Photo of the Sellinger building courtesy of the Everyday Loyola Project

The Jesuits know education.

When I think about Jesuit education, I think about rigor and reflection. People know that the Jesuits are focused on quality education. The reflection piece is thinking about the impact of your every decision and the consequences, not just for your shareholders today, but for your stakeholders tomorrow.

Ethics course? Not in the Sellinger School. The whole program is ethics.

We talk regularly with our faculty about how a course is different because you teach it at Loyola. We hold faculty retreats twice a year and monthly mission lunches to talk about Jesuit education and to share with our colleagues mission activities we’re doing in our classes. Every business school says, “We teach ethics.” In the Sellinger School it’s not just a course that we teach. Our program focuses on ethics and reflection. Ethics education in business isn’t effective unless it’s woven into everything learned and applied.

Your mission—if you choose to accept it—is educating your mind, body, and spirit.

Before prospective new faculty come to campus for an interview, they have to write an essay discussing what the Jesuit mission is and how they will incorporate it into their classes. You don’t have to be Catholic to be successful at teaching at Loyola. It is more important that you believe in the mission of educating the whole person—mind, body, spirit.

Students learn to think beyond themselves—way beyond.

We tell students we know that they will have successful careers, but to be truly successful and have a real sense of achievement, reach out to help in the community in which you live. If you’re coming out of one of our MBA programs, we urge you to use your skills and talents to help others.

They take a new approach. Every. Single. Day.

Students learn to use new tools. For example, Tony Mento, Ph.D., professor of management, teaches our students how to do mind mapping, and it is a phenomenal technique. He teaches students to consider what happened today, why did these things happen, what did I do to influence the outcome, and what could I do differently. It’s a very deliberate approach to reflection focused on learning to continue to improve in your decision-making process.

CEOs say Jesuit business school graduates are different—and that’s why they want them.

When people talk to me about Loyola students, they tell me Loyola students are smart, articulate, hardworking, and ethical. I hear that all the time from CEOs, and they almost always use the identical words. This is the Jesuit difference and something that makes us very proud.

Alumni say reflection is the most important thing they learned.

On average, one-third of our students come to Loyola because we’re a Jesuit school, one-third say they didn’t know we were a Jesuit university, and one-third say they knew we were a Jesuit business school, but that did not influence their decision to come to Loyola for their graduate work. Yet in a recent survey or our alumni, 92 percent indicate that learning the art of reflection was the most important part of their education. This is the Jesuit difference.

Jesuit Education.

It really is not about religious beliefs. It’s about educating the whole person, regardless of your faith tradition. And I believe there is no better way to educate our future business leaders than by doing so in a Jesuit framework. A religious institution gives you the freedom to talk about topics you can’t talk about at state schools. I believe the Jesuit tradition provides the ideal frame for educating business leaders.

How has your Jesuit education contributed to your professional success?

WLOY Radio operations manager John Devecka got his start in broadcasting while earning his undergraduate degree at Bucknell University. It marked a major detour from his major in history and Asian studies, but he knew he’d found the right fit.

Devecka began his career designing custom broadcasting equipment—including systems for two Olympic games—before a chance meeting led to his 10 years of service at Loyola.

Many of his student employees have gone on to successful careers in broadcasting and other fields armed with a commitment to community service honed through their work with programs Devecka has spearheaded, including Both Feet In, a radio show on homelessness, and Word on the Street, a nonprofit newspaper led by people who have experienced homelessness.

How did you become interested in communications?

About 60 hours a week at my college radio station! I got involved at WVBU at Bucknell and it was just too much fun. That’s how I ended up at LPB Communications, a broadcasting equipment manufacturer. I spent 12 years doing everything from designing college radio stations to audio translation systems for the ’96 and ’02 Olympics. It was a great experience where I got to travel all over the world, setting some broadcast records and developing patents in the process.

How did you make the switch to higher education?

Through these projects, I often gave presentations at college radio conferences on broadcasting equipment design for schools and it’s there that I met Fr. Michael Braden, a Jesuit and communication faculty member at the time. It was clear from my conversation with him that there was a real commitment to building professional facilities at Loyola and I ended up designing the WLOY studios through LPB. Loyola knew the value the facility would be to students in the long-term and that’s one of the reasons that made my decision to come here easy. I transitioned to operations manager in 2002.

What do you think the station’s role is in the campus community?

On a basic level, we’re a source for new music and free concerts. But we also provide a chance for the city to come onto campus through our outreach programs. These also let students build skills through giving back. There’s a Jesuit ideal at Loyola, sort of an intangible, which encourages moving outside of your comfort level. Shows like Both Feet In bring a reality to the campus about homelessness that can change both perceptions and actions.

How do you see WLOY as a teaching tool for developing students’ broadcasting skills?

It’s the ultimate experiential learning tool. One of my students has done everything from web design to field events. Another student interested in criminal justice is participating in Homeless Lobby Day in Annapolis with individuals from Word on the Street and Both Feet In. I find ways to bridge the students’ passions with opportunities. That’s how I see my role here.

How have you seen social media change the industry over the past decade?

It has completely adjusted the landscape. Most freshmen don’t have a radio. They’re streaming audio through online radio stations like WLOY and services like Pandora and Spotify. And we’ve seen amazing happenings come from our social media channels. We were giving away concert tickets on Twitter and six minutes later someone was in the studio to pick them up. You just couldn’t do that 10 years ago.

WLOY has won several awards from national broadcasting societies. What’s your recipe for success?

The students! I’d love to say it’s all me, but it’s not. I can offer them direction, but this station is for them to learn and grow. The awards we’re winning are for the things that are the most impactful. We’re not winning for “Best Music” but for “Best Community Involvement” and “Best Feature Show.” The students are seeing that reward for the programs that matter and that’s the positive feedback they need. Of course being placed in the Top 10 College Radio Stations in the country at the 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards was pretty great, too.

What kind of opportunities does the station provide?

Some students aren’t interested in being a DJ but instead want to develop skills in public relations and marketing. Whether they want to work with our children’s program, the homeless, or other community projects, we have a lot of options. Students who want to develop web content, do audio editing, or learn to produce live shows are equally supported. We have an alumnus who now works at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an accountant but still produces the Moldie Oldies show where he channels a classic ’60s AM DJ from New York. The field is so broad that it’s nice that as a facility we can accommodate any aspiration.

What’s on your wish list for WLOY?

I’d love to find some more space for performances with all the live bands that want to do in-studio shows with us. We’ve been invited to join iHeartRadio (a Clear Channel digital radio service) and I’d like to get that project going. I also want to do more integration of existing programs on campus, too. There are a lot of Center for Community Service and Justice programs that we complement and can highlight. We’ve been approached by some educators in the community with amazing opportunities for our students and the station. It’s all about continuing to find new opportunities on and off campus for students who are driven to succeed.

Read John Devecka’s favorite Baltimore venue, personal favorite band, and more here.

An empty soda can getting hit by a freight train. That’s what it feels like when an IED explodes under your feet. As if every inch of your body is being crushed at the same time.

Capt. Greg Galeazzi, ’07, remembers sitting up on that road in Afghanistan and looking down at his legs. They weren’t there.

“Nothing in the world could have prepared me to see that both of my legs were completely gone,” said Galeazzi, who had been on morning patrol with his soldiers that day, May 26, 2011. “They weren’t hanging off. They were nowhere.”

And that wasn’t all. “I didn’t know it at the time, but my right arm was almost completely severed as well at my elbow,” he said. “My immediate thought is that I’m going to die out here, out in the middle of nowhere in farmland, where we patrol by foot because we can’t get vehicles here.”

He saw the boots of one of his soldiers running to help him and blacked out. “I wish I could say that I stayed unconscious, but I woke back up a minute or so later, and at that point my soldiers had already put tourniquets on both my legs and my arm,” Galeazzi said.

His soldiers called in a Medevac helicopter, swatting his face to keep him conscious in the 110-degree sun, pouring every ounce of their drinking water over him to cool his body down. Galeazzi told one of his soldiers about a letter he had written to his girlfriend, and the soldier promised to give it to her, although insisting that Galeazzi would deliver it himself.

“I guess I still had a sense of humor,” Galeazzi said, “because I told him, ‘She only gets the letter if I die, you idiot! So how the hell will I deliver it?’”

The first Medevac had mechanical problems and had to turn back. As they waited for a second helicopter, Galeazzi’s pain became excruciating.

“All of a sudden it felt exactly like my legs had been ripped off. There’s nothing I could do but scream and hope for death. I remember wanting to die, not wanting my life to be over like this, but at the same time, not knowing what’s going to happen. Am I going to be a cripple in a hospital bed all my life? I remember just stopping and letting myself go and feeling myself getting sucked into this sort of blackness. I was pulled out of it by the fist of my squad leader hitting my chest. After 30 minutes of waiting, we heard the helicopter coming in. I was loaded on board and then blacked out.”

Galeazzi woke up in a trauma bay where he was stabilized. Then he fell unconscious again. The next time he woke up he was at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

“Waking up in a hospital here only begins a whole separate type of nightmare. Some of the worst pain is still to come. The mental struggles against depression, anxiety,  and stress—that all starts to sink in.”

It’s a new life Galeazzi could never have imagined.

A Man for Others

The youngest of seven children, Galeazzi was the third of three brothers to come to Loyola from Glastonbury, Conn., to study and to participate in ROTC. John graduated in 2000 and Steven in 2004. Another brother did ROTC at Fordham, and his sisters went to the College of the Holy Cross. He knew he wanted to attend Loyola and enlist in ROTC.

After graduation from Loyola in May 2007, Galeazzi went to Fort Benning, Ga., where he completed the Infantry Officer Basic Course and Ranger School before heading to his first duty station at Fort Carson, Colo. Galeazzi had dreamed of being a helicopter pilot, but the Army needed him to serve as an infantry officer.

When he was deployed with his unit in July 2010, he was sent to Afghanistan. At the time of his injury, he was serving on the outskirts of Kandahar City, the birthplace of the Taliban. Kandahar had started to fall back under Taliban rule, and the unit’s mission was to help regain control of some of the ground the Coalition Forces had lost over the years.

Galeazzi found himself in a whole different world.

Photo courtesy of Greg Galeazzi

“Afghanistan as a whole is poor to begin with, but these people were even poor for Afghanistan. I remember seeing an old man scraping up what looked like crabgrass on the ground, and that was his food for the night,” Galeazzi said. “The neighborhoods I’d patrol, people would live in mud huts. They’d mix water with the dirt on the ground and build their walls.”

As platoon leader, Galeazzi needed to work on establishing relationships with the residents. “It starts out with being kind of friendly and respectful, and you share a cigarette with them or you bring them some food. After a while, you’re building these relationships, and then all of a sudden they’re sharing information with you. It’s important to build those relationships and those friendships, but at the same time you always have to be skeptical.”

With a month left to serve in Afghanistan, Galeazzi had learned some of their language. He could talk to the people and felt he understood them better. He was leading his platoon because the former platoon leader and squad leader had been killed less than a month into the deployment. He knew those injuries might have been prevented if people had stood farther apart. So, as the leader responsible for the 30 men in his platoon, he kept that in mind and worked to make sure none of them became complacent.

“We can be on our A game 99 percent of the time,” Galeazzi said. “The enemy has to be right 1 percent of the time.”

That morning Galeazzi remembers some Afghan children came to the soldiers and said they thought they had found some bombs. They pointed them out to the soldiers, who gave them candy and water. After disposing of the explosives, the soldiers were heading back to their compound, walking down the road.

Galeazzi had just turned around to make sure the soldier behind him was far enough back, when he stepped on 25 pounds of explosives.

In that moment his whole life changed.

A friend gave Galeazzi this sign when he was beginning his recovery two years ago. Someone had given it to her when her husband died, and she told Galeazzi to pass it on to someone else when he didn't need it anymore.

Phantom Pain, Real Agony

For months Galeazzi told his doctors there was something inside one of his wounds. They finally found this rock in his leg.

He still feels phantom pain in his legs—as if someone has taken a sledgehammer to his shin, or is pounding nails into his toes.

The mental pain may be worse. He had to learn to rely on others for help.

And there are so many things he can’t do that he used to enjoy. He can’t play guitar. He can’t hike. He can’t go to the batting cage and blow off some steam. He can’t run around with his nephews. Just going to the movies with his girlfriend, Summer Buckley, presents challenges with accessibility. And no matter where he goes, people stare.

“I understand people looking because I look different and they’re very curious, but it doesn’t make it any more of a great feeling,” he said. “You want to go through the mall and you just want to go shopping. Everyone’s eyes are just on you. You just want to blend in. You just want to look like everyone else.”

His relationship with Summer, whom he started dating just weeks before he was deployed, has been one positive.

“I’ve been so fortunate to have my girlfriend and have her stick with me through all of this. There were times where I wasn’t sure if she would stick with me or not, and I’m not sure if I would blame her for it. You start sort of wondering ‘Am I going to be alone for the rest of my life?’”

For a year or more, he constantly felt alone, wondering about his future.

“If you had asked me what happens to a wounded solder after he gets injured, in my mind I would picture something like Forrest Gump. OK, they recover from their wounds, and move on with their lives,” he said.

“In reality, it’s a much longer recovery.”

Searching for God

As Galeazzi has focused on his physical recovery, he has also had a crisis of faith. When he was injured in Afghanistan, he was a “pretty decent Catholic.” Even when he came home, he continued to believe. Then as he watched other soldiers come home with severe injuries—such as third-degree burns on their bodies—and wives who wouldn’t look at them, who divorced them, he stopped believing in God.

“Sometimes traumatic events can make people stronger in their faith. For me unfortunately I have had a complete loss of faith,” he said. “It is such a scary thing to go through this world feeling like you’re all alone. And it’s a comforting feeling that there’s a higher being watching out for you. I’d like to have that back. If my faith is going to come back ever, it’ll happen when it’s ready, but for now it’s been a whole additional challenge. In moments of despair, I have no one to reach out to. Sometimes I find myself praying, but I don’t really believe in it.”

At that moment on that Afghan road when Galeazzi looked down and saw that his legs were gone, he made a plea with God.

“Look, if you get me through this,” he said to God, “I will forgive the people who did this to me, and I’ll make sure I share this with people.”

And he has.

“Even though I don’t necessarily believe in God anymore, I kept my end of the bargain. Because if he does exist, I will keep my end of the bargain,” Galeazzi said. “I don’t blame or hate the people who did this to me. This is just the reality of war.”

War Is Gruesome

He’s not anti-war.

He understands that there are justifiable reasons for sending soldiers abroad. He believes in the work that he was doing as a soldier in Afghanistan.

But if he feels he has a message to share it’s that war is gruesome.

War injures.

War kills.

War shatters lives.

“Shrapnel does not discriminate. It goes through whoever, whatever is in its way,” he said.

During the nearly two years he has spent recovering, Galeazzi started a blog to update friends, family, and other supporters on his progress. His family started a foundation to help Galeazzi establish this new part of his life. And a fellow Greyhound, Chad Maddox, ’04, ran a 50-miler in honor of Galeazzi, calling his effort “Greg’s Legs” to draw attention to Galeazzi’s situation.

Now Galeazzi is working to determine what his future and new purpose are.

“The fact is that there are a lot of things I can no longer do in this world. But it’s also true that there are plenty of other things that I can do.  It’s time I start focusing on that, and move on with my life.”

]]> http://magazine.loyola.edu/issue/alumni/5224/a-soldiers-sacrifice/feed http://magazine.loyola.edu/issue/around-campus/5121/are-you-smarter-than-a-jesuit http://magazine.loyola.edu/issue/around-campus/5121/are-you-smarter-than-a-jesuit#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 13:12:53 +0000 editor http://magazine.loyola.edu/issue/?p=5121 table { margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px; } td { vertical-align: top !important; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #CCC; } div#your_score { padding: 20px; background-color:#FFC; display: none; width: 400px; border: 1px solid #FC3; margin: 20px; } h4 { font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 20px; } h5 { font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0; margin-left: 20px;} #submit { margin-bottom: 10px; } .green { color: #0C3; } .red { color: #F00; } h1 { font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; } br { display: none; } br.wanted { display:inline; } hr { margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; border: 0; height: 1px; background-color: #CCC; } input[type="radio"] { margin-right: 5px;}

The new pope is a Jesuit! So…what does that mean?

With the election of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope of the Catholic Church, we have the perfect opportunity to stop, reflect, and consider our knowledge of the Society of Jesus. Yes, it’s the Order that founded the Loyola University Maryland through one of its nine U.S. provinces—as well as hundreds of other schools and universities through its 88 provinces around the world.

But who are the Jesuits? And what makes a Jesuit education different from any other education?

Liberal education offered at Jesuit institutions ensures students place the highest value on the intellectual life, and that they understand the connection between leadership and service to the world. Jesuits are known for their exemplary teaching methods and their commitment to intellectual discovery and to the cause of social justice. They strive to develop the whole person and guide students to lead lives of integrity and honesty. Throughout the history of the Society of Jesus, her members have traveled throughout the world to serve God and lead others to serve Him, as well.

As they teach and serve and fill a variety of roles in their communities around the world, the Jesuits also take the time for prayer, for discernment, and for reflection. And they also have a sense of humor and enjoy friendly competition with others.

So, shoot a quick prayer to ask the Jesuits’ founder, St. Ignatius—or your favorite of the other 50 Jesuit saints and dozens of beatified Jesuits—for a little help, and buckle down for this quiz.

Multiple Choice

Loyola’s own John Devecka.

For more than a decade, Devecka has been operations manager at WLOY, Loyola’s student-run radio station. He’s been honing students’ talents in the studio and through community service. Devecka is also a winner of Loyola’s AMDG award for extraordinary initiative.

Devecka sat down with Loyola magazine to talk more about his experiences in broadcasting.

Who was the biggest celebrity to stop by WLOY?

The coolest recent event was when the band Motion City Soundtrack came in to the studio while we were also doing a fundraiser to benefit Haiti. They agreed to do a meet and greet so we were able to raffle off tickets to raise even more money. The studio was packed with very excited students!

What was it like to work on a project for the ‘96 Olympics?

At the time, I was working for LPB Communications and we provided a language translation system that was built into the stadium. When the crew installed it they had the aesthetics of the stadium in mind, and so put the wire behind the lower deck seating, which ended up blocking the signal of the antenna. We fixed it, but there was a lot of last minute scrambling before the opening ceremony. I didn’t get to stay to watch the games, but they did send me some great souvenirs!

If you could pick any musician to play WLOY who would it be and why?

That’s a tough one! There are a lot of different artists I’d like to have play. My personal favorite band is the Cowboy Junkies. I think the students would love them. My other choices would be the Fitz and the Tantrums, Of Monsters and Men, and Gary Clark, Jr.

Do you have a favorite Baltimore venue?

I finally got to see the Soundstage in Baltimore on Market Place by the Inner Harbor. It’s very nice venue even for just being a fairly simple, square box. I like the variety of bands that perform there, everything from hardcore metal to New Orleans jazz. The 8×10 club on East Cross Street is another excellent venue because of its fun, intimate space.

In 2004 as the Baltimore area braced for the arrival of the 17-year cicada, Loyola’s alumni relations staff contacted David Rivers, Ph.D., to ask for advice.

“They were going to set up a bunch of eating stations all over the Quad, and they said, ‘What if we had cicadas in all of the food?’” recalled the professor of biology and department chair. “And I said, ‘That would be kind of cool.’ They didn’t seem to think so.”

When the cicadas came, the shrill of their song near campus was almost deafening, Rivers said. “But what wasn’t realized in 2004 was we had two species of cicadas, instead of one. If you picked one up, you could tell by the size and the membranes.”

Here are a few things you may not know about cicadas—and Rivers himself:

Where the cicadas will be this summer:

“The anticipation is that they will be mostly restricted to the southern part of the state and into Virginia.”

What could bring cicadas to Baltimore?

One reason would be that the cicadas could have had a shift in the cycle. If they count years by counting seasons, then they might count a spring with a heavy frost as two years, throwing off the 17-year cycle. “That’s why there’s buzz that’s taking place with this particular group,” Rivers said.

Another reason would be that cicadas could have been moved when topsoil is removed and redistributed when farms or other land are converted into home developments.

But you don’t believe we’ll see them here?

“Baltimore City is going to be disappointed, probably. We’ll have our annual cicada.”

When should we see the 17-year cicadas again in Baltimore?

2021

And until then where are they buried in the ground?

“They can be more than a foot beneath the soil,” he said.

What is the focus of your research?

“I don’t really think you want to know. My primary research is forensic entomology. So when you’re watching one of the crime shows, there are the flies that feed on bodies, and the wasps that feed upon the flies,” said Rivers. “I have a cow head skull that’s sitting outside the science building right now. I have fetal pigs that I’m sitting out this summer. We’re going to be doing some research on the flies that colonize the fetal pigs.”

Is it true that you feed your students insects?

“We used to have a picnic for the seniors where we conducted Biology Fear Factor. When the television show was going on, we could get students to do anything. One event in particular was putting a fly maggot in your mouth and spit it for distance (spitput!). Nobody ever said no. It was actually amazing to me—the idea that you’re putting a maggot in your mouth and spitting it. One actually spit it 30 feet.”

Can a maggot make you sick?

“The idea of putting a maggot in your mouth—it’s just disgusting. But is there any risk? No.”

And you hold cockroach races?

“In my general entomology class the semester ends with doing cockroach racing. And we also do insect eating that day as well.”

Insect eating?

“I have a cookbook that’s based on eating insects. They all find it gross, but they want to taste it. We dip crickets in chocolate, they taste like chocolate. We use mealworms for several other recipes including a stir fry.”

Do you have any good cicada recipes?

“Well, the cookbook does have several. I did try some in 2004.”

So what do they taste like?

“They’re very, very sweet because when they were in the ground, they’ve been eating the roots of trees. It’s like eating crunchy honey in some sense.”

Do you study cicadas?

“I don’t do cicadas, but I do find them fascinating. I never view the world the same way anybody else does. There’s a fungus that’s actually associated with the 17-year cicada that I’m actually more interested in.”

Do the students in your classes get excited about insects?

“Biology is something that the instructor doesn’t have to work very hard to get the students excited because nature does such cool things.”

When the white smoke came out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, a colleague and I were watching TV to see who our new pope would be. He asked me, “Father, did you ever want to be pope?”

“That was never one of my ambitions,” I told him. “If it was, I certainly entered the wrong order. There’s never been a Jesuit pope—and won’t be in my lifetime.”

Fifteen minutes later I was proven wrong.

Now we are watching to see just what it means to have a member of the Society of Jesus as the vicar of the Roman Catholic Church. How will Pope Francis integrate Jesuit values in his leadership, in the ways he cares for each individual he encounters, and in his service to the world?

During this new chapter for the Catholic Church, we at Loyola have a perfect opportunity to share with others what it means to be Jesuit. Why do Loyola’s Jesuit heritage, tradition, and values matter—to our community and to the world?

Here at Loyola we are very conscious of both our Jesuit tradition and Catholic faith and what they mean in our identity and our mission. In the past, Loyola had quite a few Jesuits teaching and serving at the University, and we could take for granted the fact that our students were learning about Jesuit values and benefiting from the experience. Now with the decline in vocations to the priesthood, the number of Jesuits on campus is much smaller. As a result, we have had to become more intentionally committed to our Jesuit mission. In many ways, however, that commitment has only been deepened and strengthened.

Not long ago I received a letter from a mother whose daughter had been accepted as a member of the incoming Class of 2017. Her daughter had not been educated in a Catholic school, and the mother was concerned that her daughter was not deeply rooted in her faith. Her daughter’s faith development is as important to her as the quality of the academic education she will receive.

That mother’s concerns are shared by many people who watch members of the Millennial generation growing up without the same roots in faith that members of my generation had. It is a pressing concern, and it’s one that I can assure her we as educators at a Jesuit university take seriously. We realize that we need to be more evangelical in encouraging students—whether or not they are Catholic—to explore questions of faith. Regardless of a student’s individual faith, we have a responsibility to help each of them grow in understanding and spirituality. We want to give them the foundation they need to be able to find fulfillment through their beliefs.

That is why we acquired the Loyola Retreat Center in western Maryland. Having that special space for students and other members of the Loyola community has been instrumental in helping students on their faith journeys.

Helping our students find meaning and comfort through faith is especially important today, as we endure another tragedy with the recent bombings in Boston.

At times such as these, our community comes together to offer support to all those affected by tragedy and loss. As a Jesuit community, we are united in our concern for each individual, and in our commitment to nurturing a person’s mind, body, and spirit. Our students learn to approach problems with the Jesuit way of proceeding, a unique mode of governance, discernment, and dialogue. But a Jesuit education prepares students for the future on an even deeper level. As people of faith, even in the darkest moments, we are full of hope.

If Pope Francis can bring that same Jesuit approach to his leadership, perhaps he can help the Catholic Church, and our world, find that hope. And, as the Class of 2013 graduates this month, I trust the experiences they have had here at Loyola will help them carry that same hope throughout the world.

With the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice this month, Loyola magazine invited two Loyola English professors—Carol “Sue” Abromaitis, Ph.D., professor of English, and Gayla McGlamery, Ph.D., associate professor of English—to answer a few Austen questions.

So put down your whist cards, pour yourself a cup of tea, and peruse their responses. If you want to share your opinion, leave a comment below.

Best Austen character:

Dr. A: Elizabeth Bennet—I like so many of them, but her irony just captures me.

Dr. M: If by best, you mean wittiest and most entertaining, then Elizabeth Bennet is the best by far. Her liveliness and spunk engage me every time I read Pride and Prejudice. Over time, however, I’ve come to appreciate Anne Elliot (Persuasion) nearly as much.

Austen character you identify with most:

Dr. A: I’d love to say Elizabeth, but I am afraid it is really Mrs. Gardiner.

Dr. M: When I was younger, like many readers, I identified with Elizabeth Bennet, but Anne Elliot has grown on me. Her resilience, her clear-eyed skepticism, her self-respect, and her concern for others are quietly winning.

Darcy or Knightley?

Dr. A: Darcy (maybe Colin Firth has something to do with that).

Dr. M: Darcy. A man transformed by love is more appealing than a man who wants to transform the woman he loves!

Best Austen setting:

Dr. A: Bath in several of her novels.

Dr. M: Pemberly—pure wish-fulfillment

Personal favorite Austen novel:

Dr. A: Pride and Prejudice—oh to be different, but alas I am not.

Dr. M: Persuasion, Austen’s last completed novel. Austen wrote it when she was middle-aged and ill, and perhaps because of this, it has a darkness and melancholy that I find oddly appealing.

Most disappointing Austen novel:

Dr. A: Mansfield Park is a better novel than novels by other writers, but it is my least favorite of J.A.’s.

Dr. M: Mansfield Park—I recognize its virtues, but the ever-so-meek protagonist, Fanny Price, makes me cringe.

Something you don’t know about Austen:

Dr. A: Why did Austen have to die so young?

Something others might not know about Austen:

Dr. M: The first novels published under her name—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion—appeared after her death and included a biographical notice from her brother Henry Austen proclaiming her authorship and offering a short tribute to her life.

Best movie version of an Austen book:

Dr. A: BBC’s Pride and Prejudice

Dr. M: If I am permitted to call it a movie, the 1995 BBC mini-series with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth—almost perfectly cast and played. My husband and I watched it every summer for at least a half-dozen years after it came out.

Why are Austen’s novels still so popular 200 years later?

Dr. A: Austen’s novels are told by a witty, perceptive, engaging narrator who is interested in human nature. She creates characters with whom readers connect, particularly young and intelligent women. She values thought and perceptiveness in her characters. She avoids (one might say militantly) sentimentality, cheap-think, manipulative plotting. Austen is a great writer.

Dr. M: They offer an ever-popular romance plot (Pride and Prejudice is structured around a perfectly distributed series of romantic advances and reversals), some of the most deliciously pointed satire in English, and are so beautifully written that they reward leisurely and repeated re-reading.

If you invited Jane Austen to tea, which other writers would you include?

Dr. A: After much thought, I choose for their wit, love for the variety of human nature, disdain for the pretentious, and sense of the significance of each person, Henry Fielding, C. S. Lewis, and Dorothy Leigh Sayers.

Dr. M: Jonathan Swift, Christopher Hitchens, Judith Martin (Miss Manners), Philip Roth, Zadie Smith

As G.G. Smith was making remarks to thank Loyola University Maryland for the opportunity to serve as head men’s basketball coach, his phone rang.

It was his father, Tubby Smith, the head men’s basketball coach for Texas Tech University.

His son took the call.

“Dad, what’s up?” he said into the phone. “I got the job at Loyola.”

And indeed he has. When Head Coach Jimmy Patsos announced April 3 that he had accepted the coaching job at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., Smith knew he wanted the job with the Greyhounds.

After all, after six seasons as an assistant coach for Loyola, he knows the program, and he knows where he would like to take it.
“We want to be the premier college basketball team in this area. That’s my vision,” he said
at the news conference announcing his
appointment.

Smith, 36, is the 20th head coach in Loyola history and takes the reins of a program that won 62 games over the last three seasons and reached the postseason in each of the last two.

“It is an honor to be asked to continue building on what Loyola men’s basketball has accomplished,” Smith said. “Loyola is a wonderful school that has been a great home for the last six years, and I look forward to leading the program going forward.”

As a member of the Loyola coaching staff, Smith helped guide the Greyhounds to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994 when Loyola won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title in 2012.

“I want to do everything we can to sustain the success we’ve had the last couple years,” Smith said. “There’s no reason we can’t go into this league with a splash and make a name for ourselves in the Patriot League.”

Smith, who was born in Leonardtown, Md., was a three-year starter at guard at the University of Georgia where he earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education. He received his master’s degree in education in sports management from the University of Kentucky in 2002.

“G.G. is the right person to lead our men’s basketball program as Loyola transitions to the Patriot League next season,” said Jim Paquette, assistant vice president and director of athletics. “His knowledge of basketball, care for our student-athletes and desire to develop them as leaders has been evident in his time at Loyola, and we are excited that G.G. will build on the success Loyola basketball has achieved in recent years.”

Prior to joining the staff at Loyola for the 2007-2008 season, Smith was an assistant at Johns Hopkins University in 2006-2007, after spending two seasons, 2004-2006, at Armstrong Atlantic State University. From 2002-2003 he was an assistant at Tennessee Tech University.

It could have been Coach Vincent Colimore’s style and approach to the sport.

It might have been the team’s mix of class years and the fact that they had diverse tennis training, coming from both public and Catholic high schools in Baltimore.

Maybe it was just the perfect blend of talent and luck.

Regardless of the reasons why the 1963 tennis team pulled off a rare undefeated season, the players look back on those days when they competed and supported one another with pleasure and pride.

“There was that blend of tennis talent as well as intellectual talent,” said Robert Malko, Ph.D., ’66. “And the intellectual talent helped win some tennis matches. It wasn’t just the sports skill. It was the mind ability, the intellectual ability to work your way through different matches.”

The team’s undefeated season culminated in being named the Mason-Dixon Conference Champion team. Malko played alongside teammates Louis Albert, Ph.D., ’64, Alex Cummings, ’64, Denny Keating, ’65, Gary Klein, ’66, Dan Michaelis, ’63, Jim Mohler, ’63, Barry Tillman, ’63, and Russell Tontz, ’65. Colimore, the coach, also taught foreign languages and educational psychology at Loyola.

Together Again

Fifty years after that series of victories, five of the eight teammates returned to the Evergreen campus with their wives for a reunion on April 20.

“They had five matches that they won 5-4,” said current Head Tennis Coach Rick McClure. “When you win that many 5-4 matches, a lot of things have to be in your favor.”

Using wooden rackets as they played on courts that were alongside Cold Spring Lane, the players recall competing before a sparse audience.

“The players really respected each other, and in the close matches, different people on the team stepped up to win. It wasn’t just relying on three or four people to win all the time. The 15-and-0 was a team thing,” said Malko, now a professor of finance in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Tontz, a dentist, father of 10, and grandfather of five who lives in San Diego, Calif., recalls that at one point then-president of Loyola, Rev. Joseph Sellinger, S.J., asked him for tennis lessons.

“We used to play indoors. We got to be pretty good friends,” Tontz said. “He was a wonderful man. He’s a saint.”

Working for Wins

Even though it was an undefeated season, the wins didn’t always come easily, said Albert, now president of Pima Community College’s West Campus in Tucson, Ariz.

“I remember that the championship match toward the end of the season we played Hampden-Sydney. As I recall, it was a team we lost to most of the years,” he said. “We won 5-4. We just squeaked by.”

As a Jewish member of a mainly Catholic team, Albert recalled watching his teammates make the sign of the cross and pray before matches. And he remembered one team trip to play Fordham. They traveled to New York City on a Friday to be there for a Saturday match, and they started talking about dinner.

“It was during Lent, and we wanted to go to Mama Leone’s,” Albert said. “We fanned out across the campus to find a priest to give us the dispensation. You’re talking to the guy that found the priest. I said, ‘It’s not for me, Father. It’s for the other guys.’ And I brought it back to them.”

Mohler, who was team captain, described Coach Colimore as low-key. “He didn’t do many changes, just put you out there,” said Mohler, who lives in Catonsville, Md.

After matches Mohler and Michaelis carpooled back to Catonsville. On the way home they would celebrate a win by stopping for fried hard crabs at the Franklintown Inn off of Cooks Lane near Security Boulevard. During 1963 they ate quite a few crabs.

Teammate Bonding

In his role as a college president, Albert appreciates the value of athletic programs.

“There’s something wonderful about intercollegiate sports, and the bonding that takes place,” said Albert, who cheers on the tennis players at Pima Community College. “I’m one of the people behind the fence here.”