This summer, the Boston College Options Through Education Program (OTE) celebrated its 40th Anniversary. Alumni from the OTE Program, including all the way back to its early days as the Black Talent Program in the 1970s, returned to BC’s campus for a weekend of reconnecting, sharing, and meeting the current OTE class of 2019 (graduating class of 2023).
Boston College Chronicle, March 27, 1997. Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Records, Box 3, BC1986-023.
Burns Library houses the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Records, containing pieces of the office’s history ranging from yearbook and graduation photographs to campus event flyers and featured articles in The Heights. Yearbooks from OTE classes dating from the summer of 1984 to the summer of 2017 can be found in these records.
The Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center (BAIC) supports several programs and resources for Boston College Students such as College Counseling, Nursing Outreach, Options Through Education Summer Program, Study Abroad Tuition Remission, and Summer Tuition Remission. Over the last five decades, the BAIC has made and continues to make strides in supporting BC students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
Options Through Education Class of 2005. Picture from summer of 2001. Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Records, Box 5, BC1986-023.
Since its founding in 1968, The AHANA Office has undergone several changes, adapting its name to be more inclusive, adding a vast number of on-campus resources, and creating programming geared toward student success. In 1968, BC President Fr. Michael P. Walsh, SJ, (whose records are also held at Burns Library) began the Negro Talent Search (NTS) Program; over the next decade the program name would change to the Black Talent Program, then Minority Student Programs in 1975.
In 1978, Dr. Donald Brown became Director of Minority Student Programs. During Dr. Brown’s tenure as Director from 1978-2005, the Options Through Education Program was established along with several others, such as the Benjamin Elijah Mays Mentoring Program.
In 1979 students Alfred Feliciano and Valerie Lewis led a student group that campaigned the Boston College Board of Trustees to change the office’s name from Minority Student Programs to the Office of AHANA (African, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American) Student Programs (OASP).
Options Through Education Class of 1996. Picture from summer of 1992. Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Records, Box 5, BC1986-023.
That same year, Dr. Brown changed the name of the office’s “Summer Program” to Options Through Education/Transitional Program. In 1988, the office’s name changed from 72 College Road to the Thea Bowman AHANA Center, in honor of Sister Thea Bowman and her many years of activism and ministry. Sister Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A., Ph.D. strove to bring faith and cultural awareness to children across the United States and various countries. After teaching for almost two decades, she served as Consultant for Intercultural Awareness for the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi. During this time, she implemented traditional Black teaching techniques and practices that incorporated song, dance, poetry, drama and story. She made over 100 public appearances each year, participating in conferences, recitals, lectures and workshops, where she advocated cross-cultural collaboration.
Sister Thea received an honorary Doctor of Religion from Boston College in 1989. In 2014, the AHANA office changed its name to its current title, Sister Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center (BAIC).
Boston College’s Options Through Education Program has a decades-long history of preparing incoming first-year students for college and providing them with on-campus resources and support as they begin their undergraduate careers. The program selects a diverse group of incoming first-year students who demonstrate strength in leadership and scholarship in spite of challenging personal, educational, or financial circumstances. Currently, the program accepts between 40-50 students who attend a six-week program on campus, take 3 summer courses for credit, and engage with BC’s campus and Boston before their fall move-in. Throughout the program, students not only take classes together, but also participate in community service, explore Boston, and go on program-sponsored weekend trips together.
Options Through Education Class of 1991. Picture from summer of 1987. Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Records, Box 6, BC1986-023.
This year the forty-one OTE students in the incoming class of 2023 sat alongside alumni spanning four decades at the Anniversary Welcome BBQ on BC’s quad. Dr. Donald Brown was also in attendance, and emphasized to both current students and alumni that “this is your campus.”
To learn more about Boston College’s Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center visit https://www.bc.edu/offices/ahana.html . To explore their records yourself, you can read the finding aid and schedule a visit from the library catalog.
- Annie Malady, Reading Room Assistant, MA Candidate in the Department of English
Works Consulted:
- “Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center History,” Thea Bowman AHNA Intercultural Center, Boston College Division of Student Affairs. https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/offices/student-affairs/sites/ahana/about/baic-history.html
- “Options Through Education Transitional Summer Program,” Thea Bowman AHNA Intercultural Center, Boston College Division of Student Affairs. https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/offices/student-affairs/sites/ahana/programs-services/promote-equity.html#options_through_education_ote_
- “Sister Thea Bowman,” Thea Bowman AHNA Intercultural Center, Boston College Division of Student Affairs. https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/offices/student-affairs/sites/ahana/about/baic-history/sr–thea-bowman.html
- “Sister Thea Bowman’s Story,” Franciscan Sisters for Perpetual Adoration. https://www.fspa.org/content/about/sister-thea-bowman
