Ndaba Mandela, grandson of South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela and founder of the Africa Rising Foundation, urged students at the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation at Providence College to work for the change they wish to see in the world and to not become discouraged.
Despite the message conveyed by the media, we live in a time of abundance, a decade that could be called “Twenty Plenty,” Mandela told students, faculty, staff, and alumni in Peterson Recreation Center.
“I am trying to encourage young people to dream and to dream big,” Mandela said. “If your dreams do not scare you, you are not dreaming big enough. It is important that we encourage our young people to dream and that we give them the necessary tools and resources.”…Read More
A 17-year-old woman from England was cured of a life-threatening, drug-resistant infection after being treated with a virus scooped from the soil at Providence College, isolated and purified by students in a laboratory, and genetically modified by a professor on sabbatical.
It was a worldwide medical breakthrough — the first successful use of a genetically modified virus to treat a drug-resistant infection — and was made possible, in part, by the work of Dr. Kathleen A. Cornely, professor of chemistry, and the students she co-taught in a class with Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., professor of biology and of theology.
“It was exciting to be part of this phage therapy project and wonderful to know that the patient is doing well,” Cornely said. “We offered the research course at PC in the hope that we might find a phage that could one day treat tuberculosis. To have success so quickly is just amazing.”
Dr. Kathleen A. Cornely, professor of chemistry, teaching in her laboratory. At right is Colby Agostino ’22, one of her phage researchers. At left is Jared DiBella ’22.
In late 2017, Isabelle Holdaway, who lives in Kent, England, and has cystic fibrosis, was dying from an infection after a double lung transplant. Her mother appealed to her doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to try an approach she read about on the internet — the use of phages, bacteria-killing viruses, to treat drug-resistant infections.
The physician turned to the University of Pittsburgh, where Dr. Graham Hatfull maintains a collection of 15,000 mycobacterial phages, the largest in the world — a collection that includes ZoeJ, a phage collected from soil under a tree near Harkins Hall in September 2012 by R. Seth Pinches ’16. Read More
A team representing Providence College tied for third place in the inaugural BIG EAST Conference Startup Challenge on March 16.
During the challenge, held at St. John’s University’s Manhattan campus, teams of student entrepreneurs from all 10 BIG EAST schools presented ideas for innovations and products to a panel of judges made up of BIG EAST alumni.
PC’s team made a pitch for their startup, WeCycle, a mobile app that helps college students cut down on unnecessary costs by lending, renting, or purchasing in an online, campus-specific marketplace.
Basketball courts at a Providence park have been transformed into a public art installation thanks to a team of alumni, staff, and students from Providence College.
Bold and vibrant patterns of color — the design of Providence mixed-media artist Jim Drain — now decorate the surface of adjacent basketball courts at Fargnoli Park on Smith Street, a short walk from PC’s campus. The project was accomplished with $45,000 in contributions from Friends of Friars Basketball, $15,000 from Providence College Galleries, and the labor of 130 volunteers, including PC students.
“The basketball court is a great bridge between the College and the community,” said Chris Carter ’11 & ’14G, president of Friends of Friars Basketball. “It makes a big statement. It’s a rare concept to be able to renovate a court in artistic fashion. And if it’s unique enough to get kids to go outside and play more often, that alone is a worthwhile endeavor on our part.”…Click to Read More
