MAGAZINE SPRING 2017 Making connections: Tom Hanchin ’85 P. 12 Inside this issue: RENEWAL THROUGH MERCY: THE NEXT 90 YEARS P. 2 MERCYHURST CONSIDERS NEW CAMPUS IN IRELAND P. 4 GRAD PROGRAMS GROW OUTSIDE THE GATES P. 6 SENIOR CLASSES SINCE ’89 HAVE LEFT THEIR MARKS ON CAMPUS P. 14 WRESTLING’S BAND OF BROTHERS P. 26 The Ofce of Marketing and Public Relations publishes Mercyhurst Magazine twice a year. Magazine Editor Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 [email protected] 814-824-2090 Design Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 [email protected] 814-824-3022 Contributing Writers Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 Deborah W. Morton Allison Seib Jennifer Smith Inside this issue Contributing Photographers Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 2 MICHAEL T. VICTOR INAUGURATED AS 12TH PRESIDENT Angela Zanaglio ’16 3 NEW RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM ANNOUNCED 3 STRATEGIC PLAN GETTING UPDATE Printing 4 MERCYHURST EYES CAMPUS IN IRELAND Leader Graphics, Erie, Pennsylvania 4 LEARNING DIFFERENCES PROGRAM CELEBRATES 30 YEARS 5 MERCYHURST TAKES LEAD ON DOWNTOWN ERIE INNOVATION DISTRICT Director of Alumni Engagement Lindsay Cox Frank ’12 ’14M 6 GRADUATE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE ONLINE [email protected] 7 DINING HALL, ICE CENTER GET UPGRADES 814-824-2330 8 STUDENTS EXPLORE MERCY SERVICE 9 DONORS FUND CAMPUS PROJECTS THROUGH CROWDFUNDING Class Notes Editor 10 LAID-OFF WORKERS TRAIN FOR NEW CAREERS AT NORTH EAST Courtney Olevnik ’08 ’13M 12 TOM HANCHIN ’85 RECEIVES PRESIDENT’S AWARD [email protected] 814-824-2333 13 JOE LARGE ’01 FINDS DREAM JOB 14 SENIOR CLASS GIFTS FOUND ALL OVER CAMPUS Send changes of address to: 16 HOSPITALITY GRADUATES MAKING MARK ON INDUSTRY Alumni Relations PETER ZOHOS ‘97 Mercyhurst University D. FORD MENNEL ‘02 501 E. 38th St. STEVE KACZERSKI ’13 AND LOAN VU ‘13 Erie, PA 16546 [email protected] PAUL CAHILL ‘88 MARGARET WEIR MANCHIK ‘87 TONY TUPEK ‘05 DAN PORA ‘96 If you haven’t been receiving the bi-monthly SHANE KRIGE ‘91 Alumni eNewsletter, Mercyhurst does not CHRIS WALKER ‘10 have an active email address for you. Visit 21 ELLEN RYAN ’64 SHARES HER TIME, TALENT, TREASURE hurstalumni.org/get-involved to update your information and reconnect. 22 SCENES FROM A BUSY FALL AT MERCYHURST 24 SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS FROM ERIE AND NORTH EAST We’d love to hear from you. Send your 26 MIZIA BROTHERS SHINE ON WRESTLING TEAM story ideas, suggestions and comments to 27 CLASS NOTES [email protected]. 29 BRITTANY PARKER ADKINS ’07 PENS BOOK FOR BOY FACING PARALYSIS A message from the president One of our senior staf members reminded me the other day that it signifcant opportunities for wasn’t that long ago that gathering content for our alumni magazine our students, and provide was an easy task. We had room for just about everything. much-needed and well-paying jobs for our graduates and Today, preparing a magazine starts with what seems like a never-ending others. list of story ideas that has to be painstakingly edited and edited again. Still, we are an institution that refuses to rest, to plateau, or to say we’re You’ll also see that one of our good enough. Because, as the old saying goes, good enough never is. partners in the innovation Instead, our faculty, administrators, staf and students, not to mention district, Erie’s only Fortune 500 our remarkable alumni, are known for upping their game, and this issue Company – Erie Insurance, of Mercyhurst Magazine will highlight that energy and inventiveness in is also partnering with us a grand way. on a new risk management program, arguably another win Our cover story, for instance, features alumnus Tom Hanchin, who took a for the university and for the hospitality degree and an entrepreneurial spirit from Erie’s Elephant Bar City of Erie. Mercyhurst alumna Betsy Hirt Vorsheck has made a $1.25 to Boulder, Colorado, where today he owns a $25 million tech company. million investment to launch the program. Speaking of hospitality, this issue we check in with a number of hospitality graduates, who are parlaying their skills into impressive These meaningful and fruitful collaborations, I believe, are going to careers. take our university to the next level. I must give my colleague, Provost David Dausey, credit for his untiring commitment to managing these We also highlight one of our most generous alumni, Ellen Ryan, a 1964 projects and enlisting the support of our distinguished faculty and local home economics graduate and a member of our board of trustees. community leaders. She is passionate about ensuring that today’s young people have the opportunity to experience the rewards of a Mercyhurst education just Finally, whether on campus or in our community, Mercyhurst continues like she did, and she has gone to great lengths to make it happen. to keep its Mercy mission top of mind. Within these pages, you’ll read about 20 of our students as they commit to service in the tradition of And please check out the latest in athletics, from a story about Catherine McAuley during our inaugural 4th Vow Retreat. You’ll also see wrestling’s three gifted Mizia brothers to the latest renovations at the how Mercyhurst North East is helping renew the lives of those afected Mercyhurst Ice Center. by recent layofs at GE Transportation, 70 of whom are back in school retooling for the future. In the 19 months since I became president, we have worked diligently to restore our collective spirit while making some tough but necessary It is most gratifying to see our students thrive, be it their frst, or second, calls. I’m pleased to say that we have our house in order and are moving time around. I’d like to think the Sisters are smiling everywhere. forward with a strategic plan to guide us successfully into the future. Until next time, Carpe Diem. As much as Mercyhurst remains our primary focus, we would be naïve to think that our future is not inextricably linked to that of our city. As this once thriving manufacturing town looks to reinvent itself, we are stepping up to help. Thanks to a $4 million grant, which you’ll read about within these pages, Mercyhurst is leading the development Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D. of a Downtown Erie Innovation District, which we believe will create President, Mercyhurst University ON THE COVER: Tom Hanchin ’85 in the Boulder plant of CCX (Cable and Connection Experts), the tech frm he co-founded and built into a $25 million business. Photo by Marla Rutherford. Read more about his career on page 12. 1 Renewal Through Mercy: The Next 90 Years Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D., was in a unique rely on their gut or intuition,”Victor said in will build new local, regional and international position when he was inaugurated as his inaugural address. “The days of informal collaborations that create the very best Mercyhurst University’s 12th president structures and casual leadership are gone. learning experiences for Mercyhurst students on Sept. 10, 2016 – looking to the future Ours must be a thoughtful, strategic business and generate opportunities for enlightenment on the strength of a record-setting and model rooted in research-based problem- and service to the greater good. Further, he transformative frst year. solving, analysis and best practice.” said, the university must ensure that in these times of escalating college costs, it fnds ways Under his administration, Mercyhurst had With his background as a business school to draw its members from the widest range of enrolled the largest freshman class in its dean, college president (Lake Erie College socioeconomic groups and keep Mercyhurst history, welcoming 728 new undergraduates. 2006-2015), corporate CEO, lawyer and accessible to talented students everywhere. It achieved a fundraising milestone, bringing entrepreneur, business models have always in $6.5 million, the largest amount ever in been part of Victor’s world. “I maintain an unwavering confdence in the a single year. The university streamlined purpose and potential of this university and its its academic and administrative functions, Having inspired a renewed spirit of collegiality role in shaping human lives and, in turn, the restructured its liberal arts curriculum and on campus rooted in the Mercy mission, Victor future of our world,” said Victor in concluding revamped its academic calendar. It struck a said he looks forward to a bright future. his inaugural address. “As we gather here, at chord for tradition by renewing an old custom the intersection of our past and our future, of – the hourly ringing of the carillon bells – and Going forward, Victor said the university our mission and our vision, of lessons learned starting a new one, Hurst Day, a grand-scale will continue to establish niche felds of and challenges anticipated, let us appreciate celebration of student life. study and anchor them with a strong liberal this extraordinary moment and go forward arts curriculum. It will investigate new with a spirit of Renewal through Mercy toward “Higher education leaders can no longer technologies for delivering that education. It Our Next 90 Years.” 2 President Victor, right, welcomes Erie Insurance guests, from left, Dionne Wallace Oakley, Doug Smith and Sean Dugan to the Mercyhurst press conference. Top: Dionne Wallace Oakley, senior vice president, human resources, Erie Insurance. Mercyhurst partners with Erie Insurance on new risk management program Two of Erie’s premier institutions – Mercyhurst be named the F.W. Hirt Erie Insurance Risk University and Erie Insurance – announced Management Program at Mercyhurst last month that they are launching a new risk University after her father. management program to educate a growing workforce, create new economic opportunities “I’m happy to make this investment with and advance the high-demand feld.