Founders Week 2012
Each year Dominican College marks Founders Week, a campus-wide commitment to our heritage and celebration of the spirit of a founding member of the Dominican Order or a member of the Order who has made significant contributions to the world. This year, Founders Week will be celebrated in the spirit of a Dominican from our past and a Dominican from our present, Meister Eckhart, O.P., 13th Century Preacher and Ronald Stanley, O.P., 21st Century Preacher.
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 - 1327/8) is recognized as one of the great Christian mystics. He began his career as a Parisian Professor of Theology and took a leading pastoral and organizational role in the Dominican Order.
Eckhart's style is accessible and novel for his time. Through the vivid use of imagery and metaphor, he engages readers to look past the image and into the mystery.
"The depth and universality of Eckhart's teaching has drawn seekers of truth Christian and non-Christian alike. His radical and penetrating insight makes him a natural point of reference for a genuinely ecumenical understanding".
Father Ronald A. Stanley (1940-2012) was Campus Champlain at Dominican College. Father Ron was a mission and service driven man who joyfully shared his love of humanity and nature with all who came within his sphere. He originally became part of this community at Saint Dominic’s Home 40 years ago. Working with distressed children made Father Ron ask himself what he could do to improve their lives. He decided to pursue a master’s degree in social work. His degree led him to work in a summer program set up by Monsignor Matthew Fox that sent middle class people into Harlem to work with families in need. This lead him away from Blauvelt but he never lost his connection.
When he came back to campus as Chaplain in 2007, he brought with him a mission of service to a small and remote village in the mountains of the Dominican Republic. Countless students, faculty, and staff have made the twice yearly trip with him and have stayed with farming families - working along-side their hosts to build much needed infrastructure. Each person who returned from a trip with Father Ron felt changed - that more good had been done for them than they had done for the families of La Cuchilla.
Father Ron was a living example of the Dominican Tradition of good and compassionate people. He was that rare combination of focus on both the internal journey of life as well as the external journey. It mattered deeply to him how he was developing as a person in his community. In an interview from 2007, Father Ron said, “Being service minded - part of that is a deep sense of being part of this wonderful planet, this precious pearl in the immenseness of space. To celebrate the wonderful life we have”.
On Monday, September 24, at 11:15 a.m. in the Hennessy Center, the College presents Living Sustainably with Sr. Joan Gallagher, CSJ. Sr. Joan is an educator who currently serves as the Principal of St. Joseph's High School in Brooklyn, NY. She welcomes the opportunity to awaken a sense of the interconnectedness of all life and encourages an approach to living that is mutually enhancing of all of God's creation.
Sister Joan is active within her congregation working to fulfill the commitment which they have embraced:
"The call to ecological conversion is part of our developing spiritual vision in the 21st century. An understanding of its theological and cosmological underpinning will deepen our awareness of our interconnection with all creation and the unity of all things in God. We will avail ourselves of all opportunities to develop ourselves in this understanding and to act on it."
Sr. Joan serves as a member of the Core Community of Providence House which provides transitional housing for women and children until they are able to acquire housing.
On Tuesday, September 25, at 11:15 a.m. in the Palisades Room, Brandon Hasbrouck, '08, will deliver the Living the Legacy Lecture. Brandon was recognized with the 2012 Badami Outstanding Alumnus Award at commencement. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in History, Magna Cum Laude, and Department Honors from Dominican in 2008. Brandon went on to graduate from Washington and Lee Law School in 2011 in the top 10% of his class. While at Washington and Lee he served as editor-in-chief of the school’s Law Review. He is currently employed by the prestigious law firm of Debevoise and Plimpton in Manhattan.
On Wednesday, September 26, at 2:15 p.m. in the Palisades Room, Tiffany Bermudez and Clifford Lindor will present Walking in the Footsteps of Dominic - a recounting of their trip to Fanjeaux France. This annual international study experience brings together faculty, administrators, students and staff from U.S. Dominican schools in the medieval hilltop town where St. Dominic's vision of an order devoted to seeking and sharing the truth took shape from 1206 to 1216.
On Thursday, September 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the College community will celebrate the Spirit of the Founders’ Awards and annual barbeque. This award is presented in celebration of the heritage of the College and in acknowledgement of the giftedness of Dominican students. All the nominees are men and women of great character, spirit, and action who are recognized by their peers and the College community as embodying the Dominican College Difference.
On Friday, September 28, students will have the opportunity to participate in Preaching in Action. This year, the service project will take place at Harmony Farm in Goshen, NY. Harmony Farm is a community-supported garden that produces delicious tomatoes, lettuce, onions, garlic, peppers, herbs and more. The community garden is an oasis of natural beauty where people work together for the good of the earth. It has a complete irrigation system, green house, tool shed, compost area, and flower garden. The Garden produces an eco-friendly organic crop using compost and manure from a local horse racing track instead of harmful commercial fertilizers. Garden members and volunteers work in the garden. They are a part of a vision to restore the soil, air, and water of the earth through ecologically responsible choices.
On Saturday, September 29, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Sisters of St. Dominic will host the 62nd Annual Fall Festival.
For more information about Founders Week, please call the Office of the Chancellor for External Affairs at 845-848-7804.