Julia Kaskey became the fifth member of her family to earn a Temple degree during this week’s graduation ceremonies.
Julia Kaskey celebrated her graduation with her sister Laura (left), mother Kathleen (center left), father Richard (center right) and sister Michaela (right).
Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg
Temple University’s 139th Commencement ceremony Wednesday afternoon was a momentous occasion for thousands of new Temple graduates and their families. But for the Kaskey family, it was the culmination of a legacy years in the making.
Julia Kaskey graduated Wednesday with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a certificate in gender, sexuality and women’s studies, becoming the fifth member of her immediate family to earn a Temple degree.
She joins her older sisters Michaela, CPH ’24; Laura, FOX ’22; and Amanda, FOX ’18, as recent Temple graduates. Their parents, Richard, EDU ’92, and Kathleen, met at Temple in 1988, and Richard would later graduate with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education in 1992.
It was a special moment for the family from Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, some 60 miles away from Temple’s Main Campus.
“I am very proud, obviously, of my time at Temple and what the university did for me,” said Richard, who has worked in education for 32 years and is the principal of Saucon Valley High School in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. “But I never dreamed that all four of my daughters would be so educated, so strong, so open to diversity, and that they would graduate from the same university as I did.”
Richard was the first in his family to attend college, and he ultimately chose Temple over the University of Notre Dame, the University of Tennessee and Saint Joseph’s University. During a visit in March 1987, Richard witnessed the buzz on campus surrounding Temple men’s basketball’s Elite Eight run and immediately felt at home.
“I was like, wow, this is somewhere I would want to go,” he said.
The men’s basketball team brought Richard to Temple, but North Philadelphia’s rich culture and diversity made him the person he is today.
“Growing up in Wilkes-Barre, there wasn’t a lot of diversity. When I got to Philadelphia, I got to experience the culture, the differences,” Richard said. “The color of your skin didn’t matter. Where you came from didn’t matter. What language you spoke didn’t matter. It really made me appreciate others for who they are.”
Temple is also where Richard met his wife, Kathleen.
“When I visited with my parents, Temple just felt like home,” said Kathleen, who works as a paraprofessional for an emotional support classroom in the Fleetwood Area School District. “I also liked the diversity, and that’s part of why I was happy that all of the girls chose to go to Temple, because I also grew up in a small town in Chester County.”
When the time came for their oldest daughter, Amanda, to apply to colleges, Richard and Kathleen didn’t expect her to consider Temple, or anywhere remotely close to home.
But as would become the case for each of their daughters, Amanda was drawn to Temple for its familiarity and more importantly, the strength of its degree programs.
“Temple just checked all the boxes of what I was looking for in a school at the time,” said Amanda, who is a project manager at a pharmaceutical advertising agency. “I also had the experience of visiting in childhood, so it didn’t really feel like a college visit. It just felt like returning somewhere I had been and knew.”
“I think we all really love Philadelphia and have deep connections here,” added Laura, who works in fundraising for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “With our parents meeting at Temple, we have all spent some time in our childhood in Philly and on campus. And a lot of the programs we looked into were really strong at Temple, specifically.”
Julia’s Temple path is unique in that she is the first person in her family to pursue medicine. She majored in biochemistry with her sights set on medical school and a future career in obstetrics and gynecology or pediatrics.
A formative Temple moment came during the Intro to Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies course when her professor, Jennifer Pollitt, required students to attend the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Research Symposium.
“Being there was a lightbulb click that I was in the right place, and that the certificate was the right decision for me,” Julia said. “You just will not find a place like Temple where there are so many students involved in a program like that, and where there is such a rich culture around gender, sexuality and women’s studies.”
Julia plans to apply to medical school after a gap year. In Kaskey fashion, Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine is at the top of her list.
“One of the foundations Katz looks for is volunteer and community-oriented applicants,” Julia said. “I really appreciate that, and I would love to stay in North Philadelphia and continue serving the community here.”
The entire Kaskey family was on campus to celebrate Julia’s graduation. Her sisters didn’t have to go too far, as they all live in Philadelphia. Amanda and Laura live together, and Julia lives with Michaela, who works as a child advocacy social worker for the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
While Wednesday’s ceremony felt like a culminating moment, for one family member, celebration of the family’s Temple legacy kicked off nearly four years ago.
“When Julia first decided to go to Temple, I went and got a tattoo of the Temple ‘T’ with ‘Temple Made’ underneath it,” Richard said. “When Kathleen and I were here, people would say ‘Owls are everywhere.’ Well, with Julia’s graduation, that’s certainly come to fruition in our family.”