Reese Chatman, Campus Carrier features editor

 Since 1902, Berry has been where thousands of students have spent their college years. Martha Berry had a vision for students to not only learn well, but to keep what they learn with them always. This sentiment has lasted for well over 100 years, spanning multiple generations. Currently, there are many students enrolled on campus whose parents and grandparents attended Berry as well, roaming the same streets that they do now. 

Angelle Thornton is a Junior whose grandparents and parents attended Berry. As a Rome native, many of her friends and family are Berry alumni.

“I am very close with my parents,” Thornton said. “I kinda grew up on and off-campus just because they would often go back to visit friends and things like that.”

Thornton says that her parents met at Berry and that her mom was not initially impressed by the man that would eventually become her husband. 

“My mom and dad shared a class together,” Thornton said. “My mom told me that my dad would come into the classroom every day and cause absolute chaos because he liked to be a distraction and a horrible student. This would always make my mom mad because she was a great student and took her work very seriously. Their first interaction was during one day when he was being particularly disruptive so she looked right at him and stuck her tongue at him.” 

Both of Thornton’s parents attended Berry during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her mother received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Her father was in college for a collective 7 years, transferring from Berry to Shorter and then eventually back to Berry. 

Thornton’s grandmother was a Berry student in the 1950s and has told her granddaughter numerous stories about how much the school has changed over the years.

“When she was a student, they still had to wear uniforms,” Thornton said. “Also, the Ford Complex was entirely used for girls’ housing. They would have these outings where they would let the boys sit on the Ford lawn by the reflection pool because they were not allowed to go into the dorms. Couples would have their dates here. Someone would also be in charge of walking around and monitoring the area to make sure the students weren’t misbehaving.” 

Student work has been a major component of Berry since 1914. During her time at the school, Thornton’s grandmother did work sewing, housekeeping, and cooking in the kitchen whenever needed.

While there have been countless changes made to campus since over the years, Thornton says that some things have not changed at all. 

“From what I can see, the community has pretty much stayed the same,” Thornton said. “In the sense of that level of closeness and what everyone thinks of when they think of how close the people are here, that has stayed the same. People are kind and are seemingly always willing to help.”

Hannah Saxon is a junior 2nd generation student whose mother attended Berry as a sociology major, graduating in 1994. 

Saxon recalls her touring Berry with her mother.

“She was excited when she found out that the washing machines didn’t require quarters anymore,” Saxon said. “She used to always have to carry around a handful of them when she did her laundry.” 

Saxon’s mother lived through a very historic event for the state of Georgia: the blizzard of 1993. 

“My mom was at Berry when the blizzard came through,” Saxon said. “She lived in Morton-Lemley. There was a huge tree right beside the dorm that had fallen down due to the storm. It was right in the middle of the road and was keeping people from going to certain parts of campus. My mom’s dad, my grandfather, is really into wood carving, and offered to pick it up for free. Apparently, it was made of some really good kind of wood that he really wanted.” 

She worked multiple odd-jobs on campus, but according to Saxon, refers to her job repainting dorm buildings the most. 

“During her freshman year, she was doing a lot of grunt-work jobs like dishwashing and serving food,” Saxon said. “Eventually, she moved on to serve as student secretary for the education and psychology departments during her junior and senior year, where she worked with professors, helped to facilitate faculty interviews, and things like that. She claims that it was those latter jobs in particular that gave her the management skills she has now.”

While many rising high school seniors tour multiple schools to find what college feels perfect for them, Saxon’s mother only toured Berry. 

“She found out about Berry through working at Chick-fil-a,” she said. “She loved the smaller size. She also says that it felt like the trees were speaking to her. My mom has always loved pretty trees and Berry has plenty of them. 

Initially Saxon did not want to attend Berry.

“My mom and I are already very similar for the most part,” she said. I just felt like I didn’t need any more comparison between us coming my way, but here we are. When I came here for the first time, I realized that just like my mom, I felt like I belonged there.” 

Berry has always sought to cultivate a culture of belonging, and for well over 100 years, it has done just that. Alumni continue to share their stories with younger generations of how Berry equipped them with the tools they needed to tackle life head on, continuing the cycle of being a good neighbor, not only on campus, but anywhere.