Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder to return to First Year Academic Convocation
Nearly two decades after appearing at Boston College鈥檚 inaugural First Year Academic Convocation, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder will return to campus in September to discuss his critically acclaimed new book,聽Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O鈥機onnell鈥檚 Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, with the 2023 freshman class.
Organized by the Office of First Year Experience, the convocation will be held on September 7. The Class of 2027 will gather on Linden Lane to receive a charge from faculty, administrators, and the Jesuit community of Boston College to 鈥済o and set the world aflame.鈥� They will then process to Conte Forum to hear from Kidder and the convocation鈥檚 other guest speakers.
The event begins 吃瓜网鈥檚 Conversations in the First Year, which engages each incoming class in a reflective dialogue around a common text鈥攁nd helps create the year鈥檚 academic theme鈥攁s a means to offer insight into how to respond to life鈥檚 questions and find direction in their personal journey. Among the authors whose works have been explored by previous first-year classes are Barack Obama, John McCain, Ann Patchett, Jeannette Walls, Bruce Springsteen, and Liz Hauck 鈥�00, M.Ed. 鈥�09.
A master of reporting and nonfiction storytelling, Kidder will be accompanied by Jim O鈥機onnell, M.D.鈥攖he subject of his inspiring story of a dedicated doctor, who after completing his medical residency some 40 years ago helped to create a medical system for the homeless people of Boston. Kidder spent time over five years riding with Dr. O鈥機onnell as he navigated the city at night, offering medical care, socks, soup, empathy, and friendship to some of the city鈥檚 endangered citizens.
Dr. O鈥機onnell and his colleagues lead an organization鈥擝oston Health Care for the Homeless Program鈥攖hat includes clinics affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Medical Center, and a host of teams that serve special groups, including one that reaches 鈥渞ough sleepers鈥濃�攑eople who sleep on the
streets 鈥渋n the rough鈥濃�攂y van.
Kidder takes readers deep into Dr. O鈥機onnell鈥檚 world, much as he did with Paul Farmer, M.D., in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Mountains Beyond Mountains鈥攖he common text for the First Year Academic Convocation in 2004, at which Kidder spoke with Dr. Farmer.
鈥淔or the Class of 2027, Rough Sleepers is a wonderful introduction to the lifelong process of discernment that is so central to the philosophy of formative education at Boston College,鈥� said Michael Sacco, executive director of the Center for Student Formation and Office of First Year Experience, of the book鈥檚 selection as the common text given to students at summer orientation.
鈥淔irst-year students will benefit greatly from reading this honest, reflective, and authentic account of someone who has significantly impacted the way in which Boston cares for its unhoused population,鈥� he said. 鈥淏y engaging with both Kidder and Dr. O鈥機onnell, we hope that our students can envision what a life of service to others might mean for them.鈥�
That Rough Sleepers is set in Boston, Sacco added, 鈥渙nly reinforces the notion that our students do not have to travel great distances to live in solidarity with others.鈥�
Called a 鈥渕agnificent, deeply researched, and inspiring book,鈥� Rough Sleepers tells the stories of Dr. O鈥機onnell and other health care professionals, as well as some of the members of the homeless community whom they serve and accompany. The stories highlight the dignity of each person and the importance of integrating care for the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of a person.
Tracy Kidder and Dr. Jim O鈥機onnell (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Rough Sleepers聽鈥渋nvites you to consider how accompaniment with others will lead to greater understanding of yourself and how the experience of vulnerability and reflection inform how you engage with the world around you,鈥� according to the accompanying reading guide provided to students, encouraging them to ponder such important questions as:
How you can you be an agent for reconciliation in today鈥檚 world? How can you show compassion to those you encounter at Boston College?
As you begin your 吃瓜网 experience, we want you to think about what it means for you to be part of a community of care. How can you contribute to that? How will you grow from that? How will you use your 鈥済ifts and talents to advance the common good鈥�?
鈥淎t Boston College, we have long understood from the Jesuits about the importance of engaging students in a conversation that encourages their growth intellectually, socially, and spiritually,鈥� Sacco explained. 鈥淭he format of the conversation can vary, but the aim remains to encourage students to be attentive to their experiences and reflective of their meaning with the hope that this will help them discern their role in the world.
鈥淭hroughout Tracy Kidder鈥檚 biography of Dr. Jim O鈥機onnell, he highlights a multitude of examples of him paying close attention to his life experiences, reflecting upon their meaning, and living in a way that translates this meaning into action to create a better world,鈥� Sacco said.
鈥淔irst Year Academic Convocation celebrates 吃瓜网鈥檚 rich intellectual tradition while welcoming the incoming class into the University鈥檚 academic community,鈥� he added. This 鈥渢reasured University tradition ignites the type of meaningful conversation students will continue to find and engage in throughout their years at Boston College.鈥�
聽is an integrated team of over 600 medical and behavioral health staff, social service providers, and support staff committed to ensuring and delivering equitable and dignified access to comprehensive, high-quality health care for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Boston and beyond.聽 At 30+ clinic sites in shelters and hospitals, a medical respite program, and on the streets, it provides medical care, behavioral health care, youth and family services and case management to nearly 10,000 individuals (adults and children) every year. It serves as an innovator and thought leader at the intersection of health care and homelessness and shares its research and model of care with hospitals, medical and other allied health professional schools, public agencies and other homeless programs, locally, and nationally.聽
For University community members interested in聽Rough Sleepers, it will be available at the 吃瓜网 Bookstore. For more on the author, see聽.