and caring for the full person, the cura personalis. It’s trying to do that by giving someone else a holiday experience,” he says.

Christmas on Campus will take place on December 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Gentile Arena.

Here are a few more holiday events taking place on Loyola’s campuses.

• The Cuneo Mansion and Gardens Holiday Light Show will shine throughout the Village of Vernon Hills from November 23 to December 31 (except December 24-25). Families can drive through 97 acres of holiday lights while listening to Christmas songs on a local radio station. Admission is $5 per car from Monday through Thursday and $10 per car from Friday through Sunday.

• The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) is showcasing a couple of holiday exhibitions. For the fifth year, Art and Faith of the Crèche: The Collection of James and Emilia Govan will display nativity scenes from around the world. This year features 11 new scenes. Also at LUMA is Christmas Greetings: The Graphic Design of Melville P. Steinfels and Margaret Hollahan Steinfels. The couple designed and made their own holiday cards from 1926 until the late 1980s. Visit the LUMA website for more information on the current exhibitions.

• The Centennial Forum Student Union will light up with the annual tree lighting on Tuesday, December 4, at 5 p.m. A blessing and student group performance will accompany the lighting of the 16-foot tree. Come out and enjoy music and snacks provided by Chicago Chocolate Company.

• On the first four weekends in December, the Cuneo Mansion and Gardens will host a theatrical rendition of The Velveteen Rabbit, a favorite holiday story written by Margery Williams. Admission for children under 12 is $5, and adults are $7. Attendees who bring an unwrapped gift for Toys for Tots can enjoy a free mug of hot chocolate before the show. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

• One of Loyola’s most popular events of the year, Joyola!, returns to campus on December 6, at 7:30 p.m., in the Mundelein Auditorium. Come and get in the holiday spirit with student musicians as they perform secular seasonal hits and jazz variations.

• Come join the community and Loyola’s neighbors for the annual Community Holiday Party on December 19, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m in Mundelein Center. Community partners and neighbors can come together to celebrate the season as well as collect food items to help support a local food pantry. This year’s celebration will have a theme of sustainability, using reusable dishes and utensils as well as local and eco-friendly catering. More information can be found at the event page, as well as a link to RSVP.

• The annual University Christmas Luncheon for faculty, staff, and retirees will take place on December 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Gentile Arena. Father Garanzini will host this popular event, which features door prizes, lunch, entertainment, and more.

• The Midnight Mass at Madonna della Strada Chapel is a Loyola tradition. Starting just before midnight on December 24, attendees can ring in Christmas Day with traditional Christmas carols and a holy feast.

Click here for a full list of holiday events.

A fundraising event for Inspiration Corporation will be held in Kasbeer Hall, on December 4, from 7-9 p.m.

Inspiration Corporation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide occupational skills training to homeless individuals who are trying to get back on their feet. One focal point of their mission is to professionally train their participants to cook and help them get jobs in their organization’s restaurant, Inspiration Kitchen, or other restaurants like Mastro’s Steakhouse.

Spawning from an assignment for Professor Herb Ritchell’s Public Service Communication course (COMM 320), students were asked to work with a local nonprofit and deliver a communication plan for them. A team of Loyola students wanted to go above and beyond by doing an actual fundraiser during the time of the course.

“I was drawn to Inspiration Corporation after attending a fundraiser of theirs in early September. That’s where I met Neal Kulick, who is the president of the board at Inspiration Corporation,” says Zach Zimmerman, an advertising and public relations major and a key member in the fundraising team. ”He seemed interested in what I had in mind, so we pretty much ran with them since that conversation!”

The team of students has been working with Mindy Neveaux and Diane Pascal over the past few months to orchestrate the event. They are hoping to raise funds for Inspiration Corporation by holding this charity event at Loyola, which features cooking demonstrations, an open bar, a silent auction, and a raffle.

“The event involves all aspects of what we’ve learned as AD/PR students,” explains Zimmerman. ”We feel that we really stayed true to the mission of the course – to get involved in our community and deliver meaningful results to our nonprofit.”

To go along with the rest of the charity event, the group will hold a canned food drive, and participants will get a raffle ticket for each can they donate. Beer and wine will be furnished by House of Glunz and prizes will be furnished by EpicBurger, Ridge Vineyards, Metropolis Coffee Company, Starbucks, and many more.

Professors like Stacy Neier and Herb Ritchell have been instrumental in generating interest in the event throughout the Loyola community, and the dean of the School of Communication, Don Heider, donated $100 for refreshments at the event.

“It would be a good testament to our hard work if we could raise a few thousand dollars for them,” says Zimmerman. “This is a pretty incredible cause, and it’s great to be part of such a well-organized nonprofit organization.”

If you’re interested in attending, ticket prices vary, and it is suggested that you purchase your tickets in advance: Student Advance Tickets: $10; Faculty Advance Tickets: $15; General Public Tickets: $20. Tickets purchased the day of the event will be $20 for everyone.

If you are willing to help sponsor the event, donate raffle items,  or for more information, please contact Zach Zimmerman at zzimmerman@luc.edu.

Loyola alums who recently joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest do their best wolf and kettle impression.

One of the key tenets of the Ignatian heritage is to transform people to be men and women for others. A number of recent Loyola graduates are fully embodying this principle by serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest (JVC Northwest). Volunteers offer at least one year of their life to work with populations living in the marginalized edges of society.

JVC Northwest is an independent, non-profit organization rooted in the Jesuit Catholic tradition. The four core values of JVC Northwest are spirituality and reflection, simple living, community, and social justice. Volunteers, known as JVs, live in communities that strive to embody these values everyday. These communities are located in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington state. There are currently 138 JVs committed to this mission today.

One such JV is Nick Reynolds, a Loyola graduate who is working at a mental health facility for adults in west Seattle.

“Mental health is an often overlooked aspect of our health, as well as a huge factor in homelessness and poverty. [This facility] works to support individuals with mental illnesses to help keep them off the streets and out of the hospital and work toward independence,” Reynolds says.

Reynolds graduated from Loyola in 2012 with a major in anthropology and minors in Spanish, peace studies, and Latin American studies. He says his time and activities at Loyola still carry weight in his life today.

“I developed a strong foundation in Jesuit values while at Loyola. Through working with Alternative Break Immersions, as well as GlobeMed at Loyola, I was able to deepen my understanding of social justice and begin practicing these values,” he says.

Claire Wiltse is another 2012 Loyola graduate who is serving as a JV in Portland, Oregon. Wiltse, a history major with two minors in pastoral studies and studio art, works in a domestic violence shelter as an advocate for women who are trying to escape domestic abuse. Some of her responsibilities include accompanying women to court and helping them apply for housing programs.

Wiltse says the four core areas of JVC align with her personal desires for life. Simplicity for Wiltse is finding satisfaction in the small joys of life. Community, she says, has been a strong support during her time volunteering.

“Community is a source of joy and growth,” she says.  “We cook together, share hard days together, and quarrel like any house; but we have built a base of love and support that is so important for each of us.”

She embodies the value of social justice by working directly with these women and trying to “engage larger systems and structures to change our society to one free from sexism.”

Wiltse also sees spirituality tied into her work by her interactions with these women and the struggles they face. In addition to daily prayer, Wiltse and her community hold weekly reflections where they link their spirituality to their service.

“My community of seven reflects weekly about how our service connects to our spirituality, and I learn so much from their perspectives,” she says. “This space for reflection has been really important in processing where God meets suffering and processing my daily experiences.”

Other Loyola alums who have recently joined JVC Northwest include Anne Flaherty, John Flournoy, Elaina Polovick, Erin Baum, and Katherine Fell. For more on JVC Northwest, please click here.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been a pressing health issue for the last three decades. As of March 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) estimates that there are currently 1.2 million people living with this disease in the United States. Although people infected span across all ages, ethnic groups, and lifestyles, a handful of groups tend to see higher rates of infection than others. One such group is African-American men who have sex with other men. After noticing these trends, the School of Social Work developed a study to look at the efficacy of preventative treatment in reducing this group’s percentage of infection.

The study is called Black Men Evolving, or B-Me. Darrell Wheeler, PhD, dean of the School of Social Work, is the principal investigator of the study.

“Something is wrong. We shouldn’t be seeing these rates of infection [within this group] given the population,” he says.

B-Me is looking to see if behavioral intervention focusing on critical thinking and cultural affirmation can help lower this group’s rate of high-risk sexual behavior. The primary goal of the study is to promote safe sex norms, positive attitudes toward condom use, and self-protection from HIV/AIDS through behavioral intervention.

“I believe self-affirmation exudes self-love. Critical thinking helps men with impulse control,” says Stephen Armstead, the B-Me study coordinator.

The five-year study, ending in April 2015, is a home-grown study, meaning it is being conducted in the community instead of within a University. It is being funded by the CDC.

The study calls for 438 African-American men who have sex with other men. All participants will be given a survey at the start of the study regarding their sexual practices. They will then be split into two groups: a control group and an intervention group. Those in the control group will receive monthly text messages that positively reinforce cultural ideas and self-affirmation. The participants in the intervention group will attend a weekend retreat, as well as receive the monthly text messages. All the men will take the surveys again at the three-month mark and the six-month mark.

Armstead says B-Me is different from other HIV/AIDS studies in two main ways. First, the intervention is behavioral instead of biomedical. The study is looking at how effective behavioral change is as opposed to the changes brought about by medical drugs. Secondly, the study does not focus on identity. They purposely are using the term “men who have sex with other men” instead of labeling participants as gay or homosexual.

“We are attempting to not be labeled as a gay study so as not to stigmatize people. HIV is not transmitted by identity, it is transmitted by behavior,” says Armstead.

This type of study is one that Dean Wheeler sees as being “wholly consistent” with the Loyola mission and identity.

“If you think about this epidemic, [our study] is a fitting action for Loyola because of the University’s commitment to social justice and integrating intellectual resources to unlock problems here in Chicago,” he says.

Living in the United States, we often take simple luxuries for granted. Basic hygiene, such as washing our hands and brushing our teeth, are mindless daily activities. However, if one steps outside the comforts of this country’s borders, these mundane tasks prove to be decisive factors in the health and well-being for thousands of people living in developing countries.

These inequalities have not gone unnoticed, and a group of Loyola students is taking direct action.

Global Brigades has been an active student group at Loyola for several years. Students from all academic backgrounds can volunteer for one of many brigades where they will travel to communities around the world and help locals develop self-sustaining practices. Currently, Loyola has medical, dental, public health, water, environmental, and business brigades that have trips planned through August.

This January, three brigades will travel to Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Alexandria Remus, a senior biophysics and psychology double major with a minor in physics, is one of the leaders of the brigade to Panama. A team of 41 students and a physician will travel to the Este region for one week to work with a group of local doctors and dentists to set up a free medical and dental clinic in the poverty-stricken community.

“We teach the community basic knowledge that we often take for granted. These topics range from basic hygiene–like how to wash your hands–diet and nutrition, water purification techniques, and dental health,” she says. “The mission of Global Brigades as an international organization is to educate the communities we serve and empower them to create their own sustainable communities.”

Remus is not new to these brigades. Last January, she traveled to the Darién region of Panama to do similar work.

“During our week in Panama, we saw about 500 patients who truly needed our medical care. After participating on the brigade, I realized how appreciative the Panamanians were of the care they received, and I want to give back more.  That is why I decided to lead this brigade in January,” she says.

Remus shared one of the stories from her last brigade that motivated her to return for another service trip.

“On one of the days, a family showed up on horseback. They told us that they traveled three hours from the mountains because our clinic was their only access to medical care. It was truly an inspiring moment that made me realize the smallest things can make the biggest impact in life,” Remus recalls.

To help finance their trip, Global Brigades has partnered up with Felice’s, Francesca’s, and Pete’s Pizza to hold fundraising events.  Additionally, the three brigades going out in January are hosting a joint talent show on November 29, at 7 p.m., in the Mundelein Auditorium. All proceeds will be used to help purchase medicine and medical supplies.

Anyone who wants to learn more about Loyola’s Global Brigades can e-mail loyolagb@gmail.com for more information. Please also visit the Global Brigades website to learn more about the program as a whole.

Students not returning to their hometowns for Thanksgiving dinner will still be able to enjoy the holiday feast with their Loyola community. Campus Ministry and Loyola Dining are hosting an on-campus Thanksgiving celebration for those students who are not able to spend the holiday with family, friends, and loved ones. The meal will begin with a blessing at 11 a.m. on Thursday, November 22, at Lake Shore Dining, Second Floor, CFSU, and will last until 1 p.m.

The idea of a Thanksgiving meal for students who are sticking around campus originated with Patrick Dorsey, S.J., with the hopes that it would turn into a yearly tradition.

Steven T. Betancourt, BA, MM, director of liturgical music, helped plan Thanksgiving at Loyola this year and he encourages faculty and staff members to share a bit of themselves this Thanksgiving. “I’m coming to help out as I actually enjoy bussing tables and caring for others. I’ll be bringing cards and some other games as part of my own family’s Thanksgiving is that laughter and fun of playing together. People should come and share that with our amazing students,” he says.

Betancourt also noted that Loyola Dining has been entirely gracious and hospitable in their support of Thanksgiving for students. “They were the first to step up and they are an inspiration to me this Thanksgiving,” he says. The menu provided by Aramark includes traditional Thanksgiving cuisine, including corn bread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams, cranberry sauce, green beans, steamed broccoli, corn, and a variety of salads. There will be a carving station with herb roasted turkey and honey-baked ham and a vegetarian option, by request, of stuffed portabella mushrooms. Desserts will be served as well, including pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, brownies, and ice cream.

Loyola Thanksgiving Feast is still looking for volunteers. If you are a staff or faculty member who wants to go that extra mile for our students, please RSVP to volunteer by clicking here.

Image courtesy of the Quinlan School of Business

Saturday, November 10, marked the first-ever Day of Service for the Quinlan School of Business. More than 40 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff came together to volunteer at A Safe Haven Foundation, a shelter program with 16 locations around Chicago, to help those who have been homeless find jobs and housing.

Brian Rowland (BBA ’89) and Neli Vazquez-Rowland (BA ’85) started A Safe Haven Foundation in 1994. They developed a holistic program to serve the needs of those recovering from addiction and those who have fallen into homelessness.

Alex See, student activities coordinator for the Quinlan School of Business, co-organized the event along with Mark Law, academic adviser in the graduate programs office, with the support of Quinlan Dean Kathleen A. Getz.

See says partnering with A Safe Haven was a natural fit due to the founders’ connection to the University.

“A Safe Haven is a leader in social enterprise, and it has a strong business model that has attracted attention locally and as far away as China,” he says.

See also noted that November was the perfect time to hold the service event because of Ignatian Heritage Month.

“We are proud of our Jesuit heritage and wanted a way to celebrate our commitment to service, values, and responsible leadership,” he says.

During the Day of Service, volunteers worked side by side with people who had benefited from A Safe Haven, planting tulips for troops, cleaning out the organic garden bed, and cataloging old files.

“Their stories of how their lives were impacted by A Safe Haven were touching and inspiring,” See says. “The experience also reminds us that everyone can make a difference. Neli and Brian were successful in the financial field; they saw a need in the community and decided to take action.”

The Rowlands see drug addiction as something the country needs to shift its perception of. Because users, statistically speaking, go through detox six times a year, there is often no type of aftercare offered, and most addicts end up back on the street. The program at A Safe Haven is designed to capture addicts before they can derail from recovery. The guiding principles of the program teach them skills to cope with addiction so they can sustain a livelihood and avoid falling back into homelessness.

The Rowland’s mission seems to be working. About 80 percent of those in A Safe Haven’s training program secure job placements, which gives them a shot at building a solid foundation to support their recovery and establish an independent living situation.

Carly Stevens, 19, business major, says the Day of Service was eye opening.

“I would participate in this event again and really encourage others to help this awesome organization,” she says. “I enjoyed myself. I like doing service work, and this organization in particular was for a really good cause.”

For more information on A Safe Haven and programs available for the homeless, underserved, and veterans, visit ASafeHaven.org.

The 2012 presidential election is finally over, and what seemed like one of the most ardent battles between two campaigns has settled down and come to a cease fire. After months of relentless work, those who volunteered or interned with these campaigns are returning back to normal life.

Take Joe LaPaille, 21, who can now return focus to his 18 credit hours, rugby practices, and social life. Since the end of June, LaPaille has been a communications intern for President Obama’s campaign. Logging upwards of 50 hours a week in the summer and 20 hours a week during the semester, the senior communication major, who is also double minoring in sport management and marketing, simply says, “I was busy as hell.”

As a communications intern, LaPaille worked closely with Vice President Joe Biden’s press secretary and the deputy chief of staff and monitored the media to see how it was covering the campaign.

“I would wake up at 5 a.m. to see what the first news stories were that day,” he says.

Every weekday morning, LaPaille would create a document containing news on campaign activity, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and the latest polls. He then sent this document to the White House for Vice President Biden to read and stay informed on the latest movements.

On the weekends, LaPaille woke up at 4 a.m. to send e-mails to the Biden campaign staff and the White House staff containing national news stories on the campaign and administration.

In early October, LaPaille received the opportunity to travel to Lexington and Danville, KY, for the vice presidential debate. He sat in a room outside the debate hall monitoring Twitter and social media to see what elements of Vice President Biden’s segments were gaining the most public attention. He synthesized the information and ensured the surrogates’ talking points for the media were up to date.

“My role was more ‘internship-like’ there, but the trip allowed me to see how a major communication operation is orchestrated, especially when the stakes were high,” LaPaille says.

One of his other responsibilities that night was to “staff” Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, meaning he took her to various interviews in the spin room where surrogates go after the debate to talk with the media.

Along with the vice presidential debate, another of LaPaille’s most memorable days was when he monitored a speech Vice President Biden gave over the summer that stirred up a media frenzy with a comment that the Republican approach to fix the economy would “put y’all back in chains.”

“Throughout that day, I sent every story with that comment to the press secretary [so we could] push back the statement. It changed the entire scope of my responsibility,” LaPaille says.

One of the perks of working for President Obama’s campaign was that LaPaille had a ticket to join the celebration at McCormick Place on Election Night. He says being in that crowd reaffirmed why he wanted to work on the campaign.

“Seeing people just falling to their knees in tears because the president had won really shows why I put the work in. There are certain people who really need him as our president during this time in our country, and I’m thankful I could help make that happen,” LaPaille says.

The following day, LaPaille was at the campaign headquarters in Chicago when President Obama stopped by to thank the campaign workers for their work over the past year. LaPaille listened as the president delivered his emotional expression of gratitude and waited his turn to shake President Obama’s hand as the presidential re-elect individually greeted every person who was there.

Now that the election is over, LaPaille can immerse himself back into his school work and social life, but his experience on the Obama campaign is one that will not escape him anytime soon. He is confident that his work as a communication intern made a difference in this election.

“Even as mundane as intern tasks may be, the work I did was different,” he says. “I helped senior staffers to be well-informed. It makes you feel like more than an intern.”

For three years, the Chicago Tribune has published a list of Chicago’s Top 100 Workplaces, and for the third consecutive year, Loyola has been recognized in the large company category. This year, the University finds itself ranked 21st.

To recognize the best organizations in Chicagoland, the Top Workplaces program evaluates them based upon feedback from an employee survey, which more than 1,360 faculty and staff members completed a few months ago. This year’s program received entries from more than 250 companies, so the competition was formidable.

“On behalf of the University and my fellow administrators, I want to thank the Loyola community for their commitment and their many contributions to making this University an excellent organization to work for,” says Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., Loyola president and CEO. “Our faculty, staff, and administrators continue to make Loyola an attractive destination for those seeking careers at a well-regarded, dynamic higher education institution.

This year’s survey data proved that many Loyolans remain pleased with the direction of the University, they have confidence in the leader of this University, and they believe Loyola operates with strong values and ethics. Respondents also shared their satisfaction with the University’s commitment to offering employees the flexibility to balance their work and personal lives, and many believe their manager helps them to learn and grow.

One longtime faculty member, Phil Nyden, the director of the Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), agrees that the University is headed in the right direction, and he’s also thankful for the University’s past, and ongoing, commitment to academic excellence. “As a faculty member at Loyola for more than 30 years, I have found the University to be a supportive environment that encourages and nurtures new ideas and innovation—in the classroom, in research, and in connections with communities outside of the University. It is in this environment that we established CURL, a non-traditional research center that involves community partners in our work at all stages. Few other universities would have taken the early risks in supporting such a center. Not only do you feel part of a community at Loyola, but the University regularly rewards and recognizes contributions that faculty, staff, and students make.”

Another longtime Loyolan, Jane Neufeld, dean of students, shares Nyden’s thoughts on the direction of the University. “I have been at Loyola for more than 23 years and I still feel very fortunate to be a member of this thriving University community. As the dean of students, I have the privilege to work with phenomenal students every day that challenge me and make coming to work an enjoyable experience. I can also say that some of my colleagues have become some of my best friends in life, and not everyone can say that about their workplace. I have seen this University, campus, and culture transform over the years, and I am proud to be a part of this great institution.

On Monday, November 12, Loyola was formally recognized, along with the other winning organizations, at a celebratory event held in the River East Art Center.

To learn more about the Top Workplaces program, click here.

Pictured Left to Right: Chris Skrable, Nicole Remy, Aaron Cooper, Stephanie Atella, David deBoer, Annie Busiek, Frank O’Toole, Vivian Xu, and Brendan Keating

The reception to honor the University’s annual Staff Recognition and Excellence Award winners took place on November 6 on the Water Tower Campus, in Regents Hall.

This annual  initiative recognizes the commitment and dedication of staff members who are exceptional at advancing Loyola University Chicago’s professional mission of preparing people to lead extraordinary lives. Staff members are recognized for their professional contributions and the quality of their service to the University. All regular staff members, full-time and part-time, are eligible and can be nominated by members of the Loyola community.

2012 Award Recipients:

RISING STAR AWARD
Stephanie Atella, Health Educator, Wellness Center

TEAM SPIRIT AWARD
Advancement Team, University Marketing and Communication (Aaron Cooper, Annie Busiek, Frank O’Toole, and Brendan Keating)

MEGS LANGDON AWARD
Christopher Skrable, Coordinator for Service Learning, Center for Experiential Learning

KAY EGAN AWARD
David De Boer, Associate Director, Wellness Center

STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR
Nicole Remy, Area Coordinator, Staff Development and Training, Department of Residence Life

Remy says she was honored to receive the Staff Member of the Year Award. “I am so appreciative of the many opportunities that have been available to me at Loyola, and I am grateful especially to work in such a supportive environment with colleagues who contribute to my development as a professional” she says. “The awards ceremony was a great opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of staff across the University and it was an honor to be recognized among a group of fantastic nominees.”

Also at the event, the University Staff Council unveiled its inaugural Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award winner for the month of October. This new award, established by the Staff Council, is an opportunity to honor the outstanding achievements of staff members worthy of distinction on a monthly basis. The first recipient for this new award was Vivian Xu from the financial planning and budgeting department.

Looking ahead, nominations for the monthly award can be submitted online each month and must be in by 5 p.m. on the 15th of every month. Winners will then be notified on the last day of each month.

For more information on the criteria, nomination, and election process for the yearly Staff Recognition and Excellence Awards, as well as the new Monthly Commitment to Excellence Award, visit LUC.edu/staffcouncil.

Rosemarie Andolino, of the Chicago Department of Aviation, delivered the symposium's keynote address.

On Wednesday, November 7, Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business brought together leaders of industry, academia, and government to discuss the “State of Chicago in the Global Supply Chain.”

The daylong event addressed four main topics: the impact of logistics on the supply chain; leveraging the supply chain to benefit Chicago-based firms; forthcoming challenges to the city’s supply chain; and, the growing use of intermodal in the region.

Speakers ranged from Quinlan faculty members to leaders of local companies. The symposium’s keynote address was delivered by Rosemarie Andolino, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation.

The highlight of the day came when Dean Kathleen A. Getz made an important announcement—the launch of the city’s first and only Supply and Value Chain Center.

The center will provide a centralized venue for academics and industry leaders alike looking to network, share their insights, and produce cutting-edge research with immediate, practical implications for their discipline. It also will help connect students with some of the area’s top supply chain leaders.

“We see this as a niche for our school,” Getz says. “No other educational institute in the area specializes in supply and value chain research, education, and practice. We hope to be a resource for other academic leaders as well as our growing list of professional partners.”

John Caltagirone, adjunct faculty member and chairperson of the Supply Chain Management Advisory Board, says the center will ensure many more events like the one held Wednesday.

“This event is going to help us market and brand ourselves as a school known for supply and value chain management,” he says.

Maciek Nowak, associate professor and academic director of the center, agrees, adding that Quinlan is already the only accredited school in Illinois to offer a Master of Science in Supply Chain Management, a program that launched earlier this fall.

“There are a lot of opportunities for research, for continuing education, and for partnerships between academia, industry, and the government,” Nowak says. “We want this to bring all factors of supply chain together under one roof.”

For more on the new Supply and Value Chain Center at Quinlan, click here.

This Thursday, November 8 and Friday, November 9, the University will host its annual HealthDays Wellness fairs at the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses as part of the Benefits Open Enrollment period. Similar to past years, the fairs will feature free biometric screenings for benefits-eligible employees enrolled in Loyola’s Advantage PPO (BlueCross BlueShield) plan, flu shots (for everyone), and a vendor fair.

The Health Sciences Campus hosted its wellness fair last week on November 1.

Biometric screenings and flu shots are a great way for employees to get a jump start on their health goals for the upcoming 2013 year and better understand their current health status.

The biometric screening involves height, weight, and blood pressure measures and a finger-stick blood test.  The basic biometric screening includes some health-behavior questions, blood lipids (total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol), glucose, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and health coaching. The expanded biometric screening includes LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Registration is required. Click here for details on how to register.

The HealthDays fairs run on the following days:

Thursday, November 8 (Lake Shore Campus)
Vendor Activities: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Simpson Multipurpose Room
Biometric Screenings: 7:30 a.m. to Noon in Regis Hall Multipurpose Room
Flu Shots: 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Regis Hall Multipurpose Room

Friday, November 9 (Water Tower Campus)
Vendor Activities: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Beane Hall, 13th Floor, Lewis Towers
Biometric Screenings: 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Regents Hall, 16th Floor, Lewis Towers
Flu Shots: 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Regents Hall, 16th Floor, Lewis Towers

The fairs are part of the University’s enhanced 2012 Wellness Program that includes more opportunities for employees to achieve and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Participating in the fairs is just one of many ways employees can take an active role in their health. Other features of the 2012 Wellness Program include the Pumpkins in the Park 5K that took place in October, Wellness Wednesday seminars, discounted WeightWatchers program participation, and more.

More information regarding HealthDays and Benefits Open Enrollment, which will run from November 1–21, is available here. Other benefits-related questions can be directed to Human Resources at 312.915.6175.

Image by Vanessa Gezari, Afghanistan, 2010

Stories of human agency in international war zones, unstable governments, and areas of poverty around the globe often go untold.  The voices of resilient men, women, and children who live their day-to-day lives in areas of conflict all over the world are silenced by lack of funding, differing ideologies about what is newsworthy, and the relentless 24-hour media cycle. Bringing their stories to the forefront of news coverage is a daunting task for those who are passionate about social justice.  However, with the help of a new scholarship program at Loyola, students will be given a chance to report on international struggles first hand and a platform to illuminate dark places around the globe.

Loyola University Chicago is partnering with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting (PCCR) to sponsor a student fellow to travel to an area of conflict overseas to focus on under-reported, un-reported, or misreported issues that are often not given attention in mainstream media.

Don Wycliff, distinguished journalist in residence for the School of Communication is the faculty adviser for the new program. He says that starting summer of 2013, a student fellow will be selected to receive $2,000 to go out on their own and report on a topic of his or her choosing under the aegis of the Pulitzer Center for their website and with their mentorship.

This joint collaboration will involve the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Nursing, School of Social Work, and the School of Communication. The PCCR only allows for one student each year to be selected for an international reporting project. Each of the four colleges will take turns each year recommending a student from their particular college to apply for the stipend.

Kathleen Maas-Weigert, PhD, professor of women and leadership and assistant to the provost for social justice initiatives, initially brought forth the idea. She had come across the student fellowship program at the PCCR when she was teaching at Georgetown University in Washington DC and believes the scholarship is an excellent resource for students to broaden their own understanding of their own challenges in the world.

Maas-Weigert is enthusiastic about students being able to partake in the PCCR fellowship but does warn that the process is rigorous and not everyone is cut out for the fellowship. Part of the vetting process will be to ensure the right student is chosen and he or she is able to handle the responsibility of going into the field alone.

“Someone who’s committed to global justice issues, who’s a certain risk-taker, who’s mature and understands challenges and thinks about how resources are essential to meet those challenges is what we’re looking for,” says Maas-Weigert.

Another major component of Loyola’s partnership with PCCR is welcoming journalists from the Pulitzer Center to Loyola to share their experiences reporting across the globe with students. This fall, Anna Badkhen and Vanessa M. Gezari, who have both extensively reported on conflict in Afghanistan under the aegis of the Pulitzer Center, held a panel discussion and visited some classrooms around Loyola to share stories about the difficulties they faced, and more importantly the issues of human conflict and turmoil they saw.

“The point is to give that student a great opportunity but also to help Loyola get more access to understanding crises in our global community that we would not normally hear about or would hear about very superficially,” says Maas-Weigert. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to have a network, a web effect that will broaden here at Loyola, that will make more and more people aware of these really crying needs for justice.”

The first Loyola student fellow will be selected from a pool of applications from the School of Communication for summer 2013.

For more information on the student fellow and the PCCR visit www.pulitzercenter.org.

This Sunday, Hunger Week returns to Loyola’s campuses to raise awareness and funds for the fight against hunger. From November 4-10, the Loyola community is invited to participate in a series of events to educate themselves and others about food issues that are persisting today.

Proceeds from Hunger Week events always go to organizations at the local, national, and global level. Andrew Miller, staff advisor for Hunger Week, says this year’s beneficiaries were chosen for their expansive outreach within their target population. The three beneficiaries are the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Share Our Strength, and Action Against Hunger.

Those who have participated in Hunger Week before can expect to see some familiar events throughout campus. Some of these staple events include the Hunger Run 5K, the Fast-A-Thon, and the subsequent Breaking of the Fast. Last year, these events drew the largest crowds, with the Hunger Run and the Breaking of the Fast each seeing more than 100 people.

In addition to these popular events, Hunger Week is offering some different options. This year, participants can attend a panel discussion on hunger issues in Chicago. Representatives from the Greater Chicago Food Depository will take part in this discussion. Additionally, there will be a screening of a documentary called Hunger Hits Home which exposes the realities of hunger across the country. The documentary was produced by Share Our Strength and the Food Network.

One of the main goals of Hunger Week is just to educate people and help raise awareness about these issues that may go unnoticed.

“We hope that people will come away with a better understanding of the struggles faced by individuals close to home and around the world when it comes to feeding themselves and their families, as well as knowledge about how we all can work to change that,” says Miller.

Here are some of the other events taking place during Hunger Week 2012.

• To kick off the week, join Hillel, SAE, SAAC, and the Armed Forces Club for PB Jam on Monday, November 5; from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., lend your hand to make hundreds of sandwiches that will be given to a Rogers Park soup kitchen
• The Muslim Student Association co-sponsors the Fast-A-Thon, which will be held Tuesday from sunrise to sunset; click here to register
• Participants have three opportunities throughout the week to volunteer at a soup kitchen: Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; please e-mail Patty Ray (pray@luc.edu) to sign up for Thursday’s volunteering and hungerweek@luc.edu for Tuesday and Friday
• From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Hillel will sell bagels in the Quinlan Life Sciences Center lobby to raise money for this year’s beneficiaries
• The Social Class Dinner will be held Wednesday night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Simpson Multipurpose Room; the interactive dinner demonstrates the uneven food distribution throughout the world with a discussion focusing on hunger in the Middle East
• Runners can check in for the Hunger Run 5K at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning; race time is at 10 a.m. and students can register now for $15 and everyone else for $20
• All week long, there will be a Hunger Fact Scavenger Hunt throughout campus; answers to hunger questions will be hidden on campus and participants are encouraged to fill out their game card to possibly win a prize

To learn more about this year’s beneficiaries, click on the links below:

• Greater Chicago Food Depository
• Share Our Strength
• Action Against Hunger

For more information on Hunger Week, and for a full list of the week’s activities, visit the Hunger Week webpage.

As part of Ignatian Heritage Month, the University launched the Loyola 24 photo contest. The photo above, taken by Hannah Colborn, a Loyola student, was chosen as the grand prize winner.

Today, November 1, marks the kick off of Loyola’s annual Ignatian Heritage Month, a month-long celebration that highlights the living legacy of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Throughout November, the Loyola community is invited to explore the legacy of St. Ignatius and the traditions of the Jesuits through prayer, lectures, and a multitude of other events around campus.

Among the highlighted events is the Salvadoran Martyrs Lecture: Heart-Cries of Communion: Loyola University and the Martyrs of El Salvador, featuring Kevin Burke, S.J., STD., on Tuesday, November 13 at noon in Beane Hall on the Water Tower Campus and at 4 p.m. in the Crown Center Auditorium on the Lake Shore Campus. The Martyrs Memorial Mass will immediately follow at 5:15 p.m. in Madonna della Strada Chapel.

The month-long celebration serves as a way to remember St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus and namesake of Loyola University Chicago, by reminding students and faculty of the Jesuit values, traditions, and heritage that are the foundations of the Loyola education.

“It’s important that we stay rooted to our Ignatius and Jesuit tradition and heritage,” says Chris Murphy, director of staff mission formation and faculty staff chaplain. “As we get busy, we lose sight of the fundamental principles of the Jesuits, and we use this month to highlight the richness of our heritage.”

In the spirit of celebration, understanding, and remembering, these events will also be taking place throughout the month of November:

• Hunger Week runs from Sunday, November 4 through Saturday, November 10, and includes a number of events that are aimed at raising awareness of hunger issues around the world
• A two-part discussion, “Exploratory Conversations on Talking About/Talking to God,” will be held on Thursday, November 1 and 8 and will give attendees the opportunity to explore the more intuitive (at times non-rational) aspect of (dis)belief and spiritual desire
• On November 9, at 3 p.m., the Loyola University Museum of Art will host, “Tea with the Jesuits: When Art and Sports Intersect,” a discussion that will investigate how the Jesuit educational tradition has promoted sports and physical activities as a way to develop creativity and an appreciation of aesthetic qualities
• Students are also encouraged to come and learn about the Jesuits on Sunday, November 11, at 8:15 p.m., in the Terry Student Center on the Water Tower Campus for “Jesuits by the Slice – Understanding Ignatius and the Jesuits”
• Students 21 and older can enjoy a drink or two while learning about the Jesuits on Thursday, November 15, at 8 p.m., in the Terry Student Center on the Water Tower Campus
• The Salvadoran Martyrs Prayer Vigil will be held on Thursday, November 15, at 7 p.m., in the Madonna della Strada chapel.
• On November 17, at 9 a.m., the Maroon and Gold Society and Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) will engage in the “Ignatian Heritage Month Community Service Day” around the Chicagoland area
• “Women Leaders at Loyola University: Promoting Ignatian Leadership,” will wrap up Ignatian Heritage Month on November 27, at 4 p.m., in Piper Hall on the Lake Shore Campus; a panel of Loyola women leaders will use this opportunity to reflect on their roles in the world of higher Jesuit education

In addition to the events above, Loyola launched its first photography contest, Loyola 24, in mid-October to coincide with planning for Ignatian Heritage Month. The contest, which received more than 50 entries, encouraged participants to take photos during a 24-hour time frame on October 12 with St. Ignatius and his living legacy as the required focus/subject matter. The grand prize winner was Hannah Colborn, a Loyola student, whose photo is pictured above. Other winners include Travis Proffitt, MA, community partnerships coordinator in the Center for Experiential Learning (Category: Finding God in All Things); Xin Chen, a graduate student in the Department of Philosophy (Category: Men and Women For and With Others); Jamason Chen, manager of technology in the School of Communication (Contemplation in Action); and Madison Rau, a Loyola student (Honorable Mention). To view the winners’ photos, click here.

For more information about Ignatian Heritage Month, please visit the website at LUC.edu/ihm.

If you’re sick of all those negative political ads that run on television before Election Day, well, you’re out of luck. Those ads—which many people say they hate—run for a reason: They work.

So says Joan Phillips, a Quinlan professor of marketing who has researched how voters react to negative political ads. But if so many people say they can’t stand the ads, why are they so effective?

It’s the same reason why people are more likely to watch the weather when a hurricane is coming than when it’s sunny and 70 degrees outside, Phillips says.

“We pay more attention to negative information,” she says. “It’s more salient, it scares us, and we’re more likely to remember it.”

To see why negative ads work, Phillips and two colleagues developed a field study in 2004 using real TV advertisements from the George W. Bush and John Kerry presidential election. The researchers asked college students to rate their level of support for the candidates on a seven-point scale, from “definitely Bush” to “definitely Kerry” (with five points in between).

They then showed the students one of four political ads and asked them to re-rate their levels of support. Roughly 14 percent of the students said the attack on their candidate made them support him even more, the researchers found. But an equal percentage of students said the advertisement weakened their support and caused them to move closer to the opponent—the one who ran the negative ad.

Although no one jumped from “definitely Bush” to “definitely Kerry,” some students who were leaning toward one candidate did switch to the other side. And in a tightly contested race, like this year’s presidential election, getting even a few people to change their vote can make all the difference in the world.

“That’s a huge, huge gain for a candidate,” Phillips says.

Negative ads tend to work best when people are passionate about the campaign, such as a presidential election where the stakes are high, Phillips says. The ads, however, become less effective as you move down the political ladder and into smaller races.

“The voter may just discount it,” she says. “They’ll think: ‘I don’t know who to believe, I don’t care, it doesn’t really matter to me.’ ”

So what’s the bottom line?

“We’re not saying positive ads aren’t good,” Phillips says. “It’s just that negative ads are effective.”

Photo by Luke Turley

More than 80 students competed for cash prizes and the chance to show off their business skills at the first-ever Quinlan Case Competition held October 8 at Loyola’s Water Tower Campus.

Their challenge: to take the lessons learned from the classroom and apply them to a real-world business case. In this instance: CEMEX, a Mexican cement company that dedicates a portion of its business (Patrimonio Hoy) to helping lower income families build their homes.

The students received the case on October 3 and had only 100 hours to prepare a 20-minute presentation.

“To win, you have to come up with a big idea in a small amount of time,” says Alex See, Quinlan’s student activities coordinator. “It’s just like in the real world, and we simulated that experience in every way, even with some ‘bonus-type’ incentives.”

That translated into a first place prize of $400/member for team IBFMA, consisting of four juniors and one senior—Davi Aragao, Steven Koblinski, Austin Nugent, Robert Ruder, and John Schmidt. Their recommendation was to turn Patrimonio Hoy into a not-for-profit entity.

“I thought what set us apart was our dedication, our preparation, and our professionalism,” Schmidt says of his team’s efforts.

The second place prize ($200/member) and third place prize ($100/member) went to Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Madelaine and Company, respectively. A special distinction—the Lawrence Metzger Award for Excellence, named in honor of the beloved accounting professor who passed away earlier this month—went to Prestigious Regis, the highest scoring team consisting of first- and second-year students. Prestigious Regis team members each received $50.

Cash aside, the most valuable takeaway of all was the chance to make vital connections that could lead to future career opportunities.

“Our alumni turnout was extraordinary,” says See, noting that 25 served as judges. “We can’t wait for next year. This was a momentous occasion for our community and sure to become a Quinlan tradition.”

For more on the Quinlan Case Competition—including an exclusive interview with the winning team—visit LUC.edu/quinlan.

Father Garanzini discusses the Loyola and Senn High School partnership at a May 2012 press conference as Mayor Rahm Emanuel looks on.

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation has given Loyola University Chicago a $50,000 grant to work with Senn High School to help develop the high school’s programs in journalism and news literacy.

The grant is part of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation’s Why News Matters campaign, a three-year, $6 million initiative to help improve news literacy among people of all ages.

Colonel Robert R. McCormick, a previous publisher and editor of the Chicago Tribune, left a clause in his will to establish a “charitable trust” in his name that would help support and promote literacy to everyone in Illinois, especially regarding matters of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Loyola and Senn have been working together for several years now, as Loyola students have been placed in the Edgewater high school to complete their field hours and student-teaching. This relationship advanced in May 2012 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked Loyola to partner with the school on a new initiative.

Senn is starting to transition its curriculum to a full International Baccalaureate program. As part of that transition, Loyola’s School of Communication is helping implement a new digital journalism program that will enable students to integrate their learning from across the new curriculum.

The School of Communication is working with the School of Education on these projects.

Don Heider, dean of the School of Communication, says this partnership is going to affect both Loyola and Senn students positively.

“High school students love learning from college students. Part of the principal’s [Susan Lofton] efforts at Senn is getting more students to think about college. Having college students in the building modeling for kids and showing how much fun and exciting college can be is really going to help,” Dean Heider says.

The grant funds will be dispersed among several areas of the proposed program. Dean Heider says he hired a coordinator to serve as the liaison between Loyola and Senn and work through the logistics of the new program. Additionally, Loyola will purchase equipment for Senn based off what Senn decides it can use. Dean Heider is also planning for field trips to television and radio stations and teacher-training sessions.

Dean Heider says that Loyola is in a fortunate position, so it should take advantage of that and help others in the community.

“We are in one of the greatest media cities. Let’s share it,” he says. “There are too many high school kids who really want to learn but don’t have the resources? We should invest in the community in some way.”

Dean Heider says he is excited to help Senn develop its curriculum and help Lofton on her mission to improve the school.

“Our goal is to get [the Senn students] excited about communication, journalism, and college and what these careers might look like,” he says.

By: Michael Summers, Director of Undergraduate Student Affairs, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing

The Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University Chicago held its Dedication to the Profession ceremony and reception on October 20. The annual event, which replaces the former “capping” ceremony, provided an opportunity for junior class nursing students, accelerated program nursing students, and dietetic interns to reflect and pledge themselves to their chosen studies and the health care profession, as well as to have their hands blessed by faculty. Following the ceremony at Madonna della Strada Chapel, the School of Nursing hosted a reception at the Donovan Reading Room to celebrate the occasion with students, their families, guests, alumni, faculty and staff.

Kara Podjasek (junior class president), Vicki Keough, PhD, APRN-BC, ACNP, FAAN (dean and professor), Richard Gamelli, MD, FACS (senior vice president, provost of health sciences, and professor), and Ann Solari-Twadell, PhD, RN, MPA, FAAN (associate professor), provided the welcomes for the ceremony. Ms. Renee Thomas, a recent graduate of the School of Nursing and former recipient of the Dean’s Gold Key Award, provided the keynote address. Student representatives from the traditional and accelerated nursing programs and dietetic interns spoke about symbolic aspects of the ceremony and health care profession and provided reflections about their student experiences and decisions to join the Loyola University Chicago, School of Nursing, and health care communities.

Dean Vicki Keough summarized the day’s events saying, “It was a beautiful day at Madonna della Strada as the nursing and dietetic students participated in the “Blessing of the Hands” tradition where they are reminded of the important work in which those hands will be involved as they enter the health care profession. The faculty of the School of Nursing presided over the ceremony and blessed the hands of students and health care professionals within the audience.”

Reflecting on the ceremony and reception, student Kara Podjasek says, “Seeing everyone come together and unite over our passion for nursing was very touching. The Dedication to the Profession ceremony was one of my favorite experiences so far at Loyola, and I will never forget how privileged I am to be part of such an amazing nursing program.”

For more on the School of Nursing, visit LUC.edu/nursing.

On Monday, October 1, Lorraine Ozar, PhD, associate professor and director of Loyola’s Center for Catholic School Effectiveness (CCSE), was recognized at the Seton Awards ceremony in Washington, DC. Ozar, who was among six individuals to receive the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) this year, received the organization’s President’s Award for her vision and leadership in the development of effective Catholic school curricula and instruction.

The Seton Award is the NCEA’s highest honor and it is given in recognition of significant contributions to Catholic education. Ozar is a true pioneer in Catholic education and is being recognized for a lifetime of hard work and contributions to this field.

“It’s a once in a lifetime achievement award, and I am very honored to be receiving it,” says Ozar. “Throughout my career, I have been privileged to be able to do work that really matters to support Catholic schools and provide leadership, insight, and affirmation. It is very special to have that recognized.”

Lorraine A. Ozar, Ph.D., is a graduate of Marygrove College and Fordham University. She worked for many years involved in the Catholic school system, teaching and administrating until she accepted a faculty position in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago in 2003. She is the founding director of the Center for Catholic School Effectiveness, a center that has “sparked the growth and creation of similar centers around the nation,” Ozar describes.

Dr. Ozar has written and presented extensively in the areas of curriculum, instruction, assessment, leadership and religious education outcomes, but more specifically, outcome based learning focused curriculum. Her legacy is large, due to the fact that she co-authored a book published in 1994, Creating a Curriculum That Works: A Guide to Outcomes-Centered Curriculum Decision-Making which became one of the best selling books among NCEA publications.

“More recently I have helped lead a national effort to create national standards and benchmarks for Catholic elementary and secondary schools,” explains Ozar. “I am engaging with the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) to implement the standards, and I am working with other Catholic colleges to really see how higher education can support these schools.”

Ozar is the head of the CCSE and chair of the national Catholic School Standards Task Force, and she has been working in collaboration with the NCEA to unveil the “National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools” which outlines essential characteristics and benchmarks for Catholic schools.

“By developing the Center for Catholic School Effectiveness, it has sparked growth and creation of similar centers across the nation. The vision and purpose of our centers is to connect with Catholic principals and elementary schools educators at all levels to help improve their schools and increase learning for the whole person formed in faith,” Ozar says. “When Catholic universities support Catholic schools, it serves as catalyst and additional work in other areas can be achieved.”

She stresses that her achievements would not have been possible without the support and help from many of her fellow staff members and educators.

When describing her work with CCSE in implementing the national standards and benchmarks for Catholic schools, she says, “I am proud of fact that it was a collaborative effort and feel lucky to be a driving force behind it. My ability to execute this plan owes a lot to the support I received from Father Garranzini and Dr. David Prasse; they were tremendous.”

The President’s Award is just one of many that Ozar has received throughout her career. Other awards include, the NCEA C. Albert Koob Merit Award, the NCEA Secondary Department Award, the University of San Francisco Institute for Catholic Educational Leadership Award, the Marygrove College Distinguished Alumna Award, and the F. Sadlier Dinger Award.

“To be recognized among the group of Seton awardees is truly an honor, and to be in the company of many others who have also contributed much to Catholic education is something very special,” she says.

The Seton Awards ceremony was held Monday, October 1 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

The Center for Digital Ethics and Policy will host its second International Symposium on Digital Ethics on October 29 on Loyola’s Water Tower Campus, in Kasbeer Hall, located on the 15th floor of Corboy Law Center.

The symposium is broken down into six panels and two panel discussions, covering and discussing a variety of digital-ethics driven topics, including trust, online security, social media, global perspectives in digital ethics, surveillance and privacy, and balancing interests in digital technology.

The featured keynote speaker is author, researcher, and digital expert Sherry Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also the director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self Program in Science, Technology, and Society.

“Sherry Turkle is one of the best known digital ethics researchers in the world. She wrote Life on Screen, which has become a very well-known and influential book, and she will be presenting her new book, Alone Together,“ explains Don Heider, dean of the School of Communication. “It is huge to have her come and speak at the symposium.”

Professors will gather from all over the country to present their papers at the symposium and to shed light on some of the ethical problems the world faces in the digital age.

“This symposium is the only one in the world, and we have people coming from the UK, Canada, Sweden, Norway, and Holland, so it really is an international conference,” says Heider.

The event starts at 8 a.m. with registration and breakfast, and the first featured panel discussion begins at 9 a.m., with the topic of research concerns and digital ethics. For the full schedule of events, click here.

The Center for Digital Ethics and Policy is excited to put on such an influential event for its second year at Loyola. They just completely redesigned and launched their website, and they hope to upload at least one new essay a week throughout the year. Dr. Bastiaan Vanacker, the center’s president, explains the content on the website.

“The new website is up and running, and we are featuring essays by prominent ethicists. The essays cover topics like cyber culture and new media, exploring a wide range of topics on digital media,” says Vanacker.

Along with the website, the center is working hard to get the best papers from last year’s symposium published into a book about digital ethics. They are planning to do the same thing with this year’s essays, printing them in a journal on mass media ethics. The International Symposium on Digital Ethics is open to all Loyola students, faculty, or staff to attend.

“The goal is to just get people talking about digital ethics. We are trying to nurture that, and it seems possible by holding an international symposium,” concludes Heider.

For more information, and to register, please visit the center’s website.

In early October, a handful of students gathered to hear the first ever State of the Students Address by Julia Poirier, president of the Unified Student Government Association (USGA).

A handful of students gathered on the fourth floor of the Klarchek Information Commons to hear Poirier’s vision for the future of Loyola. Poirier opened her presentation by saying she wanted the night to be “less of an address and more of a dialogue” to promote transparency with USGA and to garner student feedback.

Kelsey O’Shaughnessy, chief communications officer of USGA, says they are trying to connect more with the student body.

“We hope the students understand that we are here for them with total transparency. The State of the Students Address was held to indicate to students that we have heard their concerns from the past and we are doing our best to implement change and spread information to address those issues,” O’Shaughnessy says.

Students attending the event were encouraged to ask questions, offer their opinions, and comment on USGA’s presence on campus.

Poirier presented what she called the USGA Strategic Plan, a three-pronged plan that she said will improve the Loyola experience. The plan deemed sustainability, diversity, and tuition as the three most important issues facing the students this year.

Sustainability is an issue that Loyola has undertaken as a top priority, as also mentioned at the Faculty Convocation held earlier in September. Poirier has long been involved in issues of sustainability at Loyola. She helped initiate the Uncap Campaign last year which successfully banned the sale of bottled water on campus.

Now, Poirier proposes a Sustainability Initiative Fund to help increase student involvement on this issue. The fund would cost each student between one and five dollars a semester, and students can opt in or out of the fund. Poirier says the money would only be used by students and for students. She cited similar programs at other universities around the country, such as University of California at Berkeley, off of which she is basing this proposition.

The second issue Poirier discussed was diversity, which she said is “imperative to a Jesuit education.” She is proposing to create a new position called Chief Diversity Officer, an administrator who would sit on the cabinet of Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., president and CEO of Loyola. Seven other Jesuit universities already have implemented this position. This officer would help expand and ensure diversity on campus. Poirier offered eight objectives of this position, including enrollment, retention, intercultural respect, a more diverse faculty, and diversity in University leadership.

Finally, Poirier discussed her concerns with rising tuition. She said she wants students to be able to be more involved in the tuition increases to understand why these increases are happening and how that money is being spent. She offered three potential ways to help appease student concern over rising tuition: a line-by-line explanation and student approval, tuition increase cap of 2.5 percent, and a tuition lock so students pay the same amount they do as their entering semester.

Following Poirier’s presentation, the chairs of the student government talked about each group’s short- and long-term goals. Students were able to ask questions directly to the chairs of certain USGA departments.

“In order for USGA to run efficiently, we need the students to voice their concerns to us so we may represent them in the best way possible,” O’Shaughnessy says.

USGA also provided voter registration forms for students who had not yet registered to vote in the upcoming election. Additionally, they streamed the first presidential debate.

O’Shaughnessy says USGA is pleased with the outcome of the event and hopes that students will continue to offer their input.

“We hope that the participation will continue to grow through our events and meetings, as well as through our office and online channels. USGA is here to represent the students. Their concerns are our concerns. We look forward to tackling issues for them and making real, measurable change in the University on behalf of the students,” O’Shaughnessy says.

For more information on USGA, or to send them a comment or question, visit their website, Facebook, or Twitter pages and use the hashtag “#jumponitUSGA.”

The newly instated University Senate is scheduled to hold its first meeting on October 23 at the Lake Shore Campus. This will be the first of six meetings to take place throughout the year.

The University Senate emerged this past summer as a consultative body composed of 33 students, staff, and faculty representing Loyola’s major governance groups to discuss University-wide issues and concerns. Instead of changing the role of governing bodies such as the Faculty Council, Staff Council, and Unified Student Government Association, the University Senate is a place for these groups to present their issues to a larger, more inclusive body.

In the Senate’s preliminary meeting, the group selected their officers. Claudio Katz, PhD, political science professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program, was selected as the chair. Katz says his main role is to start the discussions that bring light to University concerns.

“I see my role as inviting everyone to participate. There is a collective wisdom from a broader committee that comes out of dialogue. My goal is to have constructive meetings that raise significant issues within our area of competence,” Katz says.

Also during that first meeting, Katz says the group spent time determining the overall mission of the Senate and what its exact role is in University governance.

“By the composition of the committee, you can tell that we represent all of the major stakeholders in the University, so the faculty, the staff, and the students. Our role is to articulate a clear vision for the University and to give a strong voice to [these main stakeholders'] shared concerns,” Katz says.

Students who are not part of the University Senate can still get involved by talking with student representatives and members of student government who are part of the Senate.

“Student representatives and members of student government…can reach out to their constituencies and say, ‘This is what’s going on in the University,’ and encourage and invite students to bring issues up,” Katz says.

Eventually, Katz says the committee is working on putting together a website that will house all necessary information about the Senate, including a list of members, meeting minutes, Senate by-laws, agendas, and the like.

Just like the website will publicly show all the information, every future Senate meeting will also be open to the public. Katz says having a public website and open meetings allows for everybody to see what their representatives are doing for them. Students, faculty, and staff are all encouraged to attend these Senate meetings.

“We mean to be a representative body of the University stakeholders. They should see what we’re doing. Anybody who wants to should be able to come and see what’s taking place,” Katz says.

The first meeting is currently scheduled to be held on October 23, at 6 p.m. in Cuneo Hall, on the Lake Shore Campus.

On Thursday, October 11, Father Garanzini delivered his State of the University Address to a crowded Regents Hall audience at the Water Tower Campus (he also delivered a Lake Shore Campus address the following day). In his 45-minute address Father Garanzini discussed the findings of the task force on “Positioning Loyola for the Future” and he highlighted areas where he believes the University can continue to improve.

Father Garanzini opened his remarks by commenting on how fortunate we are as a University community for the health and stability of Loyola as an institution in the middle of a deflated economy. He said the University is fortunate to have an increase in student and faculty talent, which helps contribute to the rise in Loyola’s status in academic rankings. The selectivity of admissions is increasing, and Loyola is becoming more highly regarded by its academic peers.

Next, Father Garanzini discussed the findings of a Deloitte study on the general state of higher education nationwide and where Loyola stands with those issues. He said Loyola continues to attract the best students and faculty, conservatively balances the budget, continues to upgrade the technological infrastructure on campus, and is implementing sustainability initiatives, all of which the Deloitte study identifies as rising problems.

Father Garanzini also offered a list of areas in which the University should focus its efforts to improve. He said one of our biggest focus areas is the need to enhance the scholarship resources available to students, which will directly impact students with significant amounts of debt.

Other areas that the University remains focused on include expanding the adult education market, enhancing Loyola’s competitive position in Chicago, and ensuring efficient management of resources.

Father Garanzini ended his address with a number of updates about developments around campus. He introduced the new high-fidelity mannequin bays being used at the Health Sciences Campus, highlighted the recently opened Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing building, discussed the Newhart Family Theatre (which opened and was dedicated last Saturday), and provided updates on the progress of the new Arnold J. Damen Student Center and DiNobili and San Francisco halls.

A taped version of Father Garanzini’s address is now available online. To view the video and access the PowerPoint that Father used during his address, click here.

Image courtesy of www.michaelburlingame.com

Ever wonder what initial actions were taken to free the slaves during the Civil War era? Those questions will be answered when Loyola University Chicago commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation on Thursday, October 18, at 4 p.m., on the fourth floor of the Klarchek Information Commons.

Thursday’s event includes a private seminar for graduate students and the public lecture, “Abraham Lincoln: The Indispensable Man,” which will be delivered by award-winning Lincoln biographer, Michael Burlingame. Author and editor of 17 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era, Burlingame is also the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“The Emancipation Proclamation was the crowning achievement of Abraham Lincoln’s political career and an epoch moment in our nation’s history. Yet what the proclamation did and did not achieve has been widely misunderstood,” says Ted Karamanski, professor and public history graduate director at Loyola. ”This public lecture is open to the entire Loyola community and will focus specifically on Lincoln’s leadership style and how that style confounded his political enemies.”

This event has been inspired by previous lectures on Loyola’s campus, including the “Bicentennial Celebration: Loyola, Lincoln, and Leadership, which took place in February 2009 and featured award-winning and best-selling author Doris Kearns Goodwin.

“I am hoping that Burlingame is going to explain the misapprehensions about the Emancipation Proclamation,” concludes Karamanski. “Some people think that it did nothing to free slaves and others believe differently. Usually people see it one way or the other because they don’t understand the legal aspects of the president’s power during the Civil War.”

To learn more about Michael Burlingame, click here.

Loyola University Chicago is launching a new centralized and confidential 24/7 web/phone reporting system for students, faculty, and staff to report incidents that may involve misconduct; discriminatory actions; academic, financial, and/or regulatory compliance; or other violations of University policy. The new system is called “EthicsLine” Reporting Hotline, and it can be accessed online or by calling 855.603.6988.

The University is committed to the highest ethical and professional standards of conduct as we work to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith. However, to fulfill this commitment, the University relies on each community member’s ethical behavior, honesty, integrity, and good judgment. Each community member should demonstrate respect for the rights of others. “EthicsLine” is just one more tool that allows the University to collect, manage, and learn from all the issues and events that pose risk to Loyola.

“The University is implementing this more centralized report management system in order to better respond to reports of misconduct, and the new reporting system also allows us to ascertain patterns of misconduct and make certain that claims are independently investigated and escalated to higher authorities when necessary,” says Thomas Kelly, senior VP for administrative services and chief human resource officer. “Our “EthicsLine,” which is hosted by an independent third-party provider, will replace our outdated reporting mechanism in policies and programs like the bias reporting system, the financial code of conduct, and others.”

Kelly also mentiones that “EthicsLine” will not replace, but complement, the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution’s office reporting system, “Advocate,” for student conduct violations based on the student body’s community standards handbook.

How it Works
Reports submitted via the “EthicsLine” Reporting Hotline will be handled as promptly and discreetly as possible, with facts made available only to those administrators who need to investigate and resolve the matter. Loyola University Chicago is committed to safeguarding the confidentiality of individuals who submit reports and encourages reporting of misconduct by providing “whistleblower” protections for good-faith reporters. Anonymous reports will be accepted and investigators will use “EthicsLine” to enable confidential and anonymous follow up on these anonymous reports. However, due to the nature of certain claims, the University may be limited with respect to the actions it may be able to take in response to a report if the individual submitting the report does not wish to provide necessary follow up information.

Kelly also points out that in cases of emergency, where there is an imminent threat to safety, please remember to call the Department of Campus Safety at 773.508.6039 or 9-1-1, and not the “EthicsLine.”

Taking advantage of the reporting options within “EthicsLine,” on a semi-annual basis, a summary report will be compiled regarding misconduct or violations of Loyola University Chicago policy and sent to Father Garanzini and the Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees, which oversees our efforts to foster a culture that promotes ethical conduct and compliance throughout the University.

Anyone wishing to file a report can do so via the “EthicsLine” website or by calling 855.603.6988.

Do you feel sad or depressed sometimes? Do you miss your family pet and just need a friendly companion to talk to? Tivo, a purebred black Labrador retriever, is the newest addition to the Wellness Center at Loyola University Chicago and is trained specifically to be a best friend whenever he’s needed.

A concept that was spawned out of finals week therapy, Tivo has joined the Wellness Center team ready to work and assist anywhere he is needed around campus. He is a five-year-old black lab retriever who was rescued from an animal shelter as a puppy, and after the proper training, he became a licensed therapy dog. Joan Holden, Tivo’s official holder/trainer, talked with Inside Loyola about the type of education and tests he had to go through.

“When he was a younger dog he did the TOPS obedience course at the canine training center for obedience. Then he worked at the sheriff’s department for a three week obedience training. He lived with me over summer, and I went through three more training sessions,” recalls Holden. “At end of August he took his therapy exam, and he had to be able to sit, stay, walk past food without eating it, ignore other dogs, be able to be brushed, approached by strangers, ignore things like walkers, crutches, and things that make loud noises, stay in one position, and be able to walk away and come back.”

Research has shown that people are drawn to pets and animals, and the Wellness Center is using that information to find a new way to engage with students on campus. Diane Asaro, the Wellness Center director, couldn’t be happier with Tivo and his job description.

“Tivo’s job description includes being loved and playing,” says Asaro. “We use Tivo with patients for calming, for outreach in the residence halls, and to be sent out with a human counselor in hopes that students can come and pet the dog as a way to connect with the Wellness Center outside the office. It is our first time trying it, and he has already gotten such a positive and wonderful response.”

Tivo is a hardworking dog and even has his own program, Talk with Tivo, where he will visit the Klarchek Information Commons, Sullivan Center, and Mertz for an hour each week with a counselor to connect with students. Counselors may bring him into counseling sessions and incorporate him into the therapy process.

“I think that dogs can help in so many ways. Many students have left loved family pets at home, so Tivo can be a kind of surrogate pet or transitional object for students missing their dogs,” says David deBoer, associate director and clinical psychologist at the Wellness Center. “Tivo really serves as a comfort, pleasure, and joy for college students; a friendly reminder of the comforts of home.”

When Tivo isn’t out saving the world, he lives with Father Daffron in Campion Hall. After a long day with a rigorous schedule that starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends around 6 p.m., Tivo is free to go home to Campion where he enjoys an evening filled with fetching his favorite ball and running in his grassy play yard on Sheridan Road. “He is playful and wants to have fun all the time,” exclaims Father Daffron.

The Wellness Center approached Father Daffron with the idea of a therapy dog, and when he moved into Campion Hall this fall, “the Wellness Center re-approached me, and asked if I would be willing to take Tivo,” says Daffron.

“That is when the relationship was formed. I had never had a dog before, and I wanted to help the Wellness Center,” concludes Daffron. “I think it is just great to have him there, and he is able to help students in ways that we can’t.”

If you have any questions regarding Tivo’s services, please contact the Wellness Center.

This year’s Homecoming Weekend (October 12-14) is jam-packed full of events that students, faculty, staff, and alumni won’t want to miss. With so many ways to celebrate Rambler pride, Inside Loyola is highlighting just a few of this year’s “can’t miss” events.

Homecoming Weekend 2012 kicks off today, October 12, with Midnight Madness as the men’s and  women’s basketball teams kick off their 2012-2013 season. From 9 p.m. to midnight, the Loyola community can watch as the teams take the court for their first official practices of the 2012-13 season. Celebrations to recognize the 50th anniversary of the 1963 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament win and national championship will also kick off.

Throughout the weekend, Loyola will pay tribute to the class of 1962 and induct them into the Half-Century Club, a distinguished group of alumni and alumnae who have graduated from the University 50 years or more ago. Loyola’s 2012  Homecoming Weekend features a number of events for this special group of alumni.

On Saturday, October 13, at noon, Loyola is resurrecting a tradition with the 2012 Homecoming Parade. Twenty-four golf carts will be decorated by different student organizations and will be driven through the streets. Students from local high schools will be dancing along with Ramblers throughout the parade. The parade begins at the corner of Loyola and Winthrop Avenue.

Following the parade, head over to Halas Field for this year’s Homecoming Tent, which runs from 1-3 p.m.  Guests will have the opportunity to enjoy a thirst-quenching line up of Chicago’s Goose Island beers, along with food from the restaurant. Come to the tent and mix and mingle with alumni and help celebrate LU Wolf’s 22nd Birthday. Registration for this event is required, and entry to the Homecoming Tent is $20 per person ($30 the day of). Tickets includes a $5 gift to student scholarships, three drink tickets, and food.

Starting at 3:30 p.m., Loyola will re-dedicate the Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts and host tours of the building. The new space is opening its doors, after years of construction, for a whirlwind showcase of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts performances. Students, faculty, staff, and other members of the Loyola community can take part in tours of The Newhart Family Theatre, Underground Laboratory Theatre, and Music Hall, all while taking in the unique entries of the Chicago International Poster Biennial that currently line the walls.

In addition to the Mundelein re-dedication, the University will officially christen The Newhart Family Theatre on Saturday night with  a dedication ceremony at 7 p.m. The program includes performances by Loyola students and remarks from Loyola President and CEO Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., and the Newhart family, including alum and comedian Bob Newhart, who will be in attendance. For more on the event, click here.

April Browning, managing director and production coordinator for the Department of Fine Arts and Performing Arts, is looking forward to the new fine arts center being a powerful, important voice in the community. “We’re so excited to have The Newhart family here and see their reaction to the dedication of the theatre,” Browning says. “We have a fantastic evening of events with more than 100 students participating in workshops and lectures. It’s an incredibly exciting place and I think it’s going to be a powerhouse of an arts center.” Browning also mentioned that she thinks Mundelein Center is going to be a premier cultural destination for the north side of Chicago due to the program’s dedication to community and growing dance and music programs.

Mundelein Center is also one of three Loyola buildings that will be featured in Open House Chicago, a tour of more than 100 buildings in 15 Chicago neighborhoods. Sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, tours will run every half hour, running from 3:30–7:30 p.m. on October 13 and 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on October 14. The Richard J. Klarchek Information Commons and Madonna della Strada Chapel will also be open for a behind-the-scenes look.

Homecoming Weekend wraps up on Sunday, October 14, with Mass at 9 a.m. in Madonna della Strada Chapel and the Half-Century Club Brunch at 10 a.m. All members of the Class of 1962 are welcome to attend to officially be inducted into the Half-Century Club. Registration is required.

These are just a few of the highlights from the weekend, so we encourage you to visit LUC.edu/homecoming to check out the full schedule of events for the weekend. Online registration is also available at the site.

Happy Homecoming, and remember to stay on top of all things Homecoming by following @Loyola_Alumni on Twitter and using the hashtag: #HomeAtLUC. You can also “like” Loyola’s Homecoming on Facebook. For more on social media at Homecoming, click here.

Photo courtesy of Furla Studio

Chicago was buzzing with Italian memories from September 28-30 when alumni from the John Felice Rome Center gathered in the city for Cinquanta!, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Loyola’s campus in Rome.

Alumni from almost every class came to the reunion, the largest reunion to date, bringing together more than 800 people.

The weekend events included individual class reunions, afternoon excursions in the city, and a benefit gala held in the Grand Hall at Union Station. Richard Williams, director of special events, says the gala “had a beautiful Tuscan and Italian theme.”

The gala featured a raffle offering Italian-themed prizes including hotel stays in Italy, domestic round-trip airline tickets, designer scarves, and a 2012 FIAT 500 Pop car from event sponsor FIAT of Chicago. Williams says the partnership with FIAT was “the perfect match,” and everyone was enjoying taking pictures with the FIAT sample cars and exploring the features. Raffle ticket sales totaled $30,000, which will benefit the Insieme per il futuro campaign to improve facilities at the Rome Center.

“Everyone had a great time. They are a group of people that loves to get together and talk about the Rome Center,” says Williams.

To view photos from the event, click here.

The Loyola community is invited to attend Father Garanzini’s State of the University addresses on Thursday, October 11 (Water Tower Campus) and Friday, October 12 (Lake Shore Campus). Father Garanzini will take this time to bring the community up to date on developments around our campuses, and he will also take questions from the audience. Each of these addresses will run approximately one hour, and a reception will follow.

Thursday, October 11
Kasbeer Hall, 15th Floor, Corboy Law Center (Water Tower Campus)
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. – Address/Q&A
12:30–1:30 p.m. – Reception

Friday, October 12
Mullady Theatre, Centennial Forum Student Union (Lake Shore Campus)
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. – Address/Q&A
12:30–1:30 p.m. – Reception

For those who are unable to attend in-person, the Water Tower Campus address will be streamed live on the Inside Loyola news site and the digital screen located in the Centennial Forum Student Union. Please note that only the Water Tower Campus address will be streamed live. A taped version of Father Garanzini’s remarks will be available on igNation approximately one week after the address.

November marks the celebration of Ignatian Heritage Month and it’s getting kicked off with a FLASH!

On October 12, Loyola is launching a 24-hour photography contest  for faculty, staff,  and students in honor of the patron saint of Loyola University Chicago, St. Ignatius.

During the “Loyola 24 Photography Contest” participants will have exactly 24 hours, starting at midnight and running until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 12, to take photos that represent three of the seven Jesuit traditions. The three categories chosen exemplify Jesuit values and are finding God in all things, men and women for and with others, and contemplation in action. The criteria for the photo contest  is meant to pay homage to St. Ignatius and his living legacy.

Heather Eidson, Loyola’s multimedia producer, says the idea for the 24-hour contest spawned from “America 24/7,”  a collection of photos that tens of thousands of Americans took over the course of a week that offers a peek into ordinary American life. Eidson partnered with Chris Murphy, director of mission formation and pastoral care at Loyola, to adapt the idea of a day-long photography contest for Loyola’s Ignatian Heritage Month. Eidson says the criteria for Loyola 24 was based on the Jesuit values that people could solidly grasp with a camera.

“Anyone can take a great photo; it comes down to being at the right place at the right time,” she says. “It only takes one image to be moved, so we’re looking forward to seeing what everyone captures.”

The winner of Loyola 24 will be announced November 1, the start of Ignatian Heritage Month. The grand prize includes a feature of their work on the Ignatian Heritage Month website and a $150 American Express gift card. Participants have until October 19 to submit their photos (however, the photos must have been taken on October 12) and may enter up to 10 images.

Story from May 13, 2012

Carlos Robles is not someone you could imagine being arrested.

Clean-cut with a wide smile, Robles, a junior secondary education major, can talk with ease about complicated immigration policies, procedures, and news. He is an avid tennis player, a part of the club tennis team, and teaches lessons on the side. He is a member of the Student Alliance for Immigration Reform (SAIR), and is a passionate advocate for the DREAM Act. He also participates in the cooking club and social dance club–when he has time, he says with a laugh.

But being arrested is exactly what has brought him to where he is today.

Over two years ago, Robles was in his second year studying at Harper College, a community college in Palatine, where he grew up. He and his family moved to the United States from Mexico seven years ago, living with an aunt and uncle in hopes of better opportunities. They lived in Chicago, and then Palatine where, despite not having documents, Robles and his brother lived a normal life, attending high school, playing sports, and giving tennis lessons to local kids. Over spring break from Harper, Robles and his brother decided to visit a friend attending school in Boston. They thought they were safe taking a train, but when they made a stop near the Buffalo/Toronto border things didn’t go as planned.

The border patrol entered the train, asked for identification, and Robles and his brother could only offer their Mexican consulate cards, and an expired visa. They were pulled off the train, and sent to a local county jail, as all the nearby immigration detention centers were full.

The brothers had to stay the weekend—immigration bail can’t be posted until a weekday—but thanks to money raised by one of their high school teachers, they were able to make bail and go back to Illinois. Despite being sent home, as of last summer the boys had two options: closure, where the federal government would drop the case and they would continue to “fly under the radar” or deferred action, which means they would receive a work permit, a drivers license, and a social security number, but also a deportation order–meaning each year they would have to renew their deferred action, facing an annual threat of deportation. But in summer 2011, they found an ally: Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.

Durbin, who is a chief proponent of the federal DREAM Act, found out about the Robles brothers’ case from the boys’ lawyers (who were representing them pro-bono through funding from the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC). After hearing the brothers speak at an NIJC luncheon, Durbin’s office discussed their case with homeland security. They were able to secure the boys deferred action regarding the deportation order (meaning they would not face the annual threat of deportation), which is extremely rare.

“It felt like winning the lottery,” Robles says.

Robles says it was like a weight was immediately lifted off his shoulders–the fear of being deported, not being able to work, and being arrested was gone. The most exciting moment, he says, was getting his drivers license, as previously they were not legally allowed to drive.

“I wanted to drive with that thing out the window!” he says.

With the threat of deportation gone, Robles has had the chance to move on with his own life, and become an advocate for others who have gone through what he did. Robles and his brother have both decided to pursue their education further, his brother attending University of Illinois-Chicago to study architecture and Robles at Loyola studying education. Robles says he was drawn to Loyola because of the aid that private universities can offer students–since he is not a citizen, he can’t receive federal aid, so he is financing his education through private grants, scholarships, and working as a tennis coach. Ed Moore, director of scholarships, has helped Robles gain aid to finance his education at Loyola, and says that he respects his work on campus.

“He is so involved with service and working, and helping the community and students, so that is really where I have come to admire him,” says Moore. “He has really [faced hardships] in pursuing his education, and is such a nice young man to begin with, such a delight to work with.”

Robles has not wasted his time at Loyola. In addition to his studies, he has been active in supporting the DREAM Act, both at a federal and local level. Robles campaigned in Springfield last spring for the Illinois DREAM Act, which passed months later and was signed into law this spring. The Illinois DREAM Act created a scholarship fund for undocumented students who graduated from Illinois high schools.

Despite the success in Illinois, Robles says the lobbying has not been easy. He says he has run into many people who have misconceptions of undocumented immigrants, including (but not limited to) they are criminals, do not pay taxes, and are not learning English–all of which are sweeping generalizations. He also points out that many people underestimate the complexity of becoming a citizen. “You can’t just go in and take a test, and come out a citizen, there is a huge process even to be eligible to take the test,” he says.  “The test is like the end of the road.” Overall, he says “it was frustrating to see how little your representatives know about an issue.”

The federal law would offer the opportunity for citizenship to students who graduate from college, or enlist in the military, have been in the country an extended period of time without criminal activity, and have good moral character. Robles says he believes this is a good indication that people who will benefit the country become citizens. “It’s a pretty solid way to filter people, I think,” he says.

In addition to relaying his experience to lawmakers, Robles has found another ally and opportunity to tell his story here on campus. This summer he will be interning with the Office of First-Year Experience, helping to plan fall 2012 convocation, which will focus on immigrant rights. Incoming freshmen will read Enrique’s Journey, by Sophia Nazario, the true story of a young boy from Honduras making the treacherous immigrant trek to America to find his mother. Justin Daffron, S.J., associate provost for academic services, who recruited Robles for this role, praises him for beating the odds and continuing his education.

“Carlos is an inspiring student given his background, which presents a number of challenges. He is working to advance the DREAM Act to help similar students who are in jeopardy of being able to continue to work and live in the United States,” Daffron says. “It’s the type of social action that is what is best about Carlos and is what is most inspiring about a place like Loyola.”

Robles agrees, saying “It’s good to know the school I go to is supportive of who I am and the issues that I face.”

This work has also inspired him to change his career trajectory. Though Robles originally hoped to be a teacher, working through his own legal battles has inspired him to pursue a career in law. He hopes to teach for a few years, and then enter law school to get a degree specializing in immigration law, always remaining an advocate for those who are hoping to become citizens of the United States.

“By the time I am a lawyer, hopefully there will be some legislation passed so there will be work I can do to help people,” he says.

Currently, Robles and his brother are considered “aliens with work authorization”, meaning they are allowed to work and drive, but cannot leave the country. Their only opportunity for citizenship is for the DREAM Act to pass or to get married. However, he says he is happy to be in America, and feels lucky he can work to help others who are even less fortunate than him.

“We are in a special position,” he says. “We should take advantage of that.”

The Loyola community and Department of Mathematics is honored to announce that Robert Jensen, professor of mathematics, has been invited to join the Fellows of the American Mathematical Society.

Jensen was nominated by his peers for this distinction based off his contributions to the mathematical profession. This is the award’s inaugural year.

“I am very happy because [this award] is a significant recognition of my past accomplishments in math,” he says. “It is recognition for my entire body of work.”

Jensen’s field of study is in nonlinear partial differential equations and optimal control. In layman’s terms, that means he works to find theories and algorithms that help optimize the outcome of certain situations.

“In my own research I have worked on problems of fluids flowing through a porous media such as ground water flow, models of ice melting, elastic-plastic deformations of materials, and existence and uniqueness for optimal control problems, including ones motivated by computer science and economics,” says Jensen.

While being awarded this distinction is a personal accomplishment, Jensen says that it also is a substantial recognition for the University as a whole.

“Hopefully it will get people to look at the math department and realize we have really made tremendous strides in improving the quality of the faculty,” Jensen says.

Jensen acknowledged Loyola as being instrumental in his advancements and achievements in research.

“I have been able to participate in programs connected with my own areas of research and listen to other people’s lectures and share ideas,” he says, adding that talking with colleagues about research is important in developing one’s own ideas. Jensen mentioned one conference in particular that significantly helped him gain recognition for his work. He was one of 12 people to be invited to speak at the International Congress of Mathematics in 1998 on partial differential equations. This meeting is held every four years, and he says being invited to speak as part of that elite group holds a certain amount of prestige.

Jensen first came to Loyola in 1986 as a visiting professor. He became a full-time professor the following year in 1987. In that time, Jensen has taught a wide variety of math classes.

“I don’t think that there are very many classes I haven’t taught,” he says.

This year, there are more students enrolled in math courses than ever before. Jensen is encouraged because he says there are many great programs for students in the math department, even in this repressed economy.

Jensen looks forward to continuing his research and his work with the math department. When asked why he is drawn to math, he answered plain and simple.

“Because I like it, and I’m good at it,” he says.

In 1598 at the medical school of Padua University in Venice, Italy, students and faculty gathered on October 18 to celebrate the beginning of a new academic year with the feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians. Ever since 1947 when a group of Loyola medical students decided to revive that tradition, Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) has carried on the celebration.

Linda Massari, director of medical education administration at SSOM, says that St. Luke embodies the vision of Loyola medical students.

“His life was focused on stewardship, service, ethics, and human dignity. St. Luke’s gospel is of the poor and social justice, therefore it fits really nicely with our mission and vocation,” Massari says.

Sister Brenda Eagan, IBVM, director of ministry at SSOM, says that the St. Luke celebration is a reflection on medicine as a being more than just an area of employment.

“Medicine is a vocation. It’s not just a professional field. It’s not a career you go into. It’s a calling,” Eagan says.

Sister Brenda also mentions that these celebrations honor the Jesuit ideal of being inclusive of all faiths.

“Under those Jesuit Catholic ideals of finding God in all things, the care for each person, and having a home for all faiths,…you can be developed into the faithful person that your particular religious affiliation brings to the campus in the sense that your calling comes from who you are. All of that is in the service of humankind. We are doing it because we are called to serve people who have less than we have,” says Sister Brenda.

This year’s St. Luke Celebration includes an address by Linda Brubaker, MD, MS, chief diversity officer and dean of SSOM, on “the ideal Stritch graduate” on Wednesday, October 17, at 11:30 a.m. in the SSOM atrium.

Also speaking on Wednesday (following Dr. Brubaker) are two Stritch graduates: Khalilah Gates, MD (SSOM ’03), and Justin List, MD (SSOM ’10). Massari says that these two individuals “are folks who have gone on to lead what really can be defined by saying an “extraordinary life.” They have taken their Stritch education and their commitment to service, and that’s what they “do” now.

The Mass in honor of St. Luke will be held on Thursday, October 18 in the atrium at SSOM at 11:30 a.m. Lunch will follow.

The following Friday, October 26, students and faculty can attend a dinner-dance at The Carlisle in Lombard, Illinois. Tickets for this event will be available after October 8 in the SSOM’s Bursar’s Office.

For additional information about the St. Luke Celebration, please call the Office of Student Affairs at 708.216.3220.

Max Sansing, a 30-year-old artist from Chicago, provided an aerosol art demonstration at the recent School of Communication reception to celebrate the opening of its newest exhibition. Photo courtesy of the School of Communication

On Wednesday, September 19, more than 50 people gathered at the School of Communication (SOC) to celebrate a subversive art form that is sometimes considered criminal: Graffiti.

A reception was held to introduce the vivid work of graffiti artist and celebrated mural photographer Jim Prigoff. Attendees convened in the SOC lobby and mingled over hors d’oeuvres and complimentary wine and beer while observing Prigoff’s extensive collection of aerosol art, one of the largest in the world.

The artist discussed the history of graffiti with attendees and recounted his experiences traveling around the globe learning about aerosol art. During his extensive international travels, Prigoff has focused on documenting murals and learning how they reflected the community they were drawn in. With more than 40 years of experience, including time spent in Chicago, Prigoff has tried to bring dignity and value to this expressive and vibrant art.

A number of Loyola students attended the unveiling of Prigoff’s work, including Connor Hall, a senior advertising, public relations, and marketing major. Hall finds the exhibition unique. “It’s different from what the School of Communication has done with the space in the past. It’s a great way to draw more students,” he says. Hall also mentions that his favorite piece is one from the 1980s that showed a man spray-painting a large red wall. “You could tell it was dated, which really made it pop. I think it’s really cool.”

Prigoff was not the only artist the SOC hosted during this creative evening. Max Sansing, a 30-year-old artist from Chicago, accompanied Prigoff’s exhibition with an aerosol art demonstration of his own. The Chicago native spray-painted a large eyeball on a canvas with the name “Jim” beneath it as a tribute to the artist’s debut exhibition at Loyola. He went on to recount how hip-hop played a major role in influencing his graffiti art ever since he was a child. Sansing grew up in the Avalon Park neighborhood and was influenced by his parents, who are also artists. Today, he paints murals around the Chicago area, in addition to working as a graphic design artist, turning art into electronic media.

Don Heider, dean of the School of Communication, recognizes the artistic expression of graffiti as one that accurately represents the vibrant community at Loyola and around the city of Chicago.

“Graffiti art is artistic, political, and personal. There is no formal education or training needed. It’s born on the street and the art is poignant and powerful,” says Heider. “It’s a public form of art that doesn’t always get recognized and is perfect for the School of Communication.”

The new art exhibition can be found on all three levels of the School of Communication, which is located at 51 E. Pearson, on the Water Tower Campus.

Father Garanzini (left) assists Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing Dean Vicki Keough with the ribbon-cutting for the SON's new building.

This past Saturday, September 29, Loyola celebrated the opening of its brand new Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing (SON) building with a dedication ceremony at the Health Sciences Campus in Maywood. The 58,222-square-foot state-of-the art space is the new home to graduate nursing students and accelerated baccalaureate students and is connected to the Stritch School of Medicine Cuneo Center.

Father Garanzini, Health Sciences Division Provost Richard Gamelli, and SON Dean Vicki Keough, PhD, RN-BC, ACNP, all attended the celebration and welcomed more than 350 students, faculty, and staff to the newest space on campus for interprofessional education and research.

Before welcoming Father Garanzini to the podium, Dean Keough expressed her thanks for all those who made the new building a possibility, in particular the joint committee that worked for more than three years strategically planning the innovative project. She also thanked the nursing faculty for their dedication to transformative education.

Following the blessing and dedication, attendees were given the opportunity to tour the new facility, which houses a 165-seat lecture hall, classrooms, group study rooms, conference rooms, faculty offices, a light-filled atrium, and a café. The space also features the Galante Information Commons, an integrated learning environment with an electronic health sciences library.

The new nursing building was not the only grand opening for the Health Science Divisions this fall. September also marked the opening of the Advanced Procedures Education Center, which includes the Walgreen Family Virtual Hospital and other integrated facilities on the Health Sciences Campus. Joe Pixler, director of communication for the Health Sciences Division, says the education center is unique because all the facilities are now in the same location. Pixler believes the integration offers an exceptional, collaborative training experience that will help students prepare for their work in the health care field.

In other news at the Health Sciences Campus, the Stritch School of Medicine’s 62nd Annual Award Dinner will take place on November 17 at The Field Museum. At the dinner, Ramsey Lewis will receive the Sword of Loyola, which is given to an individual who exhibits exceptional dedication and humanitarian service in fields other than medicine. Lewis is a Grammy Award winning jazz composer, pianist, and radio personality based in the Chicago area. The award is another example of the school’s commitment to  multidisciplinary education.

For more on the new SON building, check out the SON’s website.

Photo courtesy of Loyola's Department of Fine and Performing Arts

The lights, cameras, and action will be in abundance this fall for Loyola’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts (DFPA). The DFPA’s calendar is brimming with art projects, theatre productions, and artistic performances for the semester.

Jennie Martin, director of public programming for the DFPA, says there are many new and exciting changes happening within the department this fall.

“After many months of anticipation, our new main stage theatre space, The Newhart Family Theatre, will be opening on October 13. Also new this year is the flexible seating Underground Laboratory Theatre and professional quality scenic, costume, property, and lighting shops to serve both theatres. In addition, we have specialized classrooms for dance, music, theatre, and fine arts students, including state-of-the-art recording studios, drawing and painting studios, and performance classrooms,” Martin says.

The Underground Laboratory Theatre was built in the basement of Mundelein Center as a black box theatre space. It will house the Lab Experiment Series, which is a series of staged theatre readings mainly led by students in the department.

Martin says all these changes uphold the DFPA’s dedication to the arts and their patrons.

“These new spaces will lead to a lot of changes in the department and how we do things, but most importantly it will help us to provide an even greater standard of excellence in the arts, whether that be in the visual arts, dance, theatre, or music,” Martin says.

The DFPA has also added three new art majors. Students now have the option to major in sacred music, jazz studies, and dance.

Here are a few events coming up in the next several weeks.

• To start things off, the Ralph Arnold Fine Arts Annex will house the Sculptures in Love with Architecture exhibition until October 6, 2012. This exhibition features the creations of Fabio J. Fernández and Tom Lauerman as they explore the “emotional capacities of architecture.”

• Trojan Women is a play directed by Ann Shanahan, a Loyola theatre professor. The production looks at what happens to the women in battle zones during the aftermath of wars through the lens of a Greek tragedy. This show will be held in Studio 409 in Mundelein Center on October 5-7 and 18-21.

• Harriet’s Halloween Candy is one of the productions taking place in the Underground Laboratory Theatre on October 26. This production is the first children’s musical to be performed at Loyola. Kids from elementary schools near Loyola can watch Harriet face the decision of whether or not to share her candy with her friends and learn the meaning of friendship.

To view a full list of DFPA events for the fall semester, please visit the DFPA’s Arts Alive blog.

Loyola University Chicago is now considered a “Safe Haven” where parents can anonymously hand over their infant if they are unable to properly care for the child. This motion follows the amendment of the 2001 Illinois Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act, which says parents can “anonymously relinquish” an infant who is 30 days or younger to hospitals, police stations, fire stations, and emergency medical facilities without penalty, as long as the child is unharmed. The law was amended in 2011 to include colleges and universities, both public and private, as designated safe havens for infants.

The law was enacted to provide an alternative option for parents instead of  abandoning infants in dangerous environments. Such abandonment would not only potentially harm the infant, but the parents could also face criminal charges for neglect. By including colleges and universities, there is a much larger network of safe havens.

The act says that “establishing an adoption plan is preferable to relinquishing a child…,but to reduce the chance of injury to a newborn infant, this Act provides a safer alternative.”

Loyola’s Department of Campus Safety is playing its part by becoming one of those safe havens.

Tim Cunningham, student community liaison officer, says it is important for Loyola to become a safe haven because a large number of people who are making use of the service this Act enables are of traditional college age.

The use of Campus Safety as a safe haven is not restricted to only Loyola students. “Anyone is able to bring an infant to our department,” says Cunningham. “If a person comes in with a child, Campus Safety will immediately request a Chicago Fire Department Ambulance to come assess the infant for health and to transport them to the nearest hospital, which is what the law requires us to do. Any of our campus police stations are options when staff is present.”

Anyone who relinquishes a child to Campus Safety will receive a resource packet put together by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that explains available health services, counseling, and legal obligations. Additionally, any Loyola student who makes use of this resource will be referred to the Wellness Center.

“This allows Campus Safety another resource to serve the Loyola community, as well as the broader Chicago neighborhoods our campuses are a part of,” says Cunningham.

For more information on this topic, visit the State of Illinois website.

This weekend, alumni of the John Felice Rome Center (JFRC) will gather in Chicago to celebrate Cinquanta!, the 50th anniversary of Loyola’s campus in Rome, Italy.

Alumni from every class, including the inaugural class of spring ’62, are attending the celebration.

JFRC alums can expect a fun-filled weekend exploring Chicago and reminiscing with fellow classmates about their time abroad. Individual class reunions will be held throughout the city on Friday evening. On Saturday afternoon, alums can attend one of four city excursions taking them to some of Chicago’s hotspots. The main event of the weekend is La Festa!, a gala and benefit evening being held at Union Station on Saturday night. Attendees can enjoy hors d’oeuvres, a plated three-course dinner, and an open bar, all with the musical backdrop of a live jazz band.

Alumni attending the gala can also enter a raffle featuring a number of Italian-themed items, including hotel stays in Italy, domestic round-trip airline tickets, and Salvatore Ferragamo scarves. One lucky attendee will even drive away with a brand new 2012 FIAT 500 Pop car from event sponsor FIAT of Chicago.

Richard Williams, director of special events, says that partnering with Fiat was an easy decision, partly because part of Fiat’s target audience is college students. Additionally, Williams says JFRC alumni have nostalgic connections to the car company.

“Many of our JFRC alumni have very fond memories of driving a Fiat around Rome while they were students, and with the release of the Fiat 500 and the opening of the first Chicago Fiat dealership, we knew it was a perfect match,” Williams says.

All proceeds from the raffle tickets will go towards the Insieme per il futuro campaign, which is aimed at bettering the facilities at the Rome Center, allowing for more school-sponsored excursions and internships in Rome, and increasing scholarship availability for students.

Sunday rounds out the celebration with a morning Mass, followed by brunch at the Water Tower Campus.

Registration is closed for the weekend, but more information can be found at the Cinquanta! website.

Zach Waickman, biodiesel lab manager, chats with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year during a tour of the University's facility.

The two schools settled on the north shore of Lake Michigan now share more than just the sand and beaches. Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy (CUERP) and Northwestern University in Evanston have collaborated to increase biodiesel production, education, and campus and community outreach.

Biodiesel is a fuel source that is produced  from agricultural byproducts and co-products, making it a recycled product. It also releases fewer emissions than petroleum diesel. Since it is renewable, domestically produced, and cleaner burning, biodiesel is seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional fuel sources.

Loyola’s biodiesel program began as an educational component of CUERP in 2009. In 2010 it became the first educational program in the United States licensed to produce and sell biodiesel. The program has produced between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons of biodiesel a year since its inception. Some of that biodiesel was sold as fuel to The Free Enterprise System, Inc., which is both Loyola’s and Northwestern’s shuttle service provider. The program also developed BioSoap, an eco-friendly soap made from the byproduct of biodiesel production from Loyola’s biodiesel lab on the Lake Shore Campus. It has been sold for the past two years. The success of the program’s initial projects inspired it to expand its outreach and begin to talk about a partnership with Northwestern.

“This partnership was a natural fit, as Loyola and Northwestern are neighbors with shared values and resources. We both would like to be an example of local, green, collaborative thinking,” says Loyola’s biodiesel lab manager Zach Waickman.

The two universities will also partner with Chicago Biofuels, a local start-up company working to promote biodiesel usage in the city by converting used vegetable oil into renewable fuel. Chicago Biofuels will collect used oil from Aramark and Sodexo, the food service providers for Loyola and Northwestern, respectively. The oil will then be recycled and transformed into biodiesel product right at Loyola’s biodiesel lab. For now, the lab will produce biodiesel fuel for both schools’ shuttle services and BioSoap. New projects are also being discussed for the future when the program moves into a new lab in the fall of 2013.

“By combining our resources to make biodiesel, we will be able to fuel both of our shuttle bus fleets–both are run by The Free Enterprise System, Inc.–with clean-burning biodiesel and hopefully push other schools, agencies, and businesses to use more local, renewable fuels,” says Waickman.

For more on the biodiesel program, click here.

Mission and Identity is launching a new event series to invite faculty and staff members to engage in and deepen their understanding of Ignatian spirituality. Starting at the end of September, these events offer a context for staff and faculty to deepen their own understanding of the University’s inspiration and mission, as it is rooted in the spirituality of Saint Ignatius.

Chris Murphy, director of staff mission formation and faculty staff chaplain, says that faculty and staff can integrate what they discuss in these events to different areas of life. “The idea is to take some of the key pieces [of Ignatian spirituality] and help faculty and staff to better understand them and see where those values connect with their own work experience and lives.”

Murphy also mentions how these events are “offering different levels and different ways into understanding who we are [as a University] in terms of our Jesuit heritage.”

While these events will occur throughout the year, three in particular are happening soon.

• The first event of the fall is the Mission Book Club, where participants will read Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. Mark Andrews, S.J., will lead four lunchtime discussion sessions that aim to uncover lessons from Lamott’s story that can help people better understand their own lives. The first discussion will take place on Tuesday, September 25.
• In mid-October, Stephen Mitten, S.J., will lead an Eco-Spirituality Retreat at the Retreat and Ecology Campus. Participants can spend the weekend renewing their relationship with God while discussing sustainability and appreciating the natural world.
• Starting October 16, participants can take part in five one-hour sessions of exploring types of Ignatian methods of prayer with Bob Braunreuther, S.J. Faculty and staff members are invited to come to any and all sessions, as each one will have a different focus.

For the full list of events, please visit the Mission and Identity website.

Photo by Bruce Powell

Themes of scholarly success, sustainability, and prospects for the future resonated throughout Mundelein Center on Sunday, September 9 at the Sixth Annual Faculty Convocation, which drew a crowd of nearly 350 people.

The convocation is held in the fall to celebrate the official start of the academic year and to welcome, honor, and recognize the Loyola faculty, past and present.

“It’s an important academic ritual that brings faculty together as members of a distinctive community—a community of scholars,” says John Pelissero, PhD, provost.

This year, 90 new faculty members join the Loyola community, pushing the student faculty ratio down to about 14:1. Pelissero and Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., president and CEO of Loyola, also used this time to address the faculty about future goals and academic plans.

Pelissero first acknowledged the advancements of the past year. He said the retention rate rose to 87 percent and on-time graduation rose to 60 percent. He also mentioned the increased strength and diversity at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The average ACT score for incoming freshmen is at an all-time high. The percentages of non-Caucasian and out-of-state students have increased, and there are about 100 international students. Additionally, for the first time ever, less than half of the freshmen class is Catholic.

Father Garanzini said this growth is also extended to the improving facilities and resources in each school.

“These changes show that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered environment in our classrooms and programs,” said Father Garanzini.

Pelissero also highlighted the academic success of the faculty. The number of grant proposals submitted by Loyola faculty increased by 23 percent, and the number of grants awarded increased by 12 percent, he said.

In the midst of what Pelissero called “the changing landscape of higher education,” he and Father Garanzini said they issued a task force last year on “Positioning Loyola for the Future” to assess the University on questions such as affordability and quality. Father Garanzini and Pelissero said sustainability and internationalization are key areas where the University can focus its development.

Loyola has already adopted sustainability as a top priority and has taken strides to acknowledge this concern with additions such as the Retreat and Ecology Campus and the new Office of Sustainability. Father Garanzini mentioned how Jesuit institutions worldwide are introducing ecological issues into their missions, as they see it as a form of social justice.

“A commitment to ecology and the environment is an expansion and undergirding of an ongoing commitment to protecting and caring for all forms of life at the margins,” he said.

Father Garanzini said internationalization is also part of the Ignatian tradition.

“A Jesuit education has always been one in which a student gains an appreciation and a comfort with those who are different in language, race, and creed so that the student can feel ‘the whole world becoming our house,’” said Father Garanzini, quoting an early Jesuit father.

Pelissero says that the faculty plays a vital role in transforming all areas of the University.

“With the faculty’s help, Loyola is responding to the challenge by focusing on what makes us distinctive as an institution and what will keep us competitive for the long term,” he says.

After discussions about the future of Loyola subsided, the award for Faculty Member of the Year was presented to Pamela L. Caughie, PhD, professor of English. After recalling how she has spent her Saturdays over the past few years, she thanked Loyola and its faculty for “making it possible for me to stand here today and say with all sincerity, I love what I do.”

Pelissero says that Caughie’s remarks echo true to the spirit of the University.

“That devotion to students is part of what makes the Loyola experience so distinctive and is what will continue to distinguish us,” he says.

For those who could not attend the convocation, click here for remarks by Father Garanzini, John Pelissero, and Pamela Caughie. A PDF of the 2012 program book is also available on the site.

As the colors of the leaves begin to change and the temperatures start to plummet, the Loyola community prepares to celebrate the new season with its second annual Harvest Festival. On September 30, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Retreat and Ecology Campus (2710 S. Country Club Rd., Woodstock, Illinois), the University will host a fun-filled, eventful day celebrating this year’s autumn harvest.

Summur Roberts, director of community relations, is looking forward to students coming to the Retreat and Ecology Campus to celebrate the season and bring a community feel to the campus.

“We’re really looking forward to the student presence coming to Woodstock. The campus has come so far since last year, especially our restoration efforts and wetland work, which continues to develop. Harvest Festival provides a wonderful opportunity for students and the community to come together and experience all that the campus can offer,” she says.

This unique fall celebration is designed to reinforce the campus’s mission to serve as a place for spiritual and intellectual growth and dedication to ecological sustainability.

Festival goers will have the opportunity to browse a mini-farmers market, including produce from the local farm; enjoy complimentary, tasty treats whipped up by Executive Chef Scott Commings; warm up by the bonfire; lend their hand to help with the harvest from the local garden, take tours of the facility, and enjoy live music.

Family activities are also a part of Harvest Festival. Kids can get their faces painted, decorate pumpkins, and press apple cider while adults enjoy a leisurely drink at the beer and wine tent, which will feature local labels.

Aside from these family-friendly happenings, Harvest Festival 2012 is offering a new feature for Loyola students. Designed to allow students to take a break from school and stressful exams, the campus’s high ropes course will be open for the day.

To help ensure the event is a success, Loyola is adding local resources to the mix, partnering with the Bull Valley Association, the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce, and the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation.

Harvest Festival is open to the public and free, but registration is highly recommended. Transportation will be provided from the Lake Shore Campus to the event. Sign up here or visit LUC.edu/harvest for more details.

In the wake of a series of violent events that have occurred on college campuses, student and community safety has become a growing concern nationwide. Illinois’s State Legislature made efforts to tackle some of these concerns in 2008 by passing the Illinois Campus Security Enhancement Act. The act requires institutions of higher education to form a “campus threat assessment team” to help ensure preparedness should an emergency occur on campus. When the act was passed, Loyola University Chicago had already implemented such a group to try to prevent harmful activity on campus.

In 2007, a handful of Loyola administrators created a team which they called the Behavioral Concerns Team (BCT). The BCT is comprised of Loyolans from a variety of campus departments. The BCT’s website says the team is a “centralized coordinated body for discussion and action” regarding individual and community safety. Members of the core group of the BCT include the Wellness Center, Residence Life, Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, and Campus Ministry, among others. Jane Neufeld, dean of students and chair of the BCT, says the main goal of the group is “to maximize the personal and community safety of the Loyola community.”

The BCT released a video this summer that outlines what the team does and explains how students and faculty can help keep each other safe by using the BCT as a preventative measure. Neufeld says that “the BCT can only connect the dots if faculty and staff are telling us about the dots, so we are always looking for effective ways to remind community members about this resource.”

Should a student, staff, or faculty member believe another student may be in danger of hurting him or herself or others, the BCT asks the observing student or employee to fill out a referral form, which can be found on the BCT’s website. Neufeld says that upon receiving and reviewing a referral, a team member will meet one-on-one with the referred student and help that student make connections to the resources from which he or she may benefit.

Neufeld also points out how the Good Samaritan Policy will be honored if a student makes a referral to the BCT. “In incidents of crisis or medical emergency, Loyola students are expected to care for themselves and for others in the Loyola community by getting help from appropriate officials, even when violations of the Community Standards have occurred. The Good Samaritan Policy was created to alleviate concerns and reduce hesitation by Loyola students to seek help for other students in need,” she says.

The BCT also can be directly linked to Loyola’s Student Promise. “The Student Promise is about caring for oneself, others, and the community,” Neufeld says. “The Jesuits talk about Cura Personalis, which means care for the individual.  We were very intentional in naming the team the Behavioral Concerns Team. It’s what I truly believe makes Loyola unique.”

If you think a student could benefit from the BCT, visit their website or contact them at 773.508.8300.

This Saturday, September 15, the Quinlan School of Business will host Celebrating Excellence, a gala honoring the graduates and the bright future of the school.

On the heels of a $40 million naming gift from alumnus Michael R. Quinlan (PhB ’67, MBA ’70), the Quinlan School of Business is poised for unprecedented growth. The gala will be an occasion for alumni to connect with one another and to learn more about the school’s trajectory. A portion of every ticket sold will benefit the fund for a planned new facility for the school.

“This is such an exciting time,” says Teresa Stafford, assistant dean for advancement and alumni relations. “We see this opportunity for growth as a path to distinction; locally, nationally, and globally.”

Starting at 6 p.m., alumni and guests will enjoy cocktails and appetizers at the Trump International Hotel and Tower. A plated dinner and buffet dessert will follow, and a live band will entertain guests throughout the night. Alumni William G. Kistner (BBA ’72) and Walid J. Tamari (MBA ’96) will be recognized for their leadership and commitment to excellence in the field. Guests will also hear from Dean Kathleen A. Getz, who will discuss the future of the Quinlan School of Business.

For more information or to register, visit LUC.edu/quinlan/gala.

Phil Ponce (pictured), anchor on WTTW-TV’s Chicago Tonight, and a panel of local journalists and commentators will discuss the increasingly contentious 2012 presidential campaign at a forum tonight on the Water Tower Campus.

As the election season kicks into high gear, Loyola is getting into the heat of the debate. Phil Ponce, anchor on WTTW-TV’s Chicago Tonight, and a panel of local journalists and commentators will discuss the increasingly contentious 2012 presidential campaign at a forum titled, “Bridging the Great Divide: Partisan Politics, the Press and the Modern Presidential Campaign,” at 6 p.m. today, Tuesday, September 11 at Loyola’s downtown Water Tower Campus.

Panelists include:

Tom Bevan, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics
Daniel Libit, Political Reporter, The Daily
Kristen McQueary, Editorial Board Member, Chicago Tribune
Jim Warren, Editor-at-Large, Newsweek/The Daily Beast

Topics panelists will discuss range from, “objective” media coverage of the presidential campaign, consequences of the proliferation of partisan news outlets, how the current partisan media landscape shapes how campaigns are run, and  whether or not news consumers sample media venues whose politics differ from their own.

John Slania, Loyola’s journalism program director, thinks the forum is an important educational opportunity for students. With many pundits calling this “the most important election of a lifetime,” Slania hopes students will learn about critical topics the press and presidential campaigns deal with during the robust and dynamic discussion.

“As good citizens of this nation, it’s important for students to be informed on issues that will shape their future, and the future of their children: the economy, jobs, health care, immigration, education, and a host of other topics,” says Slania.

Loyola’s School of Communication (SOC) is sponsoring the event. Historically, the SOC hosts a yearly forum comprised of journalists to discuss a timely political issue. Last year, journalists and political commentators from around the Chicago area gave a lively critique of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first days in office.

Ponce, who hosted last year’s forum, is gearing up for another animated debate and is confident it will illuminate paramount issues of modern-day coverage of elections. “I hope attendees leave with a higher awareness that a growing number of media outlets may be as much about persuading the public as they are about informing the public,” says Ponce. “And that a person who samples a limited number of outlets does so at her own risk!”

Echoing the same sentiments as Slania about active citizenship, Ponce stresses the importance of understanding how content is often shaped by the outlet that produces it. “It is an important realization, not just for prospective journalism practitioners, but to be an educated citizen.”

“Bridging the Great Divide: Partisan Politics, the Press and the Modern Presidential Campaign” will take place from 6-7 p.m. today in Kasbeer Hall, on the 15th Floor of the Corboy Law Center. Admission is free and open to the public, and there will be complimentary food and refreshments.

September 8, 2012 is a cause for celebration for Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, and all who know her, as it marks her 75th anniversary with the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM). Sr. Jean later joined the Loyola community in 1961, and ever since has livened up and inspired Loyola’s campuses.

Sr. Jean has held a strong presence within the Loyola community, especially when it comes to building relationships with students. Steven Patzke, a junior theology major who attends Sr. Jean’s weekly prayer group meetings, says that Sr. Jean has been a guide for him at Loyola, and she more than deserves to be recognized for all her work.

“Thanking Sr. Jean is crucial because she has given a multitude of gifts to the Church and Loyola through her faith, generous spirit, and time,” Patzke says. “Her joy and happiness when it comes to faith, and life in general, challenges this campus to live by the Jesuit motto, ‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’ – For the Greater Glory of God.”

Citing his personal relationship with her, Patzke says Sr. Jean’s influence will stay with him for the rest of his life. “She has left a hand print on Loyola’s heart and its students,” he says.

To honor Sr. Jean’s  commitment to the Sisters of Charity, BVM, and her dedication to the Loyola community, the University has organized several events.

• Water Tower Campus Life and the Department of Campus Ministry will sponsor two receptions in McCormick Lounge on Sunday, September 16. The first reception will be held after the 10:30 a.m. Mass and the second at 8 p.m., prior to the 9 p.m. Mass. Those unable to attend the receptions or the Masses are encouraged to stop by her office at Corboy Law Center #107 and offer congratulations.
• Additionally, students, staff, and faculty are invited to send a special message to Sr. Jean via LUC.edu/SrJean to show her how much the Loyola community appreciates everything she does.

On behalf of Inside Loyola, congratulations Sr. Jean on your 75th anniversary. We look forward to many more celebrations with you.

On Wednesday morning, the University officially announced its plans to open The Newhart Family Theatre, which will be located in the Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. The new theatre, which will debut this fall, has been named in honor of Loyola alumnus and comedian Bob Newhart, who graduated from Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business in 1952. All three of Newhart’s sisters attended Mundelein College, including Joan Newhart, BVM, who also served as an administrator at Mundelein.

“When I graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 1952, it would never have occurred to me that one day there would be a Newhart Family Theatre on Loyola’s campus,”  says Newhart. “It is a great source of pride and honor for all our families.”

An intimate space, the theatre will provide the perfect atmosphere for student performers to engage with the audience. It will allow students to experiment with the latest advancements in audio, video, and lighting technologies available. To support the production program in the new theatre, new scenic and costume workshops have been built in Mundelein that provide excellent teaching spaces for building skills in theatre technology.

Loyola’s recently renovated Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts is home to the University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Inside the building there are specialized classrooms for dance, music, theatre, and fine arts students, including state-of-the-art recording studios, drawing and painting studios, and performance classrooms. In addition to the classroom spaces and theatre workshops, the Mundelein Center houses multiple performance spaces, including Studio 409, Mundelein Auditorium, the Underground Laboratory Theatre, and Music Hall. Historically, Loyola has opened the Mundelein Center to artists from the surrounding community, and it has hosted Earth Day-themed arts night, Day of the Dead celebrations, and international touring musicians.

“Moving these arts spaces to the Mundelein Center has been an exciting opportunity for our department,” says April Browning, managing director of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. “The move will make for a more cohesive department and more closely link our academics with the experiential learning of performance. It will also provide unparalleled new opportunities to connect with the community in this handsome historic building. We are very pleased to call this our new home.”

The Newhart Family Theatre Facts:

• Located on the second floor of Mundelein Center in the space that used to be the Mundelein College gymnasium
• State-of-the-art thrust-style theatre with 215 fixed seats and flexible seating for an additional 20
• Designed by Branski, Hammer, Moretta, Sheehy Architects, in collaboration with Theatre Consultants Collaborative
• Handsome gallery space found in the entry lobby
• The new “main stage” home for Loyola University Chicago’s theatre program
• Features a new scenic shop, lighting shop, costume shop, rehearsal hall/performance classroom, and flexible seat experimental theatre in the lower level and additional support and workshop spaces for theatre
• Includes a recital hall, additional practice rooms, and applied music and recording studios for music

For more on the theatre, click here.

As students transition from home-cooked meals to dining-hall cuisine, curfews to all-nighters, and their own bedrooms to sharing space with roommates, healthy lifestyles and habits can get thrown on the back burner. Luckily, Loyola is introducing the online magazine Student Health 101 to help students adjust to the college lifestyle.

Student Health 101 is a monthly publication that aims to inform students about a number of different health care and wellness concerns they face in college. Colorful and energetic, the magazine offers a unique forum for Loyola students to get the most relevant information using social media and peer-to-peer dialogue.

“First-year students in particular may be unaware of how certain issues can interfere with school,” says Natasha J. Mmeje, MPH, program director in the Wellness Center. “Student Health 101 offers an anonymous way to learn about wellness-related topics. It will also help first-year students to understand the culture of holistic wellness that will envelop them as Ramblers.”

Mmeje believes readership of the online magazine will increase with time as students become more aware of Student Health 101’s existence. Part of the campus integration with the website will be Loyola’s own Student Health Facebook page, where students can start discussions with their peers. Also, the company will provide exclusive content for Loyola’s school newspaper The Loyola Phoenix.

Student Health 101 strives to provide valuable information not just for college students, but also administrators and parents. Through the use of social media and an interactive interface design, the online magazine holds a plethora of information on different wellness topics including:

• Stress management
• Academic performance
• Alcohol and other drugs
• Sexual health and responsibility
• Eating well and working out
• Mental health
• Healthy relationships
• Money management

The magazine’s content, which includes student-written articles, is reviewed by a professional advisory board and student advisory board to ensure all content within the magazine is accurate and relevant for readers.

In addition to all the content on the magazine’s site, students who subscribe to Student Health 101 will have access to the 64-page self-care guide. The guide acts as a crash course on maintaining a healthy lifestyle throughout a student’s college career and is available on the Loyola Wellness Center website in an e-book fashion.

“The self-care guide is one way for students to manage their own care. A student can look up ailments by topic and get reference information on common health questions and emergencies that affect college students,” says Mmeje.

Student Health 101 at Loyola is a partnership between the Wellness Center, Department of Residence Life, Athletics, Halas Campus Recreation, the Office of First-Year Experience, and the Dean of Students. To view the September issue, click here. To check out the Loyola Student Health Facebook page, click here.

Photo courtesy of Vicki Ioffe Polman

After 25 years, Hillel at Loyola University Chicago has a reason to celebrate as it has remained a prominent and important organization at Loyola and in the surrounding community. Established in 1987, Hillel became the University’s first non-Catholic student organization, and it has been embraced by Loyola from its very first days.

Patti Ray, Hillel’s director, remembers first coming to Loyola, as she was the only sitting Hillel director at any Jesuit university in the world when the organization came to reside at Loyola 25 years ago.

“How [Hillel] began is a very important indicator of the environment at the University. Loyola wanted to create, for those who were not Catholic or Christian, an environment that was open to accepting and building a large interfaith community. We were supported and embraced from the beginning, and we created the path for welcoming and including other faith traditions into the Loyola community,” says Patti.

This summer, alumni and current Hillel members gathered together to celebrate the role that Hillel has played in their lives. The 25th anniversary event kicked off with student reflection speeches and a lot of catching up.

“One of the high points was being able to come to together and see each other and meet many of the alums’ families and children. People came in from all over the country to come to this celebration. One of our Hillel presidents lives in Israel and was able to come, which was so amazing,” Ray exclaims.

Craft tables were set up for the kids and 35 photo albums were fully displayed for the first time ever. Alumni and other members were able to take a trip down memory lane as they looked back at their time in Hillel at Loyola.

“For 10 years, Hillel sponsored the largest dance on campus called the ‘Bahama Mama Bash,’ a tropical bash that was held every February. For two or three generations that was a huge memory. It was a campus-wide party that had the most diverse attendance,” Ray recalls.

Hillel is known for a lot more than just a campus-wide dance. Its collaborative relationships with academic and administrative departments, as well as with the diverse University student groups, has been a foundational pattern of the organization.

Some of Hillel’s major programs in these 25 years include the visit of Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who delivered a lecture attended by 4,500 people in the old Gentile Center. Some other visitors include Israel’s first foreign minister, a famed mayor of Jerusalem, and a Holocaust scholar. They helped bring the scholar of Jewish studies to the theology department and the Modern Hebrew course to students among other academic achievements. Hillel’s relationship with the Muslim and Hindu communities on campus stands out as an area of great accomplishment.

“These relationships began between Hillel and the Muslim student community when Muslim students started coming to Loyola and began praying in the second floor living room of what was the Ministry Center in the 1990s. The Jewish and Catholic communities then came to advocate for a mosque for the Muslim students, and that was when the Muslim Students Association was born,” says Ray. “The Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic communities advocated for a puja room for the Hindu students, and the Hindu Students Organization was then started as well.”

Hillel has brought together many faith organizations around campus and has accomplished a lot in the last 25 years. The anniversary celebration was a way for many past and present members to come together and reminisce about the achievements they have made and make plans for the future.

“Hillel at Loyola continues to be an integral part of University life where Jewish adults can learn about their traditions and take what they have learned into the community and share it,” concludes Ray.

The new Cuneo Hall features a number of technological features including in-slab radiant heating and cooling, a high performance exterior enclosure, lights in each room that alert instructors when and when to not open the windows, and more.

Following the recent London Olympics, anything with “gold” sounds good.

That is also the case with the new Cuneo Hall; environmental gold, that is. The building has submitted an application for LEED Gold certification and is hoping the stamp of approval comes soon. Regardless of the outcome, the architects behind the building at Solomon Cordwell Buenz and their engineering consultants, Elara Engineering, have certainly pulled off an impressive architectural performance. To the average student walking through the doors of Cuneo, however, the engineering jargon can seem as flummoxing as how a human could pole vault 20 feet in the air.

Here is a rundown of some of the environmentally friendly technology being utilized in Cuneo, made simple by Loyola project manager Wayne Sliwa.

High performance exterior enclosure: The building has a masonry skin comprised of an exterior facade of brick separated from the interior drywall by concrete masonry blocks (cement blocks), insulation, and an air gap. The result, and this is where it gets technical, is a significantly low coefficient of heat transfer from the exterior wall to the interior surface – resulting in a significantly reduced energy requirement to heat and cool the building.

In-slab radiant heating and cooling: The majority of the classrooms in the building are heated and cooled by radiant heat from the ceiling panels in each room rather than the more conventional forced air ventilation or in the floor concrete slab radiant heating and cooling. There are two benefits to this approach. One is that radiant heating inherently is a much more efficient and comfortable heating system. The other is that heating and cooling the smaller mass of ceiling panels, rather than the concrete floor, results in a quicker response time to heat and cool the room as well as tighter control of room temperatures.

Operable windows that allow fan operation, natural ventilation: There are probably between 45 to 65 days per year where the building can operate with natural heating and cooling, thus not using any energy. In each room there is a green light and red light, which indicates to the instructor when to open the windows because the building is in a natural ventilation mode. If the light is green, there is no mechanical cooling or heating in the room because of optimal temperatures outside, and instructors should go ahead and open the windows.

Low velocity displacement ventilation: You need to maintain a certain amount of air coming into the building and refreshing the building. If carbon dioxide levels get too high, people will be falling asleep in the rooms. With the words “low velocity,” all we are really doing is making sure there is enough fresh air in the building at a low velocity: no whistling wind sound and you don’t feel a breeze.

Atrium that passively induces natural stack ventilation: The stainless steel grill in the atrium is connected through duct work in the basement to the outside. When the temperature outside is optimal, the damper opens, allowing outside air to come in. Then, the windows at the top open up, and just like in a chimney, the warm air gets sucked up to the outside, and natural ventilation occurs. At the same time, if classrooms are opening their windows, that air also gets pulled into the building, further cooling the rooms and the building.

Building Automation System: In between the Klarchek Information Commons and Cudahy Library there is a weather station. The weather station senses things like, what’s the outside air temperature, what’s the humidity, is there precipitation in the form of rain or snow, what’s the wind velocity, etc. It then sends a signal to a server and that information is used throughout the campus. Then there are two separate control systems that are employed in the different buildings. They reside on two different servers. Each building has its own, BAS, or Building Automation System. That takes that data and uses it to know what is going on outside. That system says “Hey its hot out, the sun is shining. I need more chilled water going through the system.”

For more on Cuneo Hall, check out these two previous posts: Taking a tour of Cuneo Hall and Cuneo opens doors to future.

This fall the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) welcomes a new Dean: Reinhard Andress, PhD. After a 19-year stint at Saint Louis University (SLU), and with an extensive background in German literature, Andress hopes to make the undergraduate experience at Loyola “the premier experience in Chicago.” Inside Loyola writer Karis Hustad sat down with Andress to find out a little more about him and his plans for the CAS.

Why did you decide to come to Loyola?
I had been at SLU for 19 years, and I think at some point you think about moving onto something else. I had applied fairly broadly, but Loyola was the one I had pegged from the beginning. For me it was an easy shift, and I think that was attractive to the folks here as well, because I’d be transferring from one Jesuit Catholic institution to another. And then of course–Chicago! That was no problem at all. What I found attractive as I looked into Loyola and delved into it more closely is the whole way they set up the idea of transformative education. Most institutions try to do something along those lines, but here it is just well formulated and very intentional.

Your background is in German literature. How did you get interested in that, and what does that bring to your role as Dean?
My parents are both German immigrants.  They came to this country in the 50s, so I grew up in a bilingual household. I am very grateful to my parents that they kept up German at home, because it became the basis of my career. I was then involved with teaching German for 25 years. It’s been very important for me, because I don’t think there is anything more educational than learning another language. It’s never just an issue of learning the language itself, you have to become culturally proficient in another culture as well. So there is also a level of intercultural competence there. Negotiating culture and being able to move easily between cultures may help me with this position because I will have to negotiate many different kinds of cultures in the CAS.

Loyola does not have a German minor or major. Are you planning on bringing that here?
Well, for me there are some contradictions between being one of the largest Jesuit Catholic universities and not having a program in German. I think the larger Jesuit Catholic universities all have a full program in German. So I’m not saying I’m going to go out and create a German program here, but that is something that I think needs to be looked at. On the other hand, Loyola does have some unique language strengths. With regard to Italian, given the campus in Rome, and there is this uniqueness of Polish Studies as well. We’ll have to see what the balance is between what’s standard for a Department of Modern Languages and Literature and what the unique qualities are here in Chicagoland.

What are your plans for the College of Arts and Sciences?
One significant challenge we have is to institute the revised Core. There is the immediate matter of making sure the mechanics of it work, and that we have enough courses for the incoming class. The long-term concern is to maybe tweak it at some point. Another short-term and long-term goal is making sure teaching loads are equitable for full-time faculty. Another one is integrating non-tenure-track faculty. We have tenure-track appointees who generally have a strong research agenda. Non-tenure tracks generally have a teaching focus. The tenure-track system is quite old, but there has been a shift in the last few years to hire more and more non-tenure tracks. It’s a way for the University to dedicate more of its resources to teaching, but it’s a different brand of faculty. They have different foci, different requirements, and I’m worried about creating a two-tiered system. I don’t think it’s good for a college or for a department to have colleagues who may feel like they are second-class citizens. So I want to do as much as I can to integrate the non-tenure track. I will also advocate for the College both internally and externally.

This is your second job at a Jesuit institution. What draws you to Jesuit education?
Many institutions are trying to do the same thing: they have these students and are trying to give them a broad range of experiences through core requirements, expose them to many disciplines, and develop them as human beings. But I think Loyola does it in a clear, coherent, and intentional way. They talk about cura personalis, the care of the whole person, and they package it very attractively in this idea of transformative education.

What was your college experience like?
I went to Rockford College. It was a very good experience. It was a small liberal arts college, and it opened my eyes to the humanities and interdisciplinary thinking to some extent. But undergraduate education has come a long ways since the late 70s in terms of student support. All these student-support services, they were probably all there at Rockford College in some form or another, but they weren’t as extensively developed as they are now. I also had a great junior year abroad experience, spending three semesters abroad in Vienna, Austria. I fell in love with German-speaking culture.

Have you read any good books lately?
Ronald’s Wright’s A Short History of Progress. It talks about how civilizations fail. It talks about Easter Island: what went on there, why are the inhabitants all gone, etc.? The same thing with the Mayan civilization and ancient Rome. He shows in this book how each of these civilizations failed because of issues of sustainability. The ultimate point of the book says if we don’t think in terms of sustainability, we may become a failed civilization as well. It’s good to see that Loyola is implementing plans for an Institute of Urban Environmental Sustainability. I hope the College will be able to make a significant contribution to it.

What is a fun fact about you?
I’m not sure this is fun, but one of my hobbies is to speak Spanish. I majored as an undergraduate in Spanish, but it fell to the wayside as I focused fully on German. I came back to it about eight or nine years ago while doing research. Saint Louis University has a Madrid campus, so I was able to spend a year there, and that really got my Spanish going again.

Is there anything you would like to tell College of Arts and Sciences students?
I think Loyola offers a wealth of opportunities in the framework of the transformative education I mentioned earlier. I think students should adopt a carpe diem attitude toward that, seize the opportunities an undergraduate education offers at Loyola. They have an enormous amount of freedom now to explore and figure out who they are, freedom in a way they won’t have once they get their bachelor’s degree and once they move into professional and family lives. Do all you can with the opportunities you have in these four years.

To view a photo gallery of Welcome Week that will be updated frequently, click here.

As the start of the fall semester quickly approaches, Loyola warmly welcomes its new students with a fun-filled week of events that are sure to get the freshmen acquainted with the campus and their peers. Starting Thursday, August 23 through Saturday, September 1, an array of Welcome Week events will be happening around campus and the surrounding area. Some of the signature events include:

• Family Mass and Family Picnic
• Convocation Walk and New Student Convocation
• Saturday Night of Comedy
• Mass of the Holy Spirit
• Student Organization Fair
• Culture @Loyola
• New Year’s Festival

For details and a complete list of events, click here.

Welcome Week 2012 kicks off on Thursday, August 23 with the Family Mass at 6 p.m. in Madonna della Strada Chapel and the Family Picnic in the East Quad at 7 p.m. Students say goodbye to their parents and the Loyola community has a chance to make a welcoming first impression. Kimberly Moore, director of student activities and Greek affairs, includes the picnic in a list of events that are sure to get the largest turnout.

“We traditionally have 2,000+ attendees at the Family Picnic, Saturday Night of Comedy, and the New Year’s Festival. The Trolley Tours are always a huge success, and the lines tend to snake around campus,” says Moore.

Another huge event taking place during Welcome Week is the New Student Convocation ceremony on Friday, August 24 at 4 p.m. in the Gentile Arena. All entering students are inducted into their graduating class, and their academic careers officially begin at Loyola. Just prior to the ceremony is a memorable experience as the group participates in the Convocation Walk, which takes them together as a class through Cudahy’s ceremonial south door. A warm welcome will be achieved as that is the focus of the entire week’s events.

“It is designed to provide new students a way to connect with peers and upperclassmen and campus resources, become familiar with campus and the surrounding areas, engage in involvement opportunities, and have a little fun before the academic year kicks into full gear,” Moore proclaims.

Although Welcome Week is targeted at new students, all the events are open to the Loyola community.

“Upper-class students know to check the Welcome Week webpage and they tend to pick and choose the events they want to attend,” says Moore.

Checking and choosing the events will be easier this year due to the launch of the new Welcome Week mobile app. The app makes it much easier for students to access the program schedule and customize it to their interests. A special bonus feature connects the students to all the LUC Twitter feeds so they can stay up to date on everything happening around campus.

“We are committed to sustainability and want to work toward reducing our footprint. We know that not every student has a smart phone, but many do – so we want to meet students where they are at while also considering accessibility for all of our students,” explains Moore.

The orientation schedules, as well as the move-in schedule have impacted the Welcome Week program structure from prior years. In an effort to extend the opportunities for the new students to experience Loyola in their first days on campus, Welcome Week’s duration is longer than it has ever been in the past.

“We decided to extend the Welcome Week program going forward to ensure new students had more, not less, opportunities to transition and connect with the campus, Rogers Park, and Chicago communities,” Moore concludes. “It allowed for more participation from campus partners — which ultimately benefits students and enhances their comfort level and familiarity with campus resources.”

To download the mobile app and view the full list of Welcome Week events, please visit LUC.edu/welcomeweek. You can also follow all of the fun on Twitter as well. Just follow @WelcomeWeek.

By Alexander Tuchman, Farm Operations Assistant, Retreat and Ecology Campus

This growing season has been an interesting time for the Loyola student farm. Our student-run business has really shown us how dependent we are on the delicate balance between sunshine and rainfall. With hardly a winter or spring to speak of and a great drought with a lot of heat this summer, we have had to throw our winter plans out the window and completely modify the way we are treating our soil, conserving our water, and using our energy. We have to really educate ourselves on the laws of nature, and take them to heart as we set forth to grow healthy and delicious food for our community. We must adapt yearly, monthly—even daily—to our surrounding conditions and go with the flow.

Without the healthful grasses and herbs available for forage in our pasture, our chickens, who in the spring gave us wonderfully orange-colored and perky yolks, have now started giving eggs that are a mid-colored yellow—a sign of a lack of carotene in their diets. They gain carotene and other nutrients as they eat and digest various green grasses and herbs in the pastures. Without the rains this year, our yellowed grasses have much less nutrition to offer the chickens. So, we adapt. We’ve been keeping a close watch on what the Loyola student farm is selling at the Farmers Market this year, and what our shareholders would like to see in their produce bags. These notes have shown us that kale is something we have in excess. One shareholder will not accept kale in his produce bag at all. Since it seems that our shareholders are at their kale thresholds, we decided to use this leafy green to give our chickens a little nutrition boost to make up for their lack of green pasture.

The Loyola student farm pastures also have much less to offer our bees, who rely on the nectar and pollen of flowers to make their wonderful honey. Without much new growth sprouting up lately, we are worried that the bees won’t have enough forage in the fall, when they need to be building up their stores of honey to survive the winter. So, again, we adapt. We are now planting soil-improving crops such as buckwheat and clover, which not only make nutrients available in the soil, but also send up flowers that are favorable for our bees in the fall.

We believe this drought to be part of an unpredictable trend in our environment where extremes become more and more common. We need to learn how to adapt to those changes. In a time where the main constant is inconsistency, the work of farmers is now incredibly challenging and more important than ever. The Loyola students that have chosen to come to the Retreat and Ecology Campus to spend their summer farming have really been compelled to reach into the Jesuit playbook for some serious experiential learning as they lead the way toward new agricultural techniques that can help us maintain a steady and healthy food supply for the future.

Story courtesy of Loyola magazine (Summer 2012).

For the second time in a matter of months, Inside Loyola prepares to say goodbye to one of its excellent student journalists. Karis Hustad, a rising senior journalism major (and sociology minor) who has written for the site since August 2011, is leaving to pursue an incredible study abroad opportunity this fall in Rabat, Morocco with SIT and Round Earth Media. Through the program, she will focus on expanding her journalism, media, and communication skills by working with established international journalists and Moroccan scholars. For more on the program, click here.

In addition to her time with Inside Loyola, Karis has worked as a reporter for WLUW-FM’s Lunchtime News and as a ChiU blogger on ChicagoNow.com, where she develops weekly original content focused on college news and events and also recruits new student contributors for the site. She has also worked as WCCO-TV’s (CBS-Minneapolis) new media intern and as a writer for the Diversions section of the Loyola Phoenix.

Outside of her journalism work, Karis is deeply devoted to social justice causes and a wonderful example of the type of student that Loyola is committed to recruiting each fall. A current member of Alpha Sigma Nu (the Jesuit honor society based on tenants of scholarships, loyalty, and service), Karis also works as a student leader for Loyola4Chicago and has worked with Big Brother Big Sister of Greater Metropolitan Chicago and as a tutor at Jordan Community School here in the city.

While we are sad to see another excellent writer go, we are excited for Karis and incredibly proud of the journalist that she has become already. She has an exciting few months ahead of her and we hope that she’ll agree to provide us with some updates from the field throughout her time abroad. You can also stay on top of her work in Morocco by following her on Twitter at @greekforgrace.

Karis, all of us at University Marketing and Communication are proud of you and we thank you for your excellent work. We will definitely miss the enthusiasm, passion, and work ethic you’ve shown over the course of the last year.

Kristen Surla (fourth from left), a senior, was asked to serve as a student panelist at the recent Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Youth Leadership Summit hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The White House Office of Public Engagement and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) hosted an AAPI Youth Leadership Summit to discuss important issues facing AAPI youth and to empower AAPI youth leaders to take action in their communities and campuses. A Loyola University Chicago senior, Kristen Surla, was asked to represent the midwest as one of five AAPI student panelist speakers.

Kristen is the president of the Council of Pan Asian Americans (COPA), as well as an active mentor for the organization Students Together Are Reaching Success (STARS). Her leadership around Loyola’s campus has been noticed not only at the University level, but also at a national level. Jason Chan, the program director for STARS, gives insight on Kristen’s leadership ability.

“I have been really impressed with Kristen’s thoughtfulness and ability to think critically. She has the ability to take the perspective of others and put herself in their shoes and is able to hear her mentees’ experiences and help them identify the best strategies for them,” Chan says. “It’s that kind of approach that makes her a great leader.”

The AAPI Youth Leadership Summit was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) located within the White House. After a keynote address and a panel of AAPI federal leaders discussed “breaking the bamboo ceiling,” a panel of five AAPI students shared their stories with a theme of “trailblazing your way through college.”

“The themes were centered on preventing bullying, campus and community involvement, social media and AAPI student activism, higher education resources, and careers in the federal government. The panel of students was able to directly apply the themes at the general base so that the other students watching could see the ways in which they could be more actively involved and have their voices heard,” says Surla.

With a strong sense of political and social responsibility, Kristen has been working this summer with the Asian American Institute encouraging Asian American’s to vote and to let their voices be heard. As an active member of AAPI, she has been to many conferences in the past, but reflects on what made this conference special.

“I feel like the difference with this summit compared to other conferences was that this one was in the White House, and it was professional. People came with a reason to learn, network, and find a way to better understand each other, and I really appreciated that,” says Surla.

After her remarkable trip to the White House to represent the voice of many Asian Americans across the Midwest, she is returning to Loyola with a new awareness of how her leadership can make an impact on a national level. She describes her experience as “surreal” and looks forward to her last year at Loyola.

“In the future, I ultimately want to pursue a career in higher education in the student affairs department. I have fallen in love with my experience at Loyola,” Surla reflects. “I feel like college is a place where you can really work to learn outside the classroom, and I think that my experience at Loyola has helped me develop my sense of self, and I want to pursue higher education to support and inspire others.”

She concludes by giving some thoughtful advice to other youth leaders who are striving to make a difference at Loyola and across the nation.

“Don’t see yourself as only a member. You always have something to contribute, and don’t underestimate the power of your voice. No matter where you are in your leadership, you have the power to make a change.”

Damen Hall is demolished, and this fall Loyola welcomes the replacement: Cuneo Hall. A four-story academic building with an application submitted for LEED Gold certification, Cuneo looks like Cudahy and Dumbach, but packs an energy-efficient punch. Inside Loyola writer Karis Hustad recently took a tour of the building with Loyola’s project manager, Wayne Sliwa, who gave her the back story on Cuneo and a tour of its amenities. Here is her recap of the best new features:

Carved crests: When I walked into the southeast corner of Cuneo, the first thing that struck me were the two huge wooden ornately decorated crests on each wall.  At the request of Father Garanzini, the crests of Loyola and Cuneo were carved by a vendor in Texas to pay homage to the donor and school. They will be lit up by overhead lights, so students and faculty can appreciate the Harry Potter-esque crests regardless of outside light.

Four-story atrium: The “wow” factor of Cuneo is definitely the huge, four-story atrium, flooded with light from the skylight above. This atrium offers a spacious walkway, natural light, and a view of all four levels of the building. The inconspicuous vents on the floor offer the first view of the technical aspects of the building: in the case of a fire, vents will open to outside air and exhaust fans at the top of the atrium will engage to draw smoke up and out of the building.

Classrooms: Cuneo has 18 classrooms: two in the basement, seven on the first floor, five on the second floor, and four on the third floor. At the beginning of the tour, we walked  into a classroom on the first floor that seats more than 100 students, comfortably, with outlets on each table and wireless capability. This is one of the two biggest classrooms in the building. This one, however, has video conferencing capabilities. This requirement was added due to certain classes being offered on two campuses. For certain classroom opportunities, such as guest speakers, events can be streamed and shown to both classes. The classrooms also feature a double-door entrance, one in the front and one in the back, so that tardy students don’t have to come in the front of the class, disrupt instruction, and likely bring attention to themselves.

Each classroom has a small display at the front of the classroom with a green light and a red light that tells the instructor when the building is in a natural ventilation mode and to open and close the windows based on the temperature outside. It will be up to the instructor to note when the light is green, indicating that there is no mechanical cooling or heating in the room because of optimal temperatures outside, and they should go ahead and open the windows.

Offices: The fourth floor plays host to the four centers in the building: Women’s Studies and Gender Studies (WSGS), Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy (CUERP), and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. Graduate assistant cubicles line the east side of the building while offices face beautiful views of the lake and west side of campus. On the east side of the atrium on the fourth floor, light streams into a multipurpose conference room from the skylight above. As we walk around the fourth floor, we pass two staff members and I mention that I’m being given a tour of the building, both smile, and one says, “The space works really well, we really like it here.”

Roof: Building code quiz time: what does every new building built in Chicago have to have? It is a requirement of the city of Chicago code that new buildings of a particular size have to have a white roof to reflect heat, as well as a percentage of the roof has to be a green roof vegetation, which does two things: first, it insulates the roof to keep the building a little cooler, and it also absorbs and cleans some of the rain water that would instead go to sewers in the city. The green roof is covered in a variety of ground plants, including Sedum, which sustains its own water and it requires minimum attention once it becomes established. Several buildings on campus, including Mundelein, Quinlan, and Norville, have this green roof vegetation.

Display screen: On the wall at the tower entrance to the building, will be a digital screen that shows the energy usage by heating, cooling, and electricity. The intent is to impact the average student entering the building as to how energy efficient the building is. The display will also contain information for the non-technical person who says, “Okay what do you mean by a kilowatt hour?”

Aesthetics: Through the arched windows of the fourth floor, the architecture of Cuneo reflects Dumbach Hall. There was a plan put together in the 20′s that actually showed a building in this location and so this building’s architecture from the exterior was to emulate the design of the other two buildings, Dumbach Hall and Cudahy Science, – except that Cuneo is built with technology from the 21st century and is significantly more energy efficient than other ones.

Find out more about Cuneo from this previous Inside Loyola post.

Pizza, pasta, and–basketball? Starting today, August 9, that is the itinerary for the Loyola men’s basketball team.

The Ramblers are heading to Italy from August 9-23 to get a taste of the abroad life and a head start on the basketball season, all with an emphasis on Jesuit values. Senior Associate Athletics Director of Sports Administration and Sports Performance Thomas Hitcho says the itinerary is packed, but productive.

“Our tour is very ambitious, but is a great combination of service, culture, athletics, and academics,” he says.

During the two weeks in Italy, the team will play four games across the country. The first will be against All-Star Italy in Rome, then the teams Pallacanestro Bassano Del Grappa and Zepa Marostica near Treviso, and the last game will be against Legnano Basket near Lake Como. Hitcho points out that with eight new players on the team, having an opportunity to practice and play games before regular season play is a fantastic opportunity for the new team to get acquainted on the court.

“Moser can teach them his philosophy and practice, and with the four games he can see what needs to be done,” Hitcho says. “It gives him a season before the NCAA season.”

But the trip isn’t solely devoted to basketball. Hitcho explains that many student-athletes don’t get the chance to study abroad due to rigorous practice and game schedules. This trip offers the opportunity to experience Italy while working on their game.

And experience Italy they shall. Between games, the team will be sight-seeing in Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, among other cities. Highlights include a tour of the Vatican, a tour of the first Jesuit college in Rome, and Saint Peter’s Basilica. But it won’t be all tours and sight-seeing.

A focus of the trip is understanding social justice and community service in a Jesuit setting. The team will do two service projects, one at the Jesuit Refugee Service, an international organization that seeks to accompany, serve, and defend the rights of refugees, and another at Project Colors, a Lazio Basketball training activity that focuses on young people in disadvantaged areas. On August 14th, they will be received at the US embassy and introduced to the work the U.S. government is doing in fields related to social justice as promotion of human rights, religious freedom and fighting human trafficking. Later that day, the team will attend a formation session at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN to hear about FAO’s agenda of creating sustainable life and eco-justice. Each night the players will reflect on their service through Ignation Examen, based on the prayer outlined in St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. Father Stefano, assistant athletics director for student-athlete leadership development, who will be along for the trip, played a big role in putting this itinerary and reflection together.

Hitcho emphasizes a big part of the team’s summer has been focused on social justice. The team did several service projects this summer including volunteering at Misericordia, hosting a basketball clinic in West Garfield Park and the 48th ward, and serving lunch to people at Breakthrough Ministries in East Garfield Park. In addition, they took a cultural immersion class from Father Stefano to prepare for the trip and reflect on their service.

“[This trip] gives these student-athletes the chance to learn in a classroom what social just is and then go out and experience it. They will gain an appreciation and awareness of it and see what needs to be done. Then, they’ll go out to the culture and experience it,” Hitcho says.

This is the first trip abroad the men’s basketball team is taking in six years (the last was to Guatemala and Costa Rica). The trip was initially suggested by head coach Porter Moser. Moser says the trip will be a great way to get a head start on the season while educating student-athletes on social justice and cultural immersion.

“With eight new players on the roster, these summer practices have been invaluable from a teaching standpoint, from a learning standpoint, and from a camaraderie standpoint. Going to Italy will be a tremendous educational and cultural experience for our guys and one that they will remember for the rest of their lives,” he says. On the basketball side of things, we hope to come together, learn about each other, and build a togetherness that championship teams possess.”

Sr. Alicia Torres (pictured on left) with a member of her community during a retreat this July in Colorado. She says, "It is always important to take a break so we can receive the energy we need to keep doing God's work!"

Most students’ post-grad plans include moving to a new apartment, finding a job, or perhaps spending time backpacking through Europe. So what did Alicia Torres (CAS ’07) do? She moved to a convent.

“I am a member of the Franciscans of the Eucharist, a Catholic religious community living and serving at the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood,” she says. “Our life is one of prayer and service, caring for the very poor among us, and spreading the good news of the Gospel through preaching and teaching, all the while living a life centered on the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.”

Originally from Massachusetts, Torres truly took the Jesuit mission to heart during her junior year at Loyola.

“I felt really strongly that God was calling me to be a religious sister,” she says. “I visited a couple of communities, but never felt ‘at home.’ Eventually, through volunteering at the YOUTH 2000 retreat in Chicago, I met Fr. Bob Lombardo, and got to know about the work of the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels. I began to spend time in discernment and serving at the Mission, and felt very much at home. I was attracted not only by the service, but by the challenge to live authentically as a disciple of Jesus Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi.”

But the journey to a spiritual life wasn’t without a couple tests along the way. After graduating Loyola in 2007 with a degree in theology (and a minor in bioethics), she had more than $94,000 in loans to pay back. She realized this debt was standing in the way of fully committing to her vocation (including vows of poverty), and decided to tackle this problem with a running start–literally.

Despite only running for one season of cross-country her freshman year of high school, (though she played soccer and basketball) Torres launched “The Nun Run” in 2009, running races in return for pledges to help pay off her debt. Over the next year, she ran four races, all half-marathons, and was featured in media nationally, including the Los Angeles. Times, NPR, and the Chicago Tribune. Thanks to the donations, as well as working full time at the Archdiocese of Chicago, she met her goal in September 2010. In October 2010, three weeks after paying her debt, she ran the Chicago Marathon as a “thanksgiving to God and all my benefactors,” she says.

With her debt repaid, she hit the ground running at the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels. In addition to her daily duties, she has she has helped start a Chicago Marathon team at the Mission.

“Right now we have about 45 people training to run the 2012 Chicago Marathon to raise money for the Mission and in the future we hope to have a running club for the kids in our neighborhood,” she says. “So, as long as God keeps opening these doors to use running to help build up the Mission and bring our neighbors joy and hope, we’ll keep running! I actually am recovering from an injury, so I can’t run the marathon this year, but hope to get back training in the near future.”

Torres is also bringing her generation’s tech-savvy to the church. She currently runs their website, updating about events at the church and future plans. She says that this is the key to reaching anyone in the digital age.

“It is absolutely critical for the Church to use new technologies and social media to reach out not only to young people, but to all people,” says. “We live in an instant news feed, sound bite culture. For more than 2,000 years, the Church has creatively spoken the truth and love of the Gospel, in various social climates and diverse cultures. Now we have a new challenge–an exciting challenge–to learn how to more effectively communicate this beautiful message through these new avenues.”

Torres fondly remembers worship with the Jesuits in the Jesuit Residence that used to be on the East Quad, and the community formed over Mass and (occasionally) ice cream. She says current students searching for their vocation should focus on what is genuine.

“The key is authenticity: be authentically yourself. Don’t try to impress others or even yourself. Be humble but be bold; as St. Ignatius said, “Go forth and set the world on fire.” How do you set the world on fire? By becoming the saint you were created to be,” she says.

In the future, she hopes to live this out herself.

“My only hope is to simply do God’s will for me each day, and that means becoming a saint. To be a saint is quite simple. Someone defined a saint as an “ordinary person doing ordinary things, in an extraordinary way.” How do you define extraordinary? By doing little things with great love . . . that is my hope.”

This is a post in our late summer series profiling young alumni who have excelled in their field. Check back for more profiles of Loyola alumni truly leading extraordinary lives!

Elizabeth Vicker, senior molecular biology major and Provost Fellow, is fascinated with something that she can’t even see–with the naked eye that is. She is spending her summer studying genes, the molecular units of heredity that determine everything in our bodies.

“Without genes, transcription, and translation, we would have no proteins and nothing would function correctly,” she says.

Aside from keeping us functioning properly, understanding genes plays a big role in finding out how diseases like cancer develop. Vicker is hoping that her research can help understand that process. But first things first: for now she is growing DNA in bacteria and sending it out to be sequenced.

Though she admits it is a bit “boring,” these small tasks actually help map out DNA. The human genome project mapped out the majority of the human gene, but certain small sections were not completed because these sections do not have the capability to code protein, which is where mutations that lead to diseases can occur.  However, in years since, researchers have found that even non-protein coding genes can affect whether a mutation can occur. Now, researchers like Vicker are assisting in furthering the human genome project by finishing these sections, and seeing if they can provide further insight into how diseases develop.

“When the cell becomes cancerous a lot of the times it is uncontrolled transcription and translation in cell duplicating genes,” she says. “You are looking for trends and looking to see if some things are different.”

This makes Vicker’s summer research tri-fold: first, she is sequencing these smaller chromosomes, then she is looking to see if the histones (the proteins that order DNA) are transcriptionally active, and finally she is comparing the healthy genes to cancerous genes to see if there is a correlation between transcriptionally active histones and the development of cancer.

A little confused? Vicker describes sequencing and searching for patterns like putting words together.

“In the alphabet, there are 26 letters and the different ways you put them together make different words. Same with nucleotides [which make up DNA and RNA], but the different ways you put them together make different proteins,” she says. “We are looking for patterns.”

Vicker first became interested in genetics when she took a genetics class with biology professor Jeffrey Doering, PhD. She hopes to one day work as either a doctor or a researcher in genetics. Ultimately, she says this research is a stepping stone to that goal.

“I hope that through this research I’ll be able to learn valuable lab techniques that I will be able to apply in the future, as well as a greater grasp of the ever-changing world that is genetics,” she says. “It’s very interesting to see and to learn how problems are solved in the lab, and how we make things as small as genes understandable.”

This summer we will be profiling several Provost Fellows. The Provost Fellows are undergraduate students who either are interested in doing their own research with the help of a faculty member or wish to assist a faculty member with their research. They apply to the program with an outline for research, including a project description, budget, and faculty letter from the person who will be a part of the project. If they are accepted into the program, they receive a $1,000 stipend to complete their research. Their findings are then presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the spring. To find out more about the program, visit the website here.

The Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) is very pleased to announce that Brian Dyer is this year’s recipient of the Kale Williams Award for Exceptional Work in Promoting Human Rights and Social Justice.

A CURL undergraduate who exemplifies the work and ideals of Kale Williams is chosen each year to recieve this award. Kale Williams served as the senior scholar in residence at CURL for 10 years, and through his inspiring volunteer work at CURL and human rights advocacy throughout his life, Kale served as a model for everyone around him. He worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1966 open housing marches, bringing about fair housing opportunities to all citizens regardless of race or religion. After serving as executive director of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities for more than 20 years, he became the senior scholar in residence at CURL at Loyola University Chicago.

The award was created as a reminder of Kale Williams’s motivating spirit and commitment to promoting social justice and human rights within the community and serves as an inspiration to the many passionate workers within CURL. Phil Nyden, CURL’s director and professor of sociology, elaborates on why Brian Dyer deserved to be this year’s award winner.

“He has been working with the human relations commission to create asset maps for Evanston to help all levels of the community, whether it be with children in need for recreational space or people looking for food pantries. He was working with us during these various activities and is passionate about his work, which really stands out to the faculty and staff at CURL,” says Nyden.

Brian is a senior at Loyola, majoring in economics and minoring in urban studies. Last semester, he worked with the city of Evanston to create a community asset map. This asset map involved researching to find all the non-profit service providers in the area and finding a way to connect them all. The map includes a directory of organizations that provide services for all types of needs in the community.

“It is an interactive map, and we’ve had it sent to a few agencies. Now, the city of Evanston is going to use it like a Google map, where you can pull it up and see all the different agencies. We did interviews with some of the workers at these non-profit places, and when you click on the link you want, you will see the general information about the organization and also a video link explaining more about the services provided,” says Dyer.

Brian’s work with CURL has not yet ended. This summer he was been working on a project with a photographer to take pictures of five different communities who have suffered through eminent domain.

“Richard Wasserman took the photographs of these areas, and we are compiling a list of the people who live in these communities and interviewing them. Eminent domain is a real problem, and we are working on figuring out what happens psychologically to the people who are displaced. Eventually all of these pictures and interviews will be put together in a book,” Dyer says.

Not only has the quality of Brian’s work impressed the people he has so diligently worked beside, but Brian’s passion for social justice and social change has been noticed by everyone at CURL. As part of this award, he will receive a $100 honorarium from CURL. After graduation, Dyer plans to take his GRE and apply for grad school. He wants to go to UIC for a master’s degree in urban planning with a focus on community development and transportation.

“I want to make a change. I want to spend the next 30 years making small, but impactful, changes that are good. I was in the right place and working with the right people, and we all are working towards the same goals. It really meant a lot to me to receive this award.”

When members of the 1946-47 Loyola Tennis team posed for their team photo, they never could have imagined where that photo would end up. Probably because technology had only advanced to radio.

Fast forward 65 years, and this snapshot can be viewed through a far more modern lens: a TwitPic to be exact.

Who are the digital historians behind this unlikely time machine? The Loyola Archives. This team of archivists is taking University history into the 21st century by utilizing Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to share photos and facts that generally sit untouched in Cudahy Library.

Ashley Howdeshell, associate archivist and human behind the Twitter handle, says creating @LUCArchives was a way to repudiate stigma around archives.

“When most people think of archives, they tend to think of dusty papers of dead people, but in reality an archive is so much more,” she says. “We have campus publications, yearbooks, photographs, framed portraits, a cowboy hat signed by Roy Rogers, autographs, personal papers, departmental papers, rare books, the list goes on and on.  With the Twitter handle, we hoped to dispel the notion that all we have are dusty papers.”

@LUCArchives‘s Twitter feed reads like a friendly digital timeline. In addition to the popular Photo of the Day feature, which links to a photo on Facebook from the archives (recent photo tweets include LU Wolf as an Elvis impersonator and J. Edgar Hoover receiving the Sword of Loyola), the handle interacts with other college archivists and links to Loyola news.

She also points out that these photos provide a historical perspective on current Loyola people and events.

“I choose the photographs for our Twitter and Facebook pages by paying attention to what is happening around campus and in the news. For example, when the Water Tower Campus had their annual block party, I posted some pictures from block parties past. When the country was all wrapped up in brackets for the NCAA Basketball Championship, I posted pictures of Loyola’s 1963 NCAA Championship men’s basketball team,” she says.

Though Howdeshell admits the archives don’t initially seem digital-media friendly, she says creating a positive Internet presence comes from great content, which she is confident the archives have.

“Our materials are not the types that typically spring to mind when thinking about social media content, but they have proven to be an excellent source for content,” she says. “We have great materials and interesting things to say about those materials and we want to share that with the world.”

Outside of Twitter, the Facebook account was recently updated to add events throughout Loyola’s history dating all the way back to the date the University was founded. The Tumblr account featured an essay on the RMS Titanic by history professor Robert Bucholz, PhD. Though Facebook and Tumblr may not be many students’ first choice when heading out to do research, Howdeshell thinks that creating these digital archives may spark interest–and perhaps even give the archives a reputation makeover.

“We hope that students looking for primary resources might stop by and ask if we have anything that would help their research. We hope that staff and faculty will see that their records are of extreme value and deposit those records with us to help preserve the history of Loyola,” she says. “

“Another goal is to make the Archives more approachable,” she adds. “I think archives in general suffer from an image problem. Lots of people think that they should only come to the Archives if they are doing scholarly research, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We want people to come to the Archives if they are writing a book, if they just want to learn more about Loyola, or if they just want to see some of the great rare books housed in our Special Collections.”

“Our collections are open to everyone and we want everyone to use them,” she says.

To find out more about the Archives, visit their website here, or check out their Twitter, Facebook, and/or Tumblr.

In addition to being a Provost Fellow this summer, Michael Janusek is a varsity track athlete who competes in distance running events.

Though people make choices about food for every meal, the conversation usually doesn’t go deeper than “pizza or salad?” For senior Provost Fellow Michael Janusek, however, these choices are food for thought.

This summer Janusek, an economics and anthropology major, urban studies minor, and varsity track athlete, is researching connections between personal food choice and family food choice. He points out that choosing what to eat often goes beyond what is palatable.

“Many people have values about the food they eat or the food that they want to feed their children. Yet, sometimes people have to sacrifice nutritional quality in order to save time or money,” he says. “They may not have enough time or energy after work to prepare the ideal family meal they wish they could.”

Janusek will be completing 5 to 10 in-depth interviews with Chicagoans in order to provide insight into the family food provider’s personal views on food versus the food choices they make for their family. However, unlike a conventional study that begins with a hypothesis, Janusek says he is doing a “grounded theory” study, meaning he will create a hypothesis after he collects his data.  That way, he says, “My participants tell me what to think.”

In addition to challenges with time and money, Janusek points out that sometimes new (and healthier) foods can be a tough sell to kids, so parents hesitate before taking a culinary gamble that may pay off. “It can be risky for a parent to spend money on a new food item they consider to be healthy, because the child may reject it, and the money is then wasted,” he says.

Ultimately, he hopes that this research can further explain why people make the food choices they do, so communities can better educate families to make beneficial choices.

“The goal of this research is to gain a broader understanding of family food choice,” he says. “Greater knowledge can hopefully allow dietitians and community centers to improve their obesity/childhood obesity programs.”

Janusek first became interested in this topic after taking a Community-based Research, Advocacy and Service in Healthcare (CRASH) class that did a study on this same topic. His faculty mentor, Dr. Mary Dominiak from the Niehoff School of Nursing and head of the Health Systems Management program, was the principal investigator for that study and he says she has helped guide his current study.

In addition to being a Provost Fellow, Janusek is a varsity track athlete who competes in distance running events. He says as an athlete, running is a part of who he is and naturally has an effect on the way he thinks. Though he believes physical fitness is an important factor in health, and can be affected by many of the same issues as food choice, his desire to study food choices comes from his family more than personal habits.

“I can think critically as a runner about how living in certain environments or situations can be detrimental to a person’s fitness or desire to exercise,” he says. “I would say this study comes more out of my interest in food and culture though. That just comes about from having an Italian grandma I guess.”

In the future, he hopes to expand even further on food choice, but for now this project fits perfectly with his studies and location.

“Food choice is complex because people have to balance time, money, personal taste, nutrition, and culture. Anthropology allows me to be familiar with qualitative research methods, while economics and urban studies help me see the broader policy issues of America’s food system,” he explains. “Because my study takes place in Chicago, I can think about all of this in a stimulating urban environment.”

This summer we will be profiling several Provost Fellows. The Provost Fellows are undergraduate students who either are interested in doing their own research with the help of a faculty member or wish to assist a faculty member with their research. They apply to the program with an outline for research, including a project description, budget, and faculty letter from the person who will be a part of the project. If they are accepted into the program, they receive a $1,000 stipend to complete their research. Their findings are then presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the spring. To find out more about the program, visit the website here.

The day was an overwhelming success as Loyola employees served in a variety of projects at two service sites. Misericordia, a community of care that offers a spectrum of residential options for persons with mild to profound developmental disabilities, in West Rogers Park hosted 25 volunteers.

After an educational and powerful tour of the 31-acre Chicago campus, the volunteers broke off into groups to work in several different program areas. Volunteers worked in the bakery, the laundry room, the green house, the art room, and numerous other places around the campus. Travis Proffitt, Loyola’s community partnership coordinator, described the work and service they were doing as “relational,” making personal connections with the residents that stay at Misericordia.

“I think that learning about the amazing things that go on there was truly impactful. We got the chance to work one-on-one with the folks who live there, and that was truly an incredible experience,” says Proffitt. “It was just a great day overall.”

The rest of the 115 workers headed to St. Procopius Church and School in Pilsen where the many helping hands cleaned, weeded, and sorted in groups assigned to various tasks. A group of workers painted three hallways, cleaned the cafeteria, sanitized the gym, and the IT department installed refurbished computers and rewired the school’s computer lab to make it more education friendly.

Chris Murphy, director of staff mission formation and faculty/staff chaplain, coordinated the St. Procopius service site and was more than delighted to have accomplished so much in the time they were there.

“Eleven volunteers tutored at the Poder Learning Center, working with adults seeking to improve their English-speaking skills, while others stocked the food pantry, sorted and placed clothing in the parish’s Clothes Closet, and sorted and wrapped gifts for the parish’s annual August street fair,” says Murphy.

St. Procopius Church got some much needed care when volunteers washed the vigil candle holders, polished the pews, and dusted and mopped the three flights of stairs in the back of the church. An outdoor landscape crew of volunteers weeded the front garden, the tree stands and sidewalks, the school playfield, the parking lot, and finished by cleaning up an alley that runs between the church and the school.

“For the parish, they want the church to stand out to the community, so to come in, clean up, and garden was a great gift to them. They have two campuses and they only have one maintenance man to do all the work, so it was helpful to have some people come in and knock off all those projects,” Murphy says.

Loyolans donated more than 40 bags and boxes of clothing, 20 boxes of school supplies, and 15 boxes of food to the service sites as an added support, instilling the fundamental values behind the Ignatian Day of Service. Brian O’Rourke, the school principal, and Sean O’Sullivan, S.J., St. Procopius’s pastor, were extremely grateful for the donations, time, and efforts put forth by the Loyola community. O’Rourke even commented that, “Loyola’s day of service was the best thing to happen at the school this year.”

The service day was in honor of the Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which will also be celebrated on Friday, July 27, starting with a Mass in Madonna della Strada Chapel at 11 a.m. Following the Mass, the University’s annual picnic will kick off at 12:15 p.m. on the East Quad, located on the Lake Shore Campus. Danielle Hanson, human resources manager, is excited to see the community come together for this annual tradition.

“The Feast Day is really a great way for the community to engage in the mission of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The service project and the on-campus supply drive are a huge component of this celebration, and the Mass and picnic are a way for the community to come together and celebrate the work that’s been done,” concludes Hanson.

For more information on Friday’s event, click here.

Fifty years ago, Loyola University Chicago and Mississippi State University played in one of the most memorable sporting events in the civil rights movement when they faced off in the NCAA Tournament in 1963. For the first time since that renowned “Game of Change,” the Ramblers and Bulldogs will play each other when the teams tangle at Gentile Arena on December 15. To close out the two-game series, the teams will also play a contest in Starkville, Mississippi, during the 2013-14 season. This will mark the first time Loyola is playing a Southeastern Conference team on its home floor since 1986 when the Ramblers hosted South Carolina.

“On the 50th anniversary of the famous ‘Game of Change’ we are thrilled that Mississippi State was willing to partner with us to recognize the historical significance of this contest,” Loyola Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics M. Grace Calhoun, PhD, says. “Loyola’s 1963 NCAA Tournament game versus Mississippi State served as a vehicle to challenge segregation and helped to forever change college basketball and civil rights in this country. The 1963 Loyola men’s basketball team accomplished so much both on and off the basketball court, including winning the NCAA National Championship, but the members of that team should also be celebrated for their multitude of achievements off the court as well.”

The only time Loyola and Mississippi State ever met on the hardwood, on March 15, 1963, the Ramblers earned a 61-51 victory in a NCAA Regional game at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, Michigan, as two-time All-American Jerry Harkness scored 20 points and Vic Rouse added 16.

Although the victory sent Loyola on to the NCAA Regional Final, where it dispatched Illinois 79-64, the game gained notoriety because of plethora of obstacles Mississippi State had to overcome just to play the contest. Because of unwritten laws that prohibited Mississippi State from playing integrated teams, the team snuck out of town, under the cover of darkness, before Governor Ross Barnett could serve papers preventing the team from playing the game in East Lansing, Michigan. The Ramblers, who eventually went on to win the national championship by toppling two-time defending champion University of Cincinnati in the title game, featured a roster with four African-American starters.

A documentary aptly titled Game of Change that chronicled that contest and some of the many hardships the teams faced that season, was produced nearly 40 years later and was shown at The Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis and in a private screening at the 2009 NCAA Final Four in Detroit, among other venues.

“The 1963 SEC champion Bulldogs were given the opportunity previous Mississippi State teams were denied – to compete for a national championship against the best teams in the country,” current Mississippi State Athletics Director Scott Stricklin says. “To do so, they had to defy a sitting Governor, avoid a court injunction, and sneak out of the state. We’re excited to join Loyola over the next two seasons in celebrating this historic occasion. Loyola won a national championship; Mississippi State helped to make for a better way of life. As a Bulldog, I’m proud of this team and the individuals who helped move our state forward when doing so took courage and conviction.”

Loyola welcomes in eight newcomers to the 2012-13 roster, but does return a pair of seniors in Second Team All-Horizon League forward Ben Averkamp and guard/forward Jordan Hicks.

The remainder of the men’s basketball schedule will be released later this summer.

A member since 1985, Dr. Ross has been committed to this professional organization for Catholic theologians for almost 30 years. She served as president-elect this past year where it was her duty to organize the annual convention for the CTSA in St. Louis. Now that she is installed as president, Dr. Ross will fulfill the duties appointed to her.

“In terms of being president, it is my job to keep in touch with the members, and in that sense, the main activity is to meet at this convention. We give scholarships and awards and operate continuing discussion groups throughout the year,” says Ross.

Recently, the board of the CTSA met and issued a statement regarding the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s “notification” on Professor Margaret Farley’s book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Ethics. Dr. Ross says that the CTSA issues these statements to “support our members who are theologians when controversy arises.”

With more than 1,300 members, it is the largest professional society of theologians in the world, so serving as president comes with great prestige and honor. During her time at Loyola, Dr. Ross has published three books in theology and she has had more than 50 of her scholarly articles published. Serving as president can only add to her extensive professional career.

“The basic ethos is to promote scholarship in Catholic theology,”Ross says. “I think that if you look at the list of people who have served as president of CTSA, they are usually people who are somewhat senior but have had long distinguished careers. It is definitely an honor to be president of an organization I have been committed to for such a long time.”

For additional background information about the CTSA, click here.

Loyola faculty, staff, and retirees will live out those words on Friday, July 20 during the Ignatian Day of Service. Every year, Loyolans volunteer at a different site around Chicago as a way to give back and celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius. This year, faculty and staff have also been collecting donations of food, school supplies, and clothing, and the donations will be given to this year’s sites.

According to Chris Murphy, director of staff mission formation and faculty/staff chaplain, there are more than 140 Loyolans signed up for the day of service, and 27 volunteers will go to Misericordia in West Rogers Park, while the rest will head to St. Procopius Church and School in Pilsen. At Misericordia, volunteers will divide into small teams to help with various tasks, while at St. Procopius, volunteers will work on a variety of projects, including painting in the school and campus buildings, serving in the parish food pantry and clothes closet, and helping ready the prizes and gifts for the parish’s August street fair.

Murphy says these two sites were chosen so Loyola could “deepen its existing partnership with community organizations,” as well as provide projects that could be completed in a one-day service opportunity.

Ultimately, Murphy points out that this day of service is a way to pay homage to Loyola’s Jesuit heritage, and live out the words of St. Ignatius.

“This day of celebrating St Ignatius and our Jesuit heritage is a concrete sign of putting love into action,” he says.

In addition to serving others to celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius, there will also be an actual feast next week– a picnic on the Lake Shore Campus East Quad and Mass at Madonna della Strada Chapel. For more on those plans, click here.

A Loyola School of Education student works with children at George B. Swift Specialty School in the Edgewater neighborhood.

After a rigorous seven-year process, Loyola’s School of Education has been granted national accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). This accreditation shows the School of Education’s commitment to high quality educator preparation and their continuous efforts to meet the high standards set before them.

Associate Dean of Education, Beverly Kasper, is pleased to see that their hard work has paid off after the years of constant evaluation and preparation for this honor.

“Well this accreditation means a lot of things. It means we have gone through a rigorous evaluation process by our peers and professional committee. As a school, we are willing to look at all of our programs and put them under a microscope, re-assess them, and constantly work on making improvements,” Kasper  says.

The NCATE evaluates schools, colleges, teachers, and superintendents who work in the field of education. They have six specific standards that must be met for a school to be accredited and the summaries for each are as follows: 1.Candidate knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions; 2. Assessment system and unit evaluation; 3.Field experience and clinical practice; 4.Diversity; 5.Faculty qualifications, performance, and development; 6.Unit governance and resources.

“They have six established standards. What we do is look at ourselves and what we do in relation to those six standards. We have eight additional standards that go along with a conceptual framework we’ve created, and we assess students based on those standards. It becomes the benchmark for all the students in the School of Education,” says Kasper.

The School of Education has a reason to celebrate because after receiving their accreditation report, the Unit Accreditation Board cited no areas for improvement relative to any of the standards.

“Not everybody wants to or is able to go through the rigorous program. It is not something that you start getting ready for a year before it happens. There is about a three- to four-year intense focus and the other years in between we focus on continually improving. We never stop looking at our school or stop maintaining it,” Kasper says.

One might ask how this accreditation affects the students who are currently studying in the School of Education. Since it is a national accreditation, it means that the graduates will be certified to teach in any school in the United States and not just Illinois.

“There are some places where schools are small, and they may not be as interested in national accreditation, but for us, it’s very important because we draw students from other states and our graduates are coming from a school with national standards,” Kasper explains. “It will always be known that [our students] came from a school with a nationally accredited program. That’s a hugely important reason for doing all this.”

Kasper stresses that, “It isn’t just something that only the administration does, but it’s something everybody in the School of Education is involved in.” Faculty outlines the standards in their syllabuses and coursework and the students strive to meet the standards through testing and assessments. Together as a whole, they were able to meet the standards required for the accreditation.

“We have one major goal in mind and that is to continually have an impact on students. One of the guiding standards is, ‘what is the impact we have on the people we are training, and how are they going to impact the students and community?’ Each student in the School of Education has an impact project, and their impact project is part of their culminating experience of student teaching,” Kasper says. “We make sure we are doing our best to improve the learning environment that we work with and that we know we are able to have an impact on students’ learning.”

This national accreditation is an everyday reminder of the hard work and outstanding achievement that the School of Education has spent the past seven years earning. The work isn’t over yet as they prepare to endure the process once more for the next NCATE scheduled visit in the fall of 2018.

“It’s an ongoing process of looking at ourselves as a school and as faculty. This is what we do; this is the standard that we have set for ourselves,” Kasper concludes.

Pictured: Peter Buhl (left) and Jim Sibenaller

When Jim Sibenaller, director of enterprise, architecture, and the project management office, first came to Loyola from his fast-paced corporate job five years ago, he was thrown for a loop.

“I went from a corporation to higher ed non-profit and it was a major, major shock, and I had to figure it out for myself,” he says. “There was no mentoring program.”

Remembering that difficult transition time, and now a veteran of Loyola, this past spring Sibenaller decided to give back through the Loyola University Chicago Mentoring Experience (LUC&ME) program.  This program pairs a Loyola staff member with a newly hired Loyola staff member in order to offer the new staff member a resource and friendly face around the University, and professional development from someone who already knows the institution. Sibenaller was paired with Peter Buhl, senior asset manager of investment properties, and over the last six months the pair has grown to be business colleagues, as well as friends through the program.

Buhl, like Sibenaller, came from a different background to higher education. His former company had only about 35 employees, so when he was tapped to come to Loyola as a manager of investment properties, he says he was overwhelmed at the different people he was going to have to connect with in order to get his department going. He decided to join the program in order to make as many contacts and gain insight to how Loyola works. He say the benefit of meeting Sibenaller, was just a bonus outside of acclimating to the University.

“Meeting new people and gaining insight about Loyola aside, I think at the end of the day I have made a really good friend,” he says. “Jim is just one of those all around great guys that everybody loves and feel fortunate to have been paired up with him.”

In addition, the two were lucky enough to find out they both share a passion for golf. Sibenaller points out that this has been a connection that helped them bond right away, and has offered a chance for them to become friends outside of work as well.

“We started the whole thing off by having coffee just to get away from campus, and it turned into an hour and a half conversation,” he says. “We kept talking about Loyola and my experience, he just came in from a new job and he talked about his transition, and then we talked about golf.”

Within Loyola, however, Buhl says his transition into Loyola would have been difficult if not for Sibenaller.

“Jim was also recruited from outside the University and could completely relate to what I was going through in the beginning and, what challenges I might face moving forward in my role. He has worked for the university for more than five years now and knows Loyola like the back of his hand. If I ever want to just bounce an idea off someone or need advice on something, he’s the first one I call,” he says. “It’s also great to have him on speed dial in the event my computer crashes, which for some reason happens to me more than most people? As he likes to tell me, “Peter, the machine is fine, it’s just user error!”

But Sibenaller points out that it goes both ways.

“For me, I was really surprised how much I learned. Mentors are people who have been around a while, I was surprised at how much I learned. Don’t think it’s a one way street,” he says. “It’s so rewarding.”

They both mention that one of the benefits of being a part of the program is that no one is tied to go to any formal meetings (though they are offered)– whatever is most convenient for the pair is how often they meet. For example, Sibenaller and Buhl prefer to go out to coffee or hit the links for a round of golf when they meet.

Sibenaller points out that if not for LUC&ME, he would have missed out on getting to know someone he would not have run into, and made a great friend in the process.

“I have now built a relationship with someone in the University with someone I never would have known in the University,” he says. “Peter is a true friend of mine.”

LUC&ME is looking for mentors for the fall semester. If interested, please call 773.508.3964 or click here.