News

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross will host Academic Conference 2006 from April 26 through April 29. The four-day conference is designed to provide students from a broad spectrum of academic disciplines with an opportunity to present the results of their independent work. The programs, projects, poster sessions, and performances by students are the results of student work over one or two semesters under the guidance of faculty members.

Approximately 300 Holy Cross students will be involved in the conference this year.

Representing a fraction of the independent and group-project opportunities of which Holy Cross students have taken advantage this year, the conference includes works from the arts, social sciences, humanities and natural sciences. Students will present an extraordinary array of topics: ranging from reports on their independent study abroad in Strasbourg, Dijon and Cameroon; to a study of media bias in major league baseball award voting; to research and field work in the deaf community; to gender identities across generations; to the study of the biology and chemistry of protein splicing; to their research of the Blackstone River’s ecology.

This year’s conference also boasts three Fenwick Scholars, the most in the College’s history. Daniel Ricciardi ’06 will present “From Possession to Insanity: Early American Perceptions of Mental Illness in the Late Colonial and Early National Period” on April 26 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library. A second presentation will follow by Timothy Duffy ’06, “From Court to Collar: Post-Elizabethan Poetics and the Submissive Stance” at 5 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Ellen Gasparovic ’06 will lecture on “Strange New Universe: A Study of Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometrics” on April 27 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library.

The Fenwick Scholar Award is one of the College’s oldest and most prestigious academic distinctions. Departmental nominees design, with several advisors, a program of study leading to a significant research or creative project that will be an entire senior-year curriculum.

A reception, open to the entire Holy Cross community, will be held on April 26 at 6 p.m. in Moran Lounge on the fourth floor of Smith Hall.

The conference is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Dean of the College, Academic Conference 2004 is free and open to the public.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross students have organized a 5-kilometer race scheduled for April 23 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with proceeds going to the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Corporation. The race will begin and end at Holy Cross’ Freshman Field (off McKeon Road).

The race, led by Michael Ballute ’06 and Matthew Mackarevich ’06, will run along McKeon Road, Millbury Street, Blackstone Road, Ballard Street, and Providence Road.

SWNIC plans to donate the money to the Guiding Good Choices program, organized and operated for five years by SWNIC executive director Ron Charette. The program seeks to improve family relationships by cultivating a home environment that motivates children to read, dream big, and stay physically active while avoiding the pressures of drugs and gangs. Guiding Good Choices operates after-school and summer programs.

Accurate Collision, Cadbury-Adams, Cadbury Schweppes, the Granite Group, Polar Beverages, Stop and Shop, UnumProvident and the Office of the President at Holy Cross have together pledged $10,000.

“The Jordan Levy Show,” Telegram & Gazette, and WWFX 100FM The Pike have donated thousands of dollars in pro-bono advertising.

Mackarevich developed the idea for the Worcester race after studying abroad at Oxford University in England, where a 10K run attracts several thousand runners and raises thousands of dollars for the community.

“The goal of the event is to strengthen relations between the communities of Worcester colleges and the surrounding populations,” he said. “We are bringing together students and citizens of Worcester, with the help of Worcester businesses, to help a non-profit that seeks to improve the South Worcester area. We believe that by raising over $10,000 for Guiding Good Choices, through an exciting community event, we have accomplished this goal.”

For more information, please contact Mackarevich at 717-574-8990 (cell) or mtmack06@holycross.edu.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Four graduates of the College of the Holy Cross — including a psychiatrist breaking new ground in treating schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease … an internationally-recognized expert in medical genetics and cancer … a top Wall Street attorney who became a deacon at a parish church … the young leader of an interfaith agency working for justice and peace worldwide — will all receive a Sanctae Crucis Award, the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or alumna.

The ninth annual presentation of the awards will take place on Friday, May 5 at the College.

This year’s recipients are:

Joseph T. Coyle, Jr., M.D. ’65, Outstanding Professional Achievement and Community Service
The Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Coyle is at the forefront of research on treatments for such conditions as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The author of more than 500 scientific articles and editor of seven books, Dr. Coyle is the editor in chief of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Following graduation from Holy Cross, he pursued his medical degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. After an internship in pediatrics, he spent three years at the National Institutes of Health as a research fellow. Returning to Johns Hopkins, Dr. Coyle completed his psychiatric residency and subsequently joined the faculty there. Named a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry in 1980, he became the director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1982; in 1985, he was named the Distinguished Service Professor.

Dr. Coyle joined the staff of Harvard Medical School in 1991, becoming the chair of the consolidated department of psychiatry, which included the nine hospital programs of psychiatry affiliated with the school. He is the recipient of the John Jacob Abel Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; the Gold Medal Award from the Society for Biological Psychiatry; the Efron Award from the American College of europsychopharmacology; the Foundation Fund Research Award from the American Psychiatric Association; the McAlpin Award from the National Mental Health Association; the Salmon Award from the New York Academy of Medicine; and the Pasarow Foundation Award for Neuroscience.

He lives in Cambridge, Mass.

John J. Mulvihill, M.D. ’65, Outstanding Professional Achievement and Community Service
Dr. Mulvihill is one of the world’s leading experts in medical genetics, particularly in the area of the genetics of human cancer. Following graduation from Holy Cross, Dr. Mulvihill received a bachelor’s degree in medical science from Dartmouth Medical School in 1967 and his M.D. from the University of Washington Medical School in 1969. After completing an internship in medicine and pediatrics at the University of Washington Hospital, he spent two years as a research associate at the epidemiology branch of the National Cancer Institute; in 1972, he completed his residency training in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. From 1974-1990, Dr. Mulvihill served as the chief of the clinical genetics section of the National Cancer Institute. Concurrently, from 1983-1989, he served as the director of the National Institutes of Health’s Inter-institute Medical Genetics Training Program and the director of the National Board Review Courses for Medical Genetics.

In 1990, Dr. Mulvihill founded the department of human genetics in the graduate school of public health at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1998, he became the Kimberly V. Talley/ Children’s Medical Research Institute Chair in Genetics and professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. The author of more than 270 papers and 150 scientific abstracts, Dr. Mulvihill was selected to revise and re-edit the definitive catalog of cancers known to genetic components, titled The Catalog of Human Cancer Genes. The recipient of the United States Public Health Service’s Distinguished Service Medal, he has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Advanced Study in China.

He lives in Oklahoma City.

William O. Murphy ’56, Outstanding Professional Achievement and Community Service
Following graduation from Holy Cross, Murphy received his law degree from Columbia University in 1960. During his 35 year career as a top attorney on Wall Street, Murphy specialized in bank and acquisition finance and also worked on major cases such as the corporate reorganization of the businesses of the Hunt brothers of Texas and the restructuring of the international debt of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of the Philippines. At the pinnacle of his career as a partner and member of the Executive Committee of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Murphy made a decision to answer a lifelong calling; he retired from the law firm and enrolled in the Yale Divinity School to pursue studies in theology.

Ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn. in 1995, Murphy was assigned to St. Joseph, a multicultural parish in South Norwalk, Conn. As a full-time deacon, Murphy’s principal pastoral duties include preaching and assisting at Mass and celebrating baptisms and marriages. He also serves as the director of religious education programs and works on parish finances. During the last 10 years, he as served on the Board of the Norwalk Emergency Shelter, the Norwalk community action agency and Side By Side Charter School and as a member of the Food Fuel & Shelter Council of Norwalk. He is also a director of the Gregorian University Foundation and the Frank J. Scallon Foundation which provides scholarships to local area schools.

He lives in Rowayton, Conn.

Joseph F. Cistone ’87, Outstanding Young Alumnus
Cistone currently serves as the executive director of the International Partners in Mission (IPM), a worldwide, interfaith non-governmental organization that works for justice and peace — with offices in the United States, India, Italy, Kenya and El Salvador. At the start of his career, he had worked for the Greenpeace organization. Receiving his master of arts degree from Yale University, Cistone worked on refugee immigration and reception issues with the Caritas Internationalis in Vatican City. In 1991, he became the director of Fondazione, Italy’s only independent and inter-religious full-service center for refugees and forced migrants. In 1995, Cistone assumed the position of associate director of the International Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, where he served as a delegate to the United Nations’ World Food Summit.

Returning to his native Cleveland in 1997, Cistone became the vice president of capital, endowment and philanthropic programs for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. He served in this capacity until 2001 when he accepted the position of executive director and chief executive officer of International Partners in Mission. Under his leadership, IPM has expanded greatly — with programs in 25 communities across five continents. Cistone is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Gregorian University in Rome.

He lives in Cleveland.

ABOUT THE SANCTAE CRUCIS AWARDS: The Sanctae Crucis Awards were established in 1998 to recognize the distinguished achievements of alumni.  “The primary goals of the Sanctae Crucis Awards are to honor outstanding alumni and in so doing recognize and celebrate the distinctive mission of Holy Cross,” says Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president, who presented the awards to recipients. The Holy Cross Mission Statement is the foundation for the awards program, which honors alumni who are leaders in business, professional or civic life, who live by the highest intellectual and ethical standards, and who are committed to the service of faith and promotion of justice. Past recipients have included: John Higgins ’76, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Sun Times; Paul La Camera ’64, president and general manager, WCVB-TV Boston; Peter J. O’Connor ’63, founder and executive director of the Fair Share Housing Development Corporation; and Joyce O’Shaughnessy ’78, a leading breast cancer researcher and practitioner.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Approximately 250 Holy Cross students, alumni, faculty and staff will take part in the ninth annual “Holy Cross Cares Day” on April 22.

Showing their appreciation for the Worcester community, participants will spend the day performing service-oriented activities, such as painting at several Worcester community centers, raking vacant lots, picking up trash and spending time with young people and homeless families.

The day begins at 9:30 a.m., with breakfast and brief remarks by Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., Holy Cross president. The keynote speaker for this year’s event is Mary Beth Ryan ’05, a middle school teacher at Nativity Preparatory School of New Bedford and last year’s co-chair of “Holy Cross Cares Day.”

At 10 a.m., buses will transport participants to numerous sites around the city. Participants will work all day and return to Holy Cross shortly after 1 p.m. for lunch.

Among the 10 sites slated to be part of “Holy Cross Cares Day” are:

St. Stephen’s School
335 Grafton St., Worcester
Volunteers: 20
Project: Painting and cleaning

Flagg Street School
115 Flagg St., Worcester
Volunteers: 30
Project: Painting and cleaning

Mustard Seed
93 Piedmont St., Worcester
Volunteers: 15
Project: Painting and cleaning

Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend any of the above indoor sites between the hours of 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information, please contact co-chairs Kevin Cullinan ’06 at 617-851-3645 (cell) or klcull06@holycross.edu or Patrick O’Neil ’06 at 617-653-4323 (cell) or psonei06@holycross.edu.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross will hold the 35th annual Classics Day on April 26. Designed to familiarize students with the Holy Cross Classics department, its faculty and current students, the event features a variety of activities relating to the study of Roman culture.

Approximately 400 students will attend the event this year. Participants include Boston College High School, Classical High School (Providence, RI), Coyle Cassidy High School (Taunton), Doherty Memorial High School (Worcester), Lunenburg High School (Lunenberg), Northbridge High School (Whitinsville), Oakmont Regional High School (Ashburnham, Mass.), St. Bernard’s Central Catholic High School (Fitchburg, Mass.), St. Mark’s School (Southborough, Mass.), St. Sebastian’s School (Needham), Wachusett Regional High School (Holden), Walpole High School and Westborough High School.

The schedule of events is as follows:

* Welcoming Address
9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m., Hogan Campus Center Ballroom
* Upper and Lower Division Certamen (Certamen is Latin for “competition.” Student teams will compete College Bowl style, answering questions concerning Roman history, mythology, culture and the Latin language.)
Costume Contest
10 – 11 a.m., Hogan Campus Center Ballroom
* Chariot Races (Student teams build their own chariots. Each team consists of a rider and student “horses.”)
11  – 11:30 a.m., Hart Center
* Lunch
11:30 – 12:30 p.m., Kimball Dining Hall
* Final Round Certamen
12:30 – 1:30 p.m., Hogan Campus Center Ballroom
* Awards Presentation
1:30 – 1:45 p.m., Hogan Campus Center Ballroom

WORCESTER, Mass. – Jared T. Bennici ’07, a junior political science major from Marlborough, Conn., will spend the summer working with some of America’s foremost diplomats in the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. He is the recipient of the prestigious Pamela Harriman Foreign Service Fellowship, named after the late U.S. Ambassador to France during the 1990s.

The fellowship is sponsored by the College of William and Mary, in conjunction with the Department of State. It is intended to inspire and encourage students who wish to enter a career of public service, particularly with a focus on international affairs. Only three fellowships are awarded each year; one each for the State Department’s London, Paris, and Washington bureaus.

Applicants must first be accepted into the Department of State’s intern program. The College of William and Mary and the Harriman Advisory Board invites selected interns to apply, reviews applications, and conducts formal interviews in Washington, D.C. to select the three fellows. Selection criteria include academic merit, an institutional endorsement of the applicant’s college, references from faculty, and prior public and community service. Each fellowship includes a $5,000 award.

“I am honored to be selected as a Harriman Fellow,” Bennici said, upon learning of his selection. “Ambassador Harriman’s example and contributions, her ideals, and her profound foreign service career serve as a remarkable legacy and inspiration. Her unyielding work ethic and dedication to the United States and the preservation of peace in the broader international community are deeply admirable. Ambassador Harriman lived her life with as sense of presence, purpose, and wonder; she was an ambitious and dedicated explorer, innovator, and lifelong learner who sought deeper avenues of understanding within the international community.”

The International Herald Tribune hailed Harriman as “the most successful American political ambassador of the decade.” After her death in 1997, French president Jacques Chirac, calling her “a great ambassador of the United States,” conferred on her posthumously France’s highest award, a Legion of Honor medal.

Earlier this year, Bennici was selected by the College’s Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies as the Maurizio Vannicelli Washington Semester Away program award winner for his thesis, “9/11, Hurricane Katrina & The Missing Link: Why the Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina Failed.” He presented his research at a public lecture last month.

While in Washington, Bennici interned for Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, assisting senior staffers and senior Committee attorneys in conducting investigations into the failed state, local, and federal responses to Hurricane Katrina. In particular, the team to which he was assigned focused on comparatively analyzing the Federal Emergency Management’s and the Department of Homeland Security’s natural disaster and terrorism response protocols, contingency plans, and statutory obligations and limitations specifically pertaining to the ability of the federal government to override state sovereignty in catastrophic natural disasters and major, multi-state terrorist attacks.

In addition to his political science major, Bennici is pursuing a minor in Middle Eastern Studies and a Peace and Conflicts Studies concentration. Bennici is on the men’s varsity crew team, volunteers at Saint Paul’s Food Pantry, and is an overnight host for prospective students in the Office of Admissions at Holy Cross. He also contributes political op-eds to The Crusader. He plans on pursuing graduate studies in international relations and law, with a focus on national security policy, international terrorism, and crisis diplomacy.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Ballroom Dance Team will present the Holy Cross version of ABC’s popular reality show “Dancing with the Stars” on May 1 at 7 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom. The event, only open to the Holy Cross community, is $3 in advance for students and $5 for the rest of the community. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5.

Proceeds will go to Jesuit Volunteer Corps South, which seeks to help rebuild the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans.

Like the television version, the show will feature dances from a professional dancer with a paired celebrity star. The professionals will be members of the Holy Cross Ballroom Dance team and the “celebrities” will be members of the Holy Cross faculty and staff. Each couple will perform one dance in front of the audience and a panel of professional judges. The judges will narrow down the couples to two and the audience will then vote to decide the winner.

The celebrities were selected by student nominations. The celebrities were then paired with a member of the Ballroom Dance team and a dance was chosen. Dancing the tango will be Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of the College, and Jessica Spink ’06 and Jamie Herrick, senior lab supervisor in the chemistry department, and Nathan Campbell ’08. Science librarian Tony Stankus ’73 and Loyola Pasiewicz ’08 will be dancing the rumba along with Melissa Boyle ’00, assistant professor of economics, and Raul Portillo ’06. Blaise Nagy, professor of classics, and Danielle Hughes ’06 will be dancing swing against Kimball Chef Charles Manyak and Rachel Mergens ’07. Each couple has been rehearsing for the past few weeks.

Judges will be Mike Creeden ’03, a gold level ballroom competitor; Rob Molt ’07, three years experience on the ballroom team; Esther Levine, assistant dean of the Class of 2006; and Pat Connolly. Hosts will include Mikaele Porter ’08 and Gary Jacobik, an instructor at Arthur Murray Studio. Both Connolly and Jacobik are the Holy Cross Ballroom Dance Team’s coaches.

The Ballroom Dance Team is a student-run organization under the guidance of Edward Soares, associate professor of mathematics. The Ballroom Dance Team members handle all aspects of the production — from the planning to the final show. Caitlin Smith ’06 and Nathan Campbell ’08 are the co-chairs of the event and are responsible for all of the planning and execution. Janet Rose Kolodziej ’06 is in charge of publicity and the filming of all the rehearsals. Students Jessica Spink ’06, Danielle Hughes ’06, Raul Portillo ’06, Rachel Mergens ’07, Loyola Pasiewicz ’08 and Nathan Campbell ’08 are responsible for choreography of the routines as well as instruction.

Holy Cross “Dancing with the Stars” is suitable for all audiences. For press tickets or for more information, contact Janet Rose Kolodziej at jmkolo06@holycross.edu.

WORCESTER, Mass. – In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, the College of the Holy Cross music department will present “Mozart’s Sacred Music,” a lecture recital featuring the Holy Cross Chamber Singers led by choir director Pamela Getnick on April 24 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Jessica Waldoff, associate professor and chair of the music department, will lecture about the great composer’s vast output. Music will include the Gloria movement from Mozart’s Coronation Mass of 1779, as well as the beloved motet Ave verum corpus.

Both the Coronation Mass and the Ave verum corpus will be performed in their entirety in a separate concert featuring the College Choir with the Chamber Orchestra on April 21 at 8 p.m. in St. Joseph Chapel. Both events are free and open to the public.

Getnick is a graduate of the Yale University School of Music, where she received her doctorate in choral conducting. While at Yale, Getnick studied with Marguerite Brooks and David Connell and conducted both the Yale Freshman Chorus and the Yale Glee Club. Under her direction, both choruses performed the Mozart Requiem and the Rachmaninoff Vespers.

Waldoff received her Ph.D. in 1995 from Cornell University where she studied with James Webster, Neal Zaslaw, and Don Michael Randel, specializing in late 18th- and early 19th-century studies. Her studies at Cornell, including the dissertation year, were supported by a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities (1988) and a Cornell Sage Graduate Fellowship (1991-92). Her dissertation, “The Music of Recognition in Mozart’s Operas,” drew on literary theory to explore both recognition as a topic and recognition scenes in these works.

She is the author of the newly-released Recognition in Mozart’s Operas (Oxford University Press) and co-author of “Operatic Plotting in Le nozze di Figaro,” with James Webster, in Wolfgang Amade Mozart: Essays on his Life and his Music (ed. Stanley Sadie, Oxford University Press, 1996).

The event is sponsored by the department of music and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross departments of theatre and music will present the spring concert of their famed Balinese gamelan orchestra, Gamelan Gita Sari, under the directorship of visiting fellow in Balinese performing arts, I Wayan Dibia, on April 28 at 8 p.m. in the Brooks Concert Hall. This concert will feature a lively roster of guest artists, including Ni Made Wiratini, Ni Nyoman Manik Suryani, I Nengah Susila, Ni Made Pujawati, I Nyoman Saptanyana, and Ida Ayu Ari Candrawati. These semi-annual concerts, free and open to the public, are routinely standing room only and provide for a thrilling evening of Balinese music and dance.

Gamelan Gita Sari was founded in 1999. Gita Sari translates as “the essence of song.” The company is composed entirely of students and faculty from the College. The group performs on its Gong Kebyar gamelan, built for Holy Cross in 1998 by master Balinese craftsman Pande Made Sukerta. Following a blessing ceremony in Mengwitani, the gamelan was shipped to Massachusetts, where a second ceremony was conducted in July 1999. This coincided with Holy Cross being awarded a Henry Luce Foundation Grant to fund a Balinese scholar-artist-in-residence for four years.

Gamelan Gita Sari has performed at Brown University, at Wesleyan University, for the New Hampshire Humanities Council, and for the conference Continuities and Change: A Celebration of Balinese Music, Theatre and Dance at Holy Cross, as well as holding two concerts a year at Holy Cross. Members of the ensemble have played and danced at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bard College. I Wayan Dibia of the Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) is the second appointment and continues the exchange program established six years ago. Desak Made Suarti Laksmi of ISI was the first to hold the post.

Dibia is one of the world’s most distinguished performers, composers, and choreographers of Balinese music and dance. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA and has held a professorship in Balinese choreography at the prestigious National College of Indonesian Arts in Denpasar, Bali. He is the author of Kecak: The Balinese Vocal Change of Bali and the seminal text and guidebook, Balinese Dance, Drama, and Music. He is a member of the Bali Art Council and the Society of Indonesian Performing Arts. He has performed in a variety of international tours in Australia, Europe, and the United States.

For more information about the concert and Gamelan Gita Sari, contact Joe Mader at 508-793-3490.

WORCESTER, Mass. – In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Abby’s House, and Holy Cross’ remarkable partnership with the non-profit agency since its inception, the College will mark the occasion with a fundraising concert by the Holy Cross Chapel Choir titled “An Afternoon of Song” on April 30 at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Chapel. A suggested donation of $8 is requested; $5 for children and seniors. Donations will be accepted at the door. The chapel is handicapped accessible. A reception will follow in Campion House, adjacent to the chapel.

Abby’s House serves the needs of low-income and battered women and their children. Founded in 1976 as an emergency shelter, today it is one of the most respected multi-service agencies in Worcester and the state of Massachusetts. In addition to the emergency shelter, Abby’s House currently provides low-income housing and services for women and their children at three locations in the city. In addition to counseling services and referrals, Abby’s House also operates a thrift shop where clothing and home goods are available, and a women’s day center where women can gather for educational programs, community building and recreation. Abby’s House receives no federal or state funds; its nearly $1 million annual operating budget comes from grants, donations from the Worcester community and operating fees.

The Holy Cross event will help Abby’s House to continue to open doors to safety and opportunity for women and their children.

Holy Cross women students raised some of the initial funds for the shelter in 1976 and have been actively involved ever since. Students have staffed the emergency shelter three overnights each week throughout the academic year for 30 years without any other staff presence.

In addition, for the past five years Holy Cross students have run weekly programs at the women’s day center, staff the reception desk at one of the low-income housing buildings four nights each week and one student works at Abby’s House full time during the summer through the Lilly Grant, a private family foundation that follows its founders’ wishes by supporting the causes of religion, community development and education.

Last month, three students active at Abby’s House — Caitlin Dowd ’06, Reagan Tangney ’06 and Rebecca Moulton ’07 — were among the approximately 40 area college students recognized for their community efforts with the first Worcester UniverCity Parternship Awards. Dowd runs a weekly program in which a group of about 10 students lead activities for the women at the women’s center. Tangney and Moulton run a program in which a group of 30 students take turns staffing the emergency shelter three nights each week throughout the school year. The students were nominated as representatives of literally hundreds of Holy Cross students who have been active at Abby’s House over the last three decades.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Justin Parrella ’06, a senior from Lexington, Mass., is one of only 1,000 students nationwide to receive the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. The fellowship provides three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees, and is intended for students who are at the early stages of their graduate study.

Parrella, a chemistry and physics major who received a Goldwater Scholarship last year as a junior, will enter Harvard University’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science and work toward a PhD. He will study with Daniel J. Jacob, a prominent researcher who is well-known for his work for his research on the chemistry of the troposphere and how anthropogenic emissions affect regional air quality in addition to implications for global climate change. Parrella’s work will involve global modeling of atmospheric chemistry and climate, aircraft measurement campaigns, satellite data retrievals, and analyses of atmospheric observations.

At Holy Cross, Parrella has combined his lab and research work with a deep interest in educational outreach and teaching. He was one of the founding members of the Student Alliance for Advancement of Alternative Fuels and Energy (SAAAFE), and has spent the last two years working with sixth-graders at the Nativity School of Worcester. In addition to teaching the young students about environment, and with funding from a Marshall Grant, he has helped them build solar cars and introduced them to books like Fifty Things Kids Can Do to Save the Environment.

He has also been involved in peer tutoring and in the “Hogwarts at Holy Cross” program, where he helped construct a solar panel display and demonstrate science experiments for Worcester schoolchildren.

Parrella entered Holy Cross with a broad range of interests, and was not certain what he would focus on academically until he began taking advanced chemistry courses. “One thing that stood out for me and made my experience at Holy Cross very special,” he said, “is how professors have always been available to help me chisel out what it is I want to do, and how I can get there.”

He plans to continue his combined interests at Harvard, looking forward to finding teaching assistantships and educational outreach opportunities along with his research responsibilities.

The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program has a stated aim “to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the United States, by investing in graduate education for a cadre of diverse individuals who demonstrate their potential to successfully complete graduate degree programs in disciplines relevant to the mission of the NSF.”

WORCESTER, Mass. – Stuart Levy, professor of molecular biology, microbiology and medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine, will give a talk titled “When Antibiotics Fail: Consequences to Individual and Public Health” on April 25 at 7 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

Levy says using antibiotics to prevent rather than treat illnesses is resulting in the development of resistant strains of bacteria. He says that with the number of resistant strains of bacteria growing, finding antibiotics to effectively treat people is a primary concern.

Levy is the president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, and is director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University. He is the author of more than 200 journal articles and the book The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers. He has appeared or been featured in the national and international press, including Time, The New York Times, Washington Post, and in a cover story for Newsweek in 1994. He also appeared on television shows such as Primetime Live, 48 Hours, the Today show, Good Morning America, and other major U.S. television network news shows. He is a graduate of Williams College and the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, did his residency at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and post-doctoral work at the National Institutes of Health.

The talk is cosponsored by the biochemistry concentration, chemistry department, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture and the National Science Foundation.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Paula A. Johnson, MD, MPH, chief of the division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, will deliver the annual Katherine A. Henry ’86 Memorial Lecture titled “Women’s Health: A Paradigm for the Future of Health and Healthcare” on April 20 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

Johnson attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University, followed by Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, earning both her medical degree and her master’s in public health in 1985. While doing her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Johnson became fascinated by cardiology and chose it as her specialty. In 1990, she became the first woman in the history of Brigham and Women’s Hospital to be selected as a chief medical resident. She has served as teacher and mentor to more than 100 residents and Harvard Medical School students.

Throughout her career, Johnson has focused on access to and quality of cardiac care for women. A pioneer in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease, Johnson conceived of and developed one of the first facilities in the country to focus on heart disease in women, the Center for Cardiovascular Disease in Women, which aims to develop new prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies through research as it serves women in all stages of life. Because African-American women are 50 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than white women, many of the Center’s efforts are directed to empowering black women in matters of their health and to examining relationships between race and disease. In particular, her work focuses on the attempt to understand and eliminate health disparities among different groups of women.

The lecture series was endowed by Katherine Henry’s parents, in memory of their daughter who died in 1997. The talk is co-sponsored by women’s and gender studies and the pre-medical/pre-dental program.