October 25, 2014
‘Our Moment’ Campaign: Moving Forward
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Our Moment: The Next Century Campaign for Providence College” — the most ambitious fund-raising campaign in the College’s nearly 100-year history — was publicly launched in October and seeks to raise a total of $140 million by 2017, when PC reaches the centennial of its founding. For more, including campaign priorities, examples of the impact of giving, and ways to give, go to: www.providence.edu/our-moment.
The Impact of Opportunity
Medical student Matthew Santos ’14 and Jermoh Kamara ’15, who traveled to India, Ghana, and Liberia this past spring and summer, can attest to the value of support a multi-year effort like Our Moment: The Next Century Campaign for Providence College provides.
MATTHEW SANTOS ’14 was still a sophomore when he was accepted to Brown University’s medical school through the prestigious Early Identification Program, which has linked PC and Brown for 40 years. He was a double major in biology and English — and tied for the highest grade point average in English at commencement.
“At a liberal arts school like Providence College, this sort of broad education in differing disciplines was not only possible but encouraged,” said Santos, who is a legacy student, the son of Dr. Steven Santos ’86.
Santos was president of the Friars Club and a columnist for The Cowl. He joined an Alternative Spring Break trip to the Dominican Republic, traveled with the Liberal Arts Honors Program to Barcelona, and did summer study abroad in Copenhagen.
“I’ve gained a perspective on learning, a perspective on people, a perspective on life, which sounds really large and really broad,” said Santos. “It makes you want to give the same sort of support to other people that you gained while being here.”
JERMOH KAMARA ’15 moved to Worcester, Mass., from Liberia as a child. The recipient of a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship, she is a health policy and management major who spent the spring studying abroad and observing health conditions in southern India.
From India, Kamara joined Dr. Stephen J. Mecca ’64 & ’66G, professor of physics, and five other students in a village in Ghana. They spent a month demonstrating the hand-washing stations, microflush toilet, and solar-powered computer tablet loaded with academic resources that Mecca designed with his students.
Determined to do more, Kamara carried Mecca’s blueprints to her father’s village in Liberia. She hired a mason and an engineer, and spent $200 to build the first micro-flush toilet in a poor neighborhood there.
“Ghana was very different. It was mesmerizing to learn about the people and their culture,” she said. “I believe there’s a reason I’m at PC. It’s way ahead in academics, and it’s given me the opportunity to do so many things I never imagined I could do.”
