SUMMER 2016 Wild About Harry HONORING Harry Connick Jr. Rose Hanley ’83 makes the world a ‘Little Bit’ better Creativity in FOCUSNew programs prepare students for emerging job markets SUMMER 2016 | loyno a SUMMER 2016 Degrees of Success There’s an evolution under way 10 in film, music, and design. COVER STORY In response to this evolution, Loyola set out to innovate. Now, backed by three new degree programs, the university is cultivating a new breed of creative professionals. b loyno | SUMMER 2016 2 President’s Message 3 Know & Tell 4 News Roundup 6 Creative Class 7 The Loyola Effect 8 Local Flavor 9 On the Scene 20 The Changing of the Bard Dr. Patricia 30 Southern Hospitality: Robért LeBlanc ’00 L. Dorn 7 and Chagas Disease Research 24 Harry Connick Jr. and the Weiner Dog Rose-Colored World that was 16 Rose Hanley ’83 and the Little Bit Foundation Frozen in Time 34 Institutional Advancement 36 Alumni Events 40 Class Notes 41 Alumni Profile: Flor Serna ’15 47 Alumni Profile: Shaawn Ali ’08 50 Alumni Profile: Nia Porter ’15 51 Bon Temps 52 Out in the Streets 53 Do This 54 Community Engagement 55 Then & Now 56 How Loyola Shaped Me SUMMER 2016 | loyno 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE SUMMER 2016 Vol. 26, No. 1 Editor Eve C. Peyton Designers Allee Parker Hollie Garrison Photography Kyle Encar Zack Smith Marianna Massey Ashley Brooke Writers Angelique Dyer ’11 Fritz Esker ’00 Autumn Cafiero Giusti ’00 Will Glass Lauren LaBorde ’09 Sarah Ravits Director of Creative Services Allee Parker Director of Marketing Dear readers, Francie Davenport ’92 THREE TIMES A YEAR WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY to bring a little bit of our wonderful Loyola University New Orleans community into your home through Director of Alumni Engagement Laurie Eichelberger Leiva ’03 LOYNO magazine. A few months ago we sent a survey to our readers to better understand the kind Director of Advancement Records of editorial content that would be most interesting to you. We were delighted with Martha Bodker the responses and received more than 500 in all, which served to help inform the Associate Vice President for Development new format for LOYNO. And we listened. Chris Wiseman ’88 I am thrilled to share with you the new design of LOYNO. Within these pages, you will find inspiring new features, photos, and stories that represent the exciting Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bill Bishop diversity and innovative spirit now permeating our campus. This new look and feel is one that truly reflects the creative, inventive, and entrepreneurial spirit Vice President for that exists here at Loyola and among our talented alumni. With more content, the Marketing + Communications publication is also thicker and contains more stories and photographs. And it will Laura F. Kurzu be printed twice a year now, with the third edition being a special digital issue. University President We have so much to celebrate and so much to be proud of. In 2016, the U.S. The Rev. Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Ph.D. Department of State and the Chronicle of Higher Education named Loyola New Orleans a Top U.S. Fulbright Producer. Honors senior Michael Pashkevich received a national Goldwater Scholarship, the top prize awarded to students studying LOYNO Magazine is published twice per year. science, technology, and mathematics. Our strategic communication students View online at loyno.edu/magazine continued a winning Loyola tradition, coming in second in the national Bateman Send address changes to: Loyola University New Orleans championship. Our students and alumni are putting their social justice education Office of Marketing + Communications 6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 212 into practice all across the world. Our faculty are a constant source of wisdom and New Orleans, LA 70118 ingenuity. And we welcomed the Class of 2016 to the Alumni Association, following Correspondence may be sent to: a commencement address by legendary entertainer Harry Connick Jr., who called Editor, LOYNO Magazine 6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 212 upon our graduates to: “Be kind. Be humble. Be great.” New Orleans, LA 70118 phone (504) 861-5859 As you peruse these pages, we hope that you remember this: As we continue to fax (504) 861-5784 adapt and change at Loyola, our core traditions always remain. Our commitment to email [email protected] excellence endures, and we continue to “find God in all things.” Submissions of stories and photographs are welcome. Loyola University New Orleans has fully supported and fostered in its educational programs, admissions, employment practices, and in the activities it operates the policy of not discriminating on the basis of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex/gender, or The Rev. Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Ph.D. sexual orientation. This policy is in compliance with all applicable University President federal regulations and guidelines. 2 loyno | SUMMER 2016 knowLoyno news worth howling about. &tell Strategic communication students from the School of Mass of Communication won second place in the nation’s premier case study For the second competition for public relations students. This year marked the 15th time year in a row, Loyola students have been named among the nation’s top three finalists in College Raptor the elite national competition. has named us the Loyola has won more “Hidden Gem” Bateman competitions than any university in our state! The other school in the country — having “Hidden Gem” list profiles one university from each state brought home nine national titles to the SMC trophy case and always placed that offers an intimate higher among the top three. education experience. Loyola had Students from the School of Mass The Faith in four Fulbright Communication received 15 coveted scholars in the Future awards this past April from the Society of Professional Journalists, campaign has surpassed a professional organization devoted to producing high-quality, ethical the 2015–2016 journalism. Top marks from the professional organization went to Loyola’s $60 million! multiple-prize-winning student newspaper and the Loyola Student News academic year Service, as well as individual students. This year, The Maroon won SPJ’s Mark and was named among the Top of Excellence for Best All-Around Non Daily Student Newspaper. Loyola U.S. Fulbright Producers for the Student News Service, a news wire service in which student journalists year by the U.S. Department of write articles for professional news organizations including The Times- State’s Bureau of Educational and Picayune/NOLA.com and local NPR-affiliate, WWNO 89.9 FM, won a Mark of Cultural Affairs. The Fulbright Excellence for General News Reporting. Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. In the 2014–2015 academic year, nearly one-third of the 15 undergraduate students In January 2016, Head Coach at Loyola who applied for a Kellie Kennedy Fulbright grant received one, th earning the opportunity to earned her 156 travel and study abroad during win at Loyola, the 2015–2016 year. Recipients giving her the most victories in of Fulbright grants are selected Loyola women’s basketball history. on the basis of academic and Under Kennedy’s direction, the professional achievement, as Wolf Pack has advanced to the well as demonstrated NAIA National Tournament three leadership potential. Telemundo/NBC anchor and mass communication alumna María Celeste Arrarás ’82 broadcast times and tallied 20-plus wins in her nationally acclaimed talk show Al Rojo Vivo! live from Loyola on May 20, 2016. five seasons. SUMMER 2016 | loyno 3 news roundup Spider Scholar A Woman for Others Goldwater Scholarship goes to Loyola student Dr. Cissy Petty awarded JASPA’s highest honor Loyola’s Michael Pashkevich, below, His ongoing honors thesis research Petty joined Loyola in July 2006 far right, of Mandeville, La., has entails assessing the effects of and has “embraced Jesuit higher won a 2016 Goldwater Scholarship. white-tailed deer herbivory on the education as a spokesperson and a Pashkevich is one of two students diversity and species richness of leader, in ways that serve as a model from Louisiana to receive the elite spider communities in a southeast to others,” Fordham University award, which recognizes top students Louisiana bottomland hardwood Senior Vice President of Student who wish to pursue scholarly research forest. Currently, Loyola researchers Affairs Jeffrey Gray said. “Her care in the sciences, mathematics, and are identifying more than 1,000 for the New Orleans community, as engineering and brings recipients preserved spiders, which they will use well as the students, faculty, and one- to two-year scholarships valued to approximate the overall diversity staff across the 28 Jesuit American up to $7,500. The national scholarship and species richness of the regional universities whom she encounters, will support Pashkevich’s ongoing spider communities. embody the very essence of the and future research on arachnids, “As I intend to research tropical Jesuit ideals of ‘cura personalis’ and conducted at Loyola under Assistant spiders for my postgraduate degrees ‘women and men for others.’ Her Professor of Biology Aimee Thomas. and professional career, this project Vice President of Student Affairs work on and off campus showcases “What makes Loyola unique is has enabled me to practice the and Associate Provost Dr. M.L. her dedication to students and that our STEM students have the field and laboratory skills needed to “Cissy” Petty, above, received commitment to her community.” opportunity to engage in scholarly succeed as a population ecologist,” the Reverend Victor R. Yanitelli, She has served as a regional vice research at the undergraduate level,” Pashkevich said. S.J. Award from the Jesuit president, vice president/president- Thomas said. “Our students are “The Goldwater Scholarship Association of Student Personnel elect, president, and past-president actively pursuing research on topics is arguably the most prestigious Administrators, its most prestigious of JASPA.