’Mid the Pines Podcast

Rob Kunst '19 graduated with a major in Finance and an Analytics minor, and he's now working at Protiviti as a Senior Consultant for the Risk & Compliance practice in New York City.  How did Rob go from Butler, PA to a consulting job in NYC?  In this episode, Rob will share how he took the vision and values of the Wolverine Football team off the field and networked with alumni to land his current career. 

2013 Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award winner Dr. Randy Wilber '76  is a senior physiologist at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. He has served Team USA athletes at 11 Olympic games, including elite athletes like Michael Phelps, Apollo Ohno, Katie Ledecky, Ryan Lochte, and many others. His work with athletes focuses on altitude training, heat/humidity acclimatization, blood chemistry analysis, over training, international air travel jet lag, and exercise-induced asthma. In this episode of the 'Mid the Pines podcast, Dr. Wilber discusses how he landed in his dream career due to a coffee table book he read at age 8 and the philosophy of the Olympic games that continues to resonate with him today.  

Laura Fryan '11 and Aubrey Patton's '10 friendship has taken them from Grove City College to Northeast Ohio, where they have supported each other as their families have grown and are now working together to grow their shared hobby of interior design into a start-up consulting business, the Love Living Here Design, Co. We’re going to explore their experiences together in business and also be sure to leave our listeners with some practical interior design and home remodeling tips and tricks!

After completing his degree in Business Management at Grove City College, Falco Muscante '20 went on to law school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where he is currently completing his Juris Doctor degree and working as a Summer Associate for K & L Gates, a multinational law firm spanning five continents, one of the top international law firms in the world.

While the pandemic provided an unexpected ending to Falco’s senior year, he returned in 2021 to walk the stage and share a commencement message titled “Why Return” - emphasizing gratitude to those who make Grove City College an amazing place.  Our conversation today will encompass his career journey and his personal pursuit of hard work and dedication.  I’m excited to hear his perspective on being a life-long learner, learning not just from professors or managing partners, but also from the people we interact with daily.

Bill Smith, class of 1969, is one of our most accomplished alumni and is a past recipient of the Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award. After graduating from Grove City College with a degree in Business Administration, Bill launched his career with companies like RCA Computer Systems, Xerox Data Systems, and Rockwell International Corporation before co-founding Smith Micro Software, Inc. in 1982. Guided by his visionary leadership and savvy business acumen, Smith Micro developed a reputation as a trusted software solution provider to wireless carriers and cable companies. Throughout the company’s 40-year history, Bill has overseen more than 25 strategic acquisitions and has built Smith Micro into a multi-national company in the rapidly evolving global telecommunications industry.  Recently, in 2021, Smith Micro made the largest acquisition in company history, making it a market leader in delivering mobile family safety software solutions to wireless carriers.

 

Dr. Don Shockey, class of 1963, has lived a life that many people would consider fascinating, and that Don himself calls “The Improbable Journey.” How did this Pennsylvania farm boy find himself researching shock wave physics and materials fracture science, working for the Stanford Research Institute, consulting for NASA, and pursuing hobbies like working with the ski patrol at Lake Tahoe and diving for abalone off the coast of California? We’ll find out today as we chat with Don, who was Grove City College’s Man of the Year and Sportsman of the Year in 1963 and who went on to become a Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award winner in 2010. 

Grove City College Alumni Association president and member of the class of 1979, Carol MacGamwell Yannuzzi, has had great success combining her business and fundraising skills with a personal passion for the issue of type 1 diabetes.  She has been promoting the research, education, and advocacy of diabetes through her roles at the American Diabetes Association and JDRF, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Listen in to learn her story from Grove City College, her advocacy for type 1 diabetes, and how she's making an impact in our community.

Christopher Parker, class of 1993, has served as a music educator for 14 years, and he’s also been a high school principal, and even a substitute teacher for a time. Chris is married to Tracy, and they share their lives in Rochester, New York, with their 3 beautiful children, a 10-year-old son and 9-year-old twins, a son and daughter.

Today’s podcast focuses on the story of Chris’ prolonged battle with Covid-19 and his miraculous road to recovery where he has encountered the grace of God at many turns. As a warning to our listeners, some parts of Chris’ story may be difficult to hear.

Dr. Andy Sems '95 is one of our most accomplished alumni who will soon be returning to campus for the College’s 142nd Commencement to address our Class of 2022. After graduating from Grove City College, Dr. Sems completed his medical training at The Ohio State University and his orthopaedic surgery residency at The Cleveland Clinic, with fellowships in Austria and at the University of Minnesota/Hennepin County Medical Center.

Since 2005, he has been affiliated with the world-famous Mayo Clinic, where he oversees the Limb Lengthening and Regeneration Clinic. He shares with us his career journey and a sneak preview of his anticipated Commencement address to our Class of 2022.

We caught up with Jake Loosararian '13, founder and CEO of Gecko Robotics to talk about his journey from "Grover to Gecko" and points in between. Find out more about Jake and his quickly expanding company that now has a presence in the Netherlands, a brand new 70,000 square foot Pittsburgh headquarters at Nova Place, and the largest 2022 investor funding round ($73M) in the Pittsburgh region to date.