Guiding students to find their career path is one of the most gratifying parts of education.  We are fortunate to have strong connections to our alumni and they stay in contact with their program instructor and often return to share their story.  In fact, we have many Stafford Alumni as current parents, Program Advisory Board Members, and faculty!

My name is Chelsea Gibbs and I graduated from the Digital Arts program at Stafford in 2012. While I did not go on to pursue digital arts as a career, attending Stafford my last two years of high school was life changing. Karen Kysar, and the way she structured her classroom, offered me the support and type of environment I needed to begin to feel comfortable with myself. After graduating high school, I attended Johnson State College (now known as Northern Vermont University) and graduated in 2016 with a double major in music performance and education. I taught music in three public schools in the Northeast Kingdom before moving to Lexington, Kentucky, where I have now been for almost 6 years. Since moving to Kentucky, I have enrolled at The University of Kentucky and became a board-certified music therapist. I have started my own private practice, called Central Kentucky Creative Therapies, received training in music therapy for NICU babies and earned a graduate certificate from The Human Development Institute at University of Kentucky in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and been a caregiver for the same girl with an intellectual disability for 5 years now (she even lives with me half time). I have dedicated my practice to offering inclusive therapy services in Central Kentucky and have partnered with other local agencies and nonprofits to add music therapy services to their businesses. In the Spring of 2024, I will graduate with my Master’s in music therapy. My most recent research has focused on working with individuals with intellectual disabilities, and how to create community partnerships to better serve this population. 

One of the partnerships I have started is with an equine therapy non-profit called Annie’s Answer. Together, we offered 7 weeks of summer camp for students between the ages of 3-18 where they could participate in equine-assisted music therapy. Many of the participating students have a background in the foster care system and the camps were trauma-informed. As my practice continues to grow, I would like to continue to develop the partnership at Annie’s Answer to include individual equine-assisted music therapy sessions as well as continue to build community partnerships. 

Chelsea Gibbs, MT-BC

Hello, I am a 2001 graduate of West Rutland School and attended Stafford in 2000 and 2001. In 2000 my junior year I was in Human Services, I truly enjoyed my time in this class but realized teaching and working with children was not the direction I really wished to pursue.

In my senior year, I attended the Health Occupation class, this is where I started my foundation in health care. After graduation, I already had my LNA license and started working at Mountain View Center Genesis as an LNA in July of 2001. I was pretty sure this would be a short-term summer job type of deal before I started college at Castleton in the fall of 2001.

I continued to work at Mountain View Center throughout my college years. I graduated from Castleton State College In May of 2005 with BSW (Social Work) Degree. I continued to work at Mountain View as I knew at this point long-term care was where I wanted to be working.

In March of 2006, I started as a Social Worker at Mountain View Center. I have remained there and now I am the Senior Director of Social Work. 22 plus years later I am still at my summer job.

Stafford had a large impact on my career. I would have started college for teaching or something with children and learned my Junior year of High School although I liked it and had a great time in the class. It just was not for me for a career. I had the chance to try out something else my senior year to see if it fit me better. My biggest piece of advice is: do not feel that a traditional classroom and college are necessary to be successful in life. Traditional classrooms were not for me. I did not learn well in them and really struggled in them. I just learned so much more at Stafford as it taught me the way I learned best, and it prepared me for my college years and being successful in college and so much more.

~Katelynn Razanouski

Hello to all the Stafford students currently enrolled or about to graduate. My name is Allen Neyman and I graduated from Stafford and Rutland High School in 2020, I graduated from the Power Mechanics and Welding program after two years of attending.

During my time at Stafford, I learned some very important personal and professional skills I still use to this day. When I first joined Stafford I wanted to weld on pipelines for a living. Yet after I started, I found my love for mechanical repairs while learning and working on the small engines we would tear down and repair.

This led me to where I am today, working at Allen’s Automotive (No I do not own the business, it is just a funny coincidence that my name is the same) I have been working here since before I graduated and plan to continue in this line of work for the foreseeable future.

Stafford taught me the basic work flow through a shop environment, from the intake of customer repairs, ordering parts, actually fixing the requested issues, completing repair order stories so the customer knows exactly what was done to the item to fix it, and how to properly and professionally speak with customers.

All of this ties into what I do on a daily basis at Allens, I work on the vehicle, perform the intake tasks with the vehicles, do estimates, order parts, and speak with customers. The instructors at Stafford not only introduced me to my current career path but they actually pushed me to apply at Allens.

At the time I did not assume it would turn into what it has today, working in this field is very challenging at times. Stafford gave me a way to think outside the box when something is stumping me on a vehicle, the classroom time also gave me a better way of remembering what I learned in the books. This has helped me to be able to pass the ASE tests that will help me progress in the future of my career.

I also use the knowledge from the welding side of the program on a daily basis at work, just having the knowledge on how to weld was one of the things my boss found great when I had my interview.

With all this being said, I would like to leave off by saying the following; It is okay to change your mind about the career path you want to pursue, who knows, you might even love the second choice more than the original choice you had. Listen to the advice that your instructors are giving you, even if it seems small you may find that their advice carries a lot more weight in the future than you originally thought. I wish you luck in whatever your future brings.
Allen.  

Each year we conduct an Alumni Survey where we reach out to students that attended Stafford Technical Center to learn what they are doing today and how Stafford helped them achieve their career goals.  If you would like to be added to this Alumni List, please reach out to our Outreach Coordinator, Cindy Dunigan at cindy.dunigan@rcpsvt.org.

Outreach Coordinator — Cindy Dunigan

Cindy Dunigan grew up in Claremont, New Hampshire, and moved to Vermont after getting her Associates’s Degree. She finished her Baccalaureate degree at the College of St. Joseph in Rutland (2009) in Organizational Leadership. She has experience as a sign maker, advertising sales representative, and preschool teacher. She also worked as a para-educator for 15 years at Rutland High School. In her role at the high school, Cindy was able to see first-hand the positive effects of Stafford on many students.

In her role as outreach coordinator, Cindy is responsible for marketing Stafford to the community, working with sending schools and the Regional Advisory Board as well as coordinating the summer camps. Attending community events is also part of the job, so you never know when you might run into her.

When she is not at work Cindy enjoys reading and is an active member of the Union Book Club. When asked what her favorite book is she is apt to answer, “The next one I read.” If you happen to see her exploring old cemeteries, ask her about her work with the volunteer organization Find A Grave.

cindy.dunigan@rcpsvt.org