Young people have forgotten how to date responsibly. Kerry Cronin sought to change that. A documentary—and a nationwide conversation—soon followed. As a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a fellow at the Center for Student Formation, Cronin has met hundreds of students in her more than 20 years of teaching, counseling, and mentoring at the Jesuit university. It is a lost art that she is trying to reestablish by giving them a dating assignment. There is a deep irony in this story, however.
At 52, Cronin is single and only occasionally dates. Her family is amused that she gives this assignment to her students. Anthony Messenger. When the film was released, wherever they were across the country, they went to see it, and they love it. Cronin decided to assign dating to her students—first for extra credit and then for a grade. The idea was not to marry them off.
Instead, she wanted them to experience traditional dating as an alternative to the hook-up culture. Her students acknowledge that talking to someone face-to-face can be harder than having sex in the dark with someone they barely know.
So Cronin created the step-by-step assignment for her class and recalled for them her own past relationships. Released earlier this year, The Dating Project features Cronin as well as five young adults—from college students to career professionals—as they navigate the dating experience.
It came about when coproducers Megan Harrington and Catherine Fowler Sample went out with friends one night and realized that most of them were unmarried and not dating. The idea behind the film was fascinating—as equally fascinating as the woman who created the assignment. Cronin was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the fifth of six children and the only girl.
