January 2024 Edition

Elms College President Harry Dumay, Ph.D, MBA, was featured on BusinessTalk, a podcast produced by BusinessWest, the business journal of western Massachusetts. He talked about several topics including: the state of higher ed from his perspective, our capital campaign, how we prepare our students for entering the workforce, and the Western Massachusetts Literacy Collaborative.

The 7th Annual Black Experience Summit at Elms College will take place on Friday, February 23 from 12 to 4 pm. This year's theme is "Forging Democracy: Black Womanhood and the Long March for Civil Rights." The summit is free and open to the public.

In honor of the 8th Annual National Day of Racial Healing*, Elms College's Cynthia A. Lyons Center for Equity in Urban Education (CEUE) hosted an event on Saturday, January 13th entitled, #GOODScholars: Creating Educational Spaces of Hope for Racial Healing. Dr. Tyra Good, Inaugural Executive Director of the CEUE, and Timothy Jones, CEUE Visiting Scholar, led a critical discussion focused on examining racism and structured inequities within school systems and an educator's role in creating equity-centered trauma-informed educational spaces. This event also served as the launch of the CEUE's "GOOD Educators Connect" book discussion of, Becoming Culturally Responsive Educators: 5 Necessary Action Steps by Dr. Jahkari H. Taylor. 

Dr. Tyra Good remarked, “I am really excited about Elms College and the CEUE being featured by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as a live in-person event that is part of a nationwide initiative.”

*The National Day of Racial Healing is an annual observance hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and was created with and builds on the work and learnings of the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) community partners. Fundamental to this day is a clear understanding that racial healing is at the core of racial equity. 

To wrap up the fall semester, the Counseling Center, Wellness Educator James Proctor III, and student peer wellness educators researched and developed two programs on burnout and boundaries.

For the program on burnout, students were asked to participate in an activity using sticky notes to respond to questions on a large poster for everyone to see. The activity was intended to invoke self-reflection about burnout in their lives, provide a sense of solidarity to students showing this is something everyone experiences by seeing the responses of others, as well as give ideas to other students who may currently be struggling with burnout, and want to overcome it. Miss Harper Hanratty the therapy dog made a guest appearance, too!

For the program on boundaries, the three main takeaways of the event were for students to know how to identify the boundaries needed to protect their mental health, to know how to initiate and enforce setting boundaries with others, and to learn about consent. Students were offered to design a door hanger sign at the event booth. The purpose of this was to offer students a fun, creative, and expressive way to practice setting boundaries, and could be utilized both in college dorms or when they return home.

Andrew Melendez '10, founder and director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation creates 1350 Market, a space for minority-owned businesses, in the MassLive Building.

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Matthew Nash, MBA '17 promoted to partner at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

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Amanda LaBonte, MBA '20, '22 promoted to senior associate at MP CPA

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Last year we broke the record as the most successful day of giving! Let's do it again...

• Your gift will directly impact financial aid for our students and support their success at the Elms and beyond.
• Help us reach this year's goal of $100,000.
• We need 400 donors to unlock challenge gifts. You have the power to help make that happen!

Stay tuned for more information.

We are a small, catholic, liberal arts college with a big heart, a holistic approach, and commitment to excellence and personal character. We are academically and fiscally strong, with outstanding student success - and a loyal (and growing!) community of donors.

Today, we embark on our most ambitious endeavor ever: Building Bridges: The Campaign for Elms College.

Nominate alumni who exemplify the core values of Faith, Community, Excellence, and Justice, by March 15!

Our award recipient will be recognized at Reunion on June 8, 2024.

Participants in this free program will exercise their way across America “virtually” speaking, from Chicopee to California. This program is open to everyone, including commuters, residents, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Save the Date - March 22!

Good Friday Fish Dinner

March 29

4:00 - 6:00 PM

Mary Dooley College Center

Interested in being a speaker or participating in a round table discussion?

Contact Jill Perry at perryj@elms.edu

Join us to learn more about what our students have accomplished this year through internships, research, community work-study programs, mission trips, study abroad opportunities, community service, and CEXPL courses.

Learn more

Save the Date - Classes ending in 4's and 9's join us for a fun-filled reunion weekend!

Jill Perry '21 '23, Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement

Email: Perryj@elms.edu

Phone: (413) 265- 2388