Last night, I had the honor and privilege of attending the Blessing Ceremony and Dedication Dinner for the Georgetown University Healey Family Student Center (HFSC), the 44,000 square-foot student center that opened in September. For almost 5 years, including my time as a student and young alumnus, I have been involved in the conceptual, design and fundraising phases of this project and attending last night's festivities made me so proud and was truly a surreal feeling. I remember the first conversations I ever had about this building with administrators and other student leaders and it was great to be with many of those individuals, as well as Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia and members of the University's Board of Directors. In 2010, I spearheaded the effort in front of the Student Activities Fee Endowment Commission to have over $2.1 million of student money to be the first gift towards this building and this commitment from the students was then leveraged by the University to fundraise over $20 million.
I always believed that this building would be a "game changer" for the student life experience at Georgetown and after seeing students utilize the building and feeling the energy, I know this is the case. The HFSC was described as the students' new "living room" and I'm so excited that this a reality for them to enjoy it. My involvement with the creation of the HFSC is one of my proudest accomplishments as a member of the Georgetown community!