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The End

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my final blog post! On May 24th, I officially graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from Holy Cross. It’s hard to believe, almost surreal–I always knew that May 2024 was coming, but it always seemed like such a far-away month and year.

But now it’s here. To paraphrase what my mom always says, try not to be sad that it’s over; be happy about how it happened.

Finals ended on Wednesday, May 15th. After a weekend away with my roommates and other friends, we returned to campus on May 19th for Senior Week. Amidst a slew of activities were two major events: a boat cruise from Boston Harbor, and a lobster dinner down in Rhode Island. On Monday the 20th, we took an hour-long bus ride to the city and boarded the Spirit of Boston, an awesome cruise ship with multiple levels. It was beautiful to see the sun set over the ocean, and airplanes soar right over us in their descent to the Logan runway.

Our lobster dinner was near Newport, Rhode Island: a lovely venue tucked into a large green valley. There was live music, horseshoes, cornhole, and volleyball! After everyone played and had some drinks, it was time for dinner: either chicken, steak, or lobster, depending on each student's preference. As a native New Englander, for me, the choice was obvious: I tied my bib around my neck and feasted!   

In the final days of the week, there was the Baccalaureate Mass, the Last Sunset on the Hill, and the Commencement Ceremony. As we welcomed our families to campus, we finally pulled on our gowns and hats. The various pins and cords I had to wear were very cool and unique: I had pins honoring the class of 2024, the 50th anniversary of Holy Cross’ coeducation, and my employment in the Dinand Archives.  I had two cords: the red-and-black one represented my membership in Sigma Tau Delta, the international honors society for English students. The other cord, which was green-and-blue, represented my participation in one of Holy Cross’ study abroad programs.

My senior portrait on the Fenwick steps

The ceremony was held at the DCU Center. Although the only other time our class had visited the venue was for our Senior Ball back in November, the arena we used was spacious and well-decorated. There was no limit to the number of guests we could bring, which I appreciated as I invited my grandmothers, uncle, and aunt in addition to my immediate family. The ceremony went off without a hitch: our speaker, employed at NASA, was endlessly fascinating, and I felt so proud seeing my friends and classmates honored for their hard work by walking across the stage.

You can learn more / see images from the commencement here, and watch the recorded livestream in full on YouTube.

I can’t deny my sadness at leaving Holy Cross. Especially this past year, I’ve felt so connected to the campus and embraced its community fully. Particularly after the struggles of the pandemic, I became more independent and self-reliant and truly more comfortable in myself than I ever have been. I came back from abroad, and reconnected established relationships, but I consider myself fortunate to have also forged new ones, across all class years. I had so many incredible opportunities, from traveling across the world to getting my essays in print. I made friendships that will last the rest of my lifetime. I not only learned and took from Holy Cross, but I truly know that I gave back to it in several different ways. 

Hopefully, the posts on this blog have documented that to the fullest. Operating this page has allowed me to self-reflect, and the deliberate nature of the action forced me to hone my writing skills even further. I hope that this effort is apparent, and that anyone in the future reading this blog will take away any advice that can make their own time on the Hill even more special.

Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Matt
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The Most Interesting Classes on the Hill

Hi everyone,

Today, Boston College History Professor Helen Cox Richardson visited campus to talk about the value of the humanities as part of a biannual lecture. In response, for this blog post, I want to showcase some of the interesting courses that Holy Cross has to offer. Because of its status as a liberal arts institution, Holy Cross offers a wide variety of classes, and you are really given the opportunity to explore– not just for filling general requirements, but also in the second half of your time as an undergraduate!

(Although as an English major, I find many of my literature classes appealing, I’ll work to not fixate on those as I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea).

A unique feature of Holy Cross’ curriculum is the Montserrat program. Two of your eight requirements during your freshman year are filled by this unique academic class, sorted by clusters and all largely distinct from one another. The program is designed so that you live in the same dorm as those in your class, so that way you’ll already have connections from the get-go. My Montserrat was unique in that it was split up into two “halves” taught by two different professors. I was in the “Natural World” cluster, and my two classes were called “Tropical Fictions” and “Fictions of the Future.” In the former, we learned about Latin American history and read / watched media with the goal of critiquing those that looked upon South America with a “tropical”, otherizing eye. In the latter, we read texts that were environmentally conscious and depicted dystopian futures where the health of our planet is in limbo. Although those classes were unfortunately on Zoom, I still feel a strong connection to them– I am still friends with other students from the class (one is my roommate!) and I have been mentored by both professors in my time throughout Holy Cross.

The classes in my junior year were especially interesting. In the fall, I took all English classes: Milton, Shakespeare, The World Novel, and a Creative Writing class. For two of the classes, I loved being able to focus on the works of only one author. It really gave us the opportunity to learn more about individual authors’ lives and notice the progression of their beliefs and skills over the course of their literary careers. The World Novel was also a cool class, getting to find out more about why authors in foreign nations, particularly ones with colonial pasts such as India and South Africa, chose to write their novels in English. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, even my Study Abroad classes were a highlight, particularly a biology course called Australian Wildlife Biology. We frequently had guest lecturers, and took several field trips (or “excursions”) across the semester to do some field research. 

A tagged black swan we observed in Australian Widlife Bio
On a class trip to the Melbourne Zoo

This year, I finished the last of my major credits and got to immerse myself in some intriguing course offerings. This fall, I took Museum Studies, taught by a professor who headed the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) for many years. I really liked getting to explore more of Worcester, since it can be tricky to feel connected to the city while up on the Hill! 

Across the whole year, I’ve taken some courses on Classical Literature, since I really loved reading the Odyssey when I was younger.  Finally, this semester, I’m taking a course on Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Although I don’t speak any Russian, the class is in English, and it’s taught me a lot about the country’s history and culture which I never knew. That’s one of the great things about Holy Cross- the liberal arts curriculum grants you the opportunity to explore many subject areas, and enrich yourself in doing so.        

Until next time!
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100 Days Ball!

Hi everybody!

Just writing with a small update! Shockingly, we’re already on another break from school because of the Easter holiday. We only spent two full weeks on campus this month! It was a pretty fun two weeks, though, and part of this is because us seniors had the 100 Days Ball on March 15th.

While the ball did not commemorate a hundred days left before graduation exactly (I believe the consensus is that it marked about eighty days left), it was still a great event for us to dress up and revel in the calm before the storm–in terms of the second half of our final semester and the ensuing graduation activities. In particular, since we were newly back on campus, it was great to get to catch up on how everyone’s spring breaks were.

With the roommates by the O’Kane clock tower!

Once we got our formal wear on, we were able to snap a few photos around campus before it was time to go. We again boarded the yellow school buses as we did in November, but this time our destination was Mechanics Hall in downtown Worcester. It was an absolutely gorgeous venue, with beautiful paintings hung around and a chandelier and a large organ in the front of the dance hall.

The staff at my job in the archives told me about the history of the building– which hosted guests such as Charles Dickens, Susan B. Anthony, and U.S President William Howard Taft. You could feel the history as you walked about! Later on, I found out that Mechanics Hall is ranked one of the top four concert halls in North America– and ranks in the top twelve between North America, South America, and Europe. And honestly, I can believe it!

Showing “purple pride” with some of my fellow Spire editors
Group photo of some of the Melbourne cohort!

It was a lot of fun getting to converse, dance, and take photos with so many of my friends. I even made Holy Cross’ Instagram post when they had several of us try on a pair of sunglasses. I was incredibly impressed by Mechanics Hall, and I thought that it was a wonderful night.

Happy Easter, everyone! Thanks again for reading!
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Senior Ball!
Grabbing a photo with my friends Damon and Kevin at the DCU Center

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first post of my student blog! My name is Matt Nickerson, and I’m a senior English major with a Creative Writing Concentration. There’s only a few weeks left in the first semester of my final year, so with only one semester to go, I’m excited to have this opportunity to document and reflect on my remaining time on the Hill, and that I’m able to share it as well.

I can’t think of a better post to start my blog than talking about our first major event, the Senior Ball, which was held last Friday, November 17th. I was really looking forward to this event, and I know a lot of other people were as well. Because we all graduated high school in 2020, we didn’t have a senior prom, so this Ball was a shot at experiencing something we were unable to attend due to the pandemic. I was also really pleased to have an event that was limited to just our class, given that we collectively started our time as Crusaders at home, and then masked up, socially distanced, and online.

We planned with some friends to take some pictures beforehand, so we started getting our suits on after 3 to go up to Fenwick and take some photos. It turns out that the vast majority of the seniors had the same idea! It was great to see everyone all dressed up and to really feel the energy and anticipation that was going around.

Looking sharp outside Fenwick with my roommate, David, and our friend Ralph

After taking photos and bouncing around people’s rooms, it was time to depart. We walked up to Hogan right before 6pm and boarded the buses that took us over to the ball venue, the DCU Center. I’d never been previously, so I was excited to see how it looked inside! The layout was great: the ballroom was nice and big, with a large dance floor but also plenty of room for tables and food buffet lines. The College also rented out the whole floor, where we could go for drinks and simply to get a break from the music and lights.

The night was so much fun: plenty of dancing and catching up with friends and classmates. There was a really cool camera inside of a mirror, and after having some delicious ice cream, my friend and I got in line for some photos!

Before I knew it, the night was over and we were already boarding the buses to head back.

This was a great kickoff to the activities celebrating the Class of 2024, and I’m really appreciative of all of the hard work done by the school, the SGA, and the Student Council members to make it such an awesome night.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!