“The beauty of a backpack is that it can protect and hold things you need and care about. Which makes me think, in many ways, our backpacks are like us. What good is a backpack that doesn’t open? What good is a backpack that adds extra weight and stress? What good is a backpack that only carries itself? No matter its outward appearance, we don’t know what exists inside of them unless they open up and we find out for ourselves.”
Across the country and at BC, both abortion-rights and anti-abortion advocates are processing the Dobbs decision, which overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, establishing that the U.S. Constitution does not recognize a federal right to an abortion. Although not physically together on campus, students, alumni, and professors are grappling with what this decision means for the future of abortion in the United States.
“College is a time to start over and to reinvent yourself if you want. It’s a time to be who you truly are and to make friends with people who you might not have been friends with in high school. As you enter this transition phase in your life, remember that people are shaped by their experiences.”
“Despite missing BC and my BC friends a lot, it can be really hard to stay connected with each other between traveling, working, or other summer activities. Here are some of my favorite easy ways to stay connected with your BC friends while at home for the summer.”
“The process is so frustrating, it’s so draining and frankly it’s horrible,” they said. “…it’s so overwhelming because you have some people tell you, ‘yes, report, speak up’… and then other people telling you, ‘yeah, this is gonna take like months or years potentially to get anywhere with it.’”
Title IX—passed on June 23, 1972—prohibits discrimination based on sex within educational programs or activities that receive federal funding in a mere 37 words:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
“I was living in Brazil, and people were saying, ‘Oh, but my dream is running the Boston Marathon,’” Samary said. “So I had the goal of one time in my life running the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is like the Holy Grail of everyone that runs.”
“The biggest obstacle was mentalizing something that was so far away because I was making choices that would benefit me in the long term,” Pardo said. “So it forced me to become more intentional with my time in the short term for a long-term goal, which is a lesson that I learned that I really liked.”
“I would say I have been a runner without being a runner,” Knous said. “I’ve always been that person on the soccer team that could run for days, and I have enjoyed running my whole life—we’re the family who does 5Ks on major holidays. … I’ve grown up loving it as an outlet, something away from soccer.”
“I’ve wanted to run the marathon as a BC student since I came to BC,” Sandifer said. “Finally getting that experience was really cool. The people I wanted to be out there watching me were there, so it meant a lot.”
