"If there’s one thing I’ve learned to do at Boston College, it’s how to reflect—to look inside yourself and think honestly about what you’ve learned and experienced. The Courage to Know program definitely helped put me on that path. Family, School, and Society, a class I took in the Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development, also was important: It opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn’t thought about deeply, like the impact of racism." - Jewel Strawberry '22 | READ MORE about Jewel as a Senior to Remember: https://on.bc.edu/JewelStrawberry22

“My freshman year, my friends and I saw that Alumni Stadium was still open and the lights were on, so we wandered onto the field and just sat down. My friends are good singers so they started singing, and then we started praying under the lights. A staff member came over to find out what we were doing, and when we told him, he said, ‘Oh, that’s great, I need to turn off the lights but you can stay here as long as you want, just shut the door on your way out.’ The whole experience really encompassed the idea of Ignatian spirituality, and finding God in all things, and it showed that the spiritual focus at Boston College isn’t limited to campus ministry or theology classes. I loved that.” - Conor McCormick ’22 | READ MORE about Conor as a Senior to Remember: https://on.bc.edu/ConorMcCormick22

“It bugs me that people think you're supposed to go to college at 18 and graduate at 22. That's just an idea that we're sold by society—it's not true at all. I think we need to normalize things like gap years and the military. I did two years of college right out of high school and I did well, but I wanted to travel, I wanted a little adventure, and I wanted to serve. There’s no timestamp on a degree—it opens up a lot of opportunities regardless of what age you are. It really is never too late.” - Anthony Sears WCAS ’21, M.S. ’22, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran who will soon have many Boston College degrees | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/AnthonySears

“When I came to Boston College, all I wanted was a job and a degree, but I feel like I got a hundred times more than that. I’m especially proud of the mentoring roles I’ve been able to take on, especially for students of color, and of the relationships I’ve been able to develop here. This community has been so great for me and so important for my development. I’m excited for what my future holds, but I’m going to miss it.” - Darnell Fils '22

"I think for me, personally, my favorite part is giving a presentation and the 10 to 15 minutes afterward that we stick around and students can come up and ask questions. I think the big fear is that you go into a mandatory presentation and people are going to not listen to you and kind of heckle you or not really care about the subject. To see the number of people - usually two or three, but up to five - every presentation who will come up to presenters saying how much this meant to them and how they want to get involved or how this changed their opinion on something or gave them some sort of insight. I feel like it's always nice to receive positive feedback, but it also shows that what we're doing is making such a tangible impact just on the individual level. I've just loved the conversations I've been able to have one-on-one after my presentation because it kind of gives you that validation that the work we're doing really matters to them." - Macie Gettings '22, a lead trainer of Stand Up BC, the bystander intervention program

"There's a magnetic energy about what happens in the Bystander Intervention program and I think there's some sort of feeling of community and warmth in knowing that everyone around you feels similarly about something really important. I think there is an inaccurate assumption that when we do sexual violence work we are always somber, and I think that there's also something incredibly joyful and empowering about doing this work. We're kind of creating something positive about it in terms of education and making this a more public conversation on campus, which doesn't always happen. It is very heavy content wise, but we also find a lot of joy in the work that we do because it's very rewarding. I think there's something about the community that is infectious almost, and I always tell people, after my presentations, to join Bystander, because looking back as a senior, I didn't think I would be doing sexual violence prevention work as the majority of my time, but it's been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had at BC." - Julia Natale '22, a lead trainer of Stand Up BC, the bystander intervention program

“As a second-generation American, I feel the need to persevere and utilize the opportunity so selflessly provided and presented to me by my parents...Saint Oscar Romero’s legacy serves as inspiration for me to be a person for others and support my fellow Latinos as we overcome barriers. His commitment to justice and empathy particularly resonate with me, and continue to inspire me to enter the legal profession and further the life that my family sacrificed so much for me to live.” - Mikayla Sanchez '23, the 2022 Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship recipient | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/MikaylaSanchez

"I'm lucky because I have a job in educational theater where I am also always creating. I know a lot of people who teach in the arts; teaching is the job and the creative part is on the side. For my job, I design the costumes for the Boston College Theatre Department shows and I'm also teaching what I do. I think the thing that's so fulfilling is being able to not only teach what I love to do but do it on a regular basis." - Jacqueline Dalley, Associate Professor of the Practice, costume designer, and educator who is the 2022 faculty honoree at the Boston College Arts Council's Arts Festival | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/ArtsFest2022 Photo Credit: Yating Wang '22

“I've always taken that protective older sister role, but unfortunately that looked a little bit different for my family. There were many, many instances where my brother was a victim of ableism, bullying, just all of these injustices, whether it was from adults, children his age, or the school system. I wanted to do whatever I could to make his life easier, to learn about the ways in which people on the autism spectrum or people with intellectual disabilities are discriminated against. So I started the Morgan Marie Michael Foundation.” - Alyssa Lego ’25, co-founder of the Morgan Marie Michael Foundation, which recently collaborated with Campus School at Boston College to provide an iPad and custom sensory gifts to students with disabilities | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/AlyssaLego

“I’m definitely more than a fan, I'm in love. My friends and I do Wordle, we do the Taylordle, which is the Taylor Swift version of Wordle, we do Dordle, which is two Wordles at the same time, and Quordle, which is four. Today we played something that was Wordle, but battle royal. There's so many of them and I love finding them. Because I'm always thinking of the next fun thing to do and make I was like, ‘Oh, why don't I just make a BC Wordle? How is this not a thing already?’” - Luke Stanise ’24, a computer science minor who used his programming skills to build BC Wordle| Read More: https://on.bc.edu/LukeStanise

"I'm running in the 126th Boston Marathon to raise money for the Red Sox Foundation, which does important work supporting a community very close to my heart. With my time in Boston coming to a close, I want to take the opportunity to give back to the community that has taught me so much before I graduate from Boston College this spring. The Red Sox Foundation's core partnerships focus on improving the lives of Boston's underprivileged youth, their families, and the health of all Bostonians. I am immensely excited to be representing such an incredible organization for my first marathon." - Felipe Pardo '22 | Read more about members of the BC community running the 2022 Boston Marathon: https://on.bc.edu/RunningforOther2022

"The National Brain Tumor Society means so much to me. Losing my dad to brain cancer at such a young age, I have always been looking for ways to bring awareness to this cause and let others know that they are not alone in going through this. To me, NBTS means fighting to find a cure for brain tumors, honoring those who are battling these diseases, and with the money raised, making sure that fewer and fewer people have to experience this reality every day." - Ashley Vincent '22, member of the National Brain Tumor Society's Marathon Team | Read more about members of the BC community running the 2022 Boston Marathon: https://on.bc.edu/RunningforOther2022