Alumna Spotlight: Patricia Kolman

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke Rowing Alumna Spotlight segment continues with Patricia "PJ" Kolman, a 2015 graduate that finished her career as a key member of Duke's varsity-four boat.

Kolman has found a career in the education field, where she currently works as the Director of Alumni Relations at Isidore Newman School in the New Orleans area. Following her graduation from Duke, she spent time in similar capacities at Providence Day School in Charlotte, N.C., and in Amman, Jordan, for two years.

After you were born in Knoxville, Tenn., and went to high school in Princeton, N.J., did Tennessee and Princeton come to mind when choosing what school you wanted to row at?

PJ: "They definitely did. When I narrowed it down to visits and who I was talking to in that 11th hour of making a decision, it was Duke, Princeton, UT, UVA and UCLA. All things considered, Duke was just on the up-and-up and I had a really good feeling about the team culture itself, Durham and Duke as a university. When I kind of had my cards all out, there were these great, big programs at big schools that were sort of guaranteed a spot at NCAA's, or a school like Princeton which is comparable to Duke in terms of academics and campus culture – but was one mile from where I went to high school and where I grew up. I really wanted to be in the south and somewhere I could row outdoors year-round.

"When I looked at everything that was important to me and what I was looking for in a school, Duke was the obvious choice. It was going to be a team where our class – the class of 2015 – could come in and make an immediate impact. You see some schools that all freshman, regardless of if you're recruited or not, stay separate from the rest of the team all fall. At Duke, it was like you're in it and you're in the team, and so it just fell into place."

Have you had a chance to return to campus since you graduated?

PJ: "I do miss it. I have not had a chance to get back as much as I would like. I was living overseas for a couple of years. The first year after I graduated, I was in Charlotte just for a year, and I was able to get up to campus a couple times that year for rowing alumnae events, or some of my teammates came down to visit me. Once I moved overseas, it became a lot more difficult. I was planning on coming for my five-year reunion, and then that obviously got cancelled. If I had come for my five-year reunion, that would have been the first time on campus since 2017, I think. I'm long overdue for a trip, but I do miss it and I know Durham is vastly different even than it was five years ago, so I really do want to get back there."

Where did you live overseas?

PJ: "I lived in Jordan, outside of Amman, the capital. I worked at a boarding school that the King of Jordan founded. He went to Deerfield [Academy] in Massachusetts and essentially wanted there to be a Deerfield in the Middle East. It's called King's Academy, and I was doing fundraising and alumni relations for them for two years. It was very glamorous, living on campus and being a dorm parent and all that."

Did you study education at Duke, and what was it that made you want to pursue a career in education?

PJ: "I did not. I studied American History and African-American studies. Both of my parents are educators and I have a number of other family members that are – it's really a family of educators. I was not very confident about going straight into teaching. I did kind of find some comfort in the education field, and so I went straight into a fellowship at Providence Day in Charlotte in their Advancement in Communications shop. It was the best first job out of college, Charlotte was the city to go to – it was just a great steppingstone. I did a fast track through their development and communications shops. That experience was so great, but I've just kind of stayed on this track.

"I think with feedback I've gotten from supervisors and heads of schools, I do find a lot of comfort and I really like the interactions with students. Working for a nonprofit, but really having a front-row seat to the people you're fundraising for and the impact your work is having on them, I think that's pretty unique to working – whether it's a university or a secondary school where I work – it's a unique experience to work in education.

"In my relationships that I have with people within our school community, our donors or our alumni or even 13 sophomore advisees – I do kind of go back to the environment I had at Duke. Our relationship with our academic advisor – who is not there anymore – but Khary McGhee was our academic advisor and he was just there for so many of us and was just sort of a real support system and a heavy hand if we needed a reality check. I do kind of reflect on the relationship that we had with coaches and with advisors, and sort of the larger Duke Athletics community and the university community. It's the same sort of support and atmosphere I seek to bring to this whole community I'm in now."

Have you been able to stay in touch with your old teammates?

PJ: "Yeah. It was definitely harder when I was overseas, just with time zones and things like that. But because I was in frontline fundraising, I got to travel pretty often back to the U.S. for work, not just for vacation. It's kind of disbanded now, but for a while, so many of the women in my class and some of the surrounding classes all ended up in Boston and so we would all just end up there at some point just to reconnect and see each other. It's funny – now, I live in New Orleans and so many people are there for work, so it's fun. This year, Sarah Fletcher, who was a freshman when I was a senior, texted me and was like 'I'm going to be in New Orleans for one night.' I just kind of naturally kept in touch and was seeing people intentionally or by chance, which has been great."

What would your advice be to the current Duke rowing team?

PJ: "I've just been thinking about them so much now with their season ending. My sister actually rows for Clemson, and so she was even like 'This was Duke's year. They were coming.' My heart just breaks for them. I think they know how quickly it goes, especially with this ending. You learn a lot about yourself in the sport of rowing and about what you can take. You are choosing to be an athlete and give part of yourself to the sport for four years of college, and [I would tell them] do not underestimate all of the things you can learn about yourself by being a member of an incredible group of women and a big team. In the pursuit, even if you don't achieve what you set out to achieve, you're going to learn so much about yourself over the course of the season and of four years. Just sort of take in the people around you.

"I kind of look back and I think about the women that I was around for four years, and just what I learned from them and how they shaped me. That is not to be ignored at all. It really is an incredible group of people, and I think that's sort of the part of the culture that's stayed the same even with the coaching change and new faces that I don't know. My sense is that it's still a really powerful group that kind of expects the best of one another. We didn't win ACC's or get an NCAA bid, but they did the year after we graduated and that's all the proof that you need, that you'll get it as long as you put in the work."

Do you look at your current occupation as a lifetime career, and do you take your experience rowing at Duke into any aspect of your current occupation?

PJ: "A little bit. I'm kind of at a point where, just in terms of my age and where I am, where I'm like 'Is this what I want to do forever?' I do get a lot out of working in education and my work with kids. I only see them in a pretty limited capacity, just as an advisor, but I owe for example, Khary McGhee, just working with teenagers and trying to get them to do what they're supposed to do, I'm like 'Oh yeah, I was a nightmare when I was 18,' and Khary was like 'Where was this assignment? Were you in class today?' I just put him through it. But it has been really rewarding.

"Not to say that the success of my students is by any means my success, but I am happy for them because it is relatively close in memory, that feeling of hitting strides in high school in pursuit of your goal for college. It is exciting to see them go through that and sort of live vicariously through it. I really enjoy what I do and fundraising is great. I do kind of go back to – not as intense of a mentality as Division I athletics – but sort of talking about perseverance and being able to roll with the punches and be told no a couple times. It all just goes back to a mindset I kind of honed for rowing."

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Alumna Spotlight: Patricia Kolman

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