Marvelwood Community Spotlight
We are always proud of the experiences of our pterodactyls. Our Community Spotlight features the stories of alumni and community members after their time at Marvelwood. To submit your story or nominate a Marvelwood graduate, email alumni@marvelwood.org.
Andrew Moore ‘14 was intimidated when he first joined Marvelwood, having struggled at multiple middle schools without learning support. At Marvelwood, Moore experienced opportunities to learn in ways that suited his needs, and confidently used these new strategies to get organized throughout college at Clarkson University. He credits his lessons in organization for achieving the successful career in sales he has today.
What was your experience like at Marvelwood?
I attended several middle schools, but I struggled because I had dyslexia and ADHD. I started at Marvelwood as a freshman and was excited, but originally I felt uncertain because I’d been to a lot of schools already and I was still waiting for something to click. I started in the Strategies tutoring program, because I was not at the reading level where I needed to be. That specialized time with my Strategies teacher was crucial in developing my reading and writing skills. We took that time during our sessions to work on my homework, but she took it to the next level, and reinforced what I was learning in class so that I actually understood the lesson and not just the right answer for the homework.
I was even able to earn the Excellence award in English my freshman year, and eventually graduate at the top of my class. For a kid who originally couldn’t write a paper, that was a huge accomplishment.
I played every sport possible. Coach Maizel uncovered a competitive nature in me during wrestling that I would not have found. It allowed me to put all my energy and focus into something productive. My first wrestling season wasn’t amazing, but I ended up going to State and New England Championships by my senior year because I was able to focus all my energy into it. It also taught me that if I keep working consistently at something that I like, I can be successful at it.
I brought this same mentality to my other sports and scholastics
which really allowed me to succeed. Some of my favorite memories come from the rugged team practices and group study sessions.
I still play sports now, just for fun. When I don’t have that outlet I can feel my brain getting slower at work because it’s distracted by this extra energy. I play on club teams for frisbee and volleyball, traveling around New England.
How was your transition to college?
After graduating from Marvelwood, I went to Clarkson University for their innovation and entrepreneurship program. I picked that major because it allowed me to learn all the different facets of running a business instead of focusing on one subject such as marketing or finance.
One of the classes was to start a business from scratch. A few classmates and I decided we wanted to change the women’s jean market. We know that athletic women could not find jeans that fit easily, so we wanted to come up with a solution: a fixed customization website that would allow women to send in their measurements and find a perfect jeans option on the market. It was cool learning how to do everything, creating a business infrastructure, the sales action plan and so on. I worked with the econometrics and the stats professors to take all of our marketing and data research and turn it into something where we could size these women more easily than if they were trying on jeans at the mall.
We ended up winning the New York state business competition. And even though we didn’t win the national competition, we ranked high enough for grant funding. We ended up with about $18,000 worth of funding as freshmen in college, going up against Harvard Business MBA students. It was such an exciting experience!
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working as an automation salesman for SMC, a leading Pneumatic and Automation component manufacturer.
I had previously started two companies; one folded, and the other one just didn’t work out, so I began looking for jobs in the marketplace. With my experiences, sales and consulting came easily.
Eventually, I connected with SMC, which sells technical components to companies. At first, I felt I didn’t have the technical knowledge for the role, but my education at Marvelwood and Clarkson taught me how to confidently communicate with people with different life experiences and knowledge. They hired me, and in a few short years I was given the third largest account in Boston, which was really exciting. From there, I’ve grown it to be the second largest account in Boston, which also created an important role for myself that I never would have expected as a student.
What were some of the skills that you got from Marvelwood that help you today?
Marvelwood teaches you organizational skills to get tasks done most effectively. My teachers gave me the information in class and then Strategies gave me the opportunities to put it into practice. One example is they would walk me through the steps and create a plan on how I was going to accomplish my work. It specified we’d work on an assignment for a specific amount of time, Then we would move to my next assignment even if I didn't finish the prior task. This was very difficult due to ADHD’s constant time blindness and hyperfiction. I was frustrated at first but Strategies was teaching me routines that would use my learning disabilities to my advantage.
Marvelwood faculty are so good at ingraining not just academic information, but also at helping students learn how to get things done effectively and be a successful person every day. Strategies were what got the ball rolling but all your classes pushed you towards that goal of independence.
When I got to college, I was going to classes with all of these bright engineers, the smartest guys I’ve ever met. But they couldn’t sit down and write a paper, or figure out how to do their homework on time. I didn’t realize how important a skill that was. I didn’t realize that it takes people years to be able to learn how to do it on their own. Marvelwood instilled all the skills I needed to be successful and I know that if I work hard enough and continue to use these strategies and routines I can accomplish anything I want" (not so bad for a kid who couldn't read in the 9th grade!)
Today, I work my desk hours every other day, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m on the road. I break up my work, since I learned from Marvelwood that helps me to be more efficient. I do all of my in-person calls in the middle of the week, so it breaks up the office days and keeps my energy up.I think that goes back to Marvelwood, when we had community service on Wednesdays. I volunteered at the firehouse all four years. It broke up the week, gave my brain a break from learning academics, and it taught me that I have other ways of taking in information.
