Title:Alumna Posie O’Brien Granet (NHS’98, Parent’24,’25,’27) on why her family bleeds blue and gray

Inspired by their father, Joseph A. O’Brien (C’67), Posie O’Brien Granet and her four siblings attended Georgetown. She continued the family tradition by marrying a double Hoya. One of her sons got his master’s on the Hilltop and two other children are current students. 

Their extended family’s lifelong connection to Georgetown inspires them to give back to the university they love. Past gifts have supported the School of Nursing’s Annual Fund, nursing scholarships, and the Georgetown Scholarship Program’s Necessity Fund. 

What drew you to Georgetown?

I work at Scranton Preparatory School, the same Jesuit high school that my father attended. He was smart and also a very good golfer. One of the Jesuits suggested he might like Georgetown. My father got in and fortunately had the means to go away to school. He feels like that conversation changed the trajectory of his life and the lives of his children.

He graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1967. Ever since I was a little girl, he brought us down to Washington every year. We would visit my cousins and spend at least two days on campus. I remember eating lunch in the Jesuit residence, going to the bookstore, meeting happy students. So from a young age, I felt like it would be such a privilege to go to Georgetown. I knew it was something my dad was so proud of. When I got in, there was just no question that I was going to go. 

I graduated from the nursing school in 1998 and three of my siblings graduated from Georgetown McDonough: Chrissy O’Brien Haggerty in 1999,  Katie O’Brien-Mucci in 2001, and James O’Brien in 2004. My youngest brother graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 2006. 

What do you think makes Georgetown so special?

I had a fabulous four years. I made so many good friends, learned so much, and was exposed to so much. I grew up in a small town that was relatively pretty much all Catholic, very white. Thanks to my Jesuit high school, I was exposed to the Jesuit ideals before I went to Georgetown. I think that when I arrived, the importance of those values was magnified. 

I loved meeting all these people from all different parts of the world. I loved that everybody looked different, and it made me realize how important that is. And as I got older and had my own children, I realized that many of the world’s problems stem from the fact that we just don’t see other people for who they are. We think that because they look different from us that they are different.

Georgetown provided a setting where I really got to know people, through class or different school-related activities. Of course, Georgetown has a great social scene.

I went to nursing school and I loved everything about the small community and my professors and how everything was considered so holistically. I’m so proud of the nursing school. My daughter, Grace, is there right now, so it’s been wonderful to share stories. When she talks about her teachers, it reminds me of teachers I had. 

Tell me about the connection that your husband and children have to the university.

My husband, Jason Granet (C’93, M’97), also went to Georgetown, but we met afterwards.  

Everywhere I go, when I meet somebody from Georgetown, I’m drawn to them and I find myself becoming friends with them. There’s something about that Georgetown spirit. It was definitely something that drew my husband and I together. We were friends before we started dating, and although we weren’t on campus at the same time, we had a lot of the same experiences and used to talk about Georgetown all the time.

Now Jason and I have five children. My oldest son played baseball at Princeton, but went to Georgetown for his master’s and was thrilled with his experience. We have two daughters at Georgetown now. We also have a senior in high school and an eighth grader, and we hope that they may be Hoyas at some point.

Do Georgetown values influence the work you do now?

I work in a high school now, so I try to bring what I learned over the last 30-40 years to the students here. I believe in cura personalis—caring for the whole person. 

I try to teach people how to walk through life and really think about what you need and what’s going to make you better … but also what’s going to make the world better.

My husband is a surgeon. When he takes care of people, he really tries to look at the whole person rather than just the problem. And I think that’s the kind of approach that’s encouraged by Georgetown and the Jesuits. 

I think that Georgetown does a really good job of making good people in a world where we clearly need a lot of good people. 

How do you stay in touch with your Georgetown friends?

I’ve always enjoyed reunions. I actually missed only one, my 25th, because my son was graduating college. But my Hoya friends have a very active group text for keeping in touch.

I try to attend any Georgetown event. My brother is a big part of the Philadelphia Hoyas, and I’m only two hours away in Scranton, so over the years I’ve gone to his events. He’s definitely a lifelong Hoya and very involved, a great advocate for the school.

I’m also a member of the Alumni Admissions Program, and we gather once a year in January. That’s become a highlight of my year. I’ve gotten to know so many of those people and we all have so much in common. 

And then of course, we visit the Hilltop. I was just at Georgetown this past weekend for the Senior Auction. We also went to the basketball game and had dinner at the Tombs and all that.

Do you have a special memory you’d like to share?

Joseph M. Lauinger (C’67), who the library is named after, was a classmate of my father’s. He died in Vietnam in 1970. Honoring him was a very big tradition in my house. When we’d go to Washington every year, we’d go down to the Vietnam [Veterans] Memorial, see Joe’s name, and take a picture with it. I have pictures from when I was little to now; my father would send them to his Georgetown classmates through the email chain they have kept active over the years. 

When my son Noah graduated, we took a picture of him and my father underneath the portrait of Joseph Lauinger in the library lobby. We all could tell it was just such a special moment to him. When we were sitting and waiting for graduation to start, he had already started asking, “Okay, when can I see the picture?”