“A long time ago, I went on a safari to Africa and a woman there had a little memento of the University of Maryland mascot that she kept incorporating into various pictures. I thought, ‘That looks cool,’ so when I got back I got a Boston College banner and started doing the same thing. Since then I've been to a lot of places, and I’ve taken it with me all over the world. I only have one banner, so I have to be very careful I don't lose it.” -Carl Lanzilli ’66 | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/BCBannerTour

"I’m excited to lift up the voices of children and help them realize their rights by advocating their expressed wishes. One of the core social work values is to respect the inherent dignity and worth of every person, and I believe that begins with kids even though our society isn’t always angled in a way to support that." - Erica Taft MSW/JD '24, who earned an Equal Justice Works fellowship since graduation | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/EricaTaft

“When I won an Olympic medal at 29, it seemed to be the highlight of my life, and I wasn't sure whether I would ever achieve something of higher significance. But obviously, you can't stop living at the age of 29, so you have to set new goals. Nowadays, it seems more fulfilling to do it as a coach, because you help athletes to fulfill their dreams, and you welcome new athletes into this circle of Olympic medalists. It's a more shared joy than when you win it yourself.” - Ralf Bissdorf, Boston College Athletics Assistant Fencing Coach, who is the head coach of the USA Fencing's women’s foil team that won team gold at the 2024 Olympics | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/RalfBissdorf

“I want to thank the Frates family and Pete Frates, in particular, for inspiring hundreds of millions of people around the world to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge 10 years ago. We did it not knowing what the future would bring for our own family, but when my mom was diagnosed with ALS in 2022, she got to take medication and receive treatments that didn't exist prior to the Ice Bucket Challenge. So events like this and those happening across the nation have real-world implications for families like mine.” - State Senator Sal DiDomenico ’97, a Boston College - Woods College of Advancing Studies graduate who was among the two dozen community leaders and CEOs to take part in The ALS Association's CEO Soak on the BC campus in July | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/BCCEOSoak2024

"Over this long stretch of years, I’ve watched—and as I’d like to imagine, have perhaps contributed in some small ways—as Boston College has emerged from its status in 1976 as a mostly regional college into a preeminent university of truly international stature. Though so many of the externals have changed over this nearly half-century, what’s remained astonishingly constant and unchanged is the fundamental goodness and decency of the people. And that includes all the people: One of my saddest moments in recent times came when I attended the funeral of our longtime custodian in Lyons Hall." - Michael Resler, Eastern, Slavic & German Studies Professor who retired after a 48-year career at BC | READ MORE faculty & staff parting thoughts: https://on.bc.edu/PartingThoughts2024

“I hustled my way into BC bOp! When Seb [Sebastian Bonaiuto, Boston College Bands Director] told me they didn’t use horns I was so annoyed, but I said ‘Wait, don’t you need two trumpets?’ I didn’t play the trumpet but I naively thought ‘How hard can it be? I’ll learn.’ And I did. For four years, I played fourth trumpet in bOp! and the whole time I thought I was unraveling my chances at becoming a French horn player, but I learned to swing. Years later, I was the only horn player who could hang with a rhythm section, who played in time during dance sequences in big Broadway numbers, who could wail when you were supposed to wail. The thing I feared would hold me back, was, in fact, the making of me.” - Shelagh Abate ’97, an internationally renowned horn player and winner of Boston College Arts Council's 2024 Alumni Artist Award | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/ArtsFest2024

"As the years passed, Read Aloud became a ‘community service magnet’ for countless staff and faculty members...Recognized by many of our participants, a fringe benefit of the [program] has been the sense of community within the schools, the precious interaction with the children and their teachers, and the camaraderie among the volunteers...Read Aloud has become our own fabric of life among many of our activities. Working with young students of all ‘walks of life’ offers a sense of perspective and renewal. Together, we have paved the way toward improving literacy, one of the most essential staples to foster a healthy generation of youngsters who will, hopefully, make the right choices and aspire to their future leadership roles." - Laura Bitran, who led the Office of Governmental and Community Affairs' Read Aloud Program, sending Boston College volunteers to read in local school classrooms, retired at the end of the academic year after a 29-year BC career | READ MORE faculty & staff parting thoughts: https://on.bc.edu/PartingThoughts2024

“As a Black, Haitian-American provider, my patients and my preceptor look like me and share my culture and language. In a field that lacks diversity and where many birthing people of color are failed by their providers during and after childbirth, I can communicate, relate to, and understand my patients, and—most importantly—escalate their health care needs alongside my preceptor.” - Sarah Dominique, D.N.P. ’25 on her Boston College Connell School of Nursing clinical placements | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/BridgestoBedside

“For me, it’s a wonderful moment. I think it is a tremendous time for a Boston College physicist, a Jesuit, to be asked to participate in this space mission. This is the first NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration program, similar in scope to the lunar Apollo missions of the 1970s, where an American spacecraft has traveled to a near-Earth asteroid to retrieve sample material. So, it’s a historic moment. “I realize how important this is to be one of the few scientists, a Jesuit, who has been asked to participate in this mission. I think it stems in part from my association with the Vatican Observatory and my collaborators working with the meteorite samples." - Cyril P. Opeil, S.J., Associate Professor of Physics who is among a few select scientists taking part in international research to shed light on the nature of asteroids | READ MORE: http://bc.edu/bc-web/sites/social/s24/opeil_asteroids

"At Boston College, I learned about being 'Men and Women for Others,' and it became the heart of my college experience. I did the PULSE and Appalachia volunteer programs and joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after graduation. We are all connected, and that sense of connection - of care and concern for others - is a central theme in my novels. I’m grateful to BC for nurturing that spirit in me and giving me such meaningful experiences to explore it." – Juliette Fay, author ’84 Photo: Yating Wang '24

“My friends and I did the sustainability competition my sophomore and junior year and the four of us went absolutely wild. We still came in second place because somebody was more wild than we were. It was fun because all of our friends were doing it, and it was literally a competition of who could be more sustainable, so there’s no loser in that. Even if you lose you become more sustainable, and it’s a great way to bring awareness to different initiatives that you might not have thought about otherwise.” - Lauren Dadekian ’24, a former sustainability intern | READ MORE about sustainability at Boston College: https://on.bc.edu/Sustainability2024

"I never thought I would write nonfiction because the nonfiction books we read in school were really dry...I wanted the readers to feel inspired by these people. Princess Diana was a princess, but she was kind and cared about other people. Babe Ruth came from nothing. It was also important to me that these subjects were presented as real people, flaws and all. In the story of Princess Diana, I talked about her divorce, but I kept it age-appropriate. The hardest one to do was Henry Ford because of his anti-Semitism and the way he treated his workers. It is important for me to show not only the good things but the bad as well." - Jenna Grodzicki '01, children's author who graduated from Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development | READ MORE: http://bc.edu/bc-web/sites/social/s24/jennagrodzickiqa.html