Category: Profiles

  • Alumni Spotlight: Maggie Donaldson, Class of ’13

    Alumni Spotlight: Maggie Donaldson, Class of ’13

    When did you start your schooling at WPSD?I started in their playgroup program at 18 months old and then I started pre-school at the age of three. What are your fondest memories of WPSD?The class trips were always wonderful.  I always has a great time with my teammates at our away games or competitions, and…

  • Alumni Spotlight: Jesse Barkey, Class of 2007

    Alumni Spotlight: Jesse Barkey, Class of 2007

    When Jesse was a senior at WPSD, the yearbook staff asked what his goals were for the future. He said, “Go to NTID to study film/video production, … receive my master’s degree.. be employed at WPSD to work in the media department and teach television broadcasting classes.” In 2016, he is on his way to…

  • Alumni Spotlight: Megan Majocha, Class of 2015

    Alumni Spotlight: Megan Majocha, Class of 2015

    The Best of Both Worlds Megan Majocha, graduate of the WPSD Class of 2015 and Plum Borough High School, was born in 1997 into a Deaf family; her parents, Alan and Jan Majocha, are WPSD alumni. When Megan was a toddler, the Majocha family joined WPSD’s Parent Infant Program, where they were able to interact…

  • Alumni Spotlight: Dana Richter

    Alumni Spotlight: Dana Richter

    Dana Richter was born in New Kensington and enrolled at WPSD when she was two years old.  Her favorite memories of WPSD are the Academic and Math Bowl competitions because she likes to make new friends.  In fact, she is still in touch with some of those people.  Dana was also involved in SignShine, and…

  • Alumni Corner: Michelle Noschese

    Alumni Corner: Michelle Noschese

    Michelle Noschese, a former May Queen and a proud WPSD Class of 1994 graduate, is the daughter of WPSD employee, Robert Noschese, and Marcia Kusher, also a WPSD alumnus (1965).  Upon graduation from WPSD in 1994, she enrolled at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and majored in Education and Social Work.  Unfortunately, she had to…

  • Alumni Spotlight: Robert Maher, Jr.

    Alumni Spotlight: Robert Maher, Jr.

    Robert Maher, Jr. is graduate of the Class of 2006, President of WPSD Alumni Association and President of Pittsburgh Association of the Deaf. Robert “Bobby” Maher grew up in Blue Knob, near the Altoona area. He comes from large family of WPSD graduates, his dad, Robert Sr. (1980), mother Nancy (Dysard) (1984), his uncle James,…

  • Alumni Spotlight: Fatima Muhammad

    Alumni Spotlight: Fatima Muhammad

    Fatima Muhammad, a proud graduate of Class of 2007, comes to us from the Pittsburgh area where her parents currently reside. Following graduation at WPSD, her journey began at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY. After four years of college at RIT, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing in…

  • Visionary Leader: Agatha Tiegel Hanson

    Visionary Leader: Agatha Tiegel Hanson

    Thanks to Karen Haley to share the information to us; we are posting this article as part of WPSD Alumni History.  Agatah Tiegel Hanson is alumni of Western Penna. School for the Deaf. This June, Gallaudet continues its Visionary Leader Series celebrating 1893 graduate Agatha Tiegel Hanson. The first woman to graduate from Gallaudet with a…

  • Alumni Corner: Timothy Putt

    Alumni Corner: Timothy Putt

    Today, we visit with a young man who is currently “putt-ing” for success, in Timothy Putt, a proud Class of 2005 graduate of WPSD.  He is a lifelong resident of Huntingdon, PA near Altoona, where his parents currently reside.  His father, Richard Putt, and sister Tiffany Putt are also graduates of WPSD in 1980 and…