Six recent LA graduates returned to campus for panel discussions with parents and students on January 11. This year’s panel included Grace Lu ’22 (The College of William & Mary), Naischa Puri ’23 (University of Notre Dame), Sydney Racine ’23 (University of Pennsylvania), Nicole Sandrik-Arzadi ’22 (Barnard College), Gurinder Singh ’22 (Williams College) and Shiv Tickoo ’22 (Princeton University). Both discussions, for parents in the Oakwood Room and on Zoom and students in the Berry Performing Arts Center, were moderated by Sarah Honan, Director of College Counseling, and Alayne Birnhak, Associate Director of College Counseling.
This year’s panel again featured a broad array of college sizes and locations, including some in major cities and others in smaller towns. The panelists are studying a wide variety of subjects including Molecular Biology, Economics, Political Science, Finance and English.
Both discussions began with the young alumni introducing themselves and sharing their major or intended fields of study, along with information about other activities and interests. Other common elements included a discussion of how students selected their colleges and universities, class sizes at their respective institutions, and how LA prepared them for college.
“The classes here definitely prepare you for college work,” Gurinder said. “The coursework here will prepare you for how to manage your time when you have a lot of work to do. I was really prepared for the workload.”
“With Wardlaw being such a small and tight-knit community, you learn to communicate with teachers and form relationships with teachers by reaching out if you need assistance. I’m not scared to reach out to professors and be an active learner,” Sydney said.
Nicole and Grace continue to appreciate the personal connections with their fellow LA graduates and former teachers.
“I now have friends all across the country that I can always reach out to. I have friends in different majors and different parts of the country,” Nicole said. “We had such a unique experience going here and I feel like I have a network of people who will always be there for you.”
“Wardlaw really taught me that I do have people to fall back on when things are tough,” Grace added. “When you graduate from this school, you don’t necessarily graduate away from the people in this building.”
Naischa and Shiv reflected on the many opportunities they enjoyed at LA and how they are continuing to participate in many of those extracurricular activities at Notre Dame and Princeton, respectively.
“The opportunities at this school are very rare with all of those elements of culture, sports, community service and performance. Being here with that mindset that you can do anything and if you’re organized, you can take on the world. That’s what LA has instilled in me and I’m very grateful for that,” Naischa said.
“The opportunities at WardlaLAartridge are very echoed in what I’m doing at Princeton,” Shiv added. “I played baseball here and I’m playing club baseball at Princeton. I’m continuing research after doing research here. I’m doing lots of things I was introduced to at Wardlaw. It says a lot about how much you can do here.”
More young alumni joined the panelists for the annual pizza lunch in the Oakwood Room, where faculty members and administrators stopped by to say hello. The alumni enjoyed perusing the latest edition of the Beacon, the student publication to which some contributed during their LA days.