10 years later: See what 10 Long Island 2016 valedictorians are up to now

The Class of 2016 valedictorians Newsday graduates we interviewed for this package faced uncertainty from the start, pivoting as their interests evolved and adapting to challenges like graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic and job market setbacks.

Ten years after their high school graduations, they are thriving in careers that represent not just traditional achievement, but alignment with their personal values.

Their advice: Be curious. Stay open. And learn know who you are.

Read on for more insights from these thoughtful young adults.

— Vera Chinese, LI Life editor

Julia Shi

High School: The Stony Brook School

Education: Yale University

Today: Storyboard artist/illustrator

Lives in: Los Angeles

When the game development company Julia Shi had always dreamed of working for rejected her for an internship not once, but twice, she made a promise to herself: she would land there one day.

She secured an internship at another company that opened a doorway into storyboarding — telling narratives through a sequence of pictures — which ended up being the crux of her career.

“Storyboarding is now, like my bread and butter,” said Shi, 28, who lives in Los Angeles.

Shi was eventually tapped by Riot Games, her sought-after career destination, though the path wasn’t linear.

She said she struggled to find a job after graduating from Yale in 2020 with a bachelor’s in computing and the arts. The path forward seemed unclear until she was hired at the creative agency Powerhouse Animation, where she refined her technique and found her footing before being hired by Riot.

Another setback followed in 2024 when she was laid off. Soon after, a job opportunity popped up at Paramount+, which was developing "Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender," she said. Working on the movie was another pivotal learning experience, according to Shi.

“There’s the roller coaster up-and-down effect,” she said. “But it’s really cool to see just how everything’s connected. I think without those down points, I wouldn’t have gotten certain opportunities, and I don’t know where I would be now without them.”

Now back as a contractor at Riot Games, she said that while having the skill set and working hard helped her reach her goals, she also believes chance played a role.

“I think that luck factor is like, you never know what’s going to happen, and it’s sometimes out of your control, but you could do your most to try to make it happen,” Shi said. “I put myself in those places where I knew I would have a good chance to succeed.”

It was in elementary school that Shi first discovered her love of anime. At The Stony Brook School, she focused on art and to this day, continues creating fan art and K-pop art.

She credits her parents with being supportive while encouraging a well-rounded upbringing that included playing soccer.

Her advice to young people navigating uncertainty is simple: “It’s OK to be insecure and not know because that will make you curious to learn more.” — Lorena Mongelli

Michelle Bartolo

High school: Newfield High School in Selden

Education: Marist University, North Carolina State University

Today: Research fellow at Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Lives in: Boston

Michelle Bartolo has used high-level math to predict everything from patients’ risk of developing disease to the ways pests move through a cornfield.

What she could never have predicted was the path her career would take.

As a student at Newfield High School in Selden, Bartolo’s favorite subjects included writing and social sciences, as well as math, and she considered careers as a teacher, writer, actuary and engineer, among other options.

Her early-morning calculus classes there with Toni Sparhuber were especially inspiring, she said.

Sparhuber “was very nice and encouraging, [with] a great sense of humor,” Bartolo, 27, recalled. “Doing math first period, you know, you're waking up your brain, but it was always a joy to go into her class and to see these cool equations come to life.”

At Marist University in Poughkeepsie, Bartolo majored in applied mathematics, focusing on biology and computer science. Her research included mathematical models that could forecast the movements of agricultural pests, as well as an algorithm that analyzed whale songs recorded in the Indian Ocean. “I thought it was really cool that math could actually be used to explain and predict and understand the world around us,” she recalled.

She went on to earn a PhD in biomathematics at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where she analyzed medical images of lungs ravaged by pulmonary hypertension to predict how the disease would progress. Now, as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and its teaching hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, she studies glaucoma, which can cause blindness if left untreated. Mathematical analysis of the DNA of half a million people “helps us to predict who is more likely to develop the disease,” she said. “Over time, this might help physicians catch glaucoma earlier, and we could help treat it earlier. It could also pave the way eventually to develop better and more targeted treatments.”

The second of three children, Bartolo said her mother, Chantalle, a stay-at-home mom, and her father, Domenico, who owns a medical equipment business, were always supportive of her academic and athletic endeavors. At Newfield, Bartolo served as honor society president and soccer team captain.

Her family helped out when she endured a series of misfortunes in 2021 and 2022, including two knee surgeries that each required a year of rehabilitation, and a night she spent trapped in her car with her mother during a snowstorm, she said. She gives back with efforts such as growing her hair to waist-length, cutting it and donating the locks to children undergoing cancer treatment.

Asked for advice for students who aren’t certain which path to take after high school, she said, “It's OK to not have everything planned out right now. I think it's more important to always stay curious, never stop learning.” — Maura McDermott

Nicholas Pugliano

High School: Plainedge High School

Education: Swarthmore College

Occupation: PhD student at Boston College

Location: Boston

As valedictorian at Plainedge High School, Nicholas Pugliano didn’t have a clear plan for his future — and he was fine with that.

“Coming out of high school, all my advisers ... told me to try engineering since I was good in math and sciences, so I explored that,” he said.

He enrolled at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania as an engineering major, but soon discovered a passion for chemistry, ultimately completing a double major.

“I decided to explore [chemistry] as a job at first after graduating, but the job I got started getting a little repetitive for me after a while, and I wanted more stimulating work,” he said.

“That kind of pointed me toward research,” continued Pugliano, now in the third year of a PhD program in organic chemistry at Boston College.

While many of his peers seemed to have clear direction early on, Pugliano, 27, said he never felt pressured to map out his entire future. “I figured stressing myself out about it would just make things worse,” he said. “I just figured I’d find my way eventually, and then, yeah, I ended up finding my way.”

That openness to uncertainty, he said, was shaped in part by his high school experience during which he moved among different groups and activities. In those years Pugliano swam, played violin in the Gemini Youth Orchestra and ran track and cross country, balancing a demanding schedule with spending time with friends and family.

Despite the pace — and lack of sleep — he said he enjoyed it all.

After high school, he joined the cross-country team at Swarthmore but experienced a couple of road bumps; he had several injuries, including a stress fracture that caused him to miss a large portion of his college athletic career.

“All of the injuries were ones that you can’t really train through, and the only way to get better is just fully resting, so that was pretty frustrating,” he said.

Now gradually returning to running, Pugliano said he hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon while living in the city and still holds a long-term goal of completing an Ironman competition.

His advice to the class of 2026 reflects his own mindset: You don’t need to have everything figured out on Day One.

“As long as you know who you are and what you enjoy, just keep that close to you, and then things will sort themselves out in the end,” he said. — Aidan Johnson

Christina Mazza

High School: Sachem East High School

Education: Stony Brook University

Occupation: Year 2 resident pediatrician

Location: Holtsville

When Christina Mazza watched pediatricians care for their young patients, she thought of her younger brother, who is on the autism spectrum, and began to picture herself in their role.

“Working with my family through that whole process of my brother’s disabilities, I feel like a lot of those values are reflected in my career as a pediatrician because I get to work really close with families, support them and communicate in different ways,” she said.

While she may not have originally envisioned herself in the field, “I think it totally makes sense based on where my life started and where it is now.”

After graduating at the top of her class at Sachem East High School in 2016, Mazza, 28, completed her undergraduate work at Stony Brook University. She suffered a personal loss when her grandmother — one of the first people who suggested she become a doctor — died during her freshman year.

“I was pretty involved in her care with my dad ... and it was very influential in my career in medicine,” she explained, saying it showed her she had the “capability to nurture and to care.”

As she entered medical school at Stony Brook, Mazza faced the “challenging” nature of a learning environment changed by the pandemic.

“Traditional first medical school year, you do cadaver lab. You dissect people [who] donate their life to science,” she explained.

“But actually our first year, our cadavers were virtual, so we did a lot of videos and ... weren’t able to be in the lab.”

Pediatrics was her first rotation in her third year of medical school, and she was struck by the culture of support among staff and doctors in the pediatrics department at Stony Brook University Hospital. She could tell the residents “really loved” their jobs, and said she felt she had a “significant impact” on her young patients.

Her faith community also played a central part during her college years; she participated in community service events, including volunteering with the unhoused population in New York City, helping at food drives and mentoring teenagers.

“So I think all of that kind of taught me that I really want to have an impact on people and affect their quality of life,” she said.

Mazza encourages graduating students to pay attention to what feels authentic to them.

“Knowing yourself really informs how you want your life to be and what you want your career to be.” — Aidan Johnson

Andrew Meersand

High School: Lynbrook High School

Education: Harvard University

Occupation: Special effects engineer

Location: Sommerville, Massachusetts

Andrew Meersand hoped to work at the intersection of entertainment and engineering when he graduated from Harvard in 2020 with a degree in mechanical engineering. “But the market at that time didn’t work out because the entertainment industry was mostly on hold” during the pandemic, he said.

The Lynbrook High School graduate instead took a role in robotics and warehouse automation, followed by work at an agricultural company where he used cameras and AI-based tools to monitor crops for signs of disease. Today, he is manager of new products and innovation at Strictly FX, a company that has produced special effects for the Super Bowl and the MTV Video Music Awards, according to its website. He said the company later reconnected with him after remembering his earlier application.

“It’s a reminder that careers often develop in non-linear ways,” said Meersand, 27. “It’s funny because in high school I imagined working in engineering and entertainment and now my career aligns with my high school interests.”

He said each of his roles helped build on the last, strengthening his experience with robotics, automation and artificial intelligence.

“It’s all tech stuff, but a lot of it is personal, which I feel is important to pursue throughout my life,” he said.

That personal thread extends beyond his work.

“I was lucky enough to grow up with all four grandparents in my life, and I’m very interested in how we live — elder care and intergenerational families," he said. "I can see [that] how we’re doing things doesn’t make sense. We should live in community. I want to live that way for myself, and my family is doing it together for my mom. That’s really important to me.”

When his mother, Lesley Meersand, 65, of East Rockaway, had a stroke, his family came together to support her. Meersand said he took on complex health care and financial responsibilities while continuing to build his career.

He’s found the perseverance he showed in applying for internships pays off in pursuing hobbies as well. He was drawn to magic as a child and remembers building a wooden magic box with his father, Jeffrey. In college, he assisted magician David Kwong in launching The Enigmatist, a magic and puzzle show in New York City. 

He credits his mom’s support for encouraging his extracurricular pursuits at Lynbrook, where he was named an Intel semi-finalist in 2016 for his robotic soft grasper design after being mentored at the Harvard Biodesign Lab during an internship. “I’m still grateful for the educational opportunities I had in high school.” he said. “I had impostor syndrome when I went to college. I didn’t know if I’d hold my own academically with students who were the product of elite schools. I found my foundation was extraordinarily strong.”

Meersand now lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and returns to campus to advise undergrads at his former college dorm. A recreational cyclist, he has also taken part in Boston’s unofficial Midnight Marathon Bike Ride for the past two years, a traditional midnight bike ride along the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon course the night before the race. — Kay Blough

Katie Hoeg

High school: Mattituck High School

Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Today: Dentist

Lives in: North Andover, Massachusetts

Whether filling cavities or drilling a youth lacrosse team, Katie Hoeg tries to live up to her dentist father’s words of wisdom:

“Never dim your light to make others feel more comfortable,” Hoeg said her father, James Hoeg, a dentist in Mattituck and Riverhead, told her and her three siblings while they grew up in Mattituck.

Sports were central to her upbringing in the small North Fork community, where she played on the same varsity lacrosse teams as her two younger sisters and two cousins, she said.

Hoeg earned a full athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She played on the women’s Division 1 lacrosse team from 2017 to 2021 and was its captain from 2019 to 2021, years when the team won its division in the Atlantic Coastal Conference. She earned a bachelor of arts in biology and was accepted to UNC’s graduate dentistry program in 2021.

In graduate school, Hoeg traveled to underserved communities where she said economic conditions often put dentistry “on the back burner.” On a 2024 mission trip with the nonprofit Christian Medical and Dental Associations, Hoeg and three other students restored smiles in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, a remote mountain town that had been cut off from outsiders during the pandemic. “There were people traveling from all over the island to get an extraction,” Hoeg recalled. She also spent a semester working at a dental clinic in Asheville, North Carolina, and visiting patients in nearby rural communities recovering from Hurricane Helene’s flash floods in September 2024.

She received a doctor of dental surgery degree last year and has been working as a general dentist at North Andover Modern Dentistry, a practice north of Boston.

Her biggest challenge? Transitioning from college athletics to full-time dentistry, she said. Still, she noted, both dentistry and lacrosse involve a team effort, helping others and working with her hands.

Although no longer playing lacrosse competitively, Hoeg stays connected to the sport by coaching a youth league in her new hometown. She also continues to challenge herself physically. “Even though I played sports, I never considered myself a runner,” Hoeg said. She ran the annual Washington, D.C., Marine Corps Marathon two Octobers ago.

The course passed national landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and “there were a lot of Marines cheering you on,” said Hoeg, who finished in 4:20.

Her words of wisdom for this year’s graduating class? “I’ve come to realize that showing up as my best self in every situation doesn’t diminish others. It actually inspires and uplifts everyone around me.” — Jim Merritt

Merlyn John

High school: Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park

Education: University of Pittsburgh

Today: Pharmacist

Lives in: Reading, Pennsylvania

In the past decade, Merlyn John has fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a pharmacist, learned to live independently after relocating and climbed an 8,000-foot mountain.

She was in second grade when she first told her mother, “I want to be a pharmacist,” recalled John, 28, who grew up in New Hyde Park.

“My mother was surprised that I even knew what a pharmacist was.”

In high school, John volunteered at a local hospital where she observed the inner workings of a hospital pharmacy firsthand. It left her “in awe of how much the pharmacist knew and how much work they did behind the scenes to ensure patient safety.”

Her formal pharmacy education began at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, which she said she “fell in love with” on a campus tour. “The pharmacy community there is very well connected, the networking was great and it seemed like they really cared,” John said. She completed the school’s six-year program, earning a doctor of pharmacy degree and now works at Reading Hospital in West Reading, Pennsylvania.

Since moving to southeastern Pennsylvania, John has spent much of her spare time baking for friends and colleagues.

Her biggest challenge, she said, has been learning self-sufficiency in her new home.

“I’ve learned a lot about responsibility and being vigilant of things like the tire pressure on my car, which my dad would take care of back home,” she said. Getting over homesickness, however, is a work in progress. “My family is always growing with new nieces and nephews being born, and it feels like I’m missing big milestones,” John said. She also misses her mother’s home-cooked chicken biryani and salmon fish curry and often takes home a serving of her favorites after a visit to Long Island.

Last summer, she visited California’s Napa Valley wine country and hiked to the summit of Half Dome, the 8,800-foot granite monolith in Yosemite National Park. “My feet were killing me, but it was one of the most enjoyable experiences ever,” John says of the 16-hour hike. “I have never felt more serene.”

John’s advice for today’s students? “Whether college is for you or not, dreams can change. Just be a good person, because connections are very important.” — Jim Merritt

Casey Nevins

High school: Comsewogue High School, Port Jefferson Station

Education: Lafayette College and University College London

Today: Medical editor for Neurology Advisor at Haymarket Media US

Lives in: Forest Hills, Queens

Casey Nevins said she “honestly had no idea” what her future might hold when she graduated from high school a decade ago.

“I just wanted to keep learning, to figure it out as I went along,” said Nevins, 27.

Four years later, she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and English literature, graduating during a virtual commencement ceremony amid the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

“Graduating during the height of the pandemic was a challenge,” she said. “So, I decided to take a chance.”

She applied for and was accepted into the master’s program in health humanities at University College London.

Living and studying abroad pushed her out of her comfort zone.

“I had never been so far from home,” she said.

Navigating a new city, the British health care system and finding housing in London proved challenging, but also deeply rewarding, she said. She made new friends around the world, traveled throughout Western Europe and pursued her creative interests, performing in an original musical production at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

In London, Nevins also found her career path. She landed a job as an editorial assistant at BioInsights, a science publishing company, that allowed her to draw on both her science and literary background.

Although she said she “loved the community” she built in London, Nevins moved back to New York last year to be closer to family on Long Island. She was recently promoted from assistant editor to medical editor of the Manhattan-based Haymarket Media US Neurology Advisor brand, working with freelance writers to produce news and feature stories on neurology.

Nevins describes her field as a “niche” for those interested in science but not pursuing careers as researchers or doctors. As a medical editor, she says, “I can still read and learn about medicine but make an impact in a different kind of way.”

Her advice to current graduating students is drawn from her own journey: “You’re being asked to choose a major or a career path and make these seemingly massive life decisions,” she said. “But you are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to figure it out as you go, to make mistakes and start fresh.” — Jim Merritt

Matthew Almond

High School: Center Moriches High School

Education: Stony Brook University

Today: Compensation manager for the NFL

Lives in: Huntington

Matthew Almond majored in applied mathematics and statistics at Stony Brook University and initially thought he would pursue a career in finance, but he said the work/life balance in that field was not the life he wanted. Rather than pursuing the demanding hours and trade-offs of a career in finance, he sought a path that prioritized balance.

“I had to pivot after graduation into ‘how can I use this degree to be able to have a life and a career that’s satisfactory to me,’ ” said Almond, who said he values leisure, family and friends.

After graduating from Stony Brook with his master’s degree in quantitative finance at the height of the pandemic, Almond got a job at a credit union as a teller and bank representative. Six months later, he was promoted to a compensation analyst role. Two years ago, he joined the NFL as a compensation analyst and has since advanced to manager, where he helps to ensure internal pay equity and external market competitiveness.

In recent years, Almond has become more reflective about his earlier life choices and the pressure he felt.

“You kind of have to step back and think about what is it that I want to have out of this life,” he said. “I just wanted to be able to find a way to thread that needle and find a good balance where I could try to have my cake and eat it too.”

The pressure didn’t come from his parents, he said.

“I think it was more so on myself to impress them or be able to have them be proud of what I was doing,” he said. “As I matured, I realized as long as I’m a good person and I’m doing my best at what I’m doing, obviously they’re going to love me and support me in whatever I decide to do.”

Almond and his wife, Monica, went to the same high school — she was one year ahead — but didn’t really know each other. They connected when they were home during a Thanksgiving break from college, married last June and recently bought a home.

A fitness enthusiast, Almond proposed to Monica at the finish line of a half Ironman. He is training for his first Ironman in Lake Placid in July.

One experience Almond said he shares with several of his high school pals is the meandering route he took to follow his heart and passion.

“It didn’t matter who was doing well in school, we all found our way — which is what is important,” he said. — Arlene Gross

Jessica Vasseghi

High School: Division Avenue High School, Levittown

Education: University of Chicago

Today: Engagement manager at L.E.K. Consulting

Lives in: Manhattan

If you had asked Jessica Vasseghi about her future when she was younger, she would have had a clear answer: lawyer.

“My parents are immigrants [from Iran] and so the two professions were either doctor or lawyer: pick one,” said Vasseghi, 28. “I picked law because I liked reading and writing.”

That plan began to shift at the University of Chicago, where she majored in economics and philosophy and discovered an interest in quantitative problem solving. She decided that law would not be the best fit.

“I think I underestimated how much I liked math,” she said, adding that consulting work allows her to combine her interests, use both qualitative and quantitative analysis and work collaboratively.

At Division Avenue High School, Vasseghi said she was inspired by teachers who pushed her to think critically.

One who stood out is her senior AP literature teacher, Kristen Stritzl, who introduced her to Shakespeare, helped her with her college essay and last fall joined her to see “Othello” on Broadway.

“She’s always kind of been everyone’s cheerleader in the background watching as we’ve all made various career decisions and moved and figured out life,” Vasseghi said.

Living abroad also left a lasting mark, boosting her confidence and showing her that experiential learning could be just as impactful as academics.

Vasseghi lived in London for several months in 2023 and 2024 and said it was a very different experience from working in New York, even though she was at the same firm.

“It was interesting to see the culture come through in different ways and see what different styles of working looked like and how people interacted,” she said. “It was a really cool experience. And I love theater and I love Shakespeare, so I love London.”

Those experiences helped her navigate cultural differences in the workplace.

“It’s taught me there are many different ways to work and many different ways to solve a problem, and being aware of the cultural context and norms is important,” she said.

As the child of Iranian immigrants, she remains grateful to her parents.

“I think I’ve always been acutely aware of what they gave up so that I could have the opportunities I’ve had,” she said. — Arlene Gross