Alumni Award Recipients

Escuela’s alumni are wonderfully diverse and dedicated to their various callings. Scientists, artists, musicians, pilots, teachers, mathematicians, actors and writers, this is a group of life-long learners, creators and innovators, all with a robust sense of social responsibility. Their strong connection to the school and to each other is a testament to the unique Escuela legacy.

Past Recipients

2024 Alumni Award Recipients >
2023 Alumni Award Recipients >

The 2024 Alumni Award Recipients

Jonathan Wolfe

Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D., is one of Escuela del Sol’s first alumni. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Fractal Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit that uses the beauty of fractals to inspire interest in science, math and art. He has taught over 100,000 children and over 600 teachers about fractals, and he is the creator of the First Friday Fractals show at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He currently serves as Chief Technology Officer at MeWe, a privacy-respecting social network he co-founded that currently has over 20 million members. You might also recognize Dr. Wolfe’s several flying fractal hot air balloons.

Image of Forrest Goodluck 2024 Award Recipient

Forrest Goodluck + Sam Freed

Sam Freed and Forrest Goodluck began their lifelong friendship and creative collaboration in Ms. Dana’s Blue Room. They have maintained their friendship through the decades, and collaborated most recently on “Night Car,” a short film written by Sam and directed by Forrest. “Night Car” premiered at the 2023 Santa Fe International Film Festival in 2023. Sam and Forrest continue to collaborate on various projects and hope to release another film in the near future.

Angelina Romano

Angelina Romano is a local entrepreneur and a licensed esthetician. She founded Angel Lash Co. in 2022. Angelina specializes in med-spa treatments, and is a certified lash technician and spray tan professional. She found a passion for lashing and has used it to build a dynamic, successful business in Albuquerque. Her salon caters to every type of client from that natural to those craving something with a little more flair. Angie has used problem solving and creative skills that were foundational to her Montessori experience to make her dream of business ownership a reality.

The 2023 Alumni Award Recipients

Rita Crowley-Ornelas

Rita Crowley-Ornelas graduated from Occidental College in 2008 with a B.A in Diplomacy and World Affairs and a B.A. in Spanish Cultural Studies. She graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, CA in 2011, specializing in immigration law.

After law school Rita was awarded a post graduate fellowship for public interest law to work with US Based NGO Asylum Access Ecuador providing legal services to Colombian refugees on the Ecuador-Colombian border.

In 2014, she was recruited by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and since 2014 she has worked in the field in Ecuador, Uganda, Colombia, and El Salvador as a Protection Officer, advocating for the protection of rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons fleeing their homes due to conflict, natural disasters, and human rights violations. This includes overseeing legal services programs, providing humanitarian assistance, as well as advocacy with government counterparts so that people may have access to rights in their new communities, and restart their lives. Most recently in El Salvador, Rita provided technical guidance to state institutions to incorporate human rights law and international refugee law in local legislation and provide more inclusive services for displaced families.

Rita is currently on a year-long special leave to spend time with her growing family and has enrolled her daughter in the toddler community at Escuela. She is very excited to reconnect with Escuela, and has been amazed to see how the community has grown, while maintaining its core values that she, and so many others, have benefitted from over the last 50 years.

"Rita has made her education at Escuela the basis of her life and educational accomplishments. Escuela gave her valuable life lessons in communication and compassion. It also gave her a strong foundation for further learning by encouraging her curiosity and willingness to experience new things and people."

Jackie Katzman

Jackie Katzman is an incoming tenure-track assistant professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York (CUNY). Jackie’s research focuses on the causes of racial disparities in the legal system, with a specific focus on racial disparities in mistaken identifications. Jackie’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Psychology-Law Society, the American Academy of Forensic Psychology, and CUNY.

Her work has been published in Law; Human Behavior, Behavioral Sciences; the Law, and UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review. She has received several awards for her research, including the American Psychology-Law Society Outstanding Student Presentation Award (X3), and the European Association of Psychology and Law Student Presentation Award. Most recently, she was invited by the Director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to present her work at its National Research Conference. Jackie received her PhD from CUNY’s Graduate Center with dual specializations in Psychology and Law as well as Basic & Applied Social Psychology and received her BA from Cornell University with a double major in Psychology and Government.

"Jackie's chosen field of study demonstrates her commitment to helping imporve the lives of people, in particular those who have not had the privileges that come with race, social status, and money. She is a caring, intelligent and kind person who is, in her adult life, putting to work the values she learned in her early childhood, both at Escuela and from her family."

Ovie Nirgudkar

Ovie Nirgudkar started playing piano at the age of 4. At the age of 10, she started competing in local, state, national and international piano competitions. Over the past eight years, Ovie has won awards at the American Protégé International Piano Competition, Florida MTNA Competition, Carmel Klavier International Competition, Golden Key Music Festival, San Jose International Piano Competition, Clavis Music Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia), Steinway Junior Piano Competition, Atlanta Music Teachers Association Competition, and the Georgia Music Teachers Association Competition.

Ovie was most recently selected as an Outstanding Performer and Conference Recitalist for the Georgia Music Teachers Association Piano Competition. She has performed in winners’ concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, Royal Albert Hall in London and Sheremetev Place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 2022, while a junior in high school, Ovie founded Through Human Eyes, a refugee relief project that aims to provide relief to Ukrainians affected by the war by providing on-the-ground support in areas of sanitation, mental and physical health, and education. As part of her relief efforts, Ovie performed a concert to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. Ovie currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia and studies under Dr. Liza Stepanova at the University of Georgia. She will pursue a degree in piano performance at the University of Southern California starting in the fall.

"Ovie is an ambitions and wildly talented individual. She is also a kind and empathetic person. She is a lifelong learner, and already understands the importance of contributing to her community. Ovie is a stellar student, a world class pianist, and she runs a non-profit humanitarian organization that she founded in high school."

Alumni News

Forrest Goodluck

Forrest Goodluck attends Stanford University. He is an actor, director, screenwriter and Sundance Fellow. In his big screen debut, he appeared opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in. . .

Elena Crowley-Ornelas

I graduated with a master of science in geology from Texas Tech University last weekend (August 2018) and I am working with the U.S. Geological. . .

Jeanne Callan

Jeanne Louderbough Callan (class of 1983) was one of the first to graduate from Escuela Del Sol’s elementary program. Jeanne went on to earn a. . .

Sam’s Story

There are many things about a Montessori classroom that stand out as different from that of a typical elementary school. Taking even a cursory glance. . .

Exciting Head of School Announcement

August 27, 2024 Dear Escuela del Sol Community, I am excited to share some wonderful news with you. After a. . .

Escuela del Sol Montessori was voted Best Montessori!

We are excited to announce that Escuela del Sol Montessori has been chosen as Albuquerque’s Best Montessori school in Albuquerque. . .

AMS: Family Connection Newsletter

The American Montessori Society (AMS) creates a monthly newsletter for Montessori families. As an accredited school through AMS, Escuela is. . .

Alumni Spotting at Inauguration!

Escuela alumni Rebecca Avitia had great seats for the inauguration! As the Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C., to Sen.. . .

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