Alumni Spotlight: The Kretschmans

Justin, Christopher, Luke, and Austin Kretschman are four brothers who all attended Caedmon. With their very distinct personalities and interests, they are remembered with great affection by their teachers in EP and Elementary, and they each have many accomplishments to be proud of in the lives they’ve been leading as Caedmon alumni.

Justin, a member of the Class of 2012, went on to attend Riverdale and then earned a degree in Engineering Management from the Stevens Institute of Technology. He currently works as a construction consultant at the firm C3S CoRE Consulting and is also obtaining an MBA from The Kelley School of Business. He says that his passion for building began at Caedmon with activities ranging from carving a wooden canoe for a social studies project in Third grade to building motorized balsa wood planes in an after school class. On a similar note, Justin remembers asking his Fifth grade teachers how electric motors work and being amazed the next day when, having done some impromptu research, they held a class on the topic.

Christopher, ’14, went to Berkeley Carroll after Caedmon. In high school he was the student president for two years and captain of the chess club, and he competed as well in mathematics and speech-making contests. He is now finishing up his undergraduate stint at Boston University, where he is majoring in chemistry and physics and minoring in computer science, with a focus on AI. Christopher is also a member of the Son Lab at BU, which has had him conducting research on ultrafast energy transfer in nanomaterials. “Caedmon,” Christopher remarks, “instilled in me the courage to explore new ideas, the capability to pursue them rigorously, and the creativity to approach challenges from different angles.”

Luke, who graduated in 2016, also attended Berkeley Carroll. Now at Skidmore, he is studying biology, environmental science, and several studio arts, and he explains that he is thinking of pursuing work as an educator in topics pertaining to marine biology. In high school, he was captain of the swim team in his senior year and, in a foreshadowing of his college studies, did scientific research investigating potential alternatives to synthetic pesticides. A travel enthusiast, he made a trip to the Galapagos several years ago, and last January he visited Belize on a travel seminar, getting the chance to observe the country’s sustainable development efforts. Luke says that he loves “sharing stories of the Montessori elementary school [he] grew up in,” and that he still plays Magic the Gathering, a card game that he learned from Mr. Storti in Fifth grade.

Austin, Caedmon Class of 2020, is in high school at Riverdale. He has twin passions for robotics and Chinese, and he is also the Chief Executive Officer of Riverdale’s financial club, which he helped to establish. Fencing, which he took up in Caedmon’s after school program, is a sport he has continued to pursue, and he placed 7th out of 24 in a recent competition, winning a medal for his performance. Austin credits the basketball program at Caedmon with developing his drive to improve athletically. He remembers the discipline instilled in him by the early morning basketball practices, and his team’s “incredible win” in the championships in his Fifth grade year. Like his brother Luke, Austin is also enthusiastic about travel. Some of his most recent trips include a visit to China last spring and a then winter excursion to India during which he was blessed by the Dalai Lama.