Alma Mater

Debbie Kaplan shows her freshman daughter Brooke the ropes at her alma mater, the University of Florida.

For some kids, deciding where to go to college started long before their junior or senior year of high school. For some, it happened while they were still in a Pack ’n Play.

“There’s lots of blue and orange in my family,” says Debbie Kaplan, whose daughter Brooke has just headed off to the University of Florida. “To say Brooke didn’t grow up as a Gator fan … well, she did.”

Brooke, who graduated in May from The Emery/Weiner School, inevitably connected with the Gators growing up. Her mom, grandfather, two uncles and “various cousins and family members” went to Florida. Coming from a small high school, Brooke told her mom, “I’m telling you right now, when I go to college I’m going to a big university and I’m going away.” Debbie says, “She loved her experience here in Houston, but she was ready for a bigger pond.” Florida, with 50,000-plus students, clearly fit that bill. But when it came down to making a decision, Brooke wasn’t immediately sold.

Brooke applied to several big, southern, state schools – Alabama, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina, to name a few. And she had a lot of choices. Debbie says, “She knew she wanted a good journalism school and a big setting. Secretly I was like, ‘Yeah, it would be wonderful for her to choose Florida.’ But at the same time, it was a decision she had to make. It was the same with [her dad] Rick, who went to Alabama. So the day she found out she got in to Florida, I had to step back and let her go through the process.” It took a month for Brooke to finally decide.

“Yes, I was chomping when she chose Florida!” Debbie says, referring to the “Gator Chomp,” that Florida fans do: Put your arms out straight, one high, and chomp-clap like an alligator.

“The whole experience has brought back memories,” Debbie says. “It’s hard because this is her experience. But I’ve had my own experience at the same place, and it’s hard not to put my opinions in, but she’s totally different from me.

“I was an RA [resident advisor], I was in the band, I was very involved on campus. I’m still very connected and go to a lot of alumni things and drive around with gators on my license plates. But I have to put into perspective this is her journey, not mine.

There has to be a balance between the mom and the alumni who knows the ropes.”

Active alumni and donors Steve and Leticia Trauber serve on Rice University boards, and their son, J.T., plays basketball for the Owls. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

Leticia and Steve Trauber share that dilemma. Both graduates of Rice University, along with Leticia’s sister and a brother who currently attends business school at Rice, the Traubers are supremely active donors and volunteers at the university.

“I’ve been on the basketball search committee, I chaired a reunion with the Rice alumni association, we’ve both served on the Rice alumni board, I’m on the Rice business school board, she’s on Friends of Fondren [Library].” The list goes on. Steve, who is vice chairman at Citi Investment Bank, and Leticia are fond of Rice not only for the college experience they had there, but also because they met there.

“When I was a sophomore, myself and my best friend were on the basketball team,” Steve says. “We were freshman counselors at the only all-girls dorm on campus for freshman orientation. Leticia ended up being one of my best friend’s freshmen, and we got to be really, really good friends. After a year and a half we started dating, and we married two and a half years later.”

With that history, was there pressure for their son J.T., now a sophomore, to go to Rice?

“I wouldn’t say we were pushing it, but I would say we certainly encouraged it,” Steve says.

“I applied to Stanford and thought about Duke, but in the end I thought Rice was the best choice for me,” J.T. says. “I love the city of Houston. I grew up here my entire life. I grew up a big Rice basketball fan, a big Rice football fan. It already kind of felt like home.”

Because he’s here, J.T., who played Rice basketball as a freshman last year, was able to return this year to his high school alma mater, St. John’s School, to be assistant coach for their basketball team. And he generally loves being close to home. “I can stay away from my parents as much as I need to or go out to dinner with them as much as I want,” J.T. says. “Or I can have my mom cook dinner for me on the weekends.”

About his family’s involvement on campus, J.T. says, “it’s nice ’cause the teachers know my name, so it’s a good way to start a conversation or meet a teacher.”

For their part, J.T.’s parents are thrilled. “We love Rice,” Steve says. “Besides being family, we have that camaraderie of being a Rice Owl in common. We can all cheer Rice on.”

Lizzie, Allie, Lanie, Dede and Steven Russo (from left) are dedicated UT Austin fans. (Photo: George Brainard Photography)

Dede and Steven Russo, she an attorney and he a wealth manager, also met in college, at The University of Texas, but they “weren’t super involved with UT except to be sports fans all these years,” Dede says. So when their three daughters – Allie, now graduated, Lizzie, a junior, and Lanie, a sophomore – all wound up at Texas, the Russos decided to become more active alumni.

“We joined the Presidents Council [a higher-level, charitable, giving group at UT], and this year we’re co-chairs of the President’s Circle,” Dede says. “One of our jobs is to recruit old alumni and try to get more families involved at UT.

“That’s one thing that’s unique about UT. Even though the student goes there, they get families involved in different ways. There are lectures in what they’re doing at the different colleges, from the art museums and amazing archives in the library to some of the best professors in the world. It’s been really neat for Steven and I to get involved.”

Did the Russo girls feel pressure to go to Texas? “I have to admit that I have pictures of them when they were little in UT cheerleader outfits,” Dede says. “But my sister was buying them TCU outfits at the same time.

“We went to football games, so they were very familiar with it. It was easy because it’s only two and a half hours away. But if they had wanted to go somewhere else it would have been okay.”

Dede and Steven say they feel “lucky” that UT mixes both academic and social, and that their girls can thrive in both areas.

“For me the most fun has been reconnecting with my friends,” Dede says. “My daughters have made friends with other daughters and sons of people Steven and I knew when we were there. Every time I go to Austin I run into someone at a football game or hotel or restaurant who we knew back in the day. I sound like my mother and say, ‘Oh, I knew their parents!’ But it’s been neat.”

Jamie Schneider is attending the University of Michigan this fall, following in her mom Julie's footsteps. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

Julie Schneider, a retired pediatrician, says the same thing about her daughter Jamie’s decision to attend her alma mater, the University of Michigan. “I’ve reconnected with lots of friends who have kids there already or will be freshmen,” Julie says. “With Facebook it’s been wonderful. They’re looking out for her.”

Julie and her husband Peter took Jamie to see Michigan at the beginning of her junior year at The Emery/Weiner School. “I wanted to take her early because if she didn’t like it, I was going to stop talking about it. But if she did, I was going to continue encouraging it.”

Jamie loved it. “When I went with my parents it was the first college I ever visited, even before UT,” she says. “I didn’t know what to expect so I was pretty open-minded. We went to a football game, and I thought it was fun.

“Then I went senior year and had been to other college campuses. That time I got to stay with my camp friend and that was more of a, ‘Do I want to go here?’ trip, more of a real experience. It was really fun but also laid back, and I liked that I didn’t know a lot of people there.”

Jamie did apply to other schools, but she applied early action to Michigan. The decision wasn’t binding, but she found out in December that she got in. Julie says she knew then that Jamie’s decision was made.

“It was one of those days I’ll never forget,” Julie says. “She went on the computer and yelled, ‘Mom, I got in!’ I was so happy and had little tears. Then I went out and got all this blue and yellow and flowers and candy and balloons.

“I know this is the right place for Jamie. She’s an overachiever, but I know she also wants to have fun. It’s highly academic, but there’s tons of spirit, Greek life, social, football. I look forward to going back to parents’ weekend in November!”