A Family of Harvard Extension School Students

Being a Harvard Extension School student can run in the family. Consider, for example, Susan Lerman, ABE '78, and her daughter Lauren Simonelli, ABE '81. And a tip-of-the-hat goes to the Pescatore siblings--Michael, ABE '73, Ralph, ABE '65, and Richard, ABE '68. Then there's long-time Extension School student and alumni photographer Robert Pagliarulo, ALM '92, who inspired his son to become a candidate for the Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management (CSS).

But the Dowling-McCarthy family may set some sort of Extension School record. Four members of their family, encompassing three generations, enrolled in Extension School courses last fall, and three are continuing this term.

The family's association with the Extension School began in the fall of 1996 when John Dowling, a candidate for the Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Biology, persuaded his sister, Rosemary McCarthy, and his mother, Rosemary Dowling, to attend Dr. L. Dodge Fernald's course, PSYC E-15 Introduction to Psychology. "The Rosemarys" enjoyed the course so much that they moved on to Professor Thomas O'Connor's course, HIST E-1631 The History of Boston from the Civil War to the Present, in the spring of 1997.

Lectures and readings for that course prompted spirited dinner table conversations in the McCarthy household. Those conversations included Rosemary's son, Michael, a sophomore at Duxbury High School who was enrolled in an Advanced Placement history course there.

Last fall the two Rosemarys, mother and daughter, enrolled in the first part of O'Connor's course, HIST E-l630 The History of Boston from l630 to l865. And, inspired by Mary Fasano who received her Bachelor of Liberal Arts (ALB) degree in 1997 at age 89, the senior Rosemary decided to take the course for credit. Michael, beginning his junior year in high school, joined his mother and grandmother and also enrolled in HIST E-1630 for credit.

This spring, along with John who continues to work on his ALM, "the Rosemarys" are back in Extension School classes and are seriously considering becoming candidates for the Associate's degree.

One family member, Michael McCarthy, John's brother-in-law and Michael's father, feels left out. He travels for business and finds it impossible to take any Extension School courses. "But if that schedule ever changes," he vowed, "I'll join my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, wife, and, possibly, my son in a Harvard classroom."

"You know," Michael remarked, "your school advertises that it is Harvard's best kept secret, but that's not so in our house." Every Dowling-McCarthy family member praises the courses they've taken and recommends that other families take courses together. "The family who studies together ..."