By Rachel Konieczny
News Assignment Editor
“I just knew that it would have been harder for me to leave and go back and try to forget what I had seen than it would to try to do something.”
Maggie Doyne, 2015 CNN Hero of the Year and St. Bonaventure University honorary degree recipient, said it was the smile in the eyes of a Nepalese girl that led her to open a children’s home in Nepal after spending a gap year there after high school. Doyne witnessed the effects of the Nepalese civil war firsthand when she encountered a 6-year-old girl breaking stones in a riverbed and selling them to earn money to feed her family.
Sister Margaret Carney, O.F.M., university president, bestowed Doyne with her doctor of pedagogy degree on Monday.
Doyne built the Kopila Valley Children’s Home after buying land with her babysitting money and founded her BlinkNow Foundation, which encourages young people to volunteer in other countries.
Eileen Quick, a Bonaventure philanthropist and the wife of ’75 alumnus Leslie C. Quick III, brought the idea to confer Doyne with an honorary degree to Sr. Margaret and the Board of Trustees. Eileen Quick nominated Doyne after being asked to receive an honorary degree herself.
“I put the letter that Sister Margaret had written me up in front where I would see it everyday, and I thought about it and prayed about it,” Quick said. “Finally it just came to me that I really feel that Maggie [Doyne] is such a wonderful role model for young people, and I couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of an honor than Maggie [Doyne].”
Maggie Morris, director of the Franciscan Center for Social Concern, said Doyne’s service aligns with the university’s mission.
“I think Maggie [Doyne] is just the type of person who our university ought to be honoring,” Morris said.
Morris said after hearing Doyne’s presentation to a local elementary school on Monday she looked forward to hearing her story at Bonaventure.
“I think it’s important to show to our students and our community that we value work like Maggie [Doyne’s] in the world,” Morris said. “Maggie [Doyne’s] is a work of charity but also social justice by offering education to children who would otherwise not have it.”
Jessica Stender, a senior journalism and mass communication major, praised Doyne’s volunteer efforts.
“She’s only 29 and has done so much, and here I am at the age of 21 only about to graduate college,” Stender said. “The cool thing is that she’s officially a Bonnie now.”
Doyne, when asked for her secret to success, said it is simple.
“It’s all love. It’s all family,” Doyne said. “How incredible that the most basic teachings that we know, that we’ve been taught—if we could just go back to those most basic principles, think about how amazing the world would be.”
koniecrc14@bonaventure.edu
