Fall 2011

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F S A I N T A N S E L M C O L L E G E

T H E R I G H T T O D E C E N T H E A LT HM a r c L a F o r c e ’ 6 0

Fall 2011 Volume 12 Number 3

Features

20 Ready for Anything An interview with the director of College Health Services

22 COVER STORY- The Right to Decent Health F. Marc LaForce ’60 By Laurie D. Morrissey 32 Cultivating Questions

40 Inspired Art By Barbara LeBlanc

46 A Crash Course in World Affairs By Jennifer McCann ’05

P RTR ITSo A

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On the cover: F. Marc LaForce was photographed by Dave White, of Hancock, N.H.

This page: Support the new turf field at Grappone Stadium. Buy a brick or make a gift at www.anselm.edu/turftalkPhoto taken by Gil Talbot

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On the Hilltop 4

Scene on Campus 18

Philanthropy 38

Perspective 50

Focus on Faculty 30

Alumni News 52

In Memoriam 63

Milestones 62

THE MAGAZINE OF SAINT ANSELM COLLEGE

Executive Editor: Suzanne B. HofmannAssociate Editors: Laurie Morrissey, Barbara LeBlanc

Class Notes: Tricia Halliday, Laurie MorrisseyArt Direction and Design: Melinda Lott

Photography: Fr. Mathias Durette, O.S.B., Audrey Frenette '12; Kevin Harkins, John Harvey, Matthew Lomanno '99,

Carly Peicott '12, Gil Talbot, Kristen WaltherContributors: Meghan Gill '14, Jennifer McCann '05,

David Trumble

Magazine Advisory Board Katherine Durant ‘98 Alumni Council Representative James F. Flanagan Vice President for College Advancement Dr. Landis Magnuson Faculty Representative Br. Isaac Murphy, O.S.B. Monastery Representative Paul Pronovost ‘91 Alumni At-large Representative Dr. Elaine Rizzo Faculty Representative Brad Poznanski Vice President for College Marketing and Enrollment Management Tricia Guanci Therrien ’88 Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations and Advancement Programming

Visit the Web site at www.anselm.eduPortraits magazine is published three times a year for the alumni, college community, and friends of Saint Anselm College. The magazine is published by Saint Anselm College and produced by the Office of College Communications and Marketing. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the college, its administration, faculty, or (except for editorials) of the magazine. Materials meant for publication should be sent to Portraits Magazine, SAC Box 1737, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH 03102-1310, or via e-mail to magazine@anselm.edu.

"We envision a world where innovation ensures that health is within reach for everyone. We go where we are most needed—and where we can be most effective."

22Photo by Dave White

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From the President

It’s November at Saint Anselm College, and this magazine arrives in your home in time for me to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving! While autumn’s colors have begun to fade to more somber shades here in New Hampshire, we have abundant reasons to be thankful during this season of gratitude. We are made grateful by stories you will read here in this issue of Portraits. Like the story of a young French Canadian boy from Manchester who went to work in a drug store when he was 15 years old. His father had died and he and his siblings needed to find work to help support the household. But Francois Marc LaForce ’60 would gain much more from his first job than just supplementary income for his family. There at the drugstore, encountering people who were suffering various illnesses, he discovered his vocation to practice medicine. Marc’s work as a chemistry major at Saint Anselm and his subsequent successes in medical school and internships would place him on the path of an extraordinary medical career. It is no exaggeration to say that today, as the director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project, Dr. LaForce is one of the most important and impactful medical practitioners in the world. Dr. LaForce is on the front lines of a battle against a disease that reaches epidemic proportions across central Africa’s “meningitis belt” every December. As you will read in the pages ahead, last year Marc and his team brought the first low-cost vaccine for meningococcal meningitis A to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. For his work and his life we are so grateful. So too our gratitude belongs to the generosity of our many alums like Lisa Kennedy Sheldon ’78, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts College of Nursing and Health Sci-ences, who teaches graduate and undergraduate courses focusing on oncology nursing and cancer care, and still remembers the small college in New Hampshire where her passion for nursing began. And when we read the reflections on 9/11 by Jennifer McCann ’05, we are grateful for the sort of spiritual clarity and moral foundation that our alumni have cultivated during their years with us. Most profoundly, we are grateful at Saint Anselm, not only for the blessings that have brought us to where we are today or for the bright future that lies before us. Our gratitude belongs to the here and now. For outside the windows of my office I watch students cross the quad on the way to class, and I know with great certainty that among them is a Dr. Marc LaForce who has just come from a chemistry exam, and a Professor Lisa Kennedy Sheldon who is a first semester freshman determined to succeed in the nursing program. And there are Jennifer McCanns, who will see things that they never imagined and respond with reason and compassion that they learned in Saint Anselm classrooms. May you and those you love know the gift of gratitude even as you may face life’s challenges and uncertainty. As we approach the seasons of Advent and Christmas, may God keep you in his warm embrace.

Rev. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B. President

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On the Hilltop

Windblown Bird is Museum’s Gain

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, as the saying goes. Hurricane Irene brought biology professor Jay Pitocchelli an unexpected chance to obtain an ornithological specimen never before recorded in New Hampshire. After a white-tailed tropicbird was identified in a front yard in Claremont, N.H., it was taken to a bird hospital in Lyme. The weary seabird unfortunately did not last the night, but “Dr. Jay” was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to salvage it for scientific study. After taking measurements and studying its plumage (including its distinctive long tail streamers), he will send it to the American Museum of Natural History, where he completed his Ph.D. The museum, which has the largest bird collection in the world, will make the specimen available to the scientific community. The wayward tropicbird, native to the Caribbean and the West Indies, is the first occurrence of this species recorded in New Hampshire. “It’s pretty exciting. I’m teaching ornithology next spring, so I’ve been really glued to the New Hampshire bird sighting lists. It’s incredible to have the first state record,” he says. He is incorporating his data into his lectures for the spring, and plans to write an article on the findings.

Hawks Land on Grappone’s New Turf

The field hockey team informally inaugurated the new turf field at Grappone Stadium with a game against Franklin Pierce on September 2. The following day, the football team faced Kutztown at the stadium, and the bright green home field became a welcome part of Hawks athletics. “Everybody loves it,” says Tyler Fleming, interim director of athletics. “Before, we lost 30 percent of our practice time because of rain and bad weather. We now have better quality, more efficient practices.” Coaches like the field because, with its new lights, they can schedule practices after dark. They also find it easier to haul equip-ment to nearby Grappone than to the old practice fields located further from their offices. The field is being incorporated slowly into the Hawks schedule. This fall, the field hockey and football teams were regular users, while men’s and women’s soccer took to the turf when their natural, grass fields were muddy. This coming spring, Hawks athletes can look forward to early spring practices unimpeded by snow and mud. Unlike grass fields, artificial turf can be plowed and does not become muddy. The lacrosse teams will make regular use of the field, while base-ball and softball will hold practices and scrimmages there until the diamonds are playable. “It will really help with the transition from winter to spring,” Fleming says. The college is still raising money to pay for the nearly $1.3 million project. Donors can support the field with a cash gift or by buying a brick to be installed in the courtyard that sits by the bleachers, alongside the field. The bricks can be inscribed with a short message. Visit anselm.edu/turftalk to learn how to donate, or contact Jim Flanagan, Vice President for College Advancement, at 603-641-7221. Fleming says Grappone’s turf field will eventually benefit almost everyone on campus. It will be open to intramural, club and recreational teams. And next year, Hawks fans will be able to cheer at night football games. “It shouldn’t be thought of as a football field,” he says. “It’s for everybody.”

Photo by Carly Peicott '12

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On the Hilltop

Richard Bready Challenges Others to Give

Richard Bready ’65 demonstrated his support for Saint Anselm College once again this year with a matching gift program that helped bring more than $271,500 in additional donations to the college’s annual fund. The Bready Challenge provided $250,000 in matching funds, while also expanding the President’s Society by 135 new members, who achieved the required minimum donation because of the match. The society now has a record 886 members. Overall, the Office of College Advancement exceeded its annual fund goal of $2.4 million by 20%, for a total of $2.618 million. This is 11% higher than last year’s total of $2.3 million. The number of annual scholarships rose to 115, an increase of 19. Bready, a Saint Anselm trustee, is chairman and CEO of Nortek Inc. He has shown his generosity in many ways to the college. In addition to three Bready Challenges, he established the Richard L. Bready Chair of Ethics, Economics and the Common Good, which is currently held by Dale Kuehne, associate professor of politics. “We count Rick Bready as one of Saint Anselm’s closest friends and strongest supporters,” college President Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., said. “His gifts over the years have allowed many young people, who could otherwise not afford it, to receive the benefits of a Saint An-selm education. We are blessed to have his belief in the mission of our college.”

Students’ Work in Print

Several students and recent graduates have seen their names in peer-reviewed journals alongside those of their professors. Five applied physics majors were published in The Physics Teacher as co-authors with phys-ics professor David Guerra: Kevin Corley, Michael Humphreys, and Michael Nicotera ’07; and Paolo Giacometti and Eric Holland ’09. Professor Guerra says he feels “a bit like a proud dad.” Three chemistry majors not only co-au-thored an article accepted for journal publication, but saw their work featured on its cover. Sara Wojtas ’12, Anna Daigle ’10, Duncan Bradley ’09, chemistry pro-fessor Mary Kate Donais, and classics professor David George co-authored an article that was published in Analytical Methods last summer. The article is about their work using portable instrumentation for analyses of fresco fragments discovered at the college’s ar-chaeological excavation site in Italy. Danielle Nolan’11, a participant in the summer dig, is pictured on the journal’s cover which was designed by classics lecturer Linda Rulman.

Paper co-author Eric Holland ’09 is studying quantum computing as a doctoral candidate in Yale University’s physics department.

Photo by Kristen Walther

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Poetry, Art, and Remembrance:Maxine Kumin, Poet Laureate, Reads at Saint Anselm

This fall, Saint Anselm College invited one of the country’s most distinguished poets to campus. With an exhibition of American painting at the Chapel Art Center and the 10th anniversary of one of the nation’s most tragic events still lingering in people’s minds, Fr. Iain MacLellan, O.S.B., felt it was fitting to celebrate the national artistic spirit by welcom-ing a former U.S. poet laureate. The appearance also serves as the latest event of the Chapel Art Center’s Night of the Poet series and this year it is in collaboration with the NHIOP’s new Bookmark Series. Maxine Kumin, like former U.S. poets laureate Donald Hall and Charles Simic, is a New Hampshire resident. A Philadelphia native, she bought an old dairy farm in Warner, N.H., with her husband in 1963 – soon after her first collection of poems was published. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 10 years later, and has garnered an impressive list of awards, including the Robert Frost Contemporary American Award. The writer’s rural life and the daily chores of gardening and caring for animals have inspired much of Kumin’s work. However, she says, she began writing more political poems “because my anguish was so great, and the poet has to write what she sees, what she feels, and maybe ring the alarm bell.” As a result, pole beans and woodchucks are features of

her poems, as are the human suffering in distant, war-ravaged parts of the world. One of her recent projects was for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., comparing the writing life of a woman in the 17th century with her own. “She was an outspoken feminist. I ended with 10 linked sonnets titled 'Sonnets Uncorseted;' they will be published next spring,” the poet says. “Meanwhile, I take whatever cues the muse offers me.” Kumin read from her latest collection, Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010. She also read from her 2009 The Roots of Things: Essays. “Maxine Kumin sees the world from many perspectives—as an American descended from European Jews, a New Englander, a farmer, teacher, wife, mother, and friend, and a woman who has witnessed and expressed evolving women’s roles from the Depression to post 9/11 global society," says Ann Norton, chair of the Department of English. “Her unique voice combines astute historical awareness with searing commentary on 21st-century life and conveys always her enthrallment with the natural world. Kumin’s intricate stanza forms, vivid imagery, and uncompromising honesty are as fresh in her latest work as in her earliest, and place her among the best living poets.” After the reading, Fr. Iain unveiled a new Chapel Art Center acquisition, “On the Esopus,” a Hudson River landscape by William Hart (1823-1894). Kumin read several stanzas of Autumn Woods, by William Cullen Bryant, Hart’s contemporary.

Photos by Carly Peicott '12

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On the Hilltop

Almost Spring, Driving Home, Reciting Hopkins

“A devout but highly imaginative Jesuit,”Untermeyer says in my yellowed college omnibus of modern poets,perhaps intending an oxymoron, but is it?Shook foil, sharp rivers start to flow.Landscape plotted and pieced, gray-blue, snow-pockedbegins to show its margins. Speeding back down the interstate into my own hillsI see them fickle, freckled, mounded fullyand softened by millennia into pillows.The priest’s sprung metronome tick-tocks, repeating how old winter is. It askseach mile, snow fog battening the valleys,what is all this juice and all this joy? From the exhibit “Hills in Echo: Charles Curtis Allen, N.A., American Painter”

Maxine Kumin’s 17th collection is Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010.

from Connecting the Dots, 1996

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Registered Nurses Work Toward Bachelor’s

The nursing department’s new R.N. to B.S.N. Program launched its first semester this fall with 12 students, including six part- time students. They started the year studying Medical Ethics, and Leadership and Manage-ment, which are two eight-week long courses composed of six online sessions and two on-campus meetings. The program, which allows registered nurses with an associate degree to earn a bachelor’s of science in nursing, will offer two sessions of two eight-week courses each semester. A full-time student can complete a B.S.N. in 18 months. Rosemary Theroux, program direc-tor, said the new students bring a range of ages and experience levels, from nurses who have just completed their associate degree to those who have been practicing for 10 years. What they have in common is that they were drawn to the new program by the reputation of the Saint Anselm nursing program. Two more students are enrolled for the spring semester.

Twelve Join Faculty Ranks

Fr. Augustine, O.S.B., vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, welcomed 12 new full-time faculty members for the 2011-2012 academic year. (Back, L to R): Luke T. Miller (economics and business), Travis Vogan (English), Destiny Brady (nursing), Sean M. Parr (fine arts and music), Kelly E. Demers (education), and (front, L to R): Marieke Martin (econom-ics and business), Susan McHugh (nurs-ing), Christopher Galdieri (politics), Derick Alexandre (classics), Jennifer Wells Kelber (economics and business), Karin Fransen (philosophy). (Not shown: Bede Bidlack (theology).

Photo by Meryl Levin

Photo by Carly Peicott '12

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On the Hilltop

Br. Stephen Professes Simple Vows

Br. Stephen Lawson, O.S.B., professed simple vows during a Mass celebrated July 9 in the Abbey Church, in front of Abbot Matthew Leavy, O.S.B., and the monastic community. A member of the Class of 2008, Br. Stephen studied politics at Saint Anselm College. He professed his vows following a novitiate year, and is now taking courses in Latin and philosophy at the college in preparation for later studies for the priesthood. Br. Stephen, who is the son of Susan and Frank Lawson and who has seven brothers, grew up in Holyoke, Mass. He did not come to Saint Anselm with plans to enter the monastery. In fact, it was the New Hampshire Institute of Politics that he found most attractive at the college, although as a student he attended retreats and dinners at the monastery. Some may know Br. Stephen better as the political blogger, Cosmo, or the reporter, Brian Lawson, who as a senior fol-lowed the presidential campaigns in New Hampshire through his own blog, New Hampshire Presidential Watch, and also for the Boston Globe website. He later worked for NH Politicker.com. Journalism was never Br. Stephen’s first calling, however. He worked for the Live Free or Die Alliance after the election, while continuing to visit the monastery. In January 2010 he decided to join. He assumed the name Stephen in honor of Saint Ste-phen, the first Christian martyr. “The idea of living in community appealed to me,” he said. “Nowadays we live in a society in which the individual is placed above community.” Moreover, he enjoys being in a setting where religious practices are part of daily life. “It’s not considered weird to see people praying the rosary,” he said. “It’s part of our normal life to set aside time in the morning and afternoon to engage in spiritual reading. It’s comforting to know that everyone is trying to move toward similar goals.”

Photo left: After professing his vows, Br. Stephen Lawson, O.S.B., (center, in black habit) stands with Fr. Peter Guerin, O.S.B., (far left); Abbot Matthew Leavy, O.S.B; Bishop Joseph Gerry, O.S.B., and Br. Isaac Murphy, O.S.B. Right top: Br. Stephen with his parents, Susan and Frank Lawson. Right bottom: Br. Stephen holds a religious artifact that belonged to his grandparents and he is joined by his mother, aunts and uncle. Photos by Fr. Mathias Durette, O.S.B.

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Awards, Polls and Presidential Politics at the NHIOP

Presidential politics has been the main theme at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics this fall, as the 2012 New Hampshire Primary draws near and the Republican campaign to unseat President Obama intensifies. In October, the NHIOP joined with the Institute of Politics at Harvard University to issue a poll that put former Gov. Mitt Romney in first place in the primary race. The institutes will issue a second poll just before the primary is held this winter. The NHIOP has hosted every Republican presidential candidate at least once this fall, either for a talk at the institute or at the Politics & Eggs events that the institute co-sponsors with the New England Council. Romney drew a crowd of about 250 voters and more than a dozen reporters to a town hall-style meeting in the NHIOP auditorium in September, and President Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, met with Saint Anselm students after speaking at Politics & Eggs. Senators John McCain and John Kerry were honored at the New Hampshire Primary Awards Dinner that was put on by the NHIOP and the New Hampshire Political Library in September. Washington Post columnist Dan Balz accepted a third award granted posthumously to his late colleague, journalist David Broder. Balz also moderated a discussion by McCain and Kerry about their experiences cam-paigning in New Hampshire as presidential candidates. McCain won the 2008 primary and went on to be the Republican nominee for president. Kerry was the Democratic nominee after winning his party’s New Hampshire primary in 2004.

Presidential candidates to debate on a Saint Anselm stage

Saint Anselm College once again will take center stage in national politics by hosting a televised debate prior to the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. ABC and WMUR will sponsor the Republican debate. This is not the first time these partners have come together to hold a debate on the eve of the primary. ABC and WMUR brought presidential candidates to the Dana Center in 2004 and again in 2008, when Republican and Democratic candidates taking part in back-to-back debates were on stage together for the first time. ABC's Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will moderate the event with WMUR anchor Josh McElveen. Excerpts of the debate will air again the following morning on “This Week with Christianne Amanpour.”

Photo by John Harvey

Photo by Gil Talbot

Photo by John Harvey

Photos left: Sens. John McCain and John Kerry; candidate Mitt Romney; presidential strategist David Axelrod

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On the Hilltop

Portraits now available online, anytime

Portraits is now available via the college website as a fully interactive electronic magazine. Readers are currently able to access the three most recent editions of the magazine, and all future editions will be electronically archived at this site. Viewers will find a fully interactive presentation, allowing the reader to print, email, and download an electronic copy of the magazine. And, as always, readers' comments and suggestions are welcome.

To view Portraits online, visit: www.anselm.edu/portraits

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2011 Senior Send-Off. Photo by Matthew Lomanno

Talking About quotes from speakers hosted by the college

Nine-eleven did not make us more vulnerable. It made us more aware of our vulnerabilities. John Ridge, Secretary of the U.S. De-partment of Homeland Security

Some of my best friends are Republicans. We need to back off the notion that just because someone is from a different party, he or she cares less about this country.

David Axelrod, political consultant and advisor to President Barack Obama

Don’t ask the question Why? When? Where? Ask the question how? How can you prevent another woman from falling victim to slavery? Use your freedom to make a statement. Take a stand and raise your voice to free your brothers and sisters from the crime of slavery.

Beatrice Fernando, activist, founder of Nivasa Foundation

AlumNet: New and Improved! The Saint Anselm College Alumni website, AlumNet, received a facelift in October, and is now decked out in Saint Anselm blue to match the college’s website pages. The new and improved AlumNet is a valuable tool for alumni, providing services and information that enable graduates to stay connected to the college. Within the online community, alumni can view upcoming events and read the latest college news. Within the password-protected pages of the site, members can access an online alumni directory, submit and read class notes, post jobs or internships, and more. Alumni can also update their personal information, email classmates, share photos, and interact with old friends.

We encourage you to visit the new AlumNet site today at www.anselm.edu/alumni.

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On the Hilltop

Got Email?

Alumni, are you getting our new e-newsletter?Don’t miss out on the latest news and happenings at the college.

Visit www.anselm.edu/update and provide us with an up-to-date email address.

Saint Anselm College Blog Features Student Opinion, Campus News

Interested in getting inside “America’s Classroom” with the EN330 Political Communication course this semester? Fr. Jerome Day, O.S.B., and his students offer you that ability on the college blog, with posts from students’ weekly class logs available for review and comment. Students have blogged about the 9/11 memorial and Glen Beck, and offered media analysis. “Instead of participating in civic engagement, we contribute to the trend of desultory fixations by paying more attention to inconsequential and often entertaining political blunders than overall political progression. The result is that ‘we the people’ is now be-coming ‘we the dissatisfied audience;’ the irony of this shift lies in the fact that limited civic engagement means voluntarily moving away from democracy and towards autocracy,” writes Lauren Clark ’14. Follow students’ entries, monitor college Tweets, photos and videos, and stay up on the latest campus news on the Saint Anselm College blog: www.anselm.edu/blog

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Pulling Rank

The Saint Anselm women’s cross country team has attained a regional ranking after impressive performances at a host of invitational meets this fall. At press time, the Hawks had soared to a No. 9 ranking in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTF-CCCA) NCAA Division II East Region poll. Saint Anselm won the Raider Invitational and the Pop Crowell Invitational, and placed fourth overall at the 30th Annual Shacklette In-vitational hosted on campus in early October. The harriers also competed in the prestigious National Catholic Championship at the University of Notre Dame, finishing in 24th place in a crowded and competitive field. The trio of junior Allyn Doyle, sophomore Stephanie Kearsley and freshman Courtney Bennett has paced the Hawks throughout the fall. The Hawks are coached by Paul Finn, professor of psychology, whose research background includes expertise in behavioral health, sports psychology and neuropsychology. Saint Anselm will compete in the Northeast-10 Conference Championships in late October, and hopes to qualify runners for the NCAA Regional and NCAA Championships.

Photo by Gil Talbot

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On the Hilltop

Hawks Online

The Saint Anselm College athletics website, www.saintanselmhawks.com, has a new look and new features that enable Hawks fans to follow their favorite teams throughout the year. Website enhancements include a new statistics platform with live game stats; an improved video player on which to watch highlight clips, features and in-terviews; and an e-newsletter. As always, visitors can read game stories, download schedules, or follow the Hawks through numerous social media channels. Take a look today!

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Move in day: www.anselm.edu/movein

New Students Receive a Saint Anselm Welcome

Saint Anselm College welcomed 552 new students, who arrived on campus in late August with considerable help from parents, siblings, friends, orientation leaders, and resident assistants. Everyone seemed to get into the act, including monks and ad-ministrators. Fr. Benet Phillips, O.S.B., was seen toting a big pink pillow into Joan of Arc Hall. Students came from 25 states and three countries to join the Class of 2015, while 17 transferred from other schools to finish their education at Saint Anselm. Half call Mas-sachusetts home, while 91 percent hail from New England. Students took part in a three-day New Student Orientation that included exploring campus services and opportunities, meeting with faculty, and performing service. A family Mass and presidential welcome were held at the Abbey Church, and a din-ner for new students with college President Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., at Davison Hall. The 2015 class ban-ner was raised to the ceiling during the dinner. The weekend ended with an unusual bonding experi-ence, as students were confined to their residence halls during the worst of Tropical Storm Irene. Nearly 50 students took part in one of two new pre-orientation programs. The Multicul-tural Center offered 17 multicultural and commuter students an early peek at campus life through the Transitions Program. Another 40 students took part in Passages, an adventure leadership program of-fered for the first time through the Student Activities and Leadership Programming Office. The program offered three trips: Maine to work in the Emmaus community, H.O.M.E; the Adirondacks to learn about environmental issues and the importance of pro-tected wilderness; and Gettysburg, to explore the history and significance of the Civil War at the 150th anniversary of its start.

BLOGBBPhotos by Gil Talbot

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What are new students studying? The top 10 majors remain little changed from recent years. ‘Undeclared’ tops the list (24 percent), with nursing, business, criminal justice, biology and psychology following in that order. Two new majors, education studies and communication, filled out the list along with politics and history. In all, 150 freshmen were Presidential Scholars, compared with 106 the year before. The average high school GPA of the Class of 2015 was 3.23, compared to 3.11 in 2010. The mean SAT score was 1674, although nursing majors are the only students who must supply standardized test scores when they apply.

Top photo Green-shirted orientation leaders prepare to introduce more than 500 new students to Saint Anselm. Middle photo Legacy students gather with their alumni parents in front of the Stoneface. Lower photo Fr. Augustine Kelly, O.S.B., dean of the college, (seated left) chats with new students on the Coffee Shop deck. Right top photo, Fr. Mathias Durette, O.S.B., with orientation leader Will O’Connor ‘13. Right bottom Settling into Joan of Arc; Opposite page, top photo Fr. Benet Phillips, O.S.B., helps Alexandra Scafidi.’15 move into Joan of Arc. Bottom photo Ben Horton ’12 lends a hand.

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Scene on CampusScene on Campus

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1. Ethan Lawrence ’13 performs at Open Mic Night.

2. Lauren Miller ’14 views paintings by Charles Curtis Allen in the Chapel Art Center.

3. A gathering in “The Uppers.”

4. Jacob Wagner ’14 and Eric Brandolini ’15 with U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

5. Samantha Tatu ’12 sings the national anthem prior to the New Hampshire Primary Awards.

6. Geoffrey Kennedy ’15, Chris Ryan ’15, and Daniel Ruiz ’14.

7. Students learn Latin dancing at a Multicultural Center event.

8. Fun and games between classes on a Friday in October.

9. Back from a local shopping trip.

10. Hilary Gorgol ’14, Professor Daniel Broeck, and Kimberly Murray ’14.

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Scene on CampusScene on Campus

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What does college health service encompass? It encompasses three things: medi-cal care, counseling, and health education, all under one roof. We’re a walk-in clinic open Monday to Friday 8-6 and Saturday 12-4. We have 24-hour coverage from the EMTs and an emergency counseling number that students can call off hours. It’s unique to have counsel-ing and medical services under the same roof, but we really believe in collaboration between the two.

Why is that? If a student has an eating disorder, or needs treatment for anxiety or depression, you need the physical care and the mental health follow-up. A nurse practitioner can prescribe medication and collaborate with the counselor.

What is the size of your staff? Fourteen including part-time. We have seven R.N.s, three nurse practitioners, one M.D., two counselors, and an administra-tive assistant. We work as a team. I make myself available 24 hours a day, but I have a fantastic staff to whom I can delegate.

What are the challenges? Day to day, you never know what’s going to come through the door. It’s like an emergency room. It could be someone coming in for a band-aid or Tylenol; someone with a blood clot or a concussion; or a true mental health crisis where someone comes in crying or someone’s suicidal. We’re always ready.

What are the broader challenges? Being prepared for what’s coming down the pike. Being proactive about things like pandemic flu, and preparing not just the students but the campus. We have to be alert for trends or threats that are out there and

Ready for AnythingAn Interview with the Director of College Health Services

Maura Marshall has always been a care giver; and, with her mother and her aunt as examples, her career choice was easy. She graduated from nursing school at Fitchburg State College and earned her nurse practitioner credentials at Rivier College. Her career began at Beth Israel Hospital, but after moving to New Hampshire, she has worked in the intensive care unit and the emergency room at Catholic Medical Center. It was in the ER that Marshall came to know Saint Anselm students who were studying nursing—and liked what she saw. She began working at the college by filling in for health services staff on weekends. She is in her third year as director of the Office of College Health services. She co-chairs the College Health Committee and serves on several state and New England committees. The mother of two children, she is an avid water skier and cyclist. “The saddest day of the year is when we take the boat out of the lake,” she says.

issue with varsity athletes because the trainers intervene so quickly. They have computerized tools for baseline assessment and follow-up. It’s more of an issue with athletes who are not var-sity, because they don’t have the baseline test-ing. They may not understand how ill they are or when they have to seek help. There’s a whole host of symptoms students may not be aware of and the only treatment for severe concussion is complete rest. One of the goals for this year is to be more proactive about that, especially with the rugby players.

Other major issues? Food allergies are an issue that’s come to the forefront in the last few years. We work very closely with Dining Services and Residence Life to educate around these issues and make accommodations.

Do we have students with video game addiction? I’m absolutely sure it’s an issue, but we probably don’t see it called that. We might see carpal tunnel syndrome. We do have parents who call to express concern about their child gaming too much. I haven’t seen it to the extent that it’s affecting health or academics; maybe because it’s not being self-identified. But that may be coming.

What health scares have you had to deal with? The first big issue I was faced with when I started here was H1N1. Fortunately, I was proactive in getting the vaccine here.

Is stress a common problem? It’s generally a big issue among any college population. We work with students and Residence Life staff to provide relaxation and meditation workshops and programs. We facili-tate classes like Zumba and Yoga and we refer them to our counselors for stress management

might come to our campus. Also I have to be on top of legal issues and deal with state and federal agencies.

What are the major things you deal with? Mental health issues. If students come to college with a mental health issue, we have to identify them and provide for them and in-tervene before they get into trouble academi-cally or health wise. Eating disorders and issues relating to anxiety and depression are big. I have one nurse practitioner whose schedule is dedicated to these issues. There is also one who is dedicated to women’s health.

What about alcohol abuse? It’s a problem on all campuses. I’m on the Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee and it’s very proactive and has made a huge difference. The number of transports for alcohol overdose has gone down dramatically. We have a licensed drug and alcohol counsel-or who teaches a class several times a year for students who have been identified as being at risk for these issues. We are also trying to change the perception of drinking and make students aware that if they don’t drink they are not different: 68 percent of Saint Anselm students do not drink in a high risk manner.

How do you identify such problems? SupportNet is a committee which meets every Monday, comprising representatives from the Dean of Students, Academic Dean, Residence Life, Campus Ministry, Student Activities, Multicultural Center, and Counseling to identify high-risk students on campus and reach out to offer support.

What about injuries? Concussion is a major issue getting media attention right now. It’s not so much an

21

strategies. If needed, we collaborate with other departments to work on the problem causing the stress. We work with the academic deans if it is an academic issue, for example, or with the Dean of Students or athletics office depending what the issues are.

It sounds like your job touches every aspect of the college. It does. We work very, very closely with athletics, student affairs, security, dining services, and campus ministry. I’ve talked many times in the middle of the night with a residence director or R.A. when there’s a student in crisis.

Does your job take you off campus? I’m on a lot of committees: the New Hampshire Violence Against Women Campus Consortium, Higher Education Alcohol and Other Drug Committee, New England College Health Committee, New Hampshire College Health Committee.

Could you describe a typical day in the Office of Health Services? There is no typical day. I’ve learned to go with the flow. I’m a problem solver. Whatever problem comes up, that’s my priority.

Do people generally understand what you do here? Students and parents are very surprised to know how much we can do. A student athlete will come in with an injury and say, “Wow, I didn’t know a place like this existed!” Because of my ER experience, I can stitch them up. We can draw blood, do hepati-tis titers. They’re surprised at the resources we have. If someone has an eye injury we can get them an appointment with the doctor that day instead of having their mom or dad try to do it from Connecticut.

What would you like people to know about your office? That we’re here, and we can help in a lot of ways. Even if we don’t have the service, we can find it. I’d like parents to realize that if students have health issues off campus or are in the hospital over the summer, it would be nice for us to be aware of that. We’re extend-ed parents. We’re here to take care of them.

INTERVIEW

Photo by Gil Talbot

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Mothers in Burkina Faso call the first rainfall in May the rains of hope. That is because it signals the end—for one year—of the epidemic that steals so many of their children. But when the dry season comes again, and mothers from Senegal to Ethiopia brace themselves for the epidemic’s return, there will be relief from the usual terror. Finally, a meningitis A vaccine has been developed at a low enough cost for poor countries to afford. In an enormously successful mass vaccination campaign, millions have received the shot that will save them from an untimely death or prevent them from becoming so disabled that they cannot feed their families. The international effort that achieved this is nothing short of a miracle, in the view of many global health experts—and it is one in which F. Marc LaForce ʼ60 has played a vital role. The New Hampshire native has spent the past decade helping to break the deadly lock that bacterial meningitis has had on Africa’s poorest countries.

By Laurie D. Morrissey

The Right to Decent Health

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Photo provided by PATH

COVER STORY

Simplifying Marc LaForce’s 45-year career is not easy, but he sometimes boils it down to these three words: “I make vaccines.”

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n a career that is in its fifth decade, Marc LaForce has been a malaria tracker, a “smallpox warrior,” a profes-sor, clinician, researcher, administrator, and fund raiser. His work has taken him from New Mexico to the Mekong River to remote African villages, as well

as to the halls of academe and the World Health Organization (WHO). These days, he is likely to be found at the podium addressing an in-ternational meningitis conference in London or teaching an advanced level vaccinology course in India. His official role is director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project at the Seattle-based nonprofit PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology for Health); but his path to PATH is not one he ever envisioned. LaForce’s interest in medicine began because he needed an after-school job. His father had died, leaving six children to be raised by their mother. “Everybody worked,” he says. At 15, he got a job at Precourt’s Pharmacy in East Manchester. He kept it while majoring in chemistry at Saint Anselm, where he and his two brothers, Louis ’63 and Pierre ’57, were “day hops.” He loved chemistry and was tempted to take the Ph.D. route into medical research; but his experience at the local drug store led him to choose the challenge of treating patients. After earning an M.D. at Seton Hall College of Medicine, LaForce trained on the Harvard Medical Unit at Boston City Hospital, a public hospital for the poor. When he was drafted to serve in Vietnam, the doctor in charge of the Harvard Medical Service requested that he be allowed to work for the federal CDC (Centers for Disease Con-trol) instead. He was sent to a Navajo Reservation where there was an outbreak of Bubonic plague. “I’d never traveled further than New Jersey, and then one day I found myself in my Florsheim shoes in the middle of an Indian reser-vation,” he recalls. Over the next two years as an epidemic intelligence officer, his assignments included working on the Malaria Eradication Program in Thailand and a plague outbreak in Nepal. “It became clear to me that there was so much we could do with the resources that we take for granted,” he says. The experience also taught him that he could work in pretty much any environment. He slept on floors and tables, and often in his Land Rover. That was only the beginning, of course. He looks back on competing with rats for his rations; coming home with large tape-worms; checking under his bed for snakes; wearing boots to avoid flea-bitten ankles; and running from elephants. And frequent dysentery, no matter what precautions are taken. He holds an enduring image of a carpet of rats fleeing a famine-stricken island in the Brahmaputra River. But he calls it “terribly interesting,” enjoyable and challenging. None of it seems to bother him nearly as much as the dreary inconve-niences of modern business travel. “I despise traveling,” says the world traveler. Putting up with all this is part of what makes a good field worker, which is the highest praise for people in LaForce’s line of work. “If people couldn’t say that about me, I’d quit,” he says.

The Smallpox Warrior

LaForce returned to Harvard to finish his training in infectious disease, but kept ties with the CDC. When new cases of smallpox began occurring in India in December 1974, his CDC mentor, Dr. Philip Brachman, then head of the epidemiology group (now known for his work with anthrax), asked him to lend a hand. It would mean being in the field for three or four months at a time. By then, LaForce was married to Nancy Collins, a nurse he’d met at City Hospital. “I said I’d never hold him back. I said ‘Go,’” she recalls. That three-month stint cemented LaForce’s desire for international work. He flew to Delhi and began working with the Smallpox Eradication Program in India. When a major outbreak developed in Bangladesh, he flew to Dhaka, the capital. Bangladesh is a mostly flat country in the middle of the Ganges Delta, prone to catastrophic floods and cyclones. It is one of the world’s most densely populated and poorest countries. LaForce would replace an epidemic intelligence officer who had just left the remote northern Kurigram Subdivision. Although there were no automobile roads in the area, he was to travel by Land Rover. For the final leg of his journey, he put the vehicle on two lashed-together boats on a river. His first task upon arrival was to find an assistant. He found Zoha, a young man who knew some English and could drive. Together they visited cases that had been identified by a motorbike surveillance team. They also gathered information on each patient’s contacts and made sure they got immunized. They explained the program to patients and village elders and hired house guards to prevent new contact with isolated patients. Communication was practically nonexistent. LaForce touched base with officials in Dhaka by a radio hooked up to his car battery, and his family did not hear from him. In charge of all supplies, including petrol, he became a supply sergeant as well as doctor and detective. He was also the “bag man,” in charge of the money to pay helpers in the villages. He got used to eating with his hands—basically tomatoes and rice—and lost 15 or 20 pounds. But he never failed to make nightly entries in a diary, under the light of a kerosene lamp. At times, preventing contact between infected and healthy people required strong measures. In a 2009 interview with “Global Health Chronicles,” LaForce compared his work to a military campaign. “These were essentially military rules. Expediency, getting the job done… I tried to be kind, but sometimes I wasn’t.” Dr. Stanley Foster, then head of the program, recalls LaForce as a field general who worked extremely well with his in-country colleagues but was tough and intense. “If someone said there were no cases in a particular village, and he went there and found cases, he was not very happy. He was a leader from behind. He worked hard and inspired the people who worked under him by that example,” he says.

I

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COVER STORY

“We should live in a just world. Having a potential good that you know should be delivered,

and it can’t be delivered economically — this is unjust.”

Meningitis A is a form of bacterial meningitis that is most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 430 million people are at risk.

Epidemics occur every 7-14 years in the meningitis belt of Africa. They occur in the dry season (December – June).

An epidemic wave can last 2-3 years, dying out during the intervening rainy seasons.

In the 1990s, more than 100,000 people died in Africa from meningitis A.

Photo provided by PATH

MENINGITIS FACTS

Photo provided by PATH

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COVER STORY

A Philosophical Mind

LaForce’s success in surmounting cultural and language differences to accomplish big goals can be attributed to his basic beliefs and education. He is convinced of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual, and he communicates that respect by showing curiosity about their jobs, their skills, and their hopes. “People have a right to decent health. That belief creates its own piston for seeing that it gets done,” he says. “We should live in a just world. Having a potential good that you know should be delivered, and it can’t be delivered economically—this is unjust.” LaForce had weighed such issues as an undergraduate with a philosophy minor. Besides underlying his compassion and drive, his philosophical nature allows him to put strange experienc-es in perspective. It may have helped him when he was detained as a suspected money smuggler for the better part of a day—an experience he reflects on as being formative. “It was a lesson to me in terms of saying, Oh everything’s fine, we’ve done this great job, and the next thing you know I have these police officers with a couple of machine guns that look pretty serious...” He considers it a profound experience in the culture of a people who are desperately poor but proud and intelligent. “They taught me a lot about myself. We have these strange fantasies about ourselves: we’re wonderful, we’re great; we’re not. And as I told Stan Foster before I left Bangladesh, the experience there taught me that I’m not as nice as I thought I was. I think that sort of insight has been incredibly useful to me.” Years later, while living in France and working at WHO headquarters in Geneva, LaForce enjoyed walking in the footsteps of Voltaire. He knows the philosopher’s works and history and uses terms like Kierkegaardian, as in the “Kierkegaardian leap of faith” he made when, in 1989, he amazed colleagues by resigning from a tenured faculty position to focus on global health. He reads Sartre for fun. An education in history and philosophy and the other liberal arts is a base that allows you to look at a variety of prob-lems without being a specialist, he says, and contribute something new, something innovative. “History and philosophy matter.”

Christmas in April

After working on the Smallpox Eradication Program, LaForce built his stateside resume, serving as head of medicine at the V.A. Hospital in Denver and joining the medical faculty of the University of Colorado and the University of Rochester. His three daughters grew up in Colorado, although they spent a year in Switzerland while their father was on academic sabbatical with the Expanded Program on Immunization at WHO headquarters. Throughout the 80s and 90s, LaForce was frequently on assignment with WHO and the Agency for International Development (USAID) in Asia and Africa. Even now, says Nancy LaForce, “We have Christmas when we can get together. We’ve had it in August, February, April and October.” She calls herself the proverbial pretzel: flexible. When the administrative demands of academic work crowd-ed out the time he was able to spend on research and public health assignments, LaForce took stock of his priorities and made a change. He departed from academia, and for two years he directed USAID’s child survival program. In 2001, he was offered the opportunity to lead a major fight against one of the world’s greatest health threats: the recurring scourge of Group A meningococcus in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was recruited to direct the Meningitis Vaccine Program (MVP), a partnership between WHO and PATH. The project was created through a $70 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of eliminating epidemic meningitis in the 25 countries where its rates are highest.

“People have a right to decent health. That belief creates its own piston for seeing that it gets done.”

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“He’s the Customer.”

Repeated epidemics of meningitis have plagued the so-called “meningitis belt” for a century. Unless antibiotics are available and used quickly, Marc LaForce explains, the death rate is high. Permanent disability afflicts a large number of survivors. “The impact of the disease is such that an epidemic can quickly turn into a social, human and economic disaster for the affected countries,” he says. A major epidemic in 1996-1997 stoked the public health community’s interest in developing a meningitis A vaccine that would be appropriate for the specific strain of the bacteria and affordable for Africa—a tall order in a profit-driven world with countless humanitarian needs. LaForce’s job was to forge and foster partnerships that could make it happen. The MVP team worked with public and private international partners, including companies that could develop technology and supply materials. The vaccine was made by a generic drug maker in India at just 50 cents a dose, far less than it would cost with major vaccine manufacturers in the U.S. or Europe. The whole drug development process cost less than a tenth of what it would cost in the States. Preclinical development finished in 2004, and clini-cal trials followed in India and Africa. LaForce has managed the project in the lab, in the office, and on the ground. He knows that it costs an African family the equivalent of three months’ income to have a case of meningitis, and he has seen families sell their patrimony—their front door, the last thing that goes—to recover from the loss. In Burkina Faso in 2007, he had an experience he will never forget, one that helps explain his dedication. He met Jean-Francois, a smart, strapping 18-year-old who was the eldest of six children. “This young man had unlimited potential. I saw him on day seven of his hospitalization when it was clear that he was now stone deaf,” LaForce recalls. “I remember the attending physician telling his mother, “Being deaf in Africa is not easy…” Later, sitting in his office in France, he started to wonder how Jean-Francois was doing and called a contact in Burkina Faso. He got sad news: the young man’s family was in mourning. While he was playing soccer with his siblings, the ball rolled into the street. Jean-Francois followed the ball and never heard the truck that struck and killed him. “I started to cry,” says the doctor. “I vowed that I’d do whatever was required. We had to press on.” The MVP director has an enlarged photograph of just such a young man at PATH headquarters. He tells all visitors, whether they are doctors, bureaucrats or philanthropists, “Whatever you decide, it has to be good for him. He’s the customer.”

Photos provided by PATH

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Making History

After almost a decade, despite skepticism and regula-tory hurdles, MenAfriVac was licensed and prequalified for use. In December 2010, 11 million young people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger were vaccinated for meningitis in 12 days—an unprecedented feat. WHO surveillance teams gathered data in the following weeks. Each week, no cases were found. In spite of receiving weekly updates, LaForce returned to Burkina Faso last March, the height of the epidemic season, to see the results for himself. He was a happy man: “The hospital wards were empty.”In the 2010-2011 meningitis season, Burkina Faso confirmed just four cases of meningitis A. Niger reported four cases and Mali none, ac-cording to WHO. To date, close to 20 million have been vaccinated. The campaign now targets Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, followed by Benin, Ghana and Senegal. If each country can find sufficient funds to co-finance the campaign, it will be extended to all 25 countries in the meningitis belt by 2016, according to the Global Alliance for Vaccines & Immuni-zation. If the vaccine is introduced throughout the meningitis belt, LaForce says, it can prevent more than a million cases over the next decade—and free up more than $350 million that would otherwise be spent on medical costs. His great hope is that besides relieving the pain and terror of meningitis A for people like Jean-Francois, MVP will provide a model that can be replicated in other countries for other diseases.

Le Vieux Blanc

Even on a 110-degree day in Africa, LaForce wears a businesslike button-down shirt, never shorts. He might wear sunglasses, but no hat. When it’s really hot, he unbuttons his collar and rolls up his sleeves. “I’m very traditional. I overdress for everything,” he says. But he seems to enjoy being informally known in African villages by a nickname, “le vieux blanc” (old white man). At 72, he feels he may finally retire—or semi-retire—but only once he sees the results of one more vaccination cycle. He hates to be idle. He loves a challenge and has no trouble finding it. He paraphrases Voltaire, saying, “When you grow old, you should cultivate your garden.” His “garden” is what’s nearby: he’d like to teach physical diagnosis as a volunteer faculty member and do carpentry projects at his house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He’s no amateur. He has built temperature-controlled wine cellars, docks and a rail system for his boat. He may pull out his field diary and write about his experiences. “I’d have been very happy being a carpenter, or an electrician. It’s all so logical,” he says. He pauses. “I would like to build a box. A perfectly square one with a lid that fits. It’s really hard to do.”

DEVASTATING DISEASES

Malaria: About 3 billion people (half the world’s

population) are at risk of malaria. Every year, this leads

to about 250 million malaria cases and nearly one mil-

lion deaths. Malaria is an especially serious problem in

Africa, where 20% of childhood deaths are due to the

effects of the disease. Every 30 seconds, a child dies

from malaria.

Smallpox: In the early 1950s, 50 million cases occurred

each year. Vaccination efforts reduced that figure to

10-15 million by 1967, but the untreatable disease

still threatened 60% of the world’s population. It killed

every fourth victim, and scarred or blinded most survi-

vors. WHO intensified its efforts, and global eradication

of smallpox was certified in 1979.

Meningitis A: Meningitis is a serious infection of the

thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Viral

meningitis is benign and resolves without treatment.

Meningitis A is a form of bacterial meningitis that is most

prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated

430 million people are at risk of death or permanent

disability.

Facts from the World Health Organization and the Meningitis Vaccine Project

29Photo provided by PATH

VIDEO

Marc LaForce tells the tragic story of a young man in Burkina Faso whose death could have been prevented if an effective, affordable vaccine had been available.

www.anselm.edu/laforce

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AQ

Focus on Faculty

Bindu MalieckalAssociate professorPh.D., Baylor University

Photos by Gil Talbot

Bindu Malieckal (English) talks about music,

murder, and movies.

3131

You chose to major in English, so you must love stories. What stories got you hooked on literature?When I lived in India, the books for children were for older children and they were very colonial. I read TinTin comics and Enid Blyton’s English adventure novels about “the Famous Five.” I remember reading The Merchant of Venice in seventh grade. I think that’s when my love of Shakespeare started. I also loved the great Victorian novels by Dickens and the Brontes: A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights. I just couldn’t stop reading and I kept rereading.

What is your specialty?Early modern and Renaissance literature, mostly the 16th and 17th centuries.

Why do you love teaching?Teaching is a sharing of ideas. After I read something, I’m eager to share what I’ve read. I get excited and want to share my enthusiasm. I wanted to teach at a small college because for me, it’s all about student interaction. The best classes are when we can have a dialogue about some intellectual question and there’s a give and take of excitement and knowledge.

What is it about Shakespeare’s works that appeals to you?Their universality. They have no boundaries in terms of generation, culture, or nationality. The stories resonate for anyone, anywhere, any time.

What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?It has to be Othello. The relationship between Othello and Desdemona is so compelling and sensitive. It touches upon societal anxieties that are relevant today. Desdemona is wealthy and privileged and from a high class. Othello had been enslaved by the Ottoman Turks, he was older, and he had only recently become a Christian. Despite the differences in race, class, status and age, there was this intangible attrac-tion— this love—that’s fascinating. Othello murders Desdemona but it’s not a failure of love, it’s his failure.

How many times have you read it?Countless, at this point. And every time I teach it, I find things I’ve never noticed before.

What are your views on whether Shakespeare really wrote all that we think of as his?I think he wrote it all: 37 plays and 154 sonnets. There are similarities in his works, and the other people that are considered, like Ben Johnson and Edward de Vere and Christopher Marlowe, all write differently.

Who are your favorite writers?Besides Shakespeare, all of the people in his world. His contemporaries,like Christopher Marlowe. He was a great poet and his stories are

exciting and tantalizing. Tamberlane and The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus, for example.

How do you make them relevant to today’s students?The conflicts of the characters are always relevant. I teach Faustus every time I do a Renaissance survey class. He makes a deal with the devil because of pride and greed. Tamberlane is about the nature of ambition and tyranny, and it’s a frame through which you can under-stand other historical tyrants, from Quadafi to Hitler.

Who else do you read?My favorite contemporary writer is Rohinton Mistry. A Fine Balance is one of the great novels. I’ve told everyone about it. I think the whole monastery has read it.

If you could invite one writer to co-teach a course with you, who would it be?Virginia Woolf. She’s a modern and that’s not my area, but she’s a writer I really admire. She’d ask good questions. As much as I love Marlowe and Shakespeare, I’m not sure about them as teachers. I’d bring Virginia Woolf into the classroom so she would have a role in a university setting, which she did not have in her lifetime.

What are you writing?I’m working on a book I call Spice Wars about the interaction between early modern India and early modern England. I’ve got some of it done, but I get distracted by other writing. I’m working on a collection of essays on early modern genocidal massacres with a former colleague and I’m writing about African slaves in India.

What would you be if not an English teacher?I’d like to be a professional traveler, someone like Anthony Bourdain; travel, write, and eat.

What would your students be surprised to know about you?They think I listen to classical music because I teach Shakespeare. I don’t listen to anything but heavy metal. Also, I’m a science fiction buff. I loved “Star Trek” when it was on.

What do you think about setting Shakespeare plays in modern times?I think it’s great. It shows the universality, the contemporary relevance. The movie “O” is a good rewriting of Othello set in a private high school. Odin is an African-American basketball star and Desi, the Desdemona character, is the daughter of the dean. Scotland, P.A. is a re-do of Macbeth. Joe and Pat McBeth run a fast food restaurant. They’re great movies; I look forward to more.

Focus on Faculty

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Cultivating Questions

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This is one in a series of feature articles about programs and initiatives that support goals of the college’s strategic plan, Vision 2015, Looking Within—Reaching Beyond. Learn more at: www.anselm.edu/strategicplan

Getting back into their studies was easy for some Saint Anselm students this past fall, because they never really stopped. In a Boston research lab, a world-renowned medical center, and a field in northern Italy, these students applied their mental might to the challenges of research—with funds they attracted through their success as undergraduates. Opportunities to perform sponsored research don’t usually come until graduate school or later. But, for these students, there is no time like the present. Undergraduate research experience is valuable on many levels, and it has benefits to both professional and personal areas of a student’s life. New technical skills and knowledge are to be expected. But much of what is gained crosses disciplines: a boost in self confidence, critical thinking and communication skills, and practice in collaboration and overcoming obstacles. These students have thought about the broader message or impact gained from their research experience. What do they know now that they did not when they began their projects? Did their thinking change in any way? Will it change the way they look at their chosen field, or at the world? As these essays show, research is about more than learning how to operate analytical instruments or process data.

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before. – Thorsten Veblen, American economist and sociologist, in The Place of Science in Modern Civilization

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In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published an article titled “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” It pro-vided us with the stark realization that maybe our healthcare system was not as safe as we all had hoped. It reported that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year as a result of prevent-able medical errors. These numbers seemed unfath-omable when I first read the article and I remember thinking that it must have been a mistake. However, as I have spent more time in the clinical arena, it has become clear to me that they may in fact be accu-rate. Poor communication, multiple disciplines caring for each patient, and the time constraints placed on all those working in the

health care field, are clearly contributing factors that at first glance seem insurmountable. Although this article was published 12 years ago, it is not what I would consider dated. We are just beginning to chip away at the tip of the iceberg that is this problem. This article is still considered to be a turning point in the way we view the medical care system and a benchmark that is often returned to. So, after more than a decade, the question still remains, what are we doing about it? As a student, I would never have guessed that research could be the answer to this question. I’m not sure if this is because I hoped re-search wasn’t the answer (I tended to find it quite tedious and inapplicable to my current role) or because I was unaware of the forms it could take and the impact research can have. However, dur-ing my 10 weeks at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, many of my preconceived notions related to research were proven false.

I witnessed the immense amount of work, time and focus placed on the problem of preventable medical errors by numerous research teams. They are working on projects in areas ranging from sedation medication in ventilated pediatric patients, to the transition of elderly patients from the hospital to home, to early mobility of patients after total joint replacements. Each of these studies is being conducted because a preventable medical problem was identified. Ventilated pediatric patients were often over medicated, which can cause respiratory depression. Elderly patients were sent home without the support services they needed, which can result in a fall and a return to the hospital. Post-operative patients have developed complications such as blood clots resulting from immobility. Each of these problems is a preventable one, directly tied to the care patients receive in the hospital. The nurses working on these projects did not simply continue to provide care how they were taught and have always done it. They took the time to reflect on their work and ask themselves, is this really the best we can do for our patients? The answer for many of them was no, we can do better and we will. These projects are only a snapshot of the many research based improvementinitiatives at DHMC. Participating in this research has reinstituted a sense of hope for our patients’ care and pride as a soon-to-be healthcare provider that we are working to improve our practice. It may take years to tackle the gargantuan problem of preventable medical errors, but it is inspiring to see so many people willing to commit time and effort to trying. During my last week at DHMC, while speaking with one of my mentors, I expressed feelings of being overwhelmed at the thought of tackling problems such as this and the chances of achieving widespread, lasting success. He asked, “How do you eat an elephant?” I laughed. Then I came up with the obvious answer, “One bite at a time.” This is how, project by project, doctor by doctor, nurse by nurse, patient by patient, one by one, we will tackle this obstacle.

INBRE Undergraduate

Nursing Research Scholar

Program, Nurse Researcher

Immersion Experience

at Dartmouth-Hitchcock

Medical Center

NURSING

CARLY STAAB ’12,

Photo by John Harvey

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When professors and fellow classmates inquired about what my senior research would be, they looked at me as if I had a hundred heads because of my rather unusual response. Last summer, I traveled to Italy to participate in an archaeological excavation that Saint Anselm has been involved in for several years. The site was occupied from the 9th century B.C. E. to the 17th C.E.* The research I performed used chemistry alongside classical archaeology in a field known as archaeometry, a science I had never heard of. Initially, I had no concept of how to manipulate chemis-try and archaeology into one science that could reveal so much about the history of the world. I used a portable instrument to identify compositions of elements in samples of mortar, floor tiles, coins, and other artifacts. By comparing these data, Professor Mary Kate Donais and I were able to determine whether the mortars of different regions of the site were mixed by the same people at the same time. For me, this experience strengthened the connection between science and history in an unusual way. I was drawn to this research opportunity by the prospect of reconnecting with family residing in Italy. I had relatives living in the home town of my grandmother. She had been forced to evacuate during WWII after a bombing that took the life of her mother, my great-grandmother. When her house collapsed, my great-grand-mother sacrificed her own life to save those of her children and two other local children. I was able to stand where my grandmother’s childhood house once stood, and see the monuments erected in honor of those whose lives were lost on that day. Not only was it amazing to participate in a unique and evolving aspect of chemistry, but it was nothing short of amazing to do so in a country that holds the roots of my family. My own family history is recent compared with that of the early Romans who left behind traces of their lives at the site of the dig; but I realized that their history, too, would someday be called “early;” and that in the future someone may be exhuming the belongings of my family and viewing them as ancient artifacts. This research experience has caused me to rethink my plans, which were focused on medicine in some form, and to consider graduate school in the developing area of archaeometry.

* B.C.E. stands for Before the Common Era. C.E. stands for Com-mon Era. In the field of archaeology, they are increasingly used instead of B.C. and A.D.

Father Michael Custer

Summer Research Program

in Chemistry

CHEMISTRY,SPANISH MINOR

ANTHONY DESMOND ’12,

Photo by Gil Talbot

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In school, we learn our practice through textbooks and what we are told by professors. Working on the epilepsy unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center through the INBRE grant, I was able to see where all this knowledge comes from. I spent four weeks on the inpatient epilepsy unit doing quality improvement research with Karen Gilbert, M.S., A.P.R.N. We compiled a database of patients and recorded nursing prac-tice involving oxygen therapy during and after a seizure event. We did this research because there was a new oxygen monitoring system put in place on the unit in 2009 that had never been for-mally assessed as to how it fit in with the epilepsy population, and there was no protocol in place for the nurses to follow involving oxygen therapy during and after a seizure event. When looking through the video EEG (electroencepha-logram) recordings from the unit, it was clear that nurses were not consistently giving oxygen during and after a seizure event and there was no rhyme or reason as to why they were giving oxygen. The effects of a decrease in oxygen saturation during a seizure event and the benefits of giving oxygen are not well developed in the current literature, yet it is clearly an important issue that health care professionals should be looking at more closely. This is what makes quality improvement such a vital aspect of any health care field. Nurses are constantly looking at their practice and standards of care to assess what is working and what isn’t. When something does not work well or doesn’t have a protocol in place, it needs to be reassessed and changed so that it does work and there is a protocol. Spending four weeks on a quality im-provement project helped me learn why these standards of care are so vital to our patients and their safety. It isn’t good practice unless it is supported by evidence, and there must be health care professionals willing to assess where evidence is lacking in their own practices. The project I took part in was just one of many quality improvement projects on the unit, showing me that the work of a nurse is never done when it comes to improving the quality of patient care. Something can always be made better.

INBRE Undergraduate

Nursing Research Scholar

Program, Nurse Researcher

Immersion Experience

at Dartmouth-Hitchcock

Medical Center

NURSING

BIANCAFORTIER ’12,

Photo by John Harvey

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I was funded by the Undergraduate Research Scholar Program to work with the Emotion, Brain, and Behavior Laboratory at Tufts University under the direction of Professor Heather Urry, with Professor Loretta Brady as my Saint Anselm mentor. The lab conducts studies on risk factors and potential treatments for depression and anxiety, making it a perfect fit for my research interests. One of these studies involved using a training method called cognitive reappraisal to help individuals with depression. This involved viewing a series of negative pictures and learning how to re-evaluate them in a positive way. It is hoped that this training will provide better coping skills for individuals with depression. I gained an abundance of theoretical and procedural information specific to the field of psychology, which will be beneficial when I apply to clinical psychology Ph.D. programs this fall. The experience also reinforced my appreciation of higher education, not only in the field of psychology but comprehensively with respect to understanding how to formulate important questions and pursue their answers. I have come to realize that this sort of scientific inquiry, marked by systematic observation and the formulation of original research questions, is the heart of human progress; without it, we are left only with intellectual stagnation. I have always considered education to be one of the inherently good components of existence, something to be sought entirely for itself and not for the motive of wealth or fame, and I believe that education and the proper application of knowledge can far exceed any other catalyst of positive change. At Saint Anselm, I have gained an awareness of social and cultural issues through my course work and through experiences in the laboratory and community. The knowledge I gained gave me insight regarding how to make positive changes in the lives of individuals suffering from depression and anxiety.

PSYCHOLOGY

ISAAC SAIDEL- GOLEY ’13,

Undergraduate

Research Scholar

Program

Photo by Gil Talbot

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Lisa Kennedy Sheldon ’78 is not an artist—but she admires their work so much that she seeks out and buys a special piece of art every year. It’s the way she and her husband, Tom, have decided to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Both art lovers, they find and purchase the pieces together, finding treasures as close to home as Mont Vernon, N.H. and as far away as China; and in settings that include flea markets, galleries, and artists’ studios. Kennedy Sheldon has also decided to connect her love of art with her affinity for Saint Anselm College. The Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center counts the nursing grad as one of its most loyal friends and supporters. “The Chapel Art Center is a jewel, not just for the college but for the whole area,” she says. “It has a level of sophistica-tion that adds so much to the cultural offerings in the community.” She is old friends with the center’s director, former classmate Iain MacLellan, O.S.B. Kennedy Sheldon’s real calling, however, is making sure cancer patients get the best possible care. It’s impossible to know where she makes the biggest health care contribution: as a nurse, a teacher, or a researcher and writer. Every Friday, Kennedy Sheldon works as an oncology nurse at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Nashua, a job she has held for 12 years and clearly loves. “Cancer care is probably the most complicated care you can give,” she says. “You take the regular chronic conditions a person has, and layer onto that a cancer diagnosis and their response to that diagnosis; their symptoms, their treatment; and the side effects of that treatment. It’s very humbling and a great honor to care for them. They look to you with trust and you do what’s in their best interests that day. It isn’t always what’s planned.” She mentions a patient who was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer that had spread to his bones and brain. More than anything, he wanted to drive his red Cadillac in the Fourth of July parade. “So that day, instead of giving him chemotherapy, the team decided to give him blood and extra fluids and pain medication, and he got to be in the parade. He died four weeks later. In every bed, there’s a unique person. You have to go in fresh and just ask, ‘what does this person really need right now?’” She brings her experience and insight into the classroom at UMass Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Teaching in the undergraduate nursing program, she prepares students to become nurses. Teaching in the B.S.N. to Ph.D. program, she prepares nurses to become researchers. She was a clinical instructor in Saint Anselm College’s nursing program from 1997-1999. Kennedy Sheldon’s own research focuses on patient-provider communication. At Dana-Farber Phyllis B. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services, where she was a postdoctoral fellow, she analyzes how cancer patients talk with their doctors about their psychosocial concerns, such as depression and anxiety. Providers listen and acknowledge, but usually do not explore those concerns because of time or other constraints, she says. She is interested in the effect that has on referral and treatment patterns. Alternating between clinical practice and research gives her a valuable perspective: “In research you’re working with big samples and grandiose conclusions. But when you go back to the bedside, one is the biggest number in the world. Sometimes all those great ideas don’t work when you get down to one person.” Kennedy Sheldon is also interested in local and global disparities in cancer care, the role of advanced practice nursing in international settings, and initiatives to improve cancer care outcomes globally. She combines some of her research with medical mission work. Once a year, she travels to Honduras with a group organized by Mary Queen of Peace parish in Salem, N.H. The group travels in the back of a pickup truck to villages near Juticalpa in the east-central part of the country, bringing donated supplies for screenings and treatment. Kennedy Sheldon shares the information she gathers with an aid agency in Honduras so that local health care providers can follow up with the patients they treat. “If we don’t do that, we’re not creating sustainable change,” she says. Kennedy Sheldon’s list of accomplishments is long, including becoming certified as an advanced oncology nurse practitioner, earning a Ph.D., and writing an ever growing number of articles. She is working on the third edition of her book, which has been translated into several languages. Conferences in Cuba and Tibet are on her agenda. As important as her work and her art collecting are, Kennedy Sheldon’s most important role is closest to home—her family. “What I enjoy most is watching my four kids grow up and find their passions.”

Art TherapyA Nurse’s Love of Art is Chronic

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PHILANTHROPY

Photo by Kevin Harkins

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Inspired Art

Fr. Iain MacLellan, O.S.B., takes inspiration for the drawings on his annual Christmas cards from many sources: religious readings, monastic life, and even women’s fashions of the 1920s. “Inspiration comes from everyday life, and from my own meditations and ideas,” says Fr. Iain, director of the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center. “Ideas come, and I take notes. I take color notes. I close my eyes to remember the basic structure of faces I see.” He once found the face of Joseph while waiting for his morning coffee. He saw a student in the Coffee Shop and said, “That’s my Joseph,” he recalls. Mary was inspired by another student, whose face conveyed a sweetness he associated with the Holy Mother.

By Barbara LeBlanc

Photos by Kevin Harkins

Exhibit showcases two decades of religious works.

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Nativity AngelWatercolor with black crayonover pencil sketch on paperCopyright Saint Anselm Abbey 2010

The Holy Family in a Mystical LandscapeWatercolor over graphite sketch on paper

Copyright Saint Anselm Abbey 2007

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t has been more than 20 years since Fr. Iain started creating his distinctive Christmas drawings for cards to be sent by college President Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B. He later was commissioned to produce a card for the Saint Anselm Abbey, as well. Starting Nov. 10, the watercolor drawings and other religious works by Fr. Iain will be on exhibit at the Chapel Art Center. The exhibition of about 27 works, including illustrations for books by Br. Andrew Thornton, O.S.B., and Fr. John Fortin, O.S.B., will run through Dec. 10. The exhibition comes at a time when Fr. Iain is considering a new form for his Christmas art. The drawings, which he calls studies, have led to final compositions that he plans to render as two oil paintings, perhaps as early as next year. Those paintings will also become Christmas cards. “It is time for something new,” he says. “I have been working with these loose watercolors for a very long time.” For Fr. Iain, his Christmas drawings and other religious works have been an opportunity to express monastic life and spirituality in art. In “Rest on the Flight,” Fr. Iain’s favorite of the collection, Mary’s skirt is part of a rock, which represents both the altar on which the Christ child is offered to the world, and the altar in the Abbey Church. The drawing also expresses the monastic notion of flight from the world. “We are contemplative,” he says. “There is a gentleness and timelessness to our life.” The art also reflects Fr. Iain’s own sensibilities and experiences. The 1920s women’s clothing designs of Paul Poiret, for instance, which he saw in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, serve as models for Mary’s robes Fr. Iain works every day on the drawings, year round, sketching with a black crayon or charcoal pencil. He creates six, seven or more models before achieving the final drawings that he paints with watercolors. He has worked to develop a unique iconography in his creations, bringing new visual ideas to the drawings every year, including elements of nature, the position of Mary’s feet, and the showing of the figures’ hands.

I

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The new visual language also includes color. Blue and red are historically associated with artistic renderings of Christ and his Holy Mother because the pigments were once so costly. Today, Fr. Iain adds a tinge of violet to the traditional blue in Mary’s robes, creating a hue that “may stir a for-gotten sadness,” he says. The reds he creates have hints of orange and pink. Because the drawings are studies, there is an unfinished quality to the works. Hands remain transparent and lightly defined. The robes of Mary and Joseph meld into one another. A rock on which Mary stands or a pillar against which she leans is all but invisible. “I don’t want them overly defined,” he says. “They are musings. They’ll never be exact.” He likens his work to poetry and, as with a poem, a few lines can convey many ideas. Fr. Iain sees his minimal drawing style and delicate colors evoking the mysteries of the divine, and of the human imagination. “We don’t know exactly what the nativity scene looks like,” he says. “It’s a mystery. We imagine what that night was like.” “The Holy Family in a Mystical Landscape” earned Fr. Iain a thank you note from Pope Benedict XVI. After creating the card in 2007, he visited the Vatican and participated in a general audience with the Pope. Later, the pontiff passed by in a procession and Fr. Iain handed the card to an aide. That painting sets the Holy Family against a deep blue background. The Christ child holds a pear that Fr. Iain says symbolizes creation and future suffering. As in all his drawings, every line, color and even space has meaning. “I want to take traditional iconography that people are familiar with throughout the history of art and create something new,” he says, “something familiar to us, something unique.”

Rest on the Flight, President’s Christmas CardWatercolor, gouache, and gesso, over graphite sketch on conjoined sheets of paperCopyright Saint Anselm Abbey 2006

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A Crash Course in World Affairs

By Jennifer McCann ’05

Photo by Gil Talbot

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ESSAY - ALUMNA

It was a Tuesday. Classes had started two weeks earlier, and I was adjusting to my new life as a Hawk. I woke up in Saint Mary’s Hall just like I had the Tuesday be-fore, prepared for the day quietly so as not to wake my roommate, and walked to my 9:00 humanities seminar. I don’t recall what we discussed that day, but it was a normal class—except that my classmates and I still had some innocence and naivete left in our teenage selves. I had no idea how significant that day would be.

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It was September 11, 2001. After my seminar at the Dana Center, I walked to Alumni Hall for English. Attendance was a bit sparse, and I was surprised people were already skipping just two weeks into our freshman year. A classmate said that some sort of plane crash had happened, and people were probably watching it. I could not fathom what kind of accident would keep this many people in their dorm rooms. That was before texting, tweeting or smartphones, so class continued per usual as the world watched New York City fall apart. Someone came in and told us terrorists had attacked the United States. However, we did not know the extent of the attack, or that everything would change because of it. I walked down to the newly established NHIOP, ironically for a class called Introduction to Politics. Taped to the doors were sheets of paper saying classes had been cancelled. But I got a crash-course introduction to international poli-tics and foreign policy that day. It would shape my major and my perspective of our government and our role in the world. Walking back to the quad, I heard the Abbey bells beckoning us to the heart of campus, where we could come together as family. Some of my new friends filled me in on what the media knew: two planes, both hijacked from Logan Airport, had crashed into New York City’s twin towers. Another had crashed into the Pentagon. A third had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. We made our way to the Abbey Church, and we prayed. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. On the way back to my dorm, I turned on my cell phone. There was a message from my mom, and my best friend from home. They called not to make sure I was okay, but just to hear my voice. As my classmates and I watched on television stations and web sites, removed yet intricately involved, that is what we needed to do: hear each other’s voices and say, “I love you.” The days began to gain normalcy as time went on. We had memorial services, moments of silence, and reunions with those who had returned from visiting New York or New Jersey because they lost someone—or because they didn’t. I don’t think many of us stayed on campus for an extended period of time until Christmas, or really until my sophomore year. We visited home and childhood friends because we needed to feel that innocence again, to feel protected by our parents, and feel that everything would be all right. Has it really been 10 years? People who lived through Kennedy’s assassination or Pearl Harbor have similar thoughts. Are we forgetting the impact of that day? I remember feeling distressed that it takes an atrocity like a terrorist attack to unite our nation. But with our nation so greatly divided today, I would gladly resurrect those feelings of love and compassion. Looking back, I realize what an impact that day had on the road I took at Saint Anselm and after. I struggled with deciding between majoring in politics and history. Politics wooed me with the NHIOP, and with the development of a Department of Homeland Security, a presidential primary and election, and fascinating debates about America’s changing role. I read C.S. Lewis’ “Learning in War Time” in Humanities and realized that even though I felt helpless, working toward my education would hopefully help in the future. My Introduction to Politics professor had begun the year by discussing democracy and freedom, but to some, that now had a new meaning. Divisions were quickly created as the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and the Patriot Act was signed into law while the evasive question of what is the price of freedom hung in the middle. This continued throughout my education, especially in my International Relations and New Hampshire Primary classes, and also in history classes when we talked about parallel events such as the attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. invaded Iraq my sophomore year, citing a direct correlation with the 9/11 attacks. I remember a debate in my U.S. History class with Professor Salerno, where we argued Imperialists vs. Isolationists, in a historical context. The class was almost exactly divided, and almost any argument could have been applied to the events of the day. I realized I loved how history connected past and present in that way, and that the politics of today is the history of tomorrow. Everything seemed connected to September 11. It followed me to Ireland, where I studied Irish and European history and politics in 2004. I was hesitant to discuss being a politics major, because the sympathy from 9/11 had faded and many people I met resented America for its activity in the Middle East. The Irish were especially upset that American military planes were stopping in their neutral country to refuel. I e-mailed Dr. Scala, my professor, and told him I had my senior thesis topic. There was no escaping 9/11, so I used it as a jumping off point as the capstone to my senior year.

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9/11 Reflections on Blog Whether they are members of the faculty, staff, monastic community, or past and current students, the entire college community was affected by the tragic events of September 11 one decade ago. They shared their thoughts and reflections on a special section of the college blog. The posts describe where they were at the time, what their emotions were, and what they witnessed around them. They are all different, yet reinforce a feeling of shared community. Readers who are interested can see them or add to them at: 9/11 reflections: www.anselm.edu/remembering

As my time at Saint Anselm came to an end, I decided I needed to do something positive, to create immediate change. I pushed my law school dreams aside and signed up for a year of service in Camden, N.J., with the Jesuit Volun-teer Corps. I had been involved with the Meelia Center, Urban Immersion, and SBA, so the transformation from full-time student to full-time volunteer was a comfortable one. For many, 9/11 tarnished their feelings of security, increased feelings of revenge and jingoism, and justified war and violence. But while working at Hopeworks in Camden, I felt called to nonviolently fight for social justice, tolerance, and understanding. In one of America’s most dangerous cities, I interacted with young people who were trying to stop the cycle of violence. Children who had dropped out of school, who had their own children, who did not have enough money to live on were willing to put aside disagreements to make their lives and Camden better. Now, if we could only do that on a much larger scale.

My time in Camden brought me to Brown University, where I earned a master’s in teaching history and politics in what I felt was a liberally-minded, culturally sensitive program. My goal was to work with inner-city youth again, which I did for a while at a Boston non-profit. I then moved into a classroom setting as a teacher at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, Mass. I feel that I ended up here to burst the small suburban bubble the mainly white, subur-ban, middle-class students live in, and shake up their perceptions of the world. I constantly incorporate politics and current events into my classes on U.S. history and psychology. I try to create understanding and to combat hate. Most of my students hardly remember September 11 besides what their parents and the media

have told them. I try to show multiple perspectives in history so that my students can be educated, civically engaged citizens. I feel responsible for showing them how Muslim-Americans were affected negatively, too, and I compare it to the victimization of Japanese-Americans during WWII. I find debate healthy and enriching, and inside my classroom and in the debate club that I advise, we discuss building a Muslim Community Center near Ground Zero, the death of Bin Laden, and the role of the U.S. in world events. I try to foster an atmosphere that supports divergent thinking and questioning in the hope that understanding will create tolerance, leading to acceptance, and in turn, peace. September 11 ushered me into adulthood. I hardly remember not being thoroughly checked at an airport, not seeing a hole in New York City’s skyline, not being at war. But September 11 made me care more about politics, become more civically engaged, fight for social justice, and help educate tomorrow’s leaders. While it seems strange to say it, I am grateful for the effect it had on my life.

With our nation so greatly divided today, I would gladly resurrect those feelings of love and compassion.

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Perspective

As we enter the heart of presidential primary season, it is time to get ready for political debate season. Saint Anselm College has played a major role as host to presidential primary debates for the past three decades. The debates on campus have highlighted our beautiful campus and friendly atmosphere, and allowed our students to have real-world educational experiences working with members of the media. Additionally, through the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, our students have a great opportunity to become immersed in the electoral process and develop into informed citizens. Supporting presidential debates is a natural fit for Saint Anselm College, which has a 64-year history of having an intercollegiate debate team. Debate teaches students the four basic liberal arts skills: how to research, how to write, how to listen, and how to speak.

History

Most of us have seen so many debates that we take the existence of presidential debates for granted. While everyone is familiar with the famous series of Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, they were held prior to a U.S. Senate election, not the U.S. presiden-tial race. Presidential debates started in 1948 with the Republican primary and 1956 with the Democratic primary (obviously on radio at that point). The first general election debate took place in 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon and it was televised. The next three presidential elections did not offer general election debates, but they resumed in 1976 and have continued as a staple of the election cycle ever since. As the country has moved from having candidates actively chosen at their party convention and the importance of primaries has increased, starting in the 1970s, the presence of debates has become perennial. Saint Anselm College hosted its first Presidential Primary debate in 1984. It was the Democratic Party debate and took place just days before the New Hampshire primary. It featured Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson, was sponsored by the League of Women Voters and moderated by Barbara Walters. It was reported in the New York Times as a “calm and mannerly debate,” re-flecting the inherent civility of public discourse at that time. In 1992 we hosted another Democratic primary debate. This was a make

Debating the Debates: Saint Anselm College and Presidential DebatesBy David Trumble

or break moment for Bill Clinton, whose second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary propelled him to win the nomination and eventually the presidency. The college’s role as a host has increased in the past decade. We have hosted at least one presidential primary debate in each presidential election since 2004. In 2004, the Democratic primary in New Hampshire was heating up when the candidates debated in January at Saint Anselm College. I remember that night well. Coming out of a Saint Anselm College debate team meeting in the Cushing Center, I was greeted by the drummers from Dennis Kucinich’s supporters. If volume alone would dictate success, he would surely have been our next president. I then walked up the hill toward Bradley House. At the top of hill were floodlights shining on John Kerry, surrounded by hundreds of supporters from the International Association of Firefighters Union behind him, and bagpipes playing in the background. They surged down the hill to the Dana Center where the debate was being held. It was like a scene out of "Braveheart." On the sidelines, I ran into Robert Shrum, a famous Demo-cratic political consultant to George McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore and John Kerry, who was once a debate coach at Boston College. I spoke to him briefly and he asked me to remember him to Professor Jack Lynch, who started the debate team at Saint Anselm College. I was impressed that while he was choreographing this large event, he had time to recall his former colleague. For the 2008 election, we hosted a total of four presidential primary debates. In June 2007, over a period of three days, we hosted the first full debates of the election season for both the Democrats and the Republicans. A few months later in January 2008, the fields had narrowed down and on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, we hosted the famous back-to-back presidential primary debates. On the same night, the major Democratic and Republican candidates took the stage, with one debate right after the other. In between the debates, all of the candidates from both parties took the stage together for the first time ever. This was a crucial night in which now President Obama attempted to wrest the mantle of being the change candidate from John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. Last June, we hosted a Republican primary debate, note-worthy because it featured the first debate appearances of Michelle Bachman and Mitt Romney in this presidential election. Saint Anselm College will be hosting another Republican primary debate in early

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David Trumble is the coach of the college’s debate team, which was founded more than 60 years ago. He began assisting John Lynch ’44 in 1979 and became coach in 1993. He earned a J.D. at Franklin Pierce Law Center. Trumble’s eighth grade son, Ben, now watches debates with his father.

January 2012. At present, the debate is scheduled to be broadcast on the Saturday night preceding the New Hampshire primary, which is likely to take place on Tuesday, January 10. If the television audi-ence is comparable to that of the 2008 primary debates held right before the New Hampshire primary, eight or nine million people will be watching. That debate could very well be a decisive moment in the process of choosing the Republican nominee, and potentially the next president.

Public Benefits of Debates

The debates are useful to our democracy because they offer us our only chance to see the candidates side-by-side before we cast our ballots. We are able to judge the demeanor of the can-didates, gain some understanding of their basic values, and gather insight into the policy differences between candidates. However, the current format has problems. It largely ends up becoming a forum for candidates to make prepared speeches on different topics. The actual questions that are asked are often ignored. Follow-up questions are only sometimes allowed so the candidates can usually evade difficult topics. Having too many candi-dates, particularly in the primary season, makes the “debate” format not practical.

Suggestions for Improvement

There are many worthy ideas being floated to improve these debates. Former New Hampshire U.S. Senator Bob Smith has recently proposed that all debates be increased to two hours and there be three or four topic areas that are each discussed in-depth for a half hour. This sounds like a reasonable starting point. In addition, we should develop a system that encourages the questioners to ask simple and brief but meaningful questions that get to the basic values involved, and also rewards the candidates for actually answering the questions. One easy step would be to follow up every answer with an opportunity for the questioner to say whether their question was answered. If not, then allow the candidate another 30 seconds for a clear answer. If candidates don’t answer questions, there would be another political scorecard: people could say, “I may not agree with her, but at least she answered eight out of eight questions,” or, “I like him, but he only answered two out of eight questions, how do I know what he really stands for?”

Also, we should encourage more direct interchange between the candidates. This will not only highlight the differences between their political stands, but show us how they are likely to deal with people who disagree with them. That is an important skill and personal quality that will be tested time and again if this candidate is elected president. Finally, we should insist that candidates provide support for their positions. Can they give us one historical example and one academic study that agree with their conclusions? I believe the American people are more sophisticated than they are usually given credit for by the political pundits. Certainly, our students are interested in developing and enhancing their under-standing of U.S. politics. The challenging course of studies we offer at Saint Anselm College combined with continued high-quality debates will ensure that they will become the “informed citizenry” envisioned by Jefferson and Madison.

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Alumni News

President Thanks Donors for Affection and Support

President Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., welcomed more than 250 of the college’s most generous benefactors and friends to a New Hampshire Primary-themed reception on October 1. It was the 19th President’s Society Celebration, and coincided with not only primary season but the 10th anniversary of the college’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics. Fr. Jonathan noted that because of the NHIOP’s key role in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary, he has had the opportunity to meet many other presidents—but, he said, “you are the most important guests I have the honor of welcoming to Saint Anselm each year. You are the primary reason why our mission remains strong. You are the primary reason that many of our students are able to attend Saint Anselm. Thank you for making Saint Anselm a primary part of your life and a primary recipient of your generosity, support and affection.” The political theme led the college’s president to reflect on leadership, which he said sometimes becomes trivialized in the media whirl surrounding political candidates. “But leadership is in many ways why Saint Anselm College exists,” he said. “We exist to foster responsible, moral, courageous leadership in the generations of young people who come here to study.” He praised the example set by the late Robert Collins, of the class of 1937, “whose leadership as a layman at Saint Anselm quite literally shaped the history of our college…. His love of, devotion to, and vision for Saint Anselm lifted us to places we might never have gone.” Guests attended Mass in the Abbey Church, followed by a President’s Award presentation, “culinary samplings from the states of the 2012 presidential candidates,” and dancing.

President Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B. presents Jeannette Davila ʼ83 with the 2011 Edward Hjerpe III, ʼ81, Macrina Hjerpe, and Fr. Peter Guerin, O.S.B. President's Award Photos by John Harvey

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Alumni News

Davila Receives President’s Award

Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., presented the 2011 President’s Award to Jeannette Davila, who arrived at the college in 1979 from Puerto Rico and majored in psychology. She is a senior vice president at Citizens Bank (government banking division). Davila’s work on behalf of Saint Anselm includes taking an active role in the Alumni Association and the college’s effort to promote racial and ethnic diversity. She has kept Saint Anselm as a constant companion, said Fr. Jonathan, “letting the college guide her and in turn using her own gifts and vision to help guide the college. She leads with honesty, uncompromising standards and an enthu-siasm and infectious smile that has opened the door for so many young people over the years.” As a trustee for 16 years, he said, the 1983 grad (and 1999 honorary doctorate recipient) “used her experience and insight to help us broaden our understanding of our mission.” Calling her a “superb and committed leader,” he said that as chair of the trusteeship committee, she helped identify new trustees, plan a retreat, and facilitate the nomination of board officers. In addition to her activities for the college, Davila has held service and leadership roles in the community, includ-ing the United Way and the YMCA.

Celebrating Success

Edward J. Hjerpe III ’81, chair of the Board of Trustees, informed guests of the results of their generosity to Saint Anselm College. “In what are clearly difficult economic times for everyone, we managed in fiscal year 2011 to exceed our $2.4 million goal and set a new record for the Annual Fund, reaching $2.618 million. That’s over $300,000 more than the previous year. In total last year, the college raised $5.467 million, up from $3.842 million the year before.” This kind of success is as timely as it is critical, he said, since 90% of Saint Anselm students rely upon some form of financial aid. The President’s Society exists to help make sure that families can afford a Saint Anselm education. Hjerpe encouraged his fellow alumni to help grow the society’s ranks, noting that this past year set a record of 886 President’s Society donors, a 208 person increase over the previous year. There was also an increase in the number of associate members. He mentioned that 135 of the new donors came as a result of the Bready challenge: “Mr. Richard Bready once again issued a $250,000 challenge gift in order to boost President’s Society and Associate members. This challenge gift was instrumental in achieving both our membership and our monetary records.” Hjerpe also acknowledged the chair of the College Advancement Committee, Trustee Frank Piantidosi, “whose unwavering commitment to Saint Anselm and incredible leadership offer us all a sterling example of how we can offer our time, talent and treasure to Saint Anselm College.” Recognizing the leadership of trustees and the college’s finance, business, and advancement offices, he said that the college’s endowment earned 20 percent on its investments, increasing from $78.5 million on June 30, 2010 to an all-time high of $93 million on June 30 of this year.

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1961 Joseph Petrie retired as an adjunct professor of computer science at Mass Bay Community College. He volunteers at the genealogy library at the Irish Cultural Center of New England and conducts genealogy seminars.

1964 Ralph Barbagallo Jr., an attor-ney specializing in personal injury litigation, was re-elected to the Rockingham County (N.H.) Bar Association Board of Directors.

1970 Mark Yanarella is chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Naugatuck Savings Bank in Connecticut. He is active in civic and charitable affairs including the YMCA, Salvation Army, Saint Mary’s Hospital Founda-tion, and Palace Theater. He lives in Naugatuck. He and his wife, Nichol, have two sons.

1971 Peter Warburton is the superintendent of New Hampshire SAU #39 (Souhegan, Amherst and Mont Vernon).

1972 David Shaker retired after 38 years as an analytical chemist and lab manager in the plastics manufacturing industry.

1976 Wayne MacDonald is chair of the New Hampshire State Republican Party.

Daniel F. O’Brien was among the Defense Intelligence Agency senior executives to receive a Presidential Rank Award. He is the senior defense intelligence civilian advisor to General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the Interna-tional Security Assistance Forces. He has earned numerous awards, including the Army’s Meri-torious Civilian Service Award for his support of MNF-I (multinational force-Iraq). He and his wife, Mary Pat ’77 (Radley), live in Dumfries, Va., and have four children.

William Sapelli is interim superintendent of the Agawam, Mass., public school system.

1980 Christopher Lyons works for Fox News Channel 61 in Hartford, Conn., re-viewing unsolved crimes for TV presentation.

1981 Michael Gauthier is a physi-cian assistant at the St. Mary’s Center for Family Urology in Lewiston, Maine.

Albert Moscato Jr. was appointed to the Collier County Advisory Board of Stonegate Bank, a Florida-based community bank in Naples. He is a principal of NM Development Group.

1984 Neal Casale retired from the Nashua police force and is now assistant principal of Bishop Brady High School in Con-cord, N.H. He lives in Bedford with his wife, Michelle, and son.

1985 Fr. Boniface Copelin, O.S.B., a monk of Saint Gregory’s Abbey, is a theology instructor at Saint Gregory’s University. He also assists the university’s campus ministry office.

Ann (Ouellette) Jones, a social studies teacher, is the interim principal at Sherwood Middle School in Shrewsbury, Mass.

1986 Jane E. Young is a state prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office of New Hampshire. She earned a J.D. at Franklin Pierce Law School.

1987 Gary Bernier was elected sec-retary of the New England Land Title Associa-tion. He is the vice president of Stewart Title Guaranty Company, N.H. and Maine agency services.

Valerie J. (Pederzani) Kehoe earned a doctorate of education in instructional lead-ership from Argosy/Sarasota University. Shespecializes in curriculum/instruction and earlyliteracy learning in elementary aged children.

Andrea Leland opened A.M.L. Associates, a law practice in Northborough, Mass.

1989 David Harrington is the director of human resources at Saint Anselm College. Previously, he was human resources director at the law firm Devine Millimet & Branch.

Kevin Indigaro’s film “Serial Buddies,” produced by Maria Menounos, was screened at the 2011 Boston Film Festival in September.

1992 James Cummings is the superintendent of schools for Grafton, Mass. He was formerly assistant superintendent of schools in Shrewsbury, Mass.

Lisa Fossella is a senior business process manager at New Balance Athletic Shoes.

Frederick Schmitt, of Stoughton, Mass., is the business manager of First American Insurance Underwriters, Inc., a life insurance brokerage firm.

1993 Joseph Murphy, of Harwich, Mass., works in sales at Shepley Wood Products in Hyannis, Mass.

1995 Robert Browne, of New London, N.H., is a captain in the Goffstown Police Department.

Daniel (D.J.) McNamara, a special agent with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, transferred from Houston, Texas, to Chelsea, Mass.

Wes Porter is an associate professor of law at Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco, Calif., teaching evidence, trial advocacy and white collar crime. He previ-ously served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Hawaii.

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Alumni News1996 Kari Lindstrom-Quiter opened Monadnock Career Connections in Jaffrey, N.H.

1997 Kathleen (Malone) Cetola is a litigation management associate at the medical malpractice carrier ProMutual Group.

Andrew White handles product liability litigation as senior counsel at Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J.

1999 Joe Fisher is a learning specialist at George Washington University’s Office of Disability Support Services. He earned a Ph.D. in English at GWU in 2007.

2000 Siobhan (Ward) Desmond published a novel, Fifty Reasons to Elope.

Jason McCormick, assistant professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, received the 2010 Chi Epsilon Excellence in Teaching Award for the Great Lakes District.

2001Meredith Anne Holmgren earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She completed her internship training year at the University of California, San Diego. Holmgrenwill provide psychological services to U.S. military veterans at the VA Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, focusing on treatment for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Tracy (Duwart) Jordan is a development writer at Children’s Hospital Trust in Boston, Mass.

Kyle Woolley is the academic director of Encuentro Dominicano at Creighton University.

2002 James Lockwood is a staff writ-er/editor at Rivier College’s Office of Marketing and Communication. He is pursuing a master’s

degree in business administration, with a con-centration in marketing. He and his wife, Kelly, live in Nashua, N.H.

2003 Ian Brown returned from a six-month deployment with 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, on the 31st Expeditionary Unit, where he was a forward air controller. He is now an assistant aviation maintenance officer attached to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 at MCAS Miramar.

Brianne Mallaghan is the director of com-munications for The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, in Washington, D.C. Previously, she was director of public affairs for the northeast region of the American Insurance Association. She has been a reporter at a New England Cable News affiliate, and assistant director of athletic media relations at the College of the Holy Cross. Mallaghan earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Justin M. Shairs is a police officer in Beverly, Mass. He is the assistant coach of the Beverly High School hockey team.

2004 Elizabeth (Shaw) Spitz was named Milton Foundation Outstanding Teacher for 2010. She teaches full day kindergarten at Tucker Elementary School in Milton, Mass.

2005 Keith Beauregard is an assistant baseball coach at UMass Lowell and a bench coach for the Pittsfield Colonials.

Kim Canadas is a math teacher at Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in Billerica, Mass.

Fr. Stephen Dandeneau was ordained to the priesthood June 25 at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence, R.I. He is an assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Bristol.

Darren Greaney, a graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law, opened a law office in Quincy, Mass. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and is active with the Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Monica Henry is the regional manager, special events, for Friends of the Orphans Mid-Atlantic/Northeast Region. The organization supports Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH), which runs orphanages in Latin America. Henry volunteered at the orphanage in Honduras on Spring Break Alternative as a participant and a leader, and worked there for a year after graduating.

2006 Erica Horan is a captain in the U.S. Air Force and served as a critical care nurse in Afghanistan.

2007 Kevin Bersell is pursing a Ph.D /M.D. at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He was first author on a recent article in Cell and worked as a research technician at Children’s Hospital, Boston.

Monique Day teaches math and advises the Student Council at Reading Memorial High School in Reading, Mass.

Kelly DiConza teaches seventh grade social studies in Grafton, Mass. She earned a master’s degree in history at Fitchburg State University.

Catherine Kowalczyk is an associate attorney at Culik Law P.C. She earned her J.D. at New England School of Law.

Andrea (Desilets) Miller is attending courses at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University towards a master’s degree in international economics. She is program administrator of the Body Composition Analysis Center at Tufts University.

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Golfers on Par for Scholarship Support Two decades of Saint Anselm College Annual Scholarship Golf Tournaments have gone a long way toward helping deserving students afford to attend Saint Anselm. This year’s tournament raised $41,863 bringing the total to about $1.1 million since the start of the tournament. More than 125 golfers teed up for the cause on June 17 at the Portsmouth Country Club. While the students are the real winners in this event, prizes were taken by many low-handicapping Anselmians, including William Walsh ’96, Fr. Mark Cooper O.S.B. ’71, Matt Harnish ’13, Anthony Spagnuolo (second place team); William Suglia ’79, Barry Brodette ’79, David Brodette ’78, Martin Moran ’79 (third place team); Matt Emmons ’07 (closest to the pin), and Robert LeClair ’05 (longest drive).

The college appreciates players, sponsors, corporate friends, auction and raffle donors, staff and friends, for their help in making this event a success. More than 90 percent of students at Saint Anselm College receive some form of financial aid, of which approximately $2.48 million is awarded annually from funded scholarships. Next year’s tournament is scheduled for June 15, 2012. For those interested in playing or sponsoring, it is never too early to make plans. (Contact Courtney Demeritt, Managing Director of Development at cdemeritt@anselm.edu, 603-641-7555.)

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Alumni News2007 Michael Nicholson is the director of campus ministry at Saint John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Mass.

Amy Regan is pursuing a master’s degree at New York University in global affairs, with a concentration in human rights and humanitarian assistance.

Emerald Russell is the director of Camp Jordan (YMCA) on Branch Lake, Ellsworth, Maine.

Maria Sullivan teaches Spanish at Saint Mary’s High School in Lynn, Mass.

Daniel Swegart graduated from New England School of Law and works in the office of the New Hampshire Public Defender.

Laura (Eagan) Tomaino is the human resources coordinator for Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

2008 Christopher Feroli is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry, serving in Afghanistan.

Melissa Lesieur is pursuing a master’s degree at Boston University’s School of Theology. She is a volunteer spokesperson for The 15-40 Connection, which promotes early cancer screening.

Thomas Mulhern completed a master’s degree at Katholieke Universiteity in Leuven, Belgium.

Justin Wheeler is a senior scan technician at the Body Composition Analysis Center at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

2009 Gerald Cournoyer is an adjunct instructor of English at Nashville State Community College.

Alejandro Echeverry is director for social outreach and institutional alliances at Mujeres Autosustentables in Mexico City.

Michael Gustin, a New York Life Insurance agent in Andover, Mass., was named a member of the New York Life Insurance Long-Term Care Insurance Circle of Champions 2010.

Scott Lukas is the football operations coordinator at Harvard University.

Michaela Rocha is an assistant vice president at Boston Partners Financial Group.

2010 Brittany Card is a data analysis assistant for the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), in Cambridge, Mass. SSP uses satellite imagery combined with field reports to monitor violence that threatens human security in Sudan. The organization is a partnership between HHI, Google, The Enough Project, DigitalGlobe, and Not on Our Watch.

Robin Dangora is a field representative for the Mitt Romney Campaign.

Ryan McCarty teaches religion at Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsockett, R.I. He is pursuing a master’s degree in history at Rhode Island College.

Bryan Kelly is serving with the Jesuit Volun-teer Corps Northwest, working at a group home associated with Saint Labre Indian School. He lives in Ashland, Mont.

2011Ashley Gisiger is an admission counselor at Saint Anselm College.

Samuel Inman is a campus recruiter for The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars.

Leigh Krzyston is a nurse at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

Patrick Marr was appointed to the police cadet program in Milton, Mass.

Bridget Martin is a publicity assistant at Harvard University Press. Rachel Paskievich teaches U.S. history at Londonderry (N.H.) High School.

Cara Suglia is a career consultant at The Vesume Group.

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Teachers Promote Testing John and Gina (Meneses) Gallivan ’01 John and Gina Gallivan make a great team. They graduated together as English majors. They teach together at Wethersfield High School. They brought Gina through a life-threatening illness. Now their joint efforts have brought about a new law on the books of the state of Connecticut. This time, the couple’s team work may save lives. In July, Gov. Daniel P. Malloy signed a bill requiring insurance companies to cover the cost of bone marrow testing for anyone interested in joining the national registry. In Connecticut, insurance only pays for testing immediate family members. The law takes effect in January, 2012, and the couple hopes it will eliminate one of the barriers that can make it difficult for people to find a potentially life-saving donor match. Gina’s experience with acute lymphoblastic leukemia sparked their legislative adventure. In 2005, she received her diagnosis and began the search for a bone marrow donor. The couple felt that the $70 fee for the DNA test was a deterrent, so they recruited potential donors and funded drives themselves. John Gallivan first approached their state senator in 2006 to inform her of the insurance disparity between Connecticut and other New England states. While she agreed, the bill never came to pass. This year, he brought the matter to his current rep-resentative, Russell Morin (whose daughter, Sarah, is a member of the Class of 2008). The Gallivans testified in favor of the bill, which faced opposition from business groups.

One of the obstacles, says John Gallivan, is wide misunderstanding and lack of awareness. “It’s not until it directly impacts your life that you realize how important it is.” Gina’s diagnosis came as a shock: she was only 25, newly married, and embarking on a career and a master’s degree program. Intensive chemotherapy and radiation led to her remission, but a bone marrow transplant was the only measure likely to prevent recurrence. “When your only hope of survival is placed in the chance that a bone marrow donor match will be found, you understand immediately the value of having as many people as possible join the bone marrow registry,” she said in her testimony before the Joint Committee on Insurance and Real Estate. Gina’s life-saver was a 21-year-old male who had volunteered to be on the registry. She has returned to teaching and coaching tennis, and has a couple of big projects on her schedule: holding a big bone marrow registration drive at the Connecticut State House, and adopting a baby from Russia.

NOTE: The photogravure by Alfred Stieglitz (“Winter, Fifth Avenue” 1893) that appeared on page 40 in the previous issue of Portraits accompanying the article on Professor Katherine Hoffman was reprinted courtesy of the Lee Gallery, Winchester, Mass.

Two Alumni Join Faculty Jennifer Wells (Murray) Kelber ’01 and Derick Alexandre ’02 joined the faculty this fall. After graduating from Saint Anselm, Kelber became a broker on the American Stock Exchange. She completed master’s and doctoral studies in economics at Fordham University, where she was a graduate assistant and a senior teaching fellow. As an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and Business at Saint Anselm, Kelber is teaching microeconomics and a course in investments. Alexandre is an instructor in the Department of Classics, teaching Greek hagiography and elementary Latin. He earned a master’s degree at Yale Divinity School and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina.

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Alumni News

Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center

November 10 - December 10, 2011The Christmas Drawings and Other Religious Works, by Fr. Iain MacLellan, O.S.B.

The Dana Center for the Humanities Nov. 17The Glass MenagerieNov. 18Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance TheatreDec. 1The Ying QuartetDec. 2An Irish Christmas: Eileen Ivers and Immigrant SoulDec. 8A Christmas CarolJan. 20, 2012The Capitol Steps

College Events Dec. 3DecemberSong, The Abbey ChurchMarch 18, 2012Lenten Day of Reflection, The Abbey ChurchApril 14, 2012Saint Anselm Choir 25th Anniversary Celebration

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Alumni EventsDecember 14New York City Christmas Reception: 6–8 p.m.Columbus Citizens Foundation, New York, New YorkHosted by Trustee Geri ’77 and Len DeLucaFebruary 19, 2012Alumni Skating Party: 1–3 p.m.Bring your own skates!Thomas F. Sullivan ArenaApril 1, 2012Easter Egg Hunt Meet outside Alumni Hall, immediately following Palm Sunday Mass

For event details, please visit: www.anselm.edu/alumni

Chasing Winter: Alex Witkowicz ’08 Alex Witkowicz is “living the dream.” It is not exactly the one he anticipated. For the past two years, the economics major has lived in Denver, Colorado, making his living as a photojournalist. He is the multimedia editor of Skiing Magazine and does freelance work and personal projects (including a documentary on Peter-son Air Force Base in Colorado Springs that aired on Comcast TV). While it is high summer in Colorado, he might be on assignment for the magazine in Chile, where it is mid-winter. Until early 2007, photography was just a hobby for Witkowicz. He took a work-study job with the college’s Office of Communications and Marketing, taking photos for the alumni magazine and web site. When New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary came around, the campus became a hotbed of political activity. He documented rallies, demonstrations, and debates—and wound up on the cover of Portraits (Fall 2007). He hasn’t put the camera down since. His work at Saint Anselm led him to an internship at Worcester’s Telegram & Gazette. His photos have also been published in Yankee and The Boston Globe. Lately, he has been working on video and still photog-raphy for the magazine, both in the studio and on the mountain.

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Alumni News

Her Heart is in Haiti: Donna Cullinan ’76 For the past 10 years, Donna Cullinan has spent her vacation time in rural Haiti, providing health care to chil-dren and adults. She has also inspired many aspiring nurses to follow her example. Cullinan is a clinical assistant professor in Boston College’s Connell School of Nursing. She earned a master’s degree in nursing at B.C. in1999 and is a certified family nurse practitioner. Recently, she organized a community health clinical experience in Haiti for undergraduate and graduate students who spent a week in the island nation providing care to more than 1,000 residents in makeshift clinics. In June, Cullinan was awarded Boston College’s 2011 Community Service Award..

The Acting Life: Stephanie Gould ’07 “Acting isn’t one of those regular jobs. You have to keep at it every step of the way,” Stephanie Gould says. When the Abbey Player veteran graduated from Saint Anselm, she was well prepared for the acting world. Fast-forward four years, and she’s appeared in the TV show Rescue Me and the off-off-Broadway play Trailerville; and is the lead in the indie short film, On Crystal. Keeping an acting career going is a journey of development, which means one must resist the urge to plan out an entire career. “You can’t pick and choose your roles in the beginning,” she says. “You need to go where the wind takes you. But you can always improve yourself within genres and projects.” It also means you need to audition. A lot. An actor goes through about 75 auditions to land one job. An audition is like a job interview—complete with resume and headshot, but with the 30-sec-ond sell and the 20 minutes of questions condensed into about two minutes of monologue. It’s not uncommon to wait a few days or weeks for a callback (acting’s second interview). Gould has had callbacks two months after auditioning for a gig. Generally there are multiple callbacks before the actress or actor is told to go “on hold,” the last audition stage. She cannot accept any new work at this time until she’s released from the production. Whether she’s in it or not is another story altogether. But the end result is worth the struggle, the young actress says. Gould is working on a solo show called Walk With Me, about persever-ance through adversity, which she hopes to present off-Broadway. Recognizing the diligence success requires, she gives this advice to new actors: “There is no rest. You can’t simply ‘make it.’ You’ve always got to be moving and ready for the next thing.” Contributed by Joe Jennings ’06

Photo by Joe DeAngeles

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A Year at the U.N.: Melissa DeLury ’10 The setting: the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. The soundtrack: an

orchestra of foreign languages. The cast, the ambassadors of almost 200 countries and Melissa DeLury. “Surreal, that is the only word I can use,” says DeLury. During her first day of her internship at the U.N., on Manhattan’s East Side, she observed a Security Council meeting involving Palestine and Israel. As she struggled to adjust the commentary to English, she realized that this is not a place for only America; this is the dealings of the world.

Upon graduating with a degree in international relations, DeLury pursued an internship with No Peace Without Justice, an Italian NGO (non-government organization). As part of the U.N.’s Social and Economic Council, the organization works to protect and promote human rights and democracy. In the last year, DeLury has attended United Nations Security Council meetings, researched international criminal justice, and helped prepare papers for the International Criminal Court.

At the beginning of her internship, DeLury primarily worked with the Criminal Court. “The focus is to help countries in transition. We assist leaders to ensure that there is peace. It is important to incorporate the country’s history with a democratic future.”

Since the beginning of April, Melissa has worked with the Female Genital Mutilation campaign, helping the organization in its effort to pass a resolution that will outlaw FGM worldwide. The campaign has worked alongside the governments of Egypt and Burkina Faso in order to pass this resolution. At first, DeLury knew little about the issue of FGM. However, after hearing the testimony of young girls, she took the issue to heart. With the help of DeLury and other impassioned supporters, the organization hopes to have the resolution passed by November. Melissa will continue working with the Criminal Court to educate victims of injustice and bring justice to suffering communities. In addition, Melissa plans on attending UN briefings on children and armed conflict, and conflict’s effects on education. Contributed by Meghan Gill ’14

Meredith Cook ’93 Receives St. Thomas More Award Meredith (Poznanski) Cook, an attorney in the Manchester, N.H., law firm of Wiggin & Nourie, received the Saint Thomas More Award from the Catholic Lawyers Guild of New Hampshire. Cook earned a J.D. at Suffolk University Law School and has worked with the firm for 14 years. Cook was recognized for many years as a dedicated volunteer in the Diocese of Manchester. She first volunteered as a freshman in high school at Emmaus House, the former Di-ocesan youth retreat center. She has been involved in Catholic Youth Organization athletic programs and other activities, and now serves on the public policy Commission of the diocese. Cook lives in Manchester with her husband, Chuck, and two sons. She has a large extended family that includes several Saint Anselm alumni.

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Milestones

MARRIAGES

Keri O’Brien ’96 and Tom Portentoso, May 14, 2011, Duxbury, Mass.

Christina Psaros ’01 and Paul Fogel, Oct. 2, 2010, Kennebunkport, Maine.

Melissa Pierce ’04 and Lored Asllani, July 24, 2011, Worcester, Mass.

Valerie Petrin ’05 and Marc Welch, May 28, 2011, Nashua, N.H.

Lindsay Reynolds ’05 and Matthew Maher ’05, May 29, 2011, Medford, Mass.

Christopher Ritchie ’05 and Elizabeth Birge, June 18, 2011, Saint Anselm Abbey Church.

Maria Williams ’05 and Robert Aquadro, May 21, 2011, Westfield, Mass.

Jessica Guertner ’06 and Jay LeBeau ’06, Aug. 6, 2011, Saint Anselm Abbey Church.

Laura Rossi ’06 and Ryan Lemire, Sept. 24, 2011, Saint Anselm Abbey Church.

Madison Murphy ’09 and Matthew St. John ’09, May 14, 2011, Saint Anselm Abbey Church.

Sarah Sallese ’08 and Brian McNiece, Aug. 5, 2011, York Beach, Maine.

Joshua Fournier ’10 and Emily Rowden ’11, June 25, 2011, Saint Anselm Abbey Church.

FUTURE ANSELMIANS

Patricia (Hutchins) Duncan ’93 and Brian, a daughter, Hadley Grace, Feb. 7, 2011.

Mary-Ellen (Odesse) Deschenes ’96 and Michael, a daughter, Alexandra Margaret, Feb. 6, 2011.

Jennifer (Mara) Ibrahim ’96 and Elie, daughters, Sarah Maria and Emily Elizabeth, May 6, 2011.

Michael Godfrey ’97 and Catherine, a daughter, Fiona Quinn, May 13, 2009.

Karen (Curran) Godfrey ’98 and Sean, a daughter, Kacey Teresa, Nov. 8, 2010.

Patricia (Bortot) ’99 and Michael Tobin ’00, a son, James Garra, Nov. 14, 2010.

Kate (Peterson) Glesiberg ’99 and Jeff, a son, Sebastian Fitzgerald, Jan. 18, 2011.

Lillian C. Wahl-Tuco ’99 and Haris, a son, Zachary Harrison, June 22, 2011.

Melissa (Kane) Tiney ’00 and Sean, a son, Jacob William, Oct. 16, 2010.

Erica (Hazel) ’01 and Christopher Mattia ’01, a son, Michael Patrick, May 29, 2011.

Kerry (Shea) DeSista ’02 and Greg, a daughter, Lindsay Eileen, May 19, 2011.

Brianna (Clegg) ’05 and Ian Brown ’03, a daughter, Molly Katherine, March 5, 2011.

Emily (Horgan) ’06 and Mark Pelletier ’06, a daughter, Lily Joy, Feb. 18, 2010.

Mandy (O’Neil) ’06 and Michael Nicholson ’07, a son, James Michael, Jan. 9, 2011.

Melissa (Proverb) ’06 and Charles Perreault ’04, a daughter, Victoria Francesca, March 10, 2011.

Mairead (Lundt) Glass ’07 and Sean, a son, Ronan Fleming, Feb. 5, 2011.

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in Memoriam

Richard J. Dwyer ’61, Somerville, Mass., Aug. 24, 2011.

Thomas P. McNamara Jr., ’50, West Springfield, Mass., Aug. 16, 2011.

Robert J. O’Connor ’50, Peabody, Mass., Aug. 5, 2011.

Thomas A. Dillon ’51, Greenfield, Mass., July 30, 2011.

Gennaro J. Tursi ’51, Brewster, Mass., Aug. 11, 2011.

Stanley C. Urban ’51, Nashua, N.H., Sept. 21, 2011.

Richard M. Finn ’56, Barre Town, Vt., June 29, 2011.

Robert G. Mondou ’58, Lowell, Mass., Aug. 21, 2011.

Priscilla Moran ’60, Lake Hopatcong, N.J., July 3, 2011.

Paula A. Pouliot ’62, Somersworth, N.H., Jan. 23, 2011.

Edward Reid ’64, Kearny, N.J., July 5, 2011.

Marcel Danais ’65, Berlin, N.H., July 1, 2011.

Donald Shine ’68, Indian River, Fla., July 10, 2011.

Jean M. Tancrede ’68, Manchester, N.H., Aug. 14, 2011.

James Carver ’70, Chicago, Ill., Sept. 4, 2011.

Steven R. Hussey ’80, Pembroke, Mass., Feb. 14, 2011.

Thomas A. DePledge ’85, Miami, Fla., April 4, 2011.

James W. Dennehy ’90, Salisbury, N.H., Aug. 24, 2011.

John L. McHugh ’92, Belmont, Mass., Aug. 6, 2011.

Michael Mitchell ’08, Manchester, N.H., July 26, 2011.

Robert Collins ’37 The college’s flag flew at half-mast for a week in September in remembrance of a beloved and accomplished alumnus, Robert Collins. He died September 18 at age 95, leaving an extensive legacy as an administrator and an alumnus. He served as an instructor, director of public relations, vice president of college advancement (the college’s first lay vice president), and executive vice president. One of the founders of the Red Key Society, Collins showed fellow alumni the meaning of engagement. Two residences, Collins House and Falvey House, are named in recognition of the contributions he and his late wife, Dorothy, made to the college. The Collins’ are the parents of four alumni, Robert “Skip” ’67, Christine Powers ’73, David ’77, and Brian’81), and grandparents of Timothy Powers ’01.

Edward Cassidy ’42 Edward (“Hop”) Cassidy passed away at the age of 92. He was a long-time member of the President’s Society and served on the Alumni Council. He was also a very proud member of the Red Key Society and Golden Anselmians. Cassidy was a WWII veteran and prisoner of war. He earned a masters’ degree at the University of Massachusetts and was a teacher and coach for many years. He then worked in the school textbook business, in which he was active well into his eighties. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marylou, and three children, including his daughter, Sister Marylou Cassidy, CSJ.

L. Rodger Currie ’50 L. Rodger Currie, a loyal Anselmian, passed away August 24 at the age of 88. At age 19, the Lowell, Mass., native was a WWII Marine Corps dive bomber pilot. He flew 105 combat missions in the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Philippines, and was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses as well as 13 Air Medals. After the war, Currie attended Saint Anselm and the University of Maryland Dental School. He founded Chelmsford Dental Associates, served on the staffs of three Lowell hospitals, and was active in the state and Lowell dental societies. Currie traveled as an advance man for the campaigns for John F., Robert F., and Edward M. Kennedy. An avid sailor, he was a crew member on the 56-foot Yankee Girl, representing the U.S. in the 1971 Admiral’s Cup in England. He also enjoyed flying, and donated his vintage WWII PT-26 to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Currie and his wife, Patricia, hosted several alumni events in the Palm Beach area. Dr. and Mrs. Currie established the Saint Anselm Christopher Currie Scholarship Fund in memory of thier late son.

Milestones

64

End Note

Their Banner Yet WavesWhen the Class of 2015 saw its banner raised during the Orientation Banquet at Davison Hall on Saturday, August 27, the new freshmen became part of a Saint Anselm tradition that began in the late 80s. During the speaking program, Mark Cronin, dean of freshmen and assistant dean of the college, directed students’ attention to the far end of the hall, where Dean of Students Alicia Finn and Student Government President Marissa Serafino, raised the new banner. After the class graduates, the banner will reside in the Office of Alumni Relations until their fifth reunion, when it will be hung for the weekend.

Photo by Gil Talbot

Scholarships Support History-Loving Linebacker

Isaac Jorgensen ’14 is fascinated by his family heritage, a mixture of Danish, Norwegian, English and Cherokee. It may have been the stories told by his grandmother and great-grandmother that led to his interest in history and his choice of major. One of six children, the 6’2” linebacker and Maryland native plans to become a teacher like his parents. He would like to attend a top graduate school program and teach high school. Fitting teaching experience into his academic and athletic schedule will be demanding, but, he says, “Education comes first. I’ve always known that and my coaches know it.” Jorgensen suffered an injury last year during preseason, so this is his first season on the Hawks’ turf. He was named Northeast-10 Rookie of the Week in early September.

The Steven and Lynne Kalagher Annual Scholarship was created in 2005 by two deeply committed alumni. Steven Kalagher ’65 is a former trustee, and was CEO and president of Seagrams Spirits & Wine Group. Lynne Kalagher, who passed away last summer, was a 1966 graduate of Mount Saint Mary's College. In the last five years, 19 students have received this scholarship. The Francis A. Rowen ’61 Endowed Scholarship Fund was established in 2003 to provide support to students in need of financial assistance, preferably those who hail from Francis Rowen’s home state of New Jersey. Mr. Rowen passed away in 2009. His daughter, Kathleen, graduated in 1988 and the family remains committed to the college.

Photo by Gil Talbot

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