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Panther Proud: Alumni Spotlights

PBSC has prepared generations of leaders to achieve lifelong success and give back to our communities. Alumni enter the workforce with the skills and knowledge to innovate in fields such as business, finance, technology, public service, healthcare, law, criminal justice, and other industries. To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we will be highlighting the accomplishments of many of our graduates through our Panther Proud: Alumni Spotlight series below. 
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Want to be featured? Complete our short questionnaire and someone from our Alumni Team will reach out.

In addition to these spotlights, we've also collected 90 of our past alumni stories in our Panther Proud 90 series.

 

George Gentile

George Gentile

 

Palm Beach State College alumnus George Gentile has practiced as a landscape architect and planner in Palm Beach County for more than 35 years. He is the founder, senior partner and principle of Gentile Holloway O’Mahoney & Associates Inc., a full-service landscape architecture, planning and environmental consulting firm in Jupiter.  |  Read Full Story

Brad Peacock

Brad Peacock

 

When Brad Peacock was a high school third baseman in 2006, Palm Beach State College recruited him to play for the Panthers. There was one change. Instead of third base, former PBSC baseball coach Alex Morales signed him as a pitcher. That turned out to be the best move for Peacock, who helped lead the Houston Astros to its first World Series Championship in 2017.  |  Read Full Story

Susan Klarich

Susan Klarich

 

When Susan Klarich was 15 years old, she was a student at Twin Lakes High School. She was also working full time, eventually as a 911 dispatcher for the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office and a technician in a crime lab. It was there that a colleague suggested Palm Beach State College.  Read Full Story

Zach Ingram

Zach Ingram

 

After earning an Associate in Arts degree in business, Zach Ingram had initially started a bachelor's program at another university but decided to transfer back to Palm Beach State College for his bachelor's degree. “Palm Beach State had just as good an educational program and was exactly what I needed,” says Ingram, who recently earned his Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Supervision and Management with an entrepreneurial focus.  |  Read Full Story

Michael Garrison

Michael Garrison

 

Life has come full circle for Michael Garrison, a community business owner for the past 23 years. Growing up in Belle Glade, Garrison earned his associate degree in architectural design at Palm Beach State’s Belle Glade campus and has designed some of south Florida's most prestigious properties.  |  Read Full Story

Thomas Beckwith

Thomas Beckwith

 

When Thomas Beckwith graduated from Santaluces Community High School, he dreamed of being a college student far away from home. That dream, however, didn’t immediately come to fruition as he lacked discipline and struggled academically. Instead, Palm Beach State gave him a home advantage that developed him and gave him the skills which would lead to success at future institutions and in his current role as the associate director of the Academic Advisement Center at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Fla.  |  Read Full Story

Ornella Barile

Ornella Barile

 

Today, Ornella Barile is the accessibility advisor for Palm Beach State College at the Boca Raton campus. In 2018, she was a Palm Beach State student who graduated with an Associate in Arts degree. As both a Palm Beach State alum and an employee, Barile sees the College from two sides. For students, she encourages them to keep learning always. “Look for opportunities; they are out there waiting to be discovered.”   |  Read Full Story

Dr. J. Marc Davis

Dr. J. Marc Davis

 

When Palm Beach State College alumnus Dr. J. Marc Davis moved to Boca Raton from Washington, D.C., in his early 30s, he had been out of school for 12 years. “It began to weigh on me that I started something and did not finish,” said Davis, who today is a professor and chair of PBSC’s Student Life Skills Department on the Boca Raton campus. “Moreover, I was a dad. I wanted to be a good example. I couldn’t rightfully advocate for education and have given up myself.”   |  Read Full Story


Sandra Raymond

Sandra Raymond

 

Palm Beach State College alumna Sandra Raymond remembers the student-oriented, friendly environment she experienced as a student earning an Associate in Science degree in Nursing after graduating high school. Raymond was working as a cashier at the time and chose the PBSC Nursing program partly because of its flexibility so she could continue to work while attending college. She also wanted to stay local.  |  Read Full Story

Jean Louis Fadino

Jean Louis Fadino

 

PBSC alumnus Jean Louis Fadino has accepted an invitation of lifetime membership in The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS), the nation’s leading certified honor society for high-achieving first- and second-year college students with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA. NSCS is an honors organization that invites less than 10% of all eligible students nationwide to join the ranks of its diverse membership each year, a tremendous honor for Fadino. A leading interdisciplinary academic honor society, NSCS is made up of scholars from two-year, four-year and online institutions.  |  Read Full Story

Ana Isabel De La Cruz

Ana Isabel De La Cruz

 

Ana Isabel De La Cruz graduated from PBSC with her Associate in Arts degree in 2022. She is now pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services to become a mental health counselor. De La Cruz's experience at the College had such a significant impact on her that she is currently working as an Administrative Assistant II with Palm Beach State at the Lake Worth campus and the TRIO Upward Bound Program.  |  Read Full Story

Dorothy Sanders

Dorothy Sanders

 

When Dorothy Sanders moved to Riviera Beach in January 1957, attending college was not on her list of life ambitions. Her dream was simple: join her husband and his family in South Florida because there were better opportunities for people of color. At the time, she was pregnant with her first child and remembers the bus ride clearly.  |  Read Full Story

Kerima GorigoitiaKerima Gorigoitia

 

Palm Beach State alumna Kerima Gorigoitia earned her Associate in Science degree in Nursing in 2014. Today, she is enjoying a career at Kindred Hospital in Riviera Beach, serving in the Clinical Appropriateness Management department. Gorigoitia conveys a strong sentiment to all the PBSC students that they are at the right place to complete their education and professional dreams. In fact, according to Gorigoitia, Palm Beach State completely changed her life for the better with an opportunity to become a highly skilled professional while taking care of her family.  |  Read Full Story

Noel GuillamaNoel Guillama

 

Noel Guillama has been a resident of Palm Beach County since he was a child, attending elementary, middle and high school in Lake Worth, where he enrolled in Palm Beach State College. Since 1984, he has been in real estate, construction, health care and technology as a lifelong entrepreneur and serves as president/CEO of Guillama, Inc. and OXIO Health, Inc. He has been recognized as an innovator with over 20 patents issued in his name by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Read Full Story


Luis Angel Arroyo

Luis Angel Arroyo

 

Luis Angel Arroyo needed his own angel, someone in his corner who believed in him. He found more than one at Palm Beach State College and truly transformed his life. Beyond thankful, Arroyo has been empowering young people since graduating from PBSC in 2019 with his Associate in Science degree and in 2022 with his Bachelor of Science degree, both in Human Services.  Read Full Story

Bernard HarriganBernard Harrigan

 

Bernard Harrigan has interned with local constituencies to use the power of cultural expression to empower communities impacted by environmental injustice. His goal is to work in the environmental justice field as a community change agent to mitigate climate change impacts and seek environmentally focused funding through state and federal grant programs for the Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities in South Florida.  Read full story


David Baldeo David Baldeo 

 

The fear and loneliness of an intensive care unit can be devastating. When Palm Beach State College Foundation Board Chair Ricky Wade found himself at Good Samaritan Medical Center, he expected quality care but not from who would give it, his own good Samaritan. Wade spent 17 solitary days in the ICU. “The nights were the worst,” recalls Wade. “I was afraid to sleep, the anxiety unbearable.” Several nights into his stay, Wade was greeted with something unexpected: a familiar voice. “Is that you, Mr. Wade?”  Read full story


Matt Cox and his wife LauraMatt Cox and his wife, Laura.

 

PBSC alumnus Matt Cox has been brewing since 2000. When Cox opened Copperpoint Brewing Company in 2015, he brought a gem to Boynton Beach. Keeping everything close to home with local resources for both beer and bar—from the ingredients for brewing to the tables for gathering—Copperpoint is a true neighborhood establishment that has become a staple of local craftsmanship.  Read full story


Isabella Henderson (left) with her mom Paula McLeodIsabella Henderson (left) with her mom Paula McLeod.

 

When Isabella Henderson started taking classes at PBSC, she was confident she would get a great education. That’s because Henderson was following in the footsteps of her mother, Paula McLeod, who not only shared with her the benefits of attending but that the College would offer her a great path to a university like it did for her. McLeod, the vice president of major gifts at the United Way of Palm Beach County, and Henderson, who is pursuing an Associate in Science degree in Human Services, are an example of the many alumni legacies being built within families at PBSC.  Read Full Story

 

 

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