Alumni Archives - New College of Florida

“There comes a time for every founder when the right next step to get your product further out into the world, and achieve the global domination you’ve always dreamed of, is to team up with a much bigger partner…” Tuchman tweeted the news on November 9th, 2022. Tuchman is the CEO and co-founder of Caribu—an interactive video-calling platform that helps kids have virtual playdates with family and friends when they cannot physically be together.

As reported by the Toybook, “Caribu’s appeal fits well within the Mattel Future Lab, an initiative launched earlier this year in an effort to pioneer the future of play.” Read more.

With this new Mattel partnership, Caribu will be expanding to provide more of Mattel’s characters and content to subscribers.

Caribu was one of Apple’s 15 “Best Apps of 2020” and one of TIME Magazine’s “Best Inventions,” and made Fast Company’s list of “World Changing Ideas.” It was also one of the “Top 10 EdTech Companies to Watch” in Forbes, and became one of the most innovative startups in the world by winning the 1776 Global Challenge Cup.

Tuchman graduated from New College of Florida in 2004 with a B.A. in Political Science & International Studies. At New College, Tuchman began fostering new community endeavors, co-founding La Esquina Latina (“The Latin Corner”). This space allowed female Spanish-speaking students to room and celebrate their culture together. Tuchman also served as president of the New College Student Alliance.

After graduating, Tuchman worked as a public school teacher, a consultant at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an Executive Director of Teach for America, and a manager of education projects. She earned an M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and an M.A. in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Caribu launched in 2016 as a culmination of Tuchman’s time and experience in youth education—with the intention of bringing children closer together with friends and family. The platform provides an intensive character bank in 10+ languages—offering games, coloring pages, and reading materials of children’s favorite characters from Sesame Street to DC Comics. Having such a large bank is central to Tuchman’s philosophy behind Caribu—making sure children have a space and community for themselves. Tuchman tweeted:

“Our library was consciously curated to have ‘mirrors and windows’ so kids could see themselves, and people different from them.”

Tuchman has been a winner or finalist in 30-plus pitch competitions, is the 59th Latina in the U.S. to raise more than $1 million in venture funding, and is the first Latinx founder to raise $1 million in equity crowdfunding.

“The tech industry was not built by, or for, people that look like me,” Tuchman writes. Despite race- and gender-related hurdles, she has been recognized and honored as one of the “Top 100 Female Founders” by both Entrepreneur and Inc. Magazine.

Read Tuchman’s 10 pieces of advice to graduates, delivered as Commencement Speaker to the Class of 2022.

Allyson Blinkhorn is the media & communications coordinator at New College of Florida.

“When a new field is beginning to merge, we don’t have models yet to do work in that field. So, we import imperfect models from other fields, we mash them together, we try a bunch of stuff. Those ambiguous spaces are really interesting to me, those are the places I like to work.”

Robert isn’t the usual techie. He came to New College of Florida at first for creative writing but then turned to philosophy and history. He learned that logic is not just a tool for analysis. “When I saw that I could use logic in order to create and combine analysis and creativity, the doors opened and that’s largely been my career path ever since.”

Having a side interest in computers, Robert began working at the computer lab while attending New College. That led him to University of South Florida after graduation, where he and his team taught professors new technologies as they emerged. He decided to spend his summers at the European Graduate School in Sass-Fee, Switzerland to further his studies of philosophy. “I thought I would be a professor forever and pursue graduate studies somewhere where I would have a more established traditional graduate program that would help me along the path of tenure as I became a professor. I ended up at this crazy school that was radical in the tradition of New College and Black Mountain School.”

The day he became a Ph.D candidate, he had a conversation with Ringling School of Art + Design and was hired to create their new game design program. He applied his philosophy training to game design. “In philosophy, we take experiential and communicated data and create explanatory sense-making models in order to process ourselves in the world. In game design, you go the other way. There’s a practice called “world building” – and to me, it was similar to philosophy but inverting the inputs and outputs. I design the experience I want you to have by constructing a web of narrative artifacts in coherent relations rather than taking the experience and constructing a web of narrative out of it.”

Robert stayed at Ringling for six years, when he was approached by Intel. It was 2012 and the company had created a new program called Perceptual Computing. “Up to that point, humans had been putting data into machines for the most part. We were just getting to that point when machines could not only sense but perceive. This is where philosophy comes back in. What’s the difference between sensing and perception? What’s the difference between perception and understanding? I couldn’t stop thinking about it.” He was hired and has been at Intel ever since. He has had many different roles in different groups. His titles have included prototyper, design lead, research scientist, and experience architect. “I just kind of fill interesting roles as they come,” he says.

Robert cites his college experience as being instrumental in the roles he has held and the trajectory of his career path. “At New College, we learned how to learn, how to go into a space we knew nothing about and largely be independently researching and learning. With new fields, that’s what you have to do, because there isn’t material.”

He credits Philosophy Professor Douglas Berggren with helping him to discover his own learning styles. “I learned how to do close readings. I can deconstruct a text. I can’t read without a highlighter, a black pen, and a red pen. It allows me to read closely to model the thinking, mark interesting points for further investigation, then scan a text quickly for what I am looking for.”

From Professor Justus Doenecke who was his history mentor, Robert learned more than he thought he could. “He set a very high bar. I found out I could learn faster than I thought I could. I could recall more than I thought I could. I found ways of understanding more quickly than I thought I could. The train was moving, you had to catch up or be left behind.” He also says Professor Doenecke was really there for him as a mentor. “If I needed a conversation he was always ready for office hours. In a heartbeat.”

Those lessons from his New College professors helped shape the leader Robert is today. His viewpoint on leadership is simple. “If you build the right culture, bring in the right people and give them opportunities, people who are ready for that in their lives, then fantastic things happen.”

Although Robert has received much acclaim, he remains modest. “The best leaders are usually not in the front. They shine a light on others. One of the biggest challenges is that I can be working on projects and if I’m the face, the one making the decisions or guiding the unfolding path, I get credit for it. But the reality is, I’m not doing all that work. There are great people, applying fantastic effort, so I have to go out of my way to be constantly redirecting that light to the appropriate parties. Because when they grow, I grow.”

He points to New College’s unique academic structure which gave him the freedom to carve out his own educational path. “I was really interested in mobile apps, but at the time, the computer science program was still growing and that course wasn’t available. I was able to create my own tutorials with my professors every semester where I just learned it on my own. They helped guide me through it.” After 2-3 years, Kush became very good in that domain.

A scholarship made New College the best choice for Kush’s education. “I was comparing New College and University of Florida. My heart was with New College because the system looked so much better. After four years of high school, the last thing I wanted was more years of GPA obsession and tests. And because of the scholarship I was offered, it helped seal the deal.”

Kush has fond memories of his relationships with his professors. “Whenever I was struggling, I would run over to Heiser and find one of my professors. They would usually help me right away.” He compares his experience to that of his friends at other colleges. “It’s a completely different ballgame. Each of their Intro to Computer Science classes had 300 students. I would have had to schedule a meeting with a professor far in advance.” In fact, Kush says it was easy to be friends with his professors. “We still email each other, and update each other on our lives. They were more than just professors, more like colleagues or lifelong mentors.”

Kush’s partner, Gina Vazquez, also attended New College and studied biology. After working at two different start-ups in the Bay Area, she is now beginning her Ph.D. at UC Davis.

Kush is grateful for the donors who made his scholarship possible. “Thank you first and foremost for giving me the opportunity to study at NCF. It was an invaluable experience and I absolutely fell in love with the school, and it changed the course of my life. I hope you continue to make those donations so that others can have the same experience.”

Kush sums up his New College education by saying, “By pushing me to be a captain of my education instead of a passenger, New College sharpened my leadership skills without me even realizing it. Today, I’m able to easily navigate my career and personal life thanks to this experience I had while at New College.”

Her thesis compared female characters in a 17th century German play with those found in Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime & Punishment. The Humanities student with a focus on Russian and German literature first looked at how German theatre influenced Russian literature. “Not a lot of people know there was a connection,” she says, “Then I looked at the female characters as carriers of moral value throughout both the play and the novel. It was cool to come up with my own research project.”

Dany was born in Venezuela but grew up in Miami. Although her education was a far cry from the tech world, Dany always had a fascination with Silicon Valley and wanted to live in San Francisco. She says she got lucky when a childhood friend recommended her for a customer support position at a small tech company, Vyond. Now, as a project manager, her work involves information security and data privacy.

She still keeps in touch with what’s happening at New College. When she heard students were struggling financially after Hurricane Ian, she jumped to participate in the Student Emergency Fund. “I think that it’s important to give back. We may be long gone, but the people who come after us need our support. It’s important to be involved, even if it’s not a lot of money. My favorite quote is ‘Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.’ I try to live by these words whenever I can.”

Dany finds an unusual connection to novo alums. “Compared to others who I speak to who went to other schools, the community of New College is still really tight. There’s a natural shared connection.”

About her time at New College? “I learned so much about the world. Critical thinking isn’t something they really teach everywhere and New College did a really good job of that. I miss it all the time because of how much I was challenged. I look back on the years very fondly.”

But Stork also focuses on philanthropy—a passion many folks save until after they have retired. She gives a lot, especially to New College. That’s not easy in today’s world. What got her started? It began in Indiana. Stork had graduated from high school and was deciding where to apply to college. In- state education was obviously always an option. But New College of Florida topped her list. Her brother had gone there and told her about his experience.

Stork liked what she heard. “I liked the small classes,” Stork said. “I knew I’d be lost in a big state school.” She also liked the contract system, which didn’t punish educational risk taking and independent thinking. Those qualities drew Stork to New College. She applied and was accepted. A generous scholarship made it even more possible. “The scholarship I received actually made New College cheaper for me than an Indiana state college,” she said. “That made the decision easy. ‘Study in Indiana under two feet of snow or go to Florida? Hmm…’ My scholarship made the question a no- brainer.”

Stork’s New College experience was rewarding on many levels. Aesthetically, she was enthralled by the unique architecture on campus and the beauty of the subtropical region. Personally, she made many lifelong friends across a range of backgrounds. Intellectually, she sharpened her critical-thinking skills. “I didn’t understand how vital that was until my first year at law school,” she said. “Nearly every exam had an essay requirement. The other students struggled; they’d had nothing but multiple choice and fill-in-the- blank questions on their undergraduate exams. I did extremely well, because essays and critical thinking were baked into my New College studies.”

Lifelong friendships. An experience of Florida’s natural splendor. The power of critical thinking. Stork thanks her scholarship for launching the possibilities. She wanted to help make that possible for future New College students. She began giving back as soon as she could. Stork set up a gift agreement, which established automatic credit card payments to New College every month. Of her total monthly gift, a portion is dedicated to general scholarships, while another portion goes to the College’s unrestricted annual fund.

“New College holds a special place in my heart, mind and soul,” Stork said. “It helped me as a law student, as a lawyer, and as a human being. It’s given me so much, and I give what I give because I can.” Even small gifts make a big impact, Stork said. “Signing up for $5 a month makes a world of difference. You can also give through promotion or volunteering,” Stork said. “Whatever form your gift takes, you’re really giving of yourself. That keeps your relationship with the school alive in the present, and makes that relationship a possibility for New College students in the future.”

Donate to New College.

Airing November 10, 2022, at 8:00 pm, WEDU PBS broadcast a new Public Square episode on climate change. The program explores how society can fight the impacts of climate change in West Central Florida.

5th Year Physics and Environmental Studies student Antonia Ginsberg-Klemmt is the Founder and President of Solar on Wheels: GismoPower, a mobile solar charging carport. The invention began as an Independent Study Project (ISP) at New College, and has since won impressive awards in the US Department of Energy’s American-Made Solar Prize Contest.

Since graduating in 2017, Orion Morton founded Florida Rewilding Collective, LLC, an environmental consulting organization focused on connecting fragmented landscapes to the greater ecosystem. While at New College, Morton was instrumental in the creation of the campus Food Forest.

Watch the full program Public Square: Climate Change

Natalie Spivey competes on the Moot Court Team

“New College taught me a number of skills—analytical thinking, preparedness, ability to communicate—that have prepared me well for my career, both as an attorney and as a business owner,” said Reese, who is a class-action consumer protection attorney and the owner of Reese LLP in New York City.

Last February, Reese served as a judge for one of the practice rounds of the New College Moot Court Team. He was so impressed with the work of pre-law students Natalie Spivey, Libby Harrity and Francis Garcia Fernandez that he wanted to contribute to the New College Law Society. Reese’s donation will help fund students as they continue to participate in moot court matches and other pre-law events at New College and throughout the country.

“As you can imagine, the students were beyond thrilled with Mr. Reese’s donation. I know how hard these students work, how talented they are, and what this gift means to them and to all of the other students on our legal advocacy teams,” said New College of Florida General Counsel David Fugett, who coaches the New College Moot Court Team. “It is historic, it will be put to very good use, and I can’t thank Mr. Reese enough.”

New College, Reese believes, is an ideal place for pre-law students to learn. Reese graduated in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in European History under the advisement of Professor Laszlo Deme, Ph.D., and wrote a thesis entitled Gladstone’s Irish Policy. Reese founded his own law firm 15 years ago and now has offices throughout the United States.

“A successful law career requires creative thinking, preparation and the ability to think on one’s feet, and a New College education provides all three of these skills,” Reese said. “The small class size of New College requires that you always have to be prepared and able to discuss the topics at a high level with professors who have mastered their subjects. The New College thesis, and the requirement to defend that thesis before professors, translates directly to the ability to appear in a court of law and advocate for your position.”

Watching the pre-law program at New College evolve over the past three decades since he graduated has been exciting for Reese.

Moot court events are now regular occurrences at New College, providing students with the opportunity to participate in simulated court proceedings. Exercises involve students analyzing and arguing both sides of a hypothetical legal issue, while using procedures modeled after those employed in state and federal appellate courts. Judges question students, testing their knowledge of case law and the cohesion of their oral arguments.

“The moot court program at New College is fantastic. David Fugett has done an absolutely terrific job putting together the program, and it is a real asset to New College. I wish the program existed when I attended,” Reese said. “The students at the moot court were excellent and all made compelling, highly sophisticated arguments. It was a real pleasure to serve as a moot court judge.”

Spivey, who is the president of the New College Law Society and the captain of the New College Moot Court Team, said that having Reese as one of her judges was incredibly beneficial.

“Michael gave us some great insight for competition day. I doubt that there are other colleges out there that have their very own legal alumni serving as voluntary practice judges for moot court, and that’s part of what makes our team so unique (we are definitely representative of our school’s spirit),” said Spivey, who is a third-year political science major. “Michael’s donation was an incredible gift that came from his generosity and faith in the team, and it will carry us through multiple seasons.”

For more information on the Pre-Law Professional Program at New College of Florida, visit ncf.edu/pre-law.

To donate to New College, visit ncf.edu/give.

Thank you to President Okker, the New College community, and the graduation committee for nominating me. I am delighted and terrified to speak at my alma mater. It’s been almost 20 years since I graduated from New College and, even though I’m wearing shoes and don’t have on fairy wings, I swear I went here. I was even NCSA president, which is also a shocker. My campaign slogan was that I don’t sleep and I don’t celebrate Christmas so I could work 24/7 for my fellow students. I won by two votes so I was lovingly called Landslide Maxeme.

It’s incredible to see so many of my professors in the audience. Now that I don’t have any papers due for them, I feel way more relaxed in their presence. Friends and families, how special it is to have you here. And yes, this is the weirdest graduation you will ever go to, and yes, you will somehow find a way to bring it up in almost every conversation you have in the future, just like my parents have.

To be asked to come back here to the place that has had a true impact on my career, and life, and to be your speaker…is an astonishing honor. New College was the obvious choice for me. As a first-generation Jewban (Jewish Cuban) who would be the first to graduate from college and who had almost dropped out of high school, a place where I could design my own education, could only pass or fail, and the teaching ratio was 10-to-1 sounded like a dream to me. I still remember my answer to the application question “Why New College?” It was “Why Not?” And they still let me in, so I guess New College was not intimidated by feisty Latinas.

Graduating class, thank you for letting me be a part of your day. I’m in awe of you all. Having to go through the last two years of your college career while the world was falling apart around you is nothing short of inspirational. Honestly, if you can get through that, you’ll be able to get through anything.

In that same vein, if I had been the commencement speaker for the Class of 2019, my advice would be wildly different. I would have given you advice on getting a job. Now it’s very clear that the best way to shape your future is to build your future yourself. So, my goal today is to help you navigate a brave new world, and be bold enough to give you advice for a life and future career that unfortunately no one in this tent has gone through before you! That sounds terrifying and daunting but, hopefully, you’ll remember one of my 10 pieces of advice when the time is right for you.

#1. Know that nothing lasts forever, so be open to and embrace change.

As a society, we have turned forever into the only acceptable definition of success. If you go on to a grad program and never do anything with it, let it bring joy to you that you studied something you loved more in depth.

If you start a business and decide to close it after a while, relish in the fact that you made the customers you served at that time really happy. If you marry someone, and the marriage is good for a while and then stops working and you get divorced, take comfort in the fact that you wonderfully shared your life with someone for a period and probably learned something new about yourself. You will find success in many things in your life, so treat those moments—no matter how long they last—as precious.

#2. Make being underestimated your fuel.

People will make assumptions about you and, unfortunately, you cannot control that, but what you can control is how you let it affect you. I had a professor once tell me I wouldn’t amount to anything because I was only accepted to that school because I checked the Latina box on my application. For years, I doubted my qualifications for everything. I felt undeserving of success and assumed, like this professor, that I was just a charity case or part of a diversity quota.

I wasted years doubting myself until I met a man by the name of Gary Trujillo. I was at Harvard Business School’s welcome weekend and he told a story about a similar comment made by a fellow student once they learned he was Mexican. During office hours, he brought up his new self-doubt to a professor who quickly righted the ship. He said, “Gary, so what?… maybe you did get in because you’re Mexican. But you won’t graduate just because you’re Mexican, so go show them how truly overqualified you are to be here. Those words finally freed me from the self-doubt I had been carrying around for 10 years! And, to my professor that doubted me, all I have to say is…look at me now.

#3. Playbooks are being rewritten, so get involved in rewriting them.

This is across all industries, so this is the best time to get involved in something you are passionate about. Everyone is having to reinvent the way they do business, government, research, etc. It’s an amazing time to be starting to build something.

#4. Related to #3, if you’re not going to go out and build your own thing yet, attach your cart to the right horse.

Since we’re all reinventing the way we work, get hired by people who will sponsor and support you. Don’t look for mentors; seek out sponsors. A mentor is forced to check in and have coffee with you. A sponsor will put their name behind you, open doors for you, and will help you get into the room and get a seat at the table. That is way more important than working on interesting projects and incredibly more valuable, long-term, to your career.

#5. Be aware of your privilege and use it to help others.

As Lizzo says, “If I’m shinin’, everybody gonna shine.” When you have power, use it. Seek power so you can redistribute it. When you get invited to speak somewhere or participate in something, look at who is around the table. Use your power and privilege to make sure diverse voices are always represented. Sometimes you have to give up your seat to do that, and you should.

#6. Pursue your dreams at any cost.

My favorite book is The Alchemist. I read it almost every year, and each time it means something different to me depending on where I am in my life. But the central theme stays the same. Put your mind to something and the world will conspire to help you. No matter how difficult building a startup has been, I have always trusted that the obstacles were lessons to learn from. Life comes with its twist and turns. It is never a straight line. If it is, you actually aren’t living or fulfilling your true potential.

And, most importantly, follow the omens—or, in plain terms—follow your gut or intuition. Identifying as a woman, a Latina, and basing our company in Miami means I had a very small chance of building a successfully-funded startup. But I trusted my gut, followed the signs, and put all of my energy into creating Caribu. The universe conspired to help me and we beat all the odds.

Less than two percent of venture capital dollars go to women and people of color. Somehow, with those odds, I became the 59^th Latina to raise over $1 million, and we’ve now raised over $6 million.

We received a predatory term sheet from an investor for half a million dollars but trusted our gut that we should turn him down (risky choice when the stats are what they are). But it was the right path because we turned to equity crowdfunding and raised three times more than we would have gotten from that shady investor. We then went from zero to $1 million in sales a year in just six months, proving that what Beyoncé says is true: “The best revenge is your paper.”

People said no one could build a successful startup outside of Silicon Valley but, in 2020, we were named one of the 15 best apps in the world by Apple.

And naysayers said there were no diverse people in tech, and yet our team is 67 percent people of color, 50 percent women, and we have high LGBTQIA+ representation. I’ve done things my way even when it wasn’t expected or traditional. Honestly, when you truly put your mind to something, nothing can stop you.

#7. Take risks and see failure as an opportunity.

Stay in the uncomfortable. You know how they say sitting is the new smoking? Well, being in your comfort zone has the same effect on your life and career, so start moving and get uncomfortable.

#8. I know I’m at an academic institution but, honestly, knowledge is not power. Problem solving and analysis are.

Information is easy to access now. The critical thinking of figuring out how to pattern-match will be the key skill you need in the future. Knowing what to look for, and knowing what the truth is, is more important than memorizing the facts.

#9. As the saying goes, YOLO.

The past two years have taught us that you only live once, so Marie Kondo your life. Live in the moment and only do things that bring you joy. You only have 86,400 seconds a day. Does what you’re doing bring you joy? If not, don’t finish the movie, the book, or even the degree. Leave the relationship. I found a website once that had a sobering look at what you can truly do in a lifetime.

If you assume a 100-year life:

I personally have 60 summers left
I swim in the ocean twice a year, so I have 120 more swims
If I read five books a year, I get 300 more

The same often goes for old friends. In Dortstein, I lived in our self-created Esquina Latina, and I sat around playing Mafia with the same group of women about five days a week (two of whom are here!). In four years, we probably racked up 700 group hangouts. Now, scattered around the country with totally different lives and schedules, the group of us are in the same room at the same time probably 10 days each decade. That means I have 40 days left with them. I know. Depressing. But why the Debbie Downer info.?

It’s because proximity matters. Living close to the people you love becomes incredibly more important as you go through life. After these past two years, I think we can all probably agree that how you spend your time and with whom matters. Prioritize accordingly and make each moment count. Set your boundaries and live the life you want, not the one people want for you. And lastly, be present. Knowing how fleeting time can be when you’re with people who matter to you, make it quality time. Every moment is precious.

#10. Make gratitude your daily antidepressant.

A recent study even showed that gratitude improved the lives of women with breast cancer, so the health benefits are really real. Gratitude is a “life orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive in the world.” Gratitude is fundamentally different from optimism or hope because it focuses on the present moment. A person with a high level of dispositional gratitude can appreciate others and generally seize the day because of their understanding that life is short.

Never before has the whole modern world gone through such a traumatic event at the same time. Your mental health is extremely important and we won’t know the long-term ramifications of what we just went through for years. So, something you can do every day to help is to express your gratitude. You can start tonight.

Whoever came here to celebrate your graduation, this is the time to tell them how grateful you are that they helped you become who you are today. And even if there’s a complicated relationship, you can have gratitude for the fact that they showed up for you tonight. Tomorrow, write a letter, send an email or text…or just tell the barista how grateful you are for the caffeine, or the flight attendant for showing up so you can get where you need to go. Patience and gratitude are what the world needs more of right now and, selfishly, it will probably improve your health.

So that’s it. Follow those 10 guiding principles and the world will be your oyster. For those of you who have figured out what’s next…and for those of you who haven’t built it yet…you are moments away from changing the world, so go conquer it—or your little piece of it—and I honestly cannot wait to read about all of your accomplishments over the next 60 years! Thank you to this class and this institution. The pleasure and honor to be with you today were truly mine.

About Maxeme Tuchman

Maxeme Tuchman graduated from New College of Florida in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies.

Today, she is the co-founder and CEO of the Miami-based tech company, Caribu—a digital calling platform, often described as “FaceTime meets Kindle,” which enables children to have virtual playdates with family members when they cannot be physically together.

A graduate of Design and Architecture Senior High School in Miami, Tuchman set out to be the first in her family to attend college. She always knew she would find a way to incorporate her passion for educating young people into her post-graduate work. And youth education has been a key component of Caribu, which has grown exponentially during the pandemic and was even named a “Best of 2020” app by Apple.

Tuchman’s undergraduate thesis research at New College laid some of the groundwork for her current venture, as it was focused on education as a tool for social justice. But it wasn’t just research and writing at New College that gave Tuchman insight into how to lead and inspire.

She served as president of the New College Student Alliance (student government); and was a co-founder of La Esquina Latina (“The Latin Corner”), a student-designed living arrangement in the Dort and Goldstein Residence Halls. La Esquina Latina allowed female Spanish-speaking students to room together and immerse themselves in their culture while attending college. Through many extracurricular methods, Tuchman found a way to make sure her classmates always had a voice.

Tuchman also learned autonomy and independence at New College through the contract system (evaluations rather than traditional grades) and Independent Study Projects (ISPs).

“The thing that New College teaches you is to really advocate for yourself, to think about your college career with a holistic approach, and to take risks,” Tuchman said. “I wouldn’t have had that agency elsewhere. I wouldn’t have taken as much ownership of my education elsewhere.”

Since graduating from New College, Tuchman has worked in nearly every level of education—as a public school teacher, a consultant at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an executive director of Teach For America, and a manager of education projects under former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Michelle Rhee.

Tuchman holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a second master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School. She is a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs and the Miami Fellows program.

Before co-founding Caribu, Tuchman was appointed by former President Barack Obama to serve as a White House Fellow at the United States Department of the Treasury. During the 2015-2016 year, she worked as a strategic policy adviser, providing guidance and planning on financial inclusion initiatives (only about 16 aspiring leaders are appointed as White House Fellows annually).

As a businessperson, Tuchman has been a winner or finalist in more than 30 pitch competitions, is the 59^th Latina in the United States to raise more than $1 million in venture funding, and is the first Latinx founder (male or female) to raise $1 million in equity crowdfunding. She was even named one of Inc. Magazine’s “Top 100 Female Founders” in 2019.

Caribu made Fast Company’s list of “World-Changing Ideas” in 2019, was one of TIME Magazine’s “Best Inventions 2019,” was singled out as one of the “Top 10 EdTech Companies” in Forbes in 2018, and became one of the most innovative startups in the world by winning the 1776 Global Challenge Cup in 2018.

A granddaughter of immigrants and a daughter of parents who fled Cuba for America, Tuchman is also dedicated to employing individuals from underserved populations. She has helped bring economic growth to Miami by headquartering her company in her hometown.

Change is being made daily under Tuchman’s watch. When she reads testimonials from users of Caribu—grandparents who spent the pandemic years away from their grandchildren, who have found joy in something Tuchman helped create—she knows she is in the right place doing the exact right thing.

In Tuchman’s words: “I’m so proud of what we’ve built from nothing. And I’m so grateful that what we’ve built is changing lives.”

Tuchman’s citation, presented by President Okker, at New College Commencement 2022

Maxeme Tuchman: entrepreneur, executive, visionary, New College alumna, humanitarian and role model.

Since your graduation from New College in 2004, you have helped transform the technological and educational landscape on a global scale. You have embodied the relentless drive and resourceful mindset that we hope to nurture in all of our students at New College.

As an award-winning entrepreneur and CEO, you have proudly represented your hometown of Miami, Florida—bringing great economic growth to your beloved city. You have spearheaded your company, Caribu, which—especially during the pandemic—brought families together to learn and connect on a revolutionary digital platform.

You have been a shining example for Latina businesswomen, and you have shown just how much representation matters. You have been an equitable employer, making sure diversity and inclusion are a critical part of your business model. You have imbued everything you do with integrity, and you have inspired us all to do the same.

It was no surprise to those who shared time with you as an undergraduate that you would become such a fierce leader in life. You served our campus well as New College Student Alliance president and as co-founder of a residential living space that encouraged Spanish-language immersion. You went on to earn graduate degrees from Harvard before returning to Florida to build your company from the ground up.

Today, we are so incredibly proud to welcome you back to your alma mater. We admire your tenacity, your work ethic, your humility and your commitment to the greater good.

And so, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees of New College of Florida, it is my privilege to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, with all its customary rights and privileges.

Learn more about Tuchman here: ncf.edu/news/tech-trailblazer-alumna-creates-florida-jobs.

Watch Class of 2022 New College graduate Aleah Colón-Alfonso interview Tuchman here.

Watch Tuchman’s full graduation speech, and the entirety of New College Commencement 2022, here.

Spector graduated from New College of Florida in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in theatre and literature, and his well-rounded academic trajectory ultimately helped him pursue his creative path.

To share these insights with students, Spector is giving two on-campus talks—one about Eureka Day and another about theatre careers—at 1 and 2 p.m. Fri. May 13 in the Black Box Theater. Both discussions are sponsored by the Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies area of concentration at New College.

“There is no career path in playwriting; it’s not even a career in any real sense, even for those of us making a living at it. This means that anyone who has had any success has carved their own idiosyncratic path,” said Spector, who now lives in Oakland, California. “This isn’t unique to writing. I see and admire it in so many of my New College alum friends who have been out in the world doing remarkable things over the past two decades. Nobody was following a map. They were all just stumbling forward in pursuit of what was meaningful to them.”

What was meaningful to Spector was storytelling, and that is evident in Eureka Day, which will be featured until June 4 at the Asolo Rep under the direction of Bianca LaVerne Jones. A New York Times Critic’s Pick, the play’s premise is as follows:

“An illness is spreading through the progressive and painstakingly accepting Eureka Day School—and it’s more than the mumps. When the outbreak threatens to become an epidemic, it’s a race to see what will destroy this community first: the disease or each other. Despite the safe-space mentality, gluten-free scones from the local bakery, and open marriages that have moved beyond monogamy, secrets and lies still run rampant and childhood vaccinations ignite fury. An explosive comedy that skewers sanctimony and the nature of our politics, Eureka Day asks: When does ‘us’ become ‘them’?”

To delve further into this story, New College offered a dynamic dramaturgy workshop for students (with staff from the Asolo Rep) on April 25.

In the workshop, students collaborated with professional theatre artists to take a closer look at one of the scenes from Eureka Day, while actively discussing the major themes of the script and the production. The workshop was taught by Lauren Jackson (assistant director for Eureka Day), Elizabeth Guilbert (education coordinator and dramaturg for the Asolo Rep’s touring show), and Gaby Rodriguez (a community engagement associate).

Eureka Day is just one part of Spector’s playwriting portfolio, which also includes This Much I Know, Best Available, In From The Cold, Siesta Key., and Good. Better. Best. Bested. Spector is a recipient of the Will Glickman Award, the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award and the Rella Lossy Award. He is a Playwrights’ Center core writer, a MacDowell fellow, an Ingram New Works fellow, an Ithaca College New Voices fellow, and a Playwrights Foundation resident playwright alum.

On returning to Sarasota and seeing Eureka Day take the stage in his college town, Spector said: “It’s wild and very moving. Asolo was the first place I encountered professional theatre artists. I was the assistant director for a play in the conservatory my last year at New College, so it’s thrilling to come back and see a play of mine on that same stage.”

It is equally thrilling for Spector to return to his alma mater as a mentor and speaker. He recalls the mentorship he received while he was a student—working closely with late professors John McDiarmid and John Moore.

“John McDiarmid always brought a rigorous critical inquiry to work, and John Moore had this overwhelmingly boisterous enthusiasm for intellectual ideas (both are crucial for an artist, as the process of creation is very much a constant toggling back and forth between these two poles),” Spector said. “But, if I’m being fully honest, I learned more from my fellow students than I did from any professor or class.”

In Spector’s opinion, New College is a prime institution for nurturing creative types, and he is proof.

“It reminds me of this line from Annie Dillard’s wonderful book, The Writing Life: ‘A writer looking for subjects asks not what he loves best, but what only he alone loves at all,’” Spector said. “New College was the rare place that insisted you find the thing that you alone love, and pursue it relentlessly.”

For more information on Eureka Day, visit asolorep.org/events/detail/eurekaday.

Abby Weingarten is the senior editor in the Office of Communications & Marketing.

Colón-Alfonso and Tuchman have quite a bit in common—as women, as scholars and as entrepreneurs. On April 26 via Zoom, Colón-Alfonso interviewed Tuchman about her work, her passion, and the advice she would give to young people today—about business and life after college.

Read the full interview below and watch the video on YouTube.

Aleah: Hi everyone! My name is Aleah Colón-Alfonso. I’m a biopsychology/neuroscience and theatre, dance and performance studies major at New College of Florida. Today, I’m thrilled to be interviewing New College alumna Maxeme Tuchman—an award-winning entrepreneur who will be speaking at my college graduation in May! Max, would you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Maxeme: Absolutely! I am a New College grad; it’s probably one of the things I’m most proud of. I’m Miami born and raised. I’m an entrepreneur because of many generations of my family that were also technically entrepreneurs. And now I’m the CEO and co-founder of Caribu, and it’s an incredible virtual playdate app where you can read, draw and play games with multigenerational family members (especially kids zero to 12). So, I pretty much get to live the dream every day!

Aleah: Thank you, Max. I can’t wait to hear more about how your experience at New College helped you build your career. But first, what made you choose New College? What was it about the academic program that drew you to the school?

Maxeme: I struggled in high school in the sense that I just never felt challenged. I always kind of felt like one of many people at the school. I felt like I wasn’t getting a rigorous program. No one really cared whether I failed out or stayed or was challenged or was pushed into more academically rigorous programs like AP and other programs. I think the thing that really drew me was the academic rigor of New College. As an honors college, it was incredibly important to me that I would go to a place that would challenge me. I loved the fact that I had an opportunity to build my own kind of schedule and my own kind of path through getting a degree. I feel like a lot of the other schools I applied to said, “You have to take these types of classes and that’s how you make this degree.” And I think New College gives you a lot of independence and a lot of freedom to create a course and a path to what you think that skillset should be for your future.

Aleah: Excellent. Now I’d love to know more about your background. From what I’ve read about you, we have a lot in common! We’re both granddaughters of immigrants. Your family came to America from Cuba, and mine came from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I believe my family’s trajectory and their pursuits definitely affected my work ethic and the way I am. Could you tell me more about how your upbringing influenced your work ethic?

Maxeme: I’m also the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and I think that’s important to talk about because I have studied my family’s history and I’ve seen the sacrifices that my family made to get to this point—from the Ukraine and Russia to Cuba, and from Cuba to Miami. And then, when my mom’s side got to Miami, they didn’t speak the language. Surprise! People in the 1960s didn’t speak Spanish in Miami (no one believes me but it’s true)! And they ended up in Puerto Rico. It was just always about looking for opportunity, always looking for a place where they could make it—just enough so that their kids could make it, so that their kids could achieve more. And I’m incredibly grateful for all the sacrifices that my family made. Because of the sacrifices they made, it fuels me to give back to my community—to give back to communities that look like me, that have been under-resourced, that have immigrated, that have not always had the same opportunities that everyone else has had. And I think I take that with me in the work that I do, no matter where I work.

Aleah: Max, another thing we have in common is that we are both entrepreneurs. I’ve built two companies during my time at New College. And my thesis actually discusses women in business and how they’re treated, and so this conversation actually helps my research a little bit! Can you tell me how your experience at New College prepared you for life as a business owner?

Maxeme: As you know, as a New College student, there is no structured path at New College, and I think that’s what I loved about it. As a business owner and as a tech entrepreneur, there is no structured path. And I think, sometimes, we do a detriment by sending kids to educational programs that are structured paths because nothing in life is structured that way. I had to build my own contract and be pass or fail and add classes to my contract to push myself to try new things, to learn new skills—knowing that I kind of had a little bit of wiggle room in creating my own classes. I created a class about, I think, the Cuban Revolution (in Spanish), because I thought that was interesting and I thought that would help in my international studies degree. I think the freedom and the independence that New College gives you is a skill that is invaluable in life in general.

Aleah: You have said that New College is a great place for entrepreneurs because of what you just said: the academic rigor and the fact that our program encourages students to take risks and be self-reliant. I know you just touched upon it, but would you mind talking a little bit more about that?

Maxeme: I think the other thing is—and your background is reminding me of this—is you have to be able to do hard work with lots of distractions. I feel like taking classes in that building [College Hall] and just looking out at the bay was incredibly hard. And I probably perfected the skill of multitasking—kind of like paying attention to the dolphins but also paying attention to the professors—and also, again, the ability to get really hard work done in such beautiful settings.

Aleah: What advice or success tips would you give to students at New College who will be entering a super competitive work environment after they graduate?

Maxeme: I have lots of advice and tips but you will have to wait for my graduation speech to hear them!

Aleah: OK. So, what does it mean to you to be a role model—not just for women, but for Latina women who are also business owners (women like me)?

Maxeme: I don’t really think of myself as a role model but I think of myself as an example—one data point, one statistic of someone achieving something where you haven’t seen an example of that before. I love the example, I think it was in the 1980s, where Iceland elected their first female president—and there was a story about a kindergarten class where all the boys were drawing female presidents as kind of like their pictures, and the teacher goes around and says, “Well, what do you want to be when you grow up?” and they were like, “Oh, well I can’t be president because that’s a woman’s job.” Just again, the ability to see something and be able to imagine yourself there…And if you don’t see examples that look like you (and I say that with gender, sex, racial, ethnic, ability, all the things that make us us), when you don’t see examples of you in a role that you want to be in in the future, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that there’s a space for that or that people want you there or that you have a path to that (it could be a career or it could be a personal thing that you’d like to be). And the statistics in venture capital are terrible. Less than two percent of venture capital dollars go to women and people of color and so, you know, if I can be an example for a woman, a person of color, even a Latina like me with white privilege, if someone can look at that and say, “Huh, she was able to access some of that two percent. And if she can do it, I could probably do it too, and maybe I could do it better,” that makes me happy.

Aleah: If you could go back and visit yourself at my age and tell yourself one thing about how you would approach the future, what would it be?

Maxeme: That nothing gets easier (laughs). I think I had this idea that, at a certain age, things would get easier—at a certain point in my career, things would get easier. And even running a startup…I mean, you know, being a business owner, you think, oh, at a certain revenue milestone, things will be easier…or like, when I have one employee, it will be easier…and no! I think the advice I would give myself would be it doesn’t get easier; it’s just a different type of hard. And be flexible. Be prepared for that. And don’t get so crushed when it doesn’t become easier. Just recognize that it’s a new thing that you’re going to get to struggle with, and that it’s just a different type of hard, and it’s going to be awesome to struggle with it.

Aleah: That’s excellent. Thank you. Those are all the questions I have for you. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me and I cannot wait to hear you speak at commencement this May!

About Maxeme Tuchman:

Maxeme Tuchman graduated from New College of Florida in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies.

Tuchman also learned autonomy and independence at New College through the contract system (evaluations rather than traditional grades) and Independent Study Projects (ISPs).

In Tuchman’s words: “I’m so proud of what we’ve built from nothing. And I’m so grateful that what we’ve built is changing lives.”

About Aleah Colón-Alfonso

New College thesis student Aleah Colón-Alfonso, an immunocompromised student with an entrepreneurial passion, is designing health-centric products to help people like her thrive.

During her collegiate studies, she already built two companies: Aleah Wares (a line of patient-friendly sweaters) and Stay Safely Away (wearable merchandise—from T-shirts to masks—that allows customers with immune issues to “stay distantly social” during the pandemic). She began working on the latter company while in quarantine when she evacuated from the New College campus in March 2020.

“I had been noticing the lack of mask wearing and social distancing in Sarasota, and I just wanted to wear a sign around my neck that said, ‘Please, I don’t want to be on a ventilator’ to try to encourage people to have better behaviors,” Colón-Alfonso said. “So, clothing became my wearable sign.”

Colón-Alfonso has small fiber neuropathy, Lyme disease and accompanying secondary illnesses. She received these diagnoses before the age of 18, and was in a wheelchair for much of her senior year in high school in New Jersey.

“I’m no stranger to infusions and long-term treatments. After being diagnosed with neuropathy, I was prescribed weekly immunoglobulin infusions (IVIG) to help heal my nerves,” she said. “The infusions have many side effects similar to chemotherapy, including severe temperature changes, fever, nausea and fatigue.”

Colón-Alfonso’s illnesses may be inconvenient (oftentimes it takes hours for her to get on her feet in the morning) but she does not view them as hindrances. If anything, they make her more of a goal-setter and visionary, as they push her to raise public health awareness and promote social change.

“I don’t let my illnesses stop me from doing anything,” Colón-Alfonso said. “I think that being so sick for so long gives you an extra sort of motivation. It’s a very good distraction to have goals I know I can hit, even when my sickness acts up.”

Stay Safely Away is the manifestation of that. After more than a year of work (including website creation and social media marketing), requests for Colón-Alfonso’s self-designed products began rolling in from across the globe.

“It’s surreal to see my ideas out there. It’s amazing,” Colón-Alfonso said. “Everyone I know is on social media platforms, sharing my ideas.”

And Colón-Alfonso’s ideas are numerous. As a student, she is pursuing a biopsychology/neuroscience area of concentration, along with a focus on theatre, dance and performance studies. She also holds a black belt in taekwondo and is president of the Aikido Club at New College.

Biology Professor Tiffany Doan, Ph.D. is cheering Colón-Alfonso on, both in the classroom and on the mat (Doan is the sensei for the Aikido Club).

“Despite having chronic illnesses, Aleah has persevered through all of her New College classes, often while in pain and unable to walk,” Doan said. “Just like she will not let any illness hold her back, she makes products to encourage people to live their best lives in safety and comfort. I’m very proud of the work she is doing.”

For more information about commencement at New College of Florida, visit ncf.edu/ncf-events/commencement.

Abby Weingarten is the senior editor in the Office of Communications & Marketing.