“It's been a lifelong dream of mine to reach the highest success possible academically because education is such a big thing in my family. It was so hard to get access to good quality education where I’m from, and it was a lot of hard work to get where I am today, so I just feel like I'm going to fulfill a destiny or something if I reach the end of the line. I'm applying for a master's now, but I want to be a doctor someday. It doesn't matter what I do with my life, I could be washing dishes in a diner, but I'm going to be Dr. Lidia Carvalho.” - Lidia Carvalho, the 2022 undergraduate student commencement speaker for the Boston College - Woods College of Advancing Studies | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/LidiaCarvalho

"When I thought about what my grandmother said to me - ‘someday you will know what this life wants from you’ - I realized that what it wanted was for me to sit with the truth. I learned to be really honest with myself, to be very vulnerable. That I was not superhuman and that I wasn’t this strong person who could get through everything. I changed my relationship with food. I changed my relationship with exercise. I changed my relationship with alcohol." - Yvonne Castaneda MSW '18 and Boston College School of Social Work part-time faculty who chronicles her journey through addiction, depression, anxiety, and bulimia in her memoir "Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety" | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/YvonneCastaneda

"Cura personalis, a tenet of Ignatian spirituality that means 'care for the whole person,' is the most impactful lesson I’ve learned at Boston College. At the Center for Student Wellness, we refer to it as 'mind, body, and soul' care. Taking care of my mental and physical health has always been important to me, but honoring my spiritual health has been transformational. At BC, I find spiritual healing by engaging with my faith through communities. I have been lucky enough to be involved in Christian Life Community (CLC), to lead retreats such as Ignite, and to be vulnerable with the friends who have become my family. These experiences have not only been healing to my soul but have revolutionized how I engage with my faith and with the world. I am forever grateful for the opportunities that Boston College, and the incredible individuals that make up its community, continuously provide for me to grow as a 'whole person.'" - Brynn Dougherty '23 Photo by Patrick Mills '24

"The fact that I’m a Jesuit today has a fair bit to do with Kairos. That I was able to spend a significant part of my undergraduate career at Boston College doing ministry and helping other people encounter God through the retreat is a big part of what helped me recognize this was my vocation in a broader sense.” - Sam Sawyer, S.J. '00, M.Div. '14, future America Magazine - The Jesuit Review Editor-in-Chief who served as a student leader for the first Kairos retreat and concelebrated Mass and gave an address at the 25th anniversary celebration | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/25YearsKairos

"The most rewarding part is seeing that the work you’re doing is really making an impact on people’s lives locally. Because Jamaica is a developing country, this type of capital expenditure on infrastructure really drives the economy. It opens up areas for development, it generates a lot of jobs, and it really affects the country’s gross domestic product." - Stephen R.P. Edwards '02, the managing director of highways in Jamaica | Read more in Boston College Magazine: https://on.bc.edu/StephenEdwards

“I still feel like I don't really know much about the military, which sounds ironic. I think before this year, I could probably only name five different planes, and here I am going into the United States Air Force, which is known for their planes. I used to be embarrassed by that, but I've learned that I don't need to master everything, I just need to know who the right people are to ask. I think that just reinforces the teamwork and unity aspect of the military that I'm looking forward to.” - Soo Ae Ono ’22, a Boston College Connell School of Nursing graduate and member of the Air Force ROTC who is embarking on a career as an Air Force nurse | READ MORE: https://fal.cn/3qey4

“It has been a great joy to see the transformation of Boston College from when I first arrived here as a freshman in 1965 and returned 10 years later as a faculty member. BC has achieved something remarkable that few other institutions have accomplished. It has continually increased its commitment to academic excellence in the talent and work of its students, faculty, and staff. Yet at the same time, its faculty and staff have increased their commitments to educating and nurturing the whole person through Intersections, Halftime, and many other programs. But especially heartening for me has been the flourishing of a culture of service. More than half the graduating class will have participated in the PULSE Program, 4Boston, Appa Volunteers, and many other service initiatives. Boston College has come a long way in commitment to its second motto, 'Educating men and women in service with and for others.'" - Patrick Byrne ’69, Philosophy Department Boston College Professor and founder of PULSE who recently retired after working at BC for 47 years

“I've always been someone who was very eco-conscious about what I ate - I never ate palm oil or anything that had bad environmental effects - so it was really cool to work with experts in the field of sustainable food. I didn't really realize that there were whole organizations, like the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, that are dedicated to that, or that BC Dining Services has an entire sustainability team. It’s impressive that they’re willing to listen to a younger generation who is sometimes more attuned to these kinds of issues. It’s a powerful resource that they’re embracing.” - Morgan Santaguida ’25 (left), one of Boston College's inaugural seafood ambassadors, along with Victoria Newton ’23 (right) | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/FreshIdeas

"I specialize in the history of social remembrance, and my work in recent years has focused on questions of forgetting, which surprisingly turns out to be another form of remembering. I’ll go to archives and specialist libraries and read against the grain, looking for traces of events that were left off of the official record though they’ve been documented outside mainstream historiography. For example, the Irish Civil War of 1922–23 is one of those episodes that was rarely talked about publicly, but if you look deeper, you’ll find books, plays, and even films about it. Cultural commentators often assert that it’s been forgotten, but if that’s the case, then why do we know about it?" - Guy Beiner, the new Irish Studies at Boston College Sullivan Chair | Read More in Boston College Magazine: https://on.bc.edu/GuyBeiner

“Part of what makes learning such a wonderful thing for me is being able to feel like I really understand something, and if I can't see or experience it, it's hard for me to understand it. SEA Semester is not a traditional classroom setting, you're not learning about these really obscure things that you'll never see and never experience. It helped me grow in a way that I feel like I understand the world better and I understand my place in the world better, and I feel a sense of ownership and security in myself that I didn’t feel a year ago.” - Lavinia Clarke ’23, who spent five weeks sailing the Pacific as part of a semester abroad with Sea Education Association | Read more: https://on.bc.edu/LaviniaClarke

“That is why programs like Agape Latte and retreats are so important. Students feel invited to those things because they don't feel like there is a high level of catechetical knowledge required to really participate...What I found most interesting was that Boston College's distinctive academic programs and the way that the university integrated faith into really all aspects of the experience helps students feel more comfortable as they progress through BC.” - Dennis Wieboldt '22, who has taken a lead role in the Student Voices Project which is collecting young people’s thoughts about their faith and the future of the Catholic Church | Read More about The Church in the 21st Century Center (C21 Center)'s initiative: https://on.bc.edu/C21VoicesProject

"'To whom much is given, much is required.' This was something that my mother would repeat to me on a daily basis. I gained an appreciation for the importance of helping others while I was a student at Boston College, and I've carried that appreciation with me throughout my career as a coach. I have been given many wonderful opportunities in my career, but the thing that continues to be most important to me is making sure that we are assisting in the development of young women who are strong and powerful and believe they can achieve anything they put their minds to." - Brittanny Johnson ’09, M’10, former Boston College Women's Basketball player who is an assistant on the USA Basketball Women’s U17 World Cup Team | READ MORE about Brittany in Boston College Magazine: https://on.bc.edu/TeamBuilder