Alumni News
(Use alphabetical list at right to read about other alumni)
Kyra Teis finished her Master's Degree at Boston University School of Theology and then worked at the Kennedy School of Marketing at Harvard. She has also been working as an illustrator. She has illustrations in Cricket Magazine and did eleven chapter heading plates and the cover for a Nancy King book. She recently signed her first book deal with Beyond Words in Oregon. She has done the illustrations for several children's books, including She is Born: a Celebration of Daughters and Read to Me (2004). Kyra has two children, is living in Southeastern Virginia, and is having fun in the sun!
Chris Testa Charis graduated from the University of the Arts in May 2009 with a Fine Arts in Animation degree. He is working at a company called Digigraph Media in Silver Spring Maryland. They work on several projects including animation, graphic design and film editing. He is a CG Environmental Designer, though he also works on CG Modeling and Texturing. Their current project is a set of videos for the military. Chris graduated from Newark High School.
rebecca Tiano has her own Custom Pet Portraits business.
Aaron Tova has a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Mathematics. He lives in Minnesota with 2 rambunctious beagles, Darwin and Barkley, and one intimidated cat, Louise. He has a house with solar electric panels and a job writing software at www.endocardial.com. He is into Zen meditation, the Green Party, dancing, camping, and traveling. Aaron says,"I have always been very grateful for the education experience that you provided for me and others."
Nick Tovo is in broadcast journalism in the Army. He was in Italy for a year where he met his wife. They were married in October 1999.
Nana Twumasi graduated from Padua Academy and Oberlin College (2002), which she attended on a full scholarship. She is currently working on a MFA in writing at California College of the Arts. She says, "Of course, my experience at NCCL has blessed me with plenty of writing fodder." A story she wrote was posted on Ballyhoo Stories at http://www.ballyhoostories.com/ballyhoo/main.html?1.
Alessandra Vadala is married and has 2 children. She graduated from Towson State University with a B.S. in English and Art and a Masters in teaching English as a second language. She spent a semester in Italy student teaching in an Italian elementary school. She is now teaching in ESL at a high school in Maryland.
Teresa Vadala was married in 2005. She graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art, Magna cum Laude. She will continue at MICA in the Master's program in teaching. She is teaching high school Art.
Elle Vanderkley (Class of 2004) I am 14 years old and have been going to NCCL for five years! I think that the most important thing to me about NCCL is definitely the environment of this school. There is so much that everyone gets here at this school. I also enjoy art, and the art program here definitely helped me expand my skill and helped me get into Cab Calloway School of the Arts. I love soccer, volleyball, painting, and sketching in my free time. All of these areas are a joy in my life. I love writing so much; several of my pieces even made it in to Word Dance and other writing magazines! As I said before, I was accepted into Cab Calloway School of the Arts. It is an awesome school and I am looking forward to the next four years there. What excites me about going to high school is definitely the experience! Meeting new people and teachers and taking new classes! I am a little afraid of the tests! I don't work well under pressure! I was about ten years old when I came to NCCL, and started out in Group 3. Some of the highlights of my years here at NCCL definitely have been meeting my three best friends, Tori, Stephanie, and Anna! I love the Drama program, and I love the fact that we put on a play every year. Those experiences definitely moved me forward in my dramatic skills, and led to me being accepted into Cab for a Drama class, too! I have had a wonderful time here at NCCL. I
Rajiv Velury says, "I am currently a junior in the Charter School of Wilmington. At this school, I am the founding president of a chapter of an organization known as Unite for Sight. Unite for Sight is an international organization dedicated to promoting eye health worldwide; it was founded on the premise that 80% of all blindness in the world is preventable, and that 36 million people are unnecessarily blind. The website for Unite for Sight is: http://www.uniteforsight.org. I will miss everyone here and I am looking forward to my new life!"
Elie Venezky is working as a writer. He has written children's stories, puppet shows, fables and screenplays. He has had two plays read at the Drama Bookstore. He attended trapeze school last summer.
Phillip Wemlinger graduated from Delcastle High School and is contracting with his father.
Kate Wendelburg (Class of 2003) is attending Padua Academy. Some of her favorite subjects at NCCL included math, science, and writing.
Ethan White (Class of 2010) is attending Conrad School of Science.
Flippy White is attending the Baltimore School for the Arts, majoring in harp. She has won national/international competitions in Celtic harp and classical harp. She has performed concertos with the Raleigh, Durham Symphonies, performed at Spoleto as principal harp, and played with the Fayetteville Symphony for 2 1/2 years. She has also written articles for journals, edited the March issue of Harp Column Journal and maintains several web pages, including Young Harper's Almanac. "All because of you!!!!!!" she says.
Mike Windle (Class of 2001) is attending Cab Calloway School of the Arts. He plays starting offside hitter on the Volleyball team and has discovered a love for computers. He is studying web design and hopes to take some Java or C++ next year.
Eric Winkel is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies in Malaysia. Whenever I study/speak about education, I describe NCCL as the ideal!
Mark Winkel, one of the NCCL "originals" from the frat house mansion, reports from Jakarta, Indonesia, where he has lived since 1992, about the "@america" project his communications firm has been supporting in Indonesia. (New York Times profile on project here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/world/asia/06indonesia.html?_r=1&hp ) Married to Rulita Anggraini and with three children (15, 10, 5 in 2011), Mark still manages to climb volcanos from time to time and has rediscovered bicycling. After NCCL, Mark (and brother Eric) went to Wilm Friends briefly before both attended and graduated from The International School of Geneva in Switzerland, where Mark's basketball team was Swiss National Champions. He went on to graduate from Haverford College (as did Eric) in political science and has worked in Asia since. Still practices (some) yoga moves learned back then and have retold my kids many times the story of Mike Edwards and NCCL's first microscope and emulated Ray Magnani in educating my children in classic rock. (Anne: how many times have I had to explain why someone who values education would send their children to a "free" school. Thank you. BTW, my mom still can't put away the chalk after FORTY years of teaching.) Welcome contact with other old-timers and more recent grads, especially those interested in Indonesia/SEAsia. Salaam.
Gregory Wolf (Class of 2009) I have been at NCCL for three years. Some things that I have really enjoyed doing here are going on the camping trips, particularly Shaver�s Creek. I also enjoyed workshop week. I will miss many things about this school, mainly the friendly, unhurried attitude of everyone here. I will miss the long break and lunch in which I can socialize with my friends, hang out, have fun and play games. Next year, I am going to high school at Sanford. I am looking forward to new, interesting classes and meeting new people. However, I will miss being here and will always remember being at NCCL fondly. When I leave here, I will leave with a large amount of knowledge, including the value of friendship.
Ashton Worley (Class of 2001) is attending Wilmington Charter School.
Kaylin Young Kaylin graduated from the University of Delaware in 2011 with a degree in Dairy Science. She will attend graduate school at Clemson University in SC where she has been granted an assistantship to do research on dairy cows.
Courtney Zaleski is studying psychology at the University of California, Davis.
Erin Zaleski is studying writing and theatre at the university of California, Santa Barbara.
Amy Zinn graduated Cum Laude from Villanova University. She spent a summer in Europe and may go into teaching.
