Pascack Press salutes the Pascack Valley’s high-achieving alumni of our area high schools. Here’s what they’ve been up to lately, according to their schools and families…
David Sklar of the Township of Washington is graduating Ramapo College of New Jersey with a master’s degree in social work (MSW) this May. Sklar, now 36, decided to change from a career in information technology to one that in the words of his father, Michael, who tipped us off, “makes a better world for children.”
David told Pascack Press he’s wanted to be a social worker/therapist since he was 12 and is now following his dream. He’s a social work intern at South Orange Middle School.
He graduated Ramapo College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree in social work, 2019–2021, and Bergen Community College with an associate’s degree in psychology, 2015–2019.
Ian W. LaFlotte, formerly of River Vale, and a 2007 graduate of Pascack Valley High School, received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Rutgers University this spring. He took his MS in nuclear physics at Carnegie Mellon University.
He told Pascack Press on April 13 his research work involved the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, at CERN, near Geneva. He worked on a team, the Compact Muon Solenoid Collaboration, collecting and analyzing data for “a more sophisticated theory of how the world works.”
LaFlotte credited his PV chemistry teacher, Carrie Jacobus, who retired last year from the River Dell Regional School District, for “inspiring my fascination with chemistry.
“She did a great job and then I had a lot of questions about how chemistry worked at a deeper level, because it kind of felt like we were told some things work because that’s just the way it is and I had more questions than that.”
He said, “At some point she was like, Look, I don’t fully know how to answer your questions; a lot of the answers are going to be based in physics, and that’s how I started to get more into physics.”
He said he also had always enjoyed math as well, “and it was a natural fit. And then I got to college and that’s when I started doing physics properly.”
Now he’s looking for a job outside of academia: “data science, analytics, computer programming big data analysis. I’m looking forward to joining the industrial workforce in the tech sector. … it’s very difficult to have a long-term research career. … I like playing with computers too much.”
LaFlotte said, “I love the way my brain feels after 10 years of getting to study physics. I love my critical-thinking abilities. It was just a lot of fun to be able to practice that, and to get told every day, This is what you have to work on. Physics problems? OK, great, love it! Learning to do research? Excellent!”
Stephen Brennan of Hillsdale was among the University of Scranton students inducted into Alpha Delta Sigma, the national honor society sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, recognizing and encouraging scholastic achievement in advertising studies. Brennan is a senior social media strategies major at Scranton, a Jesuit university in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Alyssa Raine Lara of Westwood earned membership into the 2022 Purple Key Leadership Society at Emerson College, in Boston. Participants were honored during the annual Emerson Recognition & Achievement (ERA) Awards on Friday, April 8. The Purple Key Leadership Society recognizes a select group of seniors who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and service, solid academic achievement, and a commitment to civic engagement. Lara is majoring in Media Arts Production and is a member of the Class of 2022.
Michelle Galdi of Park Ridge was inducted into Pi Theta Epsilon, the occupational therapy honor society at Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn. during a recent campus ceremony. Students inducted must exhibit superior academic performance. This year’s inductees had GPAs of 3.7 or higher.
— Send your family milestones to pascackpress@thepressgroup.net