Wanted:
Monticello High School graduates with a story to tell
The Monticello Central School District would like to share
stories of success and triumph from its graduates with
students, faculty, staff and the community.
If you are a graduate of
Monticello High School (any year) and would like to tell us
your story, please contact Wendy Levinson at
wlevinson@k12mcsd.net.
Your story may be featured
on this web site, so if you have digital photos, please send
them along as well. Scroll down to
read about other alumni.
Reunion News
- Classmates wanted
The
Class of 1998
10-year
reunion,
Saturday,
September 27, 6 p.m. at Roark's Tavern in Monticello
Spouses and significant others welcome. Teachers welcome
(we'd love to reconnect). No children please.
$10 per person includes finger food/snacks and non-alcoholic
beverages. Cash bar.
Contact Bridget Murray (now Markell) at
bridgetmarkell@gmail.com with questions and to confirm
attendance. Hope to see you there!
The
Class of
1988
is planning its
20-year High School Reunion.
Contact information is being gathered for classmates who
either graduated in 1988 or attended Monticello Schools and
were, at one point, in the class of 1988 (even if they
graduated elsewhere.)
Reunion organizer Kerri Edelman
requests that classmates
interested in helping with or coming to the reunion, join
the yahoo group:
monti88@yahoogroups.com,
or contact her directly at:
kerri@healingcenter.com.
Alumni
News
-
Where are they
now?
Monticello High
School alumnus Andrew Trombley, receives prestigious grant
Monticello High School
graduate Andrew Trombley has received a grant to participate in
the 2008 Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Every year, an
international youth orchestra is formed by the Orchestral
Academy: After a competitive world wide audition process, young
musicians are given the opportunity
to study and perform great works from the orchestral literature
with famous conductors. The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is
a seven week term of study with concerts are held in Hamburg,
Kiel and Lübeck. This summer the Festival Orchestra will be
giving a concert at the young, euro, classic festival in Berlin
under the baton of Heinrich Schiff.
Andrew has also been invited to participate in the Festival
Orchestra 2008 tour. The orchestra will rehearse an extensive
program of music in Salzau, which it will then perform in eight
concerts, with St. Petersburg among the venues.
All the members of the 2008 Orchestral Academy will be invited
to take part in a tour of Germany with the Festival Orchestra in
June 2009, led by Christoph Eschenbach.
Andrew is a 2006 graduate of Monticello High School. He began
his study of the double bass under Mrs. Nancy Wegrzyn in the
Monticello Central School District. Andrew advanced his studies
in The Monticello High School Resident Artist Program with the
Weekend of Chamber Music, with his mentor Kurt Muroki. Andrew is
presently a junior at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of
Timothy Cobb, principal bassist of the Metropolitan Opera
Orchestra.
Monticello
graduate becomes award-winning chef
Monticello High School alumni
Alan Lazar, Class of 1971, has gone on to make a scrumptious name for
himself as a professional chef. Alan got the taste for fine
foods while working at the Concord Hotel during his junior and
senior years of high school.
After graduation, he continued his education and obtained his Bachelors degree at
Monmouth College in New Jersey, while working at Lazars Kosher
Meats & Poultry in South Fallsburg. From there he began his trek
south working as a manager at a chicken farm in Maryland and
then as a USDA Meat Certification Specialist in Miami, Florida.
Presently, Alan resides in Coral Springs, Florida and is
employed as an instructor at the Johnson & Wales University in
North Miami where he teaches the techniques of meat cutting.
Alan has been very active in the American Culinary Federation,
and is currently serving as their vice president and student
chapter advisor. Some of the awards he’s received are as
follows: Albertsons Founder Day Award; Sea-pak Best of Show -
Culinary; Taste of the Nation; ACF Greater Miami Achievement
Award; Boca Latkemania - Best Latkes; Chef of the Year - Greater
Miami Chapter ACF and the Faculty Vollrath Award.
A sad loss of
one of Monticello's own
Steven “Pudge” Meyer, 48, an attorney with the Erie County DA’s
office, passed away on November 17, 2007. He was an outstanding
student and 1977 graduate of Monticello High School where he was
also a standout tennis player.
Steve went on to SUNY Binghamton and attended law school at the
University of Buffalo. He is survived by his wife, Sheryl;
daughter, Gabrielle; father, Raymond of Monticello; sister,
Barbara; and brother, Danny, both of whom also graduated from
Monticello High School in the 1970’s.
“Pudge” was an active member of the Monti High Interact Club and
worked locally at the Raleigh Hotel for many years during and
after high school. He will always be remembered by those who
knew him as a loyal friend, loving husband, father, son and
brother, as well as possessing the best sense of humor and
infectious laugh.
Donations in Steve’s memory can be sent to the Make A Wish
Foundation.
Monticello High
School alumni create historical paintings for
Sullivan County Museum
The Sullivan County Museum
just received a shot in the arm from two homegrown artists. Eight
towering murals reflecting Sullivan County's history have replaced
boarded up window panes in the front and on the right side of the
former Hurleyville school building on Frances Currey Boulevard.
After months of labor, Monticello High School graduates Laurie
Kilgore and Tobi Magnetico completed the works using watercolor
paints in their artist lofts in Monticello.
Click here for the full story by
Nathan Mayberg, courtesy the TH-R
1979 graduate
dedicating her life to fighting cancer
After losing her husband and father
to cancer, Monticello High School graduate Carolyn Halbert is on
a "personal mission to help others with the prevention and
control of this set of diseases."
Carolyn currently works as the Statistical Analysis
Coordinator for the Virginia Cancer Registry. Some of her work
consists of analyzing and presenting data and creating reports
for researchers, legislators and community members.
Recently, she was a presenter at
the North American Central Cancer Registry Association international
conference where she gave a report on cancer incidence in
Appalachian Virginia.
According to Carolyn, "The work of
such central cancer registries has been influential in
legislation and funding for the increased use of mammograms and
colonoscopies to prevent and detect colon and breast cancers
earlier, which of course results in better outcomes and quality
of life for survivors."
Carolyn decided to change careers
and enter the cancer field after spending 15 years as a Speech
Language Pathologist, who specialized in voice and swallowing
disorders in stroke and head injury patients.
Ten years ago, she founded the
David Goy Memorial Fund, a non-profit corporation which help
funds a school for literacy and self advocacy in Haiti. More
information about the school can be obtained at:
www.richmonddiocese.org/haiti/Newsletters/GoyMataboniteNewsJune2007B.pdf
Presently, Carolyn lives with her two dachshunds, one of which
is a Hurricane Katrina rescue. And, she has never given up her
love for music and singing. She currently sings for the
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and the Richmond Symphony.
"It is good to hear about Bethel
Woods and that live, performed music in the Catskills is alive
and well," stated Carolyn.
Academy of Finance
alumnus gives back to Monticello
At Monticello High School, teacher and
Academy of Finance founder/director Wendy Levenson and her
former student, Joel Blum, have come full circle together. Blum, Class of 2000, was in Levenson's first Academy of Finance.
Recently, he presented Levenson with a grant of $3,000 on behalf
of his employer, Citi Smith Barney, where he is a financial
adviser and guided portfolio manager.

The Academy of Finance is a symbiotic relationship among
schools, students and corporate America.
Business owners offer internships and donations and serve as
guest speakers and role models. In exchange, they get more
skilled interns, and a higher caliber of job applicants when AOF
students graduate from college.
Monticello students with an interest in business and finance get
consistent exposure to specialized business knowledge and best
practices, access to college level courses and value-added items
for their college and job resumes.
The schools get donations, like the one Blum presented, toward
the cost of tuition for college-level finance courses that
students can take while still in high school. The school also
gets a renewable resource of AOF graduates, like Blum, who keep
the cycle going.
"We couldn't have applied for this grant without a Citi group
employee," Levinson said.
The businesses, schools and students also get bragging rights;
nationwide, AOF participants are eight times more likely to have
paid summer internships and twice as likely to take college
level courses while in high school; 92 percent graduate and 80
percent go on to college, according to Blum.
- Story and photo by
Melissa Rennie, reprinted courtesy of the Times Herald-Record May
09, 2007 -
Monticello
graduate inducted into college Athletic Hall of Fame for
basketball
In October 2006, Sheryl
Ferguson Nichols, a 1994 Monticello graduate, visited with
RJK Middle School Principal Deborah Wood, and shared her
experiences since leaving high school.
At SUNY Oneonta, Ms. Nichols was inducted into the Athletic
Hall of Fame for basketball for being the first woman in the
school’s history to score 1,000 points. She still
holds the record for the most leading points (1,449) scored
for both men and women. Also, she was the assists leader,
the steals leader, and in 1998 she was named Player of the
Year in the SUNYAC Conference and SUNY Oneonta Athlete of
the Year when Oneonta had an NCAA bid for the first time in
the school’s history.
Sheryl is now living in Orlando, Florida, where she is a
college admissions counselor. She is married to Marcus
Nichols.
Class of '86
held Bone Marrow Registration Drive to honor Erik Rosen
The
Monticello High School Class of
1986 hosted a bone marrow registration drive July 15 in
conjunction with the
Class of '86's 20th reunion celebration. The drive
was held in
support of classmate Erik Rosen who's battling
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Erik will be undergoing a bone marrow
transplant. While Erik does not currently need a bone
marrow donor, the Class of '86 organized the
registration drive to its support for Erik.
There are thousands of children and adults diagnosed each
year with diseases that call for a bone marrow transplant as
a potential cure. Only a fraction of patients are able to
find compatible donors in their families. The remaining
patients turn to the national registry to find potential
matches. Joining the registry is easier than donating
blood-only a finger stick is needed. The cost for processing
each sample is $65. For more information
see
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/abcs_of_donation.html.
Alternatively, checks can be made in the name of Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society and can be sent directly to: L&LS, Donor
Services, P.O. Box 4072, Pittsfield, MA, 01202 or online at
www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.
The Class of '86 thanks you for your support of Erik and
the thousands of others suffering from cancer.
Alumni
wins Emmy for broadcasting
Alex Cabrero,
a Monticello alumni, was awarded a national Emmy
for his work as a television news reporter. Cabrero won a
regional Emmy while working in Nashville, Tenn., and was
entered into the national contest, where he was declared a
winner. Cabrero won in the category of best local news
reporter in spot news. He is now a reporter for KSL-5, the
NBC News affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Alumni
John DeGroat playing basketball at Pittsburgh
As a senior at Monticello
High School, DeGroat was a 6-foot-5 low-post player and a
low-level Division I prospect. But the dream of making it
big is beginning to happen.
"I never imagined this
would all happen," said DeGroat.
The Monticello graduate
joined the University
of Pittsburgh's nationally-ranked program in the 2004-05
season. DeGroat chose Pitt after being courted by such
national schools as Oklahoma, St. Johns, Oregon and Gonzaga,
all of which had offered scholarships.
To read the entire
story, click
here!
Stephanie Blythe, Class of
1987, appears at the Metropolitan Opera
From Monticello High School's humble theatre,
where she was the lead in "Annie Get Your Gun" in
1987, to the role of noble Jocasta in Stravinsky's
"Oedipus Rex" at the Metropolitan Opera in New
York City, Stephanie Blythe has certainly come a long
way.
Read
more by clicking here!
Did you
know?? Nearly 3000 of Monticello High School's
students have registered at www.classmates.com. |
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