Monday Morning Update

January 19, 2009

Dr. King's Legacy: More than 150 local school children from Boston and Fall River have participated in a Stonehill-sponsored essay contest in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now in its third year, the contest asked the students to write about Living as Brothers and Sisters: Rising to the Challenge of St. Paul and Martin Luther King, Jr. In the weeks ahead, a panel from the Honors Program will read and judge the essays. The winners will be invited to read their essays in Alumni Hall at a public ceremony on February 27. Prizes include: laptop computers, Nintendo Wii and Ipod nanos. For more, visit here.

Inauguration: Tomorrow, Political Science Professor Peter Ubertaccio and 20 students will be in Washington D.C. immersing themselves in the excitement of the historic Inauguration of Barack Obama. The trip is the final chapter of their fall semester class, Election 2008. During the five-day visit, the class is meeting with academic and political experts, exploring our nation's capital, and meeting with alumni. According to Ubertaccio, "The students have tracked and covered almost every aspect of the election campaign. Being here for the Inauguration is like the icing on the cake. Seeing the process through to its conclusion is a wonderful combination of theory and practice."

Obama Campaigner: One young alumna who contributed to Barack Obama's historic victory is Diana Paris '08 who served as an Obama campaign field organizer in Virginia. Working relentlessly for five months, the Political Science major and Brockton resident succeeded in winning 11 of her 12 precincts for Obama. She also personally registered more than 700 new voters. Now based in Washington D.C., Paris is interning for Senator Edward Kennedy's Education Committee and exploring plans for law school. For more on her story, visit here.

Martin Institute: Making its space more publicly accessible, the Martin Institute has rededicated its second floor meditation room as a small, premier conference room. Oval-shaped, the room is decorated with stunning bronze figures inspired by St. Francis of Assisi's poem Canticle to the Sun and created by Italian artist Enrico Manfrini. At the rededication, Foreign Languages Professor Antonio Barbagallo gave a beautiful reading, in Italian, of the poem by St. Francis. Visitors are welcome.

Alumni Initiative: While visiting campus last year, Herb King '58, Denise (Murphy) King '59 and Virginia (Doyle) Noone '59 recalled how, along with the late Richard Noone '56, they created the first Stonehill Alumni Newsletter in 1968. Without much publication experience, and while raising families and holding down jobs, the Noones and the Kings broke new ground for the College. To learn more about their pioneering project, visit here.