St. Joe’s students will ‘graduate as leaders’

A pillar of community pride and rich Town of Brookhaven history, St. Joseph’s University has been a local resource as well as an international hub for its students.

Founded in 1916 as St. Joseph’s College for Women the institution was granted university designation by the New York State Department of Education and New York State Board of Regents in April 2022, and now boasts nearly 50,000 alumni of St. Joseph’s worldwide.

With more than 100 undergraduate, graduate, dual degree and online certificate programs offered at the university taught by faculty members with hands-on experience as leaders in their industry, more than 1,100 degrees are conferred degrees to students annually at its campuses in Brooklyn and on Long Island.

“We have great partnerships with local hospitals, school districts, and businesses where our students gain their practical training,” said university president Donald Boomgaarden, Ph.D.

In the past, Boomgaarden has said their affiliates were so impressed by St. Joseph’s students that they would say “please send me more St. Joseph’s graduates!”

Boomgaarden believes that what distinguishes a St. Joseph’s student is their rigorous training in writing and speaking across all fields of study that engenders a smooth, meaningful, and productive transition from classroom to office setting.

“Writing and speaking are the keys to success. Maybe through a club, maybe in their classes, they’re going to have to get up and talk, explain what they’re working on, do presentations, work in small groups, so when they graduate St. Joe’s they will graduate as leaders.”

“A lot of people think of it as a small liberal arts college, but really it’s a comprehensive university,” said Boomgaarden.

Child studies, nursing, and criminal justice have remained the university’s most popular fields of study, but Boomgaarden stressed the importance all majors had in creating the vigorous spirit that defines the school.

A trend in K-12 mission statements has been a concept of educating the “whole” student, meaning that it is not only academic enrichment that the school provides, but also mental health support, camaraderie and socialization with other students, and mentors in the faculty.

“That’s a shared educational mission of the Jesuits and the Sisters of St. Joseph and that language has become important here on Long Island because of that. The Latin term for this is cura personalis, which means ‘the care of the whole person,’” said Boomgaarden.

While initially founded by Catholic nuns, who are honored at the university with a 40-seat chapel in the Student Center that is next door to a non-denominational prayer/spiritual space, as a university, the school currently stands as fully secular.

Asked how to address the anxiety experienced by more entering college students, Boomgaarden said the most prevalent concern for incoming freshman was whether they would be successful or not. The retention rate from freshman to sophomore year is nearly 90 percent on the university’s Long Island Campus. “It’s a real problem for young people. Anxiety is off the charts for so many young people and I can understand why. The world is rather frightening… and with social media and the internet, they can see everything that’s going on and it’s scary to them,” said Boomgaarden,  “There’s an anxiety of whether I’ll measure up to the standards and expectations of the university and we try to remind them that they were accepted here because we think they can succeed. When we accept a student, we think you have all the tools to do great.”

The main components of easing the anxiety of future performance has been the smaller class sizes and readily available faculty mentors. In addition, the expansive list of extracurricular clubs and organizations draw students into campus life by building off existing strengths and interests.

“Our largest major is ‘undecided,’” said Boomgaarden with a chuckle. “We don’t push students to decide immediately because in many cases, they’re just unsure… the process to find their path is a complex one because it takes time to find out who you are. Sometimes students come in with a really strong opinion of ‘I’m going to be a teacher,’ ‘I’m going to be a lawyer’ or ‘I’m going to be a doctor,’ until they go out and start to take the courses.”

Unlike other university programs where undergraduates don’t begin to observe classrooms until senior year, St. Joseph’s students sit in on actual classrooms as early as freshman year while taking entry courses. The exposure to the real-life work and day-to-day tasks provides the student with an opportunity to pursue a better-suited field without losing precious undergraduate time. 

The same direct immersion approach occurs in other departments where internships can be at local businesses of their professors.

With the advances in and emphasis on technology, St. Joseph’s has included leading majors in the field, like cybersecurity.

On the Long Island Campus, students will find a gaming lounge and Esports room in the Student Center, as well as an Esports team.“When you look at something like gaming, it’s play, but look at all the advancements that have come because these games need to become more and more intricate and advanced,” said Boomgaarden. “It’s related to our theories in mathematics and in science. We put many students in the Brookhaven labs during the summer where they learn about extremely advanced technological topics… frequently, our students are mentored out there by scientists.”

The campus is also addressing the over-usage of artificial intelligence with a forward-thinking approach that presents AI as a tool, not as an academic workhorse.

“One of the computer professors told his students, ‘You won’t be replaced by AI, but you’ll be replaced by someone who uses it better,’” said Boomgaarden. “It’s here, we have to find way to use it, but we also have to find ways to make sure we use it responsibly. We certainly don’t want to pass it off as our work.”

Teaching a music course at St. Joe’s last year, Boomgaarden found the first batch of essays from his students to be so well-written that he suspected they had used AI, but after comparing to in-class exams, the level of skill matched.

Athletics is a key component of St. Joseph’s student life as it “builds the sense of school spirit.” The university boasts new and foremost student athletic centers that include an Olympic-sized pool, sprawling gymnasium, a weight room with dozens of stations, and Danzi Stadium, which has a 400-meter all-weather track, synthetic turf field for soccer, lacrosse, and flag football, and a grandstand featuring bleachers for up to 1,500 people and a press box.

“They can play soccer or lacrosse and those events are really magical for them. Our men’s soccer team last year won the division championship… watching the energy they had for that game was so touching to me,” said Boomgaarden. “As I was leaving, they started to play that Queen song, ‘We Are the Champions,’ and you could just see all of our students—that was just a moment in their lives that they’ll never forget and just bonds them in a way that’s unforgettable. It’s things like that that makes the St. Joe’s education special.”