Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music

2024 was a busy year for me. I am still working at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood California as one of their on-call recording engineers and full-time assistant engineer. The year was a blur of working on various projects and sessions. I had official engineer credits come out with Pharrell Williams, Miley Cyrus, Roddy Ricch, and Terrace Martin. I worked with dozens of artists on music that is scheduled to be released throughout 2025. The first couple months of 2024 were spent with Roddy Ricch’s team working on his album that is scheduled to come out in early 2025. The second half of this summer was spent working with a Korean music copyright trading platform called Musicow as their head engineer. We tracked dozens of songs which will be whittled down to create their first company funded EP. I spent weeks in September and October working with the artist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram as head engineer recording the songs for his EP set to release in 2025. I spent a lot of time producing original music with artists this year as well. I had seven singles I produced release in 2024, with artists Lali Bi Baby, Laceup, and Ryan Vo. We have many other releases scheduled for 2025. 2024 was an incredibly productive year and I feel as if I’ve been building up momentum for 2025 to be my busiest and most productive year yet. I am excited to see what further updates I’ll have to share this time next year. Thank you MVYouth for being the catalyst to set me on the journey I am currently on. I am forever grateful.

Galya Walt - Tufts University

This past year has included many exciting new beginnings and transitions! I completed my master’s in public health at Harvard in the spring and spent the summer visiting friends in New England and enjoying some time on the island with my family. This past fall, I moved to Providence to start a PhD program at the Brown University School of Public Health in the Behavioral and Social Sciences department. Over the past few months, I have loved my courses in quantitative and qualitative research methods as well as my research work outside of class focusing on harm reduction approaches for pregnant and parenting people living with a substance use disorder. Rhode Island is a really exciting place to be learning about harm reduction since they just became the first state to open a state sanctioned overdose prevention center. I’ve tried to show up to as many talks and state workgroup meetings as possible to learn about all the incredible harm reduction and overdose prevention work going on in the state. I have been so grateful to be so generously welcoming into Providence’s close-knit community, and within just the past few months I now find myself walking around my neighbor and inevitably bumping into familiar faces and friends. The small community feeling reminds me of home, and I love feeling more and more connected to my neighbors. I am also lucky to be living with one of my best friends from growing up on the island, and sharing another home together has been incredibly meaningful. Outside of classes, I have loved biking on the East Bay Bike Path, walks on Rhode Island’s beaches and enjoying the delicious food Providence has to offer! I am so grateful to all that MVYouth has done to support me getting to this point and to all the amazing work they continue to do on the island. Thank you, and wishing everyone a wonderful 2025!

Rudy Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University

Over the last year I have worked as a prevention educator at the nonprofit, Resilience, in Chicago, providing child sexual abuse prevention education to youth, adolescents, teachers, caregivers and adult service professionals. My work continues to challenge me inside and outside of the workplace, and I am thankful to MVYouth for the role it’s played in getting me to where I am today. I love living in Chicago, and will be going on 3 years of living there this Spring. I am grateful to my community near and far for supporting me as I embrace my authentic self.

Meghan Sonia - Anna Maria College

Another amazing year to reflect on! This year has been one of my biggest adjustments, but has proven to be very rewarding. I moved to Boston and started my first official nursing job, settling into my career as a registered nurse at Brigham and Women’s hospital on their Neuroscience step down floor. Through this experience, I have been able to develop my own routine as a nurse and settle into my practice. This gives me such a sense of accomplishment because I just continue to reflect on all of the hard work and sleepless nights that it took for me to get to where I am. My hard work got rewarded by being honored with two Daisy Awards from patients I have helped. Since I am also now a city girl, I have tried to enjoy every aspect of living in a city. I have been making lots of friends, exploring all the different restaurants, and just taking in the beautiful views that Boston has to offer. I also noticed that a very common next step while living in the city was to get a dog. So I have spent most of my time training my new Australian Shepherd puppy, Bean. I continue to look forward to my next year as a nurse in a beautiful city. I hope to do a few different continuous education courses that are offered at our hospital so I can work on bettering my practice. I am forever grateful to MVYouth and its donors for allowing me to have these opportunities. I would not be where I am today without their gracious support.

Emma Searle - Boston College

It’s hard to believe that almost two years have passed since I graduated from BC. Over the past year, I’ve continued to grow into my life and work in New York. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my work as a Capital Markets Paralegal at Cadwalader, where I’m continuously challenged and encouraged to grow professionally. I’ve continued to work primarily on CMBS transactions and have also joined one of the Firm’s pro bono teams. Together with another paralegal and a group of attorneys, I’ve had the privilege of helping non-profit organizations establish their organizational structure and achieve tax-exempt status through the IRS’s Form 1023. In moving through the Firm’s two-year program, I’ve worked and developed relationships with attorneys whose skills and work ethic I hope to exemplify myself one day. I’m regularly reaffirmed of my decision to pursue a legal education and will carry many of the lessons I have learned at the firm with me through law school and beyond. This past fall I applied to law schools across the east coast, and I look forward to hearing back throughout the spring with the intention of enrolling in the fall of 2025. It is never lost on me that none of this would be possible without the unmatched support and generosity of MVYouth. Your work is essential to the Island community, and for that I am forever grateful. Thank you.

Meghan Sawyer - Colgate University

My 2024 has been a year full of change and growth. I’ve been living in Boston for the past two years, but in July I moved out of my first apartment and relocated to Quincy, MA, settling into a beautiful apartment on the water. It’s been an exciting transition that has allowed me to enjoy both the peacefulness of the harbor and the vibrancy of city life. I’ve enjoyed exploring Quincy by finding new restaurants and cafes to try, and I enjoy the suburban feel while being in close proximity to Boston. On the professional side, my company underwent a major transformation this year, merging with Eisner Amper, a larger CPA firm with offices nationwide. This merger opens up incredible opportunities for career growth, and I’m looking forward to exploring new paths within the firm. As a Senior Associate, I’ve also taken on the rewarding role of being a performance and career coach for three staff members. Guiding their development has not only been fulfilling but has also helped me gain valuable managerial experience. This fall, I enjoyed traveling to new places, including my first trip to Chicago in October and a visit to New York City later in the season. Outside of work, I’ve been having fun with friends, exploring the city, and attending concerts, sporting events, and comedy shows. I’m deeply thankful for the support of MVYouth, and it’s incredible to be a part of such an amazing organization. I can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store!

Stephany Ribeiro - Southern New Hampshire University

This past year has been an incredible journey! I graduated in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), an accomplishment that has filled me with pride and excitement for the future. As an online student, I embraced the flexibility and dedicated myself fully to learning, taking advantage of every opportunity to absorb knowledge and grow academically. My coursework, particularly classes like Counseling Procedures and Techniques, deepened my understanding of therapeutic practices and further ignited my passion for mental health counseling. While pursuing my degree, I worked at Island Counseling Center (ICC) under Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS), where I gained invaluable hands-on experience in a clinical setting. My role as an administrative assistant and interpreter for Brazilian Portuguese provided me with insight into the inner workings of mental health services. I assisted clients with scheduling, collaborated with clinicians, and supported the outreach and triage process, sharpening my organizational and interpersonal skills. As an interpreter, I bridged the gap between clients and clinicians, observing firsthand the transformative power of therapy. This scholarship played a pivotal role in making my dreams a reality, and I am so grateful for the support. Balancing work, studies, and family life (I became a mom this year!) was no small feat, but SNHU’s supportive environment helped me thrive. My education has not only prepared me academically but has also given me the confidence to pursue my goal of becoming a licensed mental health counselor. As I prepare for the next steps in my educational journey, I look back on this year with immense gratitude and look forward to continuing to serve my community and make a difference in the mental health field.

Alex Rego - Dartmouth College

n June 2024, I graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a degree in Geography and Government. I love navigating postgraduate life, but I do miss being a student. Every so often, I’ll dream that I’ve got an upcoming essay deadline that slipped my mind… The past seven months have consisted of lots of randomness: I have worked four different jobs on the island (stop by ArtCliff Diner this summer and say hello!); I briefly moved to New York after an inspiring experience at New York Climate Week; and right now I write this update on a very bouncy bus as I solo backpack Colombia and Ecuador. While still in the throes of the infamous postgraduate job search, I trust that my career trajectory will manifest the way it ought to. I am currently managing the impact campaign for a documentary short about Robinson Crusoe Island, one of the most biodiverse places in the world. The film is titled Si la isla quiere (“Island Willing”). Stay tuned for screenings on Martha’s Vineyard this summer! Otherwise, I am still on the prowl for grassroots-level work in the climate/environmental sector. Should you think of anything, I’m always looking! And as always, thank you. Martha’s Vineyard has been the inspiration for all my life’s endeavors: where I went to school, what I studied, what I am pursuing as a career, and so on. This scholarship has meant more to me than words can describe. All my best always.

Spencer Pogue - Columbia University

It feels strange to be writing these reports now as a graduate, and though many things in my life have changed since I finished my degree at Columbia University last Spring, I am so grateful to have ended up where I am today. After graduating, I accepted a position as a Staff Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Betsy Crouch at UCSF’s Institute of Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco. The Crouch Lab investigates blood vessel development in the human brain, with the ultimate goal of creating novel technologies and therapeutics to treat brain hemorrhages in neonatal and pediatric patients. I was nervous at first about joining a biology lab because I worried that I lacked experience with the research techniques that they used, but I quickly adapted, and I have gained an astonishing amount of knowledge in my first six months of work: so far, I have improved my immunohistochemistry skills, learned to conduct experiments using flow cytometry and FACS, grown neural spheroids from primary tissue (which hopefully will someday be able to incorporate vasculature) and conducted single-cell RNA sequencing analysis on various patient samples in order to identify gene expression patterns that influence fetal neurovascular development during the second and third trimesters. The mentorship I have received from my boss and labmates has been outstanding thus far. Despite the occasional late nights spent running experiments, I have greatly enjoyed the camaraderie and support of working in a lab environment. As for the city, I have always loved San Francisco when coming to visit family, so I was excited by the opportunity to move here after graduating. I have been spending lots of time outdoors, mainly going for runs, playing tennis, or reading in all of the great parks the city has to offer, and I am starting to get used to — and appreciate — the fog that San Francisco is known for. My hope for the future is to apply to PhD programs in Developmental Biology or Biomedical Engineering, with the goal of entering a program in the Fall of 2026. Thank you to MVYouth for all that you have provided me, and I cannot think of enough words to express my gratitude for helping me to turn my aspirations into reality.