
Prosperity Church Campus Toddler-Kindergarten 4755 Prosperity Church Rd. (704) 503-6000	Mallard Creek Campus 1st - 6th Grade 9026 Mallard Creek Rd. (704) 549-4253	Johnston Oehler Campus Middle & High School 4125 Johnston Oehler Rd. (704) 936-5580

Alumni

Where are they now?
Students who have completed the 8^th grade at Countryside are considered alumni. Each year, all 150+ students are invited in January to attend The Grad Evening where they share memories of Countryside and stories of their current lives. Alumni -- we want to hear from you! Please complete our online form so we can share your good news with our current students and families. Send a picture too!

James Purcell
BA International Business & Spanish
UNC Wilmington
Email: Cicatrizjcp@gmail.com

I graduated December 2007 from UNCW with degrees in International Business and Spanish. I completed an Honors Thesis in Spanish analyzing modern Latin American poetry and writing poems reflecting the styles of four different Latin American poets. I'm now in the process of planning a 12 month humanitarian service and cultural education adventure through 20 countries of South, Central and North America. Join me! www.TheTwentyTwelvesProject.org.

Going to Camp Cheerio and Washington, D.C., dominating basketball with a great team and a great coach, "Field Day" with the big parachute, and knowing that I was avoiding the dangerous jungles of public school. Countryside played an essential roll in preparing me for the academic and social challenges I met throughout high school and college in a way that no other educational environment could. I look back on my four years at Countryside with great pride and appreciation.

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Jarrett Murgolo
Assist. Middle School Teacher
Countryside Montessori School
Email: maninawe@aol.com

After moving on from Countryside Montessori I went to Charlotte Catholic High School to continue along the educational path that was so wonderfully laid before in Montessori. I took an Intro to Psychology course my junior year in high school and fell in love with the subject so when it came time to apply for college that the schools I went looking for. Fortunately, some of the best programs for Psychology were right around the corner. I set my sights on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and found that was the best decision for a school. I know this because the moment I began there I went with Psychology as my major and never changed it, never changed the school I went to and never regreted anything. So, 4 years later, I graduated from UNCC with my BA in Psychology and a minor in Criminal Justice. Little did I know how hard it was to find the job I would really love doing with my major till after I gradu ated. I had been working in retail while in school so I stuck with that for the time being for almost 9 years of my life. It wasn't until I got worn out and had to sit down with myself to figure what I truly wanted to do with the rest of my life that I realized it had been in front of me the whole time. After 16 years being away, just this past year, 2008, I made the decision to return to Countryside Montessori but not as a student, not as visitor but to teach the very class that I once was the guinea pig for many years ago. I now teach alongside my mother, of whom has been the role model and pioneer for so many children and adults everyday. I've watched time and time again the satisfaction and overall passion she has for what she has done for a very long time that I knew that's what I wanted too. I knew that I wanted to be her and feel that same way about something.

Montessori has given me so many memories both as being a student and also having a parent who has taught here for so long. I have no one single moment that stands out in my mind. No that's not because I older and it's been so long, but rather that the best thing I ever walked away with was the ability to find yourself out their in the world. This school provided me with so many necessary life skills and the feeling that you were a part of something different, something greater than an education alone. I was constantly around people, adults and fellow students, that whose sole interest was to make life the best they could for you. Who truly had a passion for learning and shaping a better individual. Everything from trips to Chicago, to community service programs, month after month of work and striving to truly understand and master everything I did, all will always be some of the best times I had as a young adult and the fondest memories. I can 't ever thank this schoo and all it's amazing people enough.

"This school provided me with so many necessary life skills and the feeling that you were a part of something different, something greater than an education alone."

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Emily Harding
Medical Student
St. Louis University
Email: hardinem@gmail.com
How do you think Countryside helped you prepare for high school and college?
I was lucky to spend so many of my formative years at Countryside because it is the best sort of environment I know of where you can really “find yourself”. I was always the sort of student who liked to do things my own way, (and many times in my own time!) and my teachers at Countryside always embraced and fostered my independence. In doing so, they encouraged me to listen to my inner voice and not to be afraid to go to the beat of my own drummer. Countryside taught me that doing things differently doesn’t necessarily carry the negative connotation that so commonly is associated with deviating from the “status quo”. In many instances, it can actually make you stand out in ways you’d never have imagined.

By learning to think and act for myself from such an early age, I found my transitions into both a more traditional high school setting and into a large university setting to be relatively seamless. All along the way, my ability to be an independent and creative thinker served me well in both the classroom as well as in the world at large – from not being afraid to throw out an opposing point of view in a class discussion and then being able to defend my argument, to deciding not to buy a prom dress like all the other girls in my class, but to design my own and have it my mom make it. Now that I am almost halfway through medical school, I find that my ability to think outside the box and to explore and to share unorthodox possibilities with my fellow students and teachers is perhaps the most valuable skill I can have when it comes to solving patient problems.

How do you think Countryside prepared you for your profession?

From the first day I walked into Countryside and tried to build the pink tower, I’ve had this incredible desire to learn as much as I can. The love of learning that permeates the classrooms at Countryside is really infectious – you can’t help but join in. When I chose to attend medical school, I quickly realized that I had committed myself to a fate of a lifetime of daily problems to solve, tests to take and pass, and endless stacks of papers heralding new drug discoveries and treatment regimens. After two years of it, rather than feeling exhausted by hours of lecture and grueling exams meant to weed out those who don’t study enough, I’m more motivated than ever to keep on learning. I don’t for a moment mind the work that it involves and I believe that in large part it is because I learned so early that the acquisition of knowledge isn’t a chore, rather, it’s truly a labor of love.

Emily’s fondest memory as a Countryside student.

Choosing one is pretty hard – I was there for so long! One thing that sticks out in my head are Friday afternoon creek walks in Chitra Alvarado’s class – (LE1). I personally have never been much of an outdoorsy type of girl, but what little of it I have in me definitely came from these outings. I loved how she literally led us on walks IN the creek – the dirtier and more soaked you were, the better! She instilled in us such an appreciation for the fun found in little things – like catching crayfish, picking flowers, watching birds – and taught us all how to be the keenest of observers of the world around us.

Getting Married!

I’m marrying my best friend, Ben, in October 2009! We’re living in Saint Louis while I finish school, and are hoping to move back east to be closer to our families when I graduate in 2010. Now that I’ve tricked him into marrying me, I just have to work on convincing him to send our kids to Montessori school J

ORGANIZATIONS EMILY BELONGS TO

· American College of Physicians - medical student member

· American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – medical student member

· American Medical Association – medical student member

· Missouri State Medical Association – medical student member

· Saint Louis University School of Medicine Family Medicine Interest Group – VP of Communications

· Saint Louis University School of Medicine Health Resource Center – Lead Coordinator

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2006 – Present: Saint Louis University School of Medicine -- MD expected 2010

2005-2006: Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy – research assistant in Dr. Laura Rusche’s Lab. Worked on elucidating mechanisms of gene regulation and expression using the model organism Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (baker’s and brewer’s yeast!)

AWARDS & COMMENDATIONS

2007 – Arnold Gold Foundation Summer Fellowship – project title “C-CAPS-STL: Cervical Cancer Awareness, Prevention and Screening in St. Louis” – I designed and implemented a women’s health education project for the medically underserved neighborhoods of Saint Louis during the summer of 2007. The goal of this project was to increase women’s understanding and awareness of the new cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, and to help provide access to adequate women’s healthcare services for women of childbearing age in these communities.

2005 – Boston College, Scholar of the College – research distinction, project title “Characterization of the Nuclear Import Pathways of HPV11 L2 Minor Capsid Protein” I spent two and a half years in Dr. Junona Moroianu’s lab at Boston College researching how the human papillomavirus (HPV – same bug that causes cervical cancer) gets itself into the nuclei of cells so that it can replicate and spread. My senior project was to begin to study how a part of type 11 of this virus does this, and the work that I started was completed and published in the Journal of Virology by fellow lab members in 2006.

2003, 2004 – Boston College Undergraduate Research Fellowships

2001-2005 – IBM Corporation Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholar

Publications

Bordeaux, J., Forte, S., Darshan, M.S., Harding, E., Klucevsek, K., and Moroianu, J. 2006. The L2 minor capsid protein of low risk human papillomavirus type 11 interacts with host nuclear import receptors and viral DNA. Journal of Virology 80(16): 8259–8262.

Darshan, M. S., Lucchi, J., Harding E., and Moroianu, J. 2004. The L2 minor capsid protein of human papillomavirus type 16 interacts with a network of nuclear import receptors. Journal of Virology 78: 12179–12188.

“From the first day I walked into Countryside and tried to build the pink tower, I’ve had this incredible desire to learn as much as I can.”

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Diana Kenrick Sindicich
diana@sindicich.com
I received my PhD in Apparel Product Development from Florida State this summer. Now I am an assistant professor at Kansas State teaching quality assurance and professional development for fashion marketing and design majors.
I started at Countryside the year the University Place building was finished but I remember most playing in the large fields and creek outside the brand new mallard creek building.

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Meagan Eichinger
Freshman
Appalachian State University

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Nhi Vu
Freshman
North Carolina State University

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Courtney Thompson
Regional Sales Consultant for Calico Cottage
Email: courtneylanethompson@gmail.com

Got Chocolate?

Would you want a job where you received an unlimited supply of free chocolate? Courtney Thompson, a Countryside alumna, gets just that! She is the Regional Sales Consultant for Calico Cottage, which is the world’s largest fudge manufacturer. She is able to select from a diverse selection of 200 fudge recipes and expect delivery to her desk within 48 hours.

“I assist other entrepreneurs intertwine Calico Cottage into their own businesses. After graduating from the New York Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Advertising & Public Relations, Courtney went to work for Calico Cottage where she manages fourteen territories and provides marketing and sales support. She helps clients create a business model and analysis, design store layouts, and concoct a variety of savory fudge flavors.

"Countryside taught me to be an independent thinker and to challenge myself to make my own decisions on important issues. We were encouraged to build relationships with everyone we encountered. My ability to connect and build rapport with clients is a tremendous asset to my success in my career.”

One of Courtney’s fondest memories was with Ms. Debby. “I remember being able to count to ten with northern and southern accents and Ms. Debby telling me it was OK to do that. Now when I visit clients in the south I can turn on my southern talk.” She also remembers her middle school internship with her best friend, Katie Whiteside. The girls interned at the Countryside Montessori pre-school campus and made chocolate chip cookies with the children. During their visit, they were also able to work with the same Montessori materials that they worked with when they were children there. “That week had a lasting impression on me. It gave me the experience to know that I could teach and that I would enjoy it. I am planning to get a masters degree in education because of that experience.”

"You learn so much while you’re at Countryside. You have the confidence to go forward and know you will be able to handle anything in life.”

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Nick Tosco
BA Political Science North Carolina State University

“The foundation of what I had at Countryside really prepared me for my future.”

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