Our Stories

As founder and president of Clutch Delivery LLC, Celestin Abwe ’23 fills his days with meetings, emails, business workshops and onboarding new employees. However, Abwe’s entrepreneurial journey began thousands of miles away, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when Abwe was just a small child.

Bailey Thompson, M.S. ’23, grew up just a 10-minute drive from the Hamburg Fairgrounds, visiting for festivals and events throughout the years. Now, she plays a significant role in the organization’s success as the ticketing and box office coordinator for the Erie County Agricultural Society.

For Annamarie Goosley ’23, theatrical scenic design is about much more than simply building a backdrop. It is about creating a world for characters to inhabit and audiences to visit, if only for a few hours. This summer Goosley’s conceptual scenic design work was featured in John Logan’s Red at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. It is one of the most fun and challenging projects she has taken on to date.

Much of what Keely (Harrington) Hutton ’94 knows about storytelling she learned on the Heights – and in particular from her teachers in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. They taught her about setting a scene, developing a character and using her voice. After spending several year in the classroom, Hutton is now a full-time author with three published books to credit: Solider Boy, Secret Soldiers and Don't Look Back.

For Alisha Espinosa ’12, a love for acting and the theater can be attributed in part to “efficiency.”  As a child, she loved stories and singing more than anything, There was a period in her life when she wanted to be the next Whitney Houston - and the next great American novelist. She found her way to Le Moyne, where she majored in theatre arts and English and was in Le Moyne’s Integral Honors Program. Today she serves as producing artistic director of the Latinx Playwrights Circle.

Kali (Webber) Hicks, M.S.  ’20 has transformed her passion for education, art, development and community engagement into a career that in many ways seems destined for her. Hicks is the audience development and engagement specialist at Proctors Collaborative, a theater in New York’s capital region. She used to visit Proctors as a child with her family. Today her work there as an allows her to inspire, educate and connect people in the community she calls home.

Carol ’79 and Tom ’79 Fletcher founded CR Fletcher Associates nearly 34 years ago guided by professionalism, integrity and passion. When the time came for the Fletchers to select a new generation of professionals to guide the company toward the future, they knew they wanted to find people who were as committed to those values as they were. They did not have to look far. The couple recently transferred ownership of CR Fletcher to two longtime employees who are also fellow Dolphins, Joanne Rauch ’...