When deciding which college to attend, it’s not often that a 17- or 18-year-old is thinking about whether their final choice will be a place that their future children or grandchildren will want to attend when the time comes. Instead, the focus is on whether the education obtained at a school will get them where they want to be professionally, whether they will feel at home on campus, and whether they will find the community they seek to live a fulfilling life.
But for many who have chosen to spend four years here on the Hill, their time became an investment in laying the foundation for a family legacy they never could have foreseen. For two such families, their stories began with courageous first steps on the Hill by Sharon Head ’88, Sue Head Conklin ’94, and Erika Herron Hall ’99. Those three women each forged a path for the next generations of their families to find family of their own — whether in the form of future spouses or chosen family — who helped them find their best selves and remained in their lives for decades after graduation.
“My husband, Mark, is a very supportive guy,” says Hall of her husband, who is not an alum but can often be found at Homecoming wearing McDaniel gear proudly boasting “WMC Husband and McDaniel Dad.”
“We were together in high school, and I went away to McDaniel for college. He has always supported me, no matter what,” Hall says. “He tells me, ‘If there was no McDaniel, there’d be no us. There’d be no you. They set the foundation for you, and we wouldn’t be in the position that we are today without McDaniel.’”
No matter the story, McDaniel College is honored to have many multigenerational Green Terror families who have laid the foundation for a family legacy on the Hill.
For Hall, McDaniel represented an opportunity for a change of scenery, a chance to create a new community, and a way to set her future family on a path to success.
“I grew up in Anne Arundel County and went to Chesapeake High School and had never heard of McDaniel,” she says. “My dream school at the time was Howard University. But I ran track in high school. We were really good, and our state championship meet was held at McDaniel. It was just a beautiful campus and I was like, ‘I could see myself here.’”
Hall reflects on the fact that her high school did not have many people of color, which led her to seek a more diverse college experience. It would seem that a historically Black university like Howard would be the natural fit then, rather than a small liberal arts school in Carroll County that was, at the time, predominantly white.
“But Howard didn’t really fit who I was as a person,” Hall says. “They weren’t as personable at the time, and McDaniel really was. Marty O’Connell was in Admissions at the time, and she made me feel so cared about and loved. She was a person I was able to go talk to throughout my years there.”
Hall’s experience on the Hill was made more meaningful by the community she found through the Black Student Union (BSU), starting when she was invited to stay with a BSU member for a weekend as a prospective student.
“I stayed with Diane Drakes ’98 and that experience just captured my heart,” Hall says. “I also met Calvin Lineberger ’97, Prakash Wright ’99, and Patrick Douglas ’99. I was there with folks who kept it real and showed me what McDaniel was really about, and then when I got there for Move-in, I already had these friends who were there for me throughout my next four years.”
Nineteen years after her own graduation, Hall would see her eldest child, Ki’Juana “KJ” Land ’22, make a similar decision — despite her mother’s advice!
Knowing that Land wanted to go into forensics, Hall encouraged her to look into other institutions because she wasn’t as familiar with McDaniel’s Forensic Science minor. “One thing about KJ though is that everything I say not to do, she ends up doing anyway,” Hall says. “Luckily, that meant I got to see her follow in my footsteps.”
“I’m from Baltimore City and had been in an urban environment my entire life,” Land says. “I wanted to not be in that setting anymore. I’d been on McDaniel’s campus a lot when my mom brought us there, and I liked that it was small.”
Seeking small class sizes and personal connections with faculty, Land was pleased to already have built-in personal connections through her mother’s legacy on campus. “Dr. Lauren Dundes was one of my mother’s professors, and I took her First-Year Seminar,” Land says. “I soon changed my major to Sociology because of her, and being in the same department as Dr. Richard Smith ’00, who was a classmate of my mom’s, was another source of comfort and connection for me.”
For others — including Hall’s younger daughter, current sophomore Mia Hall — McDaniel wasn’t an opportunity for a change of scenery, but more a place that felt comfortable and like home.
“The first time I was brought to campus, I was probably about 3 years old,” Mia says. “I never thought I would go here. But of all the colleges I was accepted to, McDaniel felt like the best choice for me. I was accepted to Drexel, but I knew city life wouldn’t suit me. I’m happy that I chose to come to a smaller, more familiar campus that I feel comfortable on.”
Whether it’s the size, convenience of location, or the nostalgia of a childhood spent on the Hill, Mia Hall is in good company with Sharon Head, Sue Head Conklin, and their family members in wanting to stick with what was familiar.
Sisters Sharon Head ’88 and Sue Head Conklin ’94 were no strangers to the Hill when they enrolled. Having grown up on Pennsylvania Avenue, the two spent snow days sledding on the hill or running around the campus like it was their personal playground. Their father, James Head M.S. ’73, had also pursued his master’s degree in Physical Education at the college.
“I have to give a shoutout to my mother, Carol, who was a real partner with my dad in a lot of things that he did, especially academically,” says Head. “She wasn’t a college graduate, but she was a really bright woman who would’ve been if she’d been born later. We also have cousins on my dad’s side of the family who are alums, so there’s been a connection with the college in our family for a really long time.”
Despite the family history and proximity to home, neither sister began their first years at then Western Maryland College (WMC). Head spent one year at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore before transferring and moving back home.
“I did a year in Baltimore, a year at Western Maryland, and then I was a little bit lost as to what I wanted to do,” Head says. “So, I took two years off and worked in the Registrar’s Office full time.”
The main perk of that job? It introduced Head to all the faculty members — including her mentor, the late Professor Emeritus Ira G. Zepp Jr. ’52., Hon. L.H.D. ’15.
“He was just the kindest man,” Head says. “Ira was just a human in the truest sense of that word. When I decided to go back and finish my degree, I became a Philosophy and Religious Studies major so that I could spend more time with this really kind person who became my advisor.”
After graduation, Head spent almost 15 years working as a librarian for the Carroll County Public Library. She moved to New Mexico in 2004 and became a second-career teacher working with disabled students in 2006, getting her master’s and Ph.D. in special education while spending the next 15 years in teaching.
Sue Head Conklin also started college elsewhere, playing basketball at Marymount in Virginia. After a loss in the family, she returned home to Westminster and decided this was where she wanted to be. She took a year off and worked in town while she got her head straight.
“I decided I still wanted to play basketball, so I reached out to Coach Becky Martin,” Sue Conklin says. “I started classes at Carroll Community College and then began at WMC in January.”
She would go on to meet her future husband, Christian “Chris” Conklin ’92, through that basketball connection. Conklin grew up in northern New Jersey, and he says all the schools there were too big and didn’t appeal to him. He was looking for a small-school atmosphere like what he found at WMC.
“I only played basketball for a year, but I got to know Becky Martin and helped out with the women’s team my junior and senior years. That’s where I met Sue,” he says. “She was quiet, kind of a homebody. But I just pestered her for a while until she finally gave in, and here we are.”
Laughing at Chris’s recollection of their meeting, Sue says, “I’m definitely a homebody, and I think that’s part of our legacy here. Our kids — Joey, Jake, and Emily — weren’t looking to go far away either, and they liked the McDaniel community and having the comforts of home.”
Following in the footsteps of their grandfather, parents, aunt, and cousins Bradley Baer ’07 and Brittany Baer Bergbauer ’11, Joey Conklin ’21, Jake Conklin ’24, and current sophomore Emily Conklin all chose to become Green Terrors.
"Undoubtedly, Brad’s and Brittany’s decisions to attend McDaniel greatly impacted their younger cousins (Joey, Jake, and Emmy) when it was time for them to decide,” Head says. “I witness the ways that Brad and Britt are generous and open-minded, fully human in the most positive sense of that word, not just with their cousins but with everyone they encounter. And, I know that their way of being in the world is, at least in part, the result of their academic and athletic experiences on the Hill."
Joey played men’s lacrosse (he notes that he had played basketball in high school but, “I was too worried about walking in Sue’s footsteps to step on the basketball court!”), Jake competed in both indoor and outdoor track and field, and Emily has been playing both women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse.
As the oldest child, Joey Conklin may have felt some pressure to continue a family legacy, but it ended up feeling like the right move.
“I was never really considering McDaniel, to be honest,” he says. “I thought that I had to go away to college. So, I applied to a lot of schools but never really fell in love with one.”
His parents suggested he apply to McDaniel and see what happened, and he ended up being invited to interview for the Dorsey Scholars Program, the highest academic honor at the college.
“Once I gave myself an opportunity to consider it, it felt kind of perfect,” he says. “I’ve been here my whole life. I went to Westminster High School and our family is so ingrained in this community. The Dorsey Scholarship was the icing on the cake and signaled to me that this is where I was meant to be. I had such a great experience and couldn’t have asked for more from McDaniel.”
Joey’s experience on the Hill clearly had an impact on his siblings, as Jake and Emily have followed the path he created for himself by majoring in Accounting.
(While attending McDaniel runs in the family, a love for accounting does not seem to be inherited: “I am not a math person at all,” says Chris. “I don’t know where they got it. I was an English major and Secondary Education minor.”)
Jake, who just graduated in May, is joining Joey in another way. After snagging an internship through the Economics and Business Administration department’s annual Interviewing Day, Joey accepted a full-time job with Sturgill & Associates, LLP in Westminster. Things came full circle when Joey
was asked to come back to conduct interviews with current students … including his brother, Jake.
“I could tell he was unsure whether we had just a casual conversation ahead of us or if he needed to be professional,” Joey says. “He was extremely professional — even shook my hand and said, ‘Nice to meet you,’ which was hilarious — but he killed his interview and has been working with us for two years now.”
In her teaching career, the Conklins’ aunt, Sharon Head, says she has pulled her inspiration from none other than Ira Zepp.
“If I ever got to a stuck point, I would think maybe I just need to sit with this student. This student needs someone to be present in the moment and it doesn’t matter if we finish the lesson,” Head says. “Ira was a direct model of that for me.”
That concept of sitting with someone and being there for them served Head well when her younger sister, Sue, and nieces and nephews were making their college decisions.
“I remember a phone call with Sue when she was really upset about what people might think if she decided to come back home and go to WMC,” Head says. “And I just told her, ‘You should do what’s right for you.’ There was a moment when her son, Joey, was in that same kind of decision-making mindset.”
She recalls that Joey wanted to be sure that he would have options open to him after graduation.
“They’re so much smarter than I was … than I am!” Head says. “I remember just telling him that I could have done anything with my degree from McDaniel — that he would be able to do whatever he wants with a degree from McDaniel — because it’s really what you make it.
“What I want for all of them is to just be able to flourish. There’s a lot of things about this college and this community that make that possible. I’m really glad that Brad, Brittany, Joey, Jake, and Emily all found a home at McDaniel. I know they’re going to be better for it.”
Joey, as the eldest of this generation of the Conklin clan, is touched that his siblings observed his experience and thought it might be worth trying for themselves.
“They’re great siblings, but the fact that they respected my path and that it was something they could see themselves doing too is so special,” he says. “It’s a testament to the experience that I had as a student and an athlete, which I think our parents had talked to us about, too.”
For Sue and Chris, getting some “bonus years” with their kids at home (all three have been commuter students) has been a nice perk.
“I actually like my kids as adults,” says Sue. “They’re a lot of fun and it’s nice to have them around still.”
“It’s also been great to reconnect with folks we knew and loved on the Hill,” says Chris. “Heidi Snyder Reigel ’97 was really the bridge between us and the kids at McDaniel. Her husband, Jim Reigel M.S. ’02, M.S. ’03, was Joey’s soccer goalie coach and they became close. Heidi became a really strong influence in making sure that each of our kids knew they had a home at McDaniel.”
Only time will tell whether the Hall family legacy ends at two generations and the Head/Conklin legacy ends at three generations. If the first-generation members have anything to say about it, we may just see more of them on the Hill in a couple decades.
Erika Hall still has one more kid to get to college, and she says she’ll be working on convincing him to continue the family tradition. Beyond that though, she’s looking to the next generation.
“I think it would be cool if my grandbabies went to McDaniel one day,” Hall says. “That would be something else.”
“My kids will be like me and do the opposite of what I say,” says KJ Land, Hall’s eldest daughter. “So maybe if I tell them not to come to McDaniel, they will, just like I did.”
Sharon Head has loved watching her family come into their own on the Hill. “I can’t say enough about Sue, Chris, Brad, Brittany, Joey, Jake, and Emily” she says. “They are so bright and full of heart and kindness. It’ll be a little while till that next generation, but I would say the same thing to them that I said to Joey:
“‘If that’s where you want to go, then you’re going to do great. It’s a special place with great faculty and plenty of opportunity,’” Head says. “But if they want to do something else? That’ll be OK, too. Because they’ll always have family behind them.”
“The college’s amazing focus on professors as teachers made this the best possible education for me,” says Sharon Head ’88. “I initially wanted to pursue a career as a pastor or a chaplain, but I also came out as a lesbian in those last two years at WMC. Ira Zepp and Senior Lecturer Emerita Nancy Palmer helped me see who I was, who I could be as a person with intellect and heart.”
The experience of coming out in the 1980s was not what it is today: “I jokingly say that this was pre-Ellen,” Head says. “There were no models in pop culture and you had to go to Baltimore to find a bookstore. I really only had Ira and one other ally on campus.
“But one of the things that happened in 1987 between my junior and senior year was attending one of the big marches in Washington for gay and lesbian rights. Without Ira’s support, I never would have done that. I got on a bus and went by myself and it was an amazing first step on my journey to self-acceptance. I’m now happily married and got to live long enough to see gay marriage legalized. I owe a lot of those moments in my life to Ira.”