The classes of ’01, ’02, and ’03 have been busy! Find out who’s celebrating their 5th anniversary as a Senior Program Officer, who’s welcoming babies into the world in 2012, and who still misses breakfast rituals at Sorella’s in Jamaica Plain.
Susie Robidoux (‘02) “I’ve been living in Amsterdam, Netherlands working at the International School of Amsterdam as a Learning Support Teacher. I don’t keep in touch with many CS alums directly, but several folks through Facebook. I also read the updates and requests sent to my email from CS. I still refer to my time at CS when teaching my current students, and remember fondly the opportunities, people and experiences from my Teaching Fellow days. To be honest, I think the community is impacting me at this point in my life much more than I am able to give back. I am soaking up all it has to offer!”
Ragan Hudson (‘03) “I’m currently living in Georgia–just returned to my home state after more than 15 years! Also a first for me–I left my job as a school counselor to become a stay-at-home mom to my two amazing children, Carter (3) and Rylan (1). My husband, Ben Duda (TF class of 2004) was instrumental in our career/life changes as he was offered a position in Atlanta as the Executive Director of AmeriCorps Alums. We are excited to pursue these new opportunities in our lives! I keep in touch with many CS’ers including: Amy Parsons, Kayron Wright, Nick Thompson, Fernando Santos, Carrie Baldwin, and I am sure I am leaving others out so apologies in advance! My time at CS as a Teaching Fellow and Start-Up Captain continues to be one of the most formative and powerful experiences of my life and one that helped steer me professionally to become an urban school counselor and advocate for middle school students and their families. My hope is that the time I am able to spend at home with my children and as a passionate community member will greatly impact my family and will help them grow into empowered, educated, and loving individuals with their own passions and gifts!”
Christopher de Beer (‘02) “I am living in Black Mountain, NC. For the last year, I have been working as the social worker on the inpatient psychiatry unit at the VA hospital in neighboring Asheville, NC. I received my Master’s in Social Work in 2010 and hopefully, will have finished the process of being fully licensed as a Clinical Social Worker next summer. My work involves both therapeutic interventions and discharge planning with veterans in need of acute psychiatric care (generally involving suicidality, psychosis, or other life threatening states). I unfortunately don’t see any CS alums in person anymore – I used to see Susie Robidoux from time to time, but she fled the country 
. I am sad to rely on Facebook for my updates, but it is better than nothing! Citizen Schools continues to be a pivotal period of my professional life – learning how to get alongside others as they develop new strengths and skills. It’s obviously a very different context now, but honestly, a lot of what I learned at CS is transferrable.”
Anna Diperna (‘02) “I’m still living in beautiful Beverly, MA working at the Landmark School, as the Assistant Math Department head, math teacher, and now the teacher of a Questing Elective (working with students to create a treasure hunt at a local woodland). It’s so beautiful up here, I don’t know that I’ll ever leave the North Shore. Huge thanks to Chris Fauci for talking me into working at Landmark and leaving the big city. Speaking of which, if any of you are in the Boston area and ever want to hike around or explore some of the beautiful wildlands up here, let me know! I grew up in the Metrowest, then lived in Greater Boston, and yet I never knew how gorgeous it is just 30 minutes north . I’d love to see you – we were so lucky to work with so many incredible people!”
Dave Kramer (‘03) “I’m living in Roslindale, MA and just reached the five year mark at EcoLogic Development Fund (www.ecologic.org) serving as the Sr. Program Officer for Institutional Development – a mouthful and soon to be changed, hopefully. I do grant writing, project design and re-design, including traveling to Mexico and Central America. My family and I got to live in Xela (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala during the summer of 2009, working out of EcoLogic’s regional office. Our daughter Alana, age 6, is in first grade, and our son, Mateo, turns 11 months tomorrow. My wife Carolina has somehow survived all these winters here, and she’s teaching at BB&N, where Alana attends and running her own business called 1-2-3 Spanish Together, which the whole family helps her out with. On a really limited basis, I bump into JP’ers Nick Thompson, Fernando Santos at Bella Luna in JP once a year (!), see Alissa Farber with and without Dan Restuccia, Trina H and others. I’ve also been in touch with John Werner through his Posse Foundation and TEDxBoston activities. I keep in touch with Lindsay Sobel and Nate Pelsma a little (working in same org together). Citizen Schools was an awesome community and first-rate organization. I think what stuck with me the most, through my time in grad school and my time at EcoLogic, were its leadership and organizational culture lessons. It was always clear to me that Ned, Eric, and others reallllly valued frontline program workers’ ideas and, in fact, didn’t believe they could do solid planning or visioning without us. That was cool. I’ve volunteered with Friends of Nira Rock www.nirarock.org here in Boston, and my wife and I are still scheming and dreaming of ways to help rural schoolchildren in Colombia. Thinking back to Citizen Schools, I definitely miss a lot more than this, but our Friday morning TF/TA breakfast rituals at Sorella’s stand out. Weren’t Fridays awesome back then???”
Lauren (Siegel) Applebaum (’01) “I’m living in LA, working as the Associate Dean of the School of Education at American Jewish University. I teach courses and organize fieldwork for our novice teachers and help them start their paths in education. I’m also a doctoral student working on my EdD, so this phase of my life is pretty university-centered, I guess. Our daughter Liora just turned two this summer, and we are looking forward to welcoming a little brother or sister right around New Years, so its a busy year. Would love to hear from other CS folks in LA if there are any hiding out here in the sunshine.”
Margot Tracy (‘03) “I’m still in the Boston area, but recently relocated to Lexington. After CS, I went to graduate school for public health and have been working for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services in children’s behavioral health policy. My husband and I have a two year old daughter, Calla, and she keeps us running. I always think fondly back to CS as it was truly my formative work experience. Congratulations to everyone on your personal and professional accomplishments. It’s an honor to share the CS/TF experience with you.”
Meghan Symmes (‘02) “I am currently teaching math and business at Danvers High School, as well as coaching throughout the year. I live in Danvers with my husband and our 18-month-old Marley, and are expecting another in March. A fun side note, my brother Jason who was 12 when I was a fellow and often came to the Wilson with us, just finished up his two years as a teaching fellow! It is funny how it all comes back around. I hope everyone is doing well. Stay in touch!”
Valerie Schneider (‘03) “I’m back in Boston and was thrilled to reconnect with CS after law school. I’ve now served as a mock trial CT for four years and am still amazed at how engaged and brilliant middle schoolers can be when there’s pizza on the table.” Check out Valerie’s feature spotlight here…
In other alumni news…
Erik Turner opens 2011 Summer Institute by “doing the dougie”
“It’s not about comfort anymore, guys. It’s about strategically finding opportunities to make yourself uncomfortable, and other people uncomfortable, in the service of our children.”
Former Campus Director and Managing Director of Program from Charlotte Erik Turner opened his electrifying speech at the opening session with something unexpected: he called on everyone to stand up and “do the dougie.” In a simple exercise in self-embarassment, Erik used his discomfort of dancing in public to address the powerful condemnation of complacency in education, and a call to be provocative and daring in our school partnerships. Video to come soon!
