Monday, November 17, 2003
She attended Harvard and earned a high-level position -- all while battling Crohn's disease.
By CATHY SECKMAN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Waiting at the Mayo Clinic with her mother to hear a diagnosis that would confirm her worst fears, Andrea Hoffrichter of Cambridge was at a low point in her life.
She'd had to drop out of a master's program at Harvard University two months short of finishing, and now the Mayo doctors were repeating what she'd already heard in Boston: "We have to remove your colon."
Andrea has suffered from Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disorder, since she was 13.
A daughter of Cindy and Marc Hoffrichter of East Liverpool, Andrea was the type of person everyone knew would do well in life.
"No one ever questioned that she was going somewhere," says her childhood friend, Leah Porter VanderKaay.
Small-town life, though, hadn't prepared Andrea for Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., where most of her new classmates had gone to prep school. "It was such a shock, academically," she remembers. "I got an F on my first test, an F on my first paper. I felt so out of my league. A friend taught me how to write a paper, then I just put my head down and studied.
"With a major in sociology, I knew I would need an advanced degree. I had experience as a head resident in a dormitory, so my boss recommended I enter a college administration master's program."
She applied to several universities, including Harvard.
"My father was against Harvard at first because we didn't have any contacts there," she said. "He thought it was a waste of $60 for the application fee."
Determination
Andrea was accepted into the University of Michigan's graduate program, and had actually rented an apartment there before she learned she'd also been accepted at Harvard. She's still not sure how she got into the Ivy League school.
"My father has always told me that Hoffrichters never quit, and one thing I've really learned from that experience is to try your hardest, even if it's a long shot," she says. "My scores weren't good, but I had good grades and some good recommendations. In my application essay, I talked about coming from a mixed religious background. My adviser at Harvard is actually in a mixed religious marriage, so maybe that helped."
Andrea's mother is Protestant, and her father is Jewish. She was reared as a Protestant and is now part of a Messianic Jewish congregation in Boston.
Once at Harvard for the nine-month master's program, she began having trouble with Crohn's flare-ups. Six months into the program, she had surgery but was back at school six weeks later, determined to finish.
"I guess I was in denial about it," she says. "I was trying to attend classes with IV equipment in my backpack and a 104-degree fever."
She eventually had to drop out and spend the summer in a Boston hospital.
"I tried everything -- experimental drugs, alternative medicine," she says. "I didn't want to follow their recommendation, so I checked myself out and came home."
A friend got her an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"I went through a week of testing, and they told me the same thing," she says. "I had my colon removed in December of that year, and it saved my life. I have an ostomy now. It's something I never wanted, but it's just getting used to a new appliance, that's all."
Hard work pays off
She had to start the master's program over again from the beginning but was finally able to graduate in 2002.
"That was an accomplishment," she says with some relief.
During graduate school, she'd worked as an intern at the university's Alumni Association Board of Directors office. She continued working there part time after graduation and did some volunteer work with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. She also volunteers with a medical association for people with Crohn's disease.
When a position as assistant director of alumni relations and research opened up in the board of directors office, Andrea applied.
"I wasn't a shoo-in, though," she says. "It took eight interviews and six months before I got the job, and then I was on probation for six months because I'm so young. I had to prove I could handle it."
The board of directors office of the Harvard Alumni Association serves 200,000 living alumni, Andrea says. One of her duties is to research and write biographies of prominent alumni.
"Many of them serve on the alumni board or run for election to the board of overseers, which helps administer the university."
Her office also manages Harvard Clubs in cities around the world, and plans reunions and travel programs.
Small-town roots
Andrea loves city life and is happy with Boston.
"People there aren't as friendly as they are in East Liverpool, and it's a very expensive place to live, but the food's great, and there are so many options," she says. "Every night you can go to a concert, a play, a lecture."
She hasn't forgotten her roots, though.
"The good thing about being from East Liverpool is knowing where you came from," Andrea says. "I like being from a small town because I don't get caught up in fame. I believe there has to be a balance between work and a social life. Family, faith and friends are all integral with me."
Andrea believes it's important to keep a variety of goals in sight.
"All my life I've been working toward some goal, some test," she says. "Right now I'm learning Hebrew, and I'm thinking of getting my Ph.D. in religion. I like the idea of studying something you're actually living."
A doctorate in religion might not seem very practical, but Andrea has even longer-range goals in mind.
"Every dean I've ever met has a Ph.D. and has taught at college level," Andrea says. "Someday I'd like to be at a small liberal arts college, like Colgate."
Wherever life takes her, Andrea Hoffrichter will keep her goals in sight -- and keep on trying, even if what she's trying for seems like a long shot.