Photo Blog

Students, faculty and staff lined up at tables on the Hoval last Friday, April 28 to taste samples from local restaurants. The Taste of Worcester event was hosted by Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) community organizers. Vendors included El Patron, Loving Hut, Tom’s International Deli, Hacienda Don Juan’s and Cafe Reyes. Also in attendance were 35 refugee transition students from Worcester Public Schools. The event was free of charge with download of Foodler, a restaurant ordering app, with optional donations to support refugee resettlement in Worcester.

Students, faculty, and staff discuss “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, this year’s pick for the campus-wide MLK Book Read sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The second annual book read aimed to bringing community members together to engage with Dr. King’s legacy on an intellectual level and to explore how it still resonates today.

Photo by Tom Rettig

Elizabeth Wambui ’09, director of advancement at the Nativity School of Worcester, tells students to be innovate, to embrace change, and to step into discomfort during her keynote address at the 10th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Luncheon, sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Education. With Dr. King’s example of leadership serving as the backdrop for the event, the community members present explored what it means to be a leader today, both within our own communities and beyond Holy Cross.

Photo by Tom Rettig

Over pizza in Stein Hall, students in the economics class Latin American Economic Development put on a pseudo Pecha Kucha night titled “20×20 by 17x17x17.” Pecha Kucha is a concise presentation format in which each speaker brings 20 slides and speaks about a topic, and each slide is shown for only 20 seconds. “We added 17X17X17 — 17 students, 17 countries, 17 issues of Latin American Economic Development,” says Robert Reinauer, visiting instructor in economics. Invitees included students and faculty members from the economics and Latin American and Latino Studies departments.

Charles Richard ’19 gives a presentation titled “The Venezuelan Crisis and Economic Mismanagement.”

Marie Therese Kane ’18 gives a presentation titled “Preferential Option for the Poor: Evaluating Liberation Theology as a Model for Poverty Alleviation in El Salvador.”

Rosangel Cruz Cabrera ’18 gives a presentation titled “China’s Mega-Projects in Latin America: The Proposed Canal in Nicaragua.”

Emma Carlone ’19 gives a presentation titled “NAFTA: Its Impacts on the Industrial Sector of the Mexican Economy.”

Photos by Robert Reinauer

Helen Freear-Papio, director of the Foreign Language Assistants Program and lecturer in Spanish, center, conducted a two-day bilingual theater workshop at the University of Murcia in Spain while she was there over the Thanksgiving break. Freear-Papio involved two of her former students from Holy Cross, Kyler Canastra ‘14, far left, and Brendan Medeiros ’11, second from right, who live in Madrid and love the theater. María Cantuel, a well-known Spanish actor and Medeiros’ girlfriend, second from left, was the artistic director of the performance.  At far right is Diana de Paco Serrano, dramatist, cultural coordinator and professor of classics at the University of Murcia, who invited Freear-Papio to conduct the workshop.

At the end of the workshop, the participants staged a series of short bilingual monologues around the themes of fear and anger. Here Freear-Papio, Medeiros, and Canastra work with some of the participants to make the texts bilingual.

Cantuel leads the group in theatrical warm-up activities. The workshop was such a great success, Freear-Papio says they have been invited back to the University of Murcia and will be doing a follow-up workshop over spring break.

One hundred and five members of the incoming class of 2020 participate in Odyssey, a one-week summer orientation for multicultural and international students, as well as American students living abroad, first-generation college students, Pell eligible students, and students for whom English is their second language.  This year marks the 20th anniversary of the program.

Above, participants gather on the steps of Dinand Library. At its inception, 20 students participated in the program; this year, 105 students are took part.

Above, students enjoy off-campus excursions in the local Worcester community. Additionally, the week included dinner at a Holy Cross faculty member’s house, participating in community service, and settling into life on Mount St. James.

Photography by Tom Rettig

Campus community members view artifacts at the Black History 101 Mobile Museum display in the Hogan Campus Center. The display of more than 5,000 rare treasures is an innovative traveling table top exhibit depicting Black memorabilia spanning slavery to hip hop.

Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Education, Africana Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies and Multicultural Peer Educators, the mobile museum artifacts represent items from the categories of slavery, Jim Crow era, music, sports, the Civil Rights and Black Power era, and popular culture.

Photography by Tom Rettig

Season basketball ticket holder, Cecile M. Phaneuf of Spencer, Massachusetts, picks up a “ONE HC” button inside Holy Cross’ Hart Center.

The Student Government Association invites all community members to stand together in unity as “ONE HC” by proudly wearing one of the buttons, which are available throughout campus.

Photography by Tom Rettig

At noon today, members of the Holy Cross community gathered for a brief prayer service at the edge of the Hogan Courtyard, where eight large crosses representing the martyrs of El Salvador, are on display. The service was sponsored by the student group Pax Christi which strives to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ by exploring, articulating and bearing witness to the call of Christian nonviolence. “As we gather to honor their witness, we must acknoweledge the victims of violence who cry out to us today from Paris, Beirut, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Mexico, and from all corners of the Earth,” said Marty Kelly, associate director of the Chaplains’ Office, in opening remarks.

Photograph by Tom Rettig

Rev. Philip Boroughs, S.J., president of the College, welcomes guests to the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC)  Conference in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom. The annual conference brings together professionals from around New England to promote equity and excellence in higher education recruitment worldwide. HERC advances the ability of member institutions to recruit and retain the most diverse and talented workforce and to assist dual-career couples.

The day’s schedule included a keynote address by Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, breakout sessions and networking among conference attendees.

Photography by Tom Rettig