PHOTO: Jeffrey Smith '86, front row second from left, and wife Donna '86, front row third from left, enjoy Homecoming & Family Weekend 2024 with classmates from what was then known as Alvernia College.
Children of Alvernia alumni often follow in parents' footsteps
It’s like family.
That’s a common response given by current and former students when asked to describe the Alvernia experience.
In most cases, the meaning is metaphorical. But the family affair can be literal as well. Couples will meet on campus, get married, and then watch one of their children attend their alma mater.
Those generational links were on full display at Homecoming & Family Weekend 2024 during the festive football tailgating in a packed parking lot behind the Bornemann Building. Keeping it in the family, the event featured catering from Nonno Alby’s, owned by Alvernia alumnus Massimo Grande ’07, and a soundtrack supplied by The People’s DJ aka Nick Talarico ‘03.
“This place is amazing, right? Special territory,” said Jeffrey Smith '86, partaking in the festivities with a group that included wife Donna ’86. “You walk on this campus, you feel something. You can see it from the kids that come here, and it's birds of a feather, man. It's just it's great people following great people.”
That was the case with the Smith family, when son Jeffrey Smith Jr. ’11 followed his father’s footsteps onto campus and onto the baseball team.
The elder Smith frequently returns to campus, a place overflowing with memories for the recipient of Alvernia’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996 and current member of the President's Advisory Council.
“The school celebrated its 25th anniversary when we were here,” he said. “I was part of the groundbreaking for the PEC. We broke ground the day I graduated. I was president of the student council, so I put a shovel in the ground. ... And it's really just meeting the friends that I made. You make lifetime friendships. I was the only person from Massachusetts in the dormitory, so everybody wanted to know, how do you say this? And then I would say ‘pahked my cah.’”
Also enjoying the tailgating were the Millers: Amy ’97, now a laboratory technician for the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, and husband Wade, a member of the Alvernia Athletics Hall of Fame and a former Major League Baseball pitcher.
Like the Smiths, the Millers met on campus, a moment that Amy called her favorite memory of her time here. Her favorite tradition is the mandate that all students perform a minimum of 40 hours of community service before being certified for graduation.
“I love that it's a Franciscan tradition that every student that attends Alvernia must give back with community service,” Amy said. “I remember going through it and being like, do we have to do this? But then it was so rewarding. And I just, I love that. I love the values that Alvernia has.”
And those values continue to be passed down the Miller clan, with daughter Haven a month into her first year. A member of the Spirit Team, Haven was across campus practicing for the group’s performance at halftime of the football game.
She initially planned to attend college across the state, but the distance eventually became too much for her.
“She was going to go to Duquesne in Pittsburgh,” her mom said. “But the ride, every time you go out there it would get longer and longer. And then she said, ‘I don't want to go, I don't want to go,’ and I'm like, ‘Well….’”
As Alvernia continues to renovate and expand, it might seem like returning to campus would be off-putting for alumni of the Alvernia College days. But that’s not the case.
“It still feels like home,” Smith said. “For sure. It's like they just put an addition on the house.”
