Four women hug each other while sitting on a sofa.
(left to right) Cheryl Lynn Herrmann, Pam (Seiner) Hart, Natashya (Armer) Giardina and Sarah (Judd) Van Dam met at VCU in 1988 and have remained close ever since. (Thomas Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

July 30, 2024

Unbreakable bonds: An ode to VCU besties everywhere on International Day of Friendship

For the July 30 celebration, four alums with a nearly four-decade bond reflect on their VCU days, offer advice to new students and still finish each other’s sentences.

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By Elinor Frisa

Hair bows are having a moment — well, another moment. Since re-exploding onto the fashion scene in late 2023, they’ve been gracing locks both long and short, on the runways, at award ceremonies and on the street. But they also had a lasting moment on Virginia Commonwealth University’s campus back in fall 1988, and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Students Cheryl Lynn Herrmann, Natashya (Armer) Giardina, Sarah (Judd) Van Dam and Pam (Seiner) Hart were all in the same pledge class for sorority rush. They don’t remember the exact moment they met, but they all remember Giardina’s large hair bow. “I want to know that girl,” Herrmann thought to herself.

One of their tasks was to purchase palm plants, so the four piled into a car and set off for a shop in Carytown. Along the way, they listened to the radio —Cameo’s “Word Up!” was still getting lots of airplay — and found themselves bonding. Before long the foursome were inseparable, and they even called themselves The Words. They navigated their undergraduate years, celebrated graduation (Herrmann, Giardina and Van Dam earned B.F.A.s from the School of the Arts in 1991; Hart earned a B.S. from what was then the School of Mass Communications in 1992) and remained close for the three-plus decades that have passed since they met — through marriages, children, moves and more.

The group tries to get together at least once a year, and this year, they came back to campus to reminisce, share their story and give a little advice to today’s VCU students on finding that secret sauce that leads to lifelong friendships.