This past year, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics. In keeping with our mission to prepare students to lead and be global citizens, we provided programming that exposed them to people and topics that offered diversity of thought and perspective.
Focusing on both national and international topics of interest, the Center kicked off the 10-year anniversary celebration by presenting its American Dream event series that focused on American civil rights, social justice, and labor equality. Former Attorney General Eric Holder visited campus in the weeks leading up to the 2016 general election to talk about the American Voting Rights Act. Shortly after the New England Patriots win at Super Bowl LI, renowned chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) expert Dr. Bennet Omalu discussed his work and its relation to concussions in high-impact sports. Bringing an international perspective, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson spoke about climate justice, and husband-wife duo Kennedy and Jessica Odede from Kenya spoke about creating a movement to bring about social change, which is certainly reflective of the Jesuit tradition of service to others.
On Tuesday, September 26, author and historian David McCullough returns to Boston College for the Winston Center’s 10th Anniversary closing celebration. Mr. McCullough was the Center’s inaugural speaker in 2006 and will opine on the current state of affairs as part of the Clough Colloquium. His new book The American Spirit will certainly serve as a backdrop for this narrative.
Bennet Omalu, a forensic neuropathologist—and the NFL’s public enemy number one, portrayed by Will Smith in the 2015 movie Concussion—delivered the Center’s Chambers Lecture. The event was co-sponsored by the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center’s Black History Month Committee.
Mary Robinson, president of the Republic of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, explained the ways in which her long humanitarian career has developed her view of the intersection of human rights and climate change.
The Winston Center collaborated with the Lowell Humanities Series to bring Krista Tippett, Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and journalist, to talk about the Adventure on Civility. The Center also collaborated with the Center for Social Innovation and the Institute for the Liberal Arts to present a symposium on Leading for Social Impact.
