Cabrini alumnus remembered by students and staff

By Ransom Cozzillio
August 30, 2011

The Cabrini College community has lost  one of its own. Corey Salazar, library associate at Holy Spirit Library and 2002 graduate, died on Aug. 5th after a two month battle with brain cancer.

Salazar transferred to Cabrini College in 1999 from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. He moved back to the Radnor area from Virginia in order to attend to his ailing mother with his older brother Richard, Dr. Bobbi Jacquet, library director at Cabrini College, said.

While at Cabrini, Salazar studied political science and philosophy. He graduated with a  bachelor’s degree in both in 2002.

As a student, teachers recognized him as a smart, thoughtful student, despite some of his more honest and outspoken tendencies.

“As a student, he was very good, thoughtful and fun to have in a philosophy class because he took everything in and thought about it,” Dr. Sharon Schwarze, chair of the philosophy department, said. “And, if he didn’t agree with it, he’d usually let you know, which we philosophers really like.”

Sometimes that honesty wasn’t as well given, but it still led back to his desire to learn.

“He’s probably the only student to ever tell me that I didn’t know how to teach,” Schwarze said. “He was complaining about other students in the class that were hard to keep quiet. He was right though. I needed to watch those people because they were keeping the rest of the class from learning.”

After graduating from Cabrini College, Salazar worked in Philadelphia with underprivileged school children at City Year. There, he helped them study, stay organized, active and encouraged them to attend school regularly. He was eventually appointed leader of his own group for his positive influence on the young students.x

“He was giving back to the community even after he had just graduated college which was a very special thing for a young person to do,” Jacquet said.

In 2004, Salazar made his way back to Cabrini and began working in the Holy Spirit Library on campus as a library associate. In that role, he was in charge of securing inter-library book loans, managing serials and periodicals, supervising the student workers and managing the building.

Despite coming back to Cabrini unsure of his future career direction, while working in the library he decided to pursue a career in library work. He enrolled at Drexel University to earn his master’s degree in information sciences to further his career as a librarian.

What he did outside and above his role in the library, though, is what really reflects his character and what he meant to Cabrini and those he touched here.

“We all learned so much from him at the same time he was learning the library profession from us.” Jacquet said. “We all saw Corey as a great example of a Cabrini graduate who cares about people. He wanted always to give back.”

More than just doing the most with his position and those he worked with, Salazar worked to expand the feeling of community

“He brought to us his love of sports. He dragged the library workers together and before we knew it we had a library fantasy football team, the Literati, He organized a NCAA tournament bracket pool for the faculty and staff around campus, that’s the kind of person he was” Jacquet said.  “Because of him we started having a picnic every summer for the facilities and public safety workers, people we depend on to help us operate. He wanted to pay that back to them somehow. He bought us a charcoal grill and would cook for all of us in the summers.”

Working on campus at his alma mater, Salazar also showed how important he knew the students are to the school community. He strove to act as a mentor to those students he worked with, and as a helping hand to all others.

“Corey was probably the best boss I’ve ever had,” Greg Stevens, junior communication major who worked under Salazar at the library, said. “He wasn’t mean, overly strict, didn’t make you nervous even when someone would mess up. He was a huge mentor to a lot of people; he knew everyone’s name and was always ready to help students out. He was a giver.”

Salazar took great interest and care with the student workers he supervised. He paid special attention to what they needed. If their payments got mis-logged, he would offer those students personal loans, Jacquet said.

“Corey Salazar was one of the best people to help you so that you could get ahead. He’ll do whatever he has to, anything to help and give back to someone at Cabrini.

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Ransom Cozzillio

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