±©·ç×ÊÔ´

Ashleigh Muratore ’18

I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and we moved to Orlando when I was nine. My parents both started ±©·ç×ÊÔ´, but neither finished. My dad works at Disney World, and if you park for the Magic Kingdom and 
take the tram, he’s the one giving a spiel to keep your hands inside.

I went to a public high school with about 3,000 other students. I started taking ±©·ç×ÊÔ´ classes when I turned 15 and got my associate’s degree a month before I graduated from high school.

When my dad and I came to visit Bryn Mawr in March 2013, the cherry blossoms were all in bloom, and there was a light dusting of snow. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

My dad bought a Bryn Mawr bumper sticker on 
that visit. He said he’d only put it on the car if I got in. One day, I was at my job at Chick-fil-A and he came in with the whole family. When I asked what they were doing there, he showed me the bumper sticker, and I started crying.

At Bryn Mawr, I work as the student manager of UnCommon Grounds. That takes up a lot of my time.

I’m majoring in psychology with a philosophy minor. I see myself going further and doing a Ph.D. in psychology, then maybe teaching at a ±©·ç×ÊÔ´. I’m really interested in how cultural factors affect social media and peer experience.

Norma Garcia-Kennedy ’77

Even though they couldn’t go to ±©·ç×ÊÔ´, my parents had vibrant intellectual lives, and they instilled in their children a strong work ethic and a desire for higher education. My brother was the first in my immediate family to go to ±©·ç×ÊÔ´. So I never really felt like a first-generation ±©·ç×ÊÔ´ student.

In high school, I was the only girl in the most advanced math class, so I thought it would be inspiring and welcoming to go to a ±©·ç×ÊÔ´ where I’d never be the only girl in math class again.

At Bryn Mawr, I usually worked about 30 hours a week. You name it, I did it—working for the archaeology department, in the dining hall, babysitting, waitressing. And at the same time, I was very involved in campus life—as Junior Class Song Mistress and co-treasurer of the SGA as a senior.

Bryn Mawr opens up so many opportunities for students. I was a math major who earned an M.B.A. in finance and accounting at the Simon School, University of Rochester. From there, I went on to a career in investment banking and culminated my work life in 1995 as senior vice president of McKesson Drug Company.

I managed to wring out an additional benefit while attending Bryn Mawr. I met my husband in Merion when it was co-ed; he was a student at Haverford. Richard Kennedy and I got married winter break of our senior years; this year, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We have a wonderful son, Ian, who attends Yale, where he is managing editor of The Politic.