Anniversary moments

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Published: March 2013

Service projects across the country and beyond, renditions of music old (1863) and less so (“For Boston,” 1885), and echoes of the University’s roots (at a U.S. naturalization ceremony in Robsham Theater) were among the Sesquicentennial events of February and March.


February 9: Two hundred and twenty alumni and friends of Boston College joined forces in a ballroom at the Los Angeles Hyatt Regency Century Plaza to package food supplies for delivery to the West African country of Burkina Faso. The event, called "Sesquicentennial on the Road," was the first stop in a seven-city service project that will reach from coast to coast and across the Atlantic (with a session in Dublin). The Los Angeles volunteers packaged more than 35,400 nutritional dried meals in half a day.<br/>Photograph by Scott Wynn


February 9: University President William P. Leahy, SJ, talked with volunteers John Sullivan ’50 and Natalina DePina ’03 during "Sesquicentennial on the Road" in Los Angeles. The service project was organized by the Office of University Advancement and local alumni, in conjunction with Catholic Relief Services and Stop Hunger Now.<br/>Photograph by Scott Wynn


February 23: Jacqueline Skaf P’08, ’14 was among 189 volunteers from the Boston College community in the Miami area who helped prepare meals of rice, soy flour, and dehydrated vegetables. The Miami volunteers packaged 30,240 meals for delivery, and a friendly competition is taking shape among the seven "Sesquicentennial on the Road" sites, which also include Conte Forum (April 13), San Francisco (April 20), New York City (April 27), Dublin, Ireland (May 4), and Chicago (June 15).<br/>Photograph by Office of University Advancement


March 17: "Music from Kate Chadwick’s Songbooks: America 1863," a concert held in Gasson 100, celebrated music popular at the time of Boston College’s founding, from parlor songs ("I’ve Something Sweet to Tell You," by T.S. Lloyd) to operatic arias ("I’ll Pray for Thee," by Gaetano Donizetti). Above, soprano Pamela Murray is accompanied on piano by Lindsay Albert. The concert was sponsored by the music department and organized by lecturer Jeremiah McGrann (assisting at the piano).<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 21: At 3:52 p.m., the United States’ newest citizens celebrated. In recognition of Boston College’s founding role in educating the sons of Boston immigrants, the University’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) invited the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services to hold a naturalization ceremony in Robsham Theater. Taking the Oath of Allegiance were 94 new Americans from 42 countries.<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 21: Boston College ROTC provided the color guard, and vocalists from BC bOp! sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America." Onstage to welcome the new citizens were, from left, Samantha Stoutenberg, clerk, office of U.S. District Court; U.S District Court Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. ’69, P’09, ’11, who administered the oath; Terrence P. Devino, SJ, University Secretary and chair of the Sesquicentennial celebration; University President William P. Leahy, SJ; GSSW dean Alberto Godenzi; Westy Egmont, director of the GSSW’s new Immigrant Integration Lab; Undergraduate Government of Boston College vice president Kudzai Taziva ’13, who led a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance; and Denis Riordan, U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services District 1 director.<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 21: Freshman Chuda Rijal was among the 94 oath takers. Born in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, Rijal came to this country with his family when he was 14.<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 21: Candidates for citizenship took the Oath of Allegiance as family and friends looked on.<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 21: After the formal ceremony, Judge O’Toole read the list of 42 countries represented—from Albania to Vietnam—and invited the new U.S. citizens to stand when their birthplace was called out, to honor America’s strength in diversity, he said.<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 21: Essayist Richard Rodriguez addressed a crowded Robsham Theater in the evening with a lecture titled "The Border is Not a Straight Line." His talk set the stage for an all-day symposium to follow the next day, on "Migration: Past, Present, and Future." Both events were organized by the University’s Center for Human Rights and International Justice.<br/>Photograph by J.D. Levine


March 22: Topics of the all-day symposium on migration included "Refugees and Economic Migrants" and "Race and Class in U.S. Immigration." In the Heights Room, <em>PBS NewsHour</em> senior correspondent Ray Suarez (at podium) moderated a conversation on the future of U.S. immigration policy among (from left): Donald M. Kerwin, Jr., of the independent Center for Migration Studies; David A. Martin, of the University of Virginia School of Law; and Peter H. Schuck, of Yale Law School.<br/>Photograph by Justin Knight


March 23: Mark Hertenstein ’14, a baritone in the University Chorale, fist-bumped fellow performers as they headed toward the stage at Boston’s Symphony Hall for the Sesquicentennial concert. Featured, in addition to the chorale, were the Boston College Symphony Orchestra, BC bOp!, the University Wind Ensemble, and actor Chris O’Donnell ’92, who collaborated with the orchestra in a dramatic reading.<br/>Photograph by Gary Wayne Gilbert


March 23: The orchestra and chorale performed works by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Handel, and T.J. Hurley ("Hail! Alma Mater!", the anthem from the Class of 1885).<br/>Photograph by Gary Wayne Gilbert


March 23: The orchestra’s trumpet section, from left: Michelle Loy ’13, Michael Ciampi ’13, and Patrick Devine ’16.<br/>Photograph by Lee Pellegrini


March 23: Violists and cellists—left row, from top: Ayako Mikami ’16, Sean Hamlin ’16, Jack Karsten ’13, and Emily Lynch ’14. Right row, from top: John Stathopoulos ’16, Ray Bellis ’15, Kayla Morse ’14, and Brendan Hayward ’16. In all, the 75-member orchestra fields nine violists and 10 cellists.<br/>Photograph by Lee Pellegrini


March 23: John Finney, distinguished-artist-in-residence at Boston College, conducted both the orchestra and the 145-member chorale.<br/>Photograph by Lee Pellegrini


March 23: Actor Chris O’Donnell ’92 joined the musicians and singers onstage to narrate Aaron Copland’s "A Lincoln Portrait," which features text from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, the President’s annual message to Congress of 1862, and the Gettysburg Address (1863).<br/>Photograph by Gary Wayne Gilbert


March 23: During the intermission O’Donnell and concertmaster Annie Jihyo Park ’13 posed for a photograph.<br/>Photograph by Lee Pellegrini


March 23: The BC bOp! vocalists, from left, Ryan Kwong ’15, Jemima Victor ’15, Nathan Walkowicz ’13, Alexandra Coyle ’15, Matthew Hewett ’16, and Anne Wilder ’16.<br/>Photograph by Lee Pellegrini


March 23: Director of Bands Sebastian Bonaiuto (far right) and some of BC bOp!’s 20 instrumentalists, from left, Justin Solle ’16 on piano, trombonist David Bonaiuto ’14, guitarist Lucas Allen ’16, trombonist Parker Aubin ’16 (partially obscured), and the sax section of Anthony Piraino ’16, Ryan Dusenbury ’16, Patrick Andrea ’13, John Schettino ’15, and Joseph Caracappa ’13.<br/>Photograph by Gary Wayne Gilbert


March 23: To conclude the concert, the University Wind Ensemble performed two pieces by Leonard Bernstein before leading the audience in a rendition of "For Boston" (T.J. Hurley, 1885).<br/>Photograph by Lee Pellegrini

This feature was posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 and is filed under Slideshows.


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