History

Since its founding 43 years ago, the Office of AHANA Student Programs has grown substantially to meet the needs of Boston College’s increasingly diverse student population, and has changed its name several times to reflect this growth and change. Today, OASP serves 735 BC students each year through its 23 regular programs, and touches even more through single events, presentations, outreach, and collaboration with other BC departments. Key milestones in OASP’s evolution include:

• In 1974, the new President, Fr. Donald Monan, S.J., launched a study of Minority Education at BC, resulting in the replacement of the student-run Black Talent Program with the appointment of a full-time minority counselor and the program name was changed to “Minority Student Programs.”

• In 1979, with encouragement from a student group led by Alfred Feliciano and Valerie Lewis, the Board of Trustees approved the name change to "Office of AHANA (African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American) Student Programs."

• In 1968, Fr. Michael P. Walsh, S.J., then President of BC, initiated the Negro Talent Search (NTS) Program, allocating $100,000 over four years to serve X number of students.  [JM1] 
• From 1968-1975, OASP was characterized by short-term staffing and increased student responsibility to help provide services, including recruitment and financial aid allocation. The program was renamed "Black Talent Program".
• From 1978 to 2005, OASP flourished under Dr. Donald Brown, who established many hallmark programs such as the Options through Education (OTE) Transitional Summer Program and the Benjamin Elijah Mays Mentoring Program.  

Since 2006, the staff has continued to build upon this strong foundation with new initiatives, such as the Community Research Program (CRP), the SANKOFA Leadership Program, and Dialogues on Race (DOR), that respond to the needs of millennial students.