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Recently South Kent School’s College Counseling and Alumni Offices hosted a Young Alumni Panel for seniors and post-graduates in the Class of 2021. Students had the opportunity to talk with a group of successful alumni, some still in college and others who have graduated and are pursuing master’s degrees. 

This discussion, the second of the year, was designed to connect current students with six alumni who could share their college experiences. “These panel discussions provide seniors with a number of tips and encouraging stories about the possibilities available after SKS graduation, Director of Academic Counseling Lynn Mellis Worthington explained. 

The panel speakers were:

Matt Moyer '16 - currently a grad student at George Washington University. His undergraduate degree is from Vanderbilt and he previously played basketball for and attended Syracuse University

Bryce Mann '16 - a junior at Olin College of Engineering, where he’s majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering, with a concentration in Business/Economics. He’s already had 4 internships so far, doing a lot of circuit board design, electrical testing, and writing software. Last summer he worked at an Electrical Engineering consulting company in Los Angeles called Second Order Effects and he is returning there in June for his second internship.

Eric Zhaoyuan Shu '17 - a senior at the College of the Holy Cross, majoring in Chemistry and Math, minoring in Statistics. He originally planned to be on the pre-med path but changed his mind and is now focused on excelling in mathematical sciences.

Myles Williams '17 - a senior at Villanova University, majoring in Marketing with a minor in Sociology. He has had several internships, including his current role under fellow South Kent alumnus, Jack McClinton. He has a passion for art and has begun to grow his business as a graphic designer.

Tomas Jamett '17 - finished his undergraduate degree last fall at Iona College, earning a double major in Business Administration and Finance. He is now working on his MBA at Iona. He did several internships in Manhattan for Microsoft and Equitable Advisors; and is currently interning for Forest Hills Financial Group, where he was offered a full time job and the possibility of getting his visa sponsored. He has played soccer at the Division I college level.

Shane Hauck '19 - a sophomore at St. Lawrence University said he’s likely to be majoring in statistics with a career of data science. He has played soccer for the DIII school. He attended the fall semester on campus but he’s currently taking a semester off due to alterations to his schedule as a result of COVID. He will most likely be taking summer classes. He is currently at home in New Fairfield and working at Stew Leonard’s Wine Store in Danbury.

Students wanted to know about how the alums navigated the transition from SKS to college and each of the graduates had different experiences. All were highly complimentary of the skills that they left South Kent with.

“Don’t lose contact with those you met at South Kent,” said Tomas Jamett. 

“The people I’ve met at South Kent are the most genuine people I think I’ve ever met,” said Matthew Moyer. He said he’d been to so many different colleges. “I haven’t met a single group of people that are better than my brothers from South Kent.”

“Utilize this idle time you have right now,” said Myles Williams. “From here on out you’ll have so many distractions and so many other things you’ll have to attend to.”

Shane Hauck encouraged the students to focus on the little things while they are on the Hillside, noting that anything from jobs to homework seems like a pain now but eventually they’ll see the value.

“South Kent builds these core values and you just do things the way you’re supposed to,” Shane said.

Eric Shu encouraged the students to try lots of new things when they get to college.

“You can try everything and find what you love.” 

Bryce Mann encouraged students to be peer tutors and help other students. It is something that he did at SKS and continues at Olin and it has helped him understand and apply information.

“If there’s something that you want to learn or get better at, teach it to someone else,” Bryce said.