Margaret Solaqua is 80 but won’t let that stop her from giving more internships and dishing more life lessons to GW students
Margaret Solaqua, GWSB ‘91, took the scenic route to a GW degree. When she started in 1974, Gerald Ford lived in the White House. Seventeen years and three presidents later, in 1991, Solaqua earned her master’s certificate in federal government project management. Her unusual path occurred because she could squeeze just one class a semester into her life while working full-time at AT&T. So that’s what she did for nearly two decades until she earned enough credits to graduate.
But that was just the beginning of her connection with GW, which continues today for Solaqua, who recently turned 80 years old and remains employed full-time as the Director of Office Support for National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit).
Solaqua started an internship program at Nareit in 2001, turning the office about three blocks from GW into virtually a branch campus. All four current interns are GW students. Of the 109 total interns to have passed through, 35 have been Colonials.
Solaqua says the internship program is a win for all-Nareit, the universities that send interns and the interns. Once she started the program, she advertised on GWorks (now Handshake), GW’s platform for students seeking internships or campus jobs. The flood of Colonials happened in part because it’s just a short walk from campus but also because Solaqua quickly realized GW students came ready for the stress and unpredictability attendant in helping to run the office smoothly and efficiently. Her dedication is matched by her uncompromising commitment to excellence.
“At first Margaret can be a little tough on you because she has a certain way that she does things and she expects you to pick up things rather quickly,” says Ashley Dziadyk, GWSB ’18, who interned at Nareit in 2018 and now works in accounting for an architectural firm. “She is very detail oriented and that shows in how the office is organized and run.”
After a while, Dziadyk appreciated her mentor’s open mind.
“Once I got to know her better, I found that she was very fair and that she was open to new suggestions on how the office could be managed,” she says.
Like many other interns, Dziadyk’s relationship with Solaqua continued after the internship, a feature noted by many.
“The Nareit intern program and Margaret gave me some great friends, terrific experience, and put me on a stable path for my future career,” says Tara Anderson Wilson, who did the internship program while at Virginia Tech.
Wilson owns a consulting firm that specializes in business development and industry government relations. She started at Nareit when she “barely knew how to work my Metro Card.”
Solaqua helped shepherd her through what became five years at Nareit, starting with the internship and branching into other parts of the organization.
“There’s no one else with as much lived and professional experience as Margaret,” she says. “She’s very generous with her time and advice. She’s always willing to learn something new from the interns who she treats as valuable team members.”
Solaqua takes seriously her unofficial job as “office mom,” and keeps up with students long after their time in her office passes. Every summer, she hosts an ice cream social for former interns and their families. In addition to a bulletin board featuring photos of each class of interns, there’s another board filled with photos of their children. It’s labeled “Future Interns.”
Wilson attends the ice cream social when she can, and her two kids are on the Future Intern board.
“We’ve celebrated birthdays, my wedding, and lots of other great milestones together,” Wilson says.
Solaqua could probably retire if she wanted to. Just don’t expect it anytime soon.
“I can run circles around my students,” she says with a grin. “Retirement and old are not in my vocabulary. I plan to work as long as I possibly can.”
–Dan Simmons
