News

Academic Year Starts with Mass, Music and Barbecue

August 28, 2012

The Georgetown community gathered on Healy Lawn today to mark the start of the academic year with the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit, followed by student a capella performances and a Welcome Back Jack BBQ on Copley Lawn.

A photo of the students seated on Healy Lawn during the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit.

,

, Rev. Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J., director of the Woodstock Theological Center, delivers the homily during the liturgy.

,

, John J. DeGioia speaks at the podium during mass.

,

, Students gather for the Welcome Back Jack BBQ on Copley Lawn and Red Square following the Mass of the Holy Spirit.

,

, After feasting on hot dogs and hamburgers, students wait patiently to get a “Jack is Back” T-shirt on Copley Lawn.

,

, New Student Orientation volunteers and leaders wait for students to enter campus under the iconic balloon arch.

,

, The lobby of New South Hall bustles with parents and new students Aug. 24 as move-in for the 2012-13 academic year begins.

,

, Rev. Christopher Steck, S.J., takes Jack the Bulldog and J.J. for a walk.

,

, Brady Baxter and incoming student Gillis Baxter (B'16) put together a bed in Gillis' New South dorm.

,

, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia greets a parent during the President’s Move-In Day Picnic at Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall.

,

, Freshmen and transfer students receive their New Student Orientation materials during NSO Check-In at the Leavey Center.

The annual Mass of the Holy Spirit on Healy Lawn marks the start of Georgetown’s academic year.

The Mass homily, given by Rev. Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J., asked students, faculty and staff take time for contemplation, reflection and prayer during the upcoming year.

“If you do this, you will be a changed Hoya,” said Lo Biondo, director of Woodstock Theological Center. “With God’s help, you will discover in yourself a depth and a capability that you never suspected was there.”

Georgetown President John J. DeGioia told community members that the new academic year brings renewed opportunities.

“There are truths about ourselves that we seek to grasp,” he says. “If we evade and avoid them we construct blocks within ourselves. In this Catholic and Jesuit community, we seek to provide resources that enable us to work through our blocks.”

Students, faculty and staff helped themselves to hamburgers and hot dogs at the barbeque, where both university mascot Jack the Bulldog and mascot-in-training J.J. (Jack Junior) roamed among the crowd.

Tagged