Alumni Spotlight

RS Alumni: Where are they now?

As we welcome the newest Renaissance School alumni, we want to share the reminder that we absolutely love receiving updates from our alums – and even better, visits! Thank you to all of our wonderful former students who have kept in touch, stopped by to say hi, and invited us to milestones on their journeys. It’s exciting to get this news together to share with our alumni and the greater community. And, we highly recommend that you click on this link to View this email in your browser – there’s so much here!

Ravens Take Wing Overseas

Ella Dailey '20

Ella has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant to teach English literature at the University of Antwerp. Congrats!

Senior Thesis: Film Criticism

Samisha Raviraja '19

Sam is currently an ExoMars Ops/FDIR Engineer at Airbus in the UK, working on the Mars Rover mission! Out of this world!

Oblivion in Literature

Ogden Olivas '15

Ogden is pursuing his PhD in environmental and socio-cultural anthropology at Oxford University.

Desert Wilderness Survival

Yanni Raymond '20

Yanni completed his Masters in Mathematics at Oxford – and he was on the baseball team that finished 6th among all UK universities, with an 8-1 record for the season!

Goldbach’s Conjecture

Lola Manning ’19

Lola received a State Department scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan. She is now using her Data Science degree in Madison, WI!

Linguistic Relativity in Economics

Renaissance School Alumni Association’s Stephanie & Louis Tanner Scholarship Fund

~ Honoring Mr. Tanner’s legacy of 26 years of developing lifelong learners ~

Thanks to a generous gift from the Schroen-Younger family (Hendrik ’21, Hinke ’23), Renaissance School is excited to share a matching opportunity in this inaugural year of the scholarship – have your gift doubled, up to $5,000!

Donate to the Scholarship Fund!

Hendrik Younger ’21

Hendrik is currently completing his final co-op term as part of his Applied Mathematics Bachelor’s from UWaterloo, and working as a planning analyst for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in Berlin.

National Strategic Stockpile

Hinke Younger ’23

Hinke is Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, pursuing a BA degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, with an honours emphasis in Economics and a minor in Environmental Studies. She is working in Munich as an intern in the Center for Energy, Climate, and Resources at the ifo Institute.

History of Renaissance School

Research Ravens

Sam C '24

Sam was selected for a summer research fellowship at Harvard Medical School, with the end goal of engineering a ‘probiotic plasmid’ that is so evolutionarily fit it could impede the dissemination of plasmids carrying antibiotic resistance genes.

Bacteriophage Therapy

Zoe S '24

Zoe was selected to be a part of Vassar’s Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) and work alongside Professor Tugade on her psychology research about enhancing women’s empowerment.

Menstruation’s Impact on Female Athletes

Will Norton '16

Will is continuing the work that began at Renaissance School in the preservation of the Dene language and culture of Alaska, as a Linguistic Anthropologist at UT Austin.

The Mythological Age

Bailey Fernandez '15

Bailey is currently working on his PhD at MIT as a Presidential Scholar in the Design Computation Group, after completing his Fulbright in Vienna.

Social Influences of Aesthetics

Ravens Give Back

Rachel Needham '13

Rachel is a Communications Director with Be Clear – and she is using all her skill on the committee for Renaissance School’s All The Difference capital campaign. Thank you! Stay tuned!

Nature and Child Development

Rachel is a Communications Director with Be Clear – and she is using all her skill on the committee for Renaissance School’s All The Difference capital campaign. Thank you! Stay tuned!Nature and Child Development

Tao Groves '22

Tao is a Rodman Scholar at UVA in Computer Science, but he has also kindly shared his photography skills with the school to freshen up our website and online presence. Thank you!

Cryptography Regulation

Tao is a Rodman Scholar at UVA in Computer Science, but he has also kindly shared his photography skills with the school to freshen up our website and online presence. Thank you!Cryptography Regulation

Will Paget-Brown '10

Will is the owner and operator of Iron Will gym in Charlottesville. He has been a huge supporter of our school Fitness Club, Triathlon Team, and a mentor to students doing Independent Study research on fitness. Thank you, Will!

The Electric Car

Will is the owner and operator of Iron Will gym in Charlottesville. He has been a huge supporter of our school Fitness Club, Triathlon Team, and a mentor to students doing Independent Study research on fitness. Thank you, Will!The Electric Car

Emily Avakian '13

Emily has been teaching Native History and English at Renaissance while earning her graduate degrees. Her Native History classes have developed the land acknowledgements for RS and the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center at Darden Towe. Thank you!

Native American Cultural Preservation

Emily has been teaching Native History and English at Renaissance while earning her graduate degrees. Her Native History classes have developed the land acknowledgements for RS and the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center at Darden Towe. Thank you!Native American Cultural Preservation

Kaii Lawson '19

Kaii is currently an Emergency Room RN at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond. She has come back to RS to share her inspiring story of her emergency medicine senior thesis, and how it became a career.

Deaf Awareness in Emergency Medicine

Kaii is currently an Emergency Room RN at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond. She has come back to RS to share her inspiring story of her emergency medicine senior thesis, and how it became a career.Deaf Awareness in Emergency Medicine

Burke L '24

Burke is currently doing a film summer session through VCU Arts. He has served the school in many ways, and will be working with us on some video assets. Thank you!

Physical vs. Streaming Media

Burke is currently doing a film summer session through VCU Arts. He has served the school in many ways, and will be working with us on some video assets. Thank you!Physical vs. Streaming Media

Ed Ravens: Learners & Teachers

Emmett Angle '21

Emmett is serving as a substitute teacher for the Richmond Public School system while obtaining his Masters in Teaching at VCU!

Dramatherapy and Autism

Sophia Colby '20

Sophia is an Admissions Counselor for her undergraduate alma mater, Oberlin College! A treat to have her come share with our students.

Fighting AIDS with Theater

Von Hemert '11

Von is the Associate Director of PreCollege and Youth Programs at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.

The Printing Press

Alex Manchester '15

Alex is the Mathematics Librarian at Stanford University, and a specialist in knot theory.

Transformational Theory and Music

Anna Caritj '07

Anna is a published author and creative writing Assistant Professor at Boise State University.

Kevin Culbertson '08

Kevin is an organizational and academic coach here in Charlottesville!

Arty Ravens

Paul Norton ’19 and Benaiah Bailey ’20

Paul and Benaiah have been working at Bronze Craft Founding for fine art sculpture in Waynesboro, with Robert Bricker. Paul also just wrapped a residency at the McGuffey Art Center.

Originality in the Information Age; Psychedelic Therapy

Theo Trotter '15

Theo is pursuing his MFA in fiber and material studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Dadaism

Piper Olivas '15

Piper has continued her work as a photographer and shows work in galleries in LA and NY.

Art Photography

Isabella Ronchetti '19

After studying graphic design in Milan, Isabella moved to Manhattan to pursue an MFA in figurative painting.

Fairy Tales & Child Development

Ellie Leake '21

Ellie is working at the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, having just completed her BFA in painting & printmaking at VCU.

Mindfulness and Mental Health

Citizen Ravens

We thank these Ravens for visiting with our students to give guidance on being proactive, engaged members of our democracy.

Linnea Saby ’08

Linnea has served as a U.S. Senate Professional Staff Member, advising on environmental and infrastructure policy development.

Long Distance Running

Robin Blue ’13

Robin has been a very active participant in several political campaigns–ranging from ones in Nevada, Illinois, and here in Virginia.

Time Travel in Fiction

Rav-Entrepreneurs

Will Alpine '08

Will is living in Seattle, recently married, and cofounder of the Enabled Emissions campaign—a climate policy advocacy and research initiative focused on aligning technology use with climate science.

Alex Zuffoletti '20

Alex’s business, SRGE, is one of the Darden iLab incubator businesses for 2025! Alex will also be heading to the Henley regatta this summer.

Government Intervention During Financial Crises

Emily Anness '16

Emily is working as a graphic designer for various clients in the greater DC area after obtaining her MBA from Johns Hopkins jointly with an MA from MICA!

Eating Disorders and the Internet

Sydney Robertson '08

Sydney has developed a successful real estate career with Loring Woodruff right here in Charlottesville. She’s also be a strong supporter of past alumni events! Thank you!

Children’s Constitutional Rights

Ravens Lift a Pen, or a Lens, and Drop the Mic

Shannon Reres '10

Shannon visited RS to share about her MFA path at VT a couple of years ago – now she’s marketing director at Proofed in London.

History of Fashion

Marina Stevenson '10

Marina’s first published novel, Behooved, just released in May from an imprint of Macmillan – here she is with her book at Barnes & Noble.

Wilderness

Ross Bollinger '06

Ross is the creative mind behind popular YouTube channel Pencilmation,

Animation

Keenan Parry '10

Keenan completed his 8th year doing motion graphics and visual effects for the NFL Honors in February. He also had a film in the 2024 NYC Horror Film Festival.

Visual Effects

David Argo '20

David just wrapped a 9-month internship with the Carolina Panthers! He continues his local work with the Charlottesville Tom Sox, too.

Baseball Statistics

Alex Bragg '12

Alex was most recently celebrating a friend’s album release party with his group the Musical Suspects – you can find him with Ms. Claiborne at gigs, at the Southern, the Jefferson, and many other stages around town!

Internet and the Music Industry

Alex was most recently celebrating a friend’s album release party with his group the Musical Suspects – you can find him with Ms. Claiborne at gigs, at the Southern, the Jefferson, and many other stages around town!Internet and the Music Industry

The Raven’s Apprentice

Kata Magyar ’10

Kata took a break from her Master Electrician apprenticeship to come have lunch with us during a faculty professional development. We love alumni visitors!

Music