Students Share Campus Life with Siblings, Parents and Grandparents

The four Forsyth brothers sit at a table in O'Leary Library on their laptops

04/30/2018
By University Relations Staff

Taking classes with your brother. Bumping into your grandmother on South Campus. Sharing majors (and textbooks!). These four close-knit families have more than just genes in common. UMass Lowell is a common thread that binds them together, from generation to generation.

Jessica and Jack Carroll stand on the stairs in the business school Image by Ed Brennen
Siblings Jessica and Jack Carroll followed in their father Daniel's footsteps by attending the Manning School of Business.

Carrolls Continue to Corner the Market at UML

Considering that their father and seven of their aunts and uncles attended UMass Lowell, there was really only one school for siblings Jack and Jessica Carroll to consider for their higher education. Providence College. “Our dad was saying, ‘Lowell, Lowell, Lowell,’ but I thought I’d like a smaller school,” Jessica recalls. Read more
Nick and Elizabeth Raymond are siblings and opposites, but both attend UMass Lowell Image by K. Webster
Siblings Elizabeth and Nick Raymond share a genetic condition that requires them to use wheelchairs, but that's where the similarity ends.

Nick and Elizabeth Raymond are Siblings – and Opposites

Nick Raymond is a quiet, high-achieving math major who wants to be an actuary. He’s in the Honors College, maintains a perfect 4.0 GPA and won a scholarship set up by famed actress Meryl Streep. His idea of a good time is reading a classic adventure story. Right now, it’s “The Count of Monte Cristo,” assigned by Honors College Dean Jim Canning as part of a $1,000 reading fellowship. “I can’t put it down,” he says. Nick’s younger sister, Elizabeth, is a bubbly, outgoing psychology major who likes to hang out at Starbucks and chat with friends between classes. Read more
The four Forsyth brothers horse around. Image by Tory Germann
The Forsyth brothers say their family is very close — but also competitive.

Fantastic Foursome of Brothers Studies Engineering

Michael Forsyth wears red shirts and shoelaces and carries a red wallet. His identical twin, Nicholas, wears blue shirts and shoelaces and carries a blue wallet. “We’re color-coded,” Nick says. “It makes it easier for people to tell us apart.” Otherwise, the 22-year-olds are mirror images of each other. Read more
Alumna Chanthu Phauk '12 and her sisters
Seven of eight daughters (including Chanthu Phauk ’12, third from right) of David and Soeun Phauk of Lowell.

Building Toward the Future, Piecing Together the Past

Chanthu Phauk ’12 knows nothing of what her parents endured in Cambodia during the four-year bloodbath of the Khmer Rouge, or how they were able to escape the fate of the 1.5 million of their countrymen who starved to death or were murdered. She knows nothing of their lives before the genocide—where they lived, whom they knew, what they did for a living. Read more
This summer, Mary Humble (left), Georgina Hutchison and Deirdre Hutchison will all be studying together at UMass Lowell. Image by K. Webster
Mary Humble, left, and daughter Deirdre Hutchison, right, will soon be joined on campus by Deirdre's daughter, Georgina.

Three Generations of Women Study at UML

Mary Humble has lived her life in threes. Almost 60 years ago, her family brought her home from her convent boarding school. They needed her to help with the family business: a general store, guesthouse and pub known for its live music in Bantry Bay, Ireland. She was 15 years old and just three months shy of completing her intermediate certificate. Read more

UML Runs in Their Family

UMass Lowell student Ellen Panetto pictured in a lab coat looking into a microscope in one of the health sciences labs
Ellen Panetto '18
Medical Laboratory Science

Ellen Panetto was always interested in anatomy and how the body works, but wasn't sure exactly what area she wanted to work in. Her clinical rotation experiences led to her decision to pursue a career as a pathologists' assistant.

I've been able to see how labs are run in small and large hospitals. These experiences gave me the ability to see what kind of environment I might want to work in and to learn from technicians in all stages of their careers.
Read More About Ellen Panetto