David Crowley: Making an Impact Outside the Classroom

Amy Valentine

Online Editor

Every year in the fall, Assumption faculty and staff gather together, but not just to teach classes. Instead, they go to Noonday Farm, where they spend a day harvesting produce to donate to local food banks. “It’s a great opportunity for people to get to know each other,” said David Crowley, who helps run the retreat.

David Crowley is an active member of the Assumption community of almost 20 years. At Assumption, he currently balances being a professor of biology, the d’Alzon Chair, the Associate Director of the Center for Purpose and Vocation, and the Director of the ASPIRE program on campus. “[Assumption] let me have a career that has evolved into something I never would have imagined, but I’ve never felt restricted,” he said.

Before becoming a professor at Assumption, he received his B.A. in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. Crowley later earned his M.A. in Pastoral Ministry from Anna Maria College.

Crowley was inspired by his own professors to become one himself. “Watching my own college professors help me was a big draw,” he said. “I found that kind of help really jazzed me up.”

With working at Assumption, Crowley finds that the liberal arts education has offered him a different perspective. “I think what we do here at Assumption is great because it confronts students with really big questions.”

At Assumption, Crowley has made it his mission to promote wonder inside and out of the classroom. “This whole year I’ve dedicated to the topic of wonder,” he said. “What does it mean to awaken wonder in students? What does it mean to awaken wonder in ourselves?”

In his classes, Crowley gets to connect to his students through working in the lab, which he feels is one of the biggest advantages of being a science professor. “There’s so much we don’t know,” he said. “And when we kindle that intellectual humility in the lab, students get their wonder awakened.”

While working in the lab with students, Crowley feels as though he has a “great advantage” of becoming a strong advocate and ally for his students. Through his labs, he gets to build relationships with students by getting to know their interests, strengths, and weaknesses.

Serving as the d’Alzon Chair brings different responsibilities for Crowley. “As the d’Alzon chair, I am thinking about what kinds of things I can do to help faculty better understand our mission,” he said. “We have a series called Tapping into the Mission, where faculty and staff gather together to talk about wonder and what that means for different faculty members.”

One way that Crowley promotes the mission among the faculty is the Wonder Walk. The Wonder Walk is when a member of the faculty leads a walk to show others aspects of Assumption’s campus and explains them deeper, showing its history, importance, and why it is “uniquely” Assumption. “It’s been cool to see the campus from the eyes of someone else,” he said. “That’s the goal of the Wonder Walk.”

Karolina Fučíková, a professor at Assumption, was one of the many faculty members who led the Wonder Walk. Fučíková’s walk specifically focused on the biodiversity of plants and animals on campus. “I think the walks in general are really important because we don’t have a lot of opportunities to get together casually,” she said. “The more people are aware [of biodiversity], the more we can do to protect it.”

As the Associate Director of the Center for Purpose and Vocation alongside Esteban Loustaunau, Crowley runs the Joy Lunch. “The basic premise of the Joy Lunch is to get people together talking about what they love about their work,” he said. In this event, faculty and staff are invited with a topic of conversation to see the “big picture” beyond the daily grind of work.

Usually, the topic of the Joy Lunch will be a virtue. At one of the most recent Joy Lunches, the topic was hospitality. One of the main goals of this event is to help others reconnect with their larger sense of purpose regarding their jobs, which has resulted in a positive experience for all members of Assumption faculty and staff.

“We’re trying to run these lunches to remind people about what they love about their work,” Crowley said. “And so that when they leave the lunch, they feel a little bit more joyful than when they came.”

Crowley is also involved with the SOPHIA (Sophomore Initiative at Assumption) program, helping through the Center of Purpose and Vocation work. The SOPHIA program has been in place for ten years, helping a small group of sophomores think about their callings and how they want to serve their community. “It’s a year of discovery of who you are,” he said.

With SOPHIA, Crowley also gets to work with Loustaunau, the Director of the program, as well. “We attack problems together and try to solve them from different perspectives, and I think that is what makes us work really well,” Loustaunau said. “We come from different perspectives, and it doesn’t take us long to reach consensus because we both have the same goals in mind.”

Loustaunau sees Crowley as a “driving force” of what he presents to students at Assumption. “He’s committed to Assumption and committed to the students,” he said.

Crowley is also the Director of the ASPIRE (Alumni-Student Partnerships in Reflective Engagement) program, which builds off of the SOPHIA program. The ASPIRE program is directed towards juniors and seniors to create “reflective engagement” between current students and alumni.

As the director of the ASPIRE program on Assumption’s campus, Crowley helps alumni and students work together to navigate life after college and the challenges that can be faced, whether it be finding friends, building a career, or paying bills. “It’s a really cool thing [The ASPIRE Program] because we’re providing meaningful engagement for alumni that benefits the students,” he said.

Even though Crowley has been a part of the Assumption faculty for almost 20 years, he still finds ways to awaken wonder within himself through the community. “There’s new interesting people joining this community all the time,” he said. “I get to work with them and help them discover a little bit more about themselves.”

At Assumption, Crowley continues to promote wonder and joy in students, faculty, and staff. His impact is felt throughout the community, from answering questions in the lab to running reflection days at Noonday Farm. “It feels like worthwhile work,” he said. “I enjoy helping people feel a greater sense of belonging to this community.”