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Rev. Joseph Marchese, who built the Office of First Year Experience (FYE) into a national leader in student orientation and formation, has announced that he will step down from his position to begin a new role as formative education director for parents of Boston College students.
Fr. Marchese will continue as FYE director until a successor is named.
Under his leadership since 1995, FYE has assisted all first-year students in transitioning to collegiate life through integrated curricular and co-curricular programs and opportunities. Its programs include Summer Orientation, First Year Convocation, 48 Hours weekend retreats, Conversations in the First Year, and academic courses through Courage to Know and the Cornerstone Program.
In his new assignment, Fr. Marchese will work with parents of current BC students to educate them on Boston College’s approach to formative education and allow them to experience it first-hand through campus presentations, off-campus seminars and online learning.
“We have a distinctive philosophy of education that we want to share with BC parents in a way that is inclusive and representative of our Jesuit, Catholic mission,” said Fr. Marchese. “We hope this resource will create a partnership for parents to better understand what we are trying to accomplish with their children so that they might give them the support and space they need to grow as they move from late adolescence to adulthood.“
Jack Butler, SJ, vice president for University Mission and Ministry, which oversees FYE, praised Fr. Marchese for his 20 years of dedicated service to the program and his willingness to share his knowledge with current BC parents. “Given his work in FYE, Joe has invaluable experience in student formation that can assist parents in understanding our approach to formative education. We are grateful for his many contributions through FYE, and look forward to his latest contribution to Boston College when he assumes this new role.”
During his tenure as FYE director, Fr. Marchese was credited with building a program that helps students to prepare for their freshman year and acclimate to Boston College, its programmatic offerings, and its distinctive educational and formational mission, while also instilling in them the foundational elements to lead a good life.
“FYE has enabled me to help affect the lives of our students in a positive way, but also to work with BC to become an even greater educational institution and to celebrate and clarify its mission as a Jesuit, Catholic university,” said Fr. Marchese.
“The goal of FYE has been to promote a culture of academic excellence, to instill in our students an intellectual precociousness, and to infuse incoming students and parents with a sense of our Jesuit, Catholic mission, which has a 500-year tradition in St. Ignatius. I am very proud of what we have accomplished over the past two decades.”
FYE Associate Director Biz Bracher praised Fr. Marchese as the architect of a cultural shift in how Boston College helps students to transition to college and develop as men and women of competence and character.
“At any university there are great minds with vision, people who can imagine new and creative ways to live out a mission, and others who are known for how they put ideas into motion,” said Bracher. “Fr. Joe is a unique individual who understands mission, creatively constructs a vision, and pursues the actualization of the idea until it becomes a reality. He sees the value of taking a risk in the way that Ignatian education encourages us to pursue the Magis.
“The programs developed in FYE under Fr. Joe’s leadership are the direct results of his honest commitment to being better today than we were yesterday, last semester, or last year, and to pursuing the best that is Boston College.”
Fr. Marchese, who will continue to teach in the Theology Department, said that while he will miss his work with FYE, he is pleased to transition to this new role that will provide a valuable and much-needed resource for BC parents.
“I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with parents who are eager to learn more about how we approach formation,” said Fr. Marchese. “Sometimes parents are in need of learning how best to let go of their children so they can grow into young adults. I am excited to work with them to do so.”