Lauren Matz: Class of '80

Literature has opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. It allows us to see the way others see, to think the way others think, and above all, to feel.

-Salman Rushdie

Lauren Matz

Class of ‘80

Lauren Matz has kept a deep connection with Bonaventure most of her life, including before she was even a student. Not only did she receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the university, but she also returned years later with her doctorate and became an English professor. Lauren has maintained a very fulfilling career at St. Bonaventure University since then and hopes to continue her years at the university doing what she loves most: teaching.

Lauren was first introduced to St. Bonaventure University at her high school, Mount Saint Mary Academy.

“I visited the university twice during my junior year of high school: on Press Day and Modern Languages Day. Both were very enjoyable and I thought, and still think, that those events were excellent recruitment techniques for the university.”

She was also strongly influenced to attend the university from reading Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, which she found to be very aspiring and admirable.

Lauren attended her first class as a St. Bonaventure student in the fall of 1976. One of her favorite memories as an undergraduate student was spending time at the Friedman Library on campus.

“I appreciated that a good library was available to us right on campus that I could go to anytime. I would spend a lot of my time in there either working, socializing, or attending group meetings. However, most of the wonderful hours were spent reading all the different types of books that the library has to offer.”

Lauren also worked in the library for her work study. She found that having this job had its own set of perks.

“My favorite memory of working at the library was during my senior year when I was the one to lock all the doors and close the library. I always felt special to be the last one in there.”

Throughout Lauren’s educational career at the university she was interested in a lot of courses along with her regular literature courses that caught her attention. Her three main topics of interest were European History, French Language and Literature, and Ancient Greek studies. She graduated St. Bonaventure University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English in 1980.

After graduation, Lauren dived right into a doctoral degree program in English at The Ohio State University.

“I chose Ohio State because, well for starters, the school offered me the best financial aid. The main reason, however, was my admiration of the work done by faculty member Richard D. Altick. He was a literary historian who specialized in 19^th century Victorian British literature. I had admired his work for so many years and it was an honor that I had been in two of his classes.”

By 1985 Lauren, who was now Dr. Matz, had received her bachelor’s, master’s, and now a doctoral degree in English.

After receiving her doctorate, Lauren stayed in the small college atmosphere. She taught her first postdoctoral class as an adjunct in 1984 at Ohio Dominican University, a small Catholic school located in Columbus, Ohio. In 1986, she moved to Nebraska to teach at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Lauren taught at this university until 1988 when she saw an opening for a teaching position at her alma mater and applied for it.

“I never thought that I would come back to Bonaventure in my career. I was excited to have the opportunity to return but I did so under sad circumstances. One of my mentors in college, Boyd A. Litzinger, had died the previous year from cancer. A year later I was taking over his teaching position. I try to fill the big shoes that he left at this university every day.”

During the fall of ’88, Lauren taught her first class in the English Department at St. Bonaventure and is still happily teaching to this day.

Lauren says that her favorite elements of being a professor at St. Bonaventure are familiarity with the environment and being part of the wonderful community again.

“Weirdly, this place has not changed in its essentials. The Bonaventure community still feels the same as ever.”

Since her return to the university, Lauren has many fond memories of being a professor. Some of her favorite recollections include being part of the Oxford program from 1994–1997 and the College Quiz Bowl – National Academic Tournaments from 1998–2008.

“We do what we do because of the students. I have always enjoyed introducing young students to great literature. I’ve been teaching for 34 years now and I can’t wait for many more years to come of doing what I love to do.”

Carole McNall: Class of '75

  "There are years that ask questions and years that   answer."
 -Zora Neale Hurston

          

Carole McNall

Class of ‘75

Akron High School is where Carole McNall first realized that her dream was to become a journalist. McNall had started looking into journalism schools in New York State, including Syracuse University, but soon came to realize that SU wasn’t her dream college. McNall’s guidance counselor then suggested St. Bonaventure University and the school’s journalism program. By the fall of 1971, McNall was starting her first college semester as a Bonnie.

McNall’s favorite memory was when her graduate student boyfriend, Steve, asked her to marry him in the De La Roche basement when she was a sophomore. They married during the winter break of her senior year and, to this day, are still happily married.

McNall graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1975 with a Journalism degree and a world of experience ahead of her. Her career started in Olean, NY at WEBF, a radio station now called 95.7 WPIG.

“At first, I was offered a five-week position to fill in during someone’s vacation. My job was to manage the scheduling and write advertisements. At the end of five weeks, the station manager asked if I would take a position in the station’s news department, and I accepted the offer.”

McNall worked in the news department of the station for about two years until she decided to explore other career paths that would allow her to spend more time with her husband. McNall turned in her resume at the right place at the right time. She was contacted by the managing editor of the Olean Times Herald and, after turning in a sample news story for the interview, she was offered a job as a reporter and worked for the paper for almost 12 years.

Eight months after McNall left the Olean Times Herald and worked a couple of times for  St. Bonaventure University Relations, she found herself applying for, and being accepted into, the law school at SUNY Buffalo for her Law degree.

“My first year in law school, I found that I doubted myself a lot. I was wondering why I was living at my parents’ house during the week and coming home to see Steve on weekends. I was convinced that I wasn’t going back the next year until I came across an ad that was advertising a job at St. Bonaventure. I thought about applying for that job but then told myself ‘no.’ I was in law school and I will finish! My brother was a big help through the whole process as well because he went through law school. The Bonaventure ad, ironically, was my deal breaker.”

McNall graduated with Juris Doctor Degree in law in 1993 from SUNY Buffalo and passed her bar exam in July of that same year. McNall started her new career by working for a private law practice in Cuba, NY and eventually branched off into her own practice.

Later, McNall’s job path led her to Jamestown Community College (JCC) where she spent a semester teaching Constitutional Law. JCC then offered her the opportunity to teach Business Law. During this time, McNall ran into an old friend, Carol Fischer, who was the head of the accounting department at Bonaventure. “When Carol found out that I was about to teach a business law class at JCC, she was insistent on getting me to teach the class at St. Bonaventure, as well.”

McNall’s friend Carol succeeded in her mission. McNall started teaching part-time at both Bonaventure and JCC and began working at H&R Block. Later, when McNall’s friend, Dr. Mary Hamilton, was planning to retire from her position as a journalism professor, she recommended to the dean of the St. Bonaventure School of Journalism that McNall take over her position. McNall became a professor in the School of Journalism in the fall of 2003 and has been teaching full-time ever since.

When asked about some of her favorite memories as a professor, McNall said it was a couple of years ago when she was teaching two Introduction to Media classes.

“I brought in an article from Rolling Stone magazine that talked about the Boston Marathon bombing. I let the students read it and told them to come to the next class prepared to discuss the topic. The next two classes became two of my most favorite classes I have ever taught. There were strong debates along with heated opinions and it was then that I realized I really love what I do. I really felt like I was making a difference in the young journalism community.”

Paul Wieland: Class of '59

“Write if you get work, or hang from your thumbs.”

           

Paul Wieland

Class of ’59

St. Bonaventure University tends to have a special hold on the university’s alumni base. This statement especially holds true to Paul Wieland who graduated from the university in 1959 and is now a faculty member in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Paul knew that he wanted to be a journalist ever since he was a kid. The students at Bishop Timon High School, where Paul attended, would make trips to attend Press Day at St. Bonaventure University, which was one of the biggest days of the year for the journalism department. Famous authors, journalists, and news figures would attend this event and Paul would always find himself being sucked into the excitement of it all. When it came time to apply for colleges, St. Bonaventure University’s School of Journalism was where Paul wanted to enroll. In the fall of 1955, he started his first semester at the university.

“One of the main reasons I chose this university was because the chairman of the journalism department at the time, Russell Jandoli, was someone whom I looked up to very much. He believed in ethical journalism and that is a belief that I still stand by today.”

One of Paul’s most memorable moments as an undergraduate was the hazing he experienced as a freshman.

“It was annoying at the time because the upper classmen would make us wear these brown beanies with a sign indicating our graduating year and force us to do ridiculous things. However, it made me count on the people I had just met, who would become good friends of mine, and really helped me feel like I was becoming a part of the Bonaventure community.”

After Paul graduated in 1959 with a degree in journalism and a minor in history, he started his career as a news reporter for the Buffalo Courier-Express. He also had a side job at a weekly suburban paper in Buffalo and taught English for a year at his former high school.

During the first nine years after college, Paul won a total of 20 awards for journalism. Later, Paul decided to leave the Buffalo Evening News because of a conflict with the managing editor, and decided to pursue other career paths.

“I found out later that the managing editor with whom I was having problems dropped dead of a heart attack at his desk three months after I left. It amazes me how different my career path would have been if I had waited out those three months. My philosophy has always been to work for people whom I respect. If there is no respect within the workplace, I am not interested and I am the first to leave.”

            After leaving, Paul received a job with General Motors in the company’s public relations department. Paul was soon offered a big promotion as the public relations director for  the Overseas Divisions in the headquarters of General Motors in New York City. However, Paul did not feel that this job was the right fit for him, so he left a year later.

“It was a good experience. I was able to be a part of the glamour of a job in the city and what General Motors had to offer its more senior employees. It just wasn’t the job for me.”

Soon after, Paul received a call from a friend asking him to be the director of public relations for a new hockey team called the Sabres. Since Paul had a long history of playing hockey, he jumped on the opportunity and worked as their director of public relations for 25 years. During this time, he also experimented with other jobs and started his own sports film company that made features for NBC sports and highlights for teams. Paul also worked for the Niagara Frontier Sports Network which covered all of the television sporting events in Western NY and in public relations at a private ad agency for the Sabres new arena.

 “One of the Knox brothers (the original owners of the Sabres) had been diagnosed with cancer and I knew that they were planning on selling the team so I decided to leave and work on other projects and jobs.”

After the Sabres, Paul worked for a public television operation in Massachusetts for six years, was in the process of writing two books and held a job at ESPN. During this time, he received a call from Lee Coppola, who had been a friend of Paul’s for years. Lee was the Dean of the School of Journalism at St. Bonaventure and he asked Paul if he was interested in a job in the department. He decided to take his friend up on the offer. Paul started teaching his first journalism class at his alma mater in 2002 and has been a member of the Bonaventure faculty ever since.

“I was still working for ESPN during my first year of teaching. I soon realized that I was juggling a lot between traveling to sporting events for ESPN and needing to be in the classroom to teach. I suffered a heart attack and knew that I needed to slow down. So I decided to stick with teaching and leave ESPN.”

Looking back on his years of being a professor, Paul says that his favorite memories always have to do with his students.

“I feel that I can relate to my students because I was also a Bonnie. My students have made me feel fuller and allowed me to live out the youthful spirit that I always had.”

If Paul had to pick one particular favorite memory as a professor, he says it was when a television sports production truck was donated to the university. He was happy that sports production had come back into his life.

“It made me feel good because I am now able to teach people the thing I loved most in my career.”

Along with teaching, Paul is in the process of writing a novel and enjoying time with his wife, children, and dog.