Our Wildwood, Winter 2019, Volume 44

ALUMNI STORY

When Harry Met Jeffrey

IT MIGHT SEEM RANDOM FOR TWO WILDWOOD alumni who graduated 11 years apart to meet at a conference in Boston, but it made perfect sense at this one. Anyone who knows Harry Valner ’16 and Jeffrey Ponchick ’05 wouldn’t be surprised that they were both there, although the two of them were stunned when they realized their connection. The Forbes Under 30 Summit is an annual gathering of young global entrepreneurs, visionaries, and disruptors. It’s exactly where aspiring “Forbes 30 Under 30” list makers like Harry meet past list makers like Jeffrey. Of the 7,000 summit attendees, only 1,000 students are invited to attend for free. Harry

“” ...BUT WHAT

was one of those lucky few. He’s a junior in the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy at the University of Southern California and is head of recruitment for LavaLab, USC’s student- run product incubator. He also just launched his new startup Kyoku, a personalized fitness supplement company and lifestyle brand. In March

STUNNED US WAS NOT HOW WE BOTH GREW UP IN LA OR HAD STARTUPS OF OUR OWN BUT OUR WILDWOOD CONNECTION. —HARRY VALNER ’16

Wildwood’s upper school opened in 2000 with the first senior class graduating in 2004. That means that when Jeffrey graduated in 2005, the upper school was in its infancy. Flash-forward 11 years to Harry’s graduation and the upper school has grown, with new programs like the Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development (WISRD), of which Harry was a founding member. Wildwood has continually evolved, inspired by research and best practices, always keeping students at the center. But one thing has remained constant—the school has always been ahead of the curve relative to learning. Wildwood was recently named by a national publication as the school “to bring out the innovator in your kid.” We’ve known this for years. When two Wildwood alumni innovators discover each other at an international conference that “serves as the definitive place to learn, network, collaborate, recruit, and exchange ideas of the future,” no one should be surprised.

2017, Jeffrey was named to the Forbes coveted “30 Under 30” list for founding Repost Network in 2015. The Los Angeles–based startup helps thousands of musicians monetize on SoundCloud and elsewhere. The company boasts revenue in excess of $1 million. The summit has an app where attendees can reach out to each other for networking and socializing. Harry was impressed by Jeffrey’s achievements, so he arranged to meet him and some of his colleagues at a local bar after the first day. As they were chatting about their startups, it soon came up that they were both Wildwood graduates. “It was crazy realizing all the connections Jeffrey and I had with each other,” Harry says, “but what stunned us was not how we both grew up in LA or had startups of our own but our Wildwood connection.”

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