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Alumni News & Notes 2007 Samantha Leavitt sent her regards and the following message for the community: “Windward changed my life in the best way possible. I am so happy to see it continues to have the same impact on other students year after year.”
2011 Ryan Gottfried is a cofounder of the company UtilizeCore, which he launched with two fellow University of Michigan alumni in 2016. In November, Ryan (pictured in middle) and his cofounders received the Forbes 30 Under 30 Award in enterprise technology for bettering the businesstobusiness world. UtilizeCore is the leading technology company for the service delivery industry, matching companies with repair and maintenance subcontractors, and the company has seen contracts worth a total of over $1 billion completed on its platform.
2012 Tyler Karow quit his job in September 2019, with the objective of free climbing El Capitan (El Cap) via the Golden Gate route in Yosemite National Park. He accomplished the groundup free ascent of El Cap successfully last spring, and the feat was highlighted by Outside Online in the article “Big News on El Cap: First New Route in Years, and a Fast Free Golden Gate Ascent.” That mission of Tyler’s turned into two years of living on the road in a van and climbing full time. He shared, “Climbing has brought me to some of the most beautiful places on Earth and allowed me to meet so many incredible humans. I feel absurdly lucky and grateful that I have been able to pursue this passion.” Although Tyler’s life on the road is taking a pause, he has been documenting his adventures in big wall climbing on his YouTube channel and highlight videos can be viewed there (search for Tyler Karow). He suggests taking a peek at the Krygystan and Alaska expedition videos, as those are two of his favorites. Zoe Stein cofounded a political consulting firm called Relentless. The firm is focused on helping Democratic campaigns and organizations build creative, datadriven relationalfirst programs at scale. In April,
Zoe and her partners were featured in a Politico article “‘If we do this right…’: The new Dem organizing strategy catching fire ahead of the midterms” where Zoe discusses how her experience working as a director on Senator Jon Ossoff’s campaign to win Georgia in 2021 has fueled Relentless’s mission. Last year in July, Zoe was also a guest on The Great Battlefield podcast in the episode titled “Organizing, Civic Engagement and Climate Justice with Zoe Stein.” She reflected on how her time at Windward has supported her in becoming an excellent staff trainer and creative problem solver. “Before Windward, not only could I not read but I couldn’t advocate for what I needed. I was really lucky to have people advocating for me at a young age. This is a privilege not every kid gets, and I am immensely grateful and feel a responsibility to provide that opportunity to others.”
2013 Chris Licata graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2017 with a major in real estate finance. He is now living in Manhattan, where he works in real estate finance. Jacob Silberstein attended Windward for three years before ultimately graduating from Columbia University. He is now working in sustainable real estate development.
2015 Matt Licata graduated from Bentley University in 2019 where he studied sustainability science and business. He then received an MBA in sustainable innovations from the University of Vermont in 2020. Matt is now an analyst at Deloitte. Melissa Strauss graduated from Dickinson College in 2019. She is passionate about sports and youth development and began working with the nonprofit Up2Us Sports as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in the fall of 2019. Following that role, Melissa was offered a fellowship in a graduate program for sports management, with a focus on sportsbased youth development. Her ultimate goal is to develop youth programs or a junior development program for a major league sports team. Melissa credits her Windward coaches like Ms. Hunt, who encouraged her to take risks and step outside of her comfort zone. At Windward, she ran track for the first time, which is the sport she was recruited
Note: At Windward, a student’s class year is the same as their high school graduation year.
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The Compass Spring/Summer 2022
