As part of the 2023-2024 edition of Bresica NOW!, alum Audrey Popham ’11 Cox wrote a piece on being part of the ‘Popham Legacy’ and what it means to have a deep, family connection to Brescia. To read more stories from our 2023-2024 edition of Brescia Now!, click here.
When Jake Davis (‘12), Director of Alumni Relations, approached me to write an article about the “Popham Legacy” at Brescia University, I couldn’t help but chuckle. It’s something I’ve joked about for years. “Here comes another Popham!” “When is the next Popham coming?” “It’s five Pophams, and the sixth is free, right?”
When my older brother, Jacob (‘08), started Brescia in August of 2004, it was not with the intention that all five of his younger siblings would eventually follow. Indeed, only four of said siblings were in existence at the time! Our youngest sibling, Ellie, was born while he was in a summer session class at the end of his sophomore year. Our mom wouldn’t let us call and share the news until he was out of class for the day!
At that time, I was a high school student attempting to figure out my own future. I visited Brescia’s campus a few times, and it hit all my boxes. I was coming from a tiny school, and the idea of a huge campus was unappealing and intimidating. I had just fallen in love with my new baby sister, and I wanted to be close enough to home to visit often. I loved the idea of being on a campus that reflected the values of my Catholic faith, and Brescia had an excellent program for my intended career path of elementary education. It seemed like a no-brainer – I was destined to be a Bearcat!
I started Brescia in the fall of 2007, my brother’s senior year. While we didn’t precisely pal around together, having him on campus made my transition to college much smoother and more comfortable. He introduced me to some of his friends, some of whom I am still close with. He (an RA at the time) corralled my friends and me downstairs to his apartment when we attempted to make the ill-advised decision to remain upstairs and watch Twister… during a twister. He gave me tips and advice about professors and classes. And simply knowing he was on campus made me more at ease, knowing I had someone there if I needed anything.
By the time my next brother, Ben (‘13), arrived on campus, the “Popham Legacy” jokes were really rolling. After three siblings in a row choose the same college, and when there are still three younger siblings left to go, people start to make assumptions about those younger siblings’ future college decisions. People started asking, “So when is the next Popham arriving?” “Who’s next?” “How many years have we had a Popham on campus?”
Caleb (‘15) and Hallie (‘18) followed over the next few years, and when Hallie graduated, Brescia was without a Popham enrolled for the first time in about 14 years. It was 14 years of learning and growing and of developing skills for future careers, but also of forming friendships and making memories, of midnight fountain soapings, garbage bags of popcorn, filling hundreds of dart holes in apartment walls, ice skating with the president, karaoking in the Cat’s Den, putting on a Senior (Citizen) Prom, chariot racing, Zombie apocalypse prepping, and somehow finding ourselves stepping through an invisible threshold into adulthood…and wondering how we got there.
Now, if you’ve been counting, you’ll realize five Pophams have been encompassed in that 14-year span. In the ensuing years, I’ve had friends ask me from time to time how long it would be before the arrival of “#6.” And I must admit (sorry, Jake!) what I told Ellie as she was feeling the pressure of making decisions about her future: You don’t have to go to Brescia if that’s not what you really want. Being the youngest in a family of six siblings is not easy. I can’t help but think of Ron Weasley lamenting his role as the youngest brother in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. “Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it’s no big deal, because they did it first.” I wanted her to know that she was more than just the final piece in the whole set of Popham Bearcats, and that I would be proud of her for pursuing whatever path she chose. That just because she spent her first night in a Brescia dorm room before she could write her name didn’t mean she wasn’t in control of her own future.
And though I told her this with complete honesty – I am proud of her no matter what – I am also honest in saying that I am excited to see her officially join the Brescia family this fall. I’m excited to watch her take this step, which will lead to experiences that will shape her future and will be looked back on with fond nostalgia.
My first few years after graduating, the “fond nostalgia” was strong enough to sometimes wish myself back to those good ol’ college days. They were an amazing time in my life, and it took something else amazing to be 100% happy moving forward instead of back. At an alumni event in 2014, I was reintroduced to Glenn Cox (‘14), who had been in the orientation group I led my senior year. We were married in 2016, and now have three beautiful, wild, kindhearted children: Sadie, James, and Penny. We both teach at Cloverport Independent School, and love getting to see our oldest, Sadie, in the hallways.
Hallie also married another Brescia alum, known to most as Caleb Tisher, though dubbed by our family as “BC” years ago to distinguish him in our conversations as Hallie’s “Brescia Caleb.” They have two beautiful boys, Jaxson and Joseph. Hallie works in the lab at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, and Caleb also teaches at Cloverport Independent School.
Jacob’s lovely wife, Alex, isn’t an alum, but her father is, and she remembers his time on campus. Jacob left Kentucky for a few years to complete a Master’s program at Frostburg University, before returning home and beginning a career at Domtar. He and Alex are our nearest neighbors, and our kids love visiting their sweet little boys, Matthew and Samuel.
Ben currently works at AT&T, and is about to be the first to marry someone completely unconnected to Brescia University, though I think we can forgive her for that as she currently lives in another hemisphere. His beautiful fiancé, Lina, is from Uberlandia, Brazil, and they are working on planning their wedding while waiting for her Visa approval. Sadie and Jaxson have been not-so-subtly hinting at their hopes to be in the wedding.
Caleb works as a librarian at the Breckinridge County Public Library, and is known as Uncle Bub to his passel of nieces and nephews. He’s in the process of building a new home next door to ours, though not quite as near as Sadie wanted – she had hopes of walking directly off our porch and onto his!
We all spend most Sundays together, and the chaos keeps growing with seven grandkids and counting. And so, I suppose, this Popham legacy at Brescia isn’t necessarily drawing to a close. Ellie’s next four years may be closing a chapter of Popham siblings… but a new chapter of Popham, Cox, and Tisher cousins could open in a few years. Certainly sooner than I’ll be ready!
To read more stories from our 2023-2024 edition of Brescia Now!, click here.