Alumni Notes


Alumni note photos 1-3 1  LAURA (HAGAN) SILADKE, (2003-04), opened Leelanau Goods in Santa Monica, CA. After NMC she attended Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids and the Parsons School of Design in New York City. She moved to Los Angeles and worked for other designers before starting her own clothing line and opening the store in 2020. Merchandise is also available online at leelanaugoods.com.

 2  ADAM RAUPP, (GLCI 2014), has joined the team at Bonobo Winery as head chef. Raupp is a northern Michigan native and has over 25 years of experience in the industry. He loves the diverse agricultural bounty that Michigan has to offer, everything from the excellent grape growing terroir, the access to some of the best freshwater fisheries in the world, and a farming region that is second only to California in its crop diversity.

 3  BETSY COFFIA, 2008, was re-elected to her seat on the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners. She will serve a two-year term.

Alumni note photo 4 4  PETER WEAVER, (GLMA 2005), after over a decade of policy and advocacy work for midstream oil and gas operations, Weaver joined a small technology startup, Orbital Sidekick, which is deploying hyperspectral imaging satellites to conduct daily data collection and analysis on oil and gas pipeline infrastructure, to improve upon and replace aerial patrol services worldwide. Their first prototype asset operated in space from the International Space Station in 2019. Their first proprietary satellite will launch from Cape Canaveral in mid-January with more to come later in 2021.

 5  CAROLINA MATHER, (2016) graduated from the University of Toledo in December 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry. She has accepted a position at pharmaceutical company Sanof Pasteur in its Vaccines Industrial Affairs Development program. She is married to NMC aviation alumnus Chase Mather.

 6  MADISON SHARPE, (GLCI 2020), was accepted as an intern to the Disney Culinary Program at Walt Disney World in Florida. After the internship was postponed due to the pandemic, she and fellow 2020 graduate Ashley McPherson spent the summer working with Adrian Diday, a three-star Michelin chef, at Chianti Resort on Mackinac Island.

 7  ALEX THAYER, (2016-18), won the Alan Mulally Leadership in Engineering Scholarship to continue his engineering studies at the University of Michigan. The scholarship in honor of the former Ford Motor Co. CEO is awarded annually by the company to only 10 students nationwide. At U-M Thayer has been a member of the Solar Power Team, designing and optimizing a battery pack for a solar car, and the Mars Rover Team, working on the development of a battery management system. He also runs a micro-soldering business from his Ann Arbor home (pictured) working under a microscope on items between a grain of rice and a grain of sand in size.Alumni-note photos 5-7


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