Alumni on the Go
Shaping Lives for 175 Years Westfield State University has educated thousands of alumni in the past 175 years. At one time, the College graduated only teachers but now the University prepares students for hundreds of different careers. This series of stories on these pages takes a look at the work our alumni do in the community and gives credit to the transformative effect that the University had on their lives.
WESTFIELD STATE
Each tells a story of a personal experience while at Westfield State that motivated them to do meaningful work in the world. By Claudia Moore O’Brien M.Ed.’00
From MTG to Consulting Peg Drisko-Johnson ’88 spent the early years of her professional life in higher education positions, but found her true calling as director of volunteer services at the Pine Street Inn of Boston. That role inspired her to launch a business that allows her to help others. Established in 1969, the inn serves more Peg Driskothan 1,600 homeless individuals daily and Johnson ’88 clocks over 60,000 hours of volunteer service per year. “I feel like I grew up there,” Drisko-Johnson said of the “10 amazing years” she had there. After the birth of her second child, Drisko-Johnson decided to “retire into private life.” However, Pine Street Inn still needed her. Asked by her former boss to run the women’s theater program and some other development projects, Drisko-Johnson obliged by founding her own consulting firm that provides consulting services to small to medium-sized nonprofits. “I have planned events, provided temporary leadership in development and provided donor management when there are mergers,” she says, explaining some of her services. Drisko-Johnson graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She earned a master’s in education and in educational policy, research and administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1990.
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As a freshman, Drisko-Johnson and a friend were cast in the chorus of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. From that time on, “I was enthralled and devoted to MTG,” she says. “I met my closest lifelong friends in MTG, and the advisor, Ken Manzer, was a love. After Ken’s passing, Kathi Bradford became our advisor, and we are friends to this day,” she says. Now the president of the MTG alumni club, Drisko-Johnson says, “My devotion to MTG is because it is a club that embraces everybody. You can be an athlete, a scholar, someone with no theater training, and you are welcomed. I think of it as Westfield State’s ‘community theater.’ Just because you don’t excel, you can still participate in an activity you enjoy,” she says. “Westfield State provided me with such great support that I am now in a Ph.D. program and also an adjunct faculty member at Framingham State,” says Drisko-Johnson. “I graduated 25 years ago with the confidence and drive to grow professionally while always maintaining a strong connection with Westfield State through the Musical Theatre Guild. It is a relationship that will last forever.” n
Habitat and History Graduates of Westfield State usually have a unique and personal memory of their undergraduate days. For Antwain Hunter ’07 it was his Habitat for Humanity build in Lynchburg, Va. Hunter, who usually worked through spring break, heard about this opportunity from Kathi Bradford, then serving as the associate director of Residential Life and coordinator of New Student and Parent Orientation. “I was immediately interested in getting involved. It was a good