As last semester wound down there were so many student successes to celebrate. Just a few:

Katy Farkas was accepted into the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, run by the Japanese Ministry of Education to bring in English speakers from around the world to team-teach in Japanese public schools.

Erika Neumayer received first place in the national American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists product design competition.

Mariam Jafri will become a graduate student in the University of Chicago Master’s Program in Middle Eastern Studies. This two year program of interdisciplinary studies allows students to personalize a course of study incorporating coursework in Middle Eastern History, archaeology, Islamic Studies (art, culture, religion), and Arabic, Persian, Hebrew or Turkish languages and literature.

Mary Petrosko will be entering the University of Minnesota’s clinical psychology Ph.D. program.

We had our second annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Investigations Expo. Students from almost every academic department presented their best work in panels, posters, talks, exhibits and performances. It was exhilarating from start to finish. They are so smart! Many of them were in our Honors Program and here were some of their titles:

Victoria Correa, “Model Organism vs. Human Pathogen: Comparing Antioxidant Gene Expression in Two Malaria Parasite Species.”

Deidra Eberwein, “The Relationship between Perceived Academic Competence and Test Anxiety.”

Kathryn Farkas, "Post-Colonial Migration Narratives: The Dialogue of Cultures.”

Philip Lenzini, "Nonconstant Predator Harvesting on Ratio-Dependent Predator-Prey Models.”

Cindy Matias, “Parental Attachment and Preschooler Behavior in the Classroom.”

Erika Neumayer, “Traditional Dress of the Donauschwaben Women.”

Mary Petrosko, “Ginkgo and Learning: The Effect of EGb 761 on Habituation of the Tail-Elicited Siphon Withdrawal Reflex in Aplysia Californica.”

As I write this we have students studying abroad in Italy and China. 12 students from local community colleges are conducting life science research with Dominican faculty, as well as presenting research data as part of our Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. Miriam Carlson (no relation), a 2009 graduate in apparel design, received third place in the 8th annual Driehaus Awards for Fashion Excellence. Student designers and recent graduates from schools in the Chicago area participated in this competition.

It was sad to say goodbye to our graduates but I know we’ll be hearing from many of them soon. One who graduated last year (Tania Mann) came to visit on vacation from her job in Rome where she writes for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

I find myself every year at this time wanting to express thanks to the many faculty members who have done so much to inspire and empower these students to work so hard and so well – but not only these students. Our faculty work with great skill, dedication and compassion as they strive to inspire and empower all of our students to make significant educational strides and to experience the full transformative opportunity that is a college education. Most of our students won’t graduate with “honors,” but most of them know the profound value of hard work and deep learning, and I am immensely grateful to our faculty for the extraordinary teaching and mentoring that they extend, as an invitation, to all of our students.

At a recent convocation, freshman Monica Ignas said this: “A liberal arts university, such as Dominican, is not only preparing me for a vocation, but also for an honorable and gratifying life. I am not only being shaped into an intellectual, but also into a good and compassionate human being.... As I look into the future, I look forward to gaining new experiences and knowledge, studying with the professors whom I have not yet had the privilege of studying with, and growing into the person that I am destined to become.” I’ll let her have the last word. And the word is good.