Place Corps Alumni

 
 

2023-2024 Kingston Fellowship Alumni

 
 

Haley Baker

“Before Place Corps I was confused about what I wanted to be doing for the rest of a gap year so that I could figure out what I planned to do in college. Throughout these past nine months. I’ve learned that I would like to follow a path of animal care.”

Memphis Bernstein Collins

“Place Corps really has been wonderful, I’ve been able to find new passions in photography and ceramics, and the amount of life skills that I’ve been taught in such a short span is amazing.”

Nadia Delasantos

“Before Place Corps I was undecided about where I was going to school and anxious about my next steps in life. Through the program I have learned that I can succeed in whatever I put my mind to. Now I am excited about my next adventures in life and my education. My goal is to take all my opportunities and use them. My aspiration after Place Corps is to study psychology at Bard College where I have a full ride scholarship, and to travel the world.”

 

Isabella Harrell

“During my time at Place Corps, I’ve been able to strengthen some qualities that I’ve been growing over the past couple of years. I am still the same person I was when I first joined the program. I feel that working at Place Corps has reaffirmed that I genuinely value community and hold a valuable place within it. After Place Corps, I aspire to continue to be involved within my community and hope that I continue to grow and evolve as a person.”

Quelashia (Lashia) Mosley

“With Place Corps my social anxiety has really improved as I’ve become more comfortable in new social settings.”

Kailee Stone

“Before Place Corps I had struggled with high school and being connected with my community. I had finished my animal science course with BOCES and was unsure about starting college right away. After being accepted into Place Corps and meeting the people I’d be spending the next nine months with I started to open up and found a new perspective on my community. Place Corps allowed me to explore my interests through Woodstock Animal Sanctuary, Sky High Farm, as well as Hawthorne Valley Farm. The experience I’ve had with wildlife through Place Corps has helped me immensely going forward into new experiences.”

 

2022-2023 KINGSTON FELLOWSHIP ALUMNI

 
 

Reylynn Baez

“This program was such a unique experience. I went through many trials and errors, and found out so many things about myself . Although at first I was hesitant to take a gap year, throughout this year I've discovered what makes me happy. I'm so glad I was able to be in a part of this making friends and learning about myself.”

Annysha Davis

“My experience with Place Corps was very much a roller coaster. It made me feel uncomfortable, happy, sad, and angry, but I'm glad I got to go through it with my fellow fellows. My biggest take away is all my new friends I gained while being in this program. I truly have some real ones on my team, this is something that I really needed.”

Ilija Skoko

“My Place Corps experience included doing jobs I've never done before, learning new things and seeing new places. The most important thing leaving Place Corps is continuing to educate myself, finding new work and expanding my interests and skills in the trades.”

 

Konnor Stella

“When I started Place Corps I was completely lost. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, career and self-wise. Now, 9-months later I am dead set on who I want to be and what I want my life to be like. My goal is to become the best possible version of myself by engaging in things that fulfill and better me as a person, for example making art, staying in touch with nature, and helping my community.”

Shayla Valentine

“This experience was a huge step out of bounds for me. I feel more confident to step out of my comfort zone to try something new. I’m extremely grateful to have met so many wonderful people who were willing and able to make this experience what it was for me, walking away is bittersweet and I am more upset than I ever thought I would be but I am so eager to take the next steps in discovering who I want to become, and how I can continue to learn and grow in character.”

Eliana VanValkenburgh

“When I joined Place Corps I was very unsure where I wanted to go next. My experience in this program has given me the opportunity to explore many things and learn a lot. Leaving Place Corps I'm not really exactly sure where I want to go but I certainly have many ideas.”

 
 

2019-2020 PILOT AT ALUMNI, HAWTHORNE VALLEY FELLOWSHIP:

 
 

Eleanor A.

Eleanor was born and raised in the Hudson Valley.

Alessia Cutugno

“That was the biggest thing [from Place Corps], to have an embodied experience of trust with other humans and to know what can happen when people are committed to working together and when that is the work itself. Now in my teaching practice, that’s what I care about most. I want my students to have the continuous reminder that the most important thing is that we take care of each other.”

Alessia Cutugno grew up in the Hudson Valley and received her undergraduate degree from NYU. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Education at Harvard University.

Sophia Hampton

“There are no programs that really support people coming out of college, to really think about what it is to be, to really hone in on their values, have a year to reflect on being indoctrinated, not in a bad way, but in all of these different [academic] lenses. How do they want to form it going out into the world? [Place Corps] made me a better human and it made me more able to be grounded in who I am and move forward.”

Sophia Hampton grew up in the Hudson Valley and received her undergraduate degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is currently pursuing a dual degree from Vermont Law School and Yale School of the Environment.

 

Gopal Harrington

Gopal Harrington grew up in the Hudson Valley.

Martha Snow

Martha Snow grew up in New York City and received her undergraduate degree from Skidmore College.

Lila Rimalovski

“Place Corps set the foundation for so much that is in active practice in my life right now. The relationships that I built during that time are still extremely important to me and active. The experience that I had at Place Corps will forever be something I will not be able to truly explain to anybody else because of how unique of an experience it was, but undoubtedly it [has] shaped so much of who I am now.”

Lila Rimalovski grew up in New Jersey and received her undergraduate degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is currently pursuing interests in communal living, spiritual practice and ecology in California.

 

Jordan Williams

“Place Corps informed what I wanted to get out of college because I was doing it before college. At Place Corps [learning] was much different [from high school] because it was all very embodied. When we were learning about the trigonometry of roofs, we were building a roof, which was very different from high school.”

Luke Van Horn grew up in New York City and attended Middlebury College.