August 30, 2024
Class of 2028 welcomed as new academic year begins at Providence College
The 1,231 students in the Class of 2028 arrived on campus on Thursday, August 29, to begin the 2024-2025 academic year.
The class is the largest in college history, surpassing the Class of 2027, which had 1,200 students.
Students come from 33 states, the District of Columbia, and nine countries – Argentina, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. There are 679 women and 552 men. Fourteen percent — 139 students — are first-generation college students, the highest number in seven years. Fifteen percent are students of color.
There are 122 students in the Honors Program and 92 student-athletes. Sixteen percent of the students have not selected a major. Among those who have, the most popular are finance, marketing, management, psychology, nursing, health sciences, biology, and political science.
Volunteers from student organizations assisted with the move into the first-year residence halls — Aquinas, Meagher, McDermott, McVinney, and Raymond. Families were welcomed with refreshments provided by the Office of Alumni Relations.
The Welcome Mass for New Families took place at 3 p.m. in Peterson Recreation Center and was celebrated by College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G. Students were invited to receive a graduation tassel and a holy card of St. Dominic in prayer.
“The first thing and the last thing you will do together as a class on campus is gather to celebrate Mass,” Father Sicard said. “This is who we are.”
In the reading from John’s gospel, the risen Jesus breathed upon his disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
“The Holy Spirit is the breath and life of God. Sometimes a strong wind, sometimes gentle — you cannot see it, but you can feel it and see what it moves,” Father Sicard said. “The spirit has been at work in you. God has called you to the college name for him because he has a plan for you, and he will be with you every step of the way.”
Lectors for the Mass were Colin Formisano ’26, Joseph Mazzucca ’25, and Molly Werner ’27. Altar servers were Nathan Faria ’26, Logan Kelly ’27, and Dennis O’Brien ’25. Student members of the St. Cecilia and St. Dominic ensembles and Liturgical Choir sang hymns and the Providence College Alma Mater.
Following the Mass, students said farewell to their families and assembled on Hendricken Field for a class portrait before beginning several days of orientation programming.
Sophomores, juniors, and seniors returned to campus on Sunday, September 1, in time for the start of classes on Monday, September 2.
Watch the Mass of Welcome
Watch as classes begin
Human rights scholar speaks at Academic Convocation
The Class of 2028, transfer students, and new faculty members were formally welcomed during Academic Convocation on Wednesday, September 4, in Peterson Recreation Center. The keynote speaker was Paolo G. Carozza, J.D., a professor of law and of political science at the University of Notre Dame and the father of Matteo Carozza ’26.
As a scholar who is among the world’s most accomplished practitioners of international human rights law, Carozza is often sought after as an expert to address challenges presented by contemporary technologies, including social media, artificial intelligence, and the algorithm of society.
“In our time of turmoil, you are more aware than I am with the direct experience of your lives and the tremendous impact that communication technologies have on us,” Carozza told students. “They shape our desires, politics, aesthetics, personal relationships; they influence what we pay attention to and therefore what we neglect. In some ways, they open broad and unprecedented new horizons of connection and information and human creativity.”
Carozza cited the example of Bartolomé de Las Casas, O.P., a 16th century entrepreneur in the Spanish empire, who, when confronted by the suffering of indigenous peoples, became a Dominican friar, scholar, and advocate for human rights.
Carozza said three examples from Las Casas’ life are relevant as an antidote to the pathologies of “virtually mediated reality:”
Openness to a genuine human encounter with humanity that transcends the differences of identity and particularity. “The measure of his impact was not in likes and followers and the metrics of an influencer, but in loving self-sacrifice,” Carozza reflected.
Commitment to engaging his antagonists with open and reasonable dialogue. “He did not merely condemn and cancel … he traveled across the Atlantic to participate in a series of highly public debates,” Carozza said. “These famous debates were the opposite of what we see all too often in the tech-fueled volleys of online vitriol and public shaming over controversial issues today.”
Revolutionary changes in thinking about justice, sovereignty, cultural difference, human rights that he helped give birth to. “They were not achieved by forgetting the past and trying to refashion the future just by sketching out his imagined image of a brave New World on a blank page. Our online ecosystem encourages us to glorify the instant of the new at the expense of memory, at the expense of a serious wrestling with the past.”
A thread about doctors was woven throughout the ceremony. Licia Carlson, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award, spoke about courage — the courage the students displayed in enduring a pandemic during high school, to moving off to college, and to making new friends, as well as the importance of recognizing courage in others. Carlson also drew laughter when she told students that when she completed her Ph.D., her “brutally honest” grandmother congratulated her on becoming “the less courageous kind of doctor.”
Kayla Fordyce ’25, president of Student Congress, who aspires to attend medical school, referenced the Dr. Seuss book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go. “This is your mountain,” Fordyce told the Class of 2028. “We’re so excited to see how far you climb.”
College President Father Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P., ’78, ’82G and Sylvia Maxfield, Ph.D., interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, welcomed students and new faculty. PC Symphonic Winds and Liturgical Choir performed. Liliana Massa ’25 of Waltham, Massachusetts, sang the national anthem, and Victoria Cannon ’25 of East Granby, Connecticut, sang the Providence College Alma Mater.
At the conclusion, Father Sicard blessed pins featuring the seal of Providence College for new students and faculty.
— Martha Young
Watch Academic Convocation
Thirty-one new professors join faculty
Thirty-one new tenure-track and instructional professors joined the faculty for the new academic year. They will be formally welcomed, along with full-time visiting and adjunct professors, at the Fall Faculty Dinner on following Academic Convocation Wednesday, September 4.
New faculty include:
- Daniel Banini, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science
- Roxanne Banker, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology
- James Beaver, Ph.D., assistant instructional professor of English
- Priscilla Charrat Nelson, Ph.D., assistant professor of French
- Luz C. Colpa, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and classics
- Jessica A. Cunningham, M.S., assistant professor, accountancy
- Abigail Dym, Ph.D., assistant professor of public and community service studies
- Hannah E. Gavin, Ph.D., assistant professor of public and community service studies
- Jordyn L. Hagar, MSW, assistant professor of social work
- Michael J. Illuzzi, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science
- Nina Kossler, MFA, assistant professor of dance
- Travis Lacy, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology
- Deniz Lasater, Ph.D., assistant instructional professor of English
- Olga Limnios, Ph.D., assistant instructional professor of English
- Jennifer Livesley, MSN ’10, assistant clinical professor of nursing
- Nicolas Lorgnier, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing
- Rachel Lyons, Ph.D., assistant professor of nursing
- Shailaja Mallick, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science
- Paul Melley, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology
- Duygu Pamukcu, Ph.D., assistant professor of finance
- Robert Reilly, MBA ’86, assistant professor of practice in finance
- Christopher Sauder, Ph.D., assistant instructional professor of philosophy
- Rev. John T. Sica, O.P., Ph.D. ’10, assistant professor of philosophy
- Raymond Simons, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics
- John Stamatis, M.S., assistant professor of practice in marketing
- Jo-Ann Thomas, Ed.D., assistant instructional professor of music
- Rev. Gabriel Torretta, O.P., Ph.D., assistant professor of theology
- Martha L. Troncoza, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing
- Nilufer Turan Dural, Ph.D., assistant professor of nursing
- lexi welch, MFA, assistant professor of art
- Guolin Yi, Ph.D., assistant professor of history
Francesca A. Murphy, Ph.D., professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, is the Rev. Robert J. Randall Chair in Christian Culture for 2024-2025.
Starting the year with service
More than 200 students in the Class of 2028 chose to begin the academic year early by joining the three pre-orientation programs, Urban Action, FaithWorks, and Transitions.
Urban Action, a tradition since 1991, drew 83 first-year students for three days of service in the community. Assisted by 21 student leaders and three student coordinators, they prepared classrooms at the Robert F. Kennedy School and St. Augustine School in Providence and helped clean litter from Pleasant Valley Parkway and Smith Street.
FaithWorks, designed to introduce students to service in the Diocese of Providence, drew 66 first-year students supervised by 20 student leaders. Among the sites visited were Little Sisters of the Poor, St. Pius School, St. Augustine School, Mother of Life Center, Emmanuel House, St. Edward’s Food and Wellness, the Smith Hill Early Learning Center, and My Brother’s Keeper, located in Massachusetts.
Transitions is a program for students of color and first-generation students. Fifty-four first-year students, led by 16 older students known as dream coaches, learned about the college and the community through tours, community service, and networking.
Campus Ministry supported Providence Parks on Wednesday, August 28, with a cleanup of Memorial Park and the area surrounding the Amtrak station in Providence.
Embrace the future of Providence College by supporting the incoming Class of 2028. Your gift of any size through The Fund for Providence College nurtures their potential, fosters their ambitions, and welcomes them into the Friar community.
