1. What year did you graduate from Lackawanna Trail HS?
I graduated in the class of 2011.
2. Did you attend any schooling after leaving Trail?
I attended The Pennsylvania State University in 2011 seeking a bachelor’s of science degree in environmental systems engineering. After graduating from Penn State in early 2015, I attended Temple University seeking a master’s of science degree in environmental engineering, graduating in 2017.
3. What are you doing now?
I was hired in 2018 by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as an environmental engineer tasked with carrying out the State Superfund and Brownfield Cleanup programs under the Division of Environmental Remediation within the Hudson Valley of New York. My work includes the restoration of contaminated water, land, and air to levels that are safe for the public and the environment. Aside from my career, I like to get back to Pennsylvania to visit family and enjoy the outdoors here and there.
4. How has a Trail education helped prepare you for where you are now?
My experience at Trail prepared me for college course work, my career, and life in general. The smaller class sizes, as compared to the hundreds of students per course as was regularly found in college, allowed for more personal connections to the teaching staff and many of whom I still converse with today. The most important lesson I learned from my time in high school came from an advanced placement world history course that focused on critical thinking which included the analysis of not only the text of excerpts from documents but also their author, intent, and the times and societies in which they were written. It gave me a new perspective on taking in new information, interpreting context, and discerning truth from fiction, which applies to every aspect of life.
