- Jesuit Ivy
The "Jesuit Ivy" is the title of a commencement speech delivered at and, subsequently, a
nickname given toBoston College inChestnut Hill, Massachusetts . The term was coined in a 1956 commencement address by then-Massachusetts SenatorJohn F. Kennedy . Speaking at theJesuit university, he was likely making reference to theIvy League which had been formally established two years prior, in 1954. The term "Jesuit Ivy" was somewhat of a contradiction in terms. The Ivy League's members were generally Protestant-founded institutions; Boston College had itself been founded in part becauseCatholics were being denied admission toHarvard University in the nineteenth century. The nickname suggested both Boston College's rising stature and the declining prevalence of discrimination at elite American universities. A Catholic whose family were longtime Boston College benefactors, Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 1940.JFK at BC
John F. Kennedy visited Boston College in an official capacity seven times during his tenures as
Massachusetts Senator andPresident of the United States —more frequently than he visited any other university, including his ownalma mater , Harvard. In addition to commencement and convocation speeches, Kennedy addressed BC's Alumni Association, Varsity Club, and College of Business Administration (forerunner to theCarroll School of Management ), and offered a series of seminars in the spring semester of 1958. While the Jesuit Ivy speech is perhaps his most well-known address at Boston College, Kennedy's 1963 Convocation Address would prove to be the most historic. It was both the inaugural event of BC's centennial commemoration and one of Kennedy's last public appearances before his assassination.The Jesuit Ivy Address
"The following is an excerpt of the address given by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy at the Boston College
commencement exercises in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts on 26 June 1956."The Kennedys and Boston College
The ties between the Kennedy family and Boston College date to John F. Kennedy's grandfather, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, Boston's second
Irish-Catholic mayor and a member of the Boston College Class of1885 . John F. Kennedy's father,Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr , became the first Kennedy to attend Harvard instead of Boston College ref|joe though he remained a long-time Boston College benefactor. In 1946, the Kennedys established theJoseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and funded the construction of theJoseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Memorial Hall at Boston College, now a part of Campion Hall and home to BC'sLynch School of Education . The foundation is currently led by SenatorEdward M. Kennedy . Other Kennedys who have attended Boston College includeKerry Kennedy , Christopher Kennedy Lawford,Christopher George Kennedy , andRobert F. Kennedy, Jr. , former director of BC's Watershed Institute.ee also
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Ivy League
*Little Ivies
*Public Ivies
*Seven Sisters (colleges)
*Southern Ivies Notes
# Joseph P. Kennedy: The Patriarch & Maker of the Dream http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/omara-alwala/JPKennedy.html
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