Jason Damon named Ideal Bonaventure Man

Jason Damon was named the Ideal Bonaventure Man during commencement ceremonies over the weekend.  Congratulations to Jason.  Jason is well deserving of this honor.  His presence in the classroom will be missed but we're sure he has a bright future.

From the press release:
"Damon is described by history professor Dr. Joel Horowitz as “an extremely pleasant and hardworking individual who cares deeply about the world, his university and his faith. He is also a very thoughtful individual who combines that with great intelligence and curiosity.”

Damon, who completed his degree requirements in December 2015, has been living with the Franciscan friars at Mt. Irenaeus as a Mountain Companion and plans to enter the Postulancy of Holy Name Province in Silver Spring, Md.

Dedicated to the ideas of the Catholic Church and the Franciscan friars, Damon has been active in numerous Church-related activities on campus, many times taking on leadership roles. Damon spent two years as the men’s overnight coordinator for the Mountain and was active in Mountain Community Leaders as well as the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus, the SBU chapter of Students for Life, and as a Eucharistic minister."

St Bonaventure Cemetery Map Unveiled

Roll the drums!  Pull back the curtain!

As documented on elsewhere on this blog, starting last spring students enrolled in History 419:  Digital History and Archival Practices began the process of creating an interactive map of the St. Bonaventure Cemetery.  Dennis and I were introducing GIS into the history curriculum.  Mistakes were made.  False starts?  Yes.  However, these provided valuable learning opportunities and they could all be fixed.  Jason has been working in the archives with Dennis to get the map ready, so here it is.  

St. Bonaventure Cemetery Map

This will be a ongoing process.  Students taking History 419 can plan on continuing working with GIS and the cemetery records.

Dennis Frank, Jason Damon, and Phillip Payne at the Bucknell Digital Scholarship Conference

Jason Presenting

Dennis Frank, Jason Damon, and Phillip Payne presented “St. Bonaventure Cemetery: Introducing History Students to GIS” at the Bucknell Digital Scholarship Conference.  The theme of the conference was Collaborating Digitally: Engaging Students in Faculty Research.  The three discussed the rewards and challenges of introducing GIS into a class from the perspective of archivist, students, and faculty.  During the spring 2014 semester students enrolled in History 419:  Digital History and Archival Practices worked on a GIS map of the St. Bonaventure cemetery.  Jason continues to work on the project this semester for the university archives.

Jason Damon reports on His Internship

This past summer, I was blessed to serve as an intern for the Knights of Columbus Office of Public Policy. It was an amazing experience, and one that I’m very grateful for.

As a Policy Intern, my job was actually pretty varied. There was a larger project I worked on for about half my time, I was able to meet with legislatures to discuss various issues and bills, and I was given a lot of freedom to attend different lectures and luncheons hosted around the capital.

I was told by my coworkers that things really slow down in the summer; I can’t imagine what it looks like outside of it then! Being in the middle of all the action was incredible, and for me at least it was pretty constant. I both lived and worked in Brookland, which is in the Northeast section of the city, but went to the Capital at least once a week to meet with legislatures or other groups and to formulate responses to issues that had recently arisen. I worked at the Pope St. John Paul II National Shrine, which was cool in and of itself since they were putting the finishing touches on a new exhibit on his life and teachings; I was able to even give a little of my input on the inspiring display, which was completed shortly before I left. I recommend that anyone going to the area check it out, regardless of personal faith because the man had such a huge influence on our world even today. On the weekends I traveled around the city a lot and frequented places like the National Mall and Old Town. The entire experience was amazing and being a political science and history major, I really got a lot out of residing in the center of American politics (I almost quite literally bumped elbows with Senators Marco Rubio, Roy Blount and Tim Scott and personally met and talked with Senator Bob Casey among other politicians and interest group leaders) and a place with so much history.

My internship was truly life-changing; I got to see the inner workings of the political process as well as meet a lot of fascinating people. I still keep in touch with my coworkers and keep an eye on political events that I may, in my own (very) small way, have influenced.

Congratulations to Jason Damon!

After a very competitive selection process, CPRC selected Jason Damon, a history and political science major, as one of this year’s InternSpotlight candidates. Jason Damon was a Policy Intern for the Knights of Columbus Public Policy Office in Washington, D.C. Congratulations!