Hoya Staff Writer Friday, May 19, 2006 Lindsay Anderson/The Hoya John Coghlan

If there is any senior graduating this year that fully appreciates Georgetown’s Jesuit identity, it’s John Coghlan. When the Audubon, N.J. native was looking at colleges as a high school senior, it was not simply Georgetown’s D.C. address and academic competitiveness that drew him to campus; it was also the school’s religious identity. “I’m probably one of the few people that came [to] Georgetown because it was a Catholic school and a Jesuit school,” Coghlan (COL ’06) says. In the spirit of the Jesuit tradition, Coghlan has since spent his four years on the Hilltop dedicating himself to service and charity. After arriving as a freshman, it did not take long for Coghlan to find his own niche at Georgetown. He quickly immersed himself in myriad community service opportunities on campus and around the city, and as a freshman, he became very engaged with one particular campus group – the Georgetown chapter of the Knights of Columbus. “When I came [to Georgetown], I was not really sure what I was going to get involved in. I ended up getting involved with the Knights of Columbus, and that group has really shaped what my Georgetown experience has been,” Coghlan says. After committing himself to the Knights as a freshman, Coghlan was elected Grand Knight during his sophomore year, overseeing their service projects and functions. After a successful term as Grand Knight, Coghlan became a district deputy for the Catholic male fraternal order. As district deputy, he helped direct the operations of the Knights of Columbus chapters at several D.C. universities. “We’re doing two or three things per week so it takes up a lot of my time,” Coghlan says. His campus involvement does not end there; Coghlan also played an extensive role in planning Jesuit Heritage Week last year. He co-chaired the weeklong series of events that commemorated Georgetown’s Jesuit history; in total, over 1,500 people attended the events. “We put in hundreds of hours to those 20-or-so events,” Coghlan says. “We had a group of people who are passionate about the same thing that I’m passionate about, namely the Jesuit identity.” Despite his hours of work behind the scenes, Coghlan has also been a visible and vocal advocate on campus. He has served as outreach chair for Georgetown’s Right to Life group and has helped organize many pro-life events on campus. Likewise, Coghlan has been a familiar face at the annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life. In 2003 he also helped secure funds and resources for the 4,000-mile bike trek for Eric Zimmer, S.J., a Georgetown professor. Coghlan says that he has met most of his closest friends through his campus groups. “I met John when I was a freshman, and he’s just been a great friend and mentor for me,” Darwin Young (NHS ’08), the current leader of the Knights of Columbus, says. “He’s just been instrumental in making the Knights grow. He’s a leader in every sense of the word.” Now Coghlan will take what he has learned down to Pennsylvania Avenue. When classes concluded at the end of April, Coghlan began working full-time at the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In light of the recent scrutiny that the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program has received, the board seems all the more pertinent. “I first got involved with the government working as an intern at the State Department in the White House Liaison Office last year,” Coghlan says. “It was great. In retrospect I wished I had gotten involved earlier.” While the upbeat New Jersey senior has already begun the transition to post-graduate life, his legacy as a leader on campus and in D.C. is indelibly intact on the Hilltop. “He’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met,” Young says. “He’s so humble and sincere.” For Coghlan, what has made his Georgetown experience so fulfilling is the cause he believed in, and he urges future Hoyas to find a similar passion: “Find something to do that you really believe in, and when you look back you’ll realize that it’s all been worthwhile.”