A Message from President Aceves

Dear Colleagues, 

The 2014 Jesuit Institute document, The Characteristics of Jesuit Education – an abridged version states, “Jesuit education is preparation for life… Jesuit education is also concerned with the ways in which students will make use of their formation in the service of others.” Through my conversations with students, I have listened to stories that bring these characteristics to life.  These stories also highlight the special relationship that exists between faculty members and students as they embark on their academic journey. I asked Provost Jake Bucher to reflect on this. He writes:

“I was asked recently what I thought Regis’ competitive advantage was, and I immediately responded with “our faculty” and elaborated by citing the high-impact practice of faculty-student research as one of the many examples of why our faculty are great, and why our students get a distinctive experience here at Regis. While our students can take biology anywhere, they can’t research primate ecology in Costa Rica at any school. Thanks to Dr. Amy Schrier, Regis students not only were able to engage in that research, but swept the research poster awards (undergraduate and graduate) at the Rocky Mountain Biological Anthropology Association meeting this Fall.

This summer, Dr. Fred Gray took students with him to Fermilab to contribute to the Muon g-2 project; in September Dr. Geoffrey Bateman and Ellis Langham (Computer Science and Peace & Justice Studies double-major) served as panelists for a roundtable titled “Queer Justice in 2023” at the Peace & Justice Association Conference; and just recently 6 students were in Washington, D.C. to present at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.

All of our graduate students are engaged in collaborative research with faculty, and/or are pursuing their own. As just one example, Daniella Salawu, a second-year graduate student in PharmD and health informatics researches how to make cloud-based pacemakers more difficult to hack as well as researching lice treatments for diverse hair.

Finally, I would like to highlight the Undergraduate Research Certificate to reiterate the importance of faculty/student research and reiterate how special Regis is. Led by Ashley Fricks-Gleason, this unique program enables and supports students in developing as researchers, connects them with faculty for collaborative scholarship, and provides them with a distinctive credential. Recently the seniors in the Undergraduate Research Certificate gave their REGtalks (our version of TED talks). Madeline Tokarski (senior Neuroscience major conducting research in the Chemistry Department) closed the evening with a wonderful talk highlighting how access to undergraduate research changed the trajectory of her academic career. Madeline is a great example of our wonderful student researchers, and our wonderful environment of intellectual curiosity, academic rigor, and impactful research.”

I am grateful to Jake and our faculty for their many invaluable contributions, including a fervent commitment to delivering a Jesuit Catholic education. I take immense pride in the accomplishments of our students and am confident that their efforts will continue to positively impact others, contributing to the creation of a more just and humane world.

Kindly,

Salvador D. Aceves, Ed.D

President