LATROBE, PA – Jack Quinn, a Saint Vincent College junior who is double majoring in communication and history, has lived in many different places.
His father is committed to a career in the armed forces, but that level of dedication has translated into frequent relocation. Quinn grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and has since relocated at least five times, including stops in South Carolina, Washington, California, North Carolina (again), and finally, Pennsylvania.
But for the past three years, Quinn has felt right at home while studying at Saint Vincent College.
When planning for postsecondary education opportunities, Quinn initially toured the campus with his aunt and uncle, both associate professors of theology in the College’s School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: Dr. Catherine Petrany, who also serves as the Boniface Wimmer Endowed Chair in Monastic Studies, and Dr. Lucas Briola, C’13, chair of the Theology Department, director of the Saint Vincent College Center for Catholic Thought and Culture and Endowed Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture. Quinn was struck by the sense of community that he found at Saint Vincent.
“I just thought that everyone was really nice,” Quinn recalled, “and all the department heads seemed like they cared. It wasn’t like you were a number … that’s why I came here.”
As an incoming freshman student, Quinn was first undecided on his area of study despite always having a strong interest in history. Along the way, he enrolled in Peace and Justice in Historical Perspective, a history class instructed by Dr. Timothy Kelly, chair of the Department of History housed in AHSS, and was hooked.
“He was really interested in letting me do all the research I wanted to do about the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement,” Quinn said of his freshman year coursework.
Quinn is also majoring in communication and praised Dr. Jessica Harvey for her work as chair of the Department of Communication.
“There are a lot of really interesting classes that I took with her,” Quinn said. “At the time, I added communication because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to fully pursue history. I eventually decided that it would look good on a résumé if I had a bunch of different disciplines, even though I eventually discovered that I wanted to fully do history.”
He credited Dr. Emily Arledge, C’15, an assistant professor of history, with helping him better develop historical writing skills, and Dr. Melinda Farrington, an associate professor of communication, who also helped improve Quinn’s writing skills.
“Starting out at Saint Vincent College, writing was not my thing, but now I actually enjoy it,” he said.
As a sophomore, Quinn attended the 138th annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) where he was inspired by the undergraduate research poster sessions. The annual meeting is the largest gathering of historians in the nation.
“That was kind of when I realized that this is what I want to do,” Quinn said, noting that the event inspired him to present his own research the following year.
Throughout much of his time at the College, Quinn has been consistently researching and writing about John Lennon and his anti-war views during the Vietnam War. He was able to expand that research by branching out to other musicians of that era, broadening the focus from Lennon to include artists such as Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. The poster focuses on the artists’ struggles with law enforcement and government during the anti-war movement as well as their different musical endeavors.
Quinn presented his work, titled “Rock and Roll: Voices of Peace during the Vietnam War,” on Jan. 10 in Chicago during the 139th annual meeting of the AHA.
“Less than 50 undergraduate students presented their work at this poster session, and I was proud to see Jack representing Saint Vincent College,” Arledge said. “It was his decision to apply and conduct additional research for this conference. I hope other history and public history majors are inspired to pursue their research in the same way.”
He is the first Saint Vincent College student to present at the annual meeting of the AHA.
“During the event, I really liked that there were some people who came by who didn’t know who [the artists] were necessarily,” Quinn said of the subject matter, “and I had different links to the music so they could listen to it … it kind of made me feel pretty good.”
Following the presentation, Quinn hoped to expand his research and incorporate the works of Bruce Springsteen.
While a long-range view of his potential career path is now a bit clearer, Quinn started at the College with an undeclared major and no idea of his life’s vocation.
“[Quinn] came to Saint Vincent a bit tentative in his approach to classes and to college generally and then seemed to transform almost overnight,” Kelly said. “He engaged his studies seriously, took advantage of every opportunity to expand his knowledge and embraced the life of the mind. Within a few years he was mentoring other students and sharing his enthusiasm for participating robustly in our learning community. Jack is a wonderful student.”
As Quinn looks back at his first three years at the College, he can’t help but feel blessed to be instructed by a wealth of faculty members, in particular, Kelly.
“I don’t get the feeling that I could walk into the equivalent of Dr. Kelly’s office [at another college] and ask for assistance,” Quinn said. “With him, he literally stopped and talked to me one night at 9:30 p.m. before leaving because I had a question about something. I don’t think you get that elsewhere. I became very inspired by Dr. Kelly when I got here, and I realized this is what I want to do. I want to be that guy.”
As he eyes his senior year of undergraduate studies at Saint Vincent, Quinn hopes to eventually earn master’s and doctorate degrees in history. He then aspires to either work in museums for a period of time and then teach undergraduates or go straight into postsecondary education instruction.
