Earlier this winter, the School hosted a “Life After D-E” Young Alumni Panel Discussion in Hajjar Auditorium, during which graduates of the Classes of 2021-2025 shared with us how D-E has impacted their lives in college and beyond. 

As articulated by these young alumni, our Upper School students have opportunities to explore their passions and choose their own path as they move into the world. 

Below are some of the ways they have described what sets D-E apart from other schools and why they will always have a home, a community, at Dwight-Englewood.

Skills for Success

“This school sets you up so incredibly well with such an amazing skillset to go in and be at the top of your classes… not only your leadership skills and your ability to go find help when it’s necessary, but you also have the hard skillset of writing, math, anything under the sun that you need to go out and really excel in college in a way that a lot of your peers when you get to college, don’t.” —Ally Abramson ’23, a junior at New York University

Teachers Who Help You Grow

“I think the teachers I’ve had at Dwight-Englewood are the best teachers I have had ever. And after four years of Yale, I actually found myself missing the teachers that I have here because… the teachers here are just so personally invested in all of their students. And I grew so much throughout my time here because of how much they cared… It’s an experience that I haven’t found replicated anywhere else.” —Catalina Mahe ’22, a senior at Yale University

Feeling Seen

“I really learned to understand the value of collaboration and deadlines and getting things done… I would say that kind of leadership and especially the confidence… coming to D-E really changed that for me. I think I wrote about it at some point… how impactful it was for me that the faculty saw me, and I carried that with me, and now, as I take on more leadership positions, I’m trying to pay it forward as much as possible.” —Kristen DeRoche ’24, who attends Berklee College of Music

 Opportunities to Take Initiative 

 “All clubs and activities in the high school were all led by students and designed by students… And so that experience, through a variety of things such as Spectrum, our school newspaper, tour guides, our political discussion club—a few of the things that I was involved in… I think it makes it pretty easy for students to feel a sense of initiative after their time at D-E, especially when they’re exposed to a lot of opportunities when they’re here, through service learning, community service as well.” —Asher Cohen ’25, a freshman at Columbia University

The Focus Honors Program

“In my senior year, I took a class called Focus, which is a senior-year, yearlong course, and you can research on any topic you want. I remember I was struggling because I wanted to do it on every single thing I was interested in, and I was primarily interested in mathematics, but also ballet and dance. And so I told myself, why do I have to choose ‘either-or,’ why can’t there be an ‘and.’ My research paper ended up being about the mathematics of ballet, and that open-mindedness carried on to college because I also wrote a continuation paper of that in college. This gave me the courage to explore and take classes that I never would have thought I would take in college.” —Julien Ishigahara Charupakorn ’24, a professional ballet dancer

Tapping Your Community

“A big thing for me is networking. And New York City is the hub for all of that. [There are] a lot of benefits of networking here at D-E too… because those students you’re going to class with, in the future they’re going to be the leaders of the business industry, of the sciences, of the arts, and everything beyond that. And so you want to maximize those relationships.” —Jibrael Harrell ’21, a graduate of UMass Amherst