A message from the President
Every year as I engage students across our campus, I’m inspired by the phenomenal potential that I see. I’m also reminded that our highest duty is to provide our students with the teaching, tools, and experiences to make a positive diference in the world. In this spring’s issue of Mercyhurst Magazine , you will witness the fruits of our labor on a grand scale: alumni building successful and meaningful lives and, in many cases, lives that are making a diference for others. Take our feature on teachers. With about 2,800 living education graduates now located in 43 states and 12 countries, the stories are endless. We checked in with a few of those educators who started at Mercyhurst and are now helping change the world. I’ve always believed it to be a diferentiator for Mercyhurst that so many of our alumni – be they young or old – have sustained the friendships they made here during their college years. For the four young men who founded the Laker Asset Management Club on campus nearly three years ago, the ties remain strong. Having come together to invest $100,000 of our endowment – successfully, I might add – they continue to follow each other’s paths beyond the gates and into the business world. Our students come from all corners of our state, nation and world, excited to broaden their horizons. Mercyhurst provides room for discovery of all kinds, including the most important discovery for any student: learning what kind of citizen, neighbor, friend, and person they want to be. Our cover story is a moving tribute to the deep and lasting friendship that began in the early 1990s between two international students at Mercyhurst and continued into the high-stakes world of New York fnance. These alumnae are Barbara Wenig, a native of Italy, and Nalika Nanayakkara, who came to the U.S. from Sri Lanka.
Their Manhattan ofces aren’t far apart, so they get together at least monthly for lunch or after-work drinks. Their families have grown close as well; they’ve even traveled together. Two years ago, the families visited Sri Lanka where Nalika introduced them to her homeland and native culture. Now they’re thinking about a similar trip to Italy, so Barbara can do the same. I want to take just a moment to thank our Mercyhurst community, including our talented and committed faculty, staf, donors, and friends, who inspire our students and enable us to produce such remarkable alumni as we meet in this issue of Mercyhurst Magazine . Please enjoy.
Happy Spring & Carpe Diem ,
Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D. President, Mercyhurst University
ON THE COVER: Barbara Pacicco Wenig ’95 and Nalika
Nanayakkara ’94 meet up on the streets of Manhattan. Good friends since their days at Mercyhurst, they both now hold top executive positions with major fnance frms in New York City. Read their story on page 2.
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