Dear Parents:

As I write, leaves are appearing on our trees and flowers are blooming all across the campus, which is alive with all of the excitement of spring. I have always enjoyed springtime on campus. Each year, as spring arrives, I have the chance to reflect on the experiences and achievements of the class preparing to graduate—individuals I’ve had the privilege to watch grow over their four years at Loyola. This newsletter captures just a few of the many wonderful things in which our students have participated in recent months, from athletic achievements and the opening of our new track facility to wide-ranging service-learning opportunities. This issue also announces the names of students elected to the Student Government Association for next year and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Gamma Sigma and other honor societies.

Of course, it is impossible for me to reflect on this spring semester without acknowledging the enormous tragedy our community experienced with the death of Stephanie Parente, ’11, and her family, which occurred just as we were completing this issue of With Parents. We’ve established a special Web page honoring Stephanie’s memory, and I encourage you to read through it and add your own thoughts and prayers.

In closing, please accept my best wishes for a safe and rewarding summer of 2009, and for our graduating seniors and their parents, the warmest of congratulations on this important milestone.

Sincerely,
Susan Donovan, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Development

Service-learning shapes
student experiences

Just weeks into her first semester, Christine Schaad, ’09, called her mother and told her she was driving a Loyola van downtown. She was on her way to volunteer as an English as a Second Language teacher for the service-learning component of her Spanish 201 class.

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