More than 60 years ago inside the Woodcrest Mansion, Nina Hamlyn (ʼ62) joined the Cabrini family when the school’s foundress and first president Mother Ursula Infante, MSC, offered her a mattress, a box spring, and a place at the young college. It wasn’t quite the welcome package new students are accustomed to today, but Hamlyn’s time at Cabrini marked the start of a family legacy that is alive with the Class of 2023.
Ryan Chybinski (ʼ23) will become the latest in his family to graduate with a Cabrini degree—following his grandmother Nina and his mother Hillary Chybinski (ʼ90)—when he accepts his Digital Communication and Social Media degree on Sunday, May 21, at Cabrini University’s 63rd Commencement Exercises.
Ryan weathered the uncertainty of the pandemic in his freshman year and returned to campus to find the same thing his grandmother and mother had found before him at Cabrini: a home.
“Once we came back it all started to really click in place,” he said. “I started to realize that this is the right place for me and haven’t looked back. It’s been one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever done.”
A familiar voice on Cabrini Athletics broadcasts and Cavalier Radio, Chybinski is a product of Cabrini’s tight-knit Communication Department, which prioritizes strong student-professor relationships alongside a curriculum that balances storytelling skills with a well-rounded business acumen.
“I learn much better in a small environment where I’m not just another face to a professor—where my professors know me and know what’s going on in my life,” Ryan said. “I will say that my professors have become more friends than they are professors at this point.”
Hillary Chybinski said the Cabrini Communications Department has always been a tight-knit group and she has seen its impact on Ryan as his poise and confidence blossomed on air.
“I always said he would be great for commentating,” said Hillary, who served as Alumni Board President 2004‒06 and was the recipient of Cabrini’s 2013 Distinguished Service Award. “He’s got a great sense of humor and a real knack for remembering things…those quirky little facts that everyone wants to know when you’re watching a game.”
Or, as Nina put it: “The boy has the gift of gab!”
Ryan will continue freelance work with Sports Fan Base Network, the streaming company that supports Cabrini Athletics’ live broadcasts, and intends to pursue a career as a professional broadcaster covering NCAA lacrosse or auto racing.
Through the many Cabrini milestones the family have witnessed or participated in during the course of their decades-long legacy, Nina said Sunday’s Commencement Ceremonies “has to be one of the most special.”
“This day is not just the three generations of legacy, and 60 years of history,” Nina said. “I can feel Mother Ursula will be looking down with her hands folded, nodding her head and smiling. She started this. Thank God.”