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Every Moment Counts

A Stevens education encourages inquiry, critical thinking and collaborative problem solving.

Purposeful learning, every moment of every day, is why Stevens graduates are More Than Ready for success in high school and beyond.

2023 High School-Aged Alumni Reunion

Join us for an evening of reminiscing, connect with old friends, faculty and staff, and participate in our halftime shootout against staff during the Faculty vs. Students basketball game!

301 Garden Street
Thursday, February 2, 2023
5:30 p.m. : Reunion Begins
6:30 p.m. : Game Begins

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Alumni Spotlight

Alumni on the Frontlines: The Stovicek Sisters, Class of 2009
Alumni on the Frontlines: The Stovicek Sisters, Class of 2009

Stevens is proud to share the work that three of our alumni (all sisters, too!) are doing on the frontlines of the current global pandemic. “(They) have taken what they learned at Stevens and beyond, to help others, particularly the disadvantaged,” commented proud father, Eric Stovicek. Learn more. 

Leah Rodriguez, Class of 2003
Leah Rodriguez, Class of 2003

Leah Rodriguez '03 shines a light on issues facing women and girls in poverty. Learn more.

When Leah Rodriguez '03 first became a journalist after graduating from Rutgers University, she was mostly interested in writing about fashion. But after a successful run at The Cut, the New York magazine publication aimed at a female audience, she felt herself growing more interested in politics, gender issues, and the struggle of women and girls worldwide.

Today, she writes for Global Citizen, a nonprofit organization that is seeking to alleviate poverty around the world by 2030. Leah covers women and girls for the group’s blog, a role that has allowed her to write on a variety of issues, including gender-based violence, menstrual rights, water and sanitation, and education.

A graduate of Stevens and LREI (Elisabeth Irwin High School) in New York City, Leah was already versed in conversations around social justice and equity when she arrived at Global Citizen and quickly took to writing articles that sought to shine a light on undercovered stories.

Her organization’s advocacy work was a natural continuation of her education, she said, even though she may not have realized at the time the extent to which social justice is “embedded” in the progressive curriculum. “I think having that foundation and that exposure, subconsciously at least, really set me up to thrive in this environment,” Leah said.

Leah’s work on Global Citizen’s blog allows her to take part in key global issues affecting women and girls.

“I think a lot of nonprofits have smaller blogs that aren’t chiming into the conversation around the issues they cover and just focus on their own work,” she said. “But as an advocacy group we really try to shine a light on these issues as they’re happening in current events to help our audience understand why they’re important and why we should be taking action.”

One area on which Leah is particularly focused is equitable access to female sanitary products, like tampons and pads, that are often too expensive for women in poverty.

“Tampons are taxed as luxury items, and they’re obviously not luxury items, they’re necessities,” she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s really not about the products themselves. It’s about education. It’s about discriminatory beliefs.”

Leah credits the writing-intensive curriculum at Stevens with helping her establish herself as a journalist. The emphasis on narrative structure, storytelling, social justice, and creative and critical thinking all “really just set me up to be a writer,” she said.

She also credits the school’s “epic” field trips, especially an eighth grade exchange trip to Guanajuato, Mexico, with helping her develop the global consciousness required to work for an international nonprofit.

“Stevens taught me how to be an independent thinker and an independent worker,” Leah said. “We really had a lot of freedom to make things our own and put ideas out there. And had the support to make them happen.”

Never a Moment Wasted: Honoring the Legacy of Sarah Katz '15
Never a Moment Wasted: Honoring the Legacy of Sarah Katz '15

Sarah, who passed away in 2022 at age 21, dedicated much of her life to volunteer work and activism that she knew could save lives. Learn more.

Sarah Katz ‘15 understood the precious value of minutes.

She knew, for instance, that there were 1,440 minutes in a day. She said so in her Stevens graduation speech, when she called them “1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.”

She also knew — from too young an age — that the chances of survival decrease 7 to 10 percent each minute that a person in cardiac arrest doesn’t receive CPR or the help of a defibrillator.

So it was only fitting that Sarah, who passed away in September at age 21, dedicated much of her life to volunteer work and activism that she knew could save lives. “She was always a leader and very inclusive,” said Sarah’s mother, Jill Katz.

While at Stevens, Sarah became a Red Cap Ambassador for the American Heart Association and later began teaching CPR at her high school and in underserved communities.

Sarah’s work with the American Heart Association would continue through middle and high school, as she organized teams for the Wall Street Run & Heart Walk.

Sarah dedicated the service work required for her bat mitzvah to heart-health awareness. She and Stevens classmate Hannah Moss made a video on the importance of defibrillator training.

“Even by high school, no one else I knew was as involved with an organization the way Sarah was with the American Heart Association,” said Moss ‘15. “Sarah’s nature was just to get involved and share as much helpful information as possible.”

 
 

During her first year at the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah worked with an organization called Project ADAM and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on efforts to require schools throughout the state to be certified as “heart-safe zones.” Pennsylvania has laws to help put AED (automated external defibrillator) devices in schools, but they are not required.

 

In recognition of her efforts, Sarah received awards from the American Heart Association in 2013 and 2015.

Sarah’s mere presence at Stevens had a lasting impact on the school — she is the reason faculty and staff receive AED and CPR training each year — but it was her personality and dedication to her classmates that those w

ho knew her remember most fondly.

“Sarah was an incredible student,” said Director of Curriculum and Innovation Rhiannon McElwee, who taught Sarah’s 8th grade class. “Her energy, commitment and diligence to everything she did was exceptional.”

In her graduation speech, Sarah urged her classmates to take the part of the Stevens mission statement that imagines “engaged citizens who are motivated to make a difference” and make it a reality.

“If every one of us can make the most of our 1,440 minutes in our day, and make a positive impact,” she said, “imagine the change we can make in the world.”

For more on Sarah’s story and how you can support the American Heart Association, visit https://ahatribute. funraise.org/fundraiser/sarahkatz.

And to learn more about sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, visit www.sads.org.

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