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WORCESTER, Mass. – Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, author of The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium (Harper Perennial, 1994), will speak Monday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk is free and open to the public.  Copies of his book, which was the common summer reading for Holy Cross students entering their sophomore year, will be available at the campus bookstore and at the event.

“In the book, Csiksentmihalyi argues that it is essential, for ourselves and for the future of the planet, that we live lives of meaning, passion, and ‘flow,’ which refers to those experiences of unity and wholeness that make it all feel worthwhile,” says Mark Freeman, dean of the class of 2011. “The book is in line with the Holy Cross mission and I hope will it will get students to think about their lives as well as about their place as human beings.”

Csikszentmihalyi, one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychology of creativity, is the C.S. and D.J. Davidson Professor of Psychology at the The Peter Drucker School of Management at The Claremont Graduate University in Calif. and is director of the Quality of Life Research Center.  He is also a professor emeritus of human development at the University of Chicago, where he chaired the department of psychology.

A former resident scholar at the Rockefeller Center at Bellagio, resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, and senior Fulbright Fellow in Brazil and New Zealand, Csikszentmihalyi holds honorary doctor of science degrees from Colorado College, Stevens Institute of Technology, and from Lake Forest College; and a doctor of fine arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.  He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Psychological Society, the National Academy of Education, and the National Academy of Leisure Studies and a foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Serving on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals, he has been a consultant to business, government organizations, educational associations, and cultural institutions and given invited lectures throughout the world.  In addition to the hugely influential Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990), he is the author of 13 other books translated into different 23 languages, and has written over 245 research articles. His latest book is titled Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning (Viking Press, 2003).

Csiksentmihalyi’s keynote lecture is the culmination of Holy Cross’ Second-Year Opportunities Program (2YO).  The program, one of the few of its kind in the nation, provides methods by which sophomores evaluate their academic careers in order to make the most of their three remaining years at Holy Cross. Through common readings, advising, and other programs, 2YO introduces students to the value of the College’s rich curricular electives, including minors, concentrations, study away and abroad, special academic and advisory programs, internships, college and departmental honors programs, and post-baccalaureate opportunities.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Rev. Matthew Malone, S.J., associate editor of America Magazine, will present “Follow Your Heart,” a musical program about one man’s vocation on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross; and Rev. Paul Campbell, S.J., vice president of Loyola Press, Chicago, and Joseph Durepos, executive editor of Loyola Press, will present “Jesuit Authors Through the Ages,” on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Seelos Theater at Holy Cross. The multimedia presentation, which celebrates Jesuit Humanism at its best and worst, is a fond and irreverent homage to 500 years of Jesuit poetry and prose.

Both presentations are part of the College’s Jesuit Heritage Week, which will be celebrated from Sept. 21 – 26 with a series of guest lectures, liturgies, discussions and other events.  The presentations, and all other Jesuit Heritage Week events, are free and open to the public.

“Follow Your Heart” is a witty and poignant cabaret musical about one man’s journey of faith from a crazy Irish catholic family, through the adventure of love and loss, and the ups and downs of professional politics. Fr. Malone, who covers U.S. politics and foreign affairs for America Magazine puts on an unconventional cabaret musical that will inspire.

The multimedia presentation, “Jesuit Authors Through the Ages,” is a fond homage to nearly 500 years of Jesuit writing, from the formal elegance of Ignatius Loyola, through the magnificent verse of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Jim Martin, the best-selling Jesuit of recent times.

Fr. Campbell was born in Ireland and lived in France and Japan before beginning his teaching career in Syracuse, N.Y. A mid-life career change brought him to Los Angeles for an exciting but short-lived stint in the entertainment industry.  In 2006, he started at Loyola Press, where he is in charge of mission, identity and online community building.

Durepos was born in Long Island, N.Y., but as a “military brat” lived in 26 different houses before the age of 16. He is a veteran publishing professional whose jobs have included book store manager, publisher’s sales representative, literary agent and for the last six years, acquisitions editor at Loyola Press. He is the editor of numerous Catholic best-sellers including No Greater Love by Mother Theresa (New World Library, 1997) and Lessons for Living by Pope John Paul II (Loyola Press 2004); he has recently published a volume on St. Paul, A Still More Excellent Way (Loyola Press, 2008).

Additional events planned during Jesuit Heritage Week:

All events are open to the public.

• Sun., Sept. 21, 7 p.m. in Mary Chapel: Holy Cross Jesuits will concelebrate Mass, where Rev. James M. Hayes, S.J., rector of the Holy Cross Jesuit Community, will preach. Following Mass at St. Joseph Chapel Plaza there will be an ice cream social sponsored by the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society.
• Mon., Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m. at the Rehm Library: “Men and Women for Others: What Jesuit Education Means to Me” is the theme of a panel discussion with Holy Cross students. The panel will explore the students’ experiences in Jesuit education. Panelists include Becky Krier ’09, Brady Howell ’09, Dave Floyd ’09 and Brian Regan ’10.
• Tues., Sept. 23: Jesuit Amazing Race, a trivia scavenger hunt that will be launched by an e-mail clue.  There will be a special Jesuit Heritage dinner menu in Kimball Hall. At 5:15 p.m. celebrate mass with the Jesuits in Ciampi Hall.
• Wed., Sept. 24, 4 p.m., in the Rehm Library: “Catholics and Politics” a talk by Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center in Washington D.C. At 5:15 p.m. celebrate mass with the Jesuits in Ciampi Hall.
• Fri., Sept. 26, at 4 p.m. in Rehm Library: “How My Jesuit Education Influenced My Life” is the theme of a panel discussion with Holy Cross alumni. The panel will be moderated by Jeremiah “Chip” O’Connor ’83, director of conference services at the College. Panelists include Sean Dillon ‘ 04, a teacher at the Nativity School of Worcester; Mary Beth Ryan ‘ 05, three year teacher at the Nativity School of Fall River; Sheila Cavanaugh ’81, senior vice president of Fidelity Investments in Boston; and Frank Kartheiser ’72, director of Worcester Interfaith. At 5:15 p.m. celebrate mass with the Jesuits in Ciampi Hall.

Jesuit Heritage Week is sponsored by the Office of the Chaplains; the Office of the President; the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture; the Jesuit Community at Holy Cross and the Jesuit Heritage Week planning committee.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Gerald Stern, poet and author, will give a reading on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is part of the College’s Visiting Writers Lecture Series. Sponsored by the College’s Creative Writing Program, it is free and open to the public.

Stern, born in Pittsburgh, Penn, in 1925, received his B.A. at the University of Pittsburgh and his M.A. at Columbia University. His recent books of poetry include Everything Is Burning (Norton, 2005); American Sonnets (2002); Last Blue: Poems (2000); This Time: New and Selected Poems (1998), which won the National Book Award; Odd Mercy (1995); and Bread Without Sugar (1992), winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize.  His other books include Leaving Another Kingdom: Selected Poems (1990); Two Long Poems (1990); Lovesick (1987); Paradise Poems (1984); The Red Coal (1981), which received the Melville Caine Award from the Poetry Society of America; Lucky Life, the 1977 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets, which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award; and Rejoicings (1973).

Stern has received numerous awards including the Paris Review’s Bernard F. Conners Award, the Bess Hokin Award from Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Prize, four National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from American Poetry Review, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2005, Stern was selected to receive the Wallace Stevens Award for mastery in the art of poetry. Stern was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2006. He resides in Lambertville, N.J.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Four members of the College of the Holy Cross faculty have been honored with the Arthur J. O’Leary Faculty Recognition Award. These $10,000 honoraria are given each year by the senior vice president, Frank Vellaccio, to senior faculty members who make a special contribution to Holy Cross through their teaching, scholarship and/or service. The O’Leary Awards are intended to honor the recipients, to advance their work, and to encourage other members of the faculty to attain a high level of professional achievement and to be a positive influence in lives of students. The 2008 recipients include:

Patricia Bizzell, professor of English, earned her Ph.D. in English literature from Rutgers University. A member of Holy Cross faculty since 1978, she is a nationally recognized authority on the teaching of composition and has lectured and conducted workshops at other institutions and at scholarly meetings. Her book, The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present, which she co-authored with Bruce Herzberg, received the National Council of Teachers of English Outstanding Book Award in 1992. A member of the advisory board for the Voices of Democracy Project, she worked to help create a Web site of important speeches in American history, with scholarly and teaching apparatus attached, which was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was recently awarded the 2008 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Exemplar Award by the National Council of Teachers of English and served as president of the Rhetoric Society of America from 2006-08. Bizzell plans to use the award towards an M.A. in the Jewish Liberal Studies Program at Hebrew College in Newton, Mass.  She is currently a graduate student in the program and is getting ready to teach courses in Jewish literature at Holy Cross in the spring.  She resides in Worcester.

Francisco Gago-Jover, professor and chair of the modern languages and literatures department, received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his B.A. from the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1996, Gago-Jover has been chair of the department of modern languages and literatures since 2004.  He has received two Hewlett-Mellon grants to develop course materials at Holy Cross. He is author of Arte de bien morir y Breve confesionario (1999) and Vocabulario militar castellano, siglos XIII-XV (2002), co-author of Lexical Studies of Medieval Spanish Texts (2004) and Diccionario militar de Raimundo Sanz (2007); since 2002 he has been one of the editors of the Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language. He plans to use the award to work on the edition and study of two 19th century manuscript dictionaries; one is about the vocabulary of the Asturian language, and the second one is a military dictionary. He will travel to the Hispanic Society of America in New York City, and the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid, Spain, to examine the manuscripts and acquire digital copies. Gago-Jover lives in Worcester.

Lynn Kremer, professor of theatre, earned her M.F.A. at Brandeis University and her B.F.A. at the University of Minnesota. A Holy Cross faculty member since 1983, she has written and directed for theatre, opera, and video.  Her work has been performed at the Miller Theatre Sonic Boom Festival in New York City; the Walker Art Center and Fringe Festival in Minneapolis; the Tsai Performance Center and Boston Center for the Arts in Boston; the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center; the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.; and in venues in Ft. Worth, Chicago, and Ireland. Her visual pieces are informed by the theatre and dance traditions of India and Indonesia. While living in Micronesia, she produced and directed a video program on the chant/dance traditions of Palau through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/Dance program. Kremer has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts/Opera Program, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Commission, the Worcester Arts Lottery, the LEF Foundation, the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center and Holy Cross.  The New England Theatre Conference gave her a special award for Outstanding Achievement on a National Level. Kremer will use her O’Leary grant to research, travel, develop, and mount three new theatrical works. She lives in Princeton, Mass. with her husband and daughter.

Todd Lewis, professor of religious studies, received his Ph.D. and M.A from Columbia University and his B.A. from Rutgers University.  A member of Holy Cross faculty since 1990, Lewis is one of the world’s leading authorities on the religions of the mid-montaine Himalayan region and the social history of Buddhism. In addition to scholarly books and articles published in leading academic journals, Lewis has shot, directed, and produced films for classroom use and co-authored a textbook, World Religions Today (Oxford University Press, 2005), which is widely used today in college classes. Lewis is the chair of the Holy Cross Japanese Garden Campus Initiative, a program to build a tea house, multipurpose room, and several gardens on campus.  Over the past 10 years, Lewis has become one of the leading academics involved nationwide in the continuing education of K-12 teachers on the cultures and religions of Asia. In this area he has co-directed three summer institutes at Holy Cross funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities, done workshops across New England on myriad subjects, and served as lecturer for study tours to Asia. Lewis resides in Holden.

The Arthur J. O’Leary Faculty Recognition Awards have been made possible by an endowed gift to the College from Thomas H. O’Leary ’54, former President, CEO and Chairman of Burlington Resources, in memory of his father, Arthur J. O’Leary.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross has unveiled its newly renovated state-of-the-art Francis Xavier Seelos Theater, located in Kimball Hall.

For years, the theater has been primarily used as a movie theater and is the venue for the College’s popular film series (formerly the Kimball Theatre Film Series) that is free and open to the public.

Films will continue to be shown in the space, but the renovations will allow the College to significantly broaden the kinds of programs offered there to include large group meetings, lectures, panel discussions, and performances.

“Seelos Theater is an important new space for our campus,” says Rev. Michael C. McFarland S.J., president of the College, noting that it now serves as the College’s largest academic hall.  “With the launch of Montserrat, first-year students now have a location to gather together for common events such as films, lectures and panel discussions.”

The newly designed 360-seat theater has a new lobby and reception area with coffered ceiling and arches.  Other amenities include a new projection booth, green room, Dolby Digital surround sound, acoustic ceiling, flexible lighting, and three lecterns on stage to accommodate a large range of events.

The College worked in consultation with Lamoureux Pagano Architects, Worcester, on the renovation and design of the new space.

The new theater is named in honor of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R. (1819-1867), the Redemptorist priest and missionary, known for his tireless work with the poor and immigrant communities in the United States.  He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000.  A bronze statue of Fr. Seelos, commissioned especially for the theater, stands in the lobby.

The following films will be shown at the Seelos Theater at Holy Cross. All films are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. For additional information, please call the Seelos Theater Box Office at 508-793-2455.

Seelos Theater Film Series (formerly Kimball Theatre Film Series):

The Lives of Others
Wed., Sept. 17: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Fri., Sept. 19 and Sat., Sept. 20: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

Black Book
Wed., Sept. 24: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

Shine a Light
Fri., Sept. 26 and Sat., Sept. 27: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

The Eleventh Hour
Wed., Oct. 1: Showings 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG.

Iron Man
Fri., Oct. 3 and Sat., Oct. 4: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Wed., Oct. 8: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Not rated.

Molière
Wed., Oct. 15: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Fri., Oct. 17 and Sat., Oct. 18: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

Standard Operating Procedure
Wed., Oct. 22: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

Taxi to the Dark Side
Wed., Oct. 29: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Fri., Oct. 31: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

There Will Be Blood
Wed., Nov. 5: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

Kung Fu Panda
Fri., Nov. 7 and Sat., Nov. 8: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

The Visitor
Wed., Nov. 12: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

Wanted
Fri., Nov. 14 and Sat., Nov. 15: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated R.

Reprise
Wed., Nov. 19: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

Wall-E
Fri., Nov. 21 and Sat., Nov. 22: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated G.

Mongol
Wed., Dec. 3: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

The Dark Knight
Fri., Dec. 5 and Sat., Dec. 6: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

Hell Boy 2: The Golden Army
Fri., Dec. 12 and Sat., Dec. 13: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., are forming a Direct Admission Partnership to encourage undergraduates to pursue an M.B.A. at the Simon School immediately following their studies.

Under the agreement, faculty and administrators at Holy Cross will recommend top undergraduate students for M.B.A. admission consideration at the Simon School, one of the nation’s top-ranked business schools. The partnership will act as a feeder into the Simon M.B.A. program and coincides with the Simon Early Leaders™ initiative which seeks to recruit exceptionally talented students with less than three years of professional work experience.

“We are delighted to be a Direct Admission Partner of the Simon Graduate School of Business,” says David Chu, Ph.D., director of the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies and prebusiness advisor at Holy Cross. “Collaborating with the Simon M.B.A. Program will further enhance the Holy Cross business network by providing our students the opportunity to obtain an excellent graduate business education from a nationally recognized M.B.A. program.”

The Simon School has established nearly 30 Direct Admissions Partnerships with small- to mid-sized liberal arts colleges and universities including Barnard, Bates, Colby, Dickinson, Hamilton, Hobart & William Smith, Lafayette, Lewis & Clark, Oberlin, Spelman, St. Lawrence, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo, and the University of Rochester.

In a recent paper, “The Simon M.B.A.: Now Versus Later,” Dean Mark Zupan and Professor James A. Brickley estimate that the net present value of an M.B.A. completed immediately after the bachelor’s degree is approximately $170,000 higher than for those who delay entry five years or more.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Rev. M.K. George, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow in the sociology and anthropology department, will give a talk on the celebrated Kerala development model, titled “Learning from ‘God’s own Country,’ Kerala, India: a Development Model and a Paradox,” on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 4 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a welcome reception for Fr. George in Ciampi Hall on campus.

“The talk will address the fact that a small state, with slow economic growth has achieved unbelievable results in areas such as literacy, life expectancy, morality rates and other indicators of development, on par with the developed world,” explains Fr. George. “So much so, in development discourse, it is called the ‘Kerala Model of Development.’”

The talk will focus on four main points; the rationale for calling the Kerala Experience a model; the factors that made it a model; if the model can be replicable elsewhere in the world; and the current state of the model.

Fr. George, a Jesuit of the Kerala Province in India, is a social scientist at Loyola College of Social Sciences in Kerala, India, where he has taught for the past 22 years.  He earned a master’s degree in andragogy (adult education) from the University of Madras, a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Kerala, and a Ph.D. in education from Pune University in India. At Holy Cross he is teaching courses on the comparative sociology of education in India and the U.S. and urbanization in the developing world. He is currently performing research on the comparison of family dynamics in U.S. and India.

WORCESTER, Mass. – With an offense that throws the ball as proficiently as anyone in the country, and features a Walter Payton Award candidate at quarterback, people tend to forget the running game.

But Holy Cross senior running back Terrance Gass just happens to enjoy his role on the wide-open Crusader offense.

“Our offense really spreads the defense out. We’re always looking to create more space and have more running room, and I’m able to get out and run and catch in the open field,” Gass said.

He added, “It’s good for me because it’s just the type of player I am. I can run and catch the ball better than doing the same thing over and over.”

Gass did plenty of both with success in 2007. While quarterback Dominic Randolph was earning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year honors and a talented group of wide receivers was racking up huge numbers, Gass quietly played his role in the potent Crusader attack by rushing for 563 yards and six touchdowns and catching 27 passes for 318 yards and four scores. Gass posted a 5.6 yards per carry average that led all Patriot League players, and earned Second-Team All-Patriot League honors for his efforts and big-play ability.

Holy Cross finished in the top five nationally in total and passing offense in 2007, racking up 463.4 total yards per game and 335.2 yards per contest through the air. They also scored 35.9 points per game, leading the Patriot League in all three categories.

With eight starters back, including Randolph at quarterback on the heels of being named a Walter Payton Award candidate, Gass sees the Crusader offense hitting on all cylinders when the 2008 season kicks off on Saturday at home against Massachusetts.

“We have a lot of players with experience and a lot of people with time being together in one unit,” Gass said. “There’s a great connection between Dom and the receivers, the offensive line and all the way down.”

Gass hails from Sicklerville, New Jersey, which is closer in distance to each of the other six Patriot League football schools than it is to Holy Cross. But even though he came to Worcester on the heels of some tough seasons, Gass wanted to make the journey because he saw a Crusader program on the rise under Head Coach Tom Gilmore.

“Holy Cross was going to have a bright future with Coach Gilmore,” Gass said. “It was going in a positive direction and had a great academic reputation to go with top level football.”

That hope for a bright future has turned into reality, as Gilmore and the Crusaders have finished with a winning mark in each of Gass’ three seasons and posted a 4-2 record in Patriot League play in each of the past two years. While those seasons have been successful for total victories, Holy Cross has come just short of winning its first Patriot League title since 1991 and advancing to the FCS postseason for the first time as a Patriot League member and first time overall since 1983.

The Crusaders were picked second in the Patriot League’s preseason poll of coaches and sports information directors. They are expected to contend for the League crown yet again, but Gass knows it will not be easy.

“The competition in the Patriot League is great, every game is a championship game for everyone. Every game is a must win.”

Gass plans on a career in the accounting field after graduation, and interned with a Deloitte & Touche office in Boston over the summer. For now, he’s going to enjoy one more year of “counting”, as the Crusaders hope to accumulate the points and yards on offense again and take the next step by winning the Patriot League title.

By Matt Dougherty, Patriot League media relations director