“I made great friends. I came away with a friend I’ve had for two decades.” QIANA CRESSMAN Left: Emerge Woman is a print and digital magazine for women of color launched by Qiana Cressman in 2018. Below: Cressman’s graduation tassel, saved by mother Judy. QIANA CRESSMAN ’98 & JUDY OLIVER ’02 Typically, a “legacy” student is one whose parents attended and/or graduated from the same institution. The story of Qiana Cressman and mother Judy Oliver is a legacy story of a sort, one turned upside down and sweetly sideways. In high school, Cressman excelled in the sciences. She was undecided about which area she wanted to study at the college level—Physical Therapist Assisting or Lab Sciences, but she knew a two-year degree would work for her purposes. Harcum College seemed like the right place for her from the moment she stepped on campus. She knew she didn’t want to be too far from her mother (whom she is “exceedingly close to” today). She made a lifelong friend on the first day of orientation in, of all places, a College restroom. She and Malika Bey ’98 made an immediate connection and decided to room together. Ultimately, Cressman majored in Clinical Laboratory Science. While a full-time resident student, she was a student ambassador, a member of the Ebony Club, and served as a peer mentor briefly. She has fond memories of her Harcum days. “I made great friends. I came away with a friend I’ve had for two decades,” she said. “I loved my professors.” Dr. Donna Broderick and Dr. Alexandra Hilosky were two of her favorites, and she met with them both when she came to campus last month. In finding some post-graduation employment, she got a little unexpected help from her mother. Her mother sent out her resume for her to numerous companies, which Cressman realized when an employer wanted to interview her shortly after she returned from vacation. While her two-year degree sufficiently prepared her to work in her field, Cressman also happens to be driven to achieve and advance. She went on to obtain a B.S. in Management from Shorter Univer11 sity and is currently the Director of Donor Recruitment and Development at Miller-Keystone Blood Center. She has been an international motivational speaker and credits Harcum for providing her with traveling and networking experiences, transferable to the professional realm. Though she never pursued communications as a career, she is an excellent speaker and writer and was inspired to create a publication in February of 2018 called Emerge, which is a showcase for the power
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