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For centuries, humans and scientists alike have been fascinated by flight and our planet’s flying creatures. Leon Claessens, assistant professor of biology at the College of the Holy Cross, is no exception. He’s made it his life’s work to study the relationship between the anatomy of birds and flight—and now he’s sharing his research in the new History Channel series Evolve. Evolve: Flight premieres Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 10 p.m.

Internationally known for a study he co-published in Nature suggesting that the breathing systems of Tyrannosaurus rex are similar to those of living birds, Claessens was sought out by producers last May for his research on the evolution of bird respiratory systems. Filming took place over the summer and involved experiments with live birds. Using cineradiography (x-ray video) to examine the air sacs of guinea fowl on a treadmill, Claessens demonstrated how birds get the oxygen they need for flight.

Claessens’ appearance marks the second time a Holy Cross scientist has been featured in a History Channel show in less than a month. On August 14, Jude Kelley, assistant professor of chemistry, performed experiments and provided commentary on iron during an episode of Modern Marvels. Richard Herrick, professor and chair of the chemistry department, served as a special consultant for the show.

The recipient of several grants, Claessens was recently awarded $497,735 from the National Science Foundation (NSF), to create a 3D online database of digital scans of the different bones in the skeleton of living, recently extinct, and fossil birds.

Related Information:

• Holy Cross Professor Receives NSF Grant for Cutting-Edge Research on Bird Anatomy

This year, the Gateways orientation program — now involving more than 200 faculty, administrators and students — is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It is being held from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. Jacqueline D. Peterson, vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students at Holy Cross, talks about why she made creating the summer and fall orientation programs a major objective when she arrived at the College in 1997.

MAKING LASTING CONNECTIONS Before Gateways, orientation at Holy Cross consisted of a day’s worth of events immediately before the fall semester began. “It didn’t seem that we gave students and their parents enough time to really connect with the College and engage with the people who were already here — all of which would help with the overall transition,” says Peterson. “In order for both students and parents to get a good solid start, we needed to spend a little more time making connections.”

Today, more than 80 percent of new students (along with their parents) participate in Summer Gateways, a high number says Peterson, considering it is a voluntary program. Fall Gateways is required and after parents bid their children adieu, first-year students have three days of preparation.

NOT SO FAST In the late 1990s, colleges and universities were developing more in-depth orientation programs primarily because of retention issues, says Peterson. Holy Cross didn’t (and doesn’t) have that problem, but she believed an orientation program would help build community.  “In developing our signature program, we focused on the mission of Holy Cross — how it is important that every member of the community takes responsibility for the life of the College.  One of the principles of Jesuit education is to educate the whole person.  I knew a well-developed orientation program would set the stage for the next four years.”

THE MILLENNIALS ARE COMING The inception of Gateways came at a good time. “The so-called ‘millennial generation’ was coming of college age, and we were beginning to see one of the characteristics of this demographic:  students and parents had stronger connections and they wanted to maintain that during college.  Parents also wanted to be comfortable with their student’s transition to college life and what the next four years would bring.”

BEARING FRUIT “After students and their parents had gone through the first Summer Gateways in 1998, I’ll never forget the sense of relaxation during Fall Gateways. I remember vividly seeing a family sitting underneath that apple tree,” she says, pointing out her Hogan Campus Center office.  “They were chatting and eating snacks. It was markedly different than the year before when people were frantic, trying to figure out everything in a single day.”

HELLO, FRIEND “I think the connections that incoming students make with current students are critically important,” she says. “By having a summer and fall orientation, strong connections will be made. The primary responsibility of our student Orientation Leaders is to be a resource for the new students — to be able to answer questions, to reassure, to make them feel comfortable, to share experiences, to offer guidance. So as a result, we have had new students corresponding over the summer with their Orientation Leaders!”

Pictured: New students partake in a social activity during Summer Gateways held in June at Holy Cross.

Related Information:

• Gateways Orientation

Pete Francis and the Flyers will headline the fall concert at Holy Cross on Sept. 1 at the Field House. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., when opening act Michael Tolcher is slated to the take the stage. Alex Spanos ’09 will also be opening.

Tickets are currently on sale at the Holy Cross Bookstore. Tickets are $5 for Holy Cross students with an ID; $15 for Holy Cross faculty and staff, and Colleges of Worcester Consortium students; and $20 for the general public. Tickets are also available online.

Pete Francis is a singer songwriter based in New York City. He began his career with the band Dispatch. For almost 10 years, the three members of Dispatch released four studio albums, a live DC, and a DVD. In 2004, Dispatch performed a farewell show in Boston drawing 110,000 fans, making it the largest independent music event in history.

Francis continued producing music as a solo artist. His most recent release, Iron Sea and The Cavalry, expresses Francis’ soulful rock, folk and blues influences.

The event is sponsored by the Student Government Association and Campus Activities Board at Holy Cross.

Michael C. Perry has been appointed the new vice president for development and alumni relations at the College of the Holy Cross. He will assume his duties in mid-September, according to Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of the College, who made the announcement.

As a member of the College’s senior executive team, Perry will report directly to Fr. McFarland and will oversee a team of 45. He will be responsible for all aspects of the College’s fundraising efforts as well as donor and alumni relations.

“We are delighted to have Michael Perry joining the executive team at Holy Cross,” said Fr. McFarland. “In addition to his solid management and administrative experience in premiere educational environments, he has a good understanding of our strong and distinctive identity as a Jesuit liberal arts college. He also has the proven ability to lead a hard-working and committed team, to work effectively with major donors, and to appreciate and advance the mission of Holy Cross.”

He succeeds Paul E. Sheff, who left the College earlier this year after a ten-year tenure to become the first lay president of Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury, Mass.

Perry has had a 23-year career in the field of advancement. For the past five years, he served as vice president for institutional advancement at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, one of the nation’s leading independent schools. There, he successfully launched and managed a $100 million comprehensive campaign and oversaw alumni relations, marketing and communications. Prior to that, he spent 18 years at Deerfield Academy, in Deerfield, Mass., including nearly ten years as director of development.

He earned his B.A. degree from Tufts University and M.A. in history from Trinity College.

Among liberal arts colleges, Holy Cross was ranked sixth for salary earning potential in a study released by PayScale, an online provider of compensation data.

The rankings were based on the salaries of both recent graduates and those with 10 to 20 years of experience. Starting median salaries among Holy Cross graduates with less than five years of experience averaged $50,200. The mid-career median was $106,000.

PayScale’s database includes real-time salary data culled from 13 million unique compensation profiles. PayScale allows users to compare their salary online to other people with similar individual and job characteristics.

PayScale’s liberal arts rankings were based upon survey data for graduates without higher degrees who are full-time employees in the United States. Salary is the sum of compensation from base salary, bonuses, profit sharing, commissions, and overtime, if applicable, but does not include stock compensation.

During the feast of St. Ignatius on July 30, the opening night of the National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference in Seattle, the president of Seattle University, Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J., gave the keynote address. After being up for 16 hours and crossing three time zones, I was a little tired to say the least and was not excited to listen to a speaker. But Fr. Steve surprised me by opening up my eyes to a completely different concept of spirituality.

Fr. Steve took the time to carefully describe that discovering one’s spirituality is a long journey one partakes in over the course of a lifetime. Spirituality, according to him, is not just about religion; it is care of the entire person, or what Jesuits call Cura Personalis. Taking the time every day — not just once in a while — to reflect and look inward upon oneself in an effort to learn about who you are, why you have become that way, and where and how you want to direct your life in the future is critical in developing yourself as a human being. As Fr. Steve explained, the ability to do this every day, just as the Jesuits do, can greatly enhance what you get out of life and what you can give to others. By embracing the concept of Cura Personalis, this allows people to dive deeper into their own spirituality and, thus, enjoy a deeper understanding of their life’s purpose.

Spirituality is like the world around us, forever changing. Certain things in life can change your entire perspective. That is why it is so critical to take the time — as much time as possible — to reflect on your experiences because they will forever shape your spirituality.

As I was listening to Fr. Steve speak about this, it occurred to me that as a member of the Holy Cross community and head resident assistant in Mulledy, I am continually asked to reflect back upon my experiences and see how those might guide me in the future. It has taken a hold in my life, this sense of spirituality. Through a variety of experiences offered, Holy Cross has been pushing me to become the best person I can be. Sometimes it takes an off-campus experience like the National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference to appreciate what type of education Holy Cross provides.

Today, I realize that I have the best sense of self I have ever had in my life. Every day, whether it is writing in my journal or just going for a run to mull over the day’s events, I am exploring how my experiences will help shape who I want to become. I hope that in my remaining two years at Holy Cross, I will be able to help others feel the same way about the Jesuit education they are receiving and just how special it is.

Shea Sennett ’10 is a mathematics major from Goffstown, N.H.

From Aug. 25 until Oct. 4, Holy Cross’ Cantor Art Gallery will host Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam, a collection of works from 10 contemporary Vietnamese women artists challenging the traditional roles of women in Vietnamese society. This exhibit is the first of its kind to tour the United States and Holy Cross is the only New England venue to hold the exhibition.

This distinct opportunity comes with much responsibility for the gallery’s director, Roger Hankins, and Ann Marie Leshkowich, associate professor of anthropology and sociology. Both played important roles in discovering the exhibit and preparing for its arrival.

“My own research has included a focus on gender and fashion in Vietnam,” says Leshkowich. “For several years, I had hoped to be able to work with Roger on an exhibit at the Cantor Gallery that could explore some aspect of women’s lives and artistic expression in contemporary Vietnam. When I learned that Nora Taylor, the foremost expert on Vietnamese art in the United States, was curating this exhibit, Roger and I realized that we had a unique opportunity to bring a taste of the diversity of Vietnamese contemporary art to Holy Cross. Roger then did all the hard work of arranging to bring the exhibit to campus.”

Hankins also had close ties to this subject matter. “Ann Marie and I had talked about organizing an exhibit with Vietnamese contemporary art and textiles, for a couple of years,” he says. “While at UC Davis, I curated an exhibition that included both American veterans of the Vietnam War and Vietnamese artists which brought into focus for me a closer look at a subject that was largely ignored in the art world at that time.”

Leshkowich also took on responsibility for developing programming to correspond with the exhibit.

“As a liberal arts college, Holy Cross strives to integrate special programs into the curriculum so that our students will be able to approach an exhibit such as this from an informed, multifaceted, and critical perspective,” she says. “Special events also provide an opportunity to build connections to the broader Worcester and central Massachusetts community. I worked with other faculty to organize several programs in conjunction with the exhibit.”

Among the public programs will be a lecture and discussion by curator Nora Taylor, and one of the exhibit’s artists, Ly Tran Quynh Giang, on Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. On Sept. 25 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library, Karen Gottschang Turner, professor of history at Holy Cross, will give a talk titled “Into the Light: Representing Vietnamese Women’s Struggles,” followed by a screening of her documentary film, Hidden Warriors: Women on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Hankins created the entire layout of the Changing Identity exhibit using photographs of the pieces as well as the dimensions of the objects given to him by International Art and Artists who circulated the show.

“I always try and recreate the narrative that a curator has envisioned when they organize an exhibition,” he says. “It takes some patience to let the artwork inform the decision making process when you create an environment that works for the viewer and helps to bring across successive layers of meaning. In the end I hope I can bring out exactly what the curator had in mind as well as to give the artists something they would be very happy with.”

Both Hankins and Leshkowich have high hopes for the exhibit.

“The viewer is invited to go beyond images or stereotypes of women in Vietnam by pondering the unique perspectives of 10 different artists,” says Leshkowich.

Hankins says, “An exhibit like this demands perhaps a little more from a viewer to sink into given the cultural context of the work, but judging from how it now looks since we’ve installed it I think the show will be a memorable experience”.

By Lauren Lanzon ’09

Related Information:

• Cantor Art Gallery

Love, Justice, Community.

This theme, and the core Jesuit values it is based on, was the guiding force behind the 12th annual National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference held at Seattle University July 30 through Aug. 3. It was the largest NJSLC conference to date boasting attendance from 22 of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities from across the United States.

The conference included 50-minute sessions held throughout each day focusing on five leadership tracks: Community Living, Cultural Diversity, Governance, Programming, and Service & Spirituality. The conference hosted three keynote speakers who focused on leadership within their lives from ethical perspectives: Chris Lowney, author of Heroic Leadership, Rob McKenna, Washington state Attorney General, and Helene S. York, director of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation.

As program coordinator for Gateways Orientation, I was invited to be part of the Holy Cross delegation consisting of 12 students and three staff advisors. We traveled across the country to represent the Student Government Association, Campus Activities Board, Multicultural Peer Educators, Beverly Connection, Gateways Orientation, Residence Life and Housing, and Athletics. This conference was an opportunity to meet student leaders from other Jesuit schools, compare how different institutions and organizations function, and encourage each student leader to bring new initiatives back to their respective institutions.

The workshops at the conference covered a wide variety of topics. Each person from Holy Cross was encouraged to attend different sessions allowing for an in-depth overview of all the knowledge being shared by faculty, staff, and other student leaders. Imagine my surprise when I walked into a session titled, “Jesuit Vocation in Our Communities” hoping to discuss how my Jesuit education at Holy Cross has given me many opportunities to figure out my vocation and instead I saw all men in attendance. I quickly realized this could be a session on becoming a Jesuit. Yet, like all other sessions at the conference, the workshops were based on open dialogue and the session on Jesuit vocation soon progressed into conversation on how Jesuit schools across the country encourage students to find their vocation in life — be it as a Jesuit priest, in a volunteer corps, or through some other venue.

Other sessions I attended focused on strategies for women in leadership, thoughtful leadership, effective communication, and how to create sustainable change in an organization. All of this information allowed me to individually learn and grow as a leader, but also had me looking for ways to improve the organizations that I am involved with at Holy Cross.

Overall, I believe the student leaders from the Holy Cross delegation benefited most from the opportunity to connect and get to know one another. An important component of the conference was the time allotted for each delegation to reflect on what we had learned and how to bring that knowledge back to our colleges and universities. It was during reflection that our group discussed ways our own unique leadership positions could collaborate to improve various aspects of Holy Cross student life. One such idea is to host the National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference at Holy Cross. The conference served as a stepping-stone to establish a lasting connection between Holy Cross student leaders and encourage cooperative leadership initiatives that can impact student life at Holy Cross for the better.

Cassandra Chapel ’09 is a music major with a concentration in peace and conflict studies from Savannah, Ga.

Julianne Kulevich wants to be a nurse so she can provide patients with comfort and high quality medical care when they need it most.

Kulevich, who graduated from Holy Cross in May as a math major and chemistry minor, has begun the two-year program at the Connell School of Nursing at Boston College. She will be blogging about her life after Holy Cross — and her studies — throughout the year.

The reputation of Boston College’s nursing school drew her to the program, and she was impressed with their extensive clinical affiliations.

Holy Cross also influenced her post-graduate direction.

“Holy Cross really helped me explore and solidify my Catholic faith and the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits have come to play an important role in my life,” she explains. “Being able to pursue my master’s degree at another Jesuit school means that I can continue to explore and expand my faith through my education.”

She’s living out another important lesson instilled at Holy Cross: helping others.

“I’m looking forward to working in the hospitals and being able to provide patient care,” she says. “The simplest actions I take — even if it’s just flashing a smile or providing a comforting word — might make a difference in a patient’s day, and if I’m able to make a difference to one person, then the hard work of the classes, labs and tests of these next two years will be entirely worth it.”

Kulevich, who will be commuting to Boston from her hometown of Maynard, will spend three hours a week in a nursing simulation lab learning different nursing techniques from changing dressings to placing a catheter. Her clinical practice will take place at Massachusetts General Hospital where she will work a weekly eight-hour shift and perform standard nursing duties under the supervision of a floor nurse and a clinical instructor. She hopes to become a pediatric nurse practitioner after earning her master’s.

Since she is only an hour away from Holy Cross, she won’t be a stranger to the campus. Kulevich recently attended Homecoming Weekend, and plans on visiting friends and going to football and basketball games as much as she can throughout the next year.

Related Information:

• Holy Cross Blogs

When the Summer Internship Program first got its start at Holy Cross in 2000, a grand total of 13 students participated: 11 in New York and two in Boston.

Eight years later, SIP boasts 134 internship sites and a program roster of 361 students. And the competition for the selective program is getting stiffer: “A total of 392 students applied for 270 slots this year,” says Amy Murphy, director of SIP.

SIP opportunities range from cancer research at the Bennett Cancer Center in Stamford, Conn., under the tutelage of Dr. Sal Del Prete P’07, to managing a summer jobs program for Worcester youth at the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center to contributing to the Wal-Mart Christmas Catalog under the management of the Geppetto Group’s CEO, Julie Halpin Anderson ’84.

The program began to emerge at the College in the late-90’s when internships were predominately popular only at preprofessional schools. “Holy Cross students were missing out,” says Murphy. “Companies were hiring graduates from other colleges because of their internship experiences.”

Then, alumni and parents formed the Holy Cross Leadership Council of New York in an effort to promote Holy Cross in the city through internships. Murphy, already working in the Career Planning Center, was hired to spearhead a summer internship program.

This program’s increasing popularity is due to many reasons.

“Part of it is the nature of the job market,” says Murphy. “When the program first started, internships were expected to be a fad or trend. But as the job market today gets tighter and tighter, companies expect graduates and job applicants to have internship experiences. Many companies don’t even recruit anymore, but simply hire their interns, so the internship acts like an extended interview.”

Students’ attitudes toward internships have also changed.

“Nowadays, students are savvier about what it takes to get a job,” says Murphy. “Coming into college when the program first started, obtaining an internship wasn’t on a students’ radar. Now, they understand its importance.”

The popularity also points to other unique aspects of the program. “No other college has a selective student program pre-internship placement that works with the students intensely,” emphasizes Murphy. “We also work with a pool of internships that are available exclusively to Holy Cross students. We are also unique in our connection to the students’ experience with site visits, follow-up evaluations and exit interviews, including asking the question of their experience: ‘So what?’ ”

Having an alumnus or parent at a student’s internship site is also a huge benefit for an intern. “Because there is someone there committed to Holy Cross and to the student, some of that begrudging ‘intern work’ is kept at a minimum,” says Murphy. “There is also someone there to bring students into meetings and introduce them to the big players at the company. It’s also nice to have a friendly face around as a go-to person to ask questions that you may be uncomfortable asking your direct boss.”

This summer, Ann Schufreider ’09 is interning at Mass General under Dr. Richard Paul Cambria ’73, chief of the division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. “Dr. Cambria has been a great mentor, answering my questions and explaining the surgeries as he goes along,” says Schufreider. “He has even taken myself and the two other Holy Cross interns out to dinner to offer us advice about pursuing medicine and to give us the opportunity to get to know him.”

Nearly all of the internships are paid positions, funded through various sources, says Murphy. About 60 percent are paid through the host site, 19 percent through a stipend from the Leadership Council, and 9 percent by the General Alumni Association Summer Fellowship Program. The remainder is supported by Holy Cross permanent funding of the Lilly Grant, the Atchinson Family Fund, and the J.D. Power Worcester Internship Fund.

The evolution of the program also has brought about different industry popularities across time. “There are some industries that have always been popular like public relations, advertising, teaching, education and social justice,” says Murphy. “There’s been a spike recently in law enforcement and homeland security. The beauty of Holy Cross is that as industries and job markets shift, along with students changing interests, so too can the Summer Internship Program.”

The program is expected to grow even more following the success of a challenge grant by J.D. Power ’53. Due to strong support of alumni — participating at a record-setting rate of 55 percent — Power contributed $500,000 to fund internships in his hometown of Worcester. “What we’ll do now is begin to network intensely in Worcester with businesses,” says Murphy. “We want to get our foot in the door and make the connections. The contribution also allows us to pay interns who currently aren’t getting paid by their host site in the area.”

The goals for the program emerged early in its development and remain the same today: “Helping students figure out where their interests, skills and values fit in the world of work for better or for worse,” says Murphy. “I would say that even if the internship isn’t a perfect fit for a student, it is still successful because he or she is able to go from there and get one step closer to finding that fit. Once you know where you fit, you have the related experience to back that up.”

Jess Napolitano ’09 is doing research on autism at Autism Speaks in New York City. Her internship was set up by Bob Wright ’65, who, with his wife, Suzanne, established the foundation.

“I chose to participate in SIP at the end of my sophomore year because I knew it would be a great opportunity to explore my career options early,” says Napolitano. ”Participating in SIP has done just that. It has truly opened me up to fields that I would have never even considered had I not been in SIP.”

By Lauren Lanzon ’09