2019-2020 PRESIDENT’S REPORT HELPING THEM Donors’ generosity helps those affected most RISE by COVID-19 ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2019 – 2020 CONTENTS President Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D. Vice President for PRESIDENT’S Marketing and Communications MESSAGE Jessica McAleer Decatur A letter of thanks from St. Joseph’s President Donald Editorial Director R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D. Brian Harmon 2 Art Director Stephanie Kearney Senior Graphic Designers GETTING TO KNOW Dina Vigorito A TRUSTEE Kerri Ball S. Helen Kearney ’67, C.S.J., Ph.D., a lifelong learner and Feature Writers dedicated teacher. Amanda Bernocco 3 Samantha Cheyenne Miller ’13 Graphic Designer Mike McDonnell Contributing Editor MINI CAMPAIGNS Claudia Mirzaali UPDATE Mini campaigns for Production Manager endowed scholarships and Robert Gregson 9 facilities improvement have Contributing Photographers raised nearly $2.7 million. Sean Colgan Valerie Esposito-Saadat Noa Grayevsky Kristy Leibowitz Peter Lin YEAR IN GENEROSITY Michael Macioce Highlighting some of the Jörg Meyer many ways in which our Benny Migs College community gave Andrea Stadler 10 during the 2019-2020 SJC students and alumni contributed fi scal year. photos to this report. FOR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS AND CONCERNS ... SUPPORTING FACTS AND FIGURES If you have questions regarding your listing, A breakdown of our donors’ contact Assistant Vice President for Advancement continued generosity. Operations Stephanie Dumaine at 718.940.5573 or [email protected]. If your name is not listed, 13 it could be because you made your gift after our fi scal year ended. Annual giving closes on June 30. Gifts after that date will be recognized in next year’s President’s Report. If you have additional questions, please call us. It is very important to recognize and include the names of all of our DONOR LISTINGS generous donors. DONATE ONLINE 14 giving.sjcny.edu 2 ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE • SJCNY.EDU FEATURE HELPING 4 THEM RISE SJC students affected most by the pandemic express gratitude for two SJC student emergency funds. PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2019-2020 1 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear friends, I am very happy to provide you with the 2019-2020 President’s Report for St. Joseph’s College. The document reveals the wonderful support we have enjoyed over the past year. We have also included some examples of students who have been directly impacted by your generosity, and who are realizing their educational dreams despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic. St. Joseph’s emphasizes traditional core values, which provide our students with the confi dence and ability to overcome obstacles and accomplish great things, even in times of adversity. These young people have triumphed during incredibly diffi cult times, and their success is a refl ection on the wonderful faculty and staff, and indeed all, who have supported them during their time with us. It’s clear that our alumni and friends want to keep the transformational character of St. Joseph’s alive. For that, the entire community of St. Joseph’s College is truly grateful. Let us move ahead with a sense of joy and purpose toward a bright future! Sincerely, Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D. President, St. Joseph’s College 2 ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE • SJCNY.EDU Getting to Know a Trustee S. HELEN KEARNEY ’67, C.S.J., PH.D. S. Helen Kearney, C.S.J., Ph.D., describes herself as a lifelong learner. A 1967 graduate of St. Joseph’s College, S. Helen has served in many roles at the College, from teaching preschoolers in the Dillon Center and teaching classes in the child study program, to directing the Dillon Center and eventually joining the Board of Trustees in 2011. After 42 years of teaching at the College, she stepped down, in order to serve as president of the Sisters of St. Joseph congregation in Brentwood, a title she still holds today. Very familiar with the College’s mission of developing the student as a whole, S. Helen recognizes the importance of St. Joseph’s staying true to its fi ve pillars: integrity, intellectual rigor, spiritual depth, service and social responsibility. And as someone who was personally affected by COVID-19, losing her brother Joseph Donald Kearney, 93, to the virus the day after Easter, S. Helen understands the signifi cance of St. Joseph’s College embodying its pillars, while being able to help students who have been impacted by the pandemic. Did You Know... GREW UP IN: Belle Harbor, Queens Describe your experience as a student at NOW RESIDES IN: Jamaica, Queens St. Joseph’s College. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: St. Francis de Sales I loved every minute of it. I found the sense of community was very in Belle Harbor obvious, even as a freshman. There were very few Friday nights when there wasn’t something going on. You really found your YEARS IN THE C.S.J.: 53 lifelong friends at St. Joseph’s College. As a student, there was never FAVORITE INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: “All a thought in my head that I couldn’t go on to graduate school. St. Joseph’s made that possible. shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” – Julian of Norwich Please talk about the importance placed on education CURRENTLY READING: “White Fragility: in your upbringing and what inspired you to pursue Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk higher education. About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo Education was important in my family. My parents did not have higher-level education, so it was certainly a desire that we — I FAVORITE PART OF HER JOB: “I love had two older brothers and myself — would go to college and be relating to the people.” prepared for a profession that would really empower us and make us HER DREAM JOB GROWING UP: “I always feel fulfi lled. I did grow up with an aunt who lived at home with us, a wanted to be a teacher.” single woman who was a teacher, so I think that had an infl uence on my desire to pursue teaching. SJC FACULTY MEMBER WHO MOST IMPACTED HER LIFE: “S. Miriam Honora What makes you most proud of St. Joseph’s College? Corr. She was a very, very strong infl uence. To just see how the College really adapts to the changes in society, to She always had a very calm, sane and the needs of students, to the changes in the student population, and wise approach to whatever students were adapts even in terms of offerings... When I was in college, the majors struggling with.” were fairly limited. Now, there’s been an expansion of majors and fi elds students can engage in, they’re chosen very carefully because FAVORITE CAMPUS HANGOUT: “I loved there’s a need in our society. I think that dynamic of always adapting going to the second fl oor of Lorenzo Hall, to the needs of students, that’s a real life-giving, energizing force in which used to be the library, and sitting the College. in a window seat amidst a stack of books, reading.” Why is it important for the College to help, to the best of its ability, students impacted by COVID-19? A HOBBY THAT WOULD SURPRISE The needs of students, certainly academic but also their personal PEOPLE: “I was a runner to keep healthy, and spiritual development, have always been a focus of the College. and it led to my completing the New York It’s the most consistent aspect of living the mission at this moment, City Marathon in 1990.” and that, to me, is a priority for the College. PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2019-2020 3 HELPING THEM RISE Donors’ generosity assists those affected most by COVID-19 4 ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE • SJCNY.EDU BY BRIAN HARMON Single mothers who lost their jobs. Young adults who suddenly needed to take care of sick parents. And moms, dads, brothers and sisters forced to choose between technology needs for school and putting food on the table for their families. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the lives of thousands of the pandemic,” said Flavio Bollag, the College’s executive St. Joseph’s College students. But the pandemic has been director of development. “We really saw donors meet the particularly cruel to hundreds of students due to serious challenges brought on by COVID-19 and give generously illness and lost wages. so that students could stay in school, continue their studies and thrive despite a most unusual year.” With this in mind, the College’s Offi ce of Institutional Advancement quickly established the COVID-19 Student Funds from the COVID-19 Student Emergency Emergency Assistance Fund in March 2020 and by the Assistance Fund provide students with fi nancial end of June had inspired 215 donors to contribute nearly assistance for food and housing insecurity, medical $62,000 to help those impacted the most by the pandemic. costs, transportation needs, and technological access to online learning, including equipment purchases. The SJC Coupled with the more than $55,000 received from 170 Emergency Fund delivers tuition assistance for enrolled donors to the existing SJC Emergency Fund, St. Joseph’s students having diffi culty progressing in their studies was able to help hundreds of students — enrolled at SJC because of a change in fi nancial circumstances for them Brooklyn, SJC Long Island and SJC Online — pay their or their family. bills at home and stay on track with their studies. Here are some of the compelling stories of students who “This year more than ever, our alumni and donors came received funding from one or both of the funds, to help to us and asked how they could help students impacted by them offset the impact of the coronavirus on their lives: KATHERINE RIVAS SJC Long Island WHEN CLASSES WENT REMOTE IN MARCH Rivas is also extremely thankful AND KATHERINE RIVAS, A SINGLE MOTHER OF for the donors who made a kindergartener, was temporarily laid off from her job the COVID-19 Emergency as a daycare teacher, she was left without the resources Assistance Fund possible.