PROFILE: For Brigitte Boiano, UC is All About Family

"All in the family" truly does describe life at UC for Brigitte Boiano, assistant to the Vice President for Finance.

Every member of her immediate family has gone to school here, including twin daughters - Katie and Kristy - who are in their third year in UC's respected fashion design program. Brigitte laughs, "I even found out I was pregnant with the girls at UC." She recalled coming to work one day when she was secretary to the associate dean of University College. "I said I was feeling sick, and so, they sent me over to student health services. They did a urine test, and that's when I found out I was pregnant."

It was great news. Equally great, she said, was knowing that the people she worked with cared enough to insist she go to student health services. "It's like a family here," Brigitte states.

In fact, Brigitte came to UC in 1978 because it was work that also supported her family life. A 1968 graduate of Reading High School, she wasn't planning to stay when she started as a typist at Hoxworth Blood Center. "I really wanted a part-time job closer to home" in order to take care of her two older children, Eleanor and Paul.

But then, UC took hold. "I came to love the learning environment...We all came to grow up here, both me and the kids," said Brigitte who worked her way up over the years through various administrative support positions at the Medical Center, Environmental Health, University Hospital and other offices, while also taking classes in business operations.

Her family joined her in the classroom: husband Joe earned a 1975 UC political science degree and a later degree in elementary education from Raymond Walters College; daughter Eleanor earned degrees in biology and pharmacy; son Paul took classes here for two years; and her youngest daughters, twins Kristy and Katie, are now earning fashion design degrees.

Brigitte, who lives in Mason, points with pride to the educational legacy her family has achieved at UC. "Without the tuition benefits for my two older children, we would not have been able to afford an education for them unless they'd gotten a scholarship. It's why I didn't go to college," she explains. "My parents were immigrants from Germany to this country when I was two years old, and their old-world view was that women didn't go to college...I wanted more for my kids. Tuition remission was the foundation for giving them that."

It's one of the reasons that Brigitte considers herself a UC representative wherever she goes. "I tell friends and family what a great place UC is. It's a great place to send your kids...I serve as a UC resource in the community even after hours. We all do."

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