“A piece of advice that I would give to somebody in high school right now is to try a little bit of everything. Just enjoy your time with one another,” Drew Cusumano, class of 2016, said.

Although Cusumano graduated from Lafayette in 2016, he is still impacted by his experiences in high school. 

 “One of the biggest things school taught me was how to connect with other people and how to communicate with people that normally I might not. I think it’s really important to step out and meet new people and talk to anybody and everybody that you can because you never know who can come in and change your life,” he said. 

For college, Cusumano went to the University of Missouri and majored in Sports Journalism and Broadcast with a minor in Psychology. Before he left for college, he thought he would be surrounded by the same people he had known throughout high school. 

“I thought in college that I would see a ton of people that I knew from Lafayette, but in reality, I saw a fraction of them. There are so many new people in college, you get to pick and choose who you truly interact with,” he said. 

During his time at Lafayette, Cusumano became a part of clubs that helped shape him as a person. He participated in Lafayette’s racquetball club, was a member of Lafayette Theater Company and Undefined, and was also a part of Link Crew. Now, he works as the Director of Marketing and Public Relations at a new adventure sports center in St. Louis called Ryze Adventure Park as well as a broadcaster for Prepcasts LLC.

“I’m the media guy. I’m the one who sets up all the interviews, all of our social media stuff. Pretty much anything that has to do with media and the public goes through me now. I’m kind of just the face of relations here [at Ryze Adventure Park],” he said.  

 Cusumano recently finished up his time as an on-air host for KCOU-FM 88.1 and a reporter for KOMU 8 News on NBC in Columbia. When he was working to further his career, Cusumano learned about the importance of connection. 

“Try to talk to every single person that you can in the field. It’s a game of connections and networking and I’m thankful enough to have had crucial connections to get me started, but a lot of where I am today is built off me taking every opportunity that I can to get in somebody’s ear and say, ‘hey this is my name, this is my story, this is where I want to be. Anything you can help me to do, that is okay by me’,” Cusumano said.