ohiowomen: who, what?

Yolanda Cherry Sutyak, BSEd ’59

Cleveland native and Parma-based transplant Yolanda Cherry Sutyak says women in her day had basically two professional tracks to take as a student. “Back in my era, if you went to college and you were a woman, you either went into nursing or teaching.”

She chose the latter—and thrived, earning the Northeast Ohio Teacher of the Year Award in 1979.

“I never felt put out about anything because I was a woman,” says Sutyak, who takes a no-nonsense approach to life.

Her 32-year career entailed teaching various K-6 grades in Parma and in Cleveland’s Catholic school system as a reading consultant, then in special education. Upon earning a master’s degree in special education at Cleveland State University (CSU), she spent 26 years at Independence Primary as a special education and intervention specialist. After she retired, this first-generation high school and college graduate became a student teacher supervisor for CSU for 12 years.

Past-president of the Ohio University Alumni Association’s Greater Cleveland Women’s Club, Sutyak, who with husband Tom has three children, attended the Cleveland event to “represent the club, see what ohiowomen was about and to meet new people.”

Nicki Romeo Arkwright, BSCHE ’97

Nicki Romeo Arkwright exemplifies the ideal of having a work-life balance.

She enjoyed being a production manager at a major Cleveland-based chemical company and happily shared parenting a son with her husband, Scott, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic.

When son number two arrived, Arkwright requested to switch to part time, but the company said no, compelling her resignation. She had no regrets, but missed her professional responsibilities—and the reduced income, as the household salary decreased by half.

One year later, the company called, wanting her back—this time, on her own terms of 30 hours per week. Even though she knows she did the right thing by focusing on childrearing, “It was a weight off my shoulders to know that [I was] needed in ways other than helping [my] three-year old and nine-month old.”

Arkwright attended the Cleveland ohiowomen kickoff to see how her story compared with other women’s experiences and to seek a support system among OHIO female Bobcats. She cited the general lack of women in her still male-dominated field, one where men generally don’t leave work to become stay-at-home parents.

Leah Adams, BSCFS ’15

Leah Adams served as a Program to Aid Career Exploration student employee at OHIO in University Advancement, working as a junior with ohiowomen’s predecessor, Women In Philanthropy, and as a senior with ohiowomen.

Jones learned how female communities were essential to OHIO and how much effort such endeavors required. Her experiences “changed my perspective of how the University functions,” she says. “Everybody at OHIO has a little piece of a puzzle. And I think that when we all network and all come together, the puzzle comes together and that’s what makes Ohio University. It wouldn’t stand how it is if it was just one individual doing it all.”

Adams, a child and family studies professional who interned in summer 2015 at the Cleveland Clinic’s ADHD Summer Treatment Program, attended the Cleveland kickoff because she helped ohiowomen get off the ground.

Another reason relates to the keynote speech by alumna Beverly Jones, BSJ ’69, MBA ’75. “She talked about how it’s not just one person” who makes the difference. OHIO makes its campuses feel like home, she observes, so you want to make something of yourself and make something for others.