Jamie Merisotis ’86

Jamie Merisotis ’86, an articulate and consistent voice for greater access to higher education, has been in the news following publication of his book, America Needs Talent: Attracting, Educating & Deploying the 21st-Century Workforce.

Jamie Merisotis ’86, a 乐播传媒 trustee and a dedicated advocate for improved access to higher education, moderated a 2011 symposium at 乐播传媒 on higher education and affordability. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

He tells that “talent is what made us great in the 20th century.”

Yet, for the better part of four decades, “the national higher-ed attainment rate has been flat. If we want a second American Century, we have to invest in talent.”

Indeed,in a interview, Merisotis says that “the U.S. labor market is signaling increasing dissatisfaction with what it’s getting… It’s looking for different ways to get the talent that it needs.”

, Merisotis, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, suggests one way that the U.S. could do a better job at investing in talent.

His idea is to allow students to use federal financial aid for alternative, “non-bachelor鈥檚 pathways” toward post-secondary education:

Colleges and universities will continue to have a critical place in educating our country. But if the purpose of financial aid is to open doors for students, and give them more potential pathways in life, then the most effective use of federal aid will place less emphasis on how education is delivered, and more on whether students are receiving the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

“Higher education is about feeding the economy with the talent it desperately needs.”

Merisotis, a 乐播传媒 trustee, who has also written in the about the many benefits of higher education, including 聽says that “higher education attainment isn’t just about the money 鈥� it’s about the people, and opening up the worlds of opportunity that only education can provide.

“It is about enriching lives and communities, reducing crime, increasing engagement, and feeding the economy with the talent it desperately needs.

Tim Whiton ’09

Tim Whiton ’09, a former 乐播传媒 Nordic skier, won the Sugarloaf Uphill Climb on Oct. 11.

He completed the 2.5-mile course in 29:14, with two current Colby students finishing second and third.

Sugarloaf has a 4,237 foot summit鈥攖he second highest peak in Maine.

Tim Whiton ’09 won the Sugarloaf Uphill Climb in Carrabassett Valley, Maine.
(Photograph by Jamie Walter)

Mike Lieber ’92, redux

We’re Pats fans but we’re meritocratic Patriots fans. We’re meripatriotic! Which means giving Mike Lieber ’92 another nod for a another story in the media about his sideline business selling “Deflatriots” hats, T-shirts, and other gear.

The gear mocks the Patriots and their quarterback, Tom Brady, who alleged used intentionally deflated, and thus easier to handle, footballs during their Jan. 18 playoff game vs. the Indianapolis Colts, the team that Indy native Lieber grew up rooting for.

With the Patriots meeting the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, now living and working as a lawyer in Chicago.

Reporter Jill Kauffman says that “when the Pats play the Colts in Indianapolis Sunday,聽Mike Lieber will be there, selling gear. He says you can almost be sure during the game, up on the Jumbotron, you鈥檒l see someone wearing a flat football on their head.”

Kevin Madden ’05

Concord (N.H.) High School’s championship football team will be honored tomorrow at the school’s homecoming game, and the , a linebacker and tight end on that team who played at 乐播传媒.

鈥淭here really are a lot of good memories. A lot of pride,鈥� Madden tells reporter Sandy Smith.

At a former teammates’ recent wedding, Madden says, “we must have watched the highlight tape (of the 2000 season) at least 20 times over weekend.鈥�

鈥淚t was a good group of guys. We had all known each other a while, playing football and other sports together throughout the city.”

Andy Kageleiry ’12

The Lewiston Sun Journal reported on a campus talk by Andy Kageleiry ’12, a senior analyst with the consulting firm to support the appeal of New England quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension.

The NFL had tried to suspend Brady for allegedly being part of a scheme to use intentionally deflated, and thus easier to handle, footballs last season, specifically in a Jan. 18 playoff game vs. the Indianapolis Colts.

Andy Kageleiry ’12 of Analysis Group gives a talk on Sept. 30 at 乐播传媒 about “Deflategate: Assessing the Quality of the NFL’s Statistical Evidence.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Brady and the NFLPA won the appeal, as we know.

And while U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman’s ruling to vacate the suspension did not address whether or not the balls were tampered with, the experts put onto the case by Analysis Group, according to the Sun Journal story, did offer an answer.

They “were able to demonstrate, through statistical reasoning, that the Patriots balls may have shown less PSI mainly because their balls were tested minutes 鈥� and possibly several minutes 鈥� before the Colts’ balls were examined.”

The story quotes Kageleiry, a magna cum laude economics major, saying that the whole experience was “kind of a fun case. Kind of an unusual case.”

Analysis Group’s chairman and cofounder is Bruce Stangle ’70, and the talk was sponsored by the Department of Economics.

Michael Lieber ’92

Giving equal time to the other side of the line of scrimmage, Indianapolis native Mike Lieber ’92 has created a line of “.

Michael Lieber ’92 shows off his Deflatriots gear at Back to 乐播传媒 on Oct. 3 as he hangs out with Ira Waldman ’73. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College).

that “plenty of people loathe the New England Patriots. Plenty of them would love to rub DeflateGate in Tom Brady’s face.

“But none, perhaps, have taken it to the extreme that Indy native Mike Lieber has 鈥� starting a full-fledged company whose mission statement is, as he puts it, ‘to really tweak the Patriots.'”

Lieber, a lawyer and litigator in Chicago by day, partnered with fellow alumnus Quoc Tran ’95 on the sideline business selling hats, T-shirts, and other gear that mocks the Patriots.

“I’ve been waiting 25 years.”

Reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow reports that the crucible of attending 乐播传媒 also motivated Lieber.

As a 乐播传媒 student, he was razzed by New Englanders “every time the Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers or the Patriots beat the Colts.”

Lieber tells her that “I’ve been waiting 25 years for my revenge and it’s finally here.”

Ross Brockman ’11

Brockman, who cofounded Downeast Cider House, as the company grows and as he can’t be as hands-on as he once was.

“It鈥檚 weird the first time you have an employee. I was like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know if I trust someone else to sweep the floor. I do it certain way.”

Still, he and the company want to keep it real.

鈥淭he typical picture on social media of, like, a can of cider on the beach 鈥� that鈥檚 boring. It鈥檚 not us,” he tells the Globe. “I鈥檇 rather hear an inside story about the company or see something real. I hate lying to people. It feels disgusting to be corny. Sometimes it gets us into trouble, because I鈥檓 too honest and I say too much, but that鈥檚 just my personality.鈥�

In 2014, the Downeast leadership 鈥� Tyler Mosher ’11, Brockman, and his brother Matt ’08聽 鈥� were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Food and Wine category. Based in Charlestown, Mass., the company recently announced it would open a new production facility in East Boston.

Rebecca Fraser-Thill

Advice for budding entrepreneurs on how to face criticism includes a tip from psychology faculty member Rebecca Fraser-Thill, director of program design for the Purposeful Work initiative at 乐播传媒.

Fraser-Thrill tells Huffington Post blogger Kenny Kline that the people who most dread being criticized are often the quickest to judge other people. So if you’re less focused on being critical of others, their criticism will have less impact on you in general.

Nick Mazuroski ’09

Nick Mazuroski and a business partner founded the year-old Rwanda Bean Co., a coffee bean wholesaler.

Portland Press Herald video reporter Susan Kimball says that “by buying coffee beans directly from a farmer鈥檚 cooperative in the western Rwandan province of Karora, they cut out the middleman coffee broker and pay the farmers more.”

Kimball notes that Mazuroski and his partner and friend Mike Mwenedata, a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda who came to the U.S. in 2009, have also “pledged to return 50 percent of the company鈥檚 profits to the farming community to support local schools, health care, and clean water.”

Jay Hartshorn

Jay Hartshorn is head coach of women’s cross country and track and field. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

, head coach of women’s cross country and track and field. Hartshorn grew up in Lexington, Mass., where her father, Bob Hartshorn, a longtime boys鈥� soccer coach at Lexington High, is in the Massachusetts High School Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame.

She tells Pave that “I loved watching soccer with my dad when I was little, and he had a unique, fun style of coaching that I definitely inherited.”

James Reuter ’75

The Bethel Citizen writes about two local bicyclists including Jim Reuter ’75, in the 2015 Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur.

The PBP attracts some 6,000 bicyclists, who ride more than 1,230 kilometers over four days. Reuter tells the newspaper that some of the strongest participants were the oldest.

鈥淭he oldest finisher was an 80-year-old Frenchman,鈥� he tells the paper, adding that “I think, especially for endurance events, being older is only an asset. You gain so much wisdom as you age, and you come to know your own body better, and what it can do.鈥�

乐播传媒 and Koru

First Round Review, in an article advising firms to look past traditional markers like GPA in their hiring practices, shares a telling anecdote about a 乐播传媒 graduate who was just OK on paper but turned out to be a great hire.

The article, “,” quotes Kristen Hamilton, the co-founder and CEO of Koru, an immersive business-training program designed for young job seekers that 乐播传媒 partnered with in 2014.

The article’s premise is that promising job candidates often turn out to be paper tigers, so “it鈥檚 time to rethink what qualities actually make someone a great employee.”

Hamilton tells the story of the 乐播传媒 alumnus who worked with Koru. A rhetoric major with no business experience, he had lived in the woods on his own wits “but he wouldn’t have known that he could translate that into something that would be exciting for a software company.”

After completing Koru鈥檚 training program and learning how those experiences and his liberal arts education can be marketable job skills, he is now in sales at Smartsheet, “and he鈥檚 nailing it,” the article says.

Jimmy Lathrop ’94

In a Q&A with the Jimmy Lathrop talks about the joys and pressures of solo practice in the Park Slope neighborhood.

A litigator, his areas include real estate, foreclosure defense, elder law, guardianship proceedings and landlord/tenant issues. He likes the fast pace of his work. “Anywhere else you’d be like a Ferrari stuck in traffic,” he says.

“Here you hit the ground running. There is no shortage of people with problems in Brooklyn so there is never a lack of work. It’s a real thrill because you can spend every day in court on trial going full speed as much as you want.”

Lathrop has been recognized for his pro bono work from the Brooklyn Bar Association and received a Distinguished Service Award from the BBA in 2011.