Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
I’ll keep helping out as long as they want me to. I just enjoy it so much. I love to talk to other Creighton parents who are going through the same experiences I was when my son went to school.
“Creighton? What’s Creighton?” Anette Estes asked her son, Jerry Estes, BSBA’16, when he was trying to pick a college.
Anette, who lives outside Chicago, knew nothing of the University nor Omaha when she and Jerry first toured Creighton. But as soon as they set foot on campus, they knew that this … this was the one.
“We were on our tour, and Jerry turned to me, and said, ‘Mom, I love it,’” Annette says. “He didn’t have to tell me. I’d fallen in love with Creighton, too.”
Anette says that when your child attends a school, you end up attending that school, too. Unlike her son, she hadn’t gone to a four-year college. Now she wanted to be a part of Creighton, as well, just not in a way that robbed Jerry of his independence.
She found the perfect outlet in CAP (Creighton Admissions Partners), a group of volunteers representing the University throughout the country.
Through CAP, Anette has taken part in local receptions, helped with college fairs and contacted admitted students and families.
“She’s an amazing parent volunteer,” says Beth Sullivan-Piskel, associate director of admissions for Creighton’s Chicago regional office.
Anette loved volunteering for CAP, so much so that she’s still doing it, three years after Jerry graduated.
“I’ll keep helping out as long as they want me to,” she says. “I just enjoy it so much. I love to talk to other Creighton parents who are going through the same experiences I was when Jerry first went to school. He’s my only child, and I was so nervous dropping him off at Creighton, seven hours away from home.
“Now I can tell parents what I learned — that I was leaving him in a safe place and a good community. I tell them it’s like you’re leaving your child with an extended family.”
Creighton parents and CAP volunteers Brian and Kris McMorrow, also from Chicago, second that feeling of family.
They’ve got two Creighton kids — Kelly McMorrow, BS’19, and Thomas McMorrow, a Class of 2021 business major.
When volunteering for Creighton events in the Chicago area, Brian and Kris love to talk with other parents about the somewhat scary prospect of dropping your 18-year-old off at a university in Nebraska.
“We tell them that the first year can be tough for parents,” Kris says. “But we also tell them that Creighton is a wonderful school and that it’s done so well for our family.”
And if anyone ever happens to ask them, “Creighton? What’s Creighton?,” they’ve got a ready answer.
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Creighton parents like Anette and the McMorrows make up an essential network of volunteers representing the University.
Through Creighton Admissions Partners, parent and alumni volunteers help contact admitted students and families, attend local receptions and represent Creighton at college fairs.
Want to join CAP? Contact alumni@creighton.edu or 402.280.2222.
