Dear Friend,

Just a few short weeks ago, on May 12 and 13, we marked the College’s 132nd Commencement, and celebrated our 1,493 new alumni who are carrying the Humanics philosophy out into the world. We celebrated this occasion with some very special individuals, including Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Anna Quindlen and businessman and chair of our Board of Trustees Greg Toczydlowski, both recipients of the Honorary Doctor of Humanics degree. 

We also celebrated with recipients of this year’s Humanics Achievement Award, 13-year-old Luke Bradley of South Hadley, Mass., and his family. Luke has been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia since 2011. He was drafted by the Springfield College football team as an honorary member through Team IMPACT, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the quality of life of children who face life-threatening illnesses.

A few days after commencement, members of the faculty and staff of Springfield College celebrated the year with an employee recognition ceremony followed by a picnic on the beautiful Naismith Green. We celebrated those with milestone years of service, including chemistry Professor Frank Torre who joined Springfield College from Bell Laboratories a short 45 years ago. I even celebrated my own five-year anniversary. At that time, we also recognized our staff members who were recipients of undergraduate and graduate degrees from Springfield College. 

All of our graduates, and the extraordinary individuals who were honored, give me great hope for our future as a society.

The many students, and members of the faculty and staff, who participated in Alternative Spring Break opportunities in our country and around the world also give me great hope. I was fortunate to visit author and last year’s Arts and Humanities Speaker Mitch Albom’s Have Faith Haiti Mission, where our students engaged and interacted with the youth who live there. Our students and Mitch give me hope. They are caring for the future one person at a time. Read about our trip in Marty Dobrow’s article.

And, then, there is Heather Martin, whom you will also read about in these pages. Heather has taken her Springfield College education and personal life experiences and put them together to help individuals with addictive illness.

Read also about our concussion experts. Our athletic training faculty members provide a top-notch education to future athletic trainers who will care for those injured and dealing with traumatic brain injury. These athletic trainers are helping to care for the athletes of today and of the future.

Springfield College is creating the future. From graduating future leaders to caring for the ill and injured, and from strategic visioning efforts to creating a purposeful campus master plan, we are devoting our time, our resources, and our compassion to building the future.

I want to call special attention to that amazing moment in Virginia, featured on the cover of this issue, when our men’s basketball team, under the instruction of head coach Charlie Brock, made it to the national stage for the very first time in program history. The Pride pushed eventual NCAA Division III champions Nebraska Wesleyan all the way to overtime before losing in the semifinals. We could not be more proud for them. 

It has been nothing short of an amazing spring here at Springfield College.