Alumni Focus

He participated in Clear Channel Communications’ Image Campaign for the City Schools: “I was tired of people badmouthing the district … . I think I can make a difference. I’d say that a large amount of the kids there really want to succeed and take full advantage of the opportunities available to them.”

Max attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), where he majored in history and American studies. He studied in Spain during his junior year through the school’s program in Seville. Over his four years at HWS, he developed several radio shows for stations in New York State and Spain. This included The Iberian Injection, which explored cultural differences and collective experiences of students studying abroad. He interned with the Finger Lakes Radio Group, which broadcasts on six local commercial radio stations. In 2013, he interned with National Public Radio (NPR) station WAER-FM, 88.3 in Syracuse.

Max enjoys playing harmonica and piano, and has been dancing tango since he was twelve years old. He has returned to MSS to do demonstrations over the year for the students, and he started a tango group at HWS. A long-time lover of food, Max enjoys brewing beer and cooking. He indulged this interest by working in the bakery and cheese shop at Wegmans during high school and college. Having graduated HWS in 2015, he has continued to pursue his dreams in Spain, where he is currently teaching English in Menorca for the Spanish Ministry of Education.

Luke graduated from Cornell University in 2014 with a major in Animal Science and a minor in Agricultural Business. While there, he participated in the Dairy Fellows Program, learning about dairying’s diversity in New York State, nationally, and internationally. Luke traveled to California, Italy, and Germany to tour a wide variety of farms. Now Luke has returned to the Gianforte Farms to apply his skills of business management and familiarity with new field and processing technology.

Shortly after graduation, in 2015, Luke purchased 350 acres of farmland and increased the acreage of land rented by Gianforte Farms, doubling the size of his family’s working farmland. Luke was appointed to the USDA’s Farm Service Agency Committee in 2015. He has given a number of presentations to various farm-related businesses. He presented Farm Economics and Profitability and Cultivation Techniques to New York Certified Organic (NYCO), a group of organic farmers led by Cornell.  He has also presented Organic Farming Practices to the State Fair horticulture judges and Generational Transfer of Farms and Farm Properties to the NOFA-NY state conference.

Luke and his family farm a total of 600 acres with ten grain crops. They employ cover-cropping, crop-rotation, wildlife ponds, tree plantations, nutrient management, precision-farming, conservation tillage, grass waterways, and raptor and pollinator habitat measures—and recently installed a windmill. Luke shared with us that, “It doesn’t matter what you are growing, conservation practices add value to the land. It’s the land that supports us.”

Gianforte Farms was recently awarded Farm of the Year by the Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District Board. The award is given to farms that enhance the local environment with conservation and best management practices on the ground. Congratulations to Luke and the entire Gianforte family!

In recognition of her community involvement and academic achievement, Carly was selected as one of 35 Remembrance Scholars, an annual scholarship to honor and remember the 35 students who were killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. After graduation, Carly moved to Detroit to take a public relations position at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She spent three years providing communications counsel to leaders of fifteen clients across business segments, including corporate social responsibility, public affairs and information technology. Carly was also active in Blue Cross’ Young Professionals Network, launching their first reverse mentoring program that took form as a LinkedIn training program. Carly brought LinkedIn into Blue Cross to train 20 young professionals to be trainers for the company. These young professionals trained hundreds of Blue Cross employees within the first year of the program, improving the employer brand and connecting generations within the workforce.

Carly is a member of Toastmasters International, a public speaking and leadership organization. This spring she competed for the first time, taking first place at the local level and second in the division. Carly recently took on a new job on the media relations team at DTE Energy, an energy and energy technology provider for residential and commercial electric and natural gas.

Outside of work, Carly and her fiancé, Derek Weed, have been busy fixing up their new home, planning their upcoming wedding in July, and spending time with friends and family.

Carly’s proud mom is our own Patricia Choice Getz, MSS Director of Support Services.

Jeffrey served as Junior Class Officer at JD. Beginning as a Freshman, he has been an award-winning member of the JD Model United Nations (MUN), serving as a club officer for three years and as Co-President his senior year. Jeff has been elected to serve as chair at many local MUN conferences. He was elected by his peers to serve as Under Secretary at the Rochester MUN conference in March and more recently elected as Secretary General at the November Hilton MUN conference, also in Rochester. Both conferences host over 800 delegates from across New York State. A swimmer since his time at Montessori, Jeff has competed on the JD varsity team for his four years of high school. He has been a member of JD’s State swim team for two years in a row, and with three teammates he holds the school record in the 200-m free relay. Jeff is planning to study math or chemistry in college and in the long term pursue a law degree. Jeff works summers as a lifeguard at Cavalry Country Club.

Tyler is a founding member and officer of the JD Investment Club, in which students participate in a virtual stock market to test research strategies and market trends. He, too, has been very involved in MUN since his freshman year, winning awards with the organization, and is Co-President with his brother this year. MUN members learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. It involves and teaches research, public speaking, writing, critical thinking skills, teamwork, and leadership. He was also elected by his peers to be chair at New York State conferences. Tyler is a starter on the JD soccer team, which was 4th runner up in New York State in 2013. He is planning to pursue science and engineering in college. Tyler has worked with an MSS parent’s company, Hehl Construction, as a construction assistant during his summers.

Jeff and Tyler are the twin sons of former MSS Marketing Communications Director Rene Gabriel, who is rightfully very proud of her boys!

Shannon went on to attend the Baldwinsville public schools, and ultimately graduated high school at Manlius Pebble Hill. Now a junior at the University of Vermont, Shannon is an environmental studies major with a concentration in conservation and stewardship. Shannon’s long-term goal is to work in the field of wildlife conservation and management of Federal land and protected areas. With her strong interest in protecting the environment, she was the perfect candidate for the Wild Rockies Field Institute (WRFI) last summer, where she explored the complex cultural, political, and natural histories of some of the most interesting and beautiful landscapes in Montana. The college-accredited course at Montana Afoot and Afloat with the WRFI gave her the opportunity to backpack and kayak in Montana, learning about the human-land relationship.

Shannon and her colleagues spoke with tribal leaders, public figures, and spokespeople from the coal and renewable wind energy fields. This coming summer she will be training to become a whitewater rafting guide.  Shannon  enjoys backpacking, making art, swimming, dancing, and traveling. One of her life goals is to climb Mt. Denali, the highest peak in North America.

Mady was involved in student government and served as Student Body President in her senior year. She played on both the varsity volleyball and lacrosse teams. She actively volunteered in several organizations, and was able to balance all of this while working part-time.

Mady is now a Junior at The George Washington University in Washington DC. She is working on completing a double major and will graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science in Interdisciplinary Mathematics and a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics. This past semester Mady studied abroad in Vienna, Austria.

Mady is a member of the Alpha Phi chapter at GW and served on the Executive Board for her sorority as the Vice President of Risk Management. As a member of Alpha Phi, Mady helps organize events and raises money for the Alpha Phi Foundation, which supports women’s cardiac care. During her sophomore year in college, Mady worked as a Sports Statistician for The Sports Quotient. She also served as Vice President of the Mathematics and Statistics Association and is a member of Women in Business. Mady also worked as a Teaching Assistant in the GW Math Department and is a calculus tutor. She interned in Credit Risk Management at Morgan Stanley in New York City last summer and is excited to return there this June. Outside of school and work, Mady is an avid sports enthusiast and a yoga instructor.

Mady’s older brother, Michael Alfieris (‘06) also graduated from MSS and went on to the Jamesville Dewitt schools. He served as Student Body President his senior year, played on the varsity volleyball team, worked at Wegmans and achieved honors in academics. Michael went on to the University of Delaware and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Exercise Science with a Concentration in Physiology. He is now attending graduate school at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, studying Cardiovascular Perfusion. He continues to be Mady’s mentor and best friend. Mady attributes her love for math and passion for learning to Jack Lawyer and Karen Kohl-Dyson, her teachers and role models during her time at MSS!

John went on to attend the Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology. He chose RIT for its robust co-op program, which gives students hands-on experience working in paid positions in their field of study. John was the recipient of a four-year RIT Presidential Scholarship, and was on the Deans List for all but one semester of his time there. John participated in the Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity, where he took on several leadership positions, including senior vice president. In that role he was responsible for the growth and social health of the chapter.  The fraternity offered John leadership and management experience, as well as exposure to local business leaders. He received the group’s Most Outstanding Brotherhood Award multiple times and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in management information systems.

During his junior year, John completed a six-month IT co-op at Precision Castparts Corporations (PCC) in Groton, Connecticut.  After a good learning experience, he decided to continue working with PCC after his graduation, entering its IT Development program.  The program is designed to give young IT leaders wide range of experiences in two years.  He began the program working in Spanish Fork, Utah, helping to deploy a new Enterprise Resource Planning system, and is currently working at the corporate office in Portland, Oregon, to deploy an enterprise infrastructure solution. He will complete the program in July 2018, at which point he will be placed in a growth position at one of the company’s almost 200 domestic sites.

Throughout his life, John has enjoyed the outdoors, and since graduation, he has begun exploring the national parks system. In the 16 months since his graduation, John has visited 18 national parks and monuments, including many of our country’s greatest natural phenomena.  While some of these locations stood out for their vastness, others were more remote, and each adventure was an investment of time in enjoying what the outdoors has to offer.

Morgane worked as an operations supervisor for a large monitoring station in Syracuse for many years and later moved to the Southwest, where she was a crew supervisor for a nature conservation corps.

When Morgane recently checked in with us, she let us know that she now works as a Hotshot Firefighter. She is part of an elite firefighting group called the Mormon Lake Hotshots, based in Flagstaff, Arizona.

There are many different kinds of wildland firefighting crews, and Morgane works in one of the most highly trained crews in the country, called an Interagency Hotshot crew. These crews battle the most serious fires nationwide and exceed the requirements of type 1 firefighters in terms of their extensive training and high physical fitness standards. They undertake difficult, dangerous, and stressful assignments. They respond to large, high-priority fires and are trained and equipped to work in remote areas for extended periods of time with little logistical support.

Morgane’s crew is highly trained and utilized to fight the biggest, hottest, most dangerous and physically grueling parts of big fires. Because they deploy to the nastiest fires, the crew travels all over the country and are typically on the road for about six months at a time (with breaks usually every 14 days).

While assigned a fire, they work 14-to 18-hour days, sleep on the ground and often eat dehydrated food. They utilize all-terrain vehicles, helicopters, and hike to fires in remote areas. On many fires they fought last summer, they hiked up to 15 miles per day carrying full gear (50-70 pounds).

Hotshots are considered professional hikers, and many of the men on Morgane’s crew are some of the strongest hikers in the country.  Morgane is the only woman on her crew of 20, and she says that “I spend a good portion of the winter training to be able to keep up with my coworkers.” Chainsaws and hand tools are  the most commonly used tools to construct handlines, removing all fuel material to stop a fire.  Morgane tells us, “Working as a hotshot is definitely a kind of lifestyle. I’m essentially on from April to October and work and travel almost nonstop for six months.  After October, I start my off-season with  many of my coworkers, and I travel, relax, ski and climb, until fire season starts again in April.”

Morgane’s parents live in Fayetteville, and she is the oldest of her two sisters, Mia and Clair, and brother Sam, all of whom attended MSS.

From 2012 to 2016 Jonathan attended Case Western Reserve University where he received concurrent B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and management – finance. He worked as a research assistant at the Case Biomanufacturing and Microfabrication Laboratory on an Android application to measure blood clotting of sickle-cell patients. The app is to be used with a phone attachment that has microscopic imaging capabilities.

Jon was also an investment banking intern focusing on derivatives at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland, in the summer of 2015, and a finalist in the Tibetan Innovation Challenge in 2015, where Jonathan met the Dalai Lama of Tibet. This past summer Jon was a cognitive automation intern at KPMG in Manhattan. Jon continued his education as a Tesla Scholar at Columbia University where he was a research assistant in the Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing. One of his projects was programming an autonomous robot to perform complex tasks with guidance from a human controller via EEG. He graduated in 2018 with an M.S. in electrical engineering. Jonathan will begin at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science this coming fall, doing research at Yale Medical School in pursuit of a Ph.D. in engineering.

Jonathan has co-authored many articles including: “Relating Deep Neural Network Representations to EEG-fMRI Spatiotemporal Dynamics in a Perceptual Decision-making Task” presented at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops 2018; “Task Level Hierarchical System for BCI-Enabled Shared Autonomy” at the 2017 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robotics; and “Point-of-Care System for Monitoring Cellular Adhesion in Sickle Cell Disease” at the 2017 Biomedical Engineering Society Conference. As this goes to press, he is preparing to present results of a study at a conference in Singapore.

Jonathan has stayed in close touch with his MSS friends John Alex French-Lawyer (2006) and Max Eyle (2005) and enjoys coming back to visit MSS whenever he can! He and Alex watched the eclipse in Portland, Oregon, last summer, and in December, Jon and Max traveled together on their Birthright Israel trips.

Maria is on the board of the Crochet for a Cause Club, where students  crochet bed mats for homeless people from recycled plastic bags. The club’s mission is “to aid the homeless by crocheting portable bed rolls from plastic bag yarn (plarn), to decrease waste, improve the environment, and to provide useful fellowship opportunities for our members.”

Maria has traveled extensively in Europe in recent years, primarily to Spain to visit family. She and her younger sister Julia Vazquez (2011) both learned  to speak the Spanish language fluently while living in the country.

Maria participated in Loyola’s study abroad program this past summer, and she let us know that “the program was amazing; I couldn’t speak more highly of my experience. . . it was well-planned, educational and immersive.” Maria found that the Czech Republic was culturally quite different when contrasted with other European countries, due to its recent communist past.  She and her fellow Loyola University students were able to speak directly with Czech people about their experiences during World War II, in both Prague and rural areas. They went to the Jachymov uranium mines to see POW camps and were surprised to learn that the recent history of the country is not taught to its young people. Maria’s family remains very connected with MSS, as her mother, Sharon Vazquez, is our Sixth Level Program director.

This summer, Blake unexpectedly passed away, leaving the community reeling from the loss of a loved one. Blake and Jared’s friendship started when they were in Cedar Classroom together, and although they had been out of touch for a few years, their old bond came back naturally when they worked together on You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. After Blake’s passing, Jared helped put together a cabaret fund raiser for Blake’s family in his memory, featuring nine original songs that Jared co-wrote with his friend Nancy O’Connor, the music director of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The entire cast was there to sing the songs, and friends and family came to offer their love and support. Luke returned to Syracuse to help with the tech aspects of the show. It was incredibly difficult, but it was beautiful to see everyone gathered there to honor Blake with music. After graduating from MSS, Jared first attended Wellwood Middle School in the Fayetteville-Manlius School District for two years. The contrast between MSS and Wellwood sparked Jared’s interest in learning about different kinds of education, and in ninth grade, he decided to homeschool. After his year of homeschooling, Jared spent his sophomore year at FM High School before moving with his family for ten months to Almuñécar, Spain, where he attended the local Spanish public high school. For his senior year, Jared returned to FM High School from which he graduated in 2018.

Jared is now spending a gap year in Spain, something he had been planning to do since he was very young, before attending Brown University in the fall of 2019. He is currently volunteering with Aiurri Montessori, a Montessori school in Vitoria-Gasteiz, which is a city in northern Spain in the Basque Country. He volunteers four days a week, helping out in the three- to six-year-old classrooms in the mornings and teaching English to the six to nine-year-olds in the afternoons. He plans to stay in Vitoria-Gasteiz until the end of January, and do some more traveling around Spain and Europe, volunteering with more schools.

Elissa’s dream growing up was to be a champion figure skater and synchronized skater, and ultimately part of Team USA. She followed that dream her entire school career at MSS and CBA, and continues now at Babson College. During high school she was a member of Mirror Images Synchronized Skating Team, and she also trained in Skaneateles, Baldwinsville, Ithaca and Cortland. During the 2017-2018 season, she trained with her current junior-level team, the Lexettes, and she makes the trip to Boston many times a week to work with them. In the 2018-2019 season, Elissa and the Lexettes were in the top five at both internationals in Sweden and France. They are part of Team USA, representing the U.S. worldwide, and are the 2018 U.S. National Silver Medalists. She will be training with the senior team National Champions, the Haydenettes, this spring and summer in anticipation of becoming a member of that championship team this fall. All the teams give back to the community through volunteer work and exhibition skating.

Elissa says this about her passion for skating: “‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.’ This quote by Henry David Thoreau has followed me throughout my life, as has my dream to skate for Team USA. To all of the students at Montessori, if you have a dream, chase it! You never know where that dream will take you, and don’t let anyone tell you it’s impossible because those are the dreams that are worth it.”

Shelby Weinstein attended MSS from her primary years into elementary, until she moved to Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School in the fifth grade. Shelby graduated from high school there in 2012, and then attended the University of Rochester, where she majored in public health and psychology, graduating in 2016.  While living there, she met her partner, Ian Davison, a software engineer, and volunteered at Planned Parenthood, working with a health educator.

The couple decided to make a move to New York City, where Shelby worked for Amplicare, a health care technology company, as a customer success manager. The company sells software to small local pharmacies with the goal of making medications affordable for their elderly customers and keeping the pharmacies competitive with larger pharmaceutical chains.

Shelby decided to return to school and is now at Boston University in the first year of her master’s of public health degree with a concentration in maternal and child health. Shelby is passionate about reproductive health education, and her long-term professional goal is to work in sexual and reproductive health education.

Loving yoga, she also decided to take the comprehensive six-month training to become a certified yoga instructor, and she enjoys teaching yoga three times a week at MIT. In her spare time, she creates exquisite embroidery and runs an embroidery Instagram @sew_whatt_. The couple also enjoys hiking and recently visited Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State.

During high school and college, Kea had an active role working alongside her mother, former MSS teacher Theresa Grosso, helping her run her juice bar, Koinonia, in DeWitt where she discovered her interest in business. In college at Syracuse University (SU), Kea studied business and found Koinonia the perfect opportunity to apply the skills she learned to real-world scenarios.

Kea graduated from SU in 2017 with a B.S. in business management. While there, she was a member of Delta Phi Epsilon sorority and the Western Equestrian Team. After graduating from Syracuse University, she spent a year in the coastal city of Wilmington, N.C., before moving to Washington, D.C., where she now works for a nonprofit on a corporate engagement team helping to connect corporate partners with philanthropic opportunities in the local community. Kea is concurrently pursuing her masters in homeland security and counterterrorism at Penn State University.

In her spare time, Kea enjoys traveling, hiking with her dog and a good book. Kea keeps a journal of personal poems and short stories, a passion she discovered during her time at MSS. She is deeply appreciative of the inspiring guidance of Carol Lawyer, who was influential in cultivating her interest in creative writing.

Annabella’s older brother Jeffrey Owens also attended MSS, graduating in 2009. He moved next to the ESM school, graduating in 2015, and proceeded to Colorado College, majoring in STEM psychology and minoring in French.  During his time there, Jeffrey studied abroad in Grenoble, in the French Alps. He graduated from CC in 2019 and was delighted to have Oprah Winfrey as the commencement speaker at his graduation. Jeff currently works for an innovation institute in Colorado Springs doing project-based work for the institute’s various clients. He is now looking at graduate school choices, with an eye toward research & business innovation.

Nuriyah Owens and her children wanted us to know that they applaud and celebrate our 25th anniversary with us. They joined our school community in 2001, one of the first new families on our Waldorf Parkway campus!

Robert’s consistent sports focus and passion has been tennis, and he began competing while in the Evergreen (six-to-nine-year-old) classroom at MSS. He enjoys competition and played in many tournaments during his elementary years.

Robert played varsity tennis for six years for JDHS, and in four of his six years on the team he qualified for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Tournaments, playing at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. For two of the tournaments, he played doubles with MSS graduate Peter Hatton (2015). In addition, Rob had the distinction of being the first player in JDHS history to earn 100 wins during his high school career.

Robert now plays tennis for Hamilton College, and was one of ten men on the Hamilton College men’s tennis team who earned 2019 Intercollegiate Tennis Association  scholar-athlete status. To be eligible for this honor, the athlete must be a varsity letter winner and maintain a grade point average of 3.50 or better for the academic year. In the 2018-19 season, Robert was named to the Spring All-Academic team by the NESCAC, the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Robert feels that both his MSS and Hamilton College educations have taught him how to think and learn, and have provided him a foundation for success, whatever future path he chooses to take.

After graduating from MSS, Dustin went on to Christian Brothers Academy (CBA), where he played percussion in the concert band, drums in the jazz band and was a percussionist in the Syracuse Youth Symphony. He played football for CBA and was an Eagle Scout. In those years he organized a community service project with his scout troop for Maple Cottage at MSS. When he graduated from CBA, Dustin received the annual mathematics music awards. What Dustin recalls as most meaningful from his high school years is teaching himself computer programming. As the web came of age, Dustin spent hundreds of hours online, programming and teaching himself how to code his own video games.

Dustin studied computer engineering at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Crediting Montessori’s “love of learning,” Dustin challenged himself to take the hardest engineering courses and was in the honors program at Villanova. Upon graduation, Dustin the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence and Computer Engineering Medallion, with the distinction of graduating first in his class. He continued to play drums and vibraphone for the Villanova Jazz Band and bass drum for their marching band.

Upon graduation, Dustin worked as a software engineer for Lockheed Martin. In his mid-20s, he took a three-month sabbatical to intensively study programming in New York City, prioritizing aspects of programming underutilized in his job. He feels that his “love of learning paid off huge and I quickly gathered the skills and confidence I needed to become a self-employed, independent programmer, doing freelance work for tech start-ups.”

During those years, Dustin also developed his own product, Hyperfiddle, and when he turned 30, he founded his own company to market it. His company is a research lab focused on making software information systems simpler for laypeople. Now in its fourth year, his company has its first product available, a spreadsheet-like tool that lets anyone be a programmer. If any friends of Montessori would like to invest in this exciting growth start-up, you can contact Dustin at dustin@hyperfiddle.net.

In his spare time, Dustin continues to play vibraphone and runs in fund-raising marathons. He let us know that he is “so grateful to Mary, Susan and my mother, Pat, for their lifes’ work of creating the MSS and spreading the gift of curiosity and learning to our children.”

In 2015, Piper began college in the natural resources program at Cornell University and later transferred to Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. She created her own major of interdisciplinary studies in visual communications. She was president of the Photography Club and worked for the school’s phonathon. In her junior year Piper took her first film class, which sparked a new level of curiosity and expanded on her passion for image-making. She also studied abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa for a semester, which she still considers the best five months of her life!

Piper graduated magna cum laude in 2015 and headed to New York City, where she landed an internship with an advertising and production company, which sparked her career in the media industry. For the past few years Piper has worked predominantly in New York City as a freelance producer and coordinator on various television shows and video content. Notable credits include Project Runway All Stars, Ramy on Hulu, four different HBO specials and most recently John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch on Netflix. Her favorite project to date was working as the coordinating producer with former Vice-President Al Gore’s not-for-profit on the global broadcast of 24 Hours of Reality, which showcases how individuals, communities, businesses and governments worldwide are working to solve the climate crisis.

Piper’s older brother Luke Gianforte (2004) runs the family’s organic grain farm in Cazenovia, NY. Being freelance, Piper takes advantage of her flexible schedule and helps on the farm during busy summer weeks. Piper’s mother, Judy Gianforte, was a teacher at MSS in the lower elementary classroom, and was also the fitness instructor. Judy developed and taught the Land Lab program, the Nona’s Corner library and a students and seniors program at The Nottingham. Judy is semi-retired from her job as executive director of Cazenovia Preservation Foundation and mills grain products from the farm.

Piper currently lives in Jersey City, NJ, with her boyfriend of over five years, Mike Hanna. They love to collect sea glass along the shore, eat their way through Manhattan and go to the many events the city has to offer. Piper is an advocate for mental health, loves to consistently break the dumb-farmer stereotype and travel as much as possible. She has a love for nature and animals that was instilled while growing up on their family farm, and she has raised both a baby sparrow and pigeon in their apartment! Their current pet is her cat Stella.

Milan selected the University of Michigan for his undergraduate work, where he is a junior studying data science with a minor in entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Michigan Research and Discovery Scholars, as well as the student-run consulting club that does pro bono work for local businesses. He stated that “I’m passionate about using big data to develop creative and innovative solutions to real-world problems.”  In his freshman year, Milan was awarded the William J. Branstrom Freshman Prize for first-term freshmen who rank in the upper five percent of their class within their school or college. He is a James B. Angell Scholar, an honor awarded to those students who earn all A’s for two or more consecutive terms. He was also awarded the Outstanding Consultant honor, for his work at the MECC Consulting Group, consulting with Rocket Fiber, a start-up fiber internet service provider. Read his full story

In the summer of , 2018 Milan studied abroad in Turin, Italy, participating in an entrepreneurship accelerator program, in which participants had to quickly come up with and develop mock start up ideas. They developed Sanjana, a non profit organization designed to give rural communities in India access to health information. He also traveled to Milan, Lake Como and Geneva, Switzerland.

Milan spent last summer interning for Apple at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. He was selected as a finalist in iContest, a competition among Apple interns in which they propose new Apple product or feature ideas. As a finalist, Milan presented a product to Apple executives. While living in California, he enjoyed a trip to Yosemite National Park, and learning to surf!

Laura returned to Syracuse to take the job of program assistant at the Syracuse University Center for Sustainable Community Solutions. While there she worked on sustainable materials management (SMM) programs throughout United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Region 2.  Her work included the development and implementation of the New York SMM Product Stewardship Program and the Food Recovery Campaign, as well as the US EPA’s New Jersey/New York Trash Free Waters Program.  Laura decided to return to school in 2016 at Tufts University and graduated in 2018 with a masters in urban and environmental policy and planning. Her focus in graduate school was equitable and just food systems, and local food economies. While at Tufts, she was able to put what she learned into practice as the food economy coordinator at the city of Revere.

Laura got married this past September to Matthew Amato, and shared this beautiful photo from their wedding, (above right), as well as this photo of herself at home.

She now works as the marketing and business development manager at Bon Me, an independent restaurant and food truck group in Boston. She and her husband also operate Mad Spice Company, an e-commerce and wholesale spice business. They specialize in vanilla sourced directly from Malagasy farmers, whom Matthew has been working with since he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar in 2011.

During her free time Laura, loves exploring new restaurants and pop-ups in Boston, hiking along the North Shore, and traveling with friends — in a pre–  and post-COVID world!

Kate went on to study biochemistry at Stonehill College near Boston. She was a member of the Student Alumni Association and assisted in planning reunion weekends, alumni mentorship programs and university fund-raising. As part of her Biochemistry curriculum, she did research in physical organic chemistry and was a co-author of a paper published in the Chemical Science journal.

After graduating from Stonehill College in 2013, Kate moved to Boston where she worked as a process chemist at Twin Rivers Technologies. She really enjoyed Boston but had always wanted to live near the mountains, so three years later she followed her brother to Denver, Colorado. She worked as a research and development chemist at a cosmetics manufacturer, developing skin and hair care products. She has since moved to the operations team and works as the manufacturing manager.

Kate volunteers as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado and has been a big sister to her little sister Lala for the past three years. Kate loves the outdoors, skiing, hiking, running and anything that gets her out in the mountains. She is an avid traveler and goes back east often to spend time with her family and friends.

Next Anna returned to Syracuse to complete her premed requirements at Syracuse University. She worked at Pastabilities restaurant in Armory Square with her friend and MSS alum Ryland Heagerty.

Currently between her second and third years of medical school at SUNY Upstate, Anna helps run a student-led clinic for clients at the Rescue Mission focusing on diabetes and foot issues. She is the former president of the Street Medicine Interest Group and worked with HouseCalls for the Homeless, a street medicine program in Syracuse that provides medical care for those experiencing homelessness.

Anna is interested in pediatrics but is keeping an open mind as she tries out different medical specialties. She is now completing a one-year master of public health at SUNY Upstate, as she wants to incorporate a public health approach in her practice of medicine. She’ll continue her third year of medical school this spring. Anna let us know that “it’s important to me to not only take care of the patient in front of me but also my whole community.”

Anna and her partner, Alden Sampson married in a small ceremony at the Rose Garden in Thornden Park in 2020, and in June of this year they welcomed their first child, Keene Sampson. She tells us, “He is sweet and smiley and loves to snuggle.”  Their family enjoys hiking and canoeing, and baby Keene has already gone on his first paddle!

Anna’s mother, Deborah Kanter, is our medical consultant, a contact tracer and one of our very important COVID consultants.

Ben relates that he was drawn to medicine at a young age when he saw how surgery could positively impact patients’ lives, including his own. At the age of ten, he underwent spine surgery that transformed his life. In high school, he joined his father, an ophthalmologist, on medical mission trips where he watched patients enter the hospital with no sight and leave with full sight. These inspiring personal experiences launched his surgical career.

During his residency at Vanderbilt, Ben grew fascinated with the various forms of  spinal pathology and surgical treatments that could be used to correct such conditions. After residency, he completed a combined Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Adult and Pediatric Fellowship at the Norton Leatherman Spine Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Now settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, Dr. Ben Weisenthal works at the Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic. He and his wife, Kaycee Weeter Weisenthal were married in May of 2021, this past summer. Kaycee is an attorney and the owner and designer of Grove Paper Company. Ben works out at his home CrossFit gym and enjoys trail running and skiing and going on long walks with his wife and their dogs.