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 April 2007 Table of Contents:
NU, collaborators presented with Carter Partnership Award
Boston preschoolers are getting a jump-start on their education, thanks to the work of students at Northeastern and two partner institutions. The work has now been recognized with a Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award Partnership Award, which honors campus-community collaborations. Students at Northeastern, Wheelock College and Suffolk University volunteer with Jumpstart’s School Readiness for All Initiative, which enlists and trains college students to mentor preschoolers in the Roxbury neighborhood. “One of our university’s defining characteristics is our commitment of engagement with the communities we are a part of,” said Northeastern’s president, Joseph Aoun. “This recognition from the Carter Partnership reinforces what we know to be true, our neighbors are partners with whom we forge a common destiny." “Our graduates will be successful not only because of what they have learned at Northeastern, but also because of what they have learned here in Roxbury and Mission Hill, in the Fenway and the South End, and throughout Boston,” he said. Meghan Schumacher, Northeastern’s senior site manager for the Roxbury program, said about 77 Northeastern students, and about 60 each from Suffolk and Wheelock, work with preschoolers on literacy. Jumpstart’s goal, she said, is that “every child in America enters kindergarten ready to succeed.” Northeastern’s students each work with two children, and commit 10 to 15 hours per week to the program — some as volunteers, some as work-study employees and some for course credit, she explained. The Carter awards, established in 2000 by the former president and his wife, are presented to collaborative programs in six states and India. Northeastern Provost Ahmed Abdelal helped establish the first awards in the Carters’ home state of Georgia, while he was a dean at Georgia State. “The model worked very well in fostering academic-community partnerships,” he said, and quickly expanded to other states. This is the first year a consortium of universities was a finalist for the Massachusetts award, according to Barbara Canyes of the Massachusetts Campus Compact, which represents 65 higher-education institutions. The Campus Compact is the Carter foundation’s designee to choose award-winners in the Bay State. Canyes said the Massachusetts award has been presented only once before, in 2004. At that time, she said, “we didn’t consider consortium applications. But (the judges) considered this quite intriguing – it brings more leverage, getting higher-ed institutions to work with each other. It could be an example to others.” The award, a $10,000 prize split between the winning institutions and the community partners, was presented at a dinner April 9 at UMass-Boston. Northeastern marks inauguration of Joseph Aoun as president Northeastern inaugurated Joseph Aoun as its seventh president in a ceremony that celebrated the university’s collaborative spirit. Aoun himself used the occasion to lay out four key themes for the address and for his presidency, based in collaboration: experiential learning; translational and interdisciplinary research; humanities and the arts; and urban engagement. He also said Northeastern will double the number of international co-op opportunities by this fall. In the spirit of partnerships, Aoun announced the Stony Brook Initiative, a new endeavor that will more closely link Northeastern with its surrounding neighborhoods in fields such as education, the arts and civic engagement. “We should be a model of what society can do,” Aoun affirmed. “Ours will be a shared success.” Speaking before a crowd of several thousand at Matthews Arena, Aoun focused on “the importance of building strong partnerships” within and outside the university. In his first formal address to the university after taking office in August, Aoun began with thanks to his wife, Zeina, and sons, Joseph and Adrian, who joined him for the ceremony. Aoun talked about his personal journey to the United States and to Northeastern. “Every day this passion comes into sharper focus for me. It is a passion for scholarship that can address societal issues. A passion for research that creates new knowledge and approaches. A passion for this university’s growth and its place in the world. A passion for engagement that embraces diversity in all its forms,” Aoun said. To the university community, he said, “You have entrusted me with the future of this institution. On behalf of the generations to come, I have the responsibility to uphold that trust.” Celebrating partnerships The refrain of building partnerships was taken up by an array of speakers from the academic and civic communities who joined the celebration. “I want to say thank you to Northeastern for its partnership with the city of Boston,” said Mayor Thomas Menino, who sat at Aoun’s side during the ceremony. “I look forward to strengthening our partnership. I wish you luck on your new journey.” The mayor’s wife, Angela Menino, brought “the warmest of greetings” from Boston’s children and neighborhoods. “You help make Boston a vital city,” she said. “We look forward to working with you in the years ahead.” Daniel Smith, a university overseer and vice president of Raytheon Co., represented the university’s co-op employers. “We are fully confident that, under your leadership, Northeastern will work on building these partnerships,” he said. Nursing professor Carol Glod, representing faculty, praised Aoun’s successes and his support for interdisciplinary academic endeavors. “Together, we’ll wrestle with important questions,” she said. “Our challenge is to create a lasting legacy.” Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corp. of New York and former president of Brown University, spoke of Aoun as “an outstanding and visionary leader” who brings wisdom, grace and culture to his new position. Gregorian represented learned societies and professional associations at the ceremony. “What a great day for Northeastern University,” proclaimed Steven Sample, president of the University of Southern California, where Aoun served as a professor and dean for nearly 25 years. “He has the ability and the drive to lead,” Sample said of Aoun. At USC, Aoun “listened to his colleagues and helped them create, collaborate and innovate … He kept his eyes on the future while embracing the present.” “It was rumored that he carried two Blackberries,” Sample joked, suggesting the new president buy a third one. A university, Sample said, is “more than a collection of libraries and laboratories, a gathering spot for students and faculty … A university is a family, a collection of ideas. “Universities endure because our values prevail,” he said, reminding the Northeastern community, “You are stewards of an institution that will be here for hundreds of thousands of students yet unborn.” Neal Finnegan, chairman of the board of trustees, explained the university’s threefold motto of “lux, veritas and virtus” — light, truth and virtue — as trustees invested Aoun with the university’s charter and the presidential lavaliere. The chairman told Aoun: “We have the fullest confidence in you.” Music at the ceremony was provided by the Northeastern Choral Society, with two commissioned compositions by professors Emmett Price and Anthony De Ritis. Inaugural receptions Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who joined Aoun at a reception in the Curry Student Center, called the new president a strong leader who can open more doors to civic-academic cooperation. “I can tell you, having spent time with Mr. Aoun, the best is yet to come,” he told celebrants. “I really, really look forward to our future partnerships.” Speaking briefly after the ceremony at a reception for faculty, staff and students in the Cabot Cage, Aoun said the inauguration week is “not about a new president. We’re here to celebrate Northeastern. We are celebrating our creativity, we are celebrating our achievements and we are celebrating our excellence and distinction.’ The university will continue to improve, he said, but vowed, “We are also going to continue to have fun.” Senior Christine Faucher, who chatted briefly with the president in Cabot, called the ceremony “awesome. I enjoyed all the speakers.” Lyndsie Mannix, a sophomore who, like Faucher, is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma, pointed out that every sorority and fraternity was represented at the ceremony. “All of Greek life came out,” Mannix said. “We really wanted to show our support for this president.” “The inauguration had the effect of emphasizing the transformation of Northeastern University and all of its positive qualities,” said Jack Levin, Brudnick Distinguished Professor of sociology and anthropology. “It’s really a celebration of a positive change.” Betty Lou Edwards, production director for the university’s creative services department, said the inauguration was “lovely and appropriate. Students help community partners in ‘day of service’  CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION Students wait for the T to take them to Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly in Jamaica Plain, where they will prepare Easter and Passover meals. In front is freshman Leigh Childs; at rear, from left, are sophomores Marie Johnston and Theresa Parlato, middlers Brittany Manley and Becky Stiles, sophomore Julee Goldberg, freshman Ryan Fox, sophomore Michael Grant and senior Amanda Sadowski.
More than 100 Northeastern students helped 11 community partners during a Day of Service in honor of the inauguration of the university’s new president. Northeastern’s Center of Community Service organized the event, which saw 136 students volunteer at AIDS Action, City on a Hill Charter School, Eagle Eye Institute, Ellis Memorial and Eldridge House, the Esplanade Association, Generations Inc., Lena Park, Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, Mission Hill School, New Mission High School and Spontaneous Celebrations. Cumulatively, the students and a Northeastern staffer donated 685 hours of service. “Thank you again,” wrote Mike Zinni, reading program coordinator at City on a Hill. “The work Northeastern University is doing for the community will ripple much longer than the splash.” Separately, but also on March 31, alumni participated in their own day of service at the Greater Boston Food Bank, sorting and packing donated items. Northeastern graduate Dan Ryan ’00, who helped organize the day, said the day’s volunteers made 4,608 meals possible. ‘Banner Day’ for young Boston artists at Northeastern “What really unifies us is the arts,” Northeastern President Joseph Aoun told a group of high-school students. “It’s a universal language.” Aoun recently met with the students from Boston-based Artists for Humanity at the Curry Student Center, where the budding artists were at work designing banners that will hang near the Northeastern campus later this year. Also joining him were Artists for Humanity underwriter Robert Beal and founder Sue Rogerson, as well as mentor from the nonprofit art-promotion and education agency. The “Banner Day” gathering was part of the Northeastern Illuminated week of events marking Aoun’s inauguration. Participants included Jamihlyah Richardson of Roxbury and Boston Latin School; Szu-Chieh Yun of the South End and Boston Arts Academy; Michael Guadarrama of Dorchester and South Boston High, Anne McKelway of Charlestown and Boston Arts Academy, Eleanor Wong of Mission Hill and Madison Park High School, Jaleela Browder of Dorchester and Boston Arts, Emmanuel Santana of South Boston and Madison Park, Orion Ghirin of West Roxbury of Boston Latin. The students presented Aoun with a painting by a former Artists for Humanity student from Roxbury, which he promised to hang in his office. “I loved what I saw here today,” Aoun told the students. “This is wonderful. … You’re leaving a legacy.” Northeastern to offer joint degrees with MFA Beginning this fall, Northeastern will offer two joint degree programs with a Fenway neighbor, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. President Joseph Aoun announced the initiative during his inaugural address, as part of the university’s commitment to humanities and the arts. The first class of 10 students for a bachelor of fine arts will be drawn from Northeastern’s current applicant pool, as will the first three students for a master’s of fine arts in studio arts, according to the two schools. Admissions counselors are working to identify appropriate students and inform them of the programs; admission will be contingent on review for artistic and academic potential by staff at both Northeastern at the museum school. “Our new joint degree programs with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, will offer students the unique opportunity to be part of an academic community committed to excellence while also having access to instructors and exhibits at one of the finest museums in the world,” said Aoun. “This will be the first of many partnerships we establish with the great cultural institutions on the Avenue of the Arts, throughout the city, and beyond.” The blending of classroom and studio experience embedded in this program is indicative of Northeastern’s long-standing commitment to experiential education, he noted. “This partnership brings together the resources of three of the great educational and cultural institutions on the Avenue of the Arts,” said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts. “We look forward to sharing the world-renowned collection of art at the MFA and the expertise of SMFA faculty with the artists and museum curators, conservators, and administrators of the future.” Deborah H. Dluhy, dean of the school and deputy director of the museum, said, “We are excited by the opportunities this new partnership offers and look forward to our collaboration with Northeastern University. We anticipate a mutually enriching exchange.” Tuition for the joint programs will be the same as Northeastern’s 2007-2008 tuition, and the degrees will be conferred by Northeastern. The museum school, with 700 undergraduate and 100 graduate students in 15 fields of study, is one of only three art schools in the United States affiliated with a museum. Student’s photo chosen to represent city of Boston  CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION 'The Fountainhead' by Bethany O'Meara “Photography’s more of a hobby for me,” said Northeastern sophomore Bethany O’Meara. “My background’s mostly in drawing … But I like to take pictures of things I think are beautiful and things I think are amusing.” O’Meara’s photo of a small boy ducking his head in a fountain at Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park — arguably both beautiful and amusing — now graces the city of Boston’s Web site. The Southington, Conn. native was one of 35 winners in the city’s first photo contest, finding representative shots of the Hub for both the Web and the lobby of Boston City Hall. “There was a reception (for winners) in City Hall. I got to meet Mayor Menino,” she said. “I’m really honored to have been acknowledged at all.” It’s a contest that O’Meara — who’s majoring in business, with a concentration in marketing — just lucked into. “I found it online, I have no idea how,” she said recently. “I must’ve been Googling photography and probably Googling something to do in Boston.” She submitted the park photo — which she dubbed “The Fountainhead” — along with four others, all shot on film and scanned into her computer. “I had no idea that I’d win, but I had a feeling that this particular picture would be the one they’d choose if they chose one of mine,” she said. “It’s got the emotional factor.” She shot the photo with her Pentax ZX-M while noodling around Boston with her parents, Philip and Paula O’Meara, around the time of her freshman orientation in fall 2005, she recalled. “I’ve probably been taking pictures my whole life,” said O’Meara. “I was the appointed photographer on family vacations.” But while she took photo classes in high school, her Northeastern minor in art is focused on other subjects, she said. She has her career path thoughtfully planned. “My goal is to work at a museum — first of all in marketing,” she said. “Then I’m thinking of pursuing a master's in fine arts. My plan is to be a museum director some day." O’Meara’s photo — and those of the other winners — can be seen online at http://www.cityofboston.gov/photocontest/ Summer camp to focus on STEM education for kids Northeastern will host young Boston-area students for a summer camp focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, thanks to a grant from the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Foundation. “This is a wonderful opportunity for Northeastern to take advantage of an initiative that speaks to increasing the pipeline of individuals with knowledge of science, tech, engineering and mathematics,” said Donnie Perkins, dean of affirmative action and diversity at the university, who helped organize the university’s effort. The students will live on campus from Sunday through Friday afternoons July 8 through 20, going home for weekends, Harris explained. Their weeks will be filled with STEM-focused classes by Northeastern faculty, graduate students and cooperating teachers, as well as field trips; Rachelle Reisberg of the Women in Engineering program will oversee instruction. “We’re trying to get gender parity” in selecting the students, Harris said, and “trying to have a diverse group.” He also said the program will have a year-round component, with followup sessions. The university is also exploring ways to involve parents, to “empower them to know where their son or daughter should be” in their educational development. Harris said the point is not to push students early into the STEM professions, but to “open up possibilities and options. If they decide not to go into science or engineering, it should be because they choose not to, not because they’re not prepared or feel that they don’t have that option.” Northeastern is one of only 20 universities — and the only one in New England — that received the Harris grants, named for former astronaut Bernard Harris, a flight surgeon who was the first African-American to walk in space. For more information about the program, click here. A lifelong focus on transportation, development
Now president and CEO of A Better City — the former Artery Business Committee — Dimino is focused on two major transit projects he hopes will make it easier to live and work in Boston: the expansion of the MBTA’s Silver Line and the completion of the Urban Ring, a transportation network tying all of the city’s vital business cores with each other and with their potential workforce. He credits his Northeastern education with “laying the foundation for a number of wonderful things.” The School of Education, he said, “gave me a better context for understanding people, and the dynamics associated with families and groups — and it also gave me the basic tenets of management. “If you really think about it, within a curriculum and a lesson plan there are many parallels to creating a business plan,” he said. “And when you’re a manager, another important part of your job is teaching and mentoring, understanding teachable moments and capitalizing on them.” Dimino also said Northeastern’s cooperative education program “without a doubt helped to enhance my career opportunities, and gave me a chance to learn about who I was and what I liked to do early in my development.” Working co-op jobs in the Trinity Neighborhood House in East Boston and in the Malden public schools, as well as with the co-op program itself, taught him that “while I loved teaching, I was a better principal — that is, I was better at helping organizations sustain good learning environments, and working with boards and constituencies.” Just out of college, he was program director at Trinity, and then became regional director for Boston Community Schools. Through his involvement in citywide projects, and his East Boston roots, he was active in the Coalition Against the Third Harbor Tunnel, which earned him the interest of Mayor Kevin White and then City Councilor Raymond Flynn. White put him on a task force examining the introduction of cable TV to Boston; Flynn worked with him on transportation issues and, when he was elected mayor, named Dimino deputy head of the traffic and parking department and eventually head of the city’s transportation department. Along the way, Dimino earned an M.B.A. at Harvard and won a fellowship to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. After leaving government, he worked for a time as senior vice president at Stone & Webster Consulting Services, a subsidiary of the giant engineering firm, and “got to see how the rest of the country worked relative to its transportation systems, its governing structures and its service delivery,” he said. When Stone & Webster merged that division with another, Dimino joined the Artery Business Committee as president and CEO. Formed in 1989, the ABC was “the voice of the business community on all matters pertaining to the Central Artery/Tunnel program,” he said. After the “Big Dig” was completed, ABC changed its name to A Better City and began “building off the core competencies we had developed” — becoming a voice for not only business but other large Boston institutions, such as universities and hospitals, on transportation projects in and around the city. The Silver Line expansion, Dimino explained, will link all four MBTA subway lines. It will also allow “residents living in Roxbury to reach the new, emerging waterfront developments” in one ride. The Urban Ring, a longer-term project, “will connect the city’s growing economic centers” of medicine, education and life sciences, said Dimino — “for example, the South End medical area, the Longwood medical area, Allston Landing and Harvard University, Kendall Square and MIT, Somerville, Chelsea, Logan Airport, the South Boston waterfront, Ruggles and Lower Roxbury — all of the rapid transit lines and all of the major commuter rail service. Developing the Urban Ring will have “multiple benefits,” he said, among them “getting employees to these employment centers” and “connectivity between the life science industry, medical institutions and the universities … They are best suited for success and have the greatest ability when there’s connectivity.” “The ring,” he said, “is community development and economic empowerment.” |
Northeastern puts its people and resources to work in the community with programs that meet critical needs in the following areas: Housing and Economic Development
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East Boston native Richard Dimino learned early about the importance of transportation; he grew up in the shadow of Logan Airport, and commuted to Northeastern to earn his bachelor’s in education.
