Alumni Spotlight

Susan Vinski '95

During Susan Vinski's senior year at Fairfield, a professor asked her where she saw herself in ten years. As an English literature major with a minor in secondary education, she gave the most logical answer, "I will most likely be teaching English literature." She soon found out that the logical answer isn't always the correct one.

During her first teaching job, Vinski realized that teaching was not a good fit for her. Since then, she has explored several different career paths, one of which is working with developmentally disabled adults, creating plans and goals for their rehabilitation and integration into the outside community. She also worked for the Ossorio Foundation, which was established to preserve the artwork of the late abstract impressionist painter Alfonso Ossorio. Finally, she's settled into her current field: real estate, a career that has allowed her to wear many hats: licensed real estate associate broker, office manager, and most recently, marketing director in the East Hampton, NY office of Brown Harris Stevens.

Despite Vinski's full time schedule, she has found time to discover a new passion in life – the performing arts. Once a member of the Fairfield University Glee Club, Vinski's main interest has always been in singing, performing professionally as a soloist and section leader with St. Ann's Episcopal Church as well as serving as the lead singer of several jazz bands. Susan has also had the opportunity to perform internationally with the Berkshire Choral Festival in Salzburg, Austria. Recently, she has discovered her love for acting and dancing. She has performed in regional musical productions of Company, Follies, A Chorus Line, Once Upon a Mattress, and South Pacific as well as numerous cabaret shows in Manhattan, Eastern Long Island, and New Haven, Conn. In January 2007, she acted in her first drama, Everything in the Garden by Edward Albee. Currently, Vinski is starting a new production company in the Hamptons called The Jacobson Center for the Performing Arts, Ltd., a non-profit organization dedicated to education both on and off stage. Programs will include Senior Theater, Theater for the Disabled, Straight Theater, Musical Theater, Song and Dance, Sketch Comedy, Murder Mystery, Gay Theater, Technical Theater, Playwright Counsel and Directing. The debut production, "Joe Sent Me" is set in a speakeasy one month before the stock market crash in 1929.The show opens June 15, 2007.

Even though Vinski has moved away from Fairfield University after graduation, she has not forgotten the Jesuit mission that was instilled in her. When asked about her favorite Fairfield memory, she recalls her trip to Tijuana, Mexico with the Mission Volunteer program. "Those two weeks of building day care centers, visiting orphanages, visiting old age homes, and working in homeless shelters had a profound affect on my life. Seeing the absolute squalor in which so much of the rest of the world resides made me realize how incredibly fortunate I am. So many times, I have thought back to that experience to keep my priorities in check. The images of the people that have been branded on my brain are a constant reminder that, just because I can't see a problem, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

A woman who once thought that she would have a career teaching English literature has found herself far from that path; however Vinski has never forgotten her Fairfield education and the experiences and memories of her four years as a student.