By Bart Gummere, Associate Head of School for College Counseling and Alumni Relations
In June 2020, our graduates were denied an in-person event to culminate their high school experience. Instead, there was a drive-through salute to students and families. Then, members of the Senior Leadership Team hand-delivered diplomas to students at home. What an odd time, that sometimes feels longer ago than it was.
Well, members of the Eastside Prep Class of 2020 are now four years older and many have just graduated from college, thankfully with family members present in full celebration mode. I thought it would be fun to catch up with some of those alumni and share what they are doing.
Albert Chen
Albert graduated this year with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering as a part of the first graduating year of UC-San Diego’s Seventh College.
“My family and I have moved and are currently living in the outskirts of San Diego County. However, I will soon be moving to Redlands, California, for my job as a Software Engineer at Esri, a world-leading GIS company!”
Alejandro Enguidanos
Alejandro is working on a degree at Seattle University. “I’m pursuing a triple major in physics, computer science, and computer engineering, with my favorite being physics. This summer, I’m doing research in nuclear physics on the quark sea, and also performing in a musical production of Cinderella with the Kitsap Forest Theater. So next for me is more school and learning!”
Sarah Hallman-Luhn
Sarah graduated with a BA in elementary education and an endorsement in special education and specialization in social emotional learning from the University of Portland.
“I am excited to return to EPS as a resident teacher. I also completed a year of student teaching in a fifth-grade classroom in Portland Public Schools last year. It’s been a busy and exciting year!”
Alex Kain
Alex graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University with a major in accounting and a minor in business analytics.
“I’ll be moving into an apartment in San Jose with some friends and will be working at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as an Audit Associate. In the meantime, I’m studying for the Uniform CPA exam in order to get my CPA license.”
Siena Kitch
Siena graduated from Villanova’s School of Business. She was a Global Leadership Fellow, with majors in finance, international business, and a minor in business law.
“I am living in the Seattle area, and working for my parents’ company, ProFormance Racing School. I am still involved in Villanova; I was just appointed to the Business School’s Moran Center for Global Leadership. I am hoping this will allow me to stay connected to my alma mater even from the West Coast. I am also hoping to get a few years of work experience under my belt before applying to get my MBA and potentially going to law school.”
Mwansa Luchembe
Mwansa graduated from Gonzaga University with a major in biology on a pre-physical therapy track. “I am currently living in Renton, Washington, and taking a post-college gap year. I then plan to apply for physical therapy schools!”
David Ma
David just finished his third year of college at the University of Chicago, double majoring in mathematics and computer science.
“I did a gap year, mainly traveling, after EPS, which I am very glad to have done. I’m currently in Seattle over the summer doing research as a member of the Gujral Lab at Fred Hutch. I plan on applying to grad school in the fall. I am going to apply for a master’s program in computer science or computational biology related field.”
Nat Maymudes
Nat graduated from Emerson College with a Bachelor of Arts in television production and a minor in sports communication.
“I am glad to be back home in Seattle this summer as a member of the Ballard FC’s broadcast team (a semiprofessional soccer team) as Ballard FC aims to defend their national championship. I am currently pursuing a media production job with any of Seattle’s major sports teams. Also, I was recently credited as a production assistant in Dune Part Two so anyone watching the film should be sure to watch through the credits.”
Conor Moore
Conor graduated from Tufts University in May with a Bachelor of Science in biopsychology. “I’m currently applying to medical schools all over the country, and in the meantime, I’m working as an ER Tech at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston! Gaining some more clinical experience before I start my next chapter.”
Jahnavi Movva
Jahnavi graduated from Tulane University with a double major in legal studies in business and business management. She also earned the Dean’s Service Excellence Award.
“I am going to University of Miami Law School with the intention of becoming a corporate lawyer, but still deciding what route I want to take corporate law into.”
Lilly Schneider
Lilly took a gap year after graduating to work as a nanny, take voice lessons, and avoid the nightmare that was starting college during lockdown. She is a rising college senior at St. Olaf College, where she is double majoring in Norwegian and comparative linguistics, a major track she designed for herself using the college’s individual major program.
“Vocal music is my greatest passion; this year I’ve been diving into voice lessons and loving singing with my college’s ambassador choir, the St. Olaf Choir. As a matter of fact, we just finished an amazing international summer tour to South Africa! Next year, I’ll be taking on a senior research project on the linguistics of neurodivergent masking and hopefully presenting at the Linguistic Society of America this winter! After college I plan to go to university for a graduate degree in either linguistics or speech-language pathology.”
Gavin Uberti
Gavin has had a varied and nontraditional four years since graduating from EPS in 2020. Initially, Gavin attended Harvard University
for a year. After that first year, an opportunity to be paid while working anywhere arose. He leapt at that opportunity. “I lived as a digital nomad, took sixty-plus flights over nine months and visited more than thirty countries.”
After returning to Harvard in 2022, Gavin became involved in starting a company with several classmates, while attending classes. Soon that idea gained so much traction, he left school again to move to California and pour his full attention into that effort. “Etched is a company designing new kinds of special-purpose microchips for certain kinds of artificial intelligences. We have raised $120 million in venture funding.” You can read more here: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/25/etched-raises-120-million-to-build-chip-to-take-on-nvidia-in-ai.html.
Devon Wappler
Devon graduated in May from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science in nursing. “This summer I’ll be moving to Durham, North Carolina, where I’ll be a registered nurse at Duke University Hospital.”
Gabi Wickman
While at University of Washington, Gabi was on the gymnastics team and majored in information systems and business operations & supply chain management.
“I will be moving to Austin and will be working at Adobe! While I’m there I will be a Document Cloud Solutions Consultant working with the CTO’s of large financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Amex, and others to ensure they are adequately using their software and that it integrates seamlessly with their financial services offered.”