St. Lawrence a family affair

CANTON — For some people, it truly is all in the family.

Take the Nuffer women. All five are students and members of the track and cross-country teams at St. Lawrence University.

Alexis L., a senior anthropology major; McKayla K., a sophomore math major, and Megan D., a freshman premedical student, are sisters.

The Croghan natives all graduated from Beaver River Central School, Beaver Falls, as did their second cousin, Chelsea R., a senior performance and communication arts major from Castorland.

Also joining SLU this year is their first cousin, Erikka K., an undeclared freshman from Pennellville.

"There's one or two professors who will say, 'Nuffer — oh, I've heard that name before,'" McKayla said.

"Sometimes you'll hear, 'Another Nuffer? There's another one?'" Erikka said.

But the Nuffers say they aren't like St. Lawrence's many heritage families, in which generations of students attend the college out of tradition.

"We're not like a clan that walks around together all the time. We all have our own place here," Chelsea said. "Occasionally people will ask if we're related when they see (track) results."

All of the Nuffer women insist they decided to become Saints independent of one another.

"Maybe it was from visiting my sisters, but I was just comfortable here," Megan said.

The relatives did find out a couple of years ago, however, that they aren't the only Nuffers to attend the university.

"Apparently our grandfather came here under the G.I. Bill, but we didn't know that until the spring semester of my sophomore year," Alexis said.

Even though all of the women have different interests and circles of friends on campus, they are constantly in touch and like having family support at track meets. They eat meals together when they can, and hope to plan some family slumber parties in the dorms this year.

The Nuffers, who have jokingly dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls," all agree they would probably recommend that their children attend the college one day — if it's right for them, too.

"Everybody jokes around that they want to be a part of the Nuffer family," Alexis said.