Kristine McCarthy '03, '07: A Second Home

by Kurt Gottschalk

Adelphi University provided an exceptional setting for Kristine McCarthy ’03, ’07, to stand out academically and athletically. It also helped her get her first job.

McCarthy, a former standout softball player, discovered Adelphi on a trip with her high school newspaper. She was offered academic and athletic scholarships. On top of that, the Office of Student Financial Services reached out to her with a job offer.

“Debra Evans of the financial aid office called me up and asked me if I wanted to work in the financial aid office as a student worker under the Federal Work-Study Program,” McCarthy said. “I came in for an interview and started working there a month or two before school started in the fall.”

Adelphi continued to give McCarthy support while she excelled in the classroom and on the softball field. She was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete three times and she also stitched her name in Adelphi’s career records. As of January 2015, she remains second all time in walks (60), 10th in runs (106) and RBI (83), and ninth in doubles (39).

Keeping on top of classes and work while playing softball and negotiating other aspects of campus life helped her develop important multitasking skills. She ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in education (2003), but returned to Adelphi and received a second bachelor’s degree, in nursing, in 2007.

“I had so much support from my co-workers in the financial aid office,” she said. “I worked there both as a student and full-time employee from 1999–2007. I learned how to balance work, school and sports, as well as many other important life lessons during that time.

“I am forever grateful for my experience at Adelphi University and the opportunities it has afforded me.”

Today, those skills are being applied to her work as a certified registered nurse anesthetist at the University of Texas.

“I’m very satisfied,” she said. “I look back on my time at Adelphi and I feel like it was a true second home for me.

“It is a great, well-known university but it also has a small, close-knit community feel to it that I liked very much.”