More Senior Than Others

A Return to SLU 33 Years in the Making

In the fall of 1993, dealing with depression and anxiety while living off-campus, I withdrew from classes at St. Lawrence, just a handful of credits short of earning my Bachelor of Arts in speech and theatre. Wait, let’s back up a step to Commencement Day 1993. A 22-year-old version of me, in a traditional cap and gown, joined classmates on a sunny Sunday to celebrate graduation—only I wasn’t actually graduating. It was perhaps more of a dress rehearsal than anything. The promise of reaching my credit goal would propel me to take a summer class and return for one more semester, the one that I would eventually cut short. 

Now moving through life without my BA, I embarked on a long, strange trip from working at a Video News Video, then Sergi’s (for one day only), and then Pizza Hut in Canton to later managing the Roxy Theatre in Potsdam before pivoting to broadcast sales in Ogdensburg. The move to selling radio would open up a path I couldn’t have predicted 30 years ago. 

The twists and turns in my career(s) were often fast and sharp. I bounced from evening rock DJ to filling in as weatherman to producing TV news and talk shows to creating TV original programs—including an Emmy-nominated children’s educational series. I acted in commercials. I jumped into advertising. I taught SAT prep classes. I worked in special education. I lived a thousand lives, many of them very gratifying, and still my unfinished business at St. Lawrence haunted me. 

If you talk to most SLU alumni (maybe that’s your mom, dad, or both), they will tell you there’s always something linking them back to their years on campus; some special memory, some unforgettable event. I had those, but they always seemed overshadowed by my missing credits. 

When I left Albany, NY, for Houston two days after 9/11, I assumed I would be back in a few years and maybe finishing college would be within reach. Instead, I moved further away, ending up in Los Angeles by 2017. Not glamorous LA. Hustling-for-any-opportunity LA. I believe my most “Hollywood” moment was spending 19 hours on set at Warner Bros. for a George Clooney Nespresso commercial. 

On rare occasions when I came back to the North Country to see my parents, I was reminded of the disconnect I felt with SLU. It wasn’t enough that my time here provided a terrific foundation for my future in creative storytelling and networking. Any opportunity to mention the school left me feeling awkward and embarrassed. For a long time, I even avoided including St. Lawrence on my résumé. 

I found a small way to compensate for what I was missing. It came from my special interest in telling true stories and doing the research needed for them. I devoted countless hours to diving into The Hill News online archives to look up old stories about the play performances, wrestling achievements, and Thelmo leadership of Isadore Demsky ‘39 (better known as Kirk Douglas), read the creative fiction of Viggo Mortensen ‘80, or simply see photos and articles about my productions as a speech and theatre major, long before I became a professional actor and member of Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) in 2014.

In Oct. 2023, I returned to my home state of New York after 22 years away and 30 years since my last semester as a St. Lawrence student. Suddenly, the idea of finishing my degree didn’t seem so out of reach. My daughter was beginning her freshman year at University at Buffalo, and she and her mom began encouraging me to consider my options to complete my BA degree in Western New York, perhaps even online. But, that wasn’t what I had in mind.

Throughout this process, I discovered a SLU student-athlete with a remarkable story about returning to campus. Following mid-terms in early 1931, Hal Schumacher ’33, a promising young pitcher, left school to join the New York Giants of the National League at spring training. After the 1931 and 1932 seasons, he returned to St. Lawrence, honoring a promise made to his mother. Not only did he manage to remain on the team and earn his college credits, but on the same day as his graduation, he and the entire New York Giants team played an exhibition game against St. Lawrence, drawing 10,000 fans to Weeks Field. That fall, Schumacher and the Giants won the pennant and then beat the Washington Senators in the World Series, with Schumacher allowing only five hits and one run to win Game Two at the Polo Grounds. 

2025 became a pivotal year for my return to SLU when I reached out to the Registrar’s office to get an update on my missing credits and connected with Dr. Angela Sweigart-Gallagher in Performance and Communication Arts. She introduced me to Dr. Alanna Gillis in Sociology, for an independent study. She also introduced me to Professor Josh Vink who would be directing the Spring semester play, The Minutes, in Gulick Theatre—the site of my last college performance in 1993. 22-year-old me wouldn’t have felt the ability to identify every element of what I desired most from a semester and set in motion the steps to make it happen. 

My readmission to SLU—with the help of the Executive Director for Advising, Retention, and Student Success Dr. Tina Tao in navigating the online registration process—streamlined my transition from Class of ’93 (with an asterisk) to Class of ’26. The final piece of the puzzle, Financial Aid, would not come until after the semester began. Shortly after I arrived on campus, I received a call from Carole Jenne to deliver the news that I had been awarded the Kirk Douglas Scholarship. The call moved me to tears. (If you saw someone on January 21 at 10 a.m. crying on the Kirk quad, that was me.) I reached out to the agent of Kirk’s son, Michael Douglas, in gratitude to ask how to send a thank-you letter, and his assistant welcomed me to email it to her. My letter included a clipping of Kirk’s first play on campus, published in The Hill News on Dec. 11, 1935. 

Before you walk away thinking age is the most significant aspect of my return—or assume I see this campus through the lens of the “1900s”—there is a far more important change peers couldn’t have seen in my previous era. It’s one of identity. Four years after I was 

supposed to graduate, I reconnected with my Mohawk family in Buffalo. Those new relationships allowed me to create a pathway to registering as First Nations, a member of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario, a birthright I wasn’t even aware of at 22. More recently, I joined Native American Community Services in Buffalo as their Marketing & Development Specialist, a role I continue to play remotely while on campus and one that may connect me to some of you through the Center for Career Excellence. 

Now that I’ve settled into my classes and two independent studies, both designed to tell the story of developing my Haundenosaunee identity as an adult, there is much academic work to be done. Still, I have not lost sight of the important social piece of the college experience. That’s why I spend as much time as I can among you, at the student center, the library, or at Appleton, feeling grateful my lifelong journey has led me back to the campus I love and the opportunity to see it from a fresh perspective.