Mercyhurst Magazine Spring 2020
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SPRING 2020 Hurst ties still bind Barbara Pacicco Wenig ’95 Inside this issue: and Nalika Nanayakkara ’94 Hurst teachers making a diference P. 6 Student investors reap gains for university P. 12 P. 2 Joe Morris becomes go-to political commentator P. 14 A message from the President Every year as I engage students across our campus, I’m inspired by the phenomenal potential that I see. I’m also reminded that our highest duty is to provide our students with the teaching, tools, and experiences to make a positive diference in the world. In this spring’s issue of Mercyhurst Magazine, you will witness the fruits of our labor on a grand scale: alumni building successful and meaningful lives and, in many cases, lives that are making a diference for others. Take our feature on teachers. With about 2,800 living education graduates now located in 43 states and 12 countries, the stories are endless. We checked in with a few of those educators who started at Mercyhurst and Their Manhattan ofces aren’t far apart, so they get together at least are now helping change the world. monthly for lunch or after-work drinks. Their families have grown close as well; they’ve even traveled together. Two years ago, the families visited I’ve always believed it to be a diferentiator for Mercyhurst that so many Sri Lanka where Nalika introduced them to her homeland and native of our alumni – be they young or old – have sustained the friendships culture. Now they’re thinking about a similar trip to Italy, so Barbara can they made here during their college years. do the same. For the four young men who founded the Laker Asset Management Club I want to take just a moment to thank our Mercyhurst community, on campus nearly three years ago, the ties remain strong. Having come including our talented and committed faculty, staf, donors, and friends, together to invest $100,000 of our endowment – successfully, I might add who inspire our students and enable us to produce such remarkable – they continue to follow each other’s paths beyond the gates and into alumni as we meet in this issue of Mercyhurst Magazine. Please enjoy. the business world. Our students come from all corners of our state, nation and world, excited Happy Spring & Carpe Diem, to broaden their horizons. Mercyhurst provides room for discovery of all kinds, including the most important discovery for any student: learning what kind of citizen, neighbor, friend, and person they want to be. Our cover story is a moving tribute to the deep and lasting friendship Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D. that began in the early 1990s between two international students at President, Mercyhurst University Mercyhurst and continued into the high-stakes world of New York fnance. These alumnae are Barbara Wenig, a native of Italy, and Nalika Nanayakkara, who came to the U.S. from Sri Lanka. ON THE COVER: Barbara Pacicco Wenig ’95 and Nalika Nanayakkara ’94 meet up on the streets of Manhattan. Good friends since their days at Mercyhurst, they both now hold top executive positions with major fnance frms in New York City. Read their story on page 2. Mercyhurst Magazine is a publication of the Ofce of Marketing and Public Relations. Magazine Editor Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 [email protected] 814-824-2090 Design Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 [email protected] 814-824-3022 Contributing Writers Inside this issue Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 Joseph Cuneo 4 Sean Cuneo Deborah W. Morton MERCYHURST’S LIBRARY – NOW AND THEN Contributing Photographers Check out recent renovations to the library, and see what earlier Leena Clint ’16 libraries looked like. Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 Curtis Waidley ’19 Anna Wesley 6 Director of Alumni Engagement Lindsay Cox Frank ’12 ’14M HURST TEACHERS ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE [email protected] Read profles of Audrey Coletta ’98 ‘01M; Kimberly Szmyd Thomas ’02 814-824-2330 ‘04M; Grace Doman ’16 ‘18M; Gary Magorien ’06; Joseph Magorien ’01; Youjia Hua ‘02M; Michael Troutman ’12; Ebony Britton ‘09M; Cole Lowe ’18; Kelly Dombrowski Karns ’06; and Shay Bellamy ‘19M. 22 RENOVATIONS TRANSFORM Send changes of address to: SPORTS FACILITIES Alumni Relations Learn the latest developments from Laker athletics, including Mercyhurst University a growing slate of club sports options. 501 East 38th Street Erie, PA 16546 [email protected] 2 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SHARE LIFELONG BOND 12 STUDENTS GET REAL-LIFE INVESTING EXPERIENCE If you haven’ t been receiving the bi- monthly Alumni eNewsletter, Mercyhurst 14 LOCAL, NATIONAL MEDIA TURN TO JOE MORRIS does not have an active email address for GRADUATES BENEFIT FROM ERIE REVITALIZATION you. Visit mercyhurst.edu/alumni/update 16 to update your information and reconnect. 18 OL PROGRAM OFFERS SPECIAL DEAL FOR ALUMNI HAPPENINGS ON THE HILL 20 We’d love to hear from you! 24 CLUB SPORTS EXPAND STUDENT OPTIONS Send your story ideas, suggestions and 26 VIRTUAL REALITY TECH HELPS TRAIN POLICE CADETS comments to [email protected]. 27 CLASS NOTES 1 Barbara and Nalika (center) with their families during their trip to Sri Lanka. From Italy and Sri Lanka to Erie to New York: lifelong friendship born at Hurst By Sue Corbran Barbara Wenig and Nalika Nanayakkara Their Manhattan ofces aren’t far apart, While both women say Mercyhurst have built remarkable careers in the high- so they get together at least monthly for prepared them well for their business powered world of New York fnance. They lunch or after-work drinks. Their families careers, they are equally grateful for the occupy top posts in prestigious frms, have grown close as well and meet up liberal arts classes that are part of the but they’re more than just colleagues – regularly; they’ve even traveled together. Mercyhurst experience. they’re good friends who frst bonded as Two years ago, the families visited Sri international students at Mercyhurst in the Lanka where Nalika introduced them to her In Sri Lanka, Nalika says, students take early 1990s. homeland and native culture. Now they’re high school entrance exams and then are thinking about a similar trip to Italy, so assigned to focus in just one feld, in her In those days before the internet, when Barbara can return the favor. case math and science. “If I had stayed Barbara Pacicco of Rome, Italy, and Nalika there, I would have been pigeonholed in Nanayakkara of Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, A quarter-century ago, there was a vibrant chemical engineering or something like decided they wanted to attend college community of Irish students at Mercyhurst, that,” she says. Exploring the broad array abroad, it meant a tedious search through but few other international students. of subjects she studied at Mercyhurst was college catalogues to fnd a school that Nalika and Barbara laugh now about some “part of the excitement and the journey.” would welcome foreign students. of the adjustments they faced. Nalika, who arrived in January, reports, “There Things weren’t much diferent in Italy, By coincidence, both reached out to must have been three feet of snow, which Barbara says. “The liberal arts concept Mercyhurst, which quickly accepted them I’d never seen before.” She’d purchased a didn’t really exist in Italy. Once you were and ofered scholarship help. winter coat when she arrived in New York, assigned to a faculty, that’s all you did.” but didn’t really have the proper attire to Barbara arrived at Mercyhurst a year after survive an Erie winter. Both also praise the sense of community Nalika. She says the two connected quickly, they felt at Mercyhurst. “The sense of and their friendship remains strong to this Both women had studied English in their community and the friendships allowed day. own countries, so “academic English” me to be in America by myself. I doubt wasn’t much of a problem. Barbara admits, you’d be able to make those connections in “We hit it of and became close friends,” though, “Idiomatic English wasn’t my thing. a lot of places,” Barbara says. “I didn’t make Nalika agrees. “We’re very diferent people There are lots of funny stories about the friends like that at Ohio State,” she refects. personality-wise and in how we approach common expressions I didn’t understand.” “There was just something very special situations, but we complement each other.” about our experience at Mercyhurst.” 2 Nalika Nanayakkara team; now there are 450+ folks in the Nalika majored in fnance and minored in math. At graduation in 1994, practice.” she was co-valedictorian of her class (an honor she shared with fellow international student Jakub Svoboda of the Czech Republic). Nalika enjoys being on the cutting edge in an industry that’s changing dramatically. After moving to New York, she combed the classifed section of The New “The word disruption is overused, but old York Times in search of her frst job. She landed an entry-level position as rules are breaking down and new rules a fnancial analyst with a Japanese bank, though she was told the frm getting established, and it’s all to the generally hired only Ivy Leaguers. “At the beginning of my career, I always beneft of the consumer,” she says. “One had to explain what Mercyhurst was. No one had heard of it. But they of the most interesting things is being gave me a shot even though they didn’t recognize the school.” ahead of the change that’s happening in our industry and making sure particularly that people who don’ t have Three years later, Nalika enrolled at Columbia University, earning her fnancial services, who are unadvised, get the access they need and have MBA in fnance and management in 1999.