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The Beaudry Award was established in honor of the late Robert Beaudry from the Class of 1950. Each year, a graduating senior is recognized by his or her classmates for contributions in academic achievement, Christian life, leadership, and service to the University and civic community during their time as a student.

This year’s recipient is John Barrett.

John hails from North Olmsted, Ohio and graduates Sunday with a degree in Theology and Religious Studies with a Catholic Studies minor. He has been a recipient of the Breen Catholic Studies Scholarship for the past two years and his commitment to his Christian values and service to others is truly exemplary and extraordinary.

Last year John was accepted to the five year B.A./M.A. Theology program and has already begun graduate level work. Moving forward, John hopes to teach theology at the high school level.

In special recognition of your exemplary service to the university and to others, the �����APP Alumni Association congratulates you, John Barrett, on receiving the 2015 Beaudry Award.

Fellow è������APP alumni describe Nick Conyngham as an exceptional and enthusiastic leader, volunteer, and ambassador for his alma mater. As the driving force behind a re-ignited New York City JCU Alumni Chapter—as well as the larger Northeast region—Nick has organized and led so many engaging social and service events that several alumni from every decade since the ’50s wrote letters to support his Alumni Medal nomination.

While Nick was president of the NYC Alumni Chapter (2012-2014), he led an inspiring array of events that re-engaged the tri-state region, including Masses and brunches at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and Rockefeller Center, golf outings at Ridgewood Country Club—site of the PGA’s Barclay’s tournament, Cleveland Browns watch parties, and a New York Philharmonic concert in Central Park.

Nick’s enthusiasm inspired other alumni to follow his lead and host JCU receptions in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. Nick and his wife, Beth, also helped the University launch the Forever Carroll Campaign in Manhattan.

The camaraderie and goodwill generated by these events have inspired numerous Campaign donations and resulted in internships and opportunities created exclusively for Carroll students.

Nick’s commitment to serve those in need is perhaps best illustrated by how he rallies alumni volunteers at the Saint Francis Xavier soup kitchen in New York City. The church serves as many as 1,500 meals every Sunday. Similarly, after Hurricane Sandy devastated the region, Nick played a significant role in setting up an emergency shelter at a parish in Jersey City.

He has lived most of his life in New Jersey, but Nick is a Cleveland native and has roots that run deep, including many è������APP and other Jesuit connections. His grandfather, also named Nick, graduated from Carroll in 1925; two great uncles, Arthur and Edward, graduated in 1938 and 1937, respectively, as did numerous cousins in more recent years. Other family members are Fordham, Saint Peter’s, and Holy Cross alumni, and Nick’s son, Terry, is a Boston College graduate.

Professionally, Nick has enjoyed a very successful career in sales. He started with Automatic Data Processing immediately after graduation, then spent many years with Carlson Companies, and now leads CPG/Conyngham Performance Group—a loyalty, incentive and engagement firm.

For dedication to his family, �����APP, and a generosity of spirit and service to others, the �����APP Alumni Association is pleased to award our 2015 Alumni Medal to R. Nicholas Conyngham.

Norma Geller ’87 is a caregiver, businesswoman, and victor. While working diligently to raise her four children, catering to the family furniture business with her husband, Al, and battling ovarian cancer, Geller has supported several Cleveland philanthropic efforts. She has been driven by challenges and enlightenment through her è������APP education.

In 1978, Geller began the first of her nine years as a JCU student after receiving a postcard in the mail. Graduating summa cum laude, Geller was a member of Alpha Sigma Lambda, a National Continuing Education Honor Society that honors the character and dedication of older college students who balance obligations while maintaining high-academic standing.

Geller’s path toward a sociology degree adhered to her commitment to others as a volunteer at University Hospitals for 20 years, working in the playroom at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital for eight years. After earning her degree, she worked in the radiation therapy department as a social worker at the former Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland.

But, after years of dedication to patients, Geller became one herself. In December 1991, shortly after earning her master’s degree in social work from Case Western Reserve University, Geller received a letter from the hospital. Soon thereafter, results from a test indicated her blood levels were slightly elevated and needed to be checked. Eventually, Geller was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Subsequently, she endured several months of chemotherapy treatment, which was successful. She has been in remission since. The Gellers have supported University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and the Cleveland Clinic, sponsoring a researcher who has made breakthrough discoveries in ovarian cancer research.

Since Geller’s graduation from Carroll, she has sponsored the Albert I. and Norma C. Geller Lecture Series in the sociology department at è������APP. Geller also participates in JCU’s Labre Project, which helps feed the homeless in Cleveland. The second time she went, she took her son, Daniel, and her grandsons, Noah and Joshua. After passing out food to and talking with the homeless in tents by the Cuyahoga River several times, Geller donated boots for them.

“JCU has done more for me than I have done for it,” Geller says. “JCU is near and dear to my heart.”

For her dedication to and support of her family and �����APP, exemplary professional and civic leadership, and service to the sick and poor, the �����APP Alumni Association is pleased to award the 2015 Alumni Medal to Norma C. Geller.

On a sunny day in August 1981, sophomore transfer student Tim Kesicki followed his heart and moved into a third-floor room in Dolan Hall at è������APP. He says a desire to “spread my wings a bit” prompted his move from a school close to home. It was a life-changing decision that would ultimately add 17,000 brothers to his family.

A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Tim is the third son of Robert and Carmella Kesicki. His older brother, Daniel, is retired from the U.S. Army; middle brother, Michael, is a priest for the Diocese of Erie; and younger sister, Mary (McDermott), graduated from Carroll in 1987 and is a speech pathologist. Their parents emphasized the importance of love, faith, family, a strong work ethic, loyalty, and a life of service.

As a Carroll student, Tim was active in Christian Life Communities, Sigma Delta Kappa (service fraternity), served as new student orientation advisor, and met his first Jesuits: Frs. Joseph Schell, S.J., Don Smythe, S.J., and Jack White, S.J. ’51. Fr. Schell encouraged Tim to make the Spiritual Exercises after his first year at Carroll. Tim found the experience so transformative he decided to repeat the exercises the following year.

“I wouldn’t be a Jesuit today, if it weren’t for è������APP,” he says.

After graduation, Tim entered the Novitiate in Berkley, Michigan. He completed his First Studies in 1988 at Loyola University Chicago and earned his master’s in philosophy. In 1994, he received his master’s in divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and was ordained into the priesthood. His journey has included Jesuit teaching posts in Detroit, Uganda, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, where so many came to know and love him as the “young” president of Saint Ignatius High School. In 2008, he was called to serve as Provincial of the Chicago-Detroit Province of Jesuits.

During this period, Tim also served on JCU’s Board of Directors for nine years and was an honorary degree recipient at the University’s 125th Anniversary Commencement in 2011, when he was commencement speaker.

Tim is currently president of the Jesuit Conference, which includes working with the nine provincials in the U.S. and Canada on issues and decision-making for the Society of Jesus.

For dedication to family, �����APP, and leadership in advancing the Jesuit mission worldwide, the �����APP Alumni Association is pleased to award our 2015 Alumni Medal to the Very Reverend Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J.

In honor of the late Rev. William J. Millor, S.J., who served the University for more than 28 years, the senior class selects a classmate to be the only student speaker at commencement. This year’s Millor Orator is Brianna Lazarchik.

Brianna, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, majored in Economics with a minor in Catholic Studies. A recipient of numerous merit scholarships, Bree has also excelled in the area of leadership on our campus, something we know will only continue throughout her life.

Upon graduation, Brianna hopes to complete a year of service through an education or ministry position. Her goal is to be in the classroom. She is applying to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Amate House in Chicago and St. Martin de Porres High School here in Cleveland.

In recent years, the alumni office has worked to offer more programming and engagement opportunities for our alumni. In light of those efforts, we felt it was time to reinstate the Volunteer Service Award, which honors and recognizes an alumna/alumnus or friend of the University who has volunteered a significant amount of time and energy to the Alumni Association and its programs. This award has not been given out in a number of years, but tonight, we recognize Donald E. MacMillan from the class of 1982.

A man who bleeds blue and gold, Don, or as he’s affectionately known, “Squeak”, has consistently been involved with JCU alumni activities since his days as a student. Because of his distance from campus (he currently lives in Watertown, Massachusetts), his involvement has at times gone under the radar.

Don’s most notable contribution is tied to JCU’s longest running alumni event outside of Reunion Weekend, the Andrew “Dewey” McCarthy Alumni Soccer Game and Scholarship Luncheon. Now in its 33rd year, the event welcomes back soccer alumni and their families from all eras for mass, a soccer game and a lunch that honors that year’s recipient of the McCarthy scholarship. The event and endowed scholarship is named in honor of the late Andrew “Dewey” McCarthy ’81, a Boston native who died in a car accident in 1983. Don was Dewey’s best friend, roommate and teammate, and vowed to the McCarthy family to keep their son’s memory alive. Over three decades later, Don has kept that promise. In fact, Don has helped elevate the event in recent years to include a Friday social and a retirement ceremony of Dewey’s jersey number 2, which now hangs in Don Shula Stadium.

Don has not been a flash in the pan in terms of his involvement. It’s been a consistent, decades-spanning, affiliation with the university he loves. To Don, it’s been all about community, keeping promises, and serving others. As a graduate of Boston College High School, Don understands what it means to be educated by the Jesuits. Not only is this signature alumni event alive and well three decades later, so is the memory of Dewey McCarthy.

She’s a captain of industry. Kathleen O’Neil ’74 is well known in global financial circles through more than 20 years of executive leadership positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as IBM’s general manager for global financial markets infrastructure. Currently, she’s president and chief executive of Liberty Street Advisors, a financial consulting company she created in 2001.

Among Kate’s assignments at the Fed were roles as chief financial examiner, executive vice president of the financial services group, and executive vice president of the corporate group. She was responsible for the design and implementation of the Federal Reserve’s foreign bank supervisory program, supervising the domestic and foreign operations of U.S. banking organizations, and the design and execution of the Federal Reserve System’s trading and capital markets policy guidance for examiners. She directed all troubled institutional interventions during the recession in the early ’90s, when the U.S. banking system was under the greatest stress since the 1930s.

Kate – who has been active in the Council on Foreign Relations, The Economic Club of New York, and the Women’s Economic Round Table – is a member of the International Corporate Governance Network and the National Association of Corporate Directors. She also is a fellow for the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows Program.

Kate has served and serves on public and private company boards including NYSE-listed, now private, BMC Software; MetLife Bank; NASDAQ-listed Guidance Software, where she’s lead independent director; and the Motley Fool Funds Trust, where she’s nonexecutive chair.

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