President Welcomes Honors Students Into His Home for Presentation and Dinner

by Stacey May

President Gerard J. Joyce and his family welcomed about 20 honors students and faculty members into their homes to enjoy dinner and a presentation. This semester’s speaker was neuroscience professor Dr. Amie Severino Kauzlarich. Who presented “Investigating Causal Relationships between Stress, Anxiety, and Alcohol Drinking.” 

For her talk, Kauzlarich wanted to look at daily stressors everyone experiences, that for some turn into something greater, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorders. She stated, “I thought the students would identify with studying stress. This is a pretty stressful time; people are starting to emerge into adulthood during college. There are a lot of choices people have to make in college, about healthy coping mechanisms versus unhealthy coping mechanisms.” Kauzlarich also enjoyed being able to talk about her honors student's projects relating to this topic, presenting for some current students and meeting new students.

The students greatly enjoyed the honors dinner. Clover Satchell (C’25) thought the honors dinner was amazing, and she loved learning more about the topic and discussing stress. Satchell reported, “Hearing from professors [and talking to] Dr. Lewis, I feel like every single person I talked to was amazing, I really enjoyed this. Even President Joyce welcoming feedback means a lot to me, they truly care what Mount students have to say.” Joyce invited students to share feedback with him about what they love about the Mount and what could be improved.

 Satchell said, “I would definitely come to this again. I had some really good conversations.” Gavin Hibbert (C’28) said the dinner was very nice. Hibbert reported, “I thought the talk was very insightful. Learning more about psychology and how different things affect our day-to-day stress was very interesting...The food was great, the conversations were nice, and the house is beautiful.” As a psychology student, Hibbert not only found the presentation interesting, but also applicable to his major. Dr. Sean Lewis, director of the honors program, coordinated the dinner. He stated, “Events like these models for our honor students what it means to continue to have a life of the mind, even beyond the classroom. My vision for the honors program is to cultivate intellectual leaders; all Mount graduates should be ethical leaders, but if you are blessed enough and fortunate enough to be skilled and motivated academically, what does it mean to be an intellectual leader and become a leader in your field?” 

Lewis added, “This helps model that by bringing faculty from diverse backgrounds on diverse topics and making an accessible point of conversation for students of any background to talk about important matters.” President Joyce graciously opened his home to these students and faculty members. He stated, “The Mount is about community and relationships. I like people to be a part of this home, to realize that we are all part of one big family here at the Mount. I don’t just sit in an office as president, I like to interact with students, I like to hear what students are thinking, and this is a great venue to do that. And just to be hospitable, and thankful, and grateful for the students.” Joyce added, “These are the types of events we should continue and potentially do more of, in different ways, and I want it to be a faculty-student event as well. Because those are the best type of relationships.”

 Many thanks to the Joyces and their cute dog Shamrock for welcoming these students into their home. To help them grow academically outside of the classroom.