The Alumni Panel made its return on Nov. 26 with a new set of former LFHS students. The new panel, composed of eight alumni with a variety of backgrounds and experiences, spoke during 8th period in the Raymond Moore Auditorium.
Harrison Yi (Class of 2013), Libby Thompson (Class of 2017), Matthew Frank (Class of 2019), Nika Belova (Class of 2020), Dylan Walsh (Class of 2023), Amani Yousef (Class of 2024), Kelsey Bumbacco (Class of 2024), and Lissy Blume (Class of 2024) returned to connect and share advice with current students.
A priority for the panel administrators this year was bringing in alumni who have been out of LFHS for years and have started to solidify their future plans.
“We try to create a broad panel that has a lot of different interests. I start with kids that I know and look at what they are doing with their lives to get a range,” Administrative Assistant for Educational Services Melanie Walsh said. “I coached Libby and knew she had gone to Duke for field hockey. I saw that she was now a barn manager and when she agreed to come she was returning to her corporate job so she brought multiple perspectives.”
Emceed by seniors Nastia Belova and Maeve Farrell, the panel combined wisdom from each members’ unique 
journeys with overall updates on what they have been focusing on since leaving LFHS.
“I was really excited to listen to the panel speak because they showed us what are some things we could expect in the future,” freshman Rex Phillips said.
Belova and Farrell provided both broad questions and many specific to each member that highlighted their different paths.
“Hearing about the different optionspeople took was nice as a senior because it showed there isn’t one way to always go,” senior Powell Brickman said. “There were people still in college, working in corporate, in the military, being first responders, and taking gap years which were some experiences I had never been spoken to about before.”
The discussion highlighted the opportunity that a gap year provides, bringing in Dylan Walsh to touch on his journey of taking a year off before entering the world of collegiate swimming.
“I’m grateful that the APT and the school gave me the opportunity to come in and share my experiences with my gap year. Hopefully I was able to inspire others who are in similar positions to consider taking a year off,” Dylan Walsh said.
As the first semester comes to a close and seniors near graduation, the panel provided a look into both the near and far future for students. Alumni emphasized ways to deal with changing pathways and goals, finding fulfilling hobbies after high school, the importance of not being stuck in any path, and never self eliminating yourself from an opportunity.
“In the past we had a lot of returning students from the graduating class the year before. Recently we have wanted to span the panel back with students from ten to even fifteen years ago that have established their lives farther out of college,” Melanie Walsh said. “We hope it gives kids an idea of what paths they could follow in the future and inspires them.”
