Because I wanted to learn about the foundations of today's educational systems, specifically what has been successful and what has not. From there, I wanted to explore why the outcomes occurred as they did.

My mother. She survived Rheumatic Fever as a child, was strongly encouraged to join a convent as a sixteen year old, had the courage to leave it in her early thirties, was a teacher, worked for NY State Government, then married a widower with four teenagers, had a newborn, cared for my father through three strokes and liver cancer, all the while always celebrating and expanding her love of learning. While in her sixties, she has completed her second graduate degree and is currently working on her third. She is truly an inspiration of strength and determination for me.

Photos. Thousands of them. I want to be able to look back at my life, and share the faces of the past that I loved with those in my future whom I will love.

Couldn't shake the urge to keep learning more.

A get out of jail free card - the option of making one big mistake without penalty from my family. I have yet to cash it in.

Professor D. Kay Johnston at Colgate University. Her research focuses on morality, and her class on the subject was the most interesting class I have ever taken.

Tea please.

Cheezy disclaimer: Fallen in love...it's a constant adventure, and you can definitely get hurt, but it is also the best high.

To help start an academically exceptional school for under-privileged students, whether they are low-income, inmates, or orphans.

Have a glass of very cold chardonnay.

Do away with the death penalty.

I plan to continue in the field of philanthropy. The field has offered me many opportunities to learn about different ways to improve/influence education from outside the classroom.

Crestwood, NY and Manhattan

Colgate University, 2003

Cum Laude. Honors in both Education and History.

I volunteer through an organization called Student Sponsor Partners in which you make a four year commitment to mentor a high school student and pay a portion of his/her tuition to a private NYC school. I also am an alumni coordinator for my high school, The Loyola School which is on the Upper East Side. For the past three and a half years I have been on staff at the William E. Simon Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Manhattan. Currently the Foundation�s funding is focused on education, faith, and family strengthening programs in the South Bronx, NY and in Jersey City, NJ, as well as on national public policy initiatives. Currently, I am a Program Officer at the Foundation.