Special Events
Come to this page to learn more about upcoming special alumni events
Recent Events:
Saturday, November 8, 2008 - Alumni Diversity Celebration
A celebration of diversity and the achievments of Professors Mary McCall, Paul Giurlanda and Brother Michael Avila including a student panel reflecting on diversity at Saint Mary's today.
About the Honorees
Paul Giurlanda, Ph.D. - Professor of Theology and Religious Studies
Paul Giurlanda was the first member of his immigrant Italian family to attain a college degree. His doctoral dissertation, published in 1985 as /Faith and Knowledge, /sought to shed light on the meaning of faith today. How does belief work in a person's life, for example, in relationship to human love and creativity? His work with GLBT students for many years at Saint Mary's has been a source of joy and friendship for him, but also a site of conflict and struggle over the reconciliation of faith and freedom, flesh and spirit. Any belief, he now feels, that sets up a conflict between human and divine love, between body and soul, between sexuality and spirituality, is a product of fear and ignorance, not wisdom. He is no hurry to depart this plane, but expects to find the larger world that opens up after death to be just as full of passion and creativity and spiritual growth as this one.
Mary McCall, Ph.D. - Professor of Psychology
Mary was born and raised in Oakland, where she still lives and has raised two sons. She grew up in a family of 13 children with a long family history of community activism and involvement. She attended UC Davis as an undergraduate and UC San Francisco for her doctoral degree in Human Development and Aging. Mary started teaching at Saint Mary's in 1988 in the Psychology department.
Since at Saint Mary's, she has been involved with the High Potential Program in a variety of ways, being a mentor to students and serving on the HP Governing Board at times. She was always inspired by Tom Brown's and Maria Hernandez's attention to the needs of students of color and so worked to learn how to be a better advisor and teacher from them. She states that As with much of what she's learned during her time at the College, students are the best teachers and guides to learning sensitivity and inclusivity.
Mary worked on the newly reconstituted Celebrating Diversity Committee, co-chairing with student Arthor Curley and is now on the new College Committee on inclusive Excellence. She worked towards getting the Delphine Intercultural Center established and co-taught the first Jan Term class on Intercultural Dialogue with then-director Lisa McRipley. She also worked on the WASC special report on Diversity issues and have co-led faculty, staff, and student sessions on diveristy issues and buildilng inclusive community.
Brother Michael Avila FSC, Ph.D. - Professor of Religious Studies
Brother Michael has been the head of the Christian Service Jan Term class since 1988. This Jan Term class will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, having been initiated by the Brothers at Saint Mary’s College back in 1984. It was originally begun to provide an experience with persons-at-risk for the young Brother Scholastics studying here at the College. After several years Brother Michael assumed the direction of this program and continued to expand the number and scope of ministry sites served in order to increase the number of college students who could participate in this kind of community service learning.
The annual number of students each year is 50. Each student is personally interviewed by Bro. Michael to ensure his/her interest, and willingness, and suitability to serve the disadvantaged for one month in challenging ministry situations. Brother Michael has, over the past years, been able to develop and expand a large number of ministries willing and eager to accommodate our students for this month. Most of these ministry sites are located in the United States, but the centers have expanded to include Brazil (4th year), Santo Domingo (5 years), Bilbao in Spain, and orphanages in Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Monterey in Mexico. Past classes also traveled to the Philippines where students worked with orphans, street children, and mentally and physically challenged persons and helped build a community center in Isla Verde.
The work that these students do ranges from teacher’s aides with at-risk youth in urban settings (e.g. the San Miguel network of primary and middle schools and the Cristo Rey network with secondary school in the US); children of battered women, Chicago; the Catholic Mission at Fort Yatees, North Dakota Indian Reservation; as well as social work agencies such as We Care Crisis Center in Concord; Aids Alliance in Oakland, and Hope House in New Orleans. In the area of health care, students have served at Childrens’ Hospital in Oakland, St. Rose Emergency room in Hayward, St. Athony’s Free Clinic in San Francisco, La Clinica de la Raza Medical/Dental in Concord, and the HIV Center in San Francisco’s Visitation Valley.
