C L AS S N OT ES
STUDENT STARTUP INNOVATES THE TRADITIONAL CAMPUS TOUR
BluTours, LLC, a student-run startup that provides college-prospects personalized, 1-on-1 campus “experiences,” now offers their service at over 100 colleges and universities nationwide. Their mission and message to students: to help you find your fit. “As an athlete, I was lucky enough to have both a unique and meaningful experience visiting colleges,” says 19-year-old company Founder and CEO, Ibrahim Abukwaik ’15, “But the large majority of students don’t get that special, personalized treatment.” The BluTours experience targets some of the major issues and challenges that occur with traditional campus tours: large groups, repetitive “one-size-fits-all” messaging, and scheduling issues that come with limited availability. BluTours’ solutions have gained significant praise from guidance counselors: “The vision is brilliant. I’ve been on many tours where the parents are doing all the listening and asking all the questions while the kids are behind the crowd on their phones. Students need to get involved.” The process is simple: students visit the BluTours website, create an account, select any of the available campuses, select their interests, and give a brief (3–5 sentence) description about themselves. Upon submission, BluTours uses this information to connect you with best matches for hosts, destinations, and topics—all to make your visit on campus as personal, insightful, and enjoyable as possible. Don’t miss the ride! You can try BluTours for free until the end of the summer. For more information visit www.blutours.us or contact: Ibrahim Abukwaik, abe@blutours.us; 119 W 24th Street, New York, NY, 10011; (800) 707 8098 (ext. 700)
2006
/ MKA /
/ Ms. Natalie
Azzoli, 60 Lloyd Road,
Montclair, NJ 07042, nat6888@gmail. com /
/ Ms. Angela McCaffrey, 218
Bloomfield Street, Apt. B, Hoboken, NJ 07030, angelamccaffrey@gmail.com Caitlin DiRuggiero and Angela
McCaffrey came to speak to Tom
Carroll’s Economics Honors classes. Angela and Cait are co-founders of Corefire Pilates, a high-end fitness studio with locations in Montclair and Ridgewood (and a third location to open soon). The young ladies spoke about their experience in starting their own business. They discussed such issues as networking, fundraising, hiring employees, marketing and real estate development. Interestingly, many of the contacts who helped Angela and Cait and invested in their businesses were part of the MKA community. It really demonstrates the close-knit
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nature of the alumni community. Since many of the students taking Economics are interested in entrepreneurship and participated in the Startup 101 May term, this presentation was very timely and informative. Congratulations to Alexander Gephart on his marriage to Maura McCall, on December 31, 2015.
2007
/ MKA /
/ Mr. Brian
May, 22 N. Bayard Lane,
Mahwah, NJ 07430, bmay88@gmail. com /
/ Mr. Harry Raymond, 19 E. 7th
Street , Apt. 3, New York, NY 10003, raymond.harry@gmail.com
2008
/ MKA /
Victoria N. “Vicki” Schlobohm, 55, surrounded by her family, passed away peacefully at her residence in Beaufort, South Carolina on Friday, July 8th after a long battle with illness. Vicki was a longtime parent of two MKA alumni, Karl Schlobohm ’06 and Melissa Schlobohm ’08. She is widowed from her husband and Rudolph “Rudy” Schlobohm, a long-time trustee and Phone-A-Thon volunteer, and an alumnus from the Montclair Academy Class of 1974. After her children graduated from MKA, Vicki moved with her loving husband to Beaufort, South Carolina, where she spent her final years on the beautiful and peaceful Sea Islands of the Lowcountry. Vicki is survived by her daughter, Melissa Schlobohm, her son, Karl Schlobohm, her daughter-in law, Mercedes Schlobohm, her granddaughter, Athena Schlobohm, her brothers, Carl, Chris, David and Richard Noyes, her sister, Linda Noyes Kneen, her brother-in-law, Todd Schlobohm, and her sister-inlaw, Marilea “Kimm” Schlobohm.
Peter Weisel was married October 21,
2015 to Kelsea Pieters in Roanoke, VA. They met at Roanoke College and live and work in Virginia.
2009
/ MKA /
/ Ms.
Jane Stanton, 240
South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042, janestanton18@gmail.com / / Mr. Brian Purcell, 89 Davis Avenue, Bloomfield, NJ 07003, bnpurcell4@
/ Miss Cara
Placentra, 111 Worth
Street, Apt. 19B, New York, NY 10013, caraplacentra@mac.com /
MEMORIAM
/ Mr.
2010 gmail.com
/ MKA /
/ Ms. Devon
Barrett, 109 Llewellyn
Road, Montclair, NJ 07042, dlbarret@
Matthew Metzger, 740 Gold Street, Apt.
princeton.edu /
8C, New York, NY 10038, metzgermd@
Palmisano, 51 Grove Lane, West
gmail.com
Caldwell, NJ 07006, nbovals@att.net
M KA review / Mon tc l a i r K i m b e r l e y A c a de my
/ Mr. Matthew