A September to remember

This Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 through Oct. 15), I invite you to join with all of us at BU as we highlight and honor the contributions of Americans of Mexican, Spanish, Caribbean, and Central and South American descent in all aspects of American life.

We kicked off our celebrations earlier this month (Sept. 9) with a presentation by Javier Ávila, an author and professor whose work with students earned him the 2015 Pennsylvania Professor of the Year Award sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. 

Professor Ávila offered a close examination of the American Latino experience and said, quite profoundly, that “we can never be free if we have to hide who we are.”

Over the next 30 days, I hope you will participate in the many events that have been planned for BU’s Hispanic Heritage Month. You can learn more about those events by visiting our website.

Finally, I want to thank our students and my colleagues who helped coordinate and took part in BU’s 9/11 Day of Remembrance event earlier this month. 

What a powerful tribute it was to hear from two members of the BU Family and proud alumnae: PA State Treasurer Stacy Garrity ’86 and Elizabeth Miller ’17. Our remembrance of Sept. 11 is especially important when one considers that many of our students are too young to remember the tragic events of that day. For this reason, it is ever important to honor the memory of those we lost and pay tribute to our first responders.