Alumni Spotlights

Andrew Nance

Andrew Nance is a 2001 graduate of the Pathfinder School who then went on to attend the Interlochen Arts Academy where he majored in visual arts. At Interlochen he was recognized with Achievement Awards in photography, as well as in history and political science. Andrew then attended the University of Montana where he received awards in poetry and in literary study including the Davidson Honors College’s Research Award for a yearlong critical study on contemporary poetics.

Andrew then went on to study poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as a Truman Capote Fellow. Upon graduating from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with a Master of Fine Arts degree, he was awarded a postgraduate fellowship in order to teach poetry at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington, New Zealand. He now lives in Athens, Georgia, where he is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia.

Lily Prentice

Lily Prentice also attended Pathfinder from pre-k through 8th grade (participating in student plays both at summer camp and with Mrs. Pittinos), going on to high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy where she majored in Visual Arts, experienced her first serious taste of Shakespeare and worked in the costume shop. Last spring Lily graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, with a major in Visual Art, a minor in English Literature and with four years of work study experience in Bowdoin’s theatre department where she designed and constructed costumes and sets.

Madigan Johnson

“At Pathfinder,” Maddy Johnson states, “everyone assumed we would think big and deep. Pathfinder encouraged us to push our comfort zones, to think independently and critically.” Maddy invoked those ideals by spending her senior year in Johannesburg, South Africa, attending school, traveling, and working with Interact, Rotary’s youth social justice initiative. Her time in South Africa spurred her interest in international policy, education, and soccer. Four World Cup games later, she has returned to study International Relations at James Madison College at Michigan State University with a focus in African Studies.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnston (TPS ’90) is at Harvard University pursuing graduate studies in international policy analysis after working for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Relief International (RI). For the IRC and RI, he worked in many disaster areas and traveled all over the world. In 2003, he first went to Haiti to inventory hospitals with an international team of physicians and met with Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health. His fluency in French, which began at Pathfinder, assisted him in handling logistics and was the liaison to Madame Aristide.

His studies at Harvard include working with professors from The Kennedy School on leadership issues, in addition to the Colleges of Education and Public Health. Relief work is the intersection between government policies, education and health. In all the relief camps, he had to establish safe places for women and children, clean water and sanitation facilities, and strategies for local governmental support.