LIFESTYLE: The Next Generation

When Alumni send their kids off to dear ol'Penn Students living in the Quadrangle walk by McClelland Hall, named after past University Provost George W. McClelland, every day. But they might not recognize his great-granddaughter who lived in the Quad last year. Wharton sophomore Karen Krause is a sixth-generation legacy -- members of her family have been attending the University since the 1844. McClelland was Provost of the University from 1939 until 1944. At that time, the Provost was the highest ranking University official. His grandfather, George B. McClelland, attended the University from 1842 until 1844 before transferring to the U.S. Military Academy. Krause said she is reminded of her great-grandfather each time she walks by McClelland Hall -- even though he died before she was born. "Growing up, there are all these baby pictures of me in Penn sweatshirts," Krause said. "My parents were always talking about how good Penn was and how much they enjoyed it here." In eighth grade, Krause went through what she described as her rebellious stage. "I bought and wore all these sweatshirts of other colleges," she said. "I told my parents that I was not going to come here." This incident soon became the family's inside joke. Krause explained that she visited several other colleges during the Spring Break of her junior year in high school, but "out of all the Ivies," she liked the University most. She applied and was accepted early decision. Krause's other relatives who have attended the University include her father James Krause, who graduated in 1968, her grandfather George B. McClelland, who graduated from the College in 1939 and the Law School in 1946 and her mother, Susan, who graduated from the College in 1969. The family's University connections also extend to numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. According to Audrey Bedford, director of the Alumni Council on Admissions, 12 percent of the undergraduate population is made up of children of University alumni. Legacies are defined as those students with one or more parent alumni, Bedford said. Students whose grandparents attended the University -- but not their parents -- are not included in these figures. According to statistics provided by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, 221 legacies applied to the University this year during the early decision process and 132 were accepted. Overall, 765 legacies applied for the class of 1999 and 399 were accepted. College junior Thor Halvorssen can trace his roots at the University back to the beginning of this century. He said that after he graduates next year, his family will be able to claim 11 University degrees. The tradition started with his great-grandfather, Douglas Coburn, who graduated from the Dental School in 1904. Four other relatives graduated from Wharton with both undergraduate and graduate degrees -- his father, also named Thor, in 1966 and 1968, his father's twin brother, Olaf, in 1966 and 1969, his uncle, Erik, in 1963 and 1965, and another uncle, Leopoldo Lopez, in 1966 and 1968. Olaf Halvorssen may be best remembered for dating Candice Bergen, a fellow student at the time. While Thor has achieved some campus prominence as the newly elected editor-in-chief of The Red and Blue, his father was known for running a nightclub called The Classroom with his twin brother Olaf at 39th and Chestnut streets -- where O'Hara's Fish House is located today. "Penn was not my first choice," Halvorssen said. "After I came here for a visit, however, I really liked it and now I have no doubt that I made the right decision in coming here." He came to choose the University over Duke and Georgetown Universities and several other Ivy League schools to which he was accepted. Halvorssen said that although he was allowed to select which college he was to attend, his family members' comments about their positive experiences here helped persuade him to choose the University. And when Halvorssen arrived at the Quad, he found himself smack in the middle of tradition. Literally --Halvorssen's room was the same one his uncle Olaf occupied when he was a first year student in 1962. But for every legacy that can trace their roots to the University, there are also those who do not realize they have an extended branch of alumni relatives. College sophomore Laurie Moldawer, a member of the Undergraduate Assembly, has relatives with diplomas dating as far back as the 1920s. "To be honest, until I visited the alumni admissions office the year before I applied to Penn, I didn't know that any other relatives besides my mother and two cousins had gone here," she said. When Moldawer visited the University in the spring of her junior year in high school, Gay Lacy, then assistant director of the Alumni Council on Admissions, thought it would be fun to check the computer for the Moldawer name. The search revealed that four other Moldawers had attended the University. Her first red and blue relative was her grandfather, Nathan, in the 1920s. "My grandfather passed away while my father was in college so I never met him," Moldawer said. "In some ways, Penn is a connection to my grandfather because we both went through some of the same things here." Moldawer's other alumni relatives include two great-uncles, three cousins, a distant uncle and aunt and her mother, Susan, who graduated from the College for Women in 1968. "The only person who is a bigger Mask & Wig fan than myself is my mother," Laurie Moldawer explained. "I attended my first Mask & Wig show when my mom came back for her 20th reunion." Moldawer was in eighth grade at the time. According to Moldawer, her mother encouraged her to apply to other schools. "If she had told me to go to Penn, I would have probably rebelled and applied elsewhere," Laurie said. "But I thought that if Penn was good enough for my mother, grandfather, aunts and uncles then it was good enough for me." Moldawer applied and was accepted early decision to the University. While some students experienced their first taste of red and blue spirit before they could crawl, others began toasting to "Dear Old Penn" a little bit later. For College junior Norm Hetrick, his earliest memories of the University are visits with his father for Homecoming and Alumni weekends. "At first, my college experience went in a completely opposite direction from [my father's]," Hetrick said. "I spent my entire freshman year in Mask & Wig while he was a student leader, into everything." His father played football, served as president of Delta Tau Delta and as president of the senior class. He was also a member of the Sphinx Senior Honor Society. The younger Hetrick said that after he left Mask & Wig, his path began to blend with his father's -- although not intentionally. He pledged Delta Tau Delta and became more involved with student affairs after attending the Race Relations Summit at Sugarloaf last year. "Some experiences, unfortunately, will never be shared by both of us," Hetrick said. Hetrick's father, like Halvorssen's uncle, dated Bergen. Other relatives who graduated from the University include his sister, Page, in 1993, cousin Norman in 1980, and cousin Matthew in 1988. Norm Hetrick Sr., who graduated in 1965, currently serves as a University Trustee. According to Hetrick Jr., his father never put any pressure on him to attend the University. "When my sister Page went on her college trips, I went with her and waited for a school to grab me like Penn always had," he said. "Nothing did." But even graduation does not stop legacies from returning to the place many learn to call their second home. President Judith Rodin was Judith Seitz when she attended the University. Her father, Morris Seitz, was a student of the University's evening school in the Class of 1930.

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