Our Kind, Confident, and Prepared Alumni
At WES, one of our goals is to provide our students with the skills that enable them to stride confidently into the world, delight in it, and contribute to it. And I am proud to say WES alumni do just that! Many of our graduates stay in frequent touch with our faculty, enabling us to have a front row view to cheer their accomplishments and contributions with pride.
And just as we had to reimagine what school would look like this year, our alumni responded to the pandemic with all of the resilience and creativity that one would expect from a WES Dragon. While you can read more alumni stories in winter issue of The WES Magazine, which you should have received last week, here are a few highlights from all of their great adventures:
Ali Ahmed ’11 graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2019. He studied computer science and economics, and earned departmental honors in both. He was admitted to Harvard Business School, but he deferred admission to create his own start-up that got funded by Y Combinator. His sister Alya ’13 is in her final year at Yale, majoring in math and economics. She just won the Tobin Scholar Prize and she will join Citibank’s investment banking team this summer in New York.
Nora Dahlberg ’10 was building her career as a costume designer for Broadway and DC theaters prior to COVID. She relocated to Salt Lake City, and is about to return to school to study coding and web design at the University of Utah. She also still teaches stage makeup for Imagination Stage via Zoom and makes costumes on the side for historical re-enactors.
Katie DeVries ’11 is an entrepreneur, using her culinary skills to open the Hearthwood Hull Bakery in the Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, SC.
Andreas Gizaw ’10 was accepted to the University of Maryland’s medical school. His classes don’t start until August, so he has been helping to keep our community safe by working as a contact tracer for Montgomery County.
Byron Jones ’10 started NuWave Construction, a general contracting company, last May. His vision is built on “changing the stigma and negative experiences that customers typically have when dealing with contractors. My goal is to focus on customer satisfaction, buy providing quality workmanship and great communication throughout the entire process.” His company provides remodeling and new construction. This fall he designed and renovated a bathroom for his former teacher Bill Isola.
Leia Karam ’10 graduated with a Master of Arts in Digital Media and Information Studies from the University of Glasgow in 2018, then got a job in London working for BT Group, the UK’s largest provider of fixed line, mobile, and broadband services. She was promoted during the pandemic and now she is a transformation and technology PR manager at BT Group living full time in London and working from home.
Bethany Mark ’09 recently had a baby and has also been working as a Pre-K teacher, adapting just like our own faculty, and discerning how to continue teaching young ones with excellence.
Jack Metelski ’07 lives in New York City, working for Bessemer Trust in their investments department. He also recently got engaged, and we wish him and his wife-to-be all the best!
Sofia Selowsky ’04 had to pause her opera career due to COVID-19, so she has been busy working on a tech start-up with a close friend.
These are just a handful of some of the interesting career paths our graduates have been pursuing. I would encourage you to read more of these great stories in The WES Magazine.
Danny Vogelman
Head of School
