Thornton-Donovan Alumni

The Circle of Life

Class of 2009 Alum.

Read the profile here.

Class of 2010 Alum.

Read the profile here.

Fit for the King

Class of 2010 Alum

Read Harry’s profile here.

Class of 2017 Alum.

The good intention maker.. read his profile here.

Question: Sam, how long have you been at T-D?

Sam: Since 1998, I believe. Time flies when you're having fun. Ha ha!!

Question: What do you think about each day?

Sam: I wanna to get outta of here. It's a big world. You know?

Question: Sam, what do you like best each day?

Sam: Some guy, a big guy, brings me water every morning, YummyYumm!!

Question: It's always good to hydrate, Sam, but do you have any favorite days?

Sam: Not really, but Monday through Friday are the best. Weekends are cloudy. On Saturday, all I hear are different languages, maybe like Russian, or perhaps Ukrainian. On Sunday, it's even more bizarre. I think I hear Danish or Swedish.

Question: Sam, who is your favorite T-D friend?

Sam: I think I have a few. A Brazilian and a Peruvian come to mind.

Question: Do you miss anybody?

Sam: Yes, there was this nice lady who always answered the phone, but one day she vanished and flew the coop. I really wish I could go South, too.

Question: Do you have any favorite words, Sam?

Sam: Yes, I have a few, like, "See you later" and "Get out of here." When I'm in a bad mood, I know a few four-letter words.

Question: Sam, have you ever escaped?

Sam: Only once that I recall. My bird brain doesn't allow me to remember. I do recollect that falling on the floor everything went dark as a towel was thrown over my head, and I was brought back into my home.

Question: Sam, have you ever been or gone for a haircut or trim?

Sam: Yes, many years ago. I came back each time looking like a sultry Sam. I even had my nails done.

Question: Sam, when are you happiest?

Sam: I have very few friends, but they are all outside in the trees and bushes. I would love to break out and wing it elsewhere, but I will always end up caged up. When I chirp, everyone talks to me, but no one lets me out of my cage.

Question: Sam, how did you get to T-D?

Sam: I came from the Yonkers Fire Department. A guy named Augie Nigro guided me here safely with no quackups. He was my best bird bud.

Question: Sam, what is your favorite food?

Sam: I eat anything, but I do not enjoy eggs. I take it personally. My feathers all furl up when eggs are around.

Question: What do you look at every day?

Sam: When I'm bored, I watch lots of television, and when I'm heated, I ogle the big pool outside.

Question: Have you ever laid an egg?

Sam: Yes, at least four. My first was named Andrew, after Andrew Cusack ’02. He always greeted me in the morning, saying, "Sam bird." There were three others, and the lady at the desk held on to them. I don't see any of them now, and I'm not sure they are still here. I know this: none of the eggs flew over my head.

Question: Sam, none of them flew over your head? I should look all around on that desk again. Maybe you are playing a game with me.

Sam: Yes, I am, and I don’t egret it.

Question: Toucan play the game, you know?

Question: Sam, going back to that four-letter word, was it foul?

Sam: I ain’t talkin and don't ruffle my feathers.

Question: Sam, I heard you are getting a new home, right?

Sam: Yes, a really thoughtful, helpful lady, who comes early and leaves late every day, is setting me up with a new abode. I think it was the Smith family who donated my new pad. 

Question: Sam, now, can you describe your new home?

Sam: It's commodious! I'm pleased to say no other bird knows that word. It's like living in a gym, and it's the talk of the School. I heard others say, “Sam is now living in a duplex.”

Question: How do you feel about your new duplex, Sam?

Sam: It’s quite an upgrade, and I can easily spread my wings. It has almost everything I need, and it even has a mirror. Looking in the mirror now, I think I‘ve never looked more alluring. Everyone will probably notice me. Any day now, I expect someone to woo me. Maybe someone may even sing me a song.

Question: Like whom?

Sam: My dream would be Johnny Cash. The lady, who sat at the desk a few years ago, often played lots of Johnny Cash songs.

Question: You mean the man who was everywhere?

Sam: I heard him say Nashville, Memphis, L.A., Vegas, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Key West, Albuquerque, and even a place called Folsom Prison. It’s my favorite song, because I know I can’t be free, and you know, Cash has been everywhere, but not here, at T-D.

Question: Sam, please keep on chirping, because Jonny Cash doesn’t croon anymore.

Sam: I have to chirp loudly and give him something to crow about.

Question: Sam, all these conversations are like talking to the birds, and I've got to get out of here.

Sam: I’ll see you later. Can’t wait to hear school bells ring again, beginning on 9/11. 

Douglas E. Fleming Jr.

Alumni Relations

IteHer first day was back in 2012 and from day one through to 2020 Rosie Kotlowicz from City Island, New York, found all her T-D all of them Totally Delightful, and of course, that reflected itself in her work. It was no surprise to the T-D faculty or her student friends for everyone who knew Rosie realized how Totally Dedicated to her work, she was. Nuf said!!!

When Rosie began in grade six, she did so with hardly a whimper, and in Aspiration T-D’s 2020 Yearbook, Rosie described herself as a shy shell. Clearly for this writer, Rosie’s shyness dissipated year after year, but as a student she continued to be quietly excellent. Rosie came to T-D with an almost impossible dream, one that might have scared off most kids her age, but not Rosie. She persisted. 

Rosie had a strong skill set, very sharp mental acumen, and a scholastic record that would attest to it all. Coupled with her strengths and talent, Rosie was incredibly curious, and for T-D curious is a buzzword. It was her curiosity that led Rosie to enroll and complete numerous courses offered nowhere else-all of which she took while embracing her college prep courses and curriculum.

Rosie’s T-D transcript posted a four-year average of 96%, and it included her college prep grades and grades from her course options listed below: 

The Occult                     Skyscraper National Park

Nefarious and Notorious         Hospitality Architecture

Marine Biology                 To Hell and Back 

Exploring Life Itself              Seekers and Seers 

All those courses written above were taken by choice and obviously were related to each yearly theme and enriching her Travel Study experiences in Mongolia, Israel and Galapagos.  

Rosie and her mom, Roberta Weiss, rarely missed T-D’s annual academic adventures, and Rosie valued them greatly as her hunger for horses was amplified with each trip. Should Rosie have ever have taken just one course at T-D, of course, it would be Horse of Course. 

Of all the countries Rosie toured, Mongolia stood out for it fueled her equine interest. No one who joined T-D on this most spectacular travel trek could ever forget the Eagle Fest and the role that the horseback riders played and the well trained horses that they rode while they celebrated the Eagle Fest. There was just nothing like being there and witnessing the Eagle Fest- one that everyone was able to see up close without any blinders. 

All through Rosie's years at T-D, her passion to ride, and attraction to horses, was too obvious to her mom, Roberta and so much so that she went shopping for a horse and surprised Rosie by acquiring one. Rosie’s horse aptly named Hugo-not a play on words like Y-O-U-G-O. Rosie often rode Hugo after school and took good care of her gelding. With lots of interest in dressage, Hugo was an ideal horse and horse breed for Rosie, and she wanted to practice more and more in teaching her horse how to dance. The Oldenburg horse and the breed itself, is known for its athleticism and with it a calm and stable temperament help make an enthusiastic rider and a very willing horse dance together like as one. What a tandem!!!

Graduating T-D in 2020, the same year, as our favorite young Dominicana and Commencement Speaker Maya Dominguez did, Rosie began to search for a college that offered venues with hands-on opportunities, and oddly enough, found one close to home, almost in our own backyard.

Cobleskill is a small town unknown to even Westchester folks. Many years ago I had stayed there even though it was only one horse town at that time. Once Rosie visited SUNY Cobleskill with it many barns and dozens of horses on its specious campus, she found her nirvana. 

Fast forward to 2026, when Rosie will be graduating Cobleskill, with 3.6 index and interest so intense in the equine world that only it could be satisfied in a prominent graduate school .

Now, lets go even Faster Forward with T-D’s Scotland 2025 Travel Study destination and Rosie’s interest in graduate school currently melding all at the same time. If there is one University in Rosie’s world of dreams that would seem like a perfect fit none could surpass the University of Edinburgh. It is, of course, a century old, but still blossoming, and Rosie’s interest in all things horse wise would seemingly be easily satisfied, if not satiated there. 

The University of Edinburgh is now a part of another dream for our young alumna horse enthusiast and this is where our story, in a sense, begins and it is right at the end. Ha! Ha! Ha! 

Many years ago, Patricia Bergin, now Patty Dilgleish taught in our Lower School. Actually, she is a deceased cousin of mine and was married to a prominent Pelham attorney, John Bergin. One of their adopted children was Tara Bergin, and she had the same passion for horses as Miss Rosie. Tara now lives in Scotland, in the same village that I visited as a guest at her wedding about 20 years ago. Tara is now a veterinarian surgeon and graduated from University Edinburgh with an advanced degree in Veterinary Science. 

Rosie’s mom was able to travel with T-D to Scotland and to met up with Tara this past April. They both joined T-D at dinner on the last night prior to our departure for New York and got to talk a lot about Rosie. Tara and Rosie’s mom got along brilliantly and Tara was happy to hear about Rosie and her interest in following in Tara’s footsteps. Several zoom calls were made, and the beginning of the new friendship was in place. 

Even faster forward to, sometimes around 2030 Rosie will be shedding her horseback riding gear and wearing her new and next cap and gown in Edinburgh- all, while dreaming that none of these horse stories could have ever horse sense.

N. B.

I hope Anastasia Reid reads all of this. She is the eighth grade speaker and horse aficionado. m description

ItLittle did Frenki know or dream when he was born in Elbason, Albania, in 2001, what a two-headed eagle could possibly mean or impossibly mean to him in his world to come. Frankly, no one in the world could have written the first few chapters of the book of the Two-Headed Eagle, Frenki Lulgjuraj. 

Few people, unless you are Albanian, can identify the Albanian flag, voted by a group of serious travelers as the most impressive of the 225 country flags today. 

No one on planet Earth in the year 2000 could have conceived or created a more personal and unique logo for young Frenki. One of the Albanian eagles may have been a representation of thought, and the other for those who dare to dream. The left eagle became Frenki’s Shakespeare, and the right - Don Quixote, an impossible dream — AMERICA. 

How did a young Albanian boy and future Yankee find his way to America, seen as the best landing place for so many Albanians, looking for all things green and the wild blue yonder.

I can’t say for sure, but ever since Almira Bubesi, hailing from Tirana, Albania, joined the T-D faculty a little before 2000, T-D began to attract and inherit more and more of the sons of Skanderbeg, a most noted Albanian military hero. 

Frenki and his parents visited T-D in July 2017 with one purpose in mind - admissions. Frankly speaking, for Frenkie, T-D only saw green lights. Admissions was a given as his scholastic record had one number and one number only - a perfect ten. A perfect ten in 12 different disciplines and all skill areas.

Entering the School where ability and achievement were more highly regarded than age and grade, Frenki was very attracted to T-D’s course offerings and numerous choices. 

Shortly after, Frenki was officially admitted, and as his paperwork with SEVIS (Homeland Security) was in place, finding an American home to host him for the entire school year became a serious concern and dilemma. 

For Frenki and his family, staying in an American home with an American family was so much more than a wanderlust and almost too much to pray for while hallucinating about it. 

Then, out of nowhere, a light went on in the former Headmaster’s head, and my thoughts of one of T-D's most hospitable families made me make an unexpected phone call. 

I wanted to introduce Frenki and his family to the Livingstons. Both Mary Crotty and Dan Livingstone fostered two T-D alumni and housed dozens of student ambassadors for dozens of years from numerous countries around the world, on T-D’s behalf. So why not Frenki? 

Once both families met, it was like instant karma. The Livingstons were totally in and offered to adopt Frenki, and Frenki, in learning that both Dan and Mary were ready to go all the way by housing him in grades ten, 11, and 12, became magically mesmerized. What a trifecta!!

Actually, to the Livingstons, Frenki, the faculty, and T-D, this was no big deal, for Frenki embraced every challenge and thrived in every class. He was academically ambitious, so much so that for all three years, he became a regular on the Headmaster’s Honor Roll. 

While at T-D, Frenki was guided by a most skillful shepard - Don Johnson, who taught two other Livingston family members a lot of math and physics. Both Greg Livingston ’17 and Chris Miles ’17 were motoring along since Frenki’s first T-D day in 2017. Greg, a Cornell alumnus, is now an aerospace engineer for Henkel, while Chris is engineering his own future in Maryland, where he is now a homeowner. Chris graduated from the American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is still practicing layups. 

In Frenki’s own words, he found his transition from his Albanian family and school to a new American home, family, and school almost seamless and a really great gig. He loved T-D’s diversity and how welcoming everyone was. He wouldn’t miss any school days as his new friends excited and energized him”. Bear in mind, Frenki never ever cut a class, took one that seemed easier, or took a day off due to shenanigans.  

In his senior year at T-D, Frenki enjoyed his first travel study experience and spent about two weeks in Mongolia. Upon reflection, Frenki cherished this academic adventure because he was able to keep up with Dan Livingston's father throughout the junket. Bear in mind that Fred Livingstone is a decade older than I am (84). 

It was easy for T-D to strongly recommend Frenki to Manhattan College. His intense interest in math, tech, and cybersecurity could all be satiated there. It's no wonder that Manhattan lured him with a very handsome scholastic excellence scholarship.

Four years of college went by quickly, but once again, for those who work hard, good things will happen. With an outstanding academic record in Manhattan, Frenki was recruited by BCG, the Boston Consulting Group. BCG is a global consulting firm building green businesses. Ironically, this is T-D’s ’24-’25 academic theme.

Right now, Frenki is leaving Gaelic Park for the Boston Celtic Garden and the Red Sox world. 

For this Thanksgiving, there will be a welcoming home in Pelham and a warm home in Elbason, for families and folks to gather there with a glass of Raki, knowing the Two Headed Eagle has just landed and there will be no problem in Houston. 

Frenki leaves Manhattan College wishing three T-D alumni an equally fabulous future- Joshua Nadorf’21, and Mohamed Ali’21, along with his Sophia Ventresca, T-D’21, and Manhattan’24. All three Jaspers were and are Honor Roll students at their alma mater. 

Doug Fleming, 

 Alumni Liaisonem description