A Degree of Déjà Vu
Relatives study on two different campuses but share a single alma mater
By Christine Neuberger
The Mary Washington shirts and sweatshirts outnumber the diplomas in the Lanzarone home – but not for long.
There’s the sheepskin that Eileen Lanzarone, M.Ed. ’03 earned through studies on the UMW campus in Stafford. Upstairs is the diploma Eileen’s daughter Kathy received for the bachelor’s degree she completed at the school’s Fredericksburg campus. Come May, Kathy’s brother, Chris, will bring home a diploma for his own bachelor’s degree. And yet another is on the way: Kathy has begun a master’s program at the Stafford campus.
The Lanzarones are among a small yet growing number of families boasting two generations of grads with degrees from the two UMW campuses. During school, daily adventures might have differed for these sets of relatives; but in the end, they share the intimate Mary Washington experience – and an alma mater.
“I feel a sense of great pride that we have this common thread,” Eileen Lanzarone said.
The family’s Mary Washington tradition began when Eileen decided to pursue her teaching license at the Stafford campus, now called the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. An educator at a nearby private school, Eileen found the convenience of the evening classes wasn’t the only thing she enjoyed.
“Every aspect of my experience was positive,” she said.
When Kathy weighed her own future, she felt no familial pressure to attend UMW. Yet, as a longtime resident of the Fredericksburg area, she felt comfortable at the friendly and familiar downtown campus. Its foreign language department and Kathy’s desire to major in French sealed the deal. Early on, she realized that she had found her niche.
“It was the best decision for me,” she said. “I really loved it.”
Like his older sister, Chris didn’t feel forced to follow in anyone’s footsteps. He said he headed to “the best school I could get into.”
“I feel good about Mary Washington,” said Chris, now a history major set to graduate in May. “I think it’s turned out well for me.”
Raised in a close-knit family, Chris and Kathy don’t regret skipping the dorm experience. The Lanzarone family of five regularly dines together, even if Chris pulls the evening shift at the UMW bookstore, where he has worked for more than two years. On Sundays, the family attends church services just two blocks from the Fredericksburg campus.
Now fresh from a year of teaching in Paris, Kathy is living at home and back at Mary Washington, pursuing a master of education degree at the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. But this time, her mother’s experience did influence her decision. In the graduate education program, Kathy has found the small classes and supportive faculty that her mom described – and that Kathy recalled from her own undergraduate days.
“I like that there’s this shared common experience,” Kathy said. “My brother talks about Simpson Library, and I’ve been there a billion times. I know some of his professors. And now I’m taking classes where my mom went. I really like that.”
Kathy has discovered something else she really likes. When UMW hosted an event for high school seniors, she seized the chance to show her younger sister, Julia, around and to talk up UMW’s highlights.
“I think she thinks it might be a good fit,” Kathy said, “but I don’t want to push her.”
Nor does Eileen want to push any of her children. Still, she admits to applying a little subliminal pressure; each morning, she serves juice to her youngest in a UMW glass.
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Janet Smallwood, M.Ed. ’05 wasted no time infusing her youngsters with spirit for her alma mater. After all, Janet and her husband were freshmen – both horticulture majors – when they met at Virginia Tech.
“We were staunch Hokies,” she said. “From the time the girls were little, we brainwashed them.”
Once her daughter Jessie headed to Blacksburg, there was one more to go. But when Jessie’s sister, Whitney, visited Tech, she felt overwhelmed.
“It was too big. I felt lost,” she said. “It wasn’t right for me.”
Inclined to stay near her family’s Northern Neck home, yet eager for a dorm experience, Whitney eyed Mary Washington. Her mother, who enrolled in graduate courses at UMW’s CGPS in 2000, had appreciated the supportive faculty and emphasis on hands-on experience – and her accolades about the school’s curriculum carried weight with Whitney. Then, a student-led tour of the Fredericksburg campus won her over completely.
“It’s gorgeous,” Whitney said. “I remember how friendly people were, smiling and saying ‘hi.’ I felt welcomed.”
That was nearly four years ago. The high school senior converted by the campus tour is now a college senior leading her own tours. As a volunteer Washington Guide, Whitney shares with campus visitors her deep affection for UMW.
“I love getting to talk to all the prospective students,” she said.
When Janet beamed with pride during her 2005 commencement ceremony, she delighted in more than her own graduate degree.
“The fact that Whitney was a student, not just an observer, made it very special for me,” she said. “I just smiled for four hours sitting at Ball Circle. It meant a lot knowing that Whitney would have that same experience three years later.”
Whitney no longer feels like the black sheep of her family for not following its Virginia Tech tradition. She thoroughly enjoys sharing a Mary Washington legacy with her mother.
“I got my mom a Mary Washington sweatshirt my freshman year, and she wears it,” Whitney said, “and not just because I went there.”
“There” is where Whitney is eager to stay. Her top post-graduation priority? A job as a UMW admissions counselor.
“I love Mary Washington,” she said.
Christine Neuberger is news information and coordinator at UMW’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies.