Winter 2015 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
ohiowomen: who, what?
Why get involved with ohiowomen? Ask three alumnae who attended the Cleveland Kickoff in September.
December 10, 2015
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Yolanda Cherry Sutyak, BSED 鈥59 (left), said her 鈥渨oman-ness鈥 didn鈥檛 get in her way in the professional world. She talks with fellow alumna Connie Lawson-Davis, BSED 鈥67, at the ohiowomen Cleveland kickoff.
Yolanda Cherry Sutyak, BSEd 鈥59
Cleveland native and Parma-based transplant Yolanda Cherry Sutyak says women in her day had basically two professional tracks to take as a student. 鈥淏ack in my era, if you went to college and you were a woman, you either went into nursing or teaching.鈥
She chose the latter鈥攁nd thrived, earning the Northeast Ohio Teacher of the Year Award in 1979.
鈥淚 never felt put out about anything because I was a woman,鈥 says Sutyak, who takes a no-nonsense approach to life.
Her 32-year career entailed teaching various K-6 grades in Parma and in Cleveland鈥檚 Catholic school system as a reading consultant, then in special education. Upon earning a master鈥檚 degree in special education at Cleveland State University (CSU), she spent 26 years at Independence Primary as a special education and intervention specialist. After she retired, this first-generation high school and college graduate became a student teacher supervisor for CSU for 12 years.
Past-president of the 91探花 Alumni Association鈥檚 Greater Cleveland Women鈥檚 Club, Sutyak, who with husband Tom has three children, attended the Cleveland event to 鈥渞epresent the club, see what ohiowomen was about and to meet new people.鈥
Nicki Romeo Arkwright, BSCHE 鈥97
Nicki Romeo Arkwright exemplifies the ideal of having a work-life balance.
She enjoyed being a production manager at a major Cleveland-based chemical company and happily shared parenting a son with her husband, Scott, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic.
When son number two arrived, Arkwright requested to switch to part time, but the company said no, compelling her resignation. She had no regrets, but missed her professional responsibilities鈥攁nd the reduced income, as the household salary decreased by half.
One year later, the company called, wanting her back鈥攖his time, on her own terms of 30 hours per week. Even though she knows she did the right thing by focusing on childrearing, 鈥淚t was a weight off my shoulders to know that [I was] needed in ways other than helping [my] three-year old and nine-month old.鈥
Arkwright attended the Cleveland ohiowomen kickoff to see how her story compared with other women鈥檚 experiences and to seek a support system among OHIO female Bobcats. She cited the general lack of women in her still male-dominated field, one where men generally don鈥檛 leave work to become stay-at-home parents.
Leah Adams, BSCFS 鈥15
Leah Adams served as a Program to Aid Career Exploration student employee at OHIO in University Advancement, working as a junior with ohiowomen鈥檚 predecessor, Women In Philanthropy, and as a senior with ohiowomen.
Jones learned how female communities were essential to OHIO and how much effort such endeavors required. Her experiences 鈥渃hanged my perspective of how the University functions,鈥 she says. 鈥淓verybody at OHIO has a little piece of a puzzle. And I think that when we all network and all come together, the puzzle comes together and that鈥檚 what makes 91探花. It wouldn鈥檛 stand how it is if it was just one individual doing it all.鈥
Adams, a child and family studies professional who interned in summer 2015 at the Cleveland Clinic鈥檚 ADHD Summer Treatment Program, attended the Cleveland kickoff because she helped ohiowomen get off the ground.
Another reason relates to the keynote speech by alumna Beverly Jones, BSJ 鈥69, MBA 鈥75. 鈥淪he talked about how it鈥檚 not just one person鈥 who makes the difference. OHIO makes its campuses feel like home, she observes, so you want to make something of yourself and make something for others.
