Senior Reflections: The Holy Cross Impact

Influenced by the strong student-faculty interaction at Holy Cross, Loyola Pasiewicz plans to use her enthusiasm to teach high school chemistry


Loyola Pasiewicz

 

Loyola Pasiewicz
Chemistry major
Hometown: Glenview, Ill.

 

 

  1. Loyola felt right at home at Holy Cross even before she unpacked her belongings. “While my parents and I were on the road, my Fall Orientation leader Ellen called to see if I had any last minute questions and I got really excited,” she says.
  2. The First-Year Program provided Loyola with the chance to see the endless opportunities available at Holy Cross. Not only did Loyola love the social aspects, but she says that the First-Year Program seminar, Christian Views of Suffering and Healing, was fantastic. Joanne Pierce, associate professor of religious studies, discussed topics related to the suffering that exists in the world and where individuals look for consolation. The students were required to keep a journal for class and see how they develop spiritually, academically, and emotionally. “My FYP journal gave me an outlet to express how I was interacting with the class material and the practicality of what I was learning,” she says. “With the end of senior year approaching, I’ve found myself going back to my journal to further reflect on my experiences and how far I’ve come.”
  3. As a competitive Irish dancer for 15 years, Loyola joined the Ballroom Dancing Club as a freshman. “While at the co-curricular fair in September 2004, I saw the Ballroom Dance Team perform. I said to myself that I needed to do that; I wanted to learn,” she says. Aside from forming strong relationships with the senior and junior members, Loyola loved the energy she received from the Holy Cross community. “People recognize what you’re doing and you want to make it better because of their enthusiasm,” she says.
  4. Loyola obtained a greater understanding of herself after participating twice in the Spiritual Exercises, and taking advantage of the other opportunities available at Holy Cross to grow spiritually. “In October 2006, the retreat gave me a chance to sit down and think about what I wanted as an upperclassman. For me, these meditations focused on how I wanted my faith to become integrated into my adult life,” she explains. “I came to the realization that for me to truly live my faith, my core values — which are positivism, patience, compassion, truth, respect, and responsibility — must be integrated into everything I do.”
  5. Loyola serves as a Eucharistic Minister and recently completed Jesuit Spirituality taught by religious studies professor Rev. William Reiser, S.J. She says that being in the class has allowed her to become more contemplative. “It’s a phenomenal class because it’s like being in a retreat every Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m.,” she says.
  6. Loyola says that she could not be happier with her major of chemistry. It has allowed her to learn about the world around her and develop analytical skills while simultaneously making lifelong friendships. “Chemists see things differently than other people in the non-scientific community and I have learned to embrace the challenge chemistry has provided me,” she says. “The most challenging class I have ever taken in my life was Physical Chemistry with Professor Sarah Petty, but it was great because of the relationship she developed with her students. She always pushed me to do more and better, and made me realize how much potential I have.”
  7. For a while Loyola wanted to be a dentist like her mother, but being in Professor Petty’s chemistry class encouraged her to pursue a career in teaching. Through Petty’s patience and enthusiasm, Loyola was better able to understand the material and learn what teaching methods are the most effective to use in a classroom. This past summer she interned at the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Mass., teaching chemistry to high school students. Next year she will attend graduate school for secondary science education at Boston University and plans on becoming a high school science teacher with a focus on chemistry.
  8. With the guidance of Ron Jarret, professor and chair of the chemistry department, Loyola has been conducting independent research in chemistry education her senior year. She spent 10 to 12 hours a week developing experiments for other students taking organic chemistry classes at Holy Cross. “It has been a valuable experience because I am developing experiments for students, which ties together with my career objective to become a teacher,” she says. She uses wet chemistry and modeling techniques on a computer to develop models and reactions, and plans on using the modeling techniques in classrooms to enrich her students’ understanding of the material.


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This Senior Spotlight was written by Pamela McQuade ’08 of Dix Hills, N.Y. A double major in political science and Italian, Pamela studied abroad last year in Florence. This summer she will return to Europe and to travel in Ireland, Greece and Italy. In her spring semester of senior year, Pamela served as the chair of the Student Advisory Committee of the Modern Languages and Literatures department and as an intern in the Office of Public Affairs.

Photography by John Buckingham.