What brings about success? Preparation, preparation, preparation. That’s what these three alums point to their success in making a big campus feel small, adapting to the Texas-sized distance from home, and finding friends and faith all in the same place.
Running his first marathon, joining a fraternity, and reaching into his CM utility belt of college level academic preparation while taking in the commotion of Big Ten sports, Alex Landry is in deep in the Badger State.
“I’m having a great college experience so far,” says Alex Landry who points to three reasons why. “Location. Madison is such a beautiful campus. The people. It didn’t take much time to find my people. And the classes I’m taking I really like.” From the get-go, Landry hit gold by clicking with his roommate with the two of them joining the same fraternity, called Acacia, whose motto is “Human Service.” Ring a bell? Upon arriving, the size of the school and the number of people was a lot to take in. “But that was the goal,” he says. “I’d heard good things about Wisconsin and the idea that it was possible to make a big school feel small.” His academic focus is industrial engineering. A math-heavy, data-filled discipline that looks at systems, processes and optimization. “It’s a little bit ‘businessy,’” he notes, and yet feels very suited to the subject and the work. Next year, as a junior, he’ll be looking for a co-op to get involved with as part of gaining experience in the workplace. In all of this, Landry feels that his transition from high school to college was made easier by CM’s “independence factor.” “CM does a good job of letting students work through things on their own which really translates to a big school environment. To do well, you have to drive yourself and hold yourself accountable.” In the past two years, he’s visited fellow Knight and classmate, Pat Blomberg at UMich and continues to keep up with all his former CM friends. “I’m excited to see them in a couple of weeks,” he says where he’ll be back in the New England bustle that still resonates even from the Midwest.
Houston is a long way from Boston—geographically, culturally, and personally. But for Rice University freshman Kazuki Goode, that distance is exactly the point.
Kazuki Goode is finishing his first year at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he’s eyeing a path toward public health, while keeping his rugby boots laced up, and slowly getting comfortable just being Kazuki. “People always saw me as Kazuki, even back at CM,” he says, “but now there’s no label — there’s no, ‘oh, he’s Mr. Goode’s son,’” he adds. Flying solo without family ties has made him more responsible, more self-reliant, and more his own man. Rice was his first choice, and going early decision helped secure that goal. With around 4,000 undergrads, it’s a small school by university standards, a self-contained campus with intimate classrooms, accessible professors, personalized feedback. Not unlike his high school. “I think CM helped with just being comfortable reaching out to teachers and asking for help when I need it. Dr. Bradley’s APUSH class in my junior year was a lot of reading and writing. That kind of workload turned out to be less of a preview and more of a rehearsal. Off the field—though not entirely, since he joined Rice’s club rugby team—Goode has plugged into the Japanese Student Association, the Black Student Association, and an occasional chess club meetup. His roommate, who’s from McAllen, Texas, became a fast friend and an anchor. “Just having someone I’m really comfortable with has made my experience a lot more enjoyable.” Next year, he hopes to get involved in student government and see a lot more of the city which to date has been a few metro rides to downtown and exploring Chinatown. For a kid with Japanese-American heritage, Boston roots, and a Houston address, Rice was always going to feel like the right fit. CM made sure he was ready for it.
Armen didn’t expect Holy Cross to feel so much like home. Then again, he chose a tight-knit Catholic college in New England—maybe his instincts knew something his expectations didn’t.
Armen is a freshman at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, double-majoring in music and psychology—two disciplines he’ll tell you marry more naturally than you’d think. He’s in the Jazz Ensemble, works with the chaplain’s office, leads a weekly Bible study, and is slowly discovering that college, at least his version of it, looks a lot like the last two years of high school. “I think that’s a testament to how much I love Catholic Memorial,” he says. He only spent two years at CM, transferring in as a junior, but you’d never know it. The community stuck. Mr. Rufo’s English class—which he had both years—stands out most. “It wasn’t about what to think, but how to think,” he says. “Asking the right questions.” Those skills have followed him into research papers, reading analyses, and the kind of intellectual curiosity that makes a Motivation and Goal Pursuit psych course feel genuinely exciting. Faith has been his social anchor at Holy Cross as much as his spiritual one. His closest friends came through campus ministry, daily mass, and Bible study—the same ecosystem CM built through Kairos, BERSI trips, and peer ministry. “Those experiences mattered not just for what happened at them, but for how I translated them into the rest of my life.” CM, he says, was almost too good at keeping students on track—which made the independence of college a genuine adjustment. But the fundamentals were there: how to plan a week, how to ask for help, how to walk into a room full of strangers and not close yourself off. He didn’t expect college to feel this familiar. Turns out, he’d been preparing for it all along.
