LREI in the World: Alumni Spotlights

live in Reykjavik, Iceland, where they are the hospitality directors and CEOs of Local 101. Alma studied political science at Barnard College of Columbia University and David studied urban studies and real estate at the University of Pennsylvania. They recently took over one of Iceland’s oldest hotels and are excited to continue hosting guests and renovating in the months ahead.

Ever since we were 17, we’ve said that this is what we wanted to do, and now we finally created the opportunity for ourselves to actually do it. We worked in different areas of hospitality in both New York and Paris. David worked in firms specializing in architecture, specifically residential and tourism project development. During college, Alma worked in fields including news, entertainment, retail, and hospitality. After receiving her master’s degree in entrepreneurship at HEC Paris, France, Alma created her own company providing WIFI solutions for tourism residences.

With the Covid shutdown, it felt like we were treading water. We knew that we needed a fresh start and a bigger challenge where we could touch the product and make a difference on day one. From there, we met people until we found a partner willing to give it a go with us. Alma is half Icelandic and lived in Iceland before joining LREI for seventh grade. And David, well, he is clearly down for the adventure! We took over one of Iceland’s oldest hotels from the ‘60s. It was in very poor shape but in a great location. Our budget was extremely limited, so we quickly emptied the space and replaced everything we could, improved the lighting, and repainted. Doing everything ourselves, we opened just three weeks after receiving the keys! Guests started flowing in — Icelandic summers are quite something — and the plan was to keep operating until the inevitable renovation of the building started in February 2023. We worked with Icelandic architects to reimagine the space, which will feature new, upgraded amenities and a small F&B offering. The hotel will close in the coming months while under construction and reopen this June (fingers crossed)!

One of the many great aspects of working in hospitality is how “in the now” it is. It can be very rewarding to receive immediate feedback. In hospitality, you’re working in the sphere of experiences, so the now is everything. Your client is in front of you, and this moment right here is the experience — that is the peak of your product, meaning you always have to be on and give your very best performance. When a client walks through that door, it is their vacation, and everything around them matters, the smell, lighting, music, aura, the welcome they receive, and so on. This means that you have to always be extra aware and always on your toes. Pro tip: when looking to book a hotel, try calling or emailing the hotel and book directly. You’ll get a better price and probably better service. Also, travel should be a time for adventure and risk-taking. Why fly across the globe to stay in a Marriott? Nothing against Marriott, but you wouldn’t eat Domino’s in Napoli.

We have already had two guests with random links to LREI; it is a very small world, as they say! Operating a hotel, especially in a city like Reykjavik, feels like opening your doors to the world. We have people coming from four corners of the globe, all with different stories, cultures, and needs. LREI felt a lot like that, a place that was welcoming to everyone and where we were taught to be upstanding citizens of the world. I think that has helped us a lot; no matter who our guests are, we can find a connection, and we can empathize.

There is something quite special about the people who choose to travel to Iceland out of all places. They come for nature and wellness and to reconnect, and we could not be happier than to host people on such a wholesome trip.

Because of the context of the hospitality market in Iceland. Iceland was practically unknown 15 years ago until the 2008 financial crisis and the world-disrupting eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which finally made people aware of the existence of this moon-like island. From 2010 onward, a tourism boom began. Iceland went from having 1 million tourists in its history prior to 2010 to over 2 million per year ever since. That is a major change for a population of just over 350,000.

In many ways, Iceland represents the future for us, whether it be socially with some of the world’s most forward-looking policies or environmentally with 100% of electricity and hot water coming from renewable sources. This is why we wanted to start what is the beginning of what we hope will be a long journey of hospitality projects here.

studied film at Emerson College and is known for his work as @NewYorkNico. He is a filmmaker, journalist, and documentarian and has been called the “Unofficial Talent Scout of NYC.” He is an LREI Lifer and was honored by LREI’s Alumni Association as the 2022 recipient of the Michael Patrick Achievement Award.

How did you start working in documentary filmmaking? Being at LREI really got me interested in filmmaking. I took my first film class in high school with Chris Reed, who was very harsh and very strict but also very nurturing. He made me really captivated by film. We would break down scenes, and he would teach us things about filmmaking that you ordinarily wouldn't think about at a young age. At that point, I knew I wanted to get into filmmaking. I didn't know if that was making music videos or movies or commercials, but I knew that's what I wanted to do. Then as an undergrad, I started working with narrative films and became interested in music videos. After graduating, that's when I introduced myself to documentary filmmaking. It kind of fell into my lap because I was in the park and saw this New York character who I had seen throughout school and used it as an opportunity to go talk to him. We ended up walking around the city together. Then I had the idea to make a short "day-in-the-life" documentary on him, which turned into a web series where I profiled New York City street characters, celebrities, whatever you want to call them. So that was my first dive into documentary filmmaking.

Tell us a little about the journey from writing stories in narrative work to shaping and collecting stories in your documentary work.

My work has always been very character-driven. I like working with existing people, places, and things. When I realized that I could make a documentary on this real person and this real city that I’m very familiar with, I think that’s what set me on the path of continuing to do more character-based documentary work.

I brought my work over to Instagram out of necessity because I was doing this documentary stuff on YouTube at first — it was a longer form shot on “real” cameras, and it just wasn’t getting the engagement that I had hoped for. A few years after I started to build a following, I came back to longer form, shooting four different 10–15 minute documentaries about characters that I would feature on my Instagram page as well. I really like doing both. I like the immediacy of Instagram; I can shoot and upload something immediately without being too precious about it and have people react in real time. But then I also like being able to spend more time on something and be more thoughtful with it.

What do some of your favorite projects and collaborations have in common?

It sounds corny, but I just love making all parties happy — the person that I’m documenting, the audience, and myself. A good example is Henry from the Army & Navy Bag Store. Whenever we do a video together, it benefits everybody; everybody wins. Henry wins because he’s just the sweetest guy in the world and genuinely gets so excited. It helps his business because everyone is meeting this lovely human being through their phone screens, and they want to shop at his store to support him. Then the audience gets something out of it, and I get personal satisfaction. So that’s always the best feeling. I think that’s why I’ll gravitate toward certain people; hopefully, every time we do a video together, it just makes everyone so happy. That’s kind of the throughline through the different collaborations – making people happy, spreading positivity. There’s a lot of negativity in the world, so I intentionally try to keep it light.

Sadie Stern ‘17 is an eighth grade ELA teacher working at LION Charter School in the South Bronx. She is an LREI lifer and received her undergraduate degree from Brown University.

How did you first become interested in working in education?

I volunteered with the GO Project on Saturday mornings throughout high school and continued tutoring students at the local elementary school while studying at Brown University. I was also involved in a research project on pandemic learning loss in my senior year. When considering what I wanted to do after I graduated from college, I felt strongly about giving back to New York City and about the power of education. Attending LREI was a life-altering opportunity for me, and I wanted to be part of that impactful experience for other young people.

What’s something you would like to change about your work or field?

The lack of integration between social-emotional learning and content learning. Nurturing student character and emotional well-being is just as important to their education as ensuring they are proficient readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, etc.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the LREI community about the work you’re doing now?

I am also one of the middle school girls basketball coaches. This is the first time the school has had a middle school girls basketball team in over five years. Playing basketball had such a positive impact on my high school and college experiences, I played all through my time at LREI and then on the traveling club team at Brown. I wanted my students to have the opportunity to fall in love with the game as well. Beyond developing physical strength and coordination, basketball bolsters community and self-esteem, teaches teamwork and leadership, and provides an outlet to process difficult feelings. Already, I’ve seen a difference in my students and my relationships with them on and off the court.

What’s something particularly exciting about your job at this time?

I was excited to discover that teaching is so much more than conveying information. Teaching is like a performance; there is a script but also room for improvisation. Teachers constantly have to respond to their audience (the students) and adjust accordingly. No two days are the same in the classroom.

is a union stage manager based in New York City. She works on Broadway, TV shows, and live events. In the past year, Monét has worked on shows including "Mr. Saturday Night," "Hamilton" (LA tour), "Morning Sun," "The Wrong Man," "Clueless the Musical," "Shucked" (workshop), and "Lempicka" (workshop). She was recently stage managing "Death of a Salesman" on Broadway. Monét joined the LREI community in the tenth grade and attended Sarah Lawrence College.

How did you first become interested in working in entertainment?

I first became interested in stage management during my senior year at Sarah Lawrence College. I was asked to stage manage an underclassman’s directing workshop and immediately fell in love with the job. It’s the perfect blend of all the artistic parts of theater. I first entered the field by becoming an usher and greeter for Signature Theater. I later applied for a stage management fellowship at The New Group, a different company that I got to know through Signature Theater because they were producing shows in that same space.

What’s something particularly exciting about your job at this time?

The exciting thing about stage management is that with live theater, anything can happen. New discoveries are always being made amongst the actors on stage and backstage with the crew.

Recently, I’ve found myself wanting to explore new careers on the business side of theater, TV, and film, as opposed to just working backstage. A big thank you to the theater and photography programs at LREI. These classes really shaped me technically and helped me become part of the kind of art that I admire. Those experiences continue to inspire me to branch out into different art fields.

is an LREI Lifer. He double majored in applied mathematics and theatre arts and performance studies at Brown University. Emilio works as a senior associate consultant at Bain Consulting. Through Bain, he recently did a five-month externship in portfolio operations and optimization at a new music industry startup focused on master rights acquisitions of catalog tracks.

I started working at Bain Consulting out of undergrad and am currently on a five-month “externship” at a music startup. Through Bain’s externship program, I can use the skills from my consulting work to explore other fields and companies. LREI and Brown are places that value flexibility and the ability to pursue multiple different passions; both are aspects I wanted to find in a job. In consulting, you change projects fairly frequently, which means exploring a lot of different industries and varied methods of problem-solving. For my externship, I decided to work with a music startup for a few reasons. I liked the size of the company because it’s small, growing, and in some ways, the exact opposite of the big consulting firm. I’m excited to see what it looks like to build a company from the ground up.

It’s been really cool to see how connected both the music industry and consulting are to current events and how much both shift in conversation with the news. At LREI, current events were always part of the curriculum of every class. In some ways, this has helped me problem-solve at work in relation to current events in ways I didn’t expect would be part of my job.

Consulting is an interesting industry because there's currently a wave of organizations that are trying to redefine their business strategies, and they often look to consulting firms to help. There’s a wave of organizations that are trying to redefine their business strategies, and they often look to consulting firms to help. The music industry is in a really interesting time too. I’m working at a company that’s involved in buying the rights to songs directly from artists, one song at a time. The structure is an alternative to traditional record label deals and is built to optimize streaming opportunities. This gives middletier independent artists the opportunity to sell their songs individually, which are then marketed on streaming platforms. I’m a huge music fan but wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about the industry, so I wasn’t aware of just how much a company like this might shape the way artists share their work and how we listen to music.

Whether I continue to work in consulting or in music, I’m eager to figure out how to have more of an impact on companies and people I care about, companies and artists doing work I believe in. Bain does a great job of allocating resources to things like pro-bono consulting for nonprofits, but I think there’s always more that can be done. This music startup is working to help artists finance their songs in new ways so that artists have more decision-making power. The idea of potentially helping shape the way artists monetize their songs is really fascinating to me, and I would love to see this company change the way the music industry functions.

describes herself as an ambiguous transdisciplinary artist, designer, and activist — a native New Yorker and a lurking criticism in the cultural and built environment. Zazu joined LREI in high school. She received a master’s in architecture from the University of Virginia after attending Oberlin College for undergrad. Zazu is currently living and working in New York City.

From what’s known as New York City, I sit in my apartment and subverb a communication style and I write this spotlight in prose

BECAUSE

LREI taught me to do so. An illustrative example from my memory:

When I was 14, my English teachers, Jane and Ileana, put forth a course of action. They said, “You may write an essay or explicate Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye through a piece of conceptual art.”

ENSUE an image of a teenager riding the subway to Charlton St clutching a two-foot sculpture of contorted blue eyes growing from a terracotta pot filled with dirt and clay bodies.

This option of art over an essay for a teenager with dyslexia equaled entry to Oberlin College equaled a degree in Art and Architectural History equaled a Masters of Architecture from the University of Virginia.

And then,

In the daytime, I began work as an architect.

My first job building towers.

ENSUE disillusion, disillusion, disillusion

Commodified, cheap and toxic building materials

Energy-sucking demolition Uncontrolled development

Gentrification 60-80 hour work weeks Low pay Sexual harassment Racism Ecological destruction Construction worker deaths Zero policy Too much policy Dishonesty No intellect No art

But step back

This world is full of unscrupulous systems.

So for almost two years my coworkers and I systemed quietly then very loudly

The New York Times titled their December 2021 article: “ARCHITECTS ARE THE LATEST WHITE COLLAR WORKERS TO CONFRONT BOSSES”

Though our unionization ultimately failed We struck a match in our profession.

I still work in environments. I still daytime as an architect.

But at night, I retreat back to the field of art.

The feminist and non-binary gallery,

AIR in Brooklyn last May presented a first solo exhibition: In a Vulgar Language: When Your Childhood Wasn’t Invited

It featured a selection of my commissioned waxy pastel “portraits” that

UNAPOLOGETICALLY reimagined the architecture of the interviewee memories

The goal

At night and at day

Transform psycho-architectural melancholia into new.

References: zazuswistel.com nytimes.com/2021/12/21/business/architects-white-collar-union.html airgallery.org/exhibitions/in-a-vulgar-language

graduated pre-med from Amherst College and is currently at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is studying to be a neurosurgeon.

I’ve been saying that I wanted to be a neurosurgeon since I was 11 years old. It was a joke that came from wanting to pick “the best” profession for a seventh grade project. Once I started looking into it, I began to wonder, “Well, why not?” I learned there are not a lot of female neurosurgeons, not a lot of black female neurosurgeons, and you need people in the field who look like you because research shows that patients do better that way. You don’t hear a lot of kids say they want to be neurosurgeons, so people always questioned me about it. Because of that, I got to question why I was interested in the field each step of the way. Now that I’m in med school, I still plan to be a neurosurgeon, even though I don’t know yet what my specialty will be within neurosurgery. Maybe something to do with kids, but I’m asking myself, "Who do I really want to help as a physician?"

I first got to really experience what this career might be like for me through an apprenticeship with a neurosurgeon, working alongside him at his private practice. After graduating from LREI, I returned as a counselor for Summers at LREI, and a family that knew my interest connected me to this neurosurgeon they knew. Through this work, I got to assist with research and scrub in on procedures, all as an undergrad. I was really interested to see how active this doctor was in his patients' care and his focus on holistic patient health. I experienced creative problem-solving with patients in ways that are different from working in a big hospital. I could see the extent of what is possible, both in my own career and in patient care. It wasn’t an eye-opener because I was aware of these differences, but it was definitely an eye-widener, and the experience expanded my idea of what is possible.

I just finished my first semester at Meharry Medical College, an HBCU (Historically Black College or University) in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m seven semesters away from being a doctor! One of the things that drew me to Meharry was their motto, "Worship of God Through Service to Mankind." They’re one of the only (if not the only) med schools that have any mention of religion in their language or ideology. I’m not necessarily hugely religious, but I was interested in this because I remember growing up seeing a lot of ways that medicine and religion were in conflict for patients. Because the conversation between medicine and religion is part of Meharry’s identity, I think it’s making me more able to communicate with patients of all different religious beliefs and medical experiences. They’re really big on community service and on educating primarily Black people. Because it’s an HBCU, I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about learning primarily from people who don’t look like me. The school’s focus on helping the community, serving the community, and also being part of a community where I could make connections based on lived experiences and not feel ostracized as a whole are all aspects I was drawn to.

Now that I’m here, I continue to be inspired by this community and the ways of connecting meaningfully. Already, I’ve researched and presented for doctors and faculty I hope to work with more in the future. In one class, I gave a presentation on concussions to the chief medical officer of the NFL. I thought, “How do I tell a guy who works to stop concussions in football players how to stop concussions?” It’s definitely widening my eyes to what is possible.

works in tech, specifically in financial software. He previously worked as a software engineer at Robinhood (a retail stock trading platform) and recently left to join a newly founded startup. Alex is now a “founding engineer,” which means he’s the first (currently only) engineer at the company. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2019, where he studied computer engineering. Alex lives in Brooklyn and says a few LREI classmates also live in the neighborhood, which has been a lot of fun!

How did you first become interested in the tech field?

I first became interested in software engineering at LREI, specifically through the robotics team and various X-blocks. I taught an X-block on web development during my junior and senior years and launched a research weather balloon with some classmates while I was a student. In college, I pursued research in robotics. However, I wanted to live in New York after graduation and couldn’t find many opportunities in that field, which led me to financial software.

What’s something particularly exciting about your job at this time?

It’s an exciting time to be at a very early-stage company. Since graduation, I have been at larger companies and thought I would value the stability they offered, but I found myself wanting a more interesting challenge. There is a lot of talk of recession and layoffs, but a lot of the most exciting companies we have today were founded during the last recession. I’m definitely excited to see where this opportunity goes.

What’s something you would like to change about your work or field?

I wish more software engineers were focused on building products that solve real problems. Almost every industry has challenges that could be alleviated with better technology, but too many engineers are focused on trying to make a lot of money very quickly by building solutions for problems that don’t exist. Some of the hottest areas (NFTs and cryptocurrency come to mind) have turned out to be mostly hype and have not delivered a lot of real value. I think some of that hype has died down recently, so I am hopeful for the future.

studied earth and oceanographic science at Bowdoin College, with a minor in music and Africana studies. He received his master's degree and teaching certification from the American Museum of Natural History. Deion teaches earth science and computer science to high school students at Eagle Academy, an all-boys school in Brownsville, New York.

I grew up in Brooklyn, so I’ve always encountered a sort of mysticism with nature. At Bowdoin College, I really got to explore life outside of an urban environment, and I try to bring that back into my city classroom. Both Bowdoin College and LREI were very focused on experiential learning. At Bowdoin College, they would wake us up at 5 a.m. to go out on the boats and be in the environments we were studying in our geology and Earth science courses. I originally wanted to be a chemist because of Sarvjit’s class, but the first science class I got into in college was geology. It was really hard, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and eventually ended up majoring in it.

A lot of what we do in my classroom is connected to my LREI experience. I like to start class with something called a “Do Now,” where I give students one article, and they all respond to it on a live document so they can annotate and see how classmates are responding to the news. I pick a current event, even if it sometimes seems to have nothing to do with my class so that we start the day by engaging in discussion together. There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the media right now, but I try to remind students that we’ve been able to make big changes in a limited amount of time and if change can be made quickly in one direction (positive or negative) we can make it quickly in the other direction as well. I connect them to as many positive pieces of climate and environmental news as possible. Even directing their attention to small things around them, encouraging them to notice things like more trees being planted in the neighborhood and more electric cars on the streets. I try to help them break down the information to understand why these things are happening and to help tackle the feeling of being overwhelmed by headlines.

We take an annual trip to the Museum of Natural History, and because of my time studying there, I’m able to give them a tour that includes things that other guides might not know. I’m still a research scientist there and with Jackie Faherty, who is an astrophysicist and science communicator. During Covid, we started working together to create 3D visualizations of astronomy. She’s looking at it from an astronomy standpoint, and I’m looking at it from a tech and education standpoint. I bring that work into the classroom and also bring what I learn in the classroom about working as an educator to my work as a research scientist.

This is my sixth year teaching at Eagle Academy, and I try to tell my students that learning isn’t so much about grades. I want to see that they’re engaging with the skills they’re learning. The focus is on self-betterment as a student. Increasing skills is the most important thing, and grades usually reflect that. I love seeing them practice applying new skills to the ideas and problems they encounter in the world around them.

lives in Washington DC, where she is a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department. She attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service for undergrad before receiving a graduate degree from Columbia University as a Pickering Fellow. Ana is currently assigned to the Syria desk.

How did you become involved in this field?

I knew that I wanted to work in this field when I was in school and learned about the Srebrenica Massacre. My first question was, “Why did no one stop this?” That’s when I discovered that I wanted to work in conflict prevention. Fast forward to high school at LREI, and Tom Murphy (my favorite teacher in the whole world) knew I was interested in international relations, and I can’t recall if it was Tom or Phil or both, but they introduced me to Ambassador Gadsden ‘66 (alum and former trustee). He told me about the Pickering Fellowship program for students interested in joining the State Department. This all happened in Mark’s classroom on the first floor — I remember it so vividly. I eventually applied and was accepted to the fellowship, and that’s where my journey with the State Department began. When you join the State Department, you do A100 (which is an intro course to being a diplomat), and at the end of it, there’s a swearing-in ceremony where you take the oath in front of your family and friends. I invited Ambassador Gadsden, and he was there along with some folks from the Pickering Fellowship, as well as my friends and family.

What are the biggest differences between your job when being stationed internationally and being stationed in the US? My first assignment was in Jordan, and after that I was in Abu Dhabi. Now I’m an officer on the Syria Desk and have been in this post since 2021. Normally when you’re stationed overseas you’re stationed at an embassy and assigned a particular section there. For example, in Abu Dhabi, I was working on political issues. My job overseas is to liaise with the local government on issues of whatever department I’m assigned to, report back to Washington, and advise the foreign policy establishment from that perspective. Normally when you’re in Washington as a desk officer, you’re supporting the bilateral relationship between the two embassies (one in the host country and one in DC). Because we don’t have an embassy in Syria and there is no Syrian embassy in Washington, my job is to do the DC side of things while also effectively functioning as our embassy in Syria. It’s a great mix of both worlds because I get to do the typical work of a reporting officer abroad in the host country while also doing all the coordination from the DC side. For my next assignment, I’ll be working for a Crisis Management Service (CMS). We have an operations center at the State Department, and the CMS section is the office responsible for tracking, monitoring, and responding to crises around the world. When a crisis occurs, they’re the office that sends up the responding task force, and also the office working on pre-crisis planning; things like tracking events that could become crises and planning responses. It’s interesting because often you work on a bilateral level (connecting two corresponding embassies), or a multilateral level (if you work at the United Nations), but this is an opportunity to work on macro, regional, and international level.

How has the way you gather news shifted while working at the State Department?

When you’re on the ground and trying to obtain information, you have your contacts in different fields so they can give you a sense of what’s happening before it even happens or “breaks” in the news. Obtaining the news from people on the ground has always been a part of this. But the way it’s changed most recently is through social media. Oftentimes people look to intel or press to get a sense of what’s happening in real time. Now, so much of what happens in the Middle East (during the crisis moments I’ve been abroad for), is posted about live on social media platforms. One of the first things I do in the morning is check my list of trusted accounts which includes researchers, CSOs, and NGOs in both English and Arabic. It requires diligence in knowing your sources, and it’s definitely changed how I look at the news.

What’s something people don’t know about the State Department?

Sometimes it’s very difficult for people to understand what this particular agency does. Some students don’t even know that this career is an option for them. I didn’t know it was an option for me until I connected with Ambassador Gadsden ‘66. I would love to help share information about what a career at the State Department can look like and the many different paths available within the department. Please feel free to use me as a resource for students interested in international relations, especially those who are curious and don’t know what a career in this field might look like.