Cori Begg and Monica Cooney, Chatham University Alumni Relations

 

 

 

Tucked away in Beatty House, Cori Begg and Monica Cooney are the big sisters to Chatham’s entire alumnae network. As Director and Assistant Director of Alumni Relations, respectively, these leading ladies spend every day finding ways to bring the Chatham family closer. 

 

The Spring 2014 semester wasn’t an easy one: the Board of Trustees explored and, eventually, approved a decision to make Chatham entirely coed. As the Alumni Relations Student Assistant, I saw firsthand how Cori and Monica took on one of the most challenging periods in university history with grace, poise and a genuine commitment to strengthening Chatham’s sisterhood. Read on to find out what they’ve learned from the past few months, why they love their jobs, and what advice they have for recent graduates.

 

 

Cori: I’m Cori Begg, and I’m the Director of Alumni Relations at Chatham. A big part of my role is ensuring that people stay connected to Chatham upon graduation through special events, on-campus activities, and through using events and Chatham as a hook keeping people engaged throughout the entire country once they leave Chatham and Pittsburgh.

 

Monica: I’m Monica Cooney. I’m Assistant Director of Alumni Relations. And along the same lines of what Cori said, a big part of our job is keeping alumni connected to Chatham. Specifically, I work a lot on our communications outreach as far as social media – through Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram – as well as our monthly alumni newsletter and just kind of maintaining our event presence online, making sure all of our registrations run smoothly. So just making sure that the word is out there about what we’re doing.

 

 

Monica: I did my undergrad at Penn State University, and I went to a very small high school. So it was kind of a little odd that I picked such a large university, but I never really felt that Penn State was as big as it was. I chose it because it had a strong communications program, and they have a really strong journalism and public relations concentration within their college of Communications, so that was definitely a high point for me. They also have a really strong sense of philanthropy. They do a huge fundraiser every year for pediatric cancer, and just hearing about how they get the student body involved in that was a really big sell for me because I was very involved in high school in extracurricular activities.

 

 Cori: And I went to West Virginia University in Morgantown. I chose WVU because I majored in theater and got a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts. I wanted to attend a conservatory program, so I actually graduated with only fourteen people in my theater program, but I got to experience big-school life through an intimate program. So I had the 25,000 students filling up a football stadium, just like Monica, big-school opportunities – things that we don’t really see here at Chatham because we don’t have the base, such a large base. And yet through working the two years, 9 to 5, all theater, all the time, which is this really small group, I got to hone that craft. I also was on full scholarship for my last couple of years, so that was a big deal, too. It was an audition process to get a scholarship, and that certainly helped me throughout my college career. But I think what’s funny about Monica and I both coming from huge school backgrounds is the difference that we see in a really small, private school like Chatham and how it is such a big role of ours to engage alum and get alum excited about Chatham. We don’t have a lot of the fallbacks that other large universities do. WVU rarely approaches me about any alum activity that’s not centered around a football game. And I think your job becomes more interesting and more challenging when activities like that aren’t just handed to you to build an alumni program around. Our audience is so different, and we have to tailor a much more specific experience than a larger school might. 

 

 

Monica: Passionate. From the day that I started at Chatham, people were very passionate about the liberal arts education that they received here for undergrad. You see on the graduate student level people that are just so dedicated to their field and what they’re going for, from someone who’s majoring in creative writing to someone who is a physician assistant. You just see people who are passionate about the programs they’re in, people that are passionate about the traditions here at Chatham, things that have been around for decades. And, you know, people want for the most part to see Chatham succeed and do well and I think people – you’ve seen that a lot over the past few weeks – that people care a lot about Chatham. 

 

Cori: And I would say accomplished. That’s the one feeling that I’m struck by every time I’m in a room full of Chatham graduates. Everyone could be the focus of an interview or a panel because everyone’s experiences – in whatever scope they may be – are just really outstanding. Very accomplished, very graceful, super intelligent, great communicators.

 

 

Cori: I would say, don’t be afraid to think outside the box as you define your accomplishments. Accomplishments are also very personal. What is a huge deal for me could be no sweat for you, and vice-versa. So I think that you have to define accomplishments personally, and I think you have to celebrate your successes just as often as you celebrate your [laughs] learning opportunities or your “no’s.” Again, I majored in theater, and so as we all prepped to hit New York and Los Angeles upon graduation, my professors – who most were former working actors – said, When you go to audition after audition after audition and you hear no, no, no, at some point you’ve got to say for every 10 no’s I get, I’m going to buy myself dinner. For every 15, I’m going to buy myself a new outfit. Because you have to recognize that putting yourself out there, even if you don’t get the result that you want, is a success and an accomplishment in its own. So personalize, celebrate. And also, I think that it’s really important (especially when you’re a little bit younger) to [be unafraid] to share your accomplishments and really self-promote, because you are your #1 promoter. And let people know the good that you’re doing, because you never know whose eye that will catch…. Don’t let being humble take over for promoting yourself. 

 

Monica: I would say that you need to be flexible with your goals, especially right out of school. It’s one thing to set goals – I want to achieve this degree or want to be in this field or this position in ten years or five years – but I think you have to understand that life happens along the way. There isn’t always a straight path to what that goal might be. So I think, not to lose sight of your dreams, but I think that there’s a certain maturity and understanding when you need to have a modified goal. I just think the question that you hear sometimes in interviews, that I hate whenever people ask, is Where do you see yourself in five years or ten years? And you know, sometimes I just think to myself, I don’t know and that’s okay. It’s one thing to have goals out there, personally, as far as having family or being in a certain place in your personal life. That’s something that is great to have, but a lot of things you just can’t put a deadline on. So I think it’s just important to understand –both professionally and personally – that you can keep those goals, but don’t be frustrated if you’re not there in five years. It’s okay. It’s okay to have modified goals. 

 

 

Monica: My first job was working for a trade magazine in the suburbs of Philadelphia – or trade publisher – on several different magazines. They were for radiologists and social workers and other medical fields, and I was selling advertising space and cold-calling people from 9 to 5 and working on a base salary and sales commission. It was something that I knew was not what I wanted to do, but I needed a job. And I have to say, I knew from the second I interviewed there that it wasn’t the right job for me, but I would say it’s not a bad thing to have a job that is a stepping stone. I was there for, I think, four months before I got into my next job, which I now kind of consider my first real job. I worked for a school for special needs children in Philadelphia doing marketing and events, and it was awesome. It was like exactly what I wanted to do. I knew I loved it. It was just really amazing. It was a great place to work; the only reason I left was to move back to Pittsburgh. So I would just say the first job is not the end-all, be-all. 

 

Cori: Yeah, and I guess what I would consider my first real job … I wanted to devote time to doing theater, so I was a hostess for two years at a local restaurant and I had a pretty steady acting gig three to four times a week that I was able to do during the evenings. I was able to rehearse during the evenings because I was a hostess during the day. And I had another job before that – I moved to D.C. after graduation and I had a salary job and I was getting benefits and all that sort of real stuff for the first time, and it was awful. So to take a leap to quit that job – a steady career – to chuck it all and become a hostess for an hourly wage was kind of a big risk. And I do remember sometimes when I would be hostessing – and, you know, I was like the oldest one, everybody else was like seventeen – I would see people that I went to high school with come into the restaurant. I wanted to say to them, Guys, I’m doing this because I want to become a successful actress. I’m not doing this because this is all I can do right now. But I’m really glad that I took that time to do what I loved, because I wouldn’t be able to anymore. You know, your early twenties is one of the few times when you’re out of college and you have the opportunity to take some chances and to work without a big safety net because there’s not family yet, there’s not grad school debt yet. It’s just a time that you have to explore a little bit. I always say with a theater degree, there’s no niche for you. Like, if I get a degree in nursing, I become a nurse. If I get a degree in education, I become a teacher. If I go to med school, I become a doctor. Well, I go to school and major in theater – what does that prepare you for? [laughs] I feel like [it prepares you for] everything and nothing at the same time. But because I learned how to speak to crowds and how to be with strangers and how to put on a happy face even if I wasn’t feeling it because everything was a show, I became close with a lot of the regular customers. And when the restaurant where I worked was eventually going out of business and closing, one of my customers was the vice president for the company that developed all the real estate in the area. And as soon as he heard the restaurant was closing, he said, Give me your resume, I’m going to hire you. So what I thought in my head was a fake job turned into a stepping stone for my first real, career-driven job, which then opened me up to where I’ve gone since then. You just never know when an opportunity like that is going to present itself, so it’s so important that whatever you’re doing – whether you’re a CEO of a Fortune 500 company or whether you’re bussing tables at a local restaurant – that you are doing it the best that you can because you never know where it’s going to lead.

 

 

 

 

Monica: So after I moved back to Pittsburgh, I got my master’s degree in higher education management at Pitt while working at a cancer research nonprofit for three years, and I just really wanted to get back into the education realm of things. I actually had a friend who graduated from Chatham, and I saw that they were hiring in their Alumni Relations department, so I reached out to her and asked her some questions about Chatham. And, you know, I’ve actually lived just down the road from Chatham for five years – four years at the time – and had never set foot on Chatham’s campus. So I knew it was here. The “No Trespassing” signs at each end of Woodland Road, I think, kind of scared me away a little bit. I didn’t know if I was going to get in trouble from campus police if I like ran through campus or whatnot, but once I drove through here, I was just like, Wow. I could not believe how beautiful the campus was. And as Cori said, I think Chatham is a challenging institution as opposed to a bigger school in many ways in that we have such a unique population.  We’re poised to have more grad alumni in a few years than we will have undergrad alumni, which is very uncommon for a university. We have this unique situation where we have a women’s college and a graduate college and a college for continuing education. And I think that I just saw that as such a great opportunity. I was kind of in a place at my last job where I was a little bored. It was the same thing over and over again – the same events every year, the same people, the same messaging that you were always communicating out to people – and that’s not the case at Chatham. There’s always something going on. [There are] a lot of success stories out there that are just waiting to be uncovered for the most part, and I just love the opportunity to be able to do a lot of different things instead of being focused on the same routine every single day. 

 

Cori: And I was in marketing, public relations and advertising for the Girl Scouts for eight years. So when I saw the position at Chatham open, I saw so many parallels between [organizations] whose focus was on raising strong girls and turning them into strong women. … I just saw so many things that aligned. Also, part of my interview process was really Alumni Association Board-heavy, and that’s another part of our job. We’re the staff support for the Alumni Association Board who are the directors of the Alumni Association, and I’m an avid volunteer, so I felt as though I would be a good match to work with volunteers because I know how I want to be treated and I think we work really hard to make sure that the people who work for us, they’re not paid, so they need to be respected and appreciated in other ways. So that’s how I got here. And just like Monica said, the campus is so amazing. I grew up 5 miles from here – if that – and never drove down Woodland Road because I, too, was super scared I would get in trouble because of those “No Trespassing” signs. Also, I was about a year, a year and a half into my graduate degree here at Chatham, but I was getting my degree through the College for Continuing & Professional Studies completely online. Even though I was a Chatham student while I was applying for this job, I had never been here until my first in-person interview. So that was an interesting dynamic, and I had a lot to learn. I knew a lot about the School of Sustainability because that was really the newsmaker at the time, that’s where Chatham was garnering its most press. I knew my experience in the College for Continuing & Professional Studies. I had to learn a lot about the women’s college, but Girl Scouts aligned so closely with that, and obviously grad studies I knew a little bit about. And I remember thinking, How would I engage a learner like me? How would I make an online learner care about a school in Pittsburgh when they live in California and might never come here? So that presented a unique challenge and a way for us to get ahead of the alumni relations game as more and more go from brick and mortar to an online option.

 

 

Cori: Well, I have learned what an immensely effective communication tool social media is. I also learned just how good a job social media can do in reconnecting people. Because while I saw people united around a cause they weren’t happy with, I also saw people really unite over something, and it was something related to Chatham. So I learned what an effective tool that is for sharing super-timely, in-the-moment information, and I got a glimpse into a whole population of people with extraordinary passion for Chatham and so much momentum over, again, a shared cause. They had a shared cause, which was to try to save Chatham from going coed, so there was a fervor that I didn’t know existed among our alumni population that I got a glimpse into. I also learned that so many of our graduates are insanely well-written and well-spoken and lovely writers. I am just struck with how intelligent everyone is. And, you know, it’s difficult when you have to be on message … without a whole lot of input into a final decision, any input. And I would say that across the board, Monica and I felt very supported by the majority of the alums that we came in contact with. Even if they didn’t like the situation, they respected the staff who were trying their best to make this process as painless as possible. And it’s a grieving process. Everybody felt a little bit of that grief once the vote was made if that was their platform. And I think we were included in that, too. It’s been a very emotionally and mentally draining experience. 

 

Monica: Yeah, I mean, Cori kind of stole my thought about social media. And I would say it was interesting talking to some people who had been around whenever the previous discussion of coed had come up in the ‘90s of how their phones were ringing off the hook and all these incoming phone calls and whatnot, and you kind of saw that in the form of social media this time around. While we did receive a large number of phone calls, it just seemed like nothing compared to what other people had talked about the last time that this had happened. And, you know, I think one of the hardest things for myself and I think for Cori, too, was that this is our job. This is our livelihood. We want to see Chatham succeed regardless of the makeup of the student body and to go home at the end of the day and say, I’m not going to think about this, I’m not going to check Facebook, I’m not going to worry about what’s going on in that world. That was kind of a hard thing because we care about Chatham, we want to see it do well, not just for ourselves but for the people that we’ve met and built relationships with over the past few years. So I think that’s kind of the hard thing: you want to see people be happy and this is kind of one of the first times – like you said – the first time where you’re kind of delivering this bad news. We’re used to being the fun, the events, the “come to reunion”, the happy-go-lucky Alumni Relations team, so to have to deal with something that’s a little bit more upsetting to people is difficult. 

 

Cori: Yeah.

 

Monica: I think you go into this field because you like to…

 

Cori: Please people.

 

Monica: …make people feel good about Chatham. So being the bearers of bad news sometimes has been difficult.

 

Cori: And Monica and I are front line with the alum more so than anyone else. I think that we have more intimate relationships with our alumnae once they graduate than probably almost anyone. So when you’re dealing with a population who’s upset, and they’ve become a family to you, it’s very hard to divorce your personal feelings from the platform that you’re representing as a staff member, especially to people who you’ve grown to care about so deeply.  So that’s always an interesting position for people who work with volunteers: you have to walk a fine line between being a friend and being an employee. 

 

 

Monica: I love all the traditions at Chatham. I get so happy every year – it’s funny, I started at Chatham at the end of March, and it was the perfect time to start because there was Closing Convocation and Buckets & Blossoms and University Day and Graduation, Senior Toast, Graduate Reception, so I got to experience all these really great traditions right off the bat whenever I started, and I was just in awe. I loved it. I just love seeing how some of these traditions – like Candlelight or Song Contest –have gone on for decades and decades, and hearing people’s memories of experiencing those traditions is really something to brag about. Because I think that’s one of the things that make a university special is that special bond that you have throughout the years. No matter when you graduated, you remember that you participated in this and it’s that common bond that can bring alumni back together and say like, Oh, do you remember whenever we did this or that? So I just really like how the faculty and staff are embraced into those traditions and that we get to be a part of them, too. 

 

Cori: I love that we are the constants in the past, the present and the future of Chatham University. I love talking to alums and hearing their crazy stories, like their dorm had a butler or they used to climb out on the roof of Woodland to sunbathe and called it Woodland Beach. 

 

Monica: Somebody had a pet duck in Beatty House.

 

Cori: Yeah, a pet duck that lived on the roof at Beatty.  The ghost stories. The former staff, that they used to smoke cigarettes in the dining hall. I love that we’re a part of all this history and that people are so excited to share their stories with us. One of the things that Monica does on Facebook is a Flashback Friday where she posts an old picture from the archives, and people go crazy, whether they’re laughing at pictures of themselves with giant hair in the ‘80s or just how funny people dressed in the ‘30s. There’s a real respect for history here. And then we’re making the present happen. We’re currently hosting events, and we’re communicating what’s going on on campus, and we’re making sure that people get what Chatham is, right now, in this second, in this very moment. And we’re also shaping the future of Chatham in what we do to connect with the seniors and the juniors and everyone while they’re here for four years on campus. But we take a special focus on the graduating class, because we know that in a couple short weeks, those are our newest alums. So to be able to spend time with the seniors so they know who we are, and next year when a 2014 grad gets an invitation to a Pirate game or an event at the Warhol Museum, they’re not only going to go because it’s Chatham, but they’re going to go because they remember Monica and I taking time to talk to them about their Tutorial or grabbing lunch with them in Anderson or supporting them at Song Contest. To personalize our approach and steward people before they’re alums is, I think, a great [illustration of] how we are presently shaping Chatham’s future. 

 

 

 

 

Cori: A year and a half. 

 

 

Monica: I had the fortunate opportunity that I got to interview my boss, Cori, whenever she was applying for the position, and the one thing that stood out to me was her leadership ability. She’s such a strong woman, she’s involved in so many great local organizations and just has a really powerful command over her. Whenever she’s speaking with people, she just speaks with such authority and she’s very confident in herself, and I think that she’s a good role model for me in that realm because sometimes I tend to be a little bit more behind-the-scenes (like, I’m sending these emails and Facebook posts to you). But Cori is such a strong presence that I think that that certainly rubs off on me every now and then. 

 

Cori: And Monica is definitely the analytical, data-driven, organized, super-professional member of our team, and I would be lost without that. And it’s really funny because, you know, Monica was in this position and I’m Monica’s supervisor, and she got to choose who she was going to hire to supervise her. And then when I started, Monica had to teach me everything, because we did things opposite (as normally the boss would hire the person who she would supervise, but we did it polar opposite). And I think it’s really funny how without even saying it, our positions just delegated themselves. There were things that Monica naturally geared towards and things that I naturally geared towards. We never talked about it, we never analyzed it, it just very naturally worked itself out. And I wish that I could say that I hired Monica so that this is like some kudos to me, but it [isn’t] at all. But I have always thought that the best thing you can do when you hire someone is hire someone that you never have to really look at again, because I have the utmost confidence in everything Monica does, I would be lost without her, and I trust her. In everything. Like, I could walk out of here for three months and I wouldn’t even blink. 

 

Monica: [laughs] Don’t do that.

 

Cori: I know, I know. And I also think that one of the tenets of Chatham, at least in commitment to women, is – and could be more – on female-to-female mentorship. And that’s something that’s really important to me in my life, and that’s something that I’d like to pass on to Monica and to you because women need women as their advocates. And I, in too many women-focused situations, have seen … I don’t know. I feel as though sometimes people get, not scared…

 

Monica: Threatened.

 

Cori: Threatened by other women. Like, Monica does something, Monica gets credit for it. I want to feel threatened internally by the people I hire because I want them to be that good. But I think that women need to champion other women without being threatened, and without taking credit, and I don’t see enough of that in this world. So that’s something that I feel like we’ve connected on, as well. 

 

 

Cori: It is. And I really don’t know why there’s a tendency for a woman to feel threatened by another professional, educated, successful woman. I don’t know if it’s because the slots are fewer and farther between for women. There might be 10 CEOs and 9 of them might be men and 1 might be a woman. Is that why? Because we don’t have as many opportunities so we’re scared to let anybody take that role? But that is what sets a woman above being a great leader: when she is not only a great leader, but she also takes time out to focus on getting other women there. I think that’s super important. 

 

 

Monica: I had never worked in Alumni Relations before. I did Phonathon in college, so that was the extent of my experience in working in University Advancement. So you know, I knew some basic fundraising techniques, I’d planned events before and done marketing at previous jobs, but I had never been at a university. So I was like, I need somebody that’s going to help me a little bit along here and guide me along the right way. For a few months, I was actually doing both Cori’s and my job, and it was one of those things – I was like, I hope I’m doing this right. I don’t know. So I did want someone who was going to be, not bossy, but be a good guide for me. Somebody that I can not feel threatened by and someone that I can run things by. Like Cori said, that she kind of trusts that the work that I do is good. I can certainly appreciate that somebody that isn’t going to micromanage, nitpick at every little thing. It’s nice to have somebody who is going to be a proponent for what you’re doing and just be there for you as a sounding board and kind of giving you honest feedback about what you’re doing.

 

Cori: It’s not about approval. It’s more about a sounding board. 

 

Monica: Yeah.

 

Cori: And I think we both saw when we started here that a lot of things were the way they were because nobody had ever bothered to say, This really isn’t working. Why can’t we change this? It was just kind of easier to continue following the same formula. And that was something that I really appreciated about Monica, too: together, especially when you have a little bit of backup, you’re not afraid to shake things up. And I mean I see we can both say over the past year and a half, two years that we had some things that didn’t go as good as we might have hoped and had things that went so much better because we weren’t afraid to take a risk and try it differently just to see. 

 

 

 

Monica: I would say, don’t just rely on Facebook and LinkedIn and social media to keep yourselves connected to your friends. Near or far, a phone call or a letter or a card in the mail or a get-together for happy hour or get-together for coffee: I think that that could go such a long way. And you know, we were just talking earlier today about how Reunion is so different now because our younger classes keep in touch by social media. They know when you got a new job, when you had kids, when you got married. So the mystique about reunion has kind of faded away a little bit. And you see it with older classes, too. I mean, I know my parents are on Facebook, so they keep in touch with their friends and whatnot. But I think that it’s important not to lose that personal connection, because that’s something that can’t be replaced by technology all the time. There are so many friendships that I probably wouldn’t have if not for social media to keep me in the loop of what’s going on. But I think it needs to be a complement for it, not a replacement for personal interaction with people. So long story short, come to events whenever you graduate.  [laughs]

 

Cori: Yeah, I think you need to go to things. Get yourself out there. Volunteer as much as you can. You have the most energy now than you ever will. So get out there, whether it’s a one-day volunteer stint for the marathon or a full-time gig helping out with an event for the Heart Association, just find volunteer opportunities and do them. You never know when you’re going to meet the right person. Also, again, champion yourself. Pittsburgh’s a tough city to build a network in because so many of us are from here. We don’t leave here, and our networks are tight, so take a chance. If you go to a free lecture and you’re really impressed by the presenter, Google that person’s work address and send them a note that says, “You were amazing. If you ever need an intern or a volunteer….” You’ve got to position yourself for great things to happen to you. And I believe when you put the good out and you put the positive out, it will come back to you. But you’re not going to put that out sitting in your apartment on the internet all night. So be out there, be present, introduce yourself, work on your handshake, send follow-up notes, and let people know that you admire and respect them. Because seeing young people put themselves out there – that to me is a person who rises to the top. That’s the person who I’m going call when I have a job opening or I’m going to call when I need an event volunteer. Be a standout. Don’t blend into the crowd. 

 

Monica: And I would say along those same lines, don’t be afraid to go to something by yourself. Don’t be afraid to volunteer. Especially if you’re moving somewhere where you might not know a lot of people, just go to things. I mean, I think that there will ultimately be other people in the same shoes as you going to these young professional events or volunteer activities, and it’s a really good way to meet people. 

 

Cori: And back to the alum connection, do your research! If you’re interviewing for something, take a look on the alum Facebook page or through CU Online. See if there are any Chatham connections. Pull upon your connections: keep building them and use the ones that you have. And be a person other people will vouch for. So always present yourself as responsible and make yourself into someone who an alum or a staff member will say, Pull this person’s resume. I can say for one thing that they’re a Chatham grad, so they’ve got some good stuff going on. 

 

 

Cori: Well this year marks the grand opening of Rea Coffeehouse! Rea Coffeehouse was a beloved gathering spot in the bottom of the residence hall, Rea, and because of some structural issues, it just sort of fell into disrepair. It was shut down several years ago. So in a really cool joint effort, the senior class decided to restore Rea Coffeehouse as their senior project. And because this is such a near-and-dear spot to our alums, we saw a lot of alumnae support for the project and for the seniors. And Reunion Weekend, Saturday evening, we’ll be opening Rea Coffeehouse for a “Caba-Rea” in which our talented Chatham graduates are free to hop onstage and demonstrate any talents, so that’s one really cool thing. 

 

Monica: I know a lot of our classes look forward to their class parties. Our biggest-attended event during Reunion Weekend is usually class parties, and then we have a Bloody Mary and Mimosa reception for everyone on Saturday morning which apparently has been going on for quite a few years at Chatham. And then we have a lunch following that where we give our awards to our Distinguished Alumna, and we have four Cornerstone Awardees this year. And our Distinguished Alumna, Sarah Bornstein (she’s a class of 1969 graduate) – we’re just really thrilled to honor her as well as our four Cornerstone awardees and welcome these women back to campus and share their stories with the rest of the alumni community. 

 

Cori: Also, Beth Roarke, who’s an art professor here at Chatham, is curating an exhibit that she’s putting on special for Reunion Weekend which will feature the works of Jerry Caplan, former art professor here at Chatham College, and his partner, Donna Hollen-Bolmgren. [Roarke] is going to put this exhibit together in Woodland Gallery, which is really cool because whenever we’ve got these items from his estate, we’ve kind of been holding them close to the chest and we haven’t displayed them yet so this will be an opening for that. And at the same time, we’re inviting current and former faculty to come to the gallery during that time and to mix and mingle with former students as they admire the works of a former art professor here at Chatham. 

 

 

Monica: Well, I hope I am retired and traveling around the world. But I think that a balanced life of career and family would be awesome. And yes, hopefully retired and traveling to all the places I would love to go but just don’t have the resources or time to do right now. 

 

Cori: I hope that I have been using my Master’s in Professional Writing from Chatham University to run my own shop, and having finally settled in a few places after traveling the country and working anywhere I wanted from a laptop. Yeah, I hope I’m retired, super well-traveled, maybe making my own wine. Hopefully I’ve learned how to cook. Food, wine, family, friends, travel. Dogs. Lots of dogs. Maybe I live on a dog farm also. I mean, I think that your dreams begin to be shaped by reality the further out of college that you go. And the more you realize that, that reality is better than any of those dreams that you could have made for yourself. [When I was 21], I’d practice my Oscar acceptance speech in the bathroom. And now, I look at what I have, the experiences that I’ve gained, and I feel like this is exactly where I’m meant to be. 

 

 

 

 

Cori: Oh, I’m just going to pick a room. Mine is the solarium in Mellon. I think it’s gorgeous. I would have a really small wedding there. 

 

Monica: I love the Chapel. 

 

 

Monica: Horticulture 101. All about plants. 

 

Cori: Man, I took some weird classes. I’ll say fencing – or stage combat. 

 

 

Cori: One thing?

 

Monica: I’d taken them to the Strip District and walk around and eat everything. 

 

Cori: Well, if I had an hour, I’d take them to the Warhol and then to PNC Park for one inning. 

 

 

 

Cori: Mean Girls. On Wednesday Monica and I wear pink.

 

 

Cori: Oh, let’s see. I mean, I should just be token and say the spinach-artichoke dip. 

 

Monica: The pea pancakes?

 

Cori: The pea pancakes I love, but the students probably never get to have those. I do like me some Parkhurst pizza. I’ll say spinach-artichoke dip. I will pander. I want people to like me.  [laughs]

Sticky buns?

 

Monica: Oh yeah, the cinnamon buns. Preferably two of the mini-sized ones instead of one of the big ones. 

 

 

Cori: Let’s see – Chatham Day at PNC Park was a blast. 

 

Monica: I will say, my first day of work, I went on a bus to Philadelphia with a group of alumnae from Pittsburgh to go meet up with a bunch of alumnae from Philadelphia and we did a food tour of Northern Liberties in Philadelphia and then we went to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art the next day. It was the best first two days of work ever because I got to eat delicious foods, see amazing art – it was great. 

 

Cori: I’m going to say my favorite was the docent-led tour of the Carnegie International exhibit which was in Pittsburgh this year, because we opened with a reception on the second-floor balcony of the museum and it was just so cool to have wine and food and network with alums in what amounted to an exhibit, and then having three female docents who knew we were from Chatham, so they really boned up on women artists who were showcased through the exhibit and just gave us such a rich and detailed experience with a female focus throughout the entire tour. It was phenomenal. 

 

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