Call ’22 Awarded George A. Doyle Merit Award for Excellence in Economics or Global Studies

Mar 30, 2022

The University’s Department of Global Studies today announced that Jennifer Christoff Call ’22 has been awarded the George A. Doyle Merit Award for Excellence in Global Studies or Economics.  The award recognizes one student who possesses “extraordinary intellect, recognized community service, and potential within their field.”

The Doyle Merit Award was established in 1990 and is funded through the generosity of Dr. Doyle’s family, friends, and colleagues each year.

Call is a double major in Global Studies and Environmental Science. She is ranked #16 of 464 in her class. Ms. Call had received numerous awards in high school for excellence in academics and commitment to community service. During her time at Assumption University, she has received the prestigious Augustine Scholarship upon nomination from a faculty or staff member. This award is presented to recognize a student’s “academic achievement, leadership, character, and community service” and is given to students who embody Assumption University’s mission.     

“Jen is an outstanding intellect and a person who cares deeply about the world around her and the future ahead of her,” said Professor Kevin L. Hickey of the Global Studies Department who presented the award to Call. “I believe that she is exactly the type of person George Doyle wanted Assumption to produce and to be the honored with this award. In these terrible times of armed conflict and societal bias, it is good to know that there are people like Jen getting in line to make our futures more hopeful.”

“Assumption provided me an invaluable opportunity to grow and discover my potential,” shared Call. “Here, I connected with the intimacy of the campus and felt that it was the right environment for me to find myself and to bring forth that something I knew was inside me waiting to come out. My experiences at Assumption have shown me who I am and that I can trust traveling on the road ahead knowing that, wherever it leads, I will be able to contribute, in some way, to a greater good.”

In summer 2021, Call was a research assistant with the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, under the mentorship of Professor Karolina Fucikova. She has been a tutor in the subjects of general chemistry, organic chemistry, and global studies in the Academic Support Center. In addition, she has been a senator in the Student Government Association and a member of the SOPHIA program, a sophomore year initiative for students centered on purpose and vocation. Call has also been a four-year participant in intramural basketball. 

Dr. Doyle was a professor of economics and foreign affairs at Assumption for 40 years and had an expansive and prestigious reputation. He was a platoon leader and battery commander in the U. S. Marine Corps during World War II and retired as a Major in the Marine Reserves in 1963. He worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as an international economist and research director from 1953-1961; was an advisor to U.S. Senators Hubert Humphrey and John Kerry; and author of numerous bills for senators, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, and the Agency for International Development of the State Department. He was appointed to the New England Regional Export Expansion Council by the United States Secretary of Commerce, served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Foreign Trade Council, and was the Director of the National Science Foundation Institutes in Economics. 

In addition to Dr. Doyle’s work outside of the classroom, as a professor at Assumption, he was the recipient of two Fulbright sabbaticals for which he spent his time at the University of Zambia in Lusaka, Zambia and at the Shanghai International Studies University in Shanghai, China. Professor Doyle spoke several languages including French, Latin, German, and Russian. He was also a poet, as his last publication is entitled, “The River of Life” for which he claimed to be his favorite. This book of poems and the cash award of $2,500 was presented to Call during the ceremony.