Alumni Careers Inspire HS Students

On Friday, March 9, High School students heard from five alumni entrepreneurs who shared their career journeys, underlining the importance of passion, creativity, and recognizing an opportunity when it comes knocking.

Moderated by Jeff Goldberg ’94, vice president of Live Wire Media Relations, LLC, alumni shared the wisdom, insight, and joys in the journey of taking the risk of venturing out on their own career as an entrepreneur.

Alumni panelists included:

• Leah Daniels ’98, the owner of the gourmet kitchenware store Hill’s Kitchen. Leah saw a need and met it after moving back into the area after college. Opened in 2008, the store is “a neighborhood meetup spot that’s as much about community as her kitchen tools,” according to the Washington Post.
• Ben Miller ’95, CEO of Fundrise. Fundrise the first online investment platform to crowdsource real estate investment. “I wanted to give individuals the ability to own real estate without needing to put down millions of dollars,” he told IdeaMensch.
• Melanie Nix ’87 founder of greeting card company huMAN Expressions and the co-founder of Breast Cancer Comfort site. After facing her own breast cancer battle and working in the corporate world, Melanie works to provide support and comfort for other breast-cancer patients and works to raise awareness of the disease.
• John Sherman ’93, founder of video production company Storyfarm. An award-winning news reporter, John specializes in creating video content for brands, including McDonalds and McCormick. According to the Baltimore Business Journal, Storyfarm could “easily be classified as one of the coolest companies in Baltimore.”
• Max Zuckerman ’06, owner of Colony Club. The coffee shop and bar in Park View, DC (and soon-to-open pizza place next door), also hosts workshops for the community and “seeks to be social place for the neighborhood,” according to the Washington City Paper.

It was a day of alums at GDS: In addition to the round table, two other alumni joined students during two separate lunch-and-learn sessions. David Krucoff ’85 of Broad Street Realty shared about his passion for DC “retrocession” and his work with the nonprofit Douglass County, Maryland working to make DC a part of the state of Maryland. Michael Schaffer ’91, editor at the Washingtonian magazine, spoke with the Journalism Club about his career and his exciting current role.