Boston College

An audience of 3,500 gathered in Conte Forum on March 20 to watch the “best dance groups on campus battle it out” at the eighth annual AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) “Show Down.” Pictured above, the dance group Phaymus shows its stuff. In addition to providing an evening of great dance, the event highlights “the cultural diversity at Boston College,” according to Show Down co-director Akash Tharani ’09.

At the end of the night, a panel of accomplished professional dancers awarded prizes for dance and for cultural expression. The Latin group Fuego del Corazon and the Synergy Hip Hop Dance Company took top dance honors. The South Asian Student Association “Masti” and the Korean Student Association “AeroK” won recognition in the culture category. The prize is a four-foot trophy, says Therani, “and year-long bragging rights.”

At the University’s third annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on February 6 in Gasson Hall, 49 students presented their investigative work and findings. Projects were grouped thematically into 11 panels (themes included “Human Rights,” “Music in its Many Forms,” and “Health and Science Issues”), with a faculty member presiding over each panel session. In the rotunda, Gasson 100, the Honors Library, and classrooms on the second floor, students described their work to audiences of faculty, students, staff, and friends.

Donald Hafner, vice provost for undergraduate studies, selected the symposium participants from recipients of advanced study grants; contributors to the undergraduate scholarly journals Elements, Ethos, and Dialogue; and on the basis of faculty recommendations. “I never stop being impressed by the range and excellence of these projects,” says Hafner. “The symposium affirms that undergraduates are capable of exceptional research and that there is an audience interested in their work.”

At afternoon’s end, the faculty moderators chose one student from each panel to receive an award for best presentation. “Excellence in any field needs to be coupled with an ability to explain it in an accurate and engaging manner,” says Hafner. @BC presents four of the award winners—(from left) Elizabeth Ryan ’09, Patrick Gardner ’09, Maria Rivas ’10, and Leon Ratz ’11—selected to illustrate the diversity of symposium topics, commenting on what they learned about their research topics and about themselves.

k

A Boston College Minute:
BC bOp! rehearsal, Conte Forum, February 25, 2009

The music is Don Menza’s “Time Check.” The director is Sebastian Bonaiuto. Performing are the 26 student members of BC bOp!—Boston College’s prize-winning instrumental and vocal jazz ensemble—in rehearsal for their March 28, 2009, concert.

I began studying the piano at the age of 13, and by 15 I knew I wanted to be a composer,” says Ralf Gawlick who joined the Boston College music faculty this year. The German-born composer’s music has been performed around the world and won numerous awards, including a commission to write a piece for the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Boston. The first Boston College recital devoted entirely to his work was presented in Gasson Hall on March 16. It included a trio for violin, cello, and piano; a solo piano piece; and a sonata for violin and piano. Gawlick introduced the program and spoke to the audience of some 140 listeners about each composition. He noted that the concert coincided with a studio recording of his solo and chamber works by Musica Omnia, to be released this fall, adding “It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to present this concert on the eve of recording my compositions.”

At the University’s third annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on February 6 in Gasson Hall, 49 students presented their investigative work and findings. Projects were grouped thematically into 11 panels (themes included “Human Rights,” “Music in its Many Forms,” and “Health and Science Issues”), with a faculty member presiding over each panel session. In the rotunda, Gasson 100, the Honors Library, and classrooms on the second floor, students described their work to audiences of faculty, students, staff, and friends.

Donald Hafner, vice provost for undergraduate studies, selected the symposium participants from recipients of advanced study grants; contributors to the undergraduate scholarly journals Elements, Ethos, and Dialogue; and on the basis of faculty recommendations. “I never stop being impressed by the range and excellence of these projects,” says Hafner. “The symposium affirms that undergraduates are capable of exceptional research and that there is an audience interested in their work.”

At afternoon’s end, the faculty moderators chose one student from each panel to receive an award for best presentation. “Excellence in any field needs to be coupled with an ability to explain it in an accurate and engaging manner,” says Hafner. @BC presents four of the award winners—(from left) Elizabeth Ryan ’09, Patrick Gardner ’09, Maria Rivas ’10, and Leon Ratz ’11—selected to illustrate the diversity of symposium topics, commenting on what they learned about their research topics and about themselves.

Every 48 years, a species of bamboo in northeast India called “muli bamboo” flowers, and the subsequent fruits, which are roughly the size of a pear, fuel “a plague of black rats that spring from nowhere to spread destruction and famine in their wake.” Jeremy Zipple, SJ, traveled to the Indian state of Mizoram in 2008 to capture “this massive rat population explosion in the kind of vivid detail not possible in 1959, when the last invasion occurred.” The resulting documentary, “Rat Attack,” a NOVA/National Geographic Television program coproduced by Zipple, is being aired this week on public television stations.

Zipple was a Presidential Scholar at Boston College, majoring in economics and music. After graduating, he taught mathematics and music in a junior high school, served as a high school minister, performed classical and gospel music on the piano, served as co-director of a contemporary liturgical choir, and studied philosophy at Fordham University. In 2002 he entered the Jesuits.

Zipple made his first film as a high school student in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It explored race relations in his hometown, and took top prize in the 1995 Sony/American Film Instititute Visions of the U.S. young filmmakers festival. After college he owned a video production company that served clients from nonprofit organizations to Coca Cola. He coproduced and directed a feature-length documentary in 2006—Xavier: Missionary and Saint, which was narrated by Liam Neeson and released by Janson Media. For the last three years Zipple has been a producer at National Geographic Television, and currently he is developing an ethnographic documentary series on wisdom in traditional cultures.

Lost Voices of Darfur,” an exhibition of 100 crayon and colored-pencil drawings by refugee children from Darfur, is on display in Gargan Hall through March 27. It contains a selection of the 500 drawings collected by the human rights group Waging Peace and submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague as evidence of war crimes. Waging Peace is showing the drawings around the world to “raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur and, in particular, the impact the continued atrocities are having on children.” Rebecca Tinsley, a British journalist and chair of Waging Peace, spoke at the March 11 opening of the exhibit, which was sponsored by the Graduate School of Social Work, the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, and the Center for the Arts and Social Responsibility. Pictured above (l-r) are Tinsley; Christina Lohrisch of Waging Peace; Professor David Hollenbach, SJ, director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice; Brenden Dougherty ’10; Alberto Godenzi, dean of the Graduate School of Social Work; and Ryan Gelchion ’10.

More than 500 students, families, and friends gathered in St. Ignatius Church on the afternoon of February 27 to attend “Sending Forth,” a Mass for undergraduates departing on spring break service trips to Appalachia. Above (from left), Robert Couch ’09, Molly Murphy ’09, and Matthew Hamilton ’09 participated in a candle-lighting “Commissioning Ceremony” in which trip leaders passed the flame to members of their respective groups. In all, 620 students traveled to 37 sites in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia to build homes, run soup kitchens, repair public facilities, and provide other services in needy communities. The trips culminate a planning and training process that began last October, which included a student-run fund drive to raise $284,000 from corporate sponsors, families, and friends.