Full of Spirit: Elizabeth Saraceno

Elizabeth Saraceno, Class of 2009, Brooklyn NY

What are you up to? I manage sales for a liquor brand in Brooklyn.

How'd you get here? I moved to New York at age 18 for college at Pace University and I spent a year in Westchester, New York, about an hour north from midtown NYC. I quickly decided it wasn't for me. I ended up transferring to the city campus and moved into an apartment. I bartended throughout college to make extra money and ended up really falling in love with spirits and the cocktail scene. I spent my free time studying liquor and flavor profiles and traveled to distilleries and breweries to learn more. I got my first job working for a distributor selling small craft liquor in the lower east part of Manhattan. It was tough, my rent was $1,350 a month and I made $400 a week.. do the math. However, being surrounded by so many successful and progressive people only made me work harder. I was the youngest and one of the few females in the industry.. I had the odds against me but it only pushed me harder. I eventually moved into a different job, working directly for a supplier. I went from managing an area in Manhattan to managing a brand in all 5 boroughs. It was great for a while but soon I left to go back to a different, yet bigger liquor distributor, which is where I am now.

What are your goals? To become a manager for an entire division at a large liquor distributor, to live alone in Brooklyn, and to have a washer/dryer/dishwasher in my apartment.

What has been your biggest challenge? Moving to NYC at age 19, completely by yourself, is a struggle in itself. I see a lot of people I went to high school with that live in New York City stick together and that’s great, but I pride myself in moving somewhere and making new friends, a NYC family, my life. I feel like when you’re a kid and you’re growing up you adapt to the life your parents chose and you know nothing else; but to move to a place when you’re so young unafraid, I think that’s a challenge in itself. I love the life that I created, but the biggest challenge was doing everything alone; finding an apartment, moving in with strangers, starting new jobs, walking into new bars and restaurants to form relationships for work, and even something as simple as making friends. I’m grateful, a lot of people give up on NYC after the first couple years but I’m going on my 9th year here.

What has been your happiest moment? My happiest moments are always when I walk out of a bar (an account for work) and feel that I nailed the meeting. The account may have placed a large order and given me a cocktail placement on their menu, and I swear there’s no better feeling than feeling like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Advice for WHS Students? You don’t have to do what you go to college for. Your major is just a guide to get your degree and if you’re passionate about something off the beaten path, there’s a job for it. Also, move out of Watertown. Get out of your comfort zone. Be friends with people who are different than you. Have conversations with people of different races, cultures, religions, upbringings. People have some crazy stories and you learn so much when you just listen. Also, nobody cares about who you were in high school. The real world doesn’t care. You don’t put prom queen on your resume.

If you could tell your high school self one thing, what would it be? I would tell myself to spend more time caring about people that matter. I spent a lot of time caring about all of the wrong things. I also stressed myself out over minuscule things.. things that I can’t even remember now because they’re so irrelevant. I would also tell myself that I’m really proud of you, for having the courage to move to NYC, because I truly love my life.

Accepting the Unexpected: Nathaniel Habegger

Nathaniel Habegger, Class of 2009, Manhattan, New York

What are you up to? I currently work as a Creative Coordinator for a marketing firm in downtown Manhattan. I manage social media and in-house photography. I also help with ideation of events/marketing plans and I contract talent. In addition to my full-time job, I run my own menswear blog and manage social media channels daily. On top of it all, I shoot photos professionally for clients and for my own blog.

How'd you get here? Well, before moving to New York, I wanted to be an actor. I acted in all of the high school shows, loved music, and was incredibly passionate about that career path. Six terrible auditions and college rejection letters later, I realized that acting was too much rejection for me to handle. At this point in my life, I had put all of my eggs in one basket and assured myself that being on Broadway was the ultimate goal. Also, at this point in my life, I had taken advantage of a teacher-student relationship to change my grades in the school computer system. This act of tom-foolery lead me into an emotional downward spiral (as I was almost expelled months before graduating high school.. terrifying). I fell from the pedestal I had put myself on and didn't know who I was anymore or what I was going to do. I felt like a delinquent and that I would never recover from this mistake. So after graduating in 2009, I took the summer to figure out what I wanted to do. I always loved fashion and I loved art. I went to Western Connecticut State University for a year to gain credits before transferring to a private school in Manhattan called The Laboratory Institute of Merchandising. I wish someone had told me that none of my credits from Western would transfer to LIM, but that’s ok. What’s another loan to pay off right? 

I moved to New York and thought I was the best. Come to find out, everyone in New York is the best and I was the worst of the best (or maybe a little better than the worst, but still.. small fish big pond situation). I worked for Coach as a Visual Merchandiser for about 4 years. A Visual Merchandiser is a term used in the fashion/retail industry for someone who creates window displays. I left that job to start working as a Creative Coordinator, which is what I do now. In the process of all of this, I started my own menswear blog and made insane connections with people all over the city through Instagram.

What are your goals? I want to write a book, open a restaurant, take beautiful photographs, open a ceramics studio and start a fashion company. It’d be really cool if I could do all of that, but we’ll see.

What has been your biggest challenge? Self acceptance. I think the hardest part of this journey (which by the way is still JUST starting) has been accepting myself for who I am and not who I think people want me to be. After high school, I left the comfort of home, family, and friends. I had such a strong sense of self and was incredibly confident. Moving to New York really knocked me down a few pegs. It made me see life on a much larger scale. Figuring out who you are is an ever going project that seems endless, and it kind of is. Figuring out how to love the part of yourself that has flaws and that part of yourself that you don’t like is the biggest challenge. It’s the most rewarding when you overcome all of that; when you can sit with yourself and appreciate who you are through and through. By the way - I’m still working on that…it ain’t easy kids.

What has been your happiest moment? There are a couple happy moments I've had recently. One being the day I started my current job. Another would be being featured in a digital campaign for Uniqlo. Both really made me feel like I had made it even though I’m still fighting to make it!

Advice for WHS Students? Start to look outside yourself. Start to be curious about what else is out there in the world. Watertown is an amazing town to grow up in, but I think it’s incredibly beneficial to look beyond the horizon to see what other opportunities are out there. How can you appreciate something if you never lose it? Another tidbit of advice: If your dreams don’t come true immediately, that doesn’t mean they never will. Some dreams don’t come true (like me being on Broadway because I’m not a knock out actor, but was passionate about it!) but your dreams can morph. Allow yourself to accept the ebb and flow that is life. You won’t win them all, but if you do something that makes you feel fulfilled, you’ll be happy. You can reinvent yourself everyday, and should. ALSO: You’ll realize how lovely being in high school is the second you step into the real world.. so enjoy it while it lasts.

If you could tell your high school self one thing, what would it be? I would tell my high school self to shut up and sit down. I was so cocky in high school. I thought no one could touch me and that I was the best. Turns out, I was really lazy and kind of a jerk. Don’t get me wrong, I think most people who knew me would agree I was a good kid, but I was definitely not interested in working hard in class. I’d also tell my high school self that I can do anything I put my mind to and then to actually put my mind to it instead of sitting waiting for life to happen.

The Power of Predicting the Future: Ryan Jacovich

Ryan Jacovich, Class of 2009, Watertown, CT

What are you up to? Currently working as a database marketing analyst at Reed Exhibitions in Norwalk. They are the worldwide leader in organizing trade shows in both the business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) realms. Some of the more well known shows we organize include the PGA merchandise show, New York Comic Con, PAX shows, and Book Con. 

My job comes into play on the data side. I spend a lot of my time writing SQL code to pull data from our internal database of contacts. This determines our set of individuals that would receive messaging about an upcoming show. 

The other major portion of my job is devoted to special projects mostly of a statistical nature. This is the area that interests me the most because I can try to literally predict the future! We use statistical modeling techniques to try and solve business problems. A few examples include predicting which of our exhibitors are likely to not come back to the following year's event, and scoring a specific list of individuals to try and figure out who the best customers are. Some of these projects are being done for the first time within the company, so I've been able to grow with these projects. The fact that all of this can be done using math is honestly pretty amazing. 

My most recent project has been to build an entire database from scratch using a newly learned programming language.  Myself and two others from the team have been pulling our best "Silicon Valley" impersonation by not only building the database, but putting that data into a visualization software program for others in the company to be able to consume it easier.  Rather than having to make some charts and graphs in excel, you simply just pick what you want to see and everything you need to know appears at the push of a button.  It has been the most difficult thing I've ever tried to do, but it has been incredibly rewarding.

I have been granted the opportunity to work on some amazing projects here.  It is easy to go to work when you love what you do and enjoy who you do it with.  Our team knows how to stay loose and have fun.. certainly not your stereotypical data nerds.

How'd you get here? I graduated from Bryant University in 2013 with a degree in Business with concentrations in Finance and Applied Math and Statistics (quite the mouthful). I started off planning to be some sort of Wall Street banker managing my investments, but quickly learned that it wasn't all that interesting to me. 

I've always been a math person and my first statistics class had me hooked. I graduated with a 4.0 in my stats concentration and got my first job right out of college at Mohegan Sun. I was privy to all sorts of interesting data on our customers and was able to learn my second programming language. I also was able to apply the statistical modeling techniques I had learned at Bryant. I was there for a year and half until I was headhunted on LinkedIn (get a profile if you don't have one) and wound up at Reed 3 weeks later.

What are your goals? I want to keep learning. I have the privilege of working with a full-time statistician, which has been amazing for advancing my knowledge in the field. I want to be able to answer questions with data rather than opinions. An answer backed up by numbers and facts is a powerful answer indeed.

It's also a goal of mine to get my work-life balance back in order. I've been spending a lot of time focusing on work, so I've made it a point to go out more. I've picked up golf in the last year, joined the company softball team, and made some more appearances at happy hours in the Norwalk area.  I'm still undecided, but I've thought about moving down to Fairfield/Norwalk as well.. great area!

Advice for WHS Students? 

1. Although you may be a ways away from the work world.. make sure you find something you enjoy doing. Sitting down at a desk job would be brutal if I didn't honestly love working with data. 

2. I mentioned it earlier, but get a LinkedIn and keep it updated.  I've come across countless opportunities from it and it's the only reason I'm at Reed right now.

3. Be respectful and open to helping people.  They will remember; trust me!

What is your greatest weakness? Probably my attention to detail. Sometimes I get too wrapped up and focused on a problem. I can do 90% of the work in 30 minutes but the last 10% might take 2 hours.  That 90% might be good enough already!

Life Icons

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Creativity and Communications: Amber Spiotti

Amber Spiotti, Class of 2008, Jacksonville, FL

What are you up to? I recently started a new position in the Communications and Advancement Department at a prep-school (think the southern version of Taft School). Essentially I write news articles, manage our social media accounts, serve as a photographer and event coordinator. Now that I'm closer to the ocean, I spend the weekends riding my bike at the beach, planning my next vacation (California road trip) and exploring Jacksonville.

How'd you get here? Since college graduation I worked with NBC and Fox News, within their news and marketing departments. It's an exciting job field. After spending so much time up north, I wanted a change, so I moved down here. I was able to stay within the communications field and put some of my creativity to work.

What are your goals? Transition into PR, travel to Ireland, get my Masters and pick up piano lessons again.

Advice for WHS Students? It's okay if you don't know exactly what it is you want to do with the rest of your life. A lot of us are still figuring it all out. But don't be afraid to get outside of your comfort zone. Embrace change and make the most of your post-high school experience. And travel - always travel!

What is your favorite color? Blue