From roommates to colleagues: Transferring friendships

By Cecelia Heckman
April 23, 2017

John and Justin

It is Monday morning and Justin Sillner’s alarm goes off. After a fun weekend with friends, many employees struggle with the thought of going back to work- but not Justin.

On his way to work, he stops for coffee. Besides picking up his own order, he grabs an extra one. Instead of the usual plain coffee with cream and sugar from Dunkin’ Donuts, he decides to stop at Starbucks to get his colleague the caramel macchiato he loves.

Unlike many employees, Justin has known one of his supervisors pretty personally for a few years before getting the opportunity to work for him. Justin and John Solewin, now colleagues in Cabrini University’s Admissions office, were also roommates when they both attended the school.

Justin Sillner (left) and John Solewin (right) work together in the Cabrini Admissions Office with transfer students. Photo by Angelina Miller

John, just one year older than Justin, is currently the associate director of admissions at Cabrini, working specifically with incoming transfer students. Justin began this past year in a new position in the office, transfer admissions counselor.

“He had told me about this job and I was actually really interested because I used to be a student ambassador,” Justin said. “And so I said, ‘Yeah that’d be great’ and he told me, ‘You know, I would be like your boss’ and I was like that’s great.”

John and Justin now both work at Cabrini University to recruit transfer students. Photo by Cecelia Heckman

The two first met at Cabrini when taking a journalism course together during Justin’s sophomore and John’s junior year. The following year, the two moved into a suite in West Residence Hall together and grew even closer.

“It was definitely the best year I had on campus living here,” John said. “Living with my four best friends was a great experience and that memory in itself is a good one.”

John (left) and Justin (right) lived together during John’s senior year and Justin’s junior year. Photo submitted by Justin Siller.

After their year of living together, John graduated from Cabrini and Justin began his senior year. The two stayed close because John continued to work on campus and stay close with their mutual friends. However, their true friendship rekindling did not take place until about four months ago.

“About three and a half, four months ago, to assist me and the college with recruiting transfer students as an institutional priority, we were able to hire a transfer counselor,” John said. “I thought he’d be a good fit and Shannon Zottola, assistant vice president for enrollment, thought he was a good fit as well, and three months later he definitely is a really good fit.”

Justin was not only excited to get into the world of admissions but also excited to see his friend in a new light in this leadership role.

“Just like being interviewed by him was kind of surreal,” Justin said. “‘Cause you know you take your friends seriously but you’re also like ‘Oh he’s my friend.’ But seeing him in his element being an associate director in admissions and having that respect for him and seeing him really talk to me as like someone outside of a friendship, I thought that was really cool to see him in a different light.”

Now, the two have spent the past three months working very closely together and have found that they are now even closer than when they were roommates.

“I would consider him like a best friend at this point,” Justin said. “We were always very close but now I think it’s a lot closer.”

The two both agreed that their working together has not only been beneficial to their friendship but also to the university.

“I get to work with my best friend and work the transfer process really well. If I need something from him he’s right there with it and vice versa,” John said. “I think we’ve already seen the transfers numbers spike. Right now we are ahead of where we were last year with enrolling transfer students into the university so I think we’re already seeing the benefits of having two transfer counselors.”

“Just having that personal friendship I think really helps because I know how he works and how he doesn’t,” Justin said. “Like he just had me look at an email, I’m very good at that kind of aspect of it, and he’s better at talking with people and kind of relaying a point better than I would be. So, as a team, I think we work very well together because we play off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

Both also agreed that they complement each other’s work styles and personalities well in order to make the best possible team. John described Justin as calm, cool and collected while Justin said John tends to be more lighthearted and fun.

“I have a lot of energy and Justin is very calm, so I think we both balance each other out very well,” John said. “I think that’s been a really positive experience for me, having someone that balances me out when I’m like ‘Let’s go go go go go’ and Justin’s like very calm about things. So I think our two personalities balance each other out pretty well and that’s probably like my favorite thing about working with Justin.”

John said, “I get to come to Cabrini, the place that I love, and I get to work with the people I love and Justin’s definitely one of those people.”

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Cecelia Heckman

Junior Editor-in-Chief/ Executive Content Manager of Loquitur. Digital Communications and Social Media major with a Business Administration minor. Student ambassador, Assistant Operations Manager of WYBF and show co-host, President of Alpha Lambda Delta, member of the Society for Collegiate Journalists and member of the Cabrini Honor's Program.

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