The Ties That Bind

HCC launches The Green Thread, a podcast of alumni interviews

For first-year communications major Mikey Connolly, the green thread begins circa 2003, several years before he was born. 

That’s when his father, Myke Connolly ’04, then a graphic design major and a student senator, attended an HCC fundraising event at Juggler Meadow in Leverett, Massachusetts, the sprawling estate of Michael Kittredge ’73. 

Connolly was eager to meet the legendary founder of the Yankee Candle Company and points to their conversation that night as a pivotal moment in his own development as a serial entrepreneur. The advice Kittredge offered gave Connolly the confidence to pursue his own business ideas. 

He is now founder and CEO of Launch and Stand Out, a Springfield-based advertising and marketing agency, and Stand Out Truck, a mobile billboard company, as well as an author, publisher, motivational speaker, and teacher. The lessons Connolly gleaned over the years from the man he calls his mentor he is now passing on to his son, Mikey, himself a budding entrepreneur and creator of The Realistic CEO podcast, which he started in high school. 

“I knew I wanted to get into business from watching my dad,” said Mikey, who started raking leaves for money while still in elementary school. “Michael Kittredge definitely still lives through us. Every day, my dad mentions some example of what Michael Kittredge taught him.” 

Kittredge to Connolly to Connolly. 

You can’t see it, but there’s an invisible thread that binds them. 

Fittingly, the Connollys, father and son, were the first guests to appear on The Green Thread, a new monthly podcast developed by the HCC alumni office in conjunction with WCCH, the college radio station. 

“We had been kicking around the idea of a podcast for a few years,” said Julie Phillips, HCC executive director of development. “There are so many alumni stories to tell. We were looking for another way to put those stories out there front and center in a way that our community can listen to them where they want and when they want, on their commute, while they’re doing chores, wherever.”

The podcast title derives from the “Red String of Fate” theory from East Asian mythology, where, it is said, an invisible string, or thread, connects people who are destined to meet. 

“The theme came out of a collaborative conversation,” said Phillips. “We were talking about HCC’s mission — ‘Educate, Inspire, Connect’ — and trying to come up with something that captures the essence of our community and our alumni.”

During a development committee meeting, Jane Johnson Vottero, director of marketing and communications, mentioned the idea of the red thread. 

“That made us think of the green thread,” said Phillips, “the thread that connects us all at HCC.”

The podcast is co-hosted by Natalia Castagno, HCC assistant director for alumni relations, and Patrick Labelle, WCCH station manager. The shows are recorded in the HCC podcast room, recently upgraded with new recording equipment and soundproofing, paid for in part by the HCC Foundation’s microphilanthropy campaign. 

As of this writing, six episodes of The Green Thread have been produced and are available for streaming directly from the HCC website (hcc.edu/greenthread) and on Spotify. 

Since Episode 1 debuted in October, Castagno and Labelle have interviewed Alumni Council vice president Elizabeth Román ’03, executive editor of news at New England Public Media (Ep. 2); Jason Perez ’22, a criminal justice major and 2025 legal studies graduate of Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Ep. 3); Zydalis (Zayas) Bauer ’09, digital/multimedia producer and editor with the New England News Collaborative (Ep. 4); Louis Burgos ’14, ’18, HCC multimedia specialist (Ep. 5); and Sarah Monson ’03, senior director of philanthropy and external relations at the Aurora Women and Girls Foundation (Ep. 6). Many more episodes are in the pipeline.

“We’re building an oral history of the HCC experience,” said Phillips. “With each alumni guest, we’re capturing not just their individual journey, but a snapshot of HCC at a specific moment in time, preserving the voices, stories and lived experiences that define what this institution has meant across generations.”

It’s already become a hallmark of the show for the hosts to tease out the green threads that connect alumni to the college — and to each other. 

For instance, as it turns out, Román (Ep. 2) was a mentor to Bauer (Ep. 4). They met while Román was the bilingual reporter for the Springfield Republican and Bauer was in her first year at HCC and an intern for the Latino Youth Media Institute at WGBY, the public television station in Springfield that is now part of New England Public Media. They worked together on “Presencia,” a bilingual series on WGBY and still work together now at NEPM on a show called “Conexión,” a video series that explores Latinos’ connections to the outdoors. 

“It’s been the most amazing experience,” Bauer said on The Green Thread. “She’s such an inspiration.”

The threads aren’t just linear, from one generation to the next, though, but can go in any direction, or split and take new turns. Like sideways, as in Román’s connection to her classmate Chris Maza ’04, executive editor of The Reminder publications. Román and Maza met when they were studying journalism at HCC and writing for The Phoenix, the HCC college newspaper. 

“We’re both doing the same kind of work,” Román said. “But HCC affected my personal life too. The fact that we’re still friends now is really meaningful to me. I saw him get married. I saw when he and his wife had their baby, and that is a really special thing.” 

For his green thread, Perez cited a continuing relationship with his HCC adviser and mentor Adina Giannelli, dean of social services, arts and humanities, as well as his ongoing work with the HCC criminal justice advisory council and pre-law club. 

“I want to do mentoring of criminal justice students,” said Perez, who plans to attend law school. “I want to be able to show them that transferring to a four-year university is possible, and even graduate school is possible.”

Sometimes the thread loops back on itself. Burgos earned his first associate degree from HCC in criminal justice, then came back for a second in communications, media, and theater arts. That led him to Westfield State University for a bachelor’s degree in communications, a career in digital media, and eventually back to the college as HCC’s  videographer and social media manager.  

“As we’ve gotten to know the guests, it’s been interesting to really see the green threads that bind them, either to the college or to each other,” said Castagno. 

In his staff position and as a volunteer adviser to the HCC Photography Club, Burgos now gets to share his technical expertise and HCC wisdom with a new generation of students. 

And the green thread continues.