Nazareth College Alumni

by Chris Wilkin '83 A cold Saturday morning on April 8, 1984, changed my life forever. I was standing at the east entrance of Nazareth College with my two college roommates, our families, and friends. Brett McAvoy, Paul Brown, and I were all 1983 graduates from Nazareth and were moments away from starting a 2,000-mile bicycle trip across the country right from the campus! Brett, Chris & Paul. Little did we know... We said our final goodbyes and right at 9 a.m., just as the Nazareth College chimes rang out announcing our epic departure; we climbed aboard the vehicles that would take us to places unknown and were off! Our bicycles were each loaded down with the gear we would need for the long trip. The only problem was, we hadn't ridden our bikes recently as winter had just ended, and we had definitely not ridden them fully loaded. The icing on the cake: It started to snow! Our first few feet were precarious as we wobbled unsteadily through the Nazareth campus. We prayed that

By Luke Dangler ‘09 I was only sure about one thing as I began my freshman year at Naz: I wanted to make stuff. In high school I had become obsessed with both drawing pictures and playing guitar, so some sort of a creative path seemed inevitable. At Naz, I enrolled as a studio art major and eventually adopted a music minor. During college, I spent most of my energy in the art studio painting, with any additional time reserved for blasting heavy metal guitar riffs down the hallways of my dorm via the amplifier that I was somehow allowed to keep. This behavior probably wasn’t academically productive, especially considering one of my music teachers told me he didn’t even know what metal music was. Art remained my priority but I enjoyed messing around with music — which was pretty fun. I found music a bit more challenging to conquer than art, which made it alluring. Frequent conversations with my advisor usually centered around my career plans after graduation, and whether I was going to

By Norlene Remollata '15 When there is a new alumni blog post, it is sometimes written by a successful celebrity, people who’ve made a huge impact on the world or have at least 40 years of life experience to share. No, I’m not Gary Vaynerchuk or even Oprah. So I’m not going to try and pretend like I’m some super wise successful person, or drop some great quotable material that would later be seen as a phone background or in a picture frame hung on a wall.  Most of you reading this might be people who follow my cooking blog, or recognize my work in the Rochester community. Maybe you have just graduated or about to graduate and are looking for guidance in the “real world” with these alumni posts. For most of you, you just see me as some alumna. Honestly, that is how I want to write to you today. As just some alumna. I thought a lot about how to inspire you through this blog post, but as much as those inspirational Odyssey articles about taking on the world one step at a time are fan

By Herbie J Pilato, ‘83 Herbie J Pilato, author, screenwriter, TV producer, talk show host In the spring of 1983, my final semester of attending Nazareth, “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, the legendary rock band, was a hit on the airwaves. Of course, the “airwaves,” at the time, meant just listening to the radio and watching MTV. There were no smartphones, iPads, or even the internet. And desktop computers were just barely introduced to the mainstream, which today, enjoys streaming videos, movies, music, and TV shows on a whole other level. But in 1983, any song by “The Police” helped to define the era, as music and pop culture in general usually does so for any time period. “Pop-culture” is really “culture” of the moment. In looking back… way back…to Ancient Egypt, the Pyramids may be viewed as a “pop-culture” development of the day. That might be a stretch in time. But you get the idea, and ideas are always a good thing. Certainly, many wonderful ideas sprang into mind during m

Flyers in Focus How Naz helped prepare Gabrielle Rockwell '17 Gabrielle Rockwell '17 shares with us how Naz helped her prepare for a career in not-for-profit work. She is community engagement coordinator at FirefighterAid, an organization that helps firefighters and families in times of need, and event coordinator at San Diego 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb charity event, a fundraising event to commemorate those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Flyers in Focus Melissa Wilkinson '17 Majors: Biology, Toxicology  Minors: Honors Program, Chemistry, Bioethics, Environmental Science  Melissa Wilkinson is a graduate from the class of 2017 and current toxicology Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University. Melissa has been and continues to be recognized for her achievements in research and being an exceptional woman in the field of toxicology, one of them being the Women in Toxicology SIG Vera W. Hudson and Elizabeth K. Weinsburger Scholarship Fund Student Award. Her dream is to work in science policy and maybe one day joining an executive branch agency such as the CDC or EPA.

Jarod Koopman's early interest in numbers and his business mindset grew into a passion for federal crime investigation. The accounting major's college internship at the U.S. Department of the Treasury's IRS criminal investigation unit sparked his career. His recent work focuses on virtual currency, illicit exchanges, the dark web, and terrorism financing. The former Naz lacrosse team member is now a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/MMA. Read a new profile of this alum:  https://naz-sbl.blogspot.com/2021/02/investigating-dark-web-terrorism.html Jarod Koopman '02