High aspirations: Reaching for the Stars
By the time they graduate Talcott Mountain Academy, they are well-prepared for their secondary and college careers. This is clearly evident in the distinctive paths they have chosen, the roles in which they distinguish themselves, and the projects they’ve developed with these talents.
High School
Talcott Mountain Academy graduates are accepted at all the outstanding private and public secondary schools in the area and New England. They include:
— Avon Old Farms School
— Berkshire School
— Choate Rosemary Hall
— Deerfield Academy
— Loomis Chaffee
— Miss Porter’s School
— Northfield Mount Hermon
— Northwest Catholic High School
— Philips Academy Andover
— Phillips Exeter Academy
— St. Paul’s Catholic High School
— Suffield Academy
— The Ethel Walker School
— The Hotchkiss School
— The Master’s School
— The Taft School
— Watkinson School
— Westminster School
— Westover School
— University High School of Science & Engineering
College
Talcott Mountain Academy alumni are accepted at outstanding colleges and universities. They include:
— Berklee College of Music
— Boston College
— Boston University
— Brown University
— Cal Tech Yale University
— Carnegie Mellon University
— Catholic University of America
— Columbia University
— Cornell University
— George Washington University
— Georgetown University
— Georgia Tech
— Hampshire College
— Harvard University
— Howard University
— Marist
— Massachusetts Institute of Technology
— Middlebury College
— Oberlin College
— Penn State
— Rensselaer
— Rhode Island School of Design
— Rhode Island University
— Savannah College of Art & Design
— Stanford University
— Syracuse
— Trinity College
— Tufts University
— UC Berkeley
— UCONN
— University of Florida
— University of Rochester
— Virginia
— Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Careers
Talcott alumni have contributed their talents and expertise to companies around the globe. From small startups to big players in science and technology, from Amazon to Google and many in between!
— Amazon
— American Museum of Natural History
— Apple
— Argonne National Laboratory
— Boston Dynamics
— Brigham & Women’s Hospital
— Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
— John Dempsey Hospital
— Google
— Manchester Hospital
— Micron
— Microsoft
— MOVA
— NASA
— Photobit
— Salesforce
— Tesla
— United Technologies
— US Fish & Wildlife Service
— WebTV
— WTIC-61
— WTIC AM & FM
— WBTW South Carolina
— WTVY Alabama
Meet our Alumni
Talcott Mountain Academy was designed as a full-time school inside the campus of a full-time science facility, with the availability of professional scientists as their guides. When staffing the entire complement of subjects, we look for the same professional standing for all of them. In that spirit, our art teacher is an artist, our music teacher is a musician, our language arts teachers are writers, and we have a healthy dose of living history in our social studies curriculum.
It’s no wonder then, more than 30 years after inception, that our graduates report being well-prepared for their secondary and college careers. This is clearly evident in the distinctive paths they have chosen, the roles they’ve established, and the projects they’ve developed with their talents.
We invite you to meet a few of our distinguished alumni.
Dax Hassell
“I came to Talcott Mountain Academy from a small island in the Caribbean. TMA promoted and supported my passion for scientific exploration and discovery. It provided the first real safe space for me to flourish. I eventually became one of the first generation emergency medicine physicians in The Netherlands, pioneering and giving shape to the current Dutch emergency medicine system. TMA was the primary stable stepping stone to my professional career.”
Shari Wiseman
Valedictorian of her graduating class at TMA, Shari went on to attend Glastonbury High School and Yale University, where she majored in Biology. She then stayed at Yale to complete her Ph.D. in Neuroscience, followed by postdoctoral training in Boston. Shari is currently a Senior Editor at the journal, Nature Neuroscience, and says her time at TMA was invaluable in fostering her life-long love of science.
Samara Wenten
TMA CLASS OF ’89
“I was an angry kid when I arrived at TMA in 1985. I came from a tiny school in a small town where the teachers did everything to challenge me, including allowing me to skip a grade, but socially I was floundering. As Dean Gibb can attest it took a bit for me to adjust, but eventually I found my footing and my people on the mountain. I learned how to write, how to use the scientific method, and how to love being surrounded by the smartest people in the room. I even learned to ski in the extracurricular program at Ski Sundown and it’s still my favorite thing to do. It’s been more than 30 years since I graduated and I still reflect on the lessons I learned at TMA in my current life as a product manager for a major technology company in the Bay Area. I also still keep in touch with many of my classmates and have been proud to see their successes over the years. Not surprisingly, they’re still the smartest people in the room.”
Bryan Nagy
TMA CLASS OF ’90
Bryan is at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, working on a robotic fork-lift. As part of the Robotics Institute at CMU, they are developing automated systems for packing and unpacking truck trailers and containers.
Ariana Feldberg
TMA CLASS OF ’90
Ari, a marine biologist is part of the team creating aquaculture of oysters, clams, and scallops for the Wampanoag Tribe in Aquinnah, Martha’s Vineyard Island. She presented this work to an enthusiastic crowd of students at the academy this past March.