Each year, Brown University presents the Joslin Award to select senior undergraduate students who have contributed in a significant way to the quality of student life at Brown. Engineering’s Declan Boyle is one of 10 recipients in 2024, representing the very best of Brown in the areas of character, involvement and impact.
Boyle, originally born in Paris, spent most of his life in a small town outside of Philadelphia called Kennett Square. Boyle will graduate with an Sc.B. in electrical engineering. In true Open Curriculum fashion, he has explored numerous disciplines, including chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as entrepreneurship and sustainability.
In high school, he pursued his first initiative to help give voice to student-athletes by creating the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) with a goal of creating a stronger relationship between the student body and the administration. As a football player, Boyle has had the opportunity to work with Brown football alumni to develop the Brown Football Alumni Network (BFAN) as a more effective way to create connections between current athletes and alumni, with the hope of expanding the network to all athletics.
Following this experience, Boyle was able to work closely with the football team’s Bear Faculty Liaison, Professor Sylvia Kuo, on the concept of learning transfer. Using the experiences developed through years of sport, they had hoped to find parallels in learning through athletics that would transfer into academics. Together, Kuo and Boyle started a pilot workshop focused on tangible skills to help develop holistic student-athlete identities, balancing their academic, athletic and personal lives.
Additionally, Boyle was a member of the Brown football team, receiving the Class of 1910 Football Trophy for highest academic achievement. He contributed to the Bench Press for Cancer and Be the Match initiatives; has been a member of Brown Space Engineering, Scientists for a Sustainable World and SAAC; and was inducted into Brown’s Tau Beta Pi chapter, engineering’s honor society.