We asked some of the brightest folks from within the community to reflect back on their days in school and to share with us a story of when they learned a particularly important or impactful lesson. We’ve shared highlights below.

Vasjan Zisi

I’m Vasjan a club promoter, artist and A&R from Boston. I’m originally from Albania, and I was born in Greece. Moving to the US in 2018 had it difficulties as far as my language barrier, not knowing people in the music field and being in a new country that I’ve never been before. Going to school for Finance & accounting helped me build some connections and helped me develop my English language as well. School taught that if you really want something you can’t let the obstacles come in the way and stop you but you need to face them. After improving my English, making friends at school and being more open to going to events in Boston area, I was able to connect with a lot of people and realized that I had grown a big community so i started throwing my own events. Read more>>

Ashley Carrizo Performer & Creative Director

Since childhood I always would say I wanted to be a performer. I began dancing at the age of two and continued through high school into college. Growing up because I was so in love with dance, it was all I thought about. When I was in elementary school one of my dance studios used to take us to a convention in NYC. It was a weekend event where we took classes from all different teachers/dancers across the country. It gave younger dancers a chance to see what other styles and teachers are like outside of our home studios. The weekend was an event I anticipated every year especially for the last day that I could audition for the assistant protege team. The convention offered a program for exceptionally advanced dancers an opportunity to travel with the company. This audition to be in this program happened on the last day of the convention. At my home studio I was doing exceptionally well, getting spots in the front line, solo parts, advancing my skills at a fast pace. I thought I was on top of the world. I first auditioned in sixth grade, eleven year old me was ready. Read more>>

Tressa Lacy

It was late summer, and my sophomore year of high school was about to begin. It had been a year since I’d experienced a traumatic logging accident, and the surgeon, concerned the infection I’d grappled with would come back, said he needed to perform a final surgery to remove the plate and screws that had been holding my leg together for the last twelve months. Read more>>