Mariner Stars

Other Mariner News

Congratulations to Emma Fletcher ’20 who signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Baylor University and ride with the Division One Equestrian Team next fall. Emma is one to watch, placing in the top 25 and then the top 6 out of 179 riders, ultimately taking 4th place in the ASPCA Maclay National Championship at the National Horse Show on November 2. She also earned the Leo Conroy Equitation Grant to participate in this championship. Earlier in October, Emma placed 6th at the 61st MARS International Horse Show in Washington, DC, and placed 1st at the 2019 USEF Dover Medal National Equitation Championship in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Bianca Greco ’23 ran in the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Madison, Wisconsin after qualifying for this race by placing 7th in her age group at the 2019 USATF New England Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships. She placed 15th in the regional and 46th in the national championships.

College Athletes from the Class of 2020

We congratulate the following seniors who have committed to playing for their colleges in the upcoming year.

Max Djikaev Emma Fletcher Ainsley Ramsey

Soccer, Clark University Equestrian, Baylor University Lacrosse, Bowdoin College Ryan Waite ’21 (above, center), with teammates from Falmouth and Nashua, NH, qualified for the U18 Curling National Championships scheduled to be held on March 17-22 in Wausau, Wisconsin. The 2020 tournament was postponed, and ultimately canceled, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Connor Mercer ’23 took third place competing in the Men’s Compound Cadet 2019 MA State Indoor and Junior Olympic Archery Development Program (JOAD) on December 9. In February, he competed in the threeday competition for the 51st USA Archery JOAD Nationals and Indoor Nationals.

Hannah Brazil ’22 headed to Lancaster, PA with her team, U16 Blue Cape Cod Field Hockey Club, to play in the Field Hockey National Indoor Tournament (NIT). As goalie, Hannah helped her team qualify for this very competitive tournament during the National Indoor Qualifiers held at Smith College in December. This is the second time her team has made it to the NIT. Her mom Beth said, “Although they didn’t win, Hannah’s team played very well, but it was definitely a goalie’s showcase.”

1980s

Congratulations to Christine Pina ’86 and her son Arthur, who was chosen to play hockey for Team USA at the Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, in January. “I am an incredibly proud mom!” The 17-man roster played Canada, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Switzerland. They went 3-0-0-1 and fell, 4-0, to Russia in the gold-medal game to earn silver.

1990s

Best wishes to Yuki Honjo ’90, Chief Operating Officer of McLane Labs, who joined the inaugural national board of the Society of Women in Marine Science. “Being able to be part of this ride, in which this group of visionary scientists changes the world and helps open opportunities to women, minorities, and their allies, is truly one of the most exciting events in my professional career. The amazing scientists who actually run SWMS have taken a small group from Woods Hole into a national movement. I am so proud of this group and their accomplishments.” Yuki is seen here with McLane Labs engineer Charlie Perry and FA students Michael Zitomer ’23 and Connor Jones ’20 during FA’s Career Exploration Day when the students were able to work with professionals in their places of business.

2000s

Peter MacDonald

’06 and his business partner Joe Schnare announced that their startup, Wunderite, was selected as one of ten new companies to be mentored by Techstars, a business accelerator that helps new startups get off the ground. Wunderite automates insurance applications. It was conceived by Peter when he worked at his family’s insurance business, Murray & MacDonald, but expanded upon when he and Joe were MBA candidates in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. (Peter and his brother, Philip MacDonald ’09 are holding the sign in the first row of the photo.)

In January Head of Principle & Impact for The Carlyle Group, Megan Starr ’06, was featured in an interview with Traders Network Show Host Matt Bird, live from the Greenwich Economic Forum, a global alternative investment industry conference that convenes some of the brightest minds in global finance for discussions on global trade, capital markets and investing—representing more than $17 trillion. They discussed the direction of where ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) funding is headed. ESG is a term used by investors to evaluate corporate behavior and determine future financial performance. In the interview, Megan noted that we’re seeing more values-based investing. “We’re in the business of buying good companies and turning them into great companies. Great companies create sustainable economic value. We’re at a pivotal point for capitalism. What was really a part of the niche market is becoming more mainstream.”

Alumni Expertise Connects Students Past and Present

Academic Dean Dr. Petra Ehrenbrink put out the word that she needed help instructing faculty how to use Flipgrid during the Covid-19 Quarantine, and alumni answered the call. Thank you to Mike Deasy ’10, Rachel Dragos ’12, Camden Emery ’19, Megan Flory ’17, Mary Kate Jones ’17, Tessa Mastroiani ’15, Jeffrey Moon ’92, Lily Patterson ’14, Mark Russell ’80, Alissya Silva ’18, Laura Swanbeck ’04, Charlotte Van Voorhis ’16, and Eliza Van Voorhis ’17. Sharing a snippet of quarantine life, Tessa Mastroiani ’15, a nurse at Mass General Hospital, said, “They said the first year of nursing was the hardest, but I don’t think they anticipated anything like this. It’s a weird time to be a nurse, but I’m sure it’s a weird time to be a teacher. We’ll get through it.”

2010s

Did you catch a familiar face on the CBS daytime drama “The Young and the Restless?” That was Marie Oldenbourg ’10, a redhead now, playing the role of Kendra, a double-crossing office assistant, in four episodes in March. Marie also appeared in the Netflix series Hollywood. You can catch a glimpse of her as Susan Hayward in the scenes at the Oscars.

Medical school student Thomas Aviles ’12 matched to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with his new wife Priscilla Tang in early March. Thomas and Priscilla are students at Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Shortly after the match, they were married during the Covid-19 quarantine, with his family and sisters Catherine ’14 and Stephanie ’17 in attendance.

Alumni Help Judge 2020 FA Science and Engineering Fair

Eliza Van Voorhis ’17 was named captain of the women’s soccer team at Middlebury College. The 9th ranked team in Division III at the end of the regular season, the Panthers compiled a record of 14-3-3 this year and advanced to the regional final in the NCAA tournament. Eliza, a junior, was also named to the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) AllAcademic team for the fall season.

A group of alumni served as judges for the 32nd annual Science & Engineering Fair in February. Their expertise ranged from psychology to landscaping to engineering to marine science to autism. First row: Amy (Harris) Cummings ’92, Chris Buccino ’02, Jenny (Olson) Putnam ’83, senior substitutes Ellie Mattison ’20 and Bailey Jordan ’20; and second row: Stephen Sheinkopf ’84, Katie Armstrong ’15, Keegan Krick ’12, Scott Brown ’89, Allisa Dalpe ’12, and Kyle Benton ’12.

Exploring Careers with Alumni Hosts

Upper School students had the opportunity to shadow adult professionals in their work environments during Career Exploration Day in March, and alumni were eager to participate as hosts.

Keegan Krick ’12, Molecular Biology Researcher at MIT (right, with seniors Ava Poole and Izzy Santamauro), introduced students to some basic molecular biology techniques— PCR, gel electrophoresis, pipetting, and some fundamentals of restriction cloning. “I hoped they would see some high level research and also understand how the scientific method is applied in academic research.”

State Representative Dylan Fernandes ’08 hosted sophomores Tasha Sudofsky ’20 and Sarah Thieler ’22 (right). Hoping the students would get a feel for day-to-day duties at the State House, Dylan showed them how he responds to constituents, works on policy initiatives, and plans for meetings.

Andrew Kingman ’00, Privacy Law Attorney at DLA Piper, and recently named as an “Up and Coming Lawyer” in MA by Mass. Lawyers Weekly said, “It was incredibly fun to host Ruby (Gaetani ’21) this year. I am always so pleasantly surprised by how personable and engaged FA students are, and I enjoyed being able to share a bit about my work with a student as well. We talked about the privacy implications around facial recognition technology and possible privacy issues surrounding the COVID-19 virus. She was also able to join a conference call with other lobbyists as we prepared for a call with the Vermont Attorney General’s office.”

Robert Courson ’06, Data Analytics and Reporting at Liberty Mutual Insurance (far left, with Sophia Venetis ’22 and Soren Peterson ’22) shared running and scoring machine learning models, and how to craft a business narrative and actionable insights from predictive data. They later met for lunch with Wunderite start-up founder Peter MacDonald ’06 and Ellamae Cazeault ’21 (left).