dck
加入时间: 2004/04/02
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作者：dck 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/124955.html?imw=Y
Special Report: Part Two
Part Two: Five who stayed in Western New York
For some, the lure of family outweighs other opportunities for advancement
By Mary B. Pasciak and Deidre Williams - News Staff Reporters
Updated: 07/24/07 7:54 AM
SAVE EMAIL PRINT POPULAR + Larger Font + Smaller Font Consider the budding entrepreneur from Nichols, the class president from Cleveland Hill, the small-town boy from Barker, the aspiring physical therapist from Lancaster, and the valedictorian from Frontier.
The future was wide open for each of them 20 years ago when they graduated from high school … but the ailing local economy hung like a specter in the background.
Despite the odds, each ended up in Western New York.
Two never left the area; one of the two lives 13 houses from her parents, on the same street.
One left to go to college in the Adirondacks, but after a year, decided it was too far from home.
Another went to school in Chicago and fell in love with the city, but returned home … get this … because he couldn't find a job there.
And one started his own business in Cleveland after dropping out of Case Western Reserve University, but soon headed back home to work in the family business.
Click here for Part One of the series and an interactive look at the Class of 1987
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Regardless of how they ended up in Western New York … by choice or by chance … all five say they savor the benefits.
"We could have gone elsewhere for a job that paid more money," said Kelly Lubey, who was vice president of her class at Lancaster High School 20 years ago. "But I think that, ultimately, family is more important than more money."
Jeffrey Costello
Barker High class president
Barker, NY
Jeffrey Costello: A small-town boy who wouldn't have it another way
At the lone pizza place in Barker, copies of old Barker School District yearbooks … some dating to the Eisenhower administration … dot every table, next to the napkins and paper menus.
Here, you can trace Jeffrey Costello's journey.
In one yearbook, he's a bespectacled, somber-looking sixth-grader. In another, he's the senior class president with a Tony Danza haircut and just a hint of a mustache.
Scan the yearbooks from more-recent years, and you'll still find pictures of Costello … plenty of pictures. These days, he's a teaching assistant … but known by most kids as "Coach" … junior varsity field hockey, girls varsity basketball and boys JV baseball.
For a brief moment before Costello graduated from high school, he entertained dreams of going to a big college with a Division I athletics program.
Instead, he stayed true to his small-town roots and chose Paul Smith's College, nestled in the Adirondacks. But once he got there, he decided six hours was too far from home, and 850 students was too big for his comfort level.
"I was scared to death to go away from Barker," he said. "In high school, I was a big fish in a small pond. I've always been a small-town type of person. I've always liked the small-town atmosphere."
After his freshman year at Paul Smith's, Costello came back to Western New York. He enrolled at Buffalo State College, where he lived in the dorms while he earned his bachelor's degree in business and distributive education. Once he graduated, he headed right back to Barker.
In 1994, the Barker School District offered him a job supervising the high school computer lab. Over the next few years, the position evolved. Now, Costello is the teaching assistant in charge of audiovisual equipment for the district. He is part teacher, part tech guy, part district documentarian.
He oversees the morning announcements, which are produced live from the district's video studio adjacent to his office; maintains the district's DVD players, TVs, radios and other equipment; teaches middle school students how to edit videos; helps teachers produce study skills videos; and puts together a DVD of the school musical, among other things.
Throughout the day, clusters of students gravitate during their free periods to Room 153, his office/classroom … a handful of the kids doing independent studies with him in video editing, but even more just wanting to be in the orbit of the man they call "Coach."
"He's great," said Barker High School principal John Hoar. "He's just a fireball of energy."
Costello enjoys his day job, but it's what happens in the athletic arena after the final bell that's really his passion.
Pictures of his field hockey, basketball and baseball teams plaster one wall in his office. Framed photos of various field hockey players over the years hang on the wall over his desk. One plaque, boasting an unbeaten field hockey season in 1999, declares him "coach for the millennium."
He knows he could make more money as a full-fledged teacher, but says he's happy with his work.
"By not being a teacher, I'm not giving exams. I'm not giving tests. I'm just interacting with the kids," he said. "It's not as structured. It's not a traditional student-teacher thing -- it's more hands-on, more interactive."
Costello would love to have children of his own. That dream was put on hold seven and a half years ago, when his then-fiancee was struck unresponsive by seizures that altered her brain, leaving her nursing home-bound at 35. He visited her daily for two years.
"I always felt like she knew I was there," he said. "To me, she just reacted differently than with other people."
As time wore on, the visits became more difficult for him. The last time he went to see her, he couldn't bring himself to go into her room.
Costello still grieves the loss of the family and the future the two of them might have had. But he remains hopeful that he might one day find someone to settle down with … in Barker, of course.
"If the day comes that I get married and have kids, I would love for them to go here," he said. "There's a lot to be said for kids who are raised in a small community."
Kelly (Bart) Lubey
Lancaster High vice president
Depew, N.Y.
Kelly Lubey: On the street where she has always lived
Kelly Lubey has her hands full.
A long list of patients is scheduled, none of whom she's ever met or whose conditions she's familiar with because she's filling in for someone else.
Then she has to rush home to pick up her son from the baby sitter and beat her three daughters home from school.
Later, she'll start checking homework and getting dinner ready for her family, and at some point, put in a little time on the high school reunion she's been planning.
It's a full day, but that's not unusual for a woman who is constantly trying to strike a balance between career and family.
"I'm just fortunate that my job is so flexible, that I have that luxury," said Lubey, vice president of her 1987 graduating class at Lancaster High School. "I don't have to miss a concert or miss a softball game. I picked a great profession that's very flexible, and because of that I'm happy."
Her career in physical therapy occurred by happenstance. In high school, she thought she wanted to be a nurse, but her mother, Barbara Bart, wasn't sure nursing would be a good fit for her daughter. She suggested that her daughter first volunteer in a local hospital.
"So I candy striped at Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital every Thursday all summer long, and I hated nursing," explained Lubey, who was entering her junior year in high school at the time. "They literally transferred me from department to department until I got to physical therapy, and I loved it."
And she loved Western New York. When she talks about being close to home, she means it. She grew up in the same Depew neighborhood where she now lives with her husband, Bill, her 5-year-old son, Ben, and daughters, Heather, 12, Melissa, 10, and Megan, 7.
If there were a contest to choose the graduate who stayed closest to home, the former Kelly Bart would be tough to beat. Her parents' home … the one where she grew up … is 13 houses away.
Lubey has never lived anywhere other than Depew, nor has she ever considered leaving. The pull of home was just too great, she explained.
"My family's here, and that's important," she said. "We could've gone south to get better jobs and more money, but to be away from family didn't seem worth it."
That desire to stay close to home might be genetic.
"I guess she got that from me, because I never left here either," her mother said. "I've lived here all my life. I've never been transplanted. My husband had opportunities to leave with his job, but we stayed. We have roots here."
Lubey's roots trace back to an active high school career, where her enthusiasm spilled out in many directions. She played flute in the concert and marching bands. She played volleyball. And then there was a host of other after-school activities … ski club, French club, science club and the student union, to name just a few.
After high school, she received a bachelor's degree in physical therapy from Daemen College, the same school her husband attended.
Bill also works as a physical therapist for the Catholic Health System. They had mutual friends in college but didn't know each other at the time. Even though they had heard about each other, the pair didn't meet until both were working at St. Joseph Hospital, where she did her internship and he was her clinical teacher.
Now that she's busy raising the kids, Lubey has cut back on her hours, working on a per diem basis when she's needed to fill in from time to time.
By the beginning of the upcoming school year, all four of her children will be attending schools in Lancaster, the same district she attended.
The connections to her own childhood are often evident. Her oldest daughter's fifth-grade teacher taught Lubey in 11th grade, for instance.
When Lubey talks about such connections, she becomes emotional.
"I'm excited for them because I have so many memories," Lubey said. "When I went to the middle school for orientation for Heather, I was having all these flashbacks and memories .‚.‚. good memories."
Scott Neal
Frontier High valedictorian
Buffalo, N.Y.
Scott Neal: Well, he's living here in Allentown
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the Neal family to-do list has one task on it: nothing.
That would be the opposite of the rest of the week, with one spouse often on the road working a full-time job, the other spouse staying home to raise 8-month-old twins and both renovating their mid-19th century Allentown home in what can laughably be referred to as their spare time.
And Scott Neal would not have it any other way.
"For all the reasons people want to leave Buffalo … the grass is greener … it really didn't hold true for us," said Neal, who graduated in 1987 as the class valedictorian of Frontier High School. "We've had a great experience here."
Neal, an architect and full partner at Wendel Duchscherer, travels a lot with his job, and the construction season is the busiest time of the year in his line of work.
His wife, Michelle, worked as a manager for pharmaceutical and dental companies. These days, she stays home with twins Sawyer and Ella. Keeping up with them is a full-time job, and then some.
But Sunday travels at a slower pace, so the Neals keep their their cars parked and walk to their destinations.
Before strolling off to Betty's on Virginia Street for brunch, the family relaxes in their spacious North Pearl Street home … the only Queen Anne style on the block, Scott Neal said. They've been renovating and restoring the house little by little for the last seven years.
On the walk home, the couple takes turns pushing the twins' stroller. Along the way, they stop in at a friend's house to catch the score on the Sabres game. Then they check another friend's house to see how renovations are coming along.
"That's what I think makes Buffalo a wonderful place. There's all these little gems that have held Western New York together," Neal said.
Although he enjoys the life he has made for himself in Buffalo, the city is not where he wanted to land after graduating from the University of Illinois. He had fallen in love with Chicago, but couldn't find a job there. He had to move home.
"When I graduated, I was not sure what the future would hold," he said. "You go to college, and I think the last thing parents want is to see you come home."
But he was eventually able to land his first architecture job with Lauer-Manguso. From there, he did a stint at K2M Architects and then landed at Cannon Design, where he worked on the reconstruction of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
In 1998, he went to work at Wendel, where his focus is mainly transportation-related projects all over the world. His specialty is intermodal transportation facilities, which look like train stations from which buses, heavy rails and bicycles can converge and depart from one central location.
A project he headed in Kalamazoo, Mich., that transformed a historic train depot into one of those intermodal facilities recently won design and historic preservation awards.
Scott and Michelle met between Cannon Design and Wendel Duchscherer. They considered relocating to Washington, D.C., for a higher-paying job. But they decided to stay.
Now firmly established as Buffalo residents, the couple also make time for civic endeavors, such as the North Pearl Block Club, helping to elevate the quality of life in their eclectic Allentown neighborhood.
"I don't think anyone can really predict where life takes you, but I have not regretted the circumstances that brought me here and have kept me here," he said.
But why stay?
"Why would we leave? It's working," Scott added. "We are staunchly city-oriented, and Buffalo is phenomenally livable if you can find work. And we like the idea of exposing the kids to many things, like the arts and diversity."
And Sunday strolls through Allentown.
Kelley (Mitchell) Shanahan
Cleveland Hill High class president
Marilla, N.Y.
Kelley Shanahan: A balanced life lived close to home
As an administrator in Roswell Park Cancer Institute's department of medicine, Kelley Shanahan is responsible for a large staff of physicians, nurses, physician's assistants, lab technicians, and graduate and postgraduate students.
She reviews and approves purchases, manages special projects, develops and enforces procedures, and handles personnel-related issues.
By her own admission, she alternates between being glued to her computer and buried in paper.
And she couldn't be happier.
"I love paperwork," she said. "I'm good with papers. I'm very lucky to have ended up in a field that I really enjoy."
The Kelley Shanahan story often comes back to Roswell Park because of how intertwined it has become with her true loves: her family and living in Western New York.
She has worked at Roswell Park for 10 years, starting as a grants manager in the accounting office and now as an administrator in the hospital's department of medicine. She has worked part time since 2000.
"I enjoy working, but I also enjoy spending time with my children and getting involved with my children's activities," said Shanahan, known as Kelley Mitchell when she was president of the Class of 1987 at Cleveland Hill High School. "Roswell's been very accommodating."
Shanahan initially majored in computers and information technology, then switched to business studies. During college, she worked in the sales office of the Buffalo Niagara Marriott.
After graduation, she landed a full-time position at the hotel as an executive meeting manager, handling small functions. Then she switched to the research field and became an administrative assistant at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions.
She hopes Roswell Park is the last place she ever works.
"I kind of just stumbled upon the field that I'm in, but I really enjoy it," she said.
Her work schedule allows her to make it home every night to Marilla to be with her husband and high school sweetheart, Glen, and their daughters, Leah, 7, and Lily, 1.
Leah Shanahan is playing softball for the first time this year, and her dad is the coach. So the family is becoming familiar with a routine well known to baseball parents everywhere: Come home from work, scarf down dinner, look everywhere for the child's glove, pile into the minivan, race to the field and sit in the roasting sun for two hours or more yelling things like "Good eye!" and "Nice try!"
Shanahan relishes the fact that she is able to live her life so close to home. Her husband is a history teacher in the Pioneer School District, which is why the Shanahans live in Marilla … both have about a 30-minute commute to work. When her husband was having trouble finding a teaching job, they considered looking elsewhere. She's glad it didn't come to that.
"I would not want to be somewhere doing the same thing that I do here, only without having the support of my family and my husband's family and all the friends I've made over the years around," she said. "We would have done it if we had to, but we're glad that we didn't have to do that."
In addition to attending every one of Leah's baseball and soccer games, Shanahan volunteers as a "room mom" at her daughter's school, working with the teacher to help pupils with their assignments and answer their questions, and helping them stay focused and on task while the teacher is working with other students.
Shanahan not only doesn't want to leave the area, she said she helped persuade two family members to move back. When she visits other places, she thinks about what it might be like to live there.
"No matter where you live, you still have to go to work, you still have to go to school, you still have to take care of your kids," she said. "It's not all fun and games just because it's a different place."
Mark Yellen
Nichols "first to make a million"
Amherst, N.Y.
Mark Yellen: A million reasons to stay in Western New York
Mark Yellen loved high school … the academic side of it.
He thrived on the back-and-forth of classroom sparring, the chance to show his intellectual mettle and take on minds as agile as his.
But then there was the other part of high school … the social scene. There, Yellen didn't fare as well.
"As a nerd, high school was rather socially difficult for me," he said. "We were the kids that were not popular, that walked to a different drummer. No one really quite understood us."
He was savvy enough to recognize his shortcomings, though. A turning point came when he was 15.
He walked into the Amherst Computer Exchange looking for a summer job. David Doran, one of the owners, taught him how to go out on the floor and talk to people.
Yellen was a quick study; he became the company's top salesman that summer.
But that was just the beginning. A few years later, he went back and bought the place. He co-founded Appraisal.com, a company that employs people in Buffalo as well as India, and he's involved in several other business ventures, including a resort, Mirabon at Playa Las Canas, in the Dominican Republic.
"I got lucky. I learned at an early age that, if you want something to work, you have to learn to get people to go along with you," said Yellen, who was voted first to make a million at Nichols 20 years ago.
His career trajectory hasn't always been predictable.
After high school, Yellen went to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. By the fall of his junior year, he decided he wasn't getting what he hoped for out of his classes … how to cut deals, run a business, be a leader.
He dropped out of school and combined $13,000 of his savings with $37,000 in venture capital to open a computer store in Cleveland. In its first year, the store reported $1.4 million in sales.
He sold the store in 1991, moved back to Buffalo and helped run the family business, Lancaster Steel Service, for a few years. He took classes one weekend a month at the American Institute of Computer Sciences in Chicago, earning his bachelor's and master's degrees.
After stints at ICT Group and Delaware North, Yellen and a friend in 1999 founded Appraisal.com, which provides real estate appraisal technology. The company has grown to include about 100 employees, operating from a building on Main Street in Buffalo's Theatre District and employing people locally as well as in India.
"A lot of people see me as a technology guy, but I see myself as more of someone who has developed an expertise at finding and motivating great people," he said. "I've been able to do that by altering my personality a little so I can be as friendly as possible to as many people as possible, by investing time into mentoring people and helping them succeed."
Some nonconventional management techniques probably don't hurt, either. Whether it's giving iPods or NCAA playoff tickets to employees, passing around a 4-pound tub of licorice at a meeting, or letting employees bring their dogs to work, Yellen is willing to do whatever he can to keep people happy and motivated.
From his modest office looking out onto Pearl Street, he switches gears seamlessly … in a matter of minutes, juggling a phone call in Spanish with Volker Geiger, the property manager in the Dominican Republic, for a progress report on the development; a call from Boston negotiating a possible $20 million deal involving environmental inspections of commercial real estate; and a meeting with R. Michael Gilbert, the CEO of Appraisal.com, navigating through staffing issues in India.
Yellen, a world traveler who's fond of Thailand … it's "so gritty, and just so real" … thrives on his dealings across the globe. He doesn't see Buffalo as his home, he sees the world as his home, he often says.
But on a more practical level, Yellen does, indeed, have a Western New York mailing address, when he's not spending time at his house in the Dominican Republic. He and his wife, Laura, and their 17-year-old son, Adam, live in Amherst, although Yellen talks more about Buffalo and what he sees as the city's vitality and improved business climate.
"Anyone who hasn't looked at Buffalo in the last two or three years simply hasn't looked at Buffalo," he said. "The city isn't coming back any more; it's back. It's gone from being a place where everyone is saying it's going to get better to being a better place to be."
作者：dck 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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a very moving in-depth report on people
