Boston College

Supported by a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a 12-member team of Boston College researchers led by associate professor of biology Kenneth Williams (above, with Jessica Button ’10, at left, and doctoral student Jennifer Campbell) is studying ways to control cells that cause a range of cognitive and neurological diseases in AIDS patients. In collaboration with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of California at San Francisco, the University of Florida, and the University of Hawaii, the Williams team is working to understand the biology of cells that invade the brains of AIDS victims—particularly, harmful forms of white blood cells called “macrophages.” Experiments with monkeys suggest that removing these “bad guy” cells, as Williams calls them, has the potential to “stop or reverse brain disease and AIDS dementia.” Williams and physicians at UCSF and the University of Hawaii will, in the coming year, direct clinical drug trials in Hawaii.

A Boston College Minute: Paradise Lost reading, Hovey House library, May 6, 2009

In celebration of John Milton’s 400th birthday—one of many across the nation—a revolving group of thirty-odd students and faculty, led by English professor Dayton Haskin, gives voice to Milton’s epic poem—all 12 books, 10,565 lines—in the course of some 12 hours of reading.

More than 400 people took part in the July 16–19 Reconnect weekend, a gathering of Boston College AHANA alumni, family, and friends. (The acronym was invented by two Boston College students in 1979, coincident with the start of the Office of AHANA Student Programs.) Events included alumni panel discussions of issues within the legal, medical, and educational professions; a golf tournament; musical entertainment; and presentations by University administrators John Mahoney Jr. ’79, MAT’85, director of undergraduate admission, and Pat Keating, executive vice president, who spoke on the campus master plan. A Saturday night banquet in Corcoran Commons capped the weekend, with talks by President William P. Leahy, SJ, and Julianne Malveaux ’74, MA’76, president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. Above are (from left) Kevin Murph ’82, Donna Brown ’81, Maria Roman ’81, Steve Tompkins, Stephanie Mascoll Adams ’81, Ty Scott ’89, and Delores Cooper Wesley ’83.

Gwyneth Landry, MA’09 (center), is one of 20 Lynch School of Education students and recent graduates serving as counselors at a summer camp based in Carney Hall. Some 160 children between ages 3 and 14, mostly from the Allston-Brighton neighborhood, will participate in one or more weekly camp sessions from June 29 to August 15. Now in its sixth season, the camp is sponsored by Boston Catholic Schools Connect—an education collaborative between Boston College, St. Columbkille Partnership School, and the City of Boston’s Jackson-Mann Community Center that was organized by the Lynch School of Education in 2003. “It’s an academic-based program,” according to camp director Jean O’Connor, a graduate student in the Lynch School who teaches first grade at St. Columbkille and runs its afterschool programs. “They’re learning, but we make it such fun, they don’t really know they’re learning.”

Thirty-five colleges and universities from the Northeast sent some 100 representatives to “A Career Summit: Responding to the Economic Crisis,” a daylong event sponsored by the Boston College Career Center. Discussion included “Being da Vinci—Helping our alumni sculpt new identities for a changing world”; “Using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter—Creative networking ideas”; and “Alternative experiential models/Job shadowing programs.” The meeting, which took place June 24 on Brighton Campus, was organized by Theresa Harrigan, director of the Career Center, to reckon with a labor market that, she noted, has changed for students and alumni alike: “We used to tell students, ‘Find your passion and follow it;’ now we say, ‘Find your passion, hold on to it, but be prepared to pursue other paths.’” Above, Linda Ernst (in red jacket), assistant director for career services at Providence College, talks with presenter Susan Kennedy, a professional job coach and coauthor of The Job Coach for Young Professionals.