The Hoeys are your average Irish family. In fact all of our names are Irish: Patrick, Sean, Catherine, Robert, and Mary. Saint Patrick’s Day is also referred to as St. Paddy’s Day, and to me, it’s the most important holiday ever. As St. Paddy’s Day approaches, many people are decked out in green to show their true Irish pride. Even if you aren’t Irish, you are for that one-day of the year: March 17. Our Irish heritage is something we value and cherish in the Hoey household.

Every morning on Saint Patrick’s Day there is always candy on the counter for my brothers and me. As children, my parents used to tell us about the leprechauns and how they would come into the house at night and leave candy. We also always go to the parade in Worcester. When we were younger, we would go out in our Irish sweaters made by our friend in Ireland. Sadly, our sweaters no longer fit considering they were made many years ago when we were just kids.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, both of my grandmas visit and my mom makes corned beef and cabbage. She makes so much of it that for the whole next week we have corned beef sandwiches, or just left over corned beef every night for dinner. If you have never tried it before, I highly suggest you do; it will change your life forever. We only eat it once a year, so I look forward to this day from March 18 until March 17 the next year.

This year, I attended the Saint Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday March 15^th in Boston with my friends from home. We were ready in our greenest Irish pride garb! It was cold, but, regardless we still had a lot of fun. Then today, Saint Patrick’s Day, we will have our annual home cooked corned beef and cabbage meal with my family.

I look forward to seeing how everyone celebrates St. Paddy’s Day with your Instagram and Twitter posts. I also hope the leprechauns are good to you!

On February 22^nd, Captain Richard Phillips visited Nichols College to speak to students, staff and community members. His inspiring tale of survival is well known across the world.

March 31, 2009 began as any normal day would, but little did Captain Phillips know that it would be the first day of the longest voyage of his life.  As soon as he stepped on the Maersk Alabama, he realized that the security was not up to the standards he was used to and that this ship was unlike any ship he had been Captain of before.

Captain Phillips decided he should do an emergency drill to see if his crew was prepared for an attack. Throughout his speech, Phillips kept repeating, “We were expecting the worst,” due to the many recent pirate attacks in the waters that he and his crew would be traveling through. The drill lasted 15 minutes, and it was not the best exercise; many doors were unlocked among other issues, proving his crew was not prepared. He decided to have a discussion with his crew to go over what had gone wrong and the code words they would use for looming pirate attacks.

Captain Phillips continued to fascinate us with his compelling story. He and his crew heard “Somali Pirates are coming to get you,” over the radio on the morning of April 8, 2009. The crew did exactly what they learned during the drill a couple days earlier. The entire ship was secured, as the pirates approached just 50 yards away. Everyone on board, except for the captain, was hidden in a safe room. A couple of minutes later, Captain Phillips was face-to-face with the Somali pirates’ leader.

The pirates forced Captain Phillips to talk over the loud speaker.  He announced, “All crew to the bridge, all crew to the bridge.” Little did the pirates know that this was a secret code word and the crew knew not to emerge from the safe room, but one member forgot and showed up to the bridge. The pirates were not convinced that there were no other crewmembers on board, so they toured the ship with Captain Philips and then with the sailor. When the pirates’ leader and the sailor went around searching the boat, the crew knew and took the leader as their hostage.

Soon the three pirates that had remained in the helm with the captain grew worried because their leader had been gone a long time. Captain Phillips said the pirates could take one of the lifeboats along with their leader, but only if they got off the ship. The pirates agreed, but they wanted a hostage, so Captain Phillips volunteered to be the hostage.

The pirates held Captain Phillips until Easter Sunday when the navy surrounded the pirates’ lifeboat. During a very intense period of time, the navy shot and killed all four of the pirates who were holding Captain Phillips hostage. At that point, one of the rescuers made his way to the lifeboat and brought the captain to safety.

I thought Captain Phillips was one of the most captivating speakers we have had on campus so far this year. Throughout his entire speech, I could truly feel what he was feeling during his hours of captivity. Phillips even displayed pictures of his ship, the map, and of the Somali Pirates. Captain Phillips also kept telling us that we are stronger than we think, and listening to his story and what he went through makes me believe this. I really enjoyed that Captain Phillips began with how he always wanted to become a captain and the journey he went through to make it happen.

Ellie Zeitlin came to speak at Nichols College on Tuesday February 10^th. She is one of a number of speakers who have been invited to speak as part of the Learning to Lead class, a course that all freshman are required to take. This event was also a cultural event hosted by the Fisher Institute. After Ellie graduated from Columbia University as an Economics major, she immediately became involved in a non-profit organization called DoSomething.

The organization works with young people to take action on the social changes that are happening all around them. After leaving DoSomething, she co-founded a new non-profit called Change Better, which helps other non-profits get started. Change Better provides them with the following services: an organizational diagnostic, an individualized impart-evaluation strategy, a core advisor from their team, pro bono consultants, and conferences and workshops.

In the last four years Ellie has worked with social entrepreneurs to help build important strategic and impactful endeavors.  Since co-founding Change Better, her organization has awarded more than $1.4 million to the country’s best change makers.

I enjoyed listening to her speech. She really gave us insight into the inspirations that have made her the person she is today. However, I wish she had talked more about herself; she only briefly touched upon her family life growing up and how she became interested in non-profits. It was amazing to see that even though she went through tough times, she has become a successful woman and still makes a positive impact on society.  All around, she had a compelling presentation. The impact she has had makes me want to go out and do something to make a difference.