Father Figure

Gabriel Fonseca ’99 Is Working to Change the Culture of Fatherhood and Family in Massachusetts Community

Gabriel Fonseca ’99 is a father figure, both at home and at work. As the fatherhood coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Chelsea HealthCare Center in the suburbs of Boston, he helps men become better fathers to their children and develops programs to promote what he calls the “fatherhood movement.”

“My focus is helping fathers care for their kids,” said Fonseca, who received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Siena Heights University. “I didn’t even know there was even professions like
this out in the world.”

After earning his master’s degree from Rhode Island University, he expected to enter the field of gerontology. But then he said he “followed his heart,” taking a parent leadership trainer position in Hartford, Conn. before eventually coming to MGH to continue his work with fathers and families.

Something to Prove

Renshaw Sets NAIA Weight Throw Record in Winning National Title

Kasey Renshaw’s initial motivation to throw a shot put was a milkshake from her eight grade gym teacher. Now, as a senior at Siena Heights University, the motivation is a little bigger: winning national championships.

“I was in gym class in eighth grade and my teacher, who also working with the track team here, said, ‘Hey, Kasey, if you can throw this shotput in the air this high, I will buy you a milkshake,’” she said. “That was the first time I ever touched a shot put, but I got the milkshake. After that they pretty much started recruiting me to Siena.”

While Renshaw was not as highly recruited as current NCAA Division I athletes out of high school, she’s proved to be one of the top indoor weight throwers in the country. Among all NCAA and NAIA divisions, Renshaw is one of the best throwers in the nation. Her 70-foot, 10-inch performance at the Indiana University Relays, where she placed first in a meet full of Division I athletes, proves it.

A Different Kind of CEO

Doug Small ’82 Leads Efforts to ‘Experience Grand Rapids’

For Doug Small, it is about the destination, not the journey.

As president and “Chief Experience Officer” of Experience Grand Rapids, he leads the destination marketing non-profit organization charged with the mission to market Michigan’s second largest city and the surrounding region as a premier convention and visitor destination.

“When I got the opportunity to come here and interview, I saw the city and said, ‘Wow, this is a place I really want to be,’ ” said Small, who received his bachelor’s degree in hotel, restaurant and institutional management from Siena Heights in 1982. “What’s not to love about choosing to live in a city, and whatever that city is, you get to get up every day and represent it? That was exciting to me, and still is.”

After graduating from Siena Heights, Small got his start as a banquet manager at the Sheraton Westgate Hotel in Toledo, Ohio. However, he soon realized destination marketing was his future career path.

“While working in Dayton (Ohio), I got my first real taste of the destination marketing side,” he said. “It got me excited to look at that as a potential career.”