Honorary Family has deep Gorilla roots

  Wednesday, September 14, 2016 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

In nominating her family, senior Hannah Pio noted that she will be the 23rd member of her family and the fourth generation to earn a Pitt State degree when she graduates next spring.

 

“For as long as I can remember, my family has been Pitt State fans,” Pio wrote. “Their love and support for Pitt State goes back generations. My great grandpa, Elton Cline, was a chemistry teacher at Pitt. My grandma, Carole Jacques, worked in admissions and my grandpa, Richard Jacques, was a professor in the Department of Graphics and Imaging Technologies for 39 years.”

Pio, a biology major from Gladstone, Mo., said she has almost always known she wanted to come to PSU.

“I was a little girl and it was during one of the pep rallies in Gorilla Village that a cheerleader gave me her pom-poms and had me come and cheer with her,” Pio wrote. “From that moment on, I knew there was no other college for me.”

For the past three years, Pio has been a member of the PSU cheerleading squad. She’s also a member of the PSU Honors College, the Chemistry Club and the Phi Eta Sigma, Lambda Sigma and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies.

Pio wrote that growing up in a family that valued higher education and expected her always to give her best, shaped the person she has become.

“They have instilled the values in me that will be with me for my whole life,” Pio wrote. “My parents have taught me that...I need to actually work for what I want.”

Pio speculated that the person who might have gotten the most joy out of her family’s selection as Honorary Family would have been her grandfather, Richard Jacques.

“My grandpa really instilled the values of family and for the most part was the center of my family,” Pio wrote. “It must have been his love for Pitt State that rubbed off on all of us. If he were alive today, I would say he alone deserves the Honorary Family award for almost single-handedly creating what I view as a small nation of Pitt State lovers.”

Chad and Maureen Pio and their children, Hannah and Jack, will be honored at Family Day ceremonies during halftime of the PSU-Northeastern State University football game on Saturday, Sept. 17.