Roo Roundtables A new series of alumni lunches, Roo Roundtables, is bringing AFS alumni back to campus on a regular basis to share stories about their lives and work with our students. Last fall we welcomed Sam Wolf ’00 (pictured above) to campus for a pizza lunch with a group of Upper School students in the new Wilf Learning Center. Sam, who started a business called LuckyVitamin.com at the age of 22 and sold it to GNC eight years later, chatted about his inspiring entrepreneurial journey. “Find something you love and it won’t be work,” advised Sam. “The long hours won’t matter and you’ll be doing it because you genuinely want to.” The acquisition of his company by GNC, he says, allowed him to grow his business in ways he could not have foreseen. Now he oversees and manages LuckyVitamin for GNC, as a subsidiary. “Put together a plan,” said Sam, “but plan to deviate from it. Be agile. React quickly.”
Stewart Rodes ’03 (at right) also visited as part of the series to talk about his work as an intensive care unit nurse in Aurora, Colorado. Stewart talked about the path he followed to become a nurse, giving the assembled students a clear sense of the education and training needed. Responding to students’ questions, Stewart talked about the importance of taking care of oneself in a psychologically and emotionally draining
profession, as well as the importance of listening and communicating well with the doctors he works with. As a nurse on duty the night of the Aurora shootings last summer, Stewart and his colleagues treated more than 20 patients suffering gun shot wounds and other injuries. The experience, though stressful and difficult, brought home to him, he said, the rewards of doing a job you feel passionate about, and doing it well.
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