Alumni Information

I am Community School

Our middle school graduates excel in local public and private high schools, as well as preparatory schools along the east coast. CS graduates have been valedictorians and salutatorians around the Roanoke Valley, have earned International Baccalaureate degrees, attended the Roanoke Valley Governor’s School and earned numerous awards.

College Acceptances

Our alumni attend top higher education programs, from small liberal arts colleges to large state universities, Ivy League institutions, and programs in other countries. They pursue degrees in disciplines ranging from engineering to the fine arts and from chemistry to creative writing. Many CS alumni pursue graduate and professional degrees.

Alumni Update Blog

From the first graduates in the early 1970s, Community School’s alumni have a long history of outstanding educational and career success. Our graduates are confident, responsible individuals who possess strong academic skills and know how to apply those skills across a broad range of disciplines in a variety of learning and work environments. Former CS students enjoy successful careers throughout the country and abroad. They are doctors, lawyers, professional artists and musicians, teachers, engineers, translators, counselors, scientists, researchers, and business owners and executives.

We love to hear from our alumni and post the updated information that they send us on a regular basis. Alumni and alumni families who want to share information with our school community should send information to victoria@communityschool.net. We appreciate receiving our alumni’s old and new photos and links to their publications, artistic creations, productions, news stories, and other accomplishments.

Updated Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Cohen

Update from Sarah from September 2020:

I am done with residency, and am now in fellowship at OSU & Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. I am focusing on pulmonary (lung disease) in both kids & adults; on the adult side that also means that half of my training is in critical care. With the intensive care unit being part of my job/training program, this year has been interesting for sure.

From September 2018

Sarah (right) with her sister Ariel

What are you up to these days? Tell us about your accomplishments since leaving Community School.

I am a fourth-year resident at Duke, in a combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics program. After leaving Community School, I went to Roanoke College and then to the University of Pittsburgh for medical school. My residency program is four years long, and at the end of residency I am able to be licensed in both Internal Medicine and in Pediatrics. I am not entirely sure what I am going to do after residency, but I would like to work with both adult patients and children and to work primarily in the hospital setting – I am thinking about doing a fellowship in critical care.

How do you feel that your time at CS influenced or prepared you for your academic and/or career path going forward?

I think that my time at CS made me more confident in creating my own path, in areas such as pursuing a combined residency program, doing global health work, and directing a musical during medical school. By nature I am somebody who tends to color inside the lines, but Community School taught me to go beyond my comfort zone and become comfortable with thinking outside the box. In a more concrete sense, the focus at Community School on critical thinking and the humanities has made me both a better scientist and a better writer. Community School also helped me to be a more well-rounded person, which is important both on a personal level and in my interactions with patients.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Community School provides many opportunities and a lot of flexibility – I would encourage current students to be proactive and take advantage of all that CS has to offer.

Sarah Cohen is a graduate of University of Pittsburgh Medical School and in her final year of a dual medical residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center. She graduated as co-valedictorian from Roanoke College in 2011. Sarah attended Community School for five years and is a graduate of Community High.