Six University of Dayton students will be honored this month as the first recipients of the Fr. Jack McGrath, S.M., Award for Research in Catholic Intellectual Traditions, which recognizes outstanding undergraduate student research in a Common Academic Program course related to Catholic intellectual traditions.

The students’ work ranges from a study of historical writing about the Black church’s role in the reconstruction era to a musical recital that showcased the performer’s spiritual and musical journey during her time at the University.

The awardees receive a $500 stipend and will present their research from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, and Thursday, Feb. 25, during two online Catholic intellectual tradition (CIT) celebrations.

The celebrations also feature prominent keynote speakers. On Feb. 22, Andrew L. Prevot, Boston College associate professor of theology, will address Mysticism and Ordinary Life. On Feb. 25, Robert Ellsberg, Orbis Books editor-in-chief, will discuss Writing About Holiness. Both events are on Zoom and open to the public.

“These are celebrations of the raison d'être of the University of Dayton,” said Timothy Gabrielli, Gudorf Chair in Catholic Intellectual Traditions and associate professor of religious studies. “At the heart of a UD education is inquiry driven by the conviction that careful reflection upon the breadth and depth of our lives — those lives we readily remember and those whom we’ve marginalized — is essential for growing in understanding, that profound gift of God.”

Gabrielli sponsors the McGrath Research Award. He is co-sponsoring the CIT celebrations with Sandra Yocum, University Professor of Faith and Culture.

This year’s McGrath Award honors projects conducted from the 2019 fall semester through the 2020 fall semester in the context of the Common Academic Program (CAP), a learning experience shared by all undergraduate students, regardless of their major. Three awardees each were selected in the first-year/sophomore and junior/senior categories from 20 student submissions.

The 2021 awardees:

• Maya Drayton, a sophomore health sciences major from Hazel Crest, Illinois. Her project, completed for the Development of Western Culture in a Global Context, is Reconstruction’s Black Church and its Role in the Healing Process.
• Margaret Feder, senior music education major from St. Louis. Her project, completed for the degree recital course, is Music as a Window to the Soul: The Story Behind My Senior Recital.
• Emily Georgopoulos, senior biology major from Cincinnati. Her project, completed for The Road to Hell: The Apocalypse in Classical and Contemporary Forms, is Natural Selection: The Eschatological Role of Nature in 1 Enoch and Snowpiercer.
• Emma Grace Geckle, senior religious studies and theology major from Cincinnati. Her project, completed for her capstone seminar course, is A Call for Renewal: How the Creation and Promulgation of Nostra Aetate Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations.
• Emily Rotunda, a first-year religious studies and theology major from Fallbrook, California. Her project, completed for the Roots and Development of Western Culture in a Global Context, is The Argument of a Modern Psychopath: I See God on Sunday.
• Mira Wilson, a first-year religious studies and theology major from Bellbrook, Ohio. Her project, completed for Faith Traditions: Topics in Religious Studies, is The Effects of Clerical Sexual Abuse on the God Question.

Gabrielli said Drayton and Feder’s projects presented unique perspectives on what it means to do research in conjunction with Catholic intellectual traditions.

“They were all good, but of course the awardees were particularly impressive,” he said. “The committee had a fun time reading these pieces because we were all just so enamored of our students’ great work, which we don’t always get to see when it happens in a particular class. The quality of the work was just astounding.”

Feder, a cellist, said her project was the culmination of 12 years of musical training and a lifetime of faith practice. For her senior recital, she selected pieces that mirrored her personal journey and paired each with a Beatitude to remind listeners to witness Christ in all aspects of their lives.“If I've learned anything from the last four years, it's that there is no right path, but rather a series of directions our lives can take through which God will work,” Feder said. “The Marianists have taught me that we are all missionaries called to witness Christ's beautiful and all-encompassing love for his people with the gifts we are given.”

Drayton looked at how the Black church helped the Black community with healing during reconstruction and worked to build that community into what it is today. She also looked at how historians’ views of Black people have changed over time.

“Personally, this recognition shows me that what I care about and the work I put into my research matters and that is something I will always be grateful for,” Drayton said. “Academically I think this award is the push I needed to see that not only do I belong at UD, but I can truly thrive here. This is also something that I will never forget and I thank the McGrath Award committee for giving me that.”

The McGrath Award is named in honor of alumnus Fr. Jack McGrath (1935–2015), a dedicated teacher who celebrated and embodied Marianist education in the Catholic intellectual tradition.

The award committee included Corinne Daprano, associate professor of health and sport sciences; David Fine, associate professor of English; Julio Quintero, associate director for inclusive excellence education and initiatives; Bill Trollinger, professor of history and Core program director; and Pam Young, director of accreditation and assessment, School of Education and Health Sciences.

To attend the Feb. 22 CIT celebration, use the Zoom link https://rb.gy/nyruyp and the password 237132. To attend the Feb. 25 celebration, use the Zoom link https://rb.gy/rhiztp and the password 701719.

For more information about the McGrath Award, visit the website.

When I first arrived as a first year student at the University of Dayton, there were a lot of things I did not know about the world or myself. Being the somewhat nerdy student in middle and high school who would become excited at the opportunity to take a map quiz and was enamored with all things history and politics, I knew more or less where my passions lay. However, it was not until much later in my college career that I began to envision how I was going to turn that passion into a purpose. 

In the Fall of 2020, Flyer Consulting was able to take on their second-ever international client - Fundacion Raiz - through the efforts of Dr. Maria Vivero, professor in the Department of Economics & Finance and a board member of the Raiz Foundation their partner nonprofit. I served as a semester-long consultant on the team’s engagement with this Ecuador-based nonprofit organization serving a variety of community needs.  Our efforts focused primarily on their CAEMBA program, which provides secure housing for vulnerable populations. It was started by Manuel Pallares and Cristina Latorre following earthquakes in the country which left more than 40,000 people homeless. Since then, volunteers with Fundacion Raiz have built hundreds of homes and shelters, schools, and even a community center and a church. 

 As a consultant, my job was to conduct research with the Flyer Consulting team, work closely with Cristina and Manuel to provide recommendations with the ultimate aim of supporting their nonprofit to expand their donor base into the U.S. What I loved most about the process was the creative and solutions-driven nature of our work. And I felt the opportunity to learn more about the world of marketing, accounting, and business development, and the opportunity to work with nonprofits serving areas of great need in their local communities was invaluable. 

Counting for the International Experience component of my International Studies major, this opportunity added a hands-on component to my in-class experience, and reflects the transdisciplinary nature of a University of Dayton education allowing me to gain the most from my experience last semester and carrying it with me well after I exit the doors of the UD arena on graduation day. 

The Common Academic Program (CAP) provides such flexibility to carve unique learning opportunities and a choice of courses which touch on my interests and experience in a more explicit way. Among those is the First Year Humanities Commons which instilled the critical thinking skills beneficial to a consultant, and my first year Communication 100 course which, although it was uncomfortable at the time, strengthened my public speaking and interpersonal communication skills. Another CAP course that has benefited me is the Economic Development & Growth (ECO 460) taught by Professor Barbara John in which I came to better understand the landscape of economic development and its intertwined relationship with health, education, and quality of life outcomes through analyzing and interpreting data. 

When students first arrive at UD, many words are thrown at them but the ones that seem to resonate, coming up again and again are: community, service, and the common good.  As my time as a student progresses, I have witnessed how accurate those terms are on our campus and the real opportunity to meaningfully contribute to this mission, especially through projects like mine with Flyer Consulting. Over the course of the semester,  I better understood the University of Dayton’s mission to promote the common good and be a constructive part of our global community. 

Nothing I did could ever match up to the service and impact Manuel, Cristina, the rest of the Fundacion Raiz team and volunteers have had on their local community in Ecuador, but it brings me joy to consider that in some small way I was able to have a positive impact on theirs and through the work of our team, they are better able to promote and achieve their mission. If I had to impart any advice on other students at UD, it would be to get involved, even - or perhaps especially - if it is something outside your comfort zone. This experience was not anything I would have envisioned during my first year, and such opportunities to get involved in meaningful, hands-on experiential learning are immense whether you are an engineer or business student, into computers or poetry, musically-inclined or a sports fan. By getting involved in some small way in all that UD has to offer, I have been able to, piece by piece, discover who I am and what my purpose is.  There are still a lot of things I am trying to figure out about myself and my calling, but that is okay. After all, a house is not built in one day.

Samuel Attea ’22 is a junior student pursuing a B.A. in Economics & International Studies with a concentration in Global Migration & Economic Development and has been a member of Flyer Consulting since Fall 2019. After graduation, Samuel is interested in pursuing work with the US Government or a NGO focused on issues related to international development, migration, or education or a career in journalism or law. 

The 2021 Learning Teaching Forum — 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, January 8 — will focus on the most important lessons that educators at the University of Dayton have learned about teaching and learning since the spring 2020 semester. The Forum will kick off with an opening session featuring Deborah J. Bickford, Eric F. Spina, Paul H. Benson, and a keynote address by Dr. Larry Burnley. 

In this blog, we highlight all the sessions tackling equity, inclusion, diversity and social justice topics:  

Educating the Educators: Leaning into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Age of Zoom 
11:00-11:45 a.m. 
Tiffany Taylor Smith and Leslie H. Picca 

Adaptation and Change: Answering the Challenge Brought by COVID-19 with New and Adapted Student Programs in Social Justice
11:00-11:45 a.m. 
Mary Niebler, Meaghan Crowley, and Samantha Kennedy 

Incorporating Dialogue into One's Courses
11:00-11:45 a.m. 
Jason E. Combs

Supporting global learning through Collaborative International Online Learning (COIL)
11:00-11:45 a.m.
Sangita Gosalia, Margaret Pinnell, Sharon Bommer, Philip Appiah-Kubi, and Scott Segalewitz 

Global Learning Academy: A New Model
12:00-12:45 p.m.
Kelly Trail, Zoe Krzywda, Erin Gahimer, Tom Morgan, and Sam Ortiz 

Responsive and Adaptive: The Common Academic Program (CAP) in a Time of Distress
12:00-12:45 p.m.
Christopher Brough, Youssef Farhat, Elizabeth Mackay, and Cassandra Secrease

Social Justice Advocacy Amidst Institutional Precarity: A Case Study of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts during COVID-19
12:00-12:45 p.m.
Lisa Borello, and Shane Borah 

Let's Make Diversity an Institutional Learning Goal: Insights from the Diversity ILG Working Group
1:00-1:45 p.m.
Castel Sweet, Thomas Morgan, and Youssef Farhat 

Pilot Assessment Plan: Intercultural and Global Learning
1:00- 1:45 p.m.
Amy Anderson, Sangita Gosalia, Zoe Krzywda, Kelly Trail, and Kelly Bohrer 

Over the past few years, the Learning Teaching Forum has become an annual opportunity for University of Dayton educators to explore deeper at how different parts of the University collaborate, cross boundaries, and contribute to students’ holistic success and development. 

 
Youssef Farhat, CAP Diversity and Social Justice (DSJ) Coordinator, and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science.

Photo Credit: Teo Georgiev for Fine Acts 

🎙🎧Listen to Podcast  

A month filled with barbeques and baseball games, June is also an important month for the LGBTQ+ community. Queer people and their allies celebrate Pride Month with festivals, parades, and artistic reflections on the progress made toward political inclusion since the Stonewall Riots in 1969. We’ve come a long way since then. In 2015, the US Supreme Court legalized marriage equality with the Obergefell v. Hodges decision -- a case that originated in Cincinnati! 

At the University of Dayton, community is a key institutional value. Although we do not collect demographic information on the undergraduate population’s sexual identities, the American College Health Association estimates that 10% of college students identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, asexual, pansexual, or questioning. Moreover, the numbers may be higher because the development of sexual identity is in flux over the course of a young person’s life. Yet regardless of whether students are out and proud, closeted, or questioning, they are still likely to be affected by microaggressions and bias incidents that occur on campus.

In Spring 2020, we enrolled in Dr. Jamie L. Small’s sociology class on Sex, Crime, and Law. Our discussions ranged from domestic violence to mass incarceration to pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. For our final project, we were tasked to develop a podcast that investigated broader course themes. We brainstormed ideas at the beginning of the semester, and then Dr. Small placed in groups based on shared interests. The unexpected campus closure in March created new barriers to making a podcast -- a project that neither of us had done before! After consulting with Dr. Small, though, we decided to continue with the podcast because documenting the micro- and macro-aggressions that LGBTQ+ students experience on campus is really important work. 

We learned a lot and would like to share the podcast and some of those findings with you.

Spectrum is UD’s LGBTQ+ student organization. The group is comprised of dedicated students who strive to help make other LGBTQ+ students on campus know they are safe to be themselves, while being transparent about the challenges. Spectrum provides aid, support, and a safe space for LGBTQ+ students and their allies. For instance, through one initiative “Know Your Rights,” Spectrum’s members learn about what microaggressions are on campus; how to report them; and the resources available to them. 

One moment of hostility for which Spectrum provided critical support occurred last fall. Early in September, vandalizers ripped down rainbow flags -- symbols of solidarity and the queer community -- from the Spectrum South Ally House. The flags were later found in a nearby garbage can. Similar incidents happened two more times during the semester, and a memorial for Transgender Day of Remembrance was also vandalized.

President Eric Spina wrote an email to the campus community denouncing this bias-related vandalism. He wrote:

“We condemn this act as incompatible with our Catholic, Marianist values and our commitment to create an environment where all feel safe, supported, valued and respected. We are all called to safeguard the dignity of every person in thought, word and action, and to work together to strengthen our sense of community. This is an offense not only against certain members of our community but, indeed, an offense against the entire University community.”

While these kinds of bias-related incidents are noticeable on campus, microaggressions can be harder to see.

In the podcast, you will hear interviews that we conducted with Chloé Massie-Costales and Laura Hutchinson. They discuss their respective experiences with the LGBTQ+ community at UD. Chloé Massie-Costales is graduated this May with a degree with sociology, and during her time at UD, she was deeply involved with Spectrum. She helped us understand what bias-related incidents look like for students and how the campus climate regarding these incidents has changed over her five years on campus. Laura Hutchinson, also a UD alum, is coordinator of LGBTQ+ Support Services at the Brook Center. She explained the nuances of micro- and macro-aggressions and how bias-related incidents negatively impact LGBTQ+ students in higher education.

After talking with Chloé and Laura, we then discuss how Title IX, legal protection against discrimination on the basis of sex, does not explicitly extend to the LGBTQ+ community. We pivot to examine some of the policies that UD has in place to ensure its students are protected, whether it is in the Non Discrimination Statement or in policies such as the Chosen Name Policy.

We hope that our podcast can help listeners understand and learn about the bias-related incidents that can happen on any college campus. We hope that our listeners will become more aware of the different ways these violent incidents occur and how they can affect their peers, friends, and even family members. We hope to inform students of resources on our campus and what UD does to support them. We hope our listeners understand that using expressions such as, “That’s so gay” is harmful because it’s basically saying, “you are wrong.” 

No human is wrong. 

We also understand that social change is not something that happens overnight. While incredible strides have been made in the past few decades, it is clear that there is still so much to be done. But to be silent is to be complicit. By speaking out and educating others, we hope to make a change in people’s everyday lives. 

 🎙🎧LISTEN TO PODCAST  

Authors and Podcast Creators in Sociology 329 "Sex, Crime, and Law" course:

• Jessie Starkweather'22 (She/Her/Hers) is a Criminal Justice major
• Chris Reynolds'21 (They/Them/Theirs) is a Computer Science major

Dr. Jamie Small is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work and a Human Rights Center Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Dayton.