Current Alumni Spotlight—Steven Coffed
Have you ever wondered what it would take to get a full ride to college? I’m talking full scholarship, free room and board and books paid for; oh, and let’s include a Masters degree and a PhD.
If you really want to know, you’ll have to ask Steven Coffed, a 2007 graduate of St. Mary’s Elementary School in Lancaster, how he did it. Coffed is currently attending UB on a Presidential Scholarship that includes all of the aforementioned perks.
From all accounts, Steven was and still is the ideal student living his Christian faith every day. Steven’s favorite memory is of playing the organ for Friday school masses. “My favorite teachers were the ones who expected us to live the Christian ideals. With these teachers, there was no yelling...simply a disappointment when we fell short in our young Christian lives.” said Coffed.
During his tenure at St. Joseph’s Collegiate, Coffed was a member of the Jazz Band and won the title of Outstanding Soloist at the Virginia Beach Jazz festival. But music is not Steven’s only talent. He was the soccer team captain and winner of the Bredenberg Award for sports leadership, just one of 25 in WNY named to Business First’s Academic Team and the Valedictorian of his class.
Steven now is studying environmental engineering and Music Theater at UB. It seems the foundation laid at St. Mary’s Elementary has served Steven very well.
Paul B. and John J. Hurley
St. Benedict School alumni
"My Brother, the College President"
John J. Hurley says his brother’s career did not influence his own, but when Mr. Hurley becomes president of Canisius College in July, it’ll certainly look like it did. Like his brother, Paul B. Hurley, who is president of Trocaire College—another Roman Catholic institution in Buffalo, N.Y.—John will be his college’s first lay president.
The Hurley brothers are 12 years apart —Paul is the older one. They grew up with seven other siblings in Amherst and graduated from St. Benedict School on the corner or Main St. and Eggert Road. Though they wound up with the same job title, their careers have been quite different. Paul was a professor and administrator at Harrisburg Area Community College for 27 years before becoming President of Trocaire, in 1998. John was a lawyer for 16 years and partner at one of the most prominent firms in Buffalo before he began working in higher education as an administrator at Canisius—his and Paul’s alma mater, in 1997.
Now that they’re both administrators at Catholic institutions, they deal with some of the same issues. They talk to each other about which speakers to invite to campus, and how to gain the trust, as lay people, of their supporting congregations.
The Hurley brothers report that they have made their mothers very proud. Of Mama Hurley, John says: “This has really enhanced her brand out there at the independent-living community. People can’t believe she has two sons that are presidents of colleges.”
—Mary Helen Miller
Reprinted with permission from The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2, 2010.
View the complete article at www.chronicle.com