By Steve Seepersaud
To continue the celebration of Mother's Day, this month's Alumni Connect spotlights a mother-daughter tandem — both are psychology graduates. As the Hershfields tell it, that was totally by chance and each has a different area of focus within the field.
"I would not necessarily say my mother had an impact in me choosing psychology," said
Brooke Hershfield '17 (left of photo), who is at Ithaca College finishing her master's
thesis in sport and exercise science with a concentration in sport psychology. "I
had always found it interesting, but knew that school psychology [her mother's field]
was not for me. Senior year in high school, I learned what sport psychology was and
knew it was something I could be passionate about. To align with that field, I also
minored in health and wellness studies at Binghamton, which gave me a good knowledge
base for graduate school."
Her mother, Adrienne Hershfield '90, had also entered a master's program right after graduating from Binghamton, and works as an elementary school psychologist in Orange County, N.Y.
Though the family connection to Binghamton was meaningful to Brooke Hershfield when considering where to attend college, the University's quality and value were bigger factors in the decision.
"I knew I would end up at a SUNY school, so Binghamton was obviously on my list!" she said. "Binghamton's reputation definitely speaks for itself, so I knew if I got in that I would end up going."
"Brooke is a bright woman," her mother said. "She recognized the value in a SUNY education from a price perspective. She also wanted to be relatively close to home. Along with that, she weighed in reputation and the quality of education she would receive. Binghamton was her first choice for good reason. When Brooke got into Binghamton, my husband and I were thrilled. When she chose it, we were ecstatic. It was such an exciting time!"
Over the years, Adrienne Hershfield had always spoken highly of her experience at "SUNY-B." As a resident assistant in Seneca Hall in College-in-the-Woods, she formed friendships that have lasted more than 30 years.
"I had never visited campus prior to touring it as a prospective student," Brooke Hershfield said. "Because I grew up surrounded by my mother's best friends from college and their kids, it was almost like visiting by proxy."
While their student experiences were very different, and the campus in 1990 didn't totally resemble campus in 2017, they enjoy having Binghamton in common.
"The University Union is not as it was in my day, but looks fabulous now," Adrienne Hershfield said. "I always enjoyed the [E. W. Heier Teaching and Research] Greenhouse and the view from the [Glenn G.] Bartle Library fountain. In the many years between our enrollments, so much of the campus had changed! Brooke chose Mountainview as her first choice. It didn't even exist in the late 80s. Still, I do think there was a comfort in knowing she was going to college where I had attended."