Dear alums,
I miss you! It is very different being the alumni director when you can’t see your alumni! Hopefully this summer we can have the Alumni Basketball Game and a bit of a reunion after it. We are very busy planning the 2021 Saints Gala honoring Sheila Martin, Dotty McCulloch, and Jane Waters for their service over decades. We will have discount tickets for our alumni and please see the link below to send in a video greeting for our honorees. We have some great items that will be on our auction and thank you to the alumni who have already donated some great offerings. As part of the Gala, we will be offering merch and restaurant and drink options for pick-up at St. Andrew’s.
I have been posting pictures of when you were students on the Alumni Facebook page. Please check it out and tag your friends.
Thank you for all you do for St. Andrew’s. So many of you are so generous and we need you now more than ever. Please consider a donation on 401Gives on April 1st. We have a $10,000 match so your gift is doubled.
I thank you all for respecting our COVID-19 rules this year. It is hard not inviting you to campus or having you pop by to visit. Hopefully, we will soon be able to welcome you back with open arms. Until then, wear your mask, social distance, and wash your hands. I hope you are all healthy and well.
All my best,
Pam
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Dear Alumni,
I am thrilled to announce that St. Andrew’s recently received International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme authorization. IB is a renowned, research-based curriculum framework offered at more than 5,000 schools in 150 countries. IB schools share a common philosophy — a commitment to improve the teaching and learning of a diverse and inclusive community of students by delivering challenging, high quality programs of international education.
IB builds and expands upon our the great teaching and learning you experienced when you were at St. Andrew's. It offers faculty a common language and framework in which to innovate our practice, and it gives our students new and engaging opportunities to think critically, apply what they learn, and explore their passions. I am also excited that our open access approach to IB will be a real differentiator for us — attracting a great group of applicants who are looking for the challenge of IB paired with the individualized student support that we are already well known for.
Next year, all students at St. Andrew's in grades 11 and 12 will take IB Diploma Programme courses. This is a huge milestone for our school and represents countless hours of work from a group of incredibly dedicated faculty who wrote curricula, piloted courses, attended trainings, and reimagined students' experiences.
Wishing all of you a happy and healthy spring. I look forward to seeing you on campus soon!
Warmly,
David Tinagero
Head of School
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(Above photo) Tyler visiting a technical theater class at St. Andrew's via Zoom |
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Tyler Dubuc, Class of 2012
I hadn’t yet made my return to St. Andrew’s when Tyler Dubuc graduated from St. Andrew’s School in 2012, but every teacher I asked who knew him said they felt, even back then, that he was destined for greatness. It wasn’t just that he won the King Medal in 2012; it was how he achieved it. According to his advisor, Sue McGann, the faculty that year chuckled as they wondered how they would ever get along without him when he graduated. He was the boys’ prep basketball manager and invaluable to Coach Hart. His technology skills, even in high school, were incredible, and his hand was in every theatrical production, choral performance, development function, graduation, and everything in between. Tyler was an accomplished student as a member of the National Honor Society and even an Eagle Scout. He was one of those rare kids who just seemed to get it all done and done well.
He continued his success as he furthered his academic and professional endeavors. After leaving St. Andrew’s, he attended American University and earned a double major in criminology and technical theater. Tyler then earned his master’s degree in fine arts in lighting design from The Tisch School at New York University.
Tyler is now a freelance artist working with a variety of big-name musical artists including Sara Bareilles, Bruce Springsteen, and The Weeknd. He is also an incredibly loyal alumnus who makes us all very proud. He recently took time out of his busy schedule to Zoom into John Boomer's Theater Tech Class. The students loved hearing from him!
Q and A with Tyler Dubuc
We had a chance to check in with Tyler Dubuc after watching his fabulous work on the Super Bowl half-time show with The Weeknd.
Rumor has it that you were super involved when you were at St. Andrew’s. What activities and interests helped you get where you are today and what influence did St. Andrew’s have on your life?
While at St. Andrew’s, I was heavily involved with theater and visual arts, community service, working summer camps, and in the kitchen. I was also the manager of the prep basketball team, I credit much of my early skill-building and success to the wonderful involvement and door-opening possibilities at St. Andrew’s. The education and the variety of programs give St. Andrew’s grads a leg up in their chosen careers. For example, I can easily design a scene around a boarding school kitchen because I have lived it. Much like you can’t design a political design for a theater if you don’t read the newspaper, it is difficult to design a stage or lighting if you have no experience with the subject.
St. Andrew’s offers the resources and encourages you to push the limits. St. Andrew’s gave me the permission and the encouragement to pursue the arts. My brother, Nathan Dubuc, graduated in 2009 from St. Andrew’s, and he is a very accomplished chef. We both benefited from St. Andrew’s nurturing environment. It helped us through the most vulnerable years of our lives. Our talents were encouraged, and the size of the classes and the school allowed us to open up and try new things like learning a musical instrument or whatever our interest was at that time. For me, the MCA was a wonderful place to take in the whole experience and foster and develop my talents and interests.
Why did you choose St. Andrew’s?
My brother and I were at St. Philomena’s in Portsmouth, RI, and we both had some learning issues, and our parents thought that we should try St. Andrew’s. My brother came first, and he had such success that I came in seventh grade. I was still a little out of control but I was guided and encouraged.
What advice would you give to a St. Andrew’s student or alum who is hoping to go into the arts?
I would tell them to get a liberal arts education if they do want to go to college. You don’t necessarily have to go to college, but you should continue your education. Find someone whose work you admire in the arts and contact them. Call them; don’t text or email. Call them. Have the conversations. Find a trade program or a 2-year program or a 4-year program if you want. Don’t be afraid. Try everything once and don’t think that everything you want to do falls into one category. I don’t know two artists who do the same thing. I know costume designers who also do scenic design or scenic designers who also do the production. Everyone is all over the place. If you have an interest in this and an interest in that, combine them and do both — and don’t work for anyone that won’t let you do both. I hadn’t planned on working on TV, but with the pandemic, I had to, and I really like it. I have had some great experiences.
What was your major at American University and what was your experience there?
I originally majored in criminal justice and was involved in theater arts. I thought I needed criminal justice to make money, but my love was in the arts. I thought maybe I would be a lawyer. Then I decided to get a double major. Criminology actually helps when I design scenes for many dramas. After AU, I studied for my master’s at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and taught in their undergraduate program.
How did working on the Super Bowl come about?
I lit The Weeknd on the VMAs in August; we did the whole thing on a skyscraper. Through that, I got hooked up with this other group who called me for a job, but I had no idea who we were lighting for. We started in September and everything got announced in October. It was really crazy. We did a lot of 3D modeling and a lot of drafting, and then once it was all designed, someone else put it all together. Our main thought was that we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and how do we encourage people at home that at some point we will be able to go to live events again — but also keep in mind that we have to be socially distant and wear masks? That led to a unique event. We didn’t have 10,000 fans on the field. How do we use the whole stage when we only have 20,000 fans in the entire stadium? There were nine people on the design team, and hundreds of electricians, and 250 performers. It was a lot of work for fourteen minutes. This is the first time in a year that we’ve seen a live performance. There was no room for error. It was all put together in Pennsylvania and trucked down to Tampa. When the design team was done with the design, we were hands-off. The performances and production crew then rehearsed and handled the set-up and breakdown. After the show, it all got trucked back to Pennsylvania.
What's next for you?
I’m resting! I am working with Bruce Springsteen in Belfast for a one-night show in April and then we are flying the entire set to Melbourne, Australia, a few weeks after that for another one-night show. Hopefully, I will be doing some tour work with him. I did Bruce Springsteen on Broadway and then when he was on SNL and a music video. In a lot of the shows, I don’t even have to go to the show. I just set everything up in advance. Things are really starting to open up in Europe, so I will be doing a lot of work over there. However, the most wonderful thing that is next for me is that I am getting married to my fiance Eric on October 3rd in Rhode Island.
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CJ Schofield ‘88 works with GED students to get them on the path to full employment. He has set up many different ‘classroom’ sites. He has even started teaching them how to farm oysters! He recently graduated his 158th student, and 13 of the students completed their work during Covid-19.
Jennifer and Elon Hertzfeld ‘90 were married and have moved to Cape Coral, FL. Elon has a Youtube channel about his adventures with all things related to fishing.
Chris Weise ‘92 started a new job in November as the director of corporate communications at Boston-based Foundation Medicine, which leads in its field as a cancer genomics insights company. Chris writes: “I have long admired this organization for its commitment to transformative innovation in the field of genomic profiling and personalized medicine, feeding critical insights about molecular alterations of individual malignancies to cancer patients, their caregivers, and researchers around the globe. I can’t wait to dive in, roll up my sleeves, and do my part to help this amazing company tell its story. This is going to be exciting!”
Heather Snowdon ‘93 writes: “I Iove reading and seeing all of the alumni pics on the Alumni Facebook page. My good news is that although 2020 dealt us many bad hands, I decided not to let it stop us. I got married on New Year’s Eve, and my husband and I started our own trucking company. COVID-19 will not keep us down.” Osana Logistics LLC is based out of Newport, RI. We are a refrigerated trucking company delivering peace of mind coast to coast! I love traveling all over this country delivering the goods and am grateful to represent Lil Rhody!
Jamison Albritton ‘04, aka Jaima, writes: “I moved to Brooklyn in 2016 to pursue the dream of being a full-time artist. After leaving a design job in Rhode Island, I mainly focused on creating products like hats and backpacks with my art as the patterns to sell online and at local artists’ markets. While at the markets, I started painting and people kept asking to buy them as I was creating them. So, I started moving away from products and more toward original pieces and prints, but what I wanted to do was murals. I started reaching out to people and organizations to find walls to paint, and this led to a cool project at P.S. 9 in Brooklyn where more than 70 artists muralized the entire elementary school as a dedication to a student who passed away. Following this passion project, the ball started rolling faster and to date, I've done murals for Shake Shack, Collab at WeWork, Rise Barclays, Connecticut Post Mall, Artel Hotel, Ollie's Ice Cream, Paper Plane Coffee, Illumina East Yoga, and a live painting for Daniel Wellington's flagship store opening at Rockefeller Center. Shout out to Mrs. Azano and Mrs. Dubuc for being amazing art teachers!” You can check out his art at www.Jaima.co @Jaimaarts
Jill Bixby ‘04 is in her seventh year teaching at Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls. She has coached the girls’ middle school basketball team for five years.
Josh Carney ‘04 married Jennifer Fulham in December. He has gone from traveling to Sydney and London for work to having to stay home. He is enjoying time on the boat and time with family.
Nell Guilbault ‘04 has been an early childhood educator for the past 14 years. She has been working in upstate New York in the Albany area. This past June, she accepted her first early education administrative job as an assistant director and in a matter of a few months (September), she moved up to the director position at the center where she has worked for the past two years.
Victoria Salvador ‘08 has been hired in content acquisition at Roku.
Seaniah Ballah ‘09 married Jordan Popovec in November.
Mirna Gonzalez ‘12 has started her own coffee company called Mirna’s Coffee. Mirna has donated to our Gala auction so be looking for her auction item when they are posted next month.
Jonathan Nikolyszyn ’13 writes that after St. Andrew's he attended URI determined to get a degree in criminology. After taking an American history course and doing well in it, he changed his major to history and began to really thrive in his classes. He then went on to pursue his master's degree in education. He thought he had found his lifetime career since he loved history and he loved working with kids. However, when he started student teaching and the pandemic hit, he realized he was no longer enjoying his work. He finished his degree, and after much soul-searching he changed gears again and found himself using his education and his resilience to forge a career as a retirement specialist at Charter Financial Group. He has completed all of his licensing and certifications and says he is very happy with his career path.
That’s not the only thing going on for Jon. He and Mirna Gonzalez ‘12 will be getting married in September, and with baby Charlotte turning one this month, he is stopping to smell the roses. He is happy about the preparation for his life that he received here at St. Andrew’s, which helped him pivot until he found what he really loved to do. He writes: "A lot of lessons were learned in the classrooms of St. Andrew's, but I think most of it came from learning how to build and maintain strong relationships."
Emalee Ambrose ‘14 has begun her new career working as a clinical specialist for a medical device company called Cardiva Medical in Phoenix, AZ. Cardiva makes products used to achieve hemostasis in interventional and diagnostic cardiology procedures. She is looking forward to beginning her career in cardiac medical devices.
Sam Malkin ‘17 shares: “After graduating from St. Andrew's in the Class of 2017, I took a gap semester working at a tech start-up (OpenTable has now acquired it) in Washington, D.C. After this experience, I knew that I wanted to be involved in entrepreneurship and started at Babson College in the spring. I felt the need to gain technical skills to assist in my dreams of starting my own start-up. I am focusing on accounting and real estate financing while completing various internships in real estate, health care, and public accounting. I am currently finishing up my last semester and working on passing the CPA exam now. I will be working for Ernst Young in Boston starting in the fall and will continue to work on my entrepreneurial journey."
Monica Neema ‘18 was interviewed by Beautiful Day RI. Monica is a junior at Providence College. Check out what she is up to.
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Alumni Babies
Congratulations on the new additions to your lives. Welcome to the class of 2038!
Stephanie and Johnny '06 Wells welcomed their son Jackson Carter.
Elizabeth and Gerald '07 Matthews welcomed Theo Henry.
Joshua Odugbela '99 and Venus Wolo-Odugbela '02 welcomed Arhmani- Nova.
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We need your help to make our upcoming virtual Gala on May 22 a success! This special evening of celebration and connection supports our students, our faculty, our programs, and our beautiful campus — and is our biggest fundraiser of the year.
Submit a video to honor Sheila Martin, Dotty McCulloch, or Jane Waters
We are looking forward to acknowledging the many contributions that these three women have made to St. Andrew's at this years virtual Gala. Part of that will include video testimonials from those who know and appreciate them.
If you are interested, please send us a brief 10 to 15 second video of you sharing your sentiments of appreciation. If you want to say something about more than one of these women, please submit a separate video for each.
Here are some easy steps to follow:
1) Face a source of light (it should not be behind you) and hold your camera horizontally.
2) Record yourself for 10-15 seconds sharing your appreciation for one of these women. Consider telling a personal story or something meaningful to you both.
3.) E-mail your video or upload it here.
Help Us Highlight Women Alumni
We will also be honoring women alumni at the Gala. If you are willing to be highlighted or want to nominate someone, submit your information here.
Sponsor the Gala with a Shield Sign
Sponsor the gala with a $200 or $300 Shield Sign on Federal Road. A new option to support the gala is sponsorship with a Shield Sign. Learn more.
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Alumni Monthly Donor Spotlight |
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Monthly donations are gifts we can count on, month after month, year after year, and when we need it most. Giving monthly allows you to spread out your donation throughout the year to avoid financial strain. It's easy, secure, and you can choose the amount that fits your budget and means. |
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Alumni Planned Giving Donor Spotlight
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Planned giving to St. Andrew’s makes an incredible impact on our school, provides the opportunity for a lasting legacy and comes with attractive charitable benefits for you. Planned and deferred gifts include bequests, life income plans, life insurance, and estate gifts. Many offer significant and immediate income and estate tax advantages. |
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Virtual Tour
Missing campus? We can't have you for a visit right now, but you can check out our new 360-degree tour for a little virtual walk down memory lane.
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