Arbor Alumni
Go here, then go anywhere.
And that’s exactly what happens to our graduates. They flourish in high school, both public and private, and then attend colleges and universities across the nation. They study science, math, the arts, language…anything and everything.
No other pedagogy encourages creative thinking the way Montessori does. As Maria Montessori said, “Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.” Traditional education is passive learning. Montessori education is active learning: it’s questioning, trying, failing and trying again. In other words, it’s innovating.
A child who is exhilarated by the ability to follow his curiosity in a Montessori classroom becomes an adult exhilarated by what he can accomplish in a boardroom, operating room, college classroom or anywhere he chooses to follow his interest.
Where are they now?
This year, Arbor’s class of 2021 are now attending high schools throughout the Atlanta area including The Darrow School, DeKalb School of the Arts, The Galloway School, George Walton Academy, Lakeside High School, The Lovett School, Midtown High School, The New School, North Atlanta High School, The Paideia School, St. Pius X Catholic High School, and Woodward Academy.
Arbor’s class of 2017 have taken their next educational step as they attend colleges across the country. These recent high school graduates are now attending Clemson University, Davidson College, Dickinson College, Emory University, Furman University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard University, New York University, Reinhardt University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Transylvania University, the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, the University of Southern California, and The College of Wooster.
Are you an Arbor graduate?
We’d love to hear from you!
Madison Hafitz
Class of 2008
After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Tufts University in 2016, Madison Hafitz joined AmeriCorps. For the past two years she has served with City Year Boston, an education-focused nonprofit that keeps students on track to graduate and ready for college and career success. During her first term of service, she worked with a partner teacher in a 5th grade, English as a Second Language classroom, where she was a tutor, mentor and role model for students. Following her year working in the classroom, Madison stayed on with City Year in a new position as a Senior AmeriCorps member on the Boston Civic Engagement team. This role involved planning physical community service projects all over the city of Boston, and engaging with volunteers and corporate sponsors. Following her graduation from City Year in June, where she was selected as the Corps’ Commencement Speaker, she is excited to be heading back to school herself. She will begin pursuing a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Michigan this fall.
Quinn Novak
Class of 2006
Quinn Novak graduated from the College of William and Mary, where she was Vice President of the mock trial team.
She is currently an attorney in Richmond, Virginia and her practice focuses on civil litigation, including family law and insurance defense. Her work with family law involves child custody, visitation, divorce, and adoption. A large portion of her work with insurance defense includes assisting child counselors and therapists. Read more in her Alumni Spotlight.
Miranda Knowles
Class of 1994
After graduating from Arbor, Miranda attended The Paideia School. She graduated from Carleton College in 2004 with a degree in neuroscience. While at Carleton, she won the Callahan Award for best Ultimate Frisbee player in the country. In 2007, she earned her MS from the University of Washington. After grad school she lived in Shanghai where she taught, played and coached Ultimate Frisbee. She was a member of the gold medal-winning US national Ultimate Frisbee teams as both athlete and coach. Miranda currently works at The Paideia School where she teaches biology and coaches the girls’ varsity Ultimate Frisbee team. This summer she’ll be representing China at the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships. This marks the fourth country she has competed for at the World Championship (USA, guest player with Colombia, coached Team Israel and now guest player with China).
Krysta Posid
Class of 2005
Krysta graduated from Arbor in 2005 and went on to attended St. Pius X Catholic High School. From there, she went to the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) where she graduated Cum Laude from the Honors College with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Minor in Rehabilitative Sciences in 2013. She was accepted into The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Doctor of Physical Therapy Program following and graduated December 2016 with her doctorate, receiving 2 of the 5 awards given in the program: The Cecile Clardy Shatterfield Award for Humanities in Healthcare and the Student Service Award. After weighing several wonderful job opportunities in various fields of Physical Therapy, Krysta accepted a job with Benchmark Physical Therapy and is currently working at the Howell Mill Clinic in the Atlanta Region with outpatient orthopedics where she was awarded “Rookie of the Year” for excellence in patient care. Krysta applied to and was accepted to an Orthopedic Residency Program and Clinic Director Training and will be completing both in Summer of 2018. She was thrilled to return home to Atlanta after years away and spends free time with family, friends, and re-exploring her favorite city.
Tasha Posid
Class of 2002
After Arbor, Tasha attended St. Pius X, then Emory for dual degrees in Journalism and Psychology and then obtained a Master’s and Doctorate Degree from Boston College. Tasha currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband Tom and pug Bubbles. She is currently finishing up a post-doctoral fellowship at The Ohio State University where she conducted research on how we learn about difficult math concepts, in an effort to assess the Common Core, improve teaching training, and develop appropriate education materials. She has recently accepted a faculty position at Ohio State where she will be conducting medical education research., and is now finishing her Post-Doctorate Degree at Ohio State. She recently accepted a position within Ohio State and will be working at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. She and her husband, Tom Cole, and pug, Bubbles, will be moving into their first house in June of 2018.
Dakota Flournoy
Class of 2006
In 2014 graduating magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh, Dakota came home to start her career as a journalist at CNN International. In 2016, she moved to New York to accept a position with social news agency Storyful. In this position, she verifies key user-generated social media videos for use in global reporting on stories from Venezuela to Syria, and everywhere in between. Essentially she fights fake news! She is also currently part of Storyful’s full-time embed team at the New York Times.