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Featured Alumni Q&A: Ryan Fishel '13

Ryan Fishel, 2013
San Diego, CA
Tulane University, B.S.E. Biomedical Engineering
UC San Diego, M.Eng. Bioengineering

What is your proudest accomplishment since graduating from Sage Hill School?
Graduating from UC San Diego with my master's in Bioengineering and diving headfirst into running my own medical startup.

What about your experience at Sage Hill prepared you for what you are doing now?
At Sage I could never decide what to do, so I tried everything. Now, being able to integrate everything from my theater and music experience for public presentations, science knowledge for my research and engineering work, and teamwork from playing sports is crucial as I run a medical diagnostics startup. Most high schools don't allow such breadth and depth of experiences.

What about your Sage Hill experience impacted the person you are today? This could be a favorite class, a person, a club, etc…
This one is hard; so many experiences and people who helped me grow. Being a captain of both the cross-country and baseball teams was tremendously impactful. It helped develop my leadership and teamwork skills that are applicable to all parts of my life.

If you could share one piece of advice to current Sage Hill students, what would it be?
Don't force it. Planning for the future is important, but maintaining fluidity and adaptability is far more difficult, yet necessary. I'm not the same person I was then -- my path has changed tremendously.

What’s your favorite Sage-y memory?
Spirit rallies for sure. Getting to campus early in the morning, putting colorful decorations everywhere, and putting on a show for the other classes.
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