By Clara Moffitt

It’s hard to imagine a life after high school. Who knows what could happen after you receive your diploma and sing Gaudeamus Igitur (hopefully) one last time. It seems like stepping straight into a storm of students and scholarships accompanied with decisions, disaster, and doubt. Where do you go after high school? College? Will I see my friends from high school again? Does the real world even exist?

During Winter Break, many of Tempe Prep’s esteemed alumni returned to their alma mater to see their old classrooms, teachers and friends at the TPA Alumni Holiday Reunion Brunch. With alumni from classes 2008 to 2018, the brunch was a huge success. These alumni shared their post-high school experiences and reflected on their time at Tempe Prep.

From the Class of 2015, Josh Putrasahan spent a summer with friends and family before taking off to Georgia Tech where he studied architecture. After graduation Josh now has an internship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville with Campus Ministry which fellowships with universities to reach out to students.

Marcus Hallman, from the Tempe Prep Class of 2014 shares an impressive story from studying at Washington University in St. Louis focusing in Economics, Math, Science, and German. Hallman obviously magnified his experience as an undergraduate; he explains, “I did research with a brilliant economist named Steve Fazzari” studying the sustainability of an American household.

Beyond that, Hallman also worked for a nonprofit law firm, Arch City Defenders, which was a “wholistic legal defense [firm] for . . . people who were homeless or didn’t have money.” This program assists clients with parking tickets and other interactions with St. Louis police. Hallman is now attending ASU Law School and continues to “relearn how to write, speak, and think” in the infamously challenging law school environment.

To find these awesome opportunities, Marcus Hallman suggests “getting to know your professors and ask them what they’re doing.” He notes the passion that many individuals have for their subject and that one can always find opportunities by being interested and looking for interesting people.

Also taking an impressive path, Caroline Kingsley, in the Class of 2013, matriculated to Amherst College in Massachusetts as a QuestBridge Scholar. She furthered her Tempe Prep classical foundation by studying Classics (Greek, Latin, and “some Sanskrit at the end for good measure”). She studied abroad for a year in Athens, Greece and now teaches Latin at Lincoln Prep.

All three alumni credit much of their success to the incredible foundation Tempe Prep provides. From his high school education, Josh Putrasahan takes away a “love of reading and learning.” Tempe Prep fostered a desire to learn about all fields and become a person who knows more about himself and a variety of other fields.

Marcus Hallman is also grateful for the versatility of a Tempe Prep education, noting that it “gives you a really solid background in a whole mass of areas.” He notes that not many people have the depth of knowledge that TPA students have. He says what he learned “enriched my life outside of academics as well.” He also plugs Herr Gray’s German class for teaching him how to learn a language properly which had a “large impact” on Hallman’s studies.

For Caroline Kingsley, Tempe Prep changed the way she thought about education: “Tempe Prep encouraged me to think of education as something that makes you a well-rounded human being and something that enables you to engage thoughtfully with the world around you wherever you are.”

With the uniqueness of Tempe Prep’s in-depth and well-rounded education TPA students truly learn what learning is and become incredible contributors to whatever field they may enter. Caroline concludes with the advice to “stick it out.” She explains that the demands at this school can be overwhelming or frustrating but “there’s something magical that happens . . . where everything comes together and you really start to see the end goal of what Tempe Prep has been moving you towards.” Caroline reflects on the “gift” Tempe Prep gives you, which is the understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness that comes with hard work.

So, yes, there is such a thing as life after high school and you can definitely see your old friends like these former students did at the Alumni Brunch. And, however daunting the “real world” seems, Tempe Prep alumni show the impact their high school education had on their lives for the better. With the knowledge that Tempe Prep provides of not only Renaissance art and chemical formulas, but of how to communicate, learn, and think, embracing the world doesn’t seem all that difficult after all.