Twenty-two years ago, Dr. Seth Frechie was a new face and faculty member at Cabrini. Over the years, he has worn many hats at the university. Some of them include being chair of the English department and former faculty adviser for Woodcrest Magazine. Ironically, Frechie did not originally plan to become an English professor.
“I went to college to become a lawyer. I was told that philosophy was a good undergraduate major for becoming a lawyer,” Frechie said. “But I had always been a very good student of English, reading and writing.”
Since stepping down from his prior positions, Frechie now finds pleasure in being the university’s National Collegiate Athletic Association faculty athletic representative. Almost 40 percent of Cabrini undergraduate students are on an athletic team.
“This has been tremendously rewarding work for me. Working with athletic staff, working with student-athletes and their coaches to raise the academic profile of student-athletes at our school,” Frechie said. “So reaching those students and trying to create within athletics a culture of academic achievements has been, for me, very very important work in the last two years.”
When Frechie isn’t motivating athletes, he can be found collaborating with other faculty members on many things including personal development and achievement projects or inspiring and mentoring his many students past and present.
“Dr. Frechie’s passion for literature is contagious,” Bridget Lynn, former English major and Cabrini alumna, said. ” I vividly remember taking a modern American literature class with him years ago and his lectures and book choices kickstarting my own love for that generation of writers.”
Frechie has two goals for each of his students: they have more self-confidence in what they are capable of achieving and they become better writers.
One of Frechie’s current students, junior and English major Joseph Brennan, agrees with his sentiments.
“He challenges us to think critically in terms of writing,” Brennan said. “But still takes the time to help the students.”
