Olivia FitzGerald ‘22
City: Philadelphia, PA
Tenure: 2019-2022
HFD ID: 401
Email: oliviagfitzgerald@gmail.com
Linkedin: Olivia FitzGerald
Bio: Olivia Is a healthcare recruiter for a home care agency in Philadelphia. She helps intellectually disabled adults find the best-matched caregivers for them in order to improve their quality of life. On the weekends she volunteers at an animal shelter, which she calls “basically just an opportunity to play with dogs all day!”.
Advice/Memory: “Try to get comfortable continuously stepping outside of your comfort zone. Shoutout to Kylie Geer for giving me the extra push. HFD was definitely the highlight of my college experience hands down. One of my favorite memories from it was when many of the firefighters stayed on campus to help out during the pandemic. We had plenty of downtime so we got creative in entertaining ourselves. We built a bike ramp behind the shed and took turns being idiots flying off of it, some being less graceful than others.“
Jason Kirchner ‘01
City: San Francisco
Tenure: 1997-2001
HFD ID: 214
Email: JFK423@gmail.com
Bio: Since graduating from Colgate, Jason has been working in law enforcement, including Patrol, Investigations, and Firearms Training. He encourages HFD alumni to reach out
Advice/Memory: “I still spend time with my fellow HFD Alums!“
Paul Lisowski ‘98
City: Park Ridge, IL (suburb of Chicago)
Tenure: 1994-1998
HFD ID: 176
Email: plisowski@hotmail.com
Phone: 312-399-2073
Instagram: @pauljlisowski
Bio: Paul has been a career firefighter in the Chicago area since 2003, starting at the Wheeling Fire Department where he rose to the rank of Deputy Chief. He then moved over to the Park Ridge Fire Department, where he grew up. Paul now lives with his wife, Moira, and their three children.
He says that the day his gear was moved up to the main wall “might have been my proudest moment in my college career!“
Advice/Memory: “Anytime I meet a student who will be or is currently attending Colgate, I tell them to join HFD! But if that doesn’t sound fun to them, I tell them to do something that gets them involved in the Hamilton community so they can meet people outside of Colgate. As much as I loved Colgate and the friends I made there, I really value the friendships I made at HFD. When I come back for Reunion every five years, seeing my HFD friends is just as great as seeing my classmates.
To the current HFD members, I would say that if you really love being a firefighter, don’t feel like you have to give it up when you graduate. Where I live in suburban Chicago there are no volunteer departments so it’s a career decision to be a firefighter or not. I have been doing this as a career for over twenty years now and I still love it just as much as I did when I was at HFD."