My Flyer Family: A few strings attached
Four strings, bowing and plucking, crafting beautiful melodies that ring throughout the chapel. It’s hard to remember a time before this, when I was so adamant I wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of my parents and grandparents. When I applied to UD just to appease my family.
As the notes dance joyfully off my violin through the air of a Sunday Mass, I greet fellow worshippers with my song. My heart swells with pride now that I enjoy being a member of this community that my family has spoken so kindly about.
Both of my parents were very involved in clubs and organizations at UD. My mom, Laura Marx Ulepic ’94, was in the Chi Omega sorority and Campus Ministry. She also worked in the development office, where she credits her Christmas card sending and present-wrapping efficiency. One of the coolest things mom did was starting the women’s golf team here. In the heat of Title IX shaking up how universities allocated money to sports programs, she and her friends came up with a proposal and recruited classmates to make their club team a varsity squad at last. The team wouldn’t exist today without her.
As for dad, Greg Ulepic ’94, he became a well-known face around campus when he was elected Student Government Association president in 1993. One of Dad’s missions as president was to find alternatives to drinking alcohol for the student body. He wanted to create a space for all students to gather and engage so he brought a coffee shop to the McGinnis Center. Although that space no longer exists, we now have Heritage Coffeehouse where I gain hands-on learning experiences as an entrepreneurship major and member of Flyer Enterprises.
My parents describe their meeting as a “near miss” situation. Although they knew of each other through mutual friend groups, they didn’t actually connect until the spring semester of their senior year. Dad moved to Washington, D.C., for his first job out of college and mom moved back to Chicago, where she grew up and where we now live. Dad said Mom gave him a matter of days to help her land a job and solidify their future when she visited him in D.C. for one week, but they did it.
“I can’t wait to witness the joys of being a first-year at UD again through her fresh eyes.”
That one week was just the beginning of their 30 happy years together. Now, I'm the oldest of three Flyer daughters ‒ well, two for sure ‒ we’re still trying to convince our youngest sister, Carly. My sister Colette will be a first-year student this fall, and I can’t wait to witness the joys of being a first-year at UD again through her fresh eyes. I’m certain her college experience will be completely different from mine because we have different interests, but I am confident she’ll love it all the same. Going into my third year, I’m grateful I can offer her my washing machine and a home-cooked meal whenever she wants to visit my house.
We all know how the social circles at UD all kind of overlap. It feels like I’m always one person removed from the person I don’t know. My parents experienced that in college and now I am. I’m sure Colette will, too. Last family weekend, my roommate’s parents met mine and we learned that when her dad went to UD, he knew a lot of the people that my mom was friends with. As they kept recounting memories and lining up people, events and years, they realized that they had actually met before at the UD Marriott Hotel during family weekend in 1990. Thirty years later, they met again because of their daughters. You can’t make this stuff up.
As a member of the University Orchestra, I helped tune the new concert hall at the Roger Glass Center for the Arts. And as a volunteer violinist at Mass, I play melodies that echo through the chapel every Sunday. These are the strings that connect me to this University and why it’s so special to my family.
Mom and Dad will tell everyone that their daughters chose Dayton without any familial pressure, but it seems to me that we fell right into their perfectly orchestrated plan.
—As told to Alayna Yates '25
