Stories
Saint Dom's provided me with an amazing supportive place to build a strong foundation and become a well-rounded person and develop the skills I needed to succeed.
Ever since I can remember, my career goal had always been to become a veterinarian. I worked really hard in high school to get good grades and was really involved in sports and extracurricular activities. I was able to keep building on that at the University of Maine and then realize my dream by graduating with my VMD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. For the past 20 years I have had a very fulfilling and rewarding career, doing something I love as a small animal veterinarian.
My Dad attended Saint Dom's as well and my parents put all six of us through Saint Dom's. My Dad was a founding member of the Key Club, and I was lucky enough to be a senior the year that girls were allowed to join. It is really rewarding to be able to see my children also participating in something at Saint Dom's that their Pepere helped to start.
Angela Mickalide, PhD, MCHES, is an internationally-lauded researcher and practitioner with more than 30 years’ experience in public health education, injury prevention, and health communication.
Dr. Mickalide was valedictorian of the Class of 1975 at Saint Dominic Regional High School. She graduated summa cum laude from Colby College in Waterville, Maine swhere she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi, the National Psychology Honor Society.
Dr. Mickalide earned her PhD degree at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, specializing in public health, psychology, and health education. Upon graduation, she was selected for membership in the Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, the Public Health Honorary Society. Dr. Mickalide is also a master certified health education specialist (MCHES) and a graduated scholar in the Public Health Education Leadership Institute.
She is the Immediate-Past President of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) is a nonprofit, independent professional association that represents a diverse membership of nearly 4,000 health education professionals and students in the US and 25 international countries. SOPHE members work in schools, universities, voluntary organizations, health care settings, worksites, and in local, state and federal government agencies.
At Safe Kids Worldwide and the Home Safety Council, Dr. Mickalide served in several senior management roles in research, programming and outreach. She was most recently principal investigator and program director of the Emergency Medical Services for Children National Resource Center based at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. Her duties included: providing fiscal oversight of a four-year, $6 million-dollar cooperative agreement from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau; leading a staff of nine employees; and developing and implementing the annual work plan.
Despite a career based in the non-profit sector, Dr. Mickalide has maintained strong roots in the scholarly arena. She has published more than 90 articles, book chapters, research reports, and editorials as well as delivered nearly 400 conference presentations over the past three decades. Dr. Mickalide has held academic appointments in public health at both Johns Hopkins and George Washington Universities, and has mentored approximately 30 graduate students during their internships and capstone experiences. She also served on several peer-reviewed journal editorial boards, including Health Education and Behavior, Health Promotion Practice, Injury Prevention and the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion.
Angela has held leadership positions on many non-profit boards including the Kensington Historical Society, the American Association of University Women, the Montgomery County Maryland Commission on Children and Youth and Noyes Children’s Library. She is a music lover and serves on the Board of Directors of the South County Concert Association.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering (Statutory Chair)
Head of the Department of Engineering Science
University of Oxford
Ronald Roy received a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Maine, an M.S. in physics from the University of Mississippi, and the M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Yale University.
He formerly served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, as a Senior Physicist at the Applied Physics Laboratory and an Associate Research Professor of Bioengineering, both at the University of Washington, and on the research staff at the National Center for Physical Acoustics. In 2006-2007 he served as the 65th George Eastman Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.
Trained as a physicist and an engineer, Dr. Roy specializes in the application of physical acoustics principles to problems in biomedical acoustics, industrial ultrasonics, and acoustical oceanography -- however, his true passion is the acoustics of bubbles and bubbly media.
Sonoluminescence (light from sound), acoustic cavitation dynamics, shock-driven cavity collapse physics, and bubble-mediated therapeutic ultrasonics are topics of past and current interest.
Most recently, he joined colleagues in developing new techniques for imaging the optical properties of soft tissues through the nonlinear interaction of light and sound (acousto-optic imaging) and is currently exploring novel ways in which nanoparticles can be used in conjunction with laser illumination and high-intensity focused ultrasound to facilitate both optical imaging and focused ultrasound surgery.
Dr. Roy has served on numerous professional society committees, review panels, editorial boards, and was a past Editor-in-Chief of Acoustics Research Letters On Line (now called JASA Express Letters). He is a Fellow and former Vice President of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and a recipient of the ASA Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal.
Rebecca graduated from St. Dom's in 1993. She now resides in Connecticut with her husband, 4 kids and 2 dogs.
After extensively searching, but unsuccessfully finding, a fun, fashionable headband that did not slip, Rebecca received the inspiration to create her own headband line while vacationing in Australia.
She began hand sewing Bondi Band headbands in her hometown of Lewiston, Maine in February 2005.
Her company has expanded to a full line of headwear, compression products and accessories in comfortable, colorful options to fit every lifestyle and personality for active women, men and children. Bondi Band donates 10% of all profits to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.
The demands of running a growing business and taking care of an also growing family keep her very busy, but in her free time she enjoys traveling. Rebecca loves sweets, which is why she can often be found running on her treadmill — while sporting a Bondi Band, of course.
Raymond Mosca ‘15 recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Joseph’s College. He is the recipient of the Dr. Stephen Aylward Memorial Political Science Award and the Sister Mary de la Salle O’Donnell History Award for top-ranking student in his area of study.
While at Saint Joseph’s Raymond served 4 years in various Student Government roles and was President his senior year.
Raymond has been accepted to Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law (CUA Law) in Washington D. C.
I graduated from University of Maine at Farmington in 1970 and got my Master's of Education at the UMO in 1992.
My wife and I have been married for 48 years. By the way, she's a John Baptist graduate. We have a daughter and a son. My daughter has two lovely girls; my son has a boy and a girl.
I taught at Clinton Elementary School for 35 years, grades four though seven but spent most of my time at the sixth grade level teaching a self-contained classroom.
When I retired from teaching, I worked a couple of years with a cabinetmaker, then worked with special needs students for another few years.
I have spent a lot of my time doing volunteer work. For over ten years I've worked with veterans teaching fly-fishing skills and also taking them fishing. I've also worked with children teaching fly-fishing skills though out central Maine.
For the last 14 years I have taught at the Maine Trout Unlimited trout camp in Solon, Maine. I was the director for the last five years. I have been very concerned with our environment and have been giving presentations throughout Central Maine on the Kennebec River watershed.
Jonathan grew up in Auburn, Maine and attended public schools before transferring to a local parochial school for his last three years of high school. He earned a full scholarship to the University of Maine in Orono, graduating in 2002 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. During his time at Orono, he worked two terms of an internship with a specialty chemical company serving Maine’s pulp and paper industry and spent time working in most of Maine’s paper mills at the time.
His first position after college was in the Boston area, working as a consulting engineer. In that role, he worked to evaluate industrial complexes (pulp and paper mills, electrical and medical equipment fabrication, building materials manufacturers, etc) and commercial locations (high-rise offices, financial data centers) for business exposures arising from deficiencies in fire protection, equipment operation, building construction, or contingency planning.
He returned to Maine in late 2004 to begin taking graduate courses in public administration back at the University of Maine. He served briefly in a consulting role by developing an analysis of current joint ventures between the Cities of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine for the Mayor’s Commission on Joint Services. This included an assessment of models of regionalization from across the United States for applicability to current systems in place and public opinion in region.
In December of 2005, he accepted a role in transportation planning and policy in southern Maine, working with appointed and elected government officials regarding public policy and planning.
At present, he is the Executive of the Androscoggin Land Trust, a land conservation organization serving 19 towns and cities, spanning all or part of four counties, within the Androscoggin River watershed. That work including working with local, state and federal agencies, as well as land owners and other non-profits to build support of conservation projects and the development of recreational assets in the region to promote access to the area’s natural resources.
Jonathan was first elected to office in 2008 as an Androscoggin County Commissioner, representing Auburn, Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls. In 2009, he was named to the MaineBiz Next List as someone shaping the future of Maine’s economy. The Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls Chamber of Commerce named him businessman of the year in 2010.
He now owns a home in downtown Auburn, four blocks from where he grew up.
By Norman Kostelidis ’88, Konrad Kostelidis, Philip Jean ‘88
A Generation Comes Full Circle
For one St. Dom’s alum, time has come full circle.
In 1987, Norman Kostelidis ‘88 took a life-changing step, though he didn’t know it then. The student from Germany followed in the footsteps of many a German student who elected to take a year abroad as a foreign exchange student in another country. Norman chose the United States, or ‘the States,’ as our country is more commonly known overseas, for two reasons: to learn the culture and the English language and to make lifelong friends.
When Norman arrived in the United States, he was enrolled at Lewiston High School. Even though the Lewiston High School building was almost new and very modern when he started school that fall, he felt something was missing. As he wasn’t happy with his host family, he asked everyone he knew so far for another host family. A good friend, Eric Douglas, introduced him to Dr. John and Kathy Pitman. After discussions with the Pitmans, he joined their family for the rest of the school year and transferred to St. Dominic Regional High School to continue his senior year.
And Norman flourished. Although the school wasn’t as expected, other changes made up for it. “Yes, I was disappointed that the building was old, much older than the new Lewiston High School, but people were the priority there, and I was very happy.” The Pitmans’ children had attended St. Dom’s, and the family knew everyone in the school. They helped Norman forge connections with his fellow students; one student in particular, Philip Jean ’88, became his best friend.
For an entire school year, Phil and his classmates included Norman in everything they did. Norman became involved in family theatre and community productions, an extracurricular activity as popular as sports in the late 1980s. They took field trips out of state to see plays in major cities like New York City and spent time together eating and talking. For Norman, his St. Dom’s friends and host family became his second family, and his relationship with Phil became akin to a brother. Because of their relationship with Norman, the Pitmans helped Norman’s father travel to the States to see his son graduate from St. Dom’s. Through the support of Phil, other friends, and the Pitmans, who showed him the possibilities life could offer, Norman also made the life-changing decision to take over the family business of restaurants when he returned home.
Graduation and his return home to Germany did not dampen his relationship with his St. Dom’s family. Instead, it flourished. Though thousands of miles separated the two men, they and their families kept track of each other in the early years through postcards, letters, phone calls, and presents. Norman finished his German high school education and then went to college, majoring in hotel management. Phil graduated from the University of Maine with a BS in Business Administration and Husson College with a Master’s in Business and a concentration in Health Care Administration. Norman’s father sold him parts of the family business, and Norman eventually opened his own chain of restaurants. Phil traveled to Germany occasionally to visit Norman, and when Norman traveled to the States every few years, he and Phil would catch up with each other and other friends. “When I return to the States, it feels like home,” he remarked.
In the last 10 to 20 years, technology and the advent of social media have brought the two families much closer, so much so that Norman’s son Konrad announced last year that he planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and study abroad in the States through the Ayusa student exchange program, Phil immediately offered for the young man to live with him in Scarborough and attend Scarborough High School. “I’ve known Konrad since he was two years old. He’s like a son to me,” Phil remarked.
After a year of applications, a battery of paperwork, and visa clearances, Konrad arrived in America in August and started school at Scarborough High School in September. “I’m doing exactly what my Dad did back when he came to the States, except that I’m living with a family that is already a family to me.” The only two differences are that Konrad, at 15, is enrolled as a 10th grader, and he has enrolled in a martial arts studio close to Phil’s home.
Phil is helping Konrad to acclimate to his new surroundings and playing tour guide, showing the young man the beauty of his home state, including Sebago Lake and Acadia National Park. They also have plans to travel the country over the next year, including San Diego/L.A., Washington, D.C., Florida, and New York City, to name a few. “It will be great traveling the country with Phil and his family,” Konrad mentioned, then grinned. “Phil plans to take me to see Disney and Hollywood!” He will always cherish his time spent with the Jeans. “I am so glad that I made the decision to spend a year in the States like my dad did 35 years ago. I will always remember this amazing year with the Jean family.”
The years have come full circle for Norman, with his son now spending a year with his second family, but the friendships he forged at St. Dom’s will never end. “The Pitmans and Phil are part of my family now and a second home.” St. Dom’s changed his life in a positive manner as he made a lifetime decision there and still has lots of contact with his former classmates. “Our friends and St. Dom’s always come up in our conversations. Our reunion is coming up, and I hope to attend and catch up with my classmates.”
Konrad Kostelidis, Norman Kostelidis ’88, Philip Jean ‘88
Chief Executive Officer, Inland Management
Chief Investment Officer, DRD Investments LLC
President’s Advisory Board at Massachusetts General Hospital
Advisory Board Member to Home Base, The Red Sox Foundation and MGH Program
After graduating from St. Dom's, Don earned a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from St. Michael's College in Vermont before receiving a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maine Law School, and a master's of law degree from Boston University Law School.
He founded Dion Money Management, an investment advisory firm, in 1996; served as the publisher of the Fidelity Independent Advisor; and is the trustee of the Dion Family Foundation, which focuses on helping individuals by offering tuition assistance at Catholic Institutions.
Don attributes much of his success in his career in finance to the education he received at St. Dom's. "I was fortunate enough to attend St. Dom's," said Dion. "Along with the rigorous academics, I learned to work hard, reach for my goals, and value service to others. I would like to ensure more students are afforded the opportunity of a faith-based college preparatory education."
