The son of a flight instructor and an aerospace engineer, RJ Gritter (GMS Class of 2005) grew up hanging around airplane hangars with his mom and dad. He fondly recalls his dad letting him tinker around with mechanics' tools from a very young age. Any of the GMS teachers who had RJ as a student, even from toddlerhood, knew that he was always thinking like an engineer.
He started building and flying radio-controlled airplanes in Middle School. In high school while attending the Early College at GTCC, RJ began to earn recognition and sponsorship opportunities while participating in flying competitions across the country. Not surprisingly, in 2010 RJ enrolled at NC State in the Aerospace Engineering Program.
Guided by his passion for flying, the semester that RJ finished high school, he also began a "summer job" at Atlantic Aero (a Greensboro based company dedicated to aircraft service, sales and maintenance). There he joined a team that was testing out a new Honda flying test bed engine. He continued with the project "on the side" as he started his first semester at NC State.
Within a few months the project at Atlantic Aero took off and RJ was invited to return to the project full time. It was a fantastic opportunity since it perfectly aligned with his field of study! He took a one year hiatus from NC State and worked at Atlantic Aero with a team of three engineers, plus a Japanese R&D team from Honda Jet, to prep the new engine for market. He helped build instrumentation systems that communicated to the engine and displayed metrics on the cockpit dashboard. RJ's co-workers (professionals in the industry) trusted his skill, knowledge and determined spirit enough to allow him to work on projects independently. RJ says, "There were some things that I just had to teach myself and I was grateful that my teammates let me do it." Test flying that engine was the pinnacle of his experience!
The following semester he returned to his studies at NC State. About his return, RJ said "The work experience made me appreciate school a lot more! I could immediately apply the engineering principles from class to my experience on the Atlantic Aero project. I found that I was very unique in my department because I had practical knowledge."
These days RJ reports that he lives in the lab on campus, and even when he is not doing projects for school, he enjoys building aircraft models for pleasure. For the past two years he has been president of the Aerial Robotics Club at NC State. This summer he will be working on a graduate-level project developing un-manned aircraft prototypes. And next March he will travel to Poland with two other pilots representing team USA at the world championship for Indoor Aerobatic Flying. He has also earned a name for himself as a featured pilot in a documentary exhibit called Flight Adventures at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis Planetarium.
RJ enjoys keeping in touch with his classmates from GMS. When asked to recall a specific fond memory of his time at GMS, he said, "There are so many, its hard to think of just one. I really appreciated the relationships that I formed with all of my classmates. As for my experience as a student at GMS... I wouldn't have had it any other way." Montessori alumni stay connected to each other long after graduation.
In September, RJ will be flying one of his aerobatic radio-controlled airplanes in the Winston-Salem Air Show. He will graduate from NC State in 2015 and has plans to pursue graduate school as a means to help him realize his dream of becoming a professional aircraft designer and test pilot.
Francis and Elena Wong are siblings who graduated from GMS one year after another. Francis (Class of 2006) went on to attend the Early College at Guilford and Elena (Class of 2007) later enrolled at Grimsley High School. Though their paths diverged in high school, they reunited when these Montessori alumni were both accepted at UNC Chapel Hill. This Fall Elena will start her senior year at UNC studying Psychology with a minor in Spanish for the Professions, and Francis, who just graduated with a degree in Economics, will begin a PhD program in Economics with a concentration on Public Finance at University of California at Berkeley.
About his time at GMS, Francis remembers being in a "math class of one" when he was in Middle School; a unique example of how he was supported to learn and excel at his own pace and was never restricted to stay within the confines of a specific textbook or prescribed curriculum just because of his age or grade. Francis says "it was such a strong primer for learning math on the college level." That experience parallels a math course experience that he had at UNC where the professor challenged him to approach math with the perspective that there is never just one right answer!
Francis also fondly recalls the overnight field trips that he took as a student at GMS and remarks that those trips are just one way that Montessori education helps students "look outwards" and move their learning to world beyond the classroom. For Francis, that philosophy of looking outward is the most compelling aspect of his experience at GMS. In fact, as a recipient of the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill, Francis has spent a lot of time looking out into the world. Throughout the last four years, the Morehead-Cain program has sponsored him in educational opportunities including grassroots public service in Argentina, research with Oxfam in Zambia, reconnaissance work in Ethiopia with an "off the grid" solar power company, and an independent project with the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. The last opportunity solidified his desire to pursue a career in academia and launch straight into PhD level work and research. He looks forward to moving to the San Francisco Bay area in mid-July.
When asked about her fondest memories at GMS, Elena shares that her relationships with her teachers are what stand out the most. Whether it was through the Middle School advisory program or the overarching culture of support and respect shared between the students and faculty, Elena values the depth and closeness of the friendships that she formed. "At GMS there was always a level of comfort and trust between us. Even after GMS, I never felt intimidated to approach my teachers or my professors with questions," Elena says. Today that translates to her experience at UNC where one of her professors is her running partner. Elena also keeps close ties with her GMS Middle School English teacher, Kathy Pitney, whose family lives in the RDU area. They have dinner together on a regular basis and Kathy invites Elena to come over and do laundry at her home. Elena says, "she always sends me back to school with several home cooked meals."
This summer Elena will complete the second of two internships she has had with the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, where she also participated in a Leadership Essentials program. She looks forward to returning to UNC in the Fall to finish her degree and continue as an RA for the Connor Community. She'll also be competing on two of the university's Ultimate Frisbee Teams. Sources say that she's one of the MVPs on the women's and co-ed teams.
In 1997, the first 8th grade graduating class of Greensboro Montessori School was comprised of three students. Sarah Coates (now Whittemore) was one of the three proud students who received her GMS diploma that June. They are now our oldest Montessori alumni.
Sarah's younger sister, Emily, graduated from GMS two years later and then their brother, Ethan, graduated in 2006.
Both Sarah and Emily matriculated to Grimsley High School from GMS and then went on to study at UNCG. Sarah received her BA in Psychology in 2005, and Emily received a BA in Spanish in 2007.
Music has been a major influence in their lives since they were very young. They participated and traveled with the Greensboro Youth Chorus and then with the Grimsley Madrigal Singers. But even before that they took on lead roles in GMS musicals during Middle School. They fondly recall a performance of "Persephone" which was an intensive week long children's opera production, and from time to time they still catch themselves humming the tunes.
Where are they now?
Sarah moved to Orlando, FL seven years ago to pursue a full-time career with Disney World. Sarah works at Epcot Center as a featured vocalist in the world-renowned Voices of Liberty, a premiere a cappello group. She performs seven shows per day. Outside of her full-time job, she also enjoys doing solo and session recordings for television and radio jingles. Sarah's husband, Scott, is also an entertainer/actor at Disney and stars in the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue in Pioneer Hall at the Magic Kingdom.
After finishing her first bachelor's at UNCG in Spanish and traveling abroad to Cuervanaca, Mexico and Medellin, Colombia, Emily worked as a paralegal for a local law firm that specializes in immigration law. She then decided to pursue a career in health services and returned to UNCG to obtain BS in Nursing. Upon graduation in 2011, she joined Cone Health System and works as an RN on the Cardiac Progressive Care Unit. Emily recently married her college sweetheart Josué Monge and they are expecting their first child in September. She is already looking forward to being a new GMS parent!
When recalling her days as a student at GMS, Emily says "Montessori education has given me an appreciation for nature and for taking time to explore the outdoors."
Sarah credits GMS with encouraging her to have a "life-long love of learning, and to be confident in [her] own unique abilities and to follow [her] passion."
"We both still keep in contact with many of our classmates from GMS. When we see them, it seems like we just pick up right where we left off."
At GMS, we owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Coates family for being the pioneers who laid those first foundational blocks for what has become an exceptional Montessori Middle School that embodies the best elements of a progressive, creative, and process-driven program designed for and by adolescents. Thank you Paul Coates and Cindy van Laar!!
Morgan Radford attended GMS from the time she was a toddler until graduating from the 8th grade in 2001. After GMS, she went on to Grimsley High School then began her undergraduate work at Duke University. She transferred to Harvard University where she completed her degree in Social Studies in 2009. Morgan spent the following year as a Fulbright Scholar working and studying in South Africa where she had the once in a lifetime opportunity to work with international dignitaries and meet Nelson Mandela, himself.
Upon returning the United States Morgan decided to pursue a career in journalism, and landed her first job working for ABC News in NYC. In 2013 she joined the ranks of Aljazeera America where she hosted Saturday and Sunday mornings news shows. In 2015 she moved over to NBC where she is a reporter for the Today Show. Read about Morgan Radford joining the NBC News network.
For those GMS teachers that knew Morgan when she was very young, there was always the inkling that she was destined for greatness. She is a passionate, confident, hard working and highly motivated young lady guided by a loving and supportive family and an education that is second to none. She exemplifies the GMS Portrait of a Graduate like no other! Equally as ambitious and charismatic is Morgan's brother, Miller Radford, who graduated from GMS in 2006, went on to get his degree from U Penn at Philadelphia, and spent a year in Malaysia studying and working as a Fulbright Scholar. These Montessori alumni embody the portrait of a graduate.
