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Room for the Family

by Jill Wiesman, Associate Editor

Sensenbrenner Hall Room 110 has been home to more than 100 students since the hall was built in 1956. This year brought about a connection not likely shared by any other inhabitants of the room: Sara Allaire ’21 moved into the same room her mother, Beth (Pankratz) Allaire ’91, had 30 years ago – and it was all coincidental!

As the two were talking among several family members at a family reunion this past July and the subject turned to college, they asked where the young Allaire would be living. She had just found out and looked it up on her phone. She would be in Sensenbrenner 110, she shared.

“My cousin [Lauren Danning ’14] went to St. Norbert and she graduated a few years ago, and she was in Sensenbrenner 127,” Sara says. “And then my mom was like, ‘oh, I think I was in Sensenbrenner 120 or something.’” That was the first that Sara learned her mother had also roomed in Sensenbrenner – quite the coincidence, and, they thought, how funny it would be if they’d had the same room.

“So [my mother] texted her freshman-year roommate, who she’s still really good friends with … and said ‘do you know what room we were in freshman year?’” says Sara. “And her roommate was like ‘yeah, we were in 110’ and she sent a picture of their dorm room.” The photo of their room included the room number, and Sara could barely believe it. “I checked it again … because I thought, ‘wait, is this right?’ It was all random and it was all just … luck, I guess.”

Moving Sara into her room proved to be a trip down memory lane for her mother. “She was talking about she remembered this and this, how the drawers are really, really big and the closets, and how the floor is the same, how everything is still how she remembers it,” says Sara. “It’s funny that 30 years later, it’s literally the same thing. It’s all good, I love it!

“My mom and my dad [Tim Allaire ’93] both went here, and they met here, right outside the cafeteria. My dad was really pushing for me to go here and my mom was like ‘go wherever you want to go.’ It was my decision 100 percent, but they were very happy that I went here. They really love this school and they have a lot of ties; we have a bunch of family members who went here.”

Sara’s father’s siblings all attended St. Norbert themselves, as well as a great uncle, a cousin and another aunt. “It’s fun to carry on the legacy. I’m also majoring in education which is exactly what my mom and dad majored in.” Her parents had loved St. Norbert, “with everyone welcoming and loving and caring for everyone, and they knew that was just perfect for me.”


Nov 10, 2017