Donor Stories
Rachel Cuschieri-Murray and Bryant Murray
Rachel Frances Cuschieri-Murray '98, '00 knows firsthand how hectic trying to attend college while paying for it can be. While pursuing her master's in interpersonal communications, she took nine graduate credit hours of classes to maintain a graduate fellowship, worked fifteen hours a week to pay her rent, and taught nine undergraduate credit hours as a 21-year-old graduate assistant—to students usually older than she was!
"The pressure was overwhelming, and I almost quit school," says Rachel, who grew up on the East Coast. However, the encouragement of two families—hers and that of her future husband Bryant Murray—as well as the support of her boss at Flo-Mar Apartments, kept her juggling the stressful schedule until she graduated again.
Today Rachel, a licensed broker, manages 29 student-housing properties for Flo-Mar. She and Bryant, a supervisor at WOW Internet and Cable, have restored a historic Victorian home on Normal Street, less than one block from EMU's campus.
Hoping to make college a little easier for other harried students, Rachel and Bryant have decided to give back to EMU by designating a bequest to endow a scholarship for urban disadvantaged students. She and Bryant are big Ypsi and EMU advocates and try to sell both to whoever will listen.
