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Alumni Profiles
Meeting Trials Head-onSusan Hudock '80
When Susan Hudock '80 graduated from Susquehanna with a degree in English and music, she little expected to be plunged into the legal world. After one harrowing court trial and some media attention, including a lengthy article in the Wall Street Journal, Hudock has entered the limelight for pro se litigants -- a growing number of Americans who are representing themselves in court. In 1999, Hudock was diagnosed with shingles, a painful skin condition. An award-winning sales representative for Aventis Pharmaceuticals in the Phoenix, Ariz., area, Hudock was committed to her work. So when she began taking medication that impaired her ability to drive, her husband, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, drove her to client calls. Claiming the arrangement gave her an unfair advantage over other sales representatives, Aventis prohibited the practice. Unable to drive herself and denied long-term disability benefits, Hudock was ultimately fired. Before her termination, she filed a claim against Aventis alleging discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The act requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities to perform nonessential job tasks; Aventis claimed that driving was essential to her job. Hudock at first engaged a lawyer, but with overwhelming legal fees, she was left to carry on alone. "I ran out of a lawyer," she says. "I ran out of money, I sometimes ran out of health, but I still had the truth, and the truth is still there. As long as I have the ability to address this law, I'm going to address it." There is a breath of idealism in the way Hudock reaches beyond her cause into the broader implications of upholding the act -- ensuring job protection for a growing number of disabled elderly and veterans, and fighting the loss of dignity from discrimination. Hudock continues to believe in the Aventis motto, "because health matters." "I believed in what I was doing. I believed, and I still do, in the goodness of people," she says. Hudock credits Internet-based research and the "Law & Order" television series with helping her foray into law. Ultimately, she credits a love for learning developed at Susquehanna: "It really wasn't about grades, about what I majored in; it was about how different professors unlocked that love." In June 2005, the jury decided against Hudock. She has filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit, and continues to represent herself. Filmmaker Directs His FutureGarrett Thompson '00
Garrett Thompson '00, award-winning film director, credits Susquehanna with providing him the broad range of personal and leadership experiences needed in the world of filmmaking. "The main thing a film school looks for is a student with well-rounded, varied experiences, even if you have no formal film training," said Thompson, who has received a master of fine arts in film directing at the University of Southern California. "They can teach you the film aesthetic, but your stories have to come from within you and the life situations you have been exposed to," Thompson said. Thompson credits SU with giving him a liberal arts perspective within communication and media as well as cultural studies. "It has helped my writing, character development and storytelling," he said. This personal experience has paid off. In 2005, Thompson's short film "Hope's Choice" won, among other honors, a college television student Emmy award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. It was also aired on Showtime during the 2005 Black Filmmakers Showcase, and a clip was shown at the famous Cannes Film Festival in France. "Hope's Choice," filmed in Los Angeles, tells the story of a young man named Dante who finds himself at a crossroads where he must choose between what he knows is right and what is necessary to save his child. "It was extremely exciting," Thompson said of being chosen by Showtime. "For an up-and-coming filmmaker to have his work showcased on a national platform like that, it is like a dream come true and a really huge honor. The showcase brought a lot of attention as well as credibility to the film that I hope will pay off in the future." Thompson enjoys "the challenge and excitement of working in a field that never has a day that is the same," and has wanted to work in entertainment since an early age. "The unknown scares some people," he said, "but for me it is something I really look forward to and enjoy." Thompson is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at USC for film critical studies, concentrating in African-American cinema, hip-hop and pop culture. He hopes to independently direct and produce his own feature-length screenplays.
Exploring Her HeritageAlmas DeRojas '02
When Alma DeRojas '02 saw the poster hanging in a hallway in Bogar Hall, she did not realize it was going to change her life. The Spanish and English double major was intrigued by the advertisement for a three-week class at the University of Havana on Cuban culture and history. That summer, that class brought her to her grandparents' native country for the first time. DeRojas says, "My first trip sparked a passion in me to learn as much as possible about my Cuban heritage and the reasons my grandparents decided to leave their homeland in 1961." It resulted in two more visits to Cuba as well as a master's degree in Latin American and Caribbean studies, as she began an intellectual journey that continues today.Now, she lives in Miami and is the coordinator of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, which DeRojas describes as "the nation's leading research center for issues involving Cuba and Cuban-Americans." Currently she is helping plan a conference on Cuba that will take place in Ottawa, Canada, this summer. It will feature some of the world's top scholars on Cuba as well as Canadian policy makers, and its purpose is to "discuss what international actors can do now and in the future to facilitate good governance and social justice in a post-Castro Cuba," DeRojas says. In addition to her work at the Research Institute, DeRojas has recorded two CDs of Cuban songs. While at Susquehanna, DeRojas studied voice with Associate Professor of Music Nina Tober. Following Tober's advice, DeRojas has never stopped singing. "Singing, like writing, is one of the ways I that I can best express myself," she says. "Making music is a joy." Last fall, she performed classical Cuban pieces at Susquehanna's annual Latino Symposium. "I decided to participate in last year's event because I have such wonderful memories of my involvement with past Latino Symposiums," DeRojas says. Planning the annual symposium was one of DeRojas' main responsibilities as an assistantship student with the Department of Modern Languages while she attended Susquehanna. Her next goal is to publish her book titled Alma de Cuba: Reflections of a Cuban Soul, which is a mixture of memoirs of her experiences in Cuba and her grandparents' tales of life there. "At Susquehanna I learned the importance of pursuing my intellectual and creative passions," DeRojas says. "I have never been motivated by a desire for money or success, simply by my desire to be intellectually satisfied, and that has led me to amazing experiences in Miami and Cuba."
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