This Golden Hawk family keeps growing

George (BBA ’89) and Kristina (BA ’18) welcome Tommy Kyriakis (BBA ’25) to the Laurier alumni family.

When George Kyriakis (BBA ’89) first stepped on Laurier’s Waterloo campus in the 1980s, he had no idea that he was establishing a long legacy of Kyriakis Golden Hawks. In a “proud poppa moment,” George and his daughter Kristina (BA ’18) welcomed George’s son Tommy (BBA ’25) into the Laurier alumni family this June.

“I pushed the importance of university to my kids, but not which school,” George wrote about the experience on LinkedIn. “I left that choice to them.”

While the younger Kyriakis alumni agree that their father didn’t put pressure on their decision, all three say they chose Laurier for the same reasons: the university’s reputation, campus size and the close-knit community feel.

“I didn’t know a lot about Laurier back when I started looking at universities,” George says. “The first thing was the reputation of the business school. I had a couple of older friends who were at Laurier, so I went to visit and I really liked the small community feel of it.”

The size of the Waterloo campus was also a big draw for Kristina, but she valued the opportunity to play to her academic strengths.

“In high school I wanted to follow in dad’s footsteps,” she says. “It worked out quite well for me because I still went down that business and marketing route, but I did it in an unconventional way.”

Kristina decided to pursue a degree in communications, and chose Laurier for the opportunity to take courses at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics without the full commitment of a Bachelor of Business Administration.

Tommy Kyriakis didn’t feel pressured into going to Laurier, but his familiarity with the campus played a big part in his decision.

“I visited all the time when Kristina was there, so I already knew the campus fairly well,” he says. “For me, middle school and high school were both very small schools, so Laurier was definitely a huge appeal on that front. The campus is not far from where we live, and we have family that live in Waterloo, so everything there was just a perfect fit. And the Lazaridis School is one of the best business schools in Canada so for me, there was just no other choice.

While the Kyriakis Golden Hawks all chose Laurier for similar reasons, the realities of their experiences as students couldn’t have been more different: George earned his degree before the internet was widely available, Kristina graduated with a close-knit network of Laurier connections that helped her career in the tech industry take off, while Tommy experienced Laurier during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the biggest changes since his dad went to Laurier, Tommy says, is getting to take classes in Lazaridis Hall, which opened its doors in 2016. “My dad is always jealous of me for it,” he says. “Having that brand new building, with bigger classrooms, it felt a lot more modern.”

For Kristina, each school year brought new opportunities to try new things, meet new people and get to know herself better.

“September was always something I’d look forward to every year, because Laurier was like a home away from home,” she says. “I always loved the elective fairs at the beginning of the year with all the clubs on campus. That was something I’d always look forward to”

Kristina shares that the friends she made at Laurier became valuable connections later.

“The biggest piece of my Laurier experience was the people that I met while I was there. At the time it was just seen as making friends, but now I look at LinkedIn and I actually have a wide array of Laurier talent that I can draw on if I’m ever recruiting or looking for a new position.”

But it wasn’t all business for Kristina. “I actually met my fiancé in my fourth year at Laurier,” she says. “So, this Golden Hawk family is growing!”

With plenty more “proud poppa” moments to look forward to, George is optimistic about the future.

“We’re all very proud to represent Laurier, as you can tell” he says. “The world around us is changing very quickly. But I think all of us are very excited to see how Laurier continues to transform.”