went into the restroom and took a deep breath, closed the door, clutching the doorknob the whole time.” She didn’t realize one of her professors overhead her concerns. She gave Oliver a pep talk and told her everyone in her program loved her, that she could do anything she set her mind to do. Oliver said she learned how to do research at Harcum. “You learn everything—head to toe.” She became her husband’s advocate before he passed away in 2015, using much of what she learned at Harcum in her subsequent career to help him receive the care he needed. She still refers to her Harcum books, in support of the residents she cares for at Qiana Cressman met with a favorite professor Donna Broderick on a recent visit to campus. of a story and gives accomplished women the chance to write their own narrative. Mother Judy Oliver followed in her daughter’s footsteps, obtaining her associate’s degree in Physical Therapist Assisting four years later. Oliver had worked in the physical therapy field at Novacare, when two colleagues encouraged her to go on for a degree. As a wife of a policeman and mother of three daughters, going back to school as a non-traditional student posed its challenges. She said her Harcum experience was “excellent,” citing the small classes and personal attention. Her professors taught her how to care and how to treat patients. She also said it was hard work. “At one point, I was going to stop out. I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Oliver said. “I had cried while driving all the way up Montgomery Avenue.” She was getting ready to go out on clinicals, feeling a lot of pressure. “I Her professors taught her how to care for and treat patients. She also said it was hard work. 12 ALL IN THE HARCUM FAMILY the Green Leaf Nursing Home where she works. “Qiana and I talk things over. She is such a support to me. You would think she’s the mother.” Oliver remembered a time when she sent Qiana off to school in a little white dress, a yellow trench coat, and polished white shoes, with the expectation she would look as neat and tidy when she returned home. “I treated her like she was a little adult.” “My mother raised me to be responsible,” Cressman said, who, like her husband, is also a non-denominational Christian minister. For her part, Oliver is extremely proud of her daughter and what she has accomplished, sharing copies of three recent issues of Emerge and a news feature on her daughter with her former professors. “She has always been my biggest champion,” Cressman said, graciously accepting her mother’s admiration for her accomplishments as a motivational speaker and educator, as a magazine publisher, and as a seasoned administrator at a regional blood center. Oliver mentioned that she’d like to go back to school full time, perhaps to become a doctor. Like daughter, like mother. KAREN NAYLOR ’92 & LOREN DENISON ’02 Karen (Buchmann) Naylor and her niece Loren (Buchmann) Denison have a lot in common besides being blood relatives. They were the first two women in their family to complete any college education. For each, Harcum marked the beginning of their educational journey. They both went on to obtain master’s degrees. Each is a working mother. They both have winning smiles. And they each shared that Harcum’s family atmosphere gave them both something to smile about.
15 Publizr Home