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In an address to more than 1,700 members of Loyola University Maryland's Class of 2012, Rev. Greg Boyle, S.J., founder and chief executive officer of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in the country, encouraged the graduates to speak for the powerless, the voiceless, and those whose dignity has been denied.

"Fortunately for you, Loyola has not prepared you for the real world," said Fr. Boyle, who received a doctor of humane letters degree, honoris causa, from Loyola at the Exercises. "It has asked you to challenge it, to be less concerned with the bottom line and more concerned with those who line the bottom."

In unscripted remarks that drew both laughter and then tears from his listeners, Fr. Boyle shared anecdotes about the former gang members he has befriended through his work—including two teens from rival gangs who now exchange good-natured barbs by text message. "They used to shoot bullets at each other. Now they shoot text messages. There's a word for that. It's kinship."

Mentioning that he buried his first teen in 1988 and his 182nd on Tuesday, Fr. Boyle asked the members of the Class of 2012 to bridge the gap between service providers and service recipients.

Building on a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., Fr. Boyle told the graduates, "So Loyola is not the place you come to. It's the place you go from determined to create the community of kinship that God will recognize."

University President Brian F. Linnane, S.J., encouraged the new graduates to enter conversations with both conviction and open minds.

“There are many ways to serve the common good, and your commitment to service and justice throughout your years at Loyola—a commitment I sincerely hope you will continue to uphold as you begin your careers, or, for our graduate students, accept new positions of leadership within your fields—provides compelling evidence that you already embrace your responsibility to the society in which we live,” he said. “But there are many other ways of living this principle—including your willingness to set aside differences, both superficial and profound, and work with others to find the solutions that have thus far eluded us, and to exemplify for the leaders of our nation and the world how to do the same.”

Learn more about Fr. Boyle.

The 160th Commencement Exercises were held on May 19 at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore.

Other honors presented during the Exercises included:

• The President’s Medal (presented to those who have demonstrated notable support of Loyola or the greater community): Rev. John M. Dennis, S.J., director, Loyola Campus Ministry.
• Newman Medal (presented to those who have made outstanding contributions to Catholic education): Mary Pat Seurkamp, Ph.D., president, Notre Dame of Maryland University.
• The Milch Award (recognizing superior contributions and achievement by an organization involved in service): St. Ignatius Loyola Academy in Baltimore, Md.

Image Caption: Fr. Linnane (center) with Commencement honorees (L-R): St. Ignatius Loyola Academy representative, Rev. John M. Dennis, Mary Pat Seurkamp, and Rev. Greg Boyle, S.J.

Once again answering the call of neighbors who expressed a need for access to fresh, healthy food, Loyola University Maryland and the York Road Partnership will host the second annual Govanstowne Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. between June 6 and Aug. 8, 2012. The market will be located in the parking lot of Loyola’s Transportation and Public Safety complex at 5104 York Rd.

The market will feature high-quality baked goods, dairy products, meat, eggs, produce, and more from an expanded list of Baltimore-area vendors that includes the Ferguson Family Farm, Jack and Zach Food, and Dangerously Delicious Pies. Cash, credit and debit cards ($5 increments), EBT/Independence Cards ($1 increments), WIC, SFMNP, and FVC benefits will all be accepted as payment. In addition to foods for sale, guests will be able to pick up recipe cards that use ingredients found at the market. There will also be a featured vendor each week and a special event on the first Wednesday of each month.

Loyola students, faculty, and staff worked with Govans community members to create and organize the farmers’ market as a project of Loyola’s York Road Initiative, a collaborative effort to develop a plan to improve the quality of life for people living, working, and learning in the area. During “Loyola is Listening,” members of the community identified the creation of a farmers’ market as a number-one priority and an opportunity to partner with Loyola. Those same residents also recognized the need for a major grocery store in Govans, and the farmers’ market will have the added benefit of generating data that may be used to recruit a grocery store to the area.

More information about this year’s farmers’ market is available on the Govanstowne Farmers’ Market website. Questions from customers, vendors, and prospective vendors should be directed to Jonathan Hourcade, 410-617-5039, jhourcade@loyola.edu.

Loyola University Maryland students Andrew Gorbaty, ’15, and Allison Rose, ’15, have been awarded 2012 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) in engineering at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md.

The SURF program is designed to provide hands-on research experience to promising undergraduates. More than 120 participants from across the country will each work with a mentor to conduct analysis and experiments related to a topic of importance to NIST.

Both Gorbaty, of Annapolis, Md., and Rose, of Westfield, N.J., will be assigned to the NIST engineering lab, where the wide range of research opportunities includes nanotechnology, measuring the performance of full-scale building structures, and determining the economic benefit of building choices. Gorbaty, an engineering major with a concentration in computer engineering, will be writing Java for an analysis occurring in the lab. Rose, a mathematics and computer science double major, will study advanced laser sensors.

“The summer research experience available to students in the sciences is essential to going beyond the classroom to a more open environment where students are answering questions that don’t have fixed answers, working in real environments, and getting a sense of what their career path really involves,” said Roger Eastman, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the computer science department at Loyola. “I’m so proud of Andrew and Allison. They are a testament to Loyola’s ability to prepare and position students for the SURF program and other elite, competitive fellowships in the science-rich Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region.”

Eastman and Mili Shah, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at Loyola, are guest researchers at NIST and will join another NIST researcher to mentor Rose. Gorbaty will be mentored by other researchers at NIST for his project.

The science and technology disciplines are key to the Jesuit education Loyola offers its students. In September 2011, Loyola celebrated the completion of the 15,000-square-foot Donnelly Science Center expansion, which houses class laboratory spaces, research laboratories, offices, a conference room for the natural sciences, storage, a vivarium, a microscopy center, and a robotics laboratory. Loyola is currently collaborating with a group of universities under a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a mentoring network for women professors in the sciences at predominantly undergraduate institutions. Each summer, Loyola's Hauber Fellowship provides a stipend and housing to talented undergraduate students who wish to pursue independent research in the sciences under the supervision of a faculty member.

In recent years, Loyola students have won fellowships for other projects at NIST, as well as NASA and the National Security Agency.

Loyola will serve as host for the Jesuit Collaborative’s 2012 Conference on Ignatian Spirituality: Finding God in Unsettled Times. The conference, which will be held June 29 – July 1, will feature keynotes and workshops in both English and Spanish. Presenters include Rev. Timothy Brown, S.J., special assistant for mission integration, as well as speakers from the University of Scranton, Georgetown University, the Ignatian Spirituality Project, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and many other universities and organizations.

Learn more and register>>

Loyola will serve as host for the Jesuit Collaborative’s 2012 Conference on Ignatian Spirituality: Finding God in Unsettled Times. The conference, which will be held June 29 – July 1, will feature keynotes and workshops in both English and Spanish. Presenters include Rev. Timothy Brown, S.J., special assistant for mission integration, as well as speakers from the University of Scranton, Georgetown University, the Ignatian Spirituality Project, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and many other universities and organizations.

Learn more and register>>

Loyola will serve as host for the Jesuit Collaborative’s 2012 Conference on Ignatian Spirituality: Finding God in Unsettled Times. The conference, which will be held June 29 – July 1, will feature keynotes and workshops in both English and Spanish. Presenters include Rev. Timothy Brown, S.J., special assistant for mission integration, as well as speakers from the University of Scranton, Georgetown University, the Ignatian Spirituality Project, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and many other universities and organizations.

 Learn more and register>>

Reunite with friends at Loyola for a weekend of fun and memories on the Evergreen Campus! Join us for a celebratory weekend including an alumni and family picnic, individual class year events, live entertainment, Reunion Mass, and farewell brunch.

For more information visit the website>>