Bridgewater State University
Bridgewater State University
As New Academic Year Approaches, We Share a Student-Made Video from Opening of Classes One Year Ago . . .
A video from September, 2025, - nearly a year ago - posted on YouTube, captured one student's BSU experiences as he spent his first days at the university.
From dawn to dusk and everything in between, this is a superb view of Bridgewater State in its 185th academic year from the perspective of a student.
In less than a month, the 186th academic year will open.
We hope and trust it will go as well as last year's, as reflected in the video.
Guaranteed, we'll be following along to capture the most interesting news.
See the link below for a truly entertaining look from last September:
A BSU Student Uses Knowledge of Photonics
to Help Beat Her Uncle's Illness
We're grateful to Mr. Brian Benson, G '23, of BSU's Office of Enrollment, Marketing and Communication, for sharing the story he authored recently about Ms. Ava Bickford, '27:
Ava Bickford, ’27, traces her love of science to performing simple childhood experiments with a beginner’s microscope alongside her uncle, Ray.
Now a student researcher at BSU, Ava’s work has taken on deep personal significance.
Inspired by Ray’s ongoing battle with colon cancer, Ava is researching how lasers can be used to treat cancer, combining her passion for science with a desire to make a difference.
“He’s the reason I started studying science,” said the BSU photonics and optical engineering major.
“He thinks the project is really cool and hopes that I help a lot of people.”
Ava is studying photodynamic therapy, a treatment that uses laser light and light-activated drugs to target cancer cells. The approach may provide a less invasive and more precise alternative to treatments such as chemotherapy by reducing damage to healthy tissue.
Although the techniques she is studying are still in the early stages of development, Ava is excited to contribute to research that could one day improve cancer treatment.
In a BSU laboratory, she carefully aligns optical components, including mirrors and lenses, to direct a laser beam onto a specially designed material that mimics the optical properties of human tissue and contains a light-activated drug similar to those used in photodynamic therapy.
By studying how the laser light interacts with the material, she aims to better understand and improve the effectiveness of the treatment.
“We have some of the most cutting-edge technology that not even private universities have access to,” Ava said. “You have a huge amount of opportunities just waiting for you.”
To read the entire article, please click on the link below:
https://www.bridgew.edu/stories/2026/bsu-photonics-student-studies-innovative-cancer-treatment
Bridgewater State University's Study Abroad Program:
One Student's Memories of India
Above, Ms. Goulet in India stands beside a poster featuring Dr. Jabbar Al-Obaidi, professor of communications and Special Advisor to the President for Global programs, who accompanied the BSU students on the trip to India.
Bridgewater State students have an exciting option in the university's Study Abroad Program, which sponsors trips to various nations around the world.
Recently BSU student Anita Goulet shared on Facebook her memories this spring of a trip to India.
Her post said: "Hello, everyone! I just got back last week from a short study abroad trip to India. I was there with my professors and classmates for about two and a half weeks, and I had so much fun! Thank you so much to Bridgewater State University for giving me this incredible opportunity."
To see her post on Facebook from her travels around the country, including important landmarks, religious sites, and a visit to BSU's partner school, MGM University, go to the Facebook web site and click on Bridgewater State University Study Abroad.
Below is a related photo from our archives:
In September, 1985, the first group of Bridgewater State faculty and students prepared to depart for a year's study at Shanxi Teachers University in the People's Republic of China:
Dr. Nancy Street, third from left in the photograph, now professor emerita of communications, would spend the full year with her students at Shanxi University and then she would decide to return for a second year herself..
She subsequently published a book on her experiences.
At the same time the Bridgewater group left for China, a group of five Shanxi University students came here for a year.
This was Bridgewater State's first formal faculty-student exchange program with the People's Republic of China, which began with talks in China a year earlier with officials at Shanxi University.
Then Vice-President Robert Dillman (at left) and President Rondileau - along with faculty member George Sethares and Librarian Joyce Leung - were invited to visit the country where talks initiated the program.
Shuje Isawa, Class of 1877, First Person to Use
a Telephone to Speak a Foreign Language
"Not to be Ministered Unto but to Minister"
In each edition of this report, we choose passages to share excerpted from the book authored in 2010 by Dr. Thomas Turner, professor emeritus of history, photo above, Not to be Ministered Unto but to Minister: Bridgewater State College, 1840 to 2010.
In this week's report, we share paragraphs in Dr. Turner's book that concerned Shuje Isawa:
"Isawa arrived back in Japan in 1878 and informed the Boydens [father, Albert Gardner Boyden, son, Arthur Clarke Boyden] that he had been employed in the Tokyo Normal School at a yearly salary of
$1,080.
"He added, 'I have not begun to teach any yet, but expect to commence my work as soon as possible.'
"He asked the principal to remember him to Miss Woodward [Eliza Bond Woodward, class of 1858, faculty member for the next 30 years] and other teachers.
"Isawa rose to the position of vice principal and then principal of the school.
. . . "Isawa continued to correspond with his old mentor.
"In 1887, he sent a letter to Boyden introducing Mr. T. Shimoda, an instructor at the Higher Normal School and a former student who had been sent to study the American normal school system.
"He asked Boyden to give him advice.
"In 1888, he indicated that while he didn’t write often: 'My affec-
tion for you is always as deep as when I was under your kind care.'
"Isawa also thanked Boyden [Albert Gardner Boyden] and In 1903, as Boyden was nearing the end of his tenure, Isawa wrote, 'I heard of your lively and prosperous work as the principal of our dear old Nor. School through Professor Taninoto who visited you last year.'
"On the 75th anniversary of the school in 1915, he also sent best wishes: 'I have the honor to congratulate you on your seventy-fifth birthday as your only son in the land of the rising sun.'
"As a token of his esteem, Isawa had presented a number of his books on education hand printed in the Japanese language to Mrs. Boyden [Isabella Whitten Clarke Boyde, wife of Albert G. Boyden, and, like her husband, a graduate of the class of 1849].
"She, in turn, donated them to the public library, stating simply,
“I would like to present these books as having belonged to him.”
"At some point, the books were returned to the university and, once again, reside in the Bridgewater archives.
"Isawa died in 1917, but to this day, he is revered as the father of normal school education in Japan, and Bridgewater is widely known for providing his education.
"Numerous Japanese scholars have traveled to Bridgewater to research and write about his life, and in 1968, the Japanese Broadcasting Company sent a film crew to produce a documen-
tary that was shown on national television in Japan," concluded Dr. Turner.
This concludes the report for August 10, 2026
Next edition: Monday, August 17, 2026