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Lafayette was practically destiny for Lindsay Hannum.
Lafayette graduated Hannum’s grandfather, Thomas Child ’35; her great uncle, Richard Child ’34; and her uncle, Douglas Child ’79. And now that Hannum has joined the Class of 2007, she is scheduled to be the fourth in her family to graduate from Lafayette.
“I really can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about Lafayette,” says Hannum of North East, Md., who recalled reading her grandfather’s alumni magazines as a child and discovering stories of professors and students conducting research together.
“I always thought it was neat that students could be involved with things like that,” she says. So, that’s what Hannum expected and what she found: a small, “intimate” environment offering university-level resources without a phalanx of teaching assistants between students and faculty.
Like her Child relatives, Hannum plans an engineering education. In her case, she is considering a major in chemical engineering, with a minor in bioengineering. Ultimately, she’d like to pursue medical research.
But while at Lafayette, she’ll also dance. Hannum has danced since she was 3 years old: ballet, tap, modern, and jazz, she’s done them all. Most recently, she danced the part of the sugar plum fairy in the Cecil Dance Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker. It is the production’s lead role and no mean accomplishment just to land.
Lafayette had no competitor for an engineering education, says Hannum whose love of dance nevertheless led her to look around a little. “It’s true,” she says, almost apologetically. “I did look at other schools, but I came back to Lafayette because it’s the best fit overall.”