Caroline Marful, Artsci’18, Law’23, was just 13 when her cousin, Nana Ansong, Artsci’10, took her on her first tour of Queen’s. But she can still remember the highlight like it was yesterday: Victoria Hall’s Lazy Scholar café and its sleek, industrial vibes complete with TVs and a pool table.
“I just remember thinking, ‘This place is so cool!’” says Caroline now with a laugh.
She had a similar reaction to the rest of campus later in high school when she would visit her sister, Maureen Marful, Comm’15, at her student house on Earl Street.
“I’d been to Queen’s so many times that when I showed up as a frosh, nothing really felt that new,” says Caroline. “It was just, ‘Yeah, I know this place!’”
Such are the benefits of being part of a family of a whopping nine Queen’s grads (soon to be 10). Some studied commerce; others biology, computer science, or the humanities. Now all of them are thriving in fields ranging from dentistry to software engineering, says Caroline, herself a lawyer at Torys in Toronto.
“Queen’s was such a special place for us,” says Caroline. “I always heard people talk about Queen’s not being a very diverse space, but I always found that frustrating because there are obviously Black people who go to Queen’s and have an amazing experience and who see that experience as an important part of their family’s legacy.”
Caroline’s dad, Charles Marful, MIR’93, was the first in the family to attend. He arrived in Kingston from Ghana in the early ‘90s and quickly fell for the Limestone City and Queen’s, where he did a master of industrial relations degree.
Growing up, Caroline would often hear her dad talk about how going to Queen’s set him up with an “amazing” professional network. But he never tried to convince her – or anyone else in the family – to follow his path.
“My dad never pressured us to go to Queen’s” says Caroline. “But I was always curious after seeing someone I respect so much respecting an institution so much. I also knew that others in my family had a lot of fun at Queen’s. And so I jumped in and ended up loving it, too.”
Caroline was the first in the family to study politics, and it was the perfect fit, she says. During her undergrad, she co-founded the Queen’s Feminist Leadership in Politics Conference, served as the director of Queen’s Model UN team, and held leadership positions in the AMS and ASUS.
Later, when choosing a law school, Queen’s was the obvious choice, she says.
“I thought that if I can worry about succeeding throughout law school rather than a new environment, that would be ideal. And so many of the law profs are just remarkable researchers at Queen’s, so it felt like the perfect combination. It felt like coming home.”
Now, when Caroline thinks back to her time at Queen’s, she often remembers a quote from her grandfather that her dad still repeats: “Don’t let your education get in the way of your education.”
“Queen’s has been a place where all of us were not only able to focus on and get a great academic education, but where we could build community and develop some of those softer life and leadership skills,” says Caroline. “Queen’s is a great academy for both types of education.”
