OUR GRANTEES AND ALUMNI
Meet the inspiring students we are proud to call LTZ Foundation grantees and alumni.
CURRENT GRANTEE
NEW FOR 2021
Sofia Assab
Sofia, from Massachusetts will be a senior at Columbia University. Her career goal is to be involved in sustainable development.
CURRENT GRANTEE
NEW FOR 2021
Madison Lein
Madison, from Edwardsville, Illinoi, is attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she’s majoring in Biology; she plans to go to medical school in the future.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Colin Colombo
Colin attends West Virginia University, and currently plans a career in engineering. He hopes to create new designs that will improve the quality of life for many people.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Rachel Kane
Rachel attends Marist College in New York, majoring in political science, with a goal to attend law school and possibly pursue a career in environmental law.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Christy Ma
Christy, from North Carolina, will be attending UCLA where she will major in physics.
Adrita Arefin
Adrita graduated from RIT with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering.
Connor Boike
Connor graduated from U of Michigan Stephen M Ross School of Business in May, 2020, and was married in July. He continues to run his businesses-Wrestle Boutique and Funky Flickr Boyz, and will start a new position at Pepsico in Chicago in November, 2020.
Megan Clancy
Megan is an honors graduate of Gallaudet University and California State University at Long Beach. She ultimately wants to establish her own organization to help other people with hearing losses succeed.
Christine Gerard
Christine graduated from NTID/RIT, receiving her Associates Degree in Applied Computer Technology, specializing in Computer Security. She lives in Rochester, New York and works as an associate at Walmart.
Lindsay Kramer
Lindsay holds a Master of Science in Leadership and Higher Education from John Brown University. After 3 years as a chemist and 4 years as a project manager for Consumer Testing Laboratories, Lindsay is now a stay-at-home mom.
Tania Karas
Tania lived and worked as a reporter in New York after graduation from Northwestern University. She is now an independent reporter in Greece, where she traveled to complete a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship.
Maya Liddell
Maya attended George Washington University, where she was an active member of the APO service fraternity and the PAD pre-law fraternity and intern at the Washington, D.C. International Film Festival.
Erin Rainey
Erin attended William and Mary College with the goal of becoming a teacher. She has taught kindergarten, special education, and intervention in 4 different cities over the past 10 years.
Andrew Schultz
Andrew is a biomedical engineering major at the State University of New York.
Alison Sweet
Alison graduated from the University of Michigan, and has a master's degree in Public Policy. She has worked for several years at the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Jennifer Wickman
Jennifer graduated from California State University, Northridge, with a major in Child and Adolescent Development and a minor in Recreation Management. She is currently finishing her MA in Education with a focus on Bilingual ASL/English Teaching and Learning.
CURRENT GRANTEE
NEW FOR 2021
Jasmean Fernando
Jasmean, from Staten Island, New York, attends Rutgers University in New Brunswick pursuing a double major in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and plans to continue working in this area for her career work.
CURRENT GRANTEE
NEW FOR 2021
Blessed Mbogo
Blessed, from Maryland, is attending Gallaudet University. He’s majoring in biology with plans to eventually apply to medical school.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Claudia Egido Vinogradov
Claudia hails from San Antonio, and is attending Texas Tech University, where she is studying for a career as an art teacher and professional artist, leveraging her interest in and skill with art.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Yael Lenga
Yael, from the northern Chicago suburbs, will be attending college at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle, where she plans to major in neuroscience on a pre-medical track.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Katie Norton
Katie is attending University of Massachusetts Amherst. She plans to ultimately earn an MBA and work as an advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing. She is a member of the UMass Powerlifting team, and is also currently learning American Sign Language.
Rivka Averbukh
Rivka graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Florida Atlantic University, and is currently working part-time as a nurse while full-time in graduate schoo (DNP at FAU)l to further her education.
Evelyn Burnett
Evelyn graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle in Speech Language Pathology, and completed a gap year while working full-time as a behavior technician with autistic children. She will start grad school at Gallaudet in the fall of 2020 to pursue her Master's degree in Speech-Language pathology.
Kellynette Gomez
Kellynette graduated from Gallaudet University with a degree in Social Work. She is currently employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, and works with individuals with disabilities to obtain jobs and/or training.
Connor Guerrieri
Connor studied computer science as an undergrad, and also volunteered at an animal shelter and took additional online courses to sharpen his network/software security knowledge.
Megan Ketelaar
Megan graduated from RIT with a BS in Software Engineering. She now lives in Boston, where she is a senior software engineer on HubSpot's backend team.
Jose Lopez
Jose, graduated in 2020 from Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Web and Mobile Computing, and is currently working full-time as an Integration Support Engineer at Amazon.
Andrea McGhee
Andrea attended Kent State University. She loves working in the education sector teaching elementary school art in Medina, Ohio.
Reagan Raymer
Reagan attends North Central College, where she is a student athlete (volleyball) studying to become an actuary.
Ashley Romero
Ashley studied at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, before going to nursing school.
Kinza Siddiqui
Kinza attends Texas A&M University. She currently plans to become a biomedical engineer.
Brooke Suskin
Brooke graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in communications, and is now an Art Director for a healthcare advertising agency.
Daniel Xu
Daniel studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He works in Boston for a startup focused on using machine learning to help retailers increase their profits.
CURRENT GRANTEE
NEW FOR 2021
Kyle Homer
Kyle, from Utah, is in his final year at Brigham Young University where he’s majoring in exercise science in preparation for applying to medical school.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Hannah Goodman
Hannah attends Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, majoring in theater with plans to become an actress.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Cole Linderman
Cole, from South Carolina, will be attending Gallaudet University where he plans to study Education to become a teacher and a coach.
CURRENT GRANTEE
Emma O'Neil-Dietel
Emma is from Pennsylvania, and is attending Smith College in Massachusetts where she is majoring in World Literatures, Spanish, and Archives Studies, with a goal to eventually work in fields associated with museums or archives like curation, library sciences, etc.
Alexander Balsley
Alexander attended Northeastern University, majoring in civil engineering with a minor in environmental science. He plans a career in sustainable design engineering.
Gabriel Campbell
Gabriel finished his engineering program at RIT and moved to North Dakota, taking courses in linguistics at the University of North Dakota.
Robb Dooling
Robb majored in Computer Science and minored in Writing Studies at RIT, and now is a technical editor at the U.S. Department of State, covering all countries and all issues. In his free time, he is running for elected office as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in northeast Washington, DC.
Eleanor Greer
Eleanor attended the University of Illinois with plans to become a speech pathologist or elementary school teacher. Her extracurricular activities focused on helping and working with young children.
Devorah Hayman
Devorah graduated from Arizona State University with a BSEE in Computer Systems Engineering with Information Assurance concentration. She works as a Technical Consulting Engineer for Intel.
Kylie Knick
Kylie graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree, Cum Laude, majoring in Speech and Hearing Science, and has since earned a doctorate in Audiology from Ball State University. She currently is an audiologist and a private practice owner in Greenville, Eaton, and Celina, Ohio, and has two beautiful daughters.
Kiran Mapes
Kiran is starting her fifth year of a 5-year architecture program at the University of Oregon and is also interning for Gallaudet University Campus Design and Planning department to learn about Deafspace.
Celine Minasian
Celine graduated from San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2020 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Gerontology. She has since started the Doctorate of Audiology program at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Susan Reed
The first in her family to attend college, Susan entered into the nursing program at her school. (NOTE: Susan's name is changed for this bio.)
Mara Scallon
Mara graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in environmental science. She works as a research technician studying wild blueberry at the University of Maine.
Michael Slane
Michael is attending Gallaudet University, and plans to graduate in 2021. He is majoring in Communication Studies and minoring in Family Child Studies.
Christine Thurber
Christine graduated from Assumption College and has a Master's in Conservation Biology and Applied Ecology. She works as a Plant Protection and Quarantine Officer for the USDA to survey for the Spotted Lanternfly (an exotic pest that causes damage to trees and agriculture in Pennsylvania and other states).