Attending York a family tradition

by Cathy Carlyle

Almost since York University began, Filomena Grieco and her family have been a part of it. Not only did she graduate from the University, but so did her daughter and granddaguther. Grieco has watched many changes take place on the campus and feels a great fondness for the place.

"I started part time in 1964 when York was at Glendon and later I took some courses at the Keele Campus. At that time, it was the only university around that offered courses for part-time, mature students," said Grieco, who spent 35 years teaching as she attended University. "I remember having to walk about 100 steps from the lower parking lot up to the building, and later walking up all those steps that were outside the Ross Building. There was no Vari Hall, no York Lanes. In fact, we were shown holes in the ground and we were told where the different buildings were going to be."

She reflected happily, "What I liked about being at York was having to read books and poems that otherwise I wouldn't have done. I enjoyed being there because it took me away from the atmosphere of my job teaching kindergarten and Grade 1 and gave me the chance to talk to adults in the evenings."

Grieco graduated in 1972 from Atkinson with a BA, then went on to attain an honours degree in English four years later. Like a hummingbird to nectar, she was back at York in the '80s, receiving a BEd in 1986. "I remember we had a graduation and housewarming party at the same time when I got my first degree. My children had little badges saying 'My Mom got her BA at York'. They got used to me graduating, since I did it three times. My children saw me studying and writing, and they grew used to that happening around the house."

One of those children was her daughter, Gail Anstey, who started at the University on a full entrance scholarship and graduated in 1979 with a BA in math. "I'd always wanted to teach math," she said, "and I went to York because I was so familiar with the campus. My Mom had gone there and she took me with her many times as a child. I can recall her doing research in the library and we would go up the escalator ‹ the one where there were flashing lights. You could put your hand on the wall and it would light up."

Anstey's own daughter, April, was a Yorkite before she even drew her first breath. Anstey married while a student at York, took textbooks along on her honeymoon and gave birth to her daughter in the midst of exam time. She was allowed to write one exam early ‹ after she'd first given medical proof to her professor that the baby's arrival was imminent. With that exam completed, she took textbooks to the hospital with her, had April, studied there, and wrote another exam two weeks after her daughter's birth.

"Most of the York professors were caring and helped us along," she said. "I took a bachelor of education degree at the University of Toronto later because you couldn't do it part time then, at York. But I upgraded at York after that so that I could teach senior math at night. My experiences at York were good, and that's why I encouraged April to go there, and why I am encouraging my son to go. U of T is so sprawling. You don't get that closeness."

April, who entered York with a partial entrance scholarship, graduated in June with a BSc in biology. She echoed her mother's opinion about the close-knit feeling and physical compactness of the York campus. The 'closeness' had an additional meaning for her. "It's near my house," she said. "Because my classes and labs started early and went late, I liked the idea of being able to get to and from the University quickly."