Benjamin Williams ’99 Breaking the cycle of poverty

As executive director of the Connect Center for Youth in Cohoes, New York, Ben Williams ’99 knows the importance of helping youth connect with their full potential in order to break the cycle of poverty. His organization’s vision is to be a community hub for connection and empowerment, providing programming for youth and community aid initiatives and support in a holistic manner.

We asked him recently to share some thoughts about his time at The Albany Academy.

Ben points to the small class sizes and the faculty and staff as most valuable to him. “These things created an intimate and caring learning environment in which I flourished. I really needed a hands-on experience to fit my learning style,” he said.

Specifically, Ben cites Mr. Nicome, a former teacher, as having had a huge impact. “He would not accept mediocrity from me under any circumstances. He held me to a higher standard and showed me that as a Black man I needed to hold myself to a higher standard in order to survive in this environment.”

At Academy, Ben says, he learned a skill that has helped him throughout his life—load management. During his senior year, a time he calls the most challenging year of his life, he learned to manage being a varsity sports captain and battalion captain, completing college applications, and taking multiple AP classes. “It was a formative experience that I carried for the rest of my life.”

“My career path has taken many twists and turns throughout the years but it has all come full circle to the work that I am doing now at the Connect Center,” Ben said.” My former careers in music, business, sales, marketing, and culinary have all helped me accelerate the growth of the organization. Besides organizational growth, my experiences have helped me mentor and instruct the students enrolled in our wide range of STEAM-based workshops.”

Connect Center offers after school workshops free of charge to students in middle and high school in order to give them exposure to careers in the STEAM fields. In addition to these programs, the organization also runs multiple community support initiatives such as a food pantry, backpack program, community closet, little free libraries, and a free laundromat that is coming soon. Of course, he has encountered challenges along the way, but Ben said he overcame many of them with his “patented three Ps: planning, patience, persistence.”

His advice to current and future students?

“Stay networked with the Academies after graduation. Stay in touch with your classmates, coaches, and favorite teachers. Join the alumni board, attend events, and stay connected. You never know where life might bring you, and having such a powerful support network behind you can give you access to possibilities you may have never considered. Academy grads are world changers!

As a retina surgeon at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai based in Manhattan, Dr. Meenakashi Gupta ’99 continues to fulfill her dream of curing vision loss through retinal surgery and research. Her work focuses on restoring eyesight, as well as hope and quality of life to her patients. Dr. Gupta and her team are working together to implement cutting-edge retinal imaging to provide new treatments for retinal diseases. She is inspired to provide each patient with the best care and latest treatments.

Dr. Gupta also directs the Telemedicine Program for Diabetic Retinopathy at Mount Sinai, which aims to prevent blindness by expanding access to innovative eye care in the primary care setting. An active participant in research activities and national clinical trials, Dr. Gupta has authored several publications and presented her work at national and international conferences. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Gupta trains medical students, residents and fellows. Dr. Gupta is committed to her community, educating the public on eye health through lectures and conducting vision screenings. She attributes her road to success and her inner strength and confidence that women can fulfill their dreams to the nurturing mentorship she received during her K-12 experiences at Albany Academy for Girls.

Dr. Gupta is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a member of the American Society of Retina Specialists. She is the recipient of the Harvard Ophthalmology Department Clinical Research Award, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship and Albert Schweitzer Service Fellowship. She was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumna Award in 2019 during Reunion.

Dr. Gupta graduated from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude in Neurobiology and received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed residency in Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School and fellowship in Vitreoretinal Diseases and Surgery at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Dr. Gupta’s brother, Sachin Gupta ’07, is a Managing Director at Fir Tree Partners, a hedge fund in New York City.

Medicine

Dr. Meenakashi Gupta ’99

Seeing a cure for vision loss

Armen Garo ’73

Acting on the big stage

Armen Garo ’73—well known member of the casts of the acclaimed 2022 movie CODA and HBO’s megahit The Sopranos—spoke to those who gathered for the Alumni Association’s Mid-Winter Gathering in February about his recollections and impressions of Albany Academy. We offer some excerpts here.

Armen shared that during his Middle School years participation in the annual Declamation Contest was mandatory, something he found quite intimidating. Students had to memorize a piece of prose, poetry, or even a song and present it in English class. The stakes got higher in ninth grade when it was required that the piece had to be an original work and the minimum length went from three minutes to five. Despite his trepidation, Armen won the ninth grade competition with a performance of his original piece “Happiness Is.”

“I was approached by faculty member Frank Nash, one of the most extraordinary individuals on the faculty,” Armen said. “He recommended that I look into joining the Drama Club because of my abilities on stage. I was just happy to do something that I enjoyed, but he was the one that made the connection to theater and acting. The nexus never once occurred to me. Had it not been for Frank Nash, I would’ve never recognized the bridge to theater.”

Armen remembers Frank as “a guidepost, holding up a dimly lit lamp… allowing me to follow a path made by others, or to cut my own. Frank Nash did that. Not me. I never asked him for any advice. He offered it because he recognized something in me… I laughed it off, but he insisted that I should consider it and so I did. I am forever grateful.”

“The Academy was filled with many similar guideposts, which included alumni, upperclassmen, coaches, administrators, staff, maintenance workers and, of course, faculty members. Whether or not they knew it, they were each a guidepost for us all, the Academy Family,” he recalled.

He went on to remind those gathered that “this is not just some private school. This is an institution of higher learning founded to procure leaders and contributors to society as our city, state, and country were rapidly developing and advancing. The Albany Academy is deeply woven into the fabric of this country’s origins and accomplishments. It is the private school and is like no other.” He listed several illustrious alumni and alumnae, including Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Rufus Peckham; acclaimed novelist Herman Melville; Jane Stanford, founder of Stanford University; and several others as examples of the caliber of students the Academies attracts.

“All of these alumni, as well as the tens of thousands of other alumni who have made important contributions to medicine, academia, literature, journalism, science, technology, arts, government, sports, entertainment, military, and theology are one of us, and we are one of them,” Armen said. “And it’s just as important to have had a positive influence on one single individual in our lifetime as it is to have a positive influence on millions. That’s the club we are in.”

He stressed that “this is not just some private school looking to enhance its reputation with scholarly achievements, championship trophies, plaques, and banners. What we do is memorialize the names and images of students who move onward to influence the world around them in the most positive manner.