What kinds of things did you like at Nysmith?
My favorite part about Nysmith was being a part of a small class for 10 years in a row. By the end of 8th grade, we had all come to know each other so well that it was difficult to part ways. I also liked feeling a sense of friendship with the teachers – a habit I continued with teachers in high school and college. The passion that the teachers came to class with every day made it much more enjoyable to learn.
Math Counts is the only club I can remember being involved in. It was a great experience competing with schools across the county in a math competition. I definitely gained critical thinking skills from that club that carried through my full educational career. After Care was a lot of fun too!
What did you do after Nysmith?
After Nysmith, I attended TJ with several of my peers. While there, I played on the soccer and golf teams while participating in several after-school clubs. One of my favorite things there was hanging out in the prototyping lab making anything that came to mind on the various fabrication machinery available.
I then attended UVA and majored in both Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. Although I always found myself involved in just about everything, my biggest commitments in college were the Baja Racing Team, the ski & snowboard team, and materials science research. I also started a soccer team in the local Charlottesville community with some of my close friends.
Tell us about any of your jobs or internships and about your full time job post college graduation.
I had a couple minor internships in high school, but it wasn’t until college where I started to get seriously involved in something greater than academics. Every summer throughout college at UVA, I volunteered in a materials science lab conducting research on corrosion protection of metals through various methods, including laser surface processing.
At my first job out of college, I now work for a company called InVue developing electronic merchandise security solutions. If you ever walk into a Best Buy and look at tablets laying out on a table, those security stands are one of many products that we make. I’ve enjoyed gaining a lot of valuable experience as a mechanical engineer here at InVue and truly enjoy the product development process.
How did going to Nysmith impact your life?
Amongst many other impacts, Nysmith taught me how to think critically, study efficiently, and maintain a good work-life balance. I like to live a ‘work-hard, play-hard lifestyle’ that allows me to get involved in several activities and events after classes or work, while still being successful in the workplace. I would go crazy if I couldn’t get my assignments done on time to enjoy other great things in life. The study habits and critical thinking I developed at Nysmith have definitely carried with me, allowing me to have an involved life outside the workplace.
What advice (if any) would you give to a current Nysmith student and/or parent?
There were some assignments with seemingly unreasonable expectations (in my young boy’s mind), but in hindsight, I wish I had spent more time diving deeper into these assignments, as I now realize the critical skills that were being developed in the process. For the parents, I advise guiding the students through these challenging assignments without taking over to give their children a chance to figure it out themselves. (obligatory, ‘Thanks Mom!’) The quicker students develop these fundamental skills, the easier high school and college will be.
Favorites
Field Trip
Baltimore overnight (8th Grade) was the best mix of fun and educational. My favorite parts were the Orioles game and trapeze school!
School Play
Although not quite cut out for an acting career, I played the Rabbi in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. My favorite part was the bottle dancing scene, when a few of us balanced empty bottles on flat hats and performed some stunts.
Place to Hang out at Nysmith
Whenever I wasn’t in class, I was either at the cafeteria or outside playing sports. We used to play 4 ‘big kids’ versus what seemed like an endless army of ‘little kids’ in soccer almost every sunny day.
Book that you had to read for one of your classes
The Giver was definitely my favorite. I was never a fully invested reader, but this book completely captured my attention from start to finish. It was one of the first utopia-themed books I can remember reading.
Nysmith Memory
Oh man, too many to count! One of my favorites was when Mr. Stephens got locked into the outhouse at Port Isobel on the Chesapeake Bay. He wrote a hilariously poetic ‘ode to clivus’ and slipped it under the door to help him get out.