Alumni, please send us your news by e-mail, phone or snail mail. We can update our new website quickly and easily, so keep the news coming in! Non-grads who attended Soundview are are listed at the end.
Fall 2009 brought several members of the class of 2009 back to campus for a visit: Mike Cooper, who is enjoying Susquehanna University, and Brian Schwartz, who reports that he is working hard at Dickinson College. Noah Phillips is at Franklin Pierce and finds the work challenging but stimulating. David Gallagher ’09, who is at Muhlenberg, reports that he is taking Psychology, Spanish, Microeconomics and a seminar called “Exploring Meaning”.
Texas Day 2009, held as always on the Memorial Day Friday, brought a host of SPS alumni back to campus. Among them were three alums from the Class of 2003: Jill Penchina, who is studying biology at WestConn and still playing in her band, Rebecca Green, a graduate of Oberlin who is working as a health insurance broker, and David Papiasvili, who obtained his BA from Columbia University and is an independent film editor and director (and who spoke at Soundview’s Fall 2008 Opening Celebration, as described below.
Many members of the Class of 2008 were also on hand for Texas Day: Zach Greenfield, who had just finished spring semester at the University of Tampa… Andy Laub, who has transferred to Fordham University, where he is enjoying the “intense curriculum” and good courses… Elan Avinoam, who has finished his first year at Ursinus… Dan Caplan, who is at SUNY Buffalo and planning to major in business… Danny Kramer, who loves Manhattanville, where he will major in communications… Glenn Lutzky, who is at Brown… and Spencer Wiedemann, who started at the Maryland Institute College of Art this fall (he loves it!) Among others were: two Helliers – James ’06 and Benji ’08; Derek Greeley, Jon Fifer, Jamal Coverdale and Brian Africk, all of the Class of 2007; Dvora Bendavid ’01, who was married this summer.
Other alumni news as of summer 2009: Adam Samuels ‘07 received multiple honors as a member of the Mitchell College varsity tennis team this spring. Undefeated in both singles and doubles, Adam helped Mitchell to a perfect 11-0 record (including 8-0 in the fledgling NCAA Division III New England Collegiate Conference (“NECC”). At the post-season conference tournament on May 3 in Brookline, MA, Adam won all-tournament recognition and was named to the all-tournament team in both singles and doubles, one of only 3 players in the conference to be so honored… Ali Sozio ’04 is engaged to be married to Chris Myers on June 26, 1010. Ali is working with autistic children as a teacher’s aid for Para Educators in Lewes, DE, and reports she is “enjoying every minute of it”… A marriage closer at hand (Fall 2009) is that of David Elliott ’96, who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, where he is in the jewelry manufacturing and design business. David, whose bride is his business partner Lanee Phsuri, graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in computer engineering. After graduation, he went to Thailand where he taught English as a second language for a Japanese firm, and soon became manager of their program, supervising over 200 teachers.
Other news from last spring: coming back to student-teach an English class for Ms. Hayes was Greg Euchner ’04, who graduated from Earlham College in Indiana last May.
The Soundview community is still remembering our Opening Celebration just a year ago on October 26, 2008. Five Soundview alumni came to speak at this official inauguration of our new campus:
–Ben Friedland ’93, a SUNY grad and senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis, the youngest vice president in the real estate company’s history
–Michele Roseman Goldstein ’93, an educator who graduated from NYU and obtained her Master’s from Columbia Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was awarded the Carol and Milton Petrie Fellows Scholarship
–Tom Vitale ‘98, a Vassar graduate and award-winning TV producer whose shows, among others, include the Travel Channel show “Anthony Bourdin” and PBS’s Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie
–Rachel Raskin Holland ’01, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence and a teacher who taught chemistry at Soundview last year
–David Papiasvili ’03, who obtained his BA from Columbia University and is an independent film editor and director.
To quote just a few of the alumni remarks: “Soundview has done for me more than I ever imagine a school could do. It created a place where I felt comfortable sharing my ideas, and gave me personal and professional self-confidence… Soundview has truly enriched my life,” Mrs. Goldstein said.
Mr. Papiasvili spoke wryly of his reputation before coming to Soundview as being full of promise; “I was proud of that and didn’t want to take the unnecessary risk of diluting my promise with the lesser virtues of completion.” At Soundview, he found, “they apparently were not satisfied with promise alone,” and he learned to fulfill that promise.
Also attending the event were Matt Fleischman ’01, who graduated from Gettysburg and is working in New York; Neal Batra ‘03, who has started law school; Alex Weprin ‘02, who is deputy editor of Broadcasting & Cable Magazine in New York, reporting and producing multimedia content for their website; and Jordan Heiligmann ‘02, who is finishing his Master’s in Diplomacy and Military Studies for Hawaian Pacific University.
Alumni visitors to Soundview over the 2008-09 year included: Moe Fall ‘08, who is starting his sophomore year at Syracuse University this fall; Sam Schraeder ’07, starting his junior year at Coe College in Iowa; Emil Garner ’06, a junior at Muhlenberg, where he is majoringin political science and English; Jake Friedman-Hurvitz ’06, who is at Landmark College in Vermont…Jordan Kratter ’06 came back for a stint of tutoring at Soundview, between semesters at Knox College in Ohio; Michelle Pastor ’07, who is majoring in psychology at Allegheny College; Chris Ferris ‘02, who graduated from culinary school and is managing a restaurant in lower Westchester.