Exchange student returns to Buffalo State after nearly fifty years

Above: Linda (Hawkes) Glover (center) with two current Buffalo State exchange students from Manchester, England.

Linda Glover (née Hawkes) still has her Buffalo State student ID card from fall of 1978, during which time she was one of eleven exchange students from Manchester Polytechnic/Didsbury College in Manchester, England participating in a program led by Robert Simpson. The ID card is one of many mementos from what she describes as “a life-enhancing experience.”

“It molded and shaped me,” she said. “All of the exchange students were so welcomed. We had an international dinner when we arrived, and there was something going on every weekend. What an opportunity it was to come and study here and engage with so many lovely people.” 

After raising three children, Glover taught biology and physical education for twenty-five years, but she never stopped talking about her time in America. Her husband, Peter, was inspired to gift her this visit as a surprise in honor of her 70th birthday. 

“When we first met, she would just go on and on about it,” he said. “It was just such a life-changing experience for her. I thought, ‘I’m going to take her back.’”

The couple spent November 12 on the Buffalo State campus taking a tour; meeting with Wendy Paterson, dean of the School of Education and Applied Professions; speaking with current exchange students during the Cultural Café; and attending the Theater Department and Casting Hall’s performance of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.

When asked what it was like to be back on campus after so much time away, Glover said, “Seeing the student union, the library, where we played field hockey…it’s overwhelming. I feel as if I’m still that girl in 1978. What a great place it was and still is.”

With help from Buffalo State’s Alumni Engagement Office, Glover was also recently able to reconnect with her former roommate.

“I had stayed in touch for many years, but then we had a family, and addresses change,” she said. “But we were able to get back in touch and they sent a video message. It was lovely.” 

When speaking to current students during her visit, Glover emphasized the value of these connections.

“Out of all of it, it’s the people that make everything, isn’t it? The people that you meet and the connections that you make.” 

Photos by Jesse Steffan-Colucci, Buffalo State photographer.