News

Fourteen College of the Holy Cross varsity athletic teams have received Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) public recognition awards from the NCAA. These teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The 14 total teams earning public recognition awards puts Holy Cross in the top 10 among all Division I athletic programs. The Crusaders improved to 14 teams earning public recognition awards, up from 12 teams a year ago and finished tied for eighth in the nation out of 356 schools, placing them in the top three percent of all of Division I.

Holy Cross teams to receive the honor include baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, women’s rowing, softball, men’s swimming and diving, women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track and field, and women’s track and field. Out of those teams, men’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s swimming and diving, and women’s swimming and diving were all recognized for the 11th year in a row, a feat accomplished by just 110 squads in all of Division I.

Read the full article at GoHolyCross.edu.

On Saturday, April 16, more than 1,000 volunteers will renovate 18 community recreation sites during the fourth annual city-wide build day organized by Working for Worcester. Since its founding in 2012, Working for Worcester has mobilized roughly 2,500 volunteers and invested more than $500,000 into recreational infrastructure that can be found at over 50 sites throughout the city of Worcester.

The city-wide project, which was cofounded by Holy Cross students Jeffrey Reppucci ’14 and Derek Kump ’14, is designed to promote Worcester pride and provide necessary improvements to the city’s recreational spaces. This year’s sites include the Boys & Girls Club of Plumley Village, where volunteers will install a playground that will serve low-income families and youth after-school programs for up to 75 students; and Vernon Hill School, where an under-utilized boy’s locker room will be converted into a multi-purpose dance studio and fitness space for up to 530 students, ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. At other sites, volunteers will install new ceiling tiles, paint rooms, conduct outdoor cleanup, renovate a grade school basketball court, and maintain the work done at some of last year’s sites.

The Working for Worcester kickoff rally will be held at the Worcester Common, located behind City Hall (rain location: the atrium of the DCU Center), from 8:00-9:30 a.m. on April 16. The rally brings volunteers, organizers, and the greater community together to celebrate their community pride and to build up excitement for the day ahead. The first hour will consist of registration, t-shirt pickup, breakfast and entertainment. At 9:30 a.m., Mayor of Worcester, Joseph Petty, will open up the program and speak about the project with United Way of Central Mass. CEO Tim Garvin, Working for Worcester cofounders Jeffrey Reppucci ’14 and Derek Kump ’14 and this year’s Working for Worcester leaders, Brendan Healey ’16 and Molly Hourigan ’16. The event free and open to the public.

After the kickoff rally, volunteers will break off into their site groups and make their way to local schools, community centers, and parks throughout the city.

“What excites us most about this day is when we see many groups that rarely come together, working together, side-by-side, celebrating our great city,” Healey says. “We bring together as many people as possible and give them the space to engage with Worcester in positive and meaningful ways. We invite everyone to attend.”

For media access on specific sites contact Jessica Kennedy at jmkenned@holycross.edu or 508-793-2419.

The College of the Holy Cross will hold a conference titled “The Future of Scholarship on the Quran” on April 9 and 10. Ingrid Mattson, Muslim scholar and interfaith activist, will offer the keynote address, “Don’t Frown and Turn Away: Muslim Scholars and the Study of the Qur’an,” to open the conference at 10 a.m. on Saturday. All of the conference sessions will be held in Rehm Library and are free and open to the public.

Over the two days, conference sessions will explore the relationship of traditional Islamic scholarship to Western academic study, considering matters such as who should interpret the Quran, what standards for scholarship should be set, and how scholarship can inform public conversation on the Quran. View the full conference schedule here.

Mattson is London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. From 1998 to 2012 she was professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary, where she developed and directed the first accredited graduate program for Muslim chaplains in America, and served as director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. She was the first woman to serve as vice president and president of the Islamic Society of North America. Her book, The Story of the Qur’an, (Wiley-Blackwell 2007) is an academic best-seller and was chosen by the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities for inclusion in its “Bridging Cultures” program.

Mattson served on the Interfaith Taskforce of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; she was on the Council of Global Leaders of the C-100 of the World Economic Forum; and she was a member of the Leadership Group of the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project.

Other presenters at the conference will include:

• Joseph Lumbard, assistant professor of Arabic and translation studies at the American University of Sharjah
• Maria Massi Dakake, associate professor and chair of religious studies at George Mason University
• Mahan Mirza, dean of faculty at Zaytuna College
• Juliane Hammer, associate professor and Kenan Rifai Scholar of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Martin Nguyen, associate professor of Islamic religious traditions and faculty chair for diversity at Fairfield University
• Zareena Grewal, associate professor of American studies, religious studies, Middle East studies, and ethnicity, race, and migration at Yale University
• Walid Saleh, associate professor in the study of religion and near and Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto
• Isra Yazicioglu, associate professor of Islamic studies at Saint Joseph’s University.

The conference is organized by Caner Dagli, associate professor of religious studies at Holy Cross and co-editor of “The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary” (HarperCollins, 2015). The conference is sponsored by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. Learn more here.

About the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope. The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.

Varsity softball player Taylor Moss ’18, whose father was one of the firefighters who responded to the attacks on Sept. 11 in New York City, received scholarships from The National Law Enforcement and Firefighters Children’s Foundation (NLEAFCF), and Families of Freedom, both firefighter foundations, for her exceptional leadership, community service and scholastic achievement.

“The scholarships definitely mean a lot to me because they opened up a lot of doors that allowed me to go away to school,” said Moss. “Sept. 11 is something that has been a part of my life, coming from New York and coming from the family I come from. My dad really earned it, but it’s nice that there are people out there willing to help.”

Read the entire story on GoHolyCross.com

Since joining the division of student affairs in 2001, Brenda Hounsell Sullivan, assistant dean and director of student involvement, has made progressive and innovative strides in her field, which have earned her  many awards throughout her career.

Most recently, Hounsell Sullivan was named the regional winner of the Doris Michiko Ching Excellence in Student Affairs Award by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) at the Region 1 conference, which encompasses the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec; and the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The award honors a student affairs professional at the mid-level whose outstanding commitment to the profession includes development of programs that address the needs of students, creation of a campus environment that promotes student learning and development, and support of an active engagement in NASPA.

This recognition showcases the ongoing impact Hounsell Sullivan is making on Holy Cross as a whole, but most vividly, on its students.

“Brenda’s impressive career has focused a great deal on leadership development, helping to cultivate future leaders who will make a difference in the world,” says Jacqueline Peterson, vice president for student affairs and dean of the students. “Her commitment to authentically support ALL students is remarkable.”

Each year, Hounsell Sullivan explains, she sees students come to Holy Cross with a wealth of diverse and rich academic and leadership experiences, and embark on a four year journey were they can enrich their minds in the classroom and integrate that academic work into their co-curricular experience. That is where Hounsell Sullivan and her staff come in.

With the College’s cocurricular cornerstones of reflective habits, multicultural competency, cura personalis (care for self and others), and community and citizenship kept in mind, Hounsell Sullivan and her staff provide workshops, conferences, programs and a large range of leadership positions aimed to enhance the student experience both in and out of the classroom, contributing to the students’ personal and spiritual growth.

“We continuously ask students to contemplate three key questions, ‘Who am I? Who do I want to become? Who do I want to be for others?’” says Hounsell Sullivan. “Ultimately, this allows students to better articulate their talents and goals and encourages overall positive well-being while at Holy Cross and beyond. In discerning who they are and what they value, we hope students are able to find an intersection of what they are good at and what they love.”

Among the many marks Hounsell Sullivan has left on Holy Cross, the most notable is the creation and development of the College’s Gateways orientation program, a nationally recognized, three-tier orientation.

“Gateways has become a signature program at Holy Cross and a model for many other institutions nationally,” says Peterson. “It is a program that is inclusive, welcomes all individuals, celebrates the institutions Jesuit identity, and embraces diversity of all kinds.”

Hounsell Sullivan facilitates one session in particular, called “Community 101: Sharing Our Stories,” where students learn how the College’s Jesuit, Catholic identity informs its mission. She then welcomes students into the ongoing Holy Cross story by taking them through an activity where they learn more about the diverse backgrounds of their classmates in the room and begin to reflect on the gifts they are bringing to the community.

From the onset of students’ time at the College, Hounsell Sullivan is fully committed to creating an environment where students feel welcomed and valued, where they can thrive unabashedly.

“Holy Cross students have the ability to embrace this community wholeheartedly with excellence,” she says. “I am often humbled by what our students accomplish while they are here and then continue to after they graduate.  I am blessed to be a part of it.”