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Articles by Abby Riviello
Fellowship of the Spring
SATURDAY, FEB. 28 HOGAN CAMPUS CENTER 5:15 A.M. The orange moon hangs low in the sky as students trudge toward Hogan Campus Center in the dark. Suitcases, duffles and sleeping bags pile up on the stairs and along the sidewalk.
What Poverty Tourism Is — And What It Isn’t
The Office of the College Chaplains has partnered with towns in the Appalachian region for more than 50 years as part of the College’s Spring Break Immersion Program (SBIP), and one distinction the chaplains are quick to make is that the experience should not be confused with poverty tourism.
'That’s What I’m Proud Of, Living in Worcester'
For most college students, “summer vacation” conjures up images of endless sunshine, catching up with hometown friends, maybe a beach or two. Less so concrete city streets, empty mill buildings and dusty archives. But for four members of the College’s Weiss Summer Research Program, it meant exactly that. English majors Alyssa Daly ’28 and Dan Rentel ’27 and history majors Natalie Denon ’28 and Kate Santini ’27 spent their summer assisting professors with research projects centered around Worcester.
Don’t Speak Portuguese? Dance Instead
When a group of students arrived in Recife, Brazil to spend a month studying music, dance, culture and history, most of them were unfamiliar with Brazilian music. A couple were music majors. Some had instrument experience; others had taken a course about Brazil. Only two spoke any Portuguese. It didn’t matter. As they would soon find out, music and dance have a language of their own, and it’s one that transcends translation.
‘Knowing Your Community Matters’
Isabelle Jenkins ’10 and Megan Moran ’11 didn’t know each other during their time on The Hill. Just a year apart, they say they were like ships passing in the night, certain they must have overlapped at an event, Kimball dinner or program. If they did, neither can remember. But now, more than 15 years later, something is finally bringing them together: the same job.
For a Good Time, Call...
It’s 8 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, and nearly the entire Holy Cross Bettertime Pep Band is gathered in the Figge Hall dorm room of co-president Elaine Kelly ’26, who is hosting a watch party for the women’s basketball NCAA Tournament selection show. Earlier that day, the Crusaders won the Patriot League Tournament, earning them an automatic trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Michelle Mondoux Paused at the Middle — And it Changed Everything
The first snowflakes of the season are falling outside O’Neil Hall on a grey Tuesday morning in November, and inside, Associate Professor Michelle Mondoux has been reviewing and practicing sample problems with her cell biology students for nearly an hour. She’s getting ready to switch gears to new material, but first, pauses to recap what they’ve done.
Sophie Sundaram ’26 Spent Her Senior Year Thinking About Home
Sophie Sundaram ’26 had one goal for her senior year: Go out into Worcester and listen to people. She asked them about their families, their cultural traditions, the places they grew up. She learned about the foods they loved, the plants they tended, the scents and sounds that evoked specific memories. She wondered, “What does ‘home’ mean to you?” A studio art major, she then took everything she learned in these conversations and turned them into portraits.
One Spring Semester, Two Full-Time Jobs
Kaitlyn Flanagan ’26 woke up every day at 6 a.m. A senior point guard for Holy Cross’ women’s basketball team, she was preparing for a long day ahead – on her feet, thinking fast and strategic, holding herself and others accountable. But she wasn't headed to the basketball court. Not yet. Instead, she went to Claremont Academy in Worcester, where she taught English to 10th graders, monitored bathroom duty and lesson planned until 2:08 p.m., when school was dismissed.
Madeleine Moino Wants to be a Nurse. So Why is She Winning International Literature Awards?
Madeleine Moino ’26 has no plans to teach English or to pursue a Ph.D. in the field. Her goals: to become a nurse practitioner, and to become proficient enough in Spanish to better communicate with patients. She certainly doesn’t plan to study the works of Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, best known for his controversial novel “Lolita,” any further. Nabokov isn’t even her favorite author.
College Tradition Lives on in an Unexpected Place
Walk into the Smith 303A office of Rev. Keith Maczkiewicz, S.J., and it looks like many others on campus. There’s a desk tucked in the corner, a table with a few chairs pulled up for meetings, a bookshelf stuffed with books and memorabilia. Look a little closer, and you’ll see touches of personalization: a hat from his alma mater, Fairfield University, a “Holla @ the Collar” sign from when Fr. Maczkiewicz would hold informal office hours at Cool Beans and, of course, a crucifix.
Understanding Venice Beyond Its Postcard Image
Most students who signed up for Professors David Karmon and Cristi Rinklin’s inaugural Maymester in Venice had the same desire: “I want to see it before it sinks.” This is a popular tourist narrative, along with visions of glittering blown glass, festival revelers in masquerade, canals haunted by ghosts and mythical sea creatures. The city has a romantic, fantastical aura about it, one that the two visual arts professors wanted to inhabit – and investigate.
“Let’s Talk Trash”
Professor Sarah Luria kicked off summer 2025 with a bold statement to her research students: “We’re gonna pick up a lot of trash, and we’re gonna try to make this sound like research.” The class of 2027’s Bobbie Pitts, Brigit O’Connell and Del Hafizi joined the College’s Weiss Summer Research Program in order to work closely with Luria and Worcester’s Green Island neighborhood, located 2.5 miles away from Mount St. James.
Holy Cross Opens Its New Front Door
Read Time 5 Minutes In January 2025, the College’s new Enrollment Welcome Center opened on the first floor of O’Kane Hall, welcoming potential future Crusaders to Holy Cross. Home to information sessions, events, and the starting and ending point for campus tours, the new space, previously home to the College’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, was a chance to reimagine the campus visit experience for prospective students and their families.
Meet Sophie Sundaram ’26, Emotional Detective
For years, Sophie Sundaram ’26 has tried to answer two questions: What does it mean to really know another person? What does it mean to truly know yourself?
A Liberal Arts Approach to Life
Inside O’Neil 332, a poem hangs on the door of the tissue culture room in Professor Rob Bellin’s laboratory. It’s an ode to incubators and proteins, culture dishes and cleanliness – everything found inside the sterile room where cells are grown and studied. The poem has been there since Elizabeth (Morse) Luoma ’09 penned it in the summer of 2007, when she was working in Bellin’s lab.
“We Just Need to Listen”
Maddie Morton ’25 admits she's done a lot of talking during her years at Holy Cross — and that's a good thing. It’s how the aspiring clinical psychologist spent most of her time while volunteering for a number of service organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) and Working for Worcester. It might not seem like much, but according to Morton, it made a big difference. “Oftentimes, students just go and sit and talk to people,” she said.
Blood? No. Needles? No. Medicine? Yes.
What do two chemistry majors do with their interest in medicine when one has a fear of blood and the other a fear of needles? Sign up for research. Haley Murphy ’25 and Ana Katrina “Chinny” Tiu ’25 both knew they didn’t want to become doctors, but they did want to work in the medical field, thanks to real-world experiences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy realized what she wanted to study when she entered college.
The Cut That Led to a Career
Getting her finger caught in a door hinge as a child left a mark on Khushi Patel ’25 in more ways than one. There’s the scar on her right index finger. But, more importantly, it inspired a deep passion and drive to become a doctor, just like the one who stitched her up. She recalled how vividly she remembers that day – the friendly nurses and doctors, “Snow White” playing on the television. It wasn’t scary or traumatic. It was the day she knew what she wanted to do with her life.
The Four-Hour Phone Call That Changed Everything
The class of 2025’s Claire Wolf and Ruth Lopez-Espinoza lived parallel lives at Holy Cross, never crossing paths until halfway through their junior year, when a four-hour interstate phone call changed everything. Both started their first year at Holy Cross having never visited campus, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and both had the intention of becoming an immigration attorney.
Looking For Research That Didn’t Exist, She Decided To Conduct It Herself
Ashley Pothier ’26 knows her two majors – psychology and Deaf studies – are her calling. But last fall, when she tried finding more information about a topic that intersected both, she came up empty, except for one dissertation published more than 40 years ago. This summer, Pothier turned to her professor and the Weiss Summer Research Program to remedy that.
Clean and Credible: Avoiding Copy Mistakes
Copy is built into the foundation of everything – websites, tweets and Facebook posts, even in the fine print. Most of the time, we don’t think twice about reading it. But if it’s missing, or if there’s a mistake, that’s when we have a problem. Copy not only increases SEO, sales, and responses, but it establishes who you are as a brand. I fully believe that great copywriting happens when you don’t notice anything but the brand’s story. How does that work?
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