Year 2
2019-2020 Cohort
The second cohort of Grace Year Fellows (GY2) arrived in August 2019 and will depart in June 2020. They hail from Georgia, Michigan, Long Island, New England, Afghanistan, and New York City.
The second cohort of Grace Year Fellows (GY2) arrived in August 2019 and will depart in June 2020. They hail from Georgia, Michigan, Long Island, New England, Afghanistan, and New York City.
Marcella Gallo |
Marcella Gallo grew up with a fluid sense of home, living in Florida, Georgia, Kenya and Hawaii, before moving to New York to attend Vassar College, where she studied Religion. Marcella completed her Grace Year Fellowship with the inaugural cohort, during which she grew in her multi-faceted role as the New Generation Fellow. She helped out at Millbrook Community Preschool, where she led yoga, meditation, and reading/writing sessions with the children, and also spear-headed and managed Connect, a youth program for teens which focuses on spiritual growth and community engagement through creative service projects. She also worked with EPIC, a bilingual leadership program, and launched a new Sunday School discussion group during the regular church services at Grace Church. She is now happy to consider Millbrook part of her living and loving “home” on earth.
She feels incredibly blessed with the opportunity to extend her fellowship through December 2019 to serve as Grace Year Program Assistant and to continue her work with Connect and the preschool. She seeks to be attune to God’s sustaining grace and guidance these next few months as she navigates her final moves through Grace Year and into what lies beyond. Marcella's Grace Year concluded in December 2019. |
Arizona Greene |
Arizona Greene graduated in 2019 from Yale College with a degree in Statistics & Data Science. Halfway through her time at Yale, she took a year off to live and study in China for seven months before returning home to work as a server for a semester. This experience led her to found a student organization called Take Your Time, Yale, which works to empower students to consider time off as a positive option during their time at school. Arizona’s spiritual journey has led her in many different directions—from leading worship in a small-town Methodist church to living in a Buddhist monastery in China for a summer. She’s grateful for the opportunity that Grace Year affords to engage in spiritual reflection (and hopefully, growth) in the company of others who are in a similar place in their path. Arizona is a proud native of Carrollton, Georgia—lovingly known as the City of Dreams—where her family still lives with their four dogs and cat, Elvis.
Arizona's service work was with new initiatives at Grace Church with the director of program development, including the Institute for Rural Leadership and ICAN (Immigrant College Accessibility for Northeast Dutchess). Arizona's Grace Year concluded in December 2019. |
Isabel Morrison |
Isabel Morrison graduated from Vassar College in 2019 with degrees in Music and Hispanic Studies. She grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she attended a liberal, non-denominational church that drew upon many religious and spiritual traditions, and she was active in the Unitarian Universalist group while at Vassar. Some of her favorite places are the shores of Lake Michigan and the city of Mendoza, Argentina, where she studied abroad. While at Vassar, she worked at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, first with the education program and later on the farm crew. It is another of her happy places, and introduced her to the joy and excitement of working outside, growing and eating local food, and connecting to communities through food systems. She is excited to continue working with community farms in Millbrook through Grace Year, which will also help her grow spiritually and give her opportunities to play and sing music with the church, and practice her Spanish. She is excited to live with intention and explore further the connection between body, mind, community, and the magic of plants.
Isabel's service work is with Shady Knoll Orchard and the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. |
Jess Davis |
Jess Davis is a recent graduate of SUNY New Paltz where she majored in Sociology and minored in Visual Arts. She grew up on Long Island in a non-religious household. From this upbringing stems her agnostic beliefs about the world, but the possibility that larger forces are at work is always something on her mind. New York has always been her home, but the Hudson Valley found a special place in her heart during her time at college. A chance meeting of two strangers changed her life as she was introduced to Grace Year. An opportunity to dive into the world of religion in a way that she never had been able to before. An opportunity for an abstract exploration of spirituality surrounded by people with different definitions of what religion is to them. During her time with Grace Year, Jess hopes to expand her views and experiences with religion and spirituality in a meaningful way. To reconnect with herself as she takes the next steps in life. To answer the “big” questions, so to speak. Also, Jess enjoys fishing, cats, art, books, yoga, binge-watching Netflix, and hugs.
Jess' service work is with EPIC, a bilingual leadership program for immigrant high school students, Millbrook at Home, a new non-profit to support the local aging-in-place movement, and with Church Alliance Senior Housing, a Millbrook affordable housing community. |
Jordan Boudreau |
Jordan Boudreau grew up in a big family 40 minutes north of Boston. He graduated from Yale College in 2019 with a double major in Architecture and Environmental Studies, where he focused on urban studies, environmental humanities, and how architecture can foster community and a sense of place. In college, Jordan also was a member of Yale Outdoors, worked in theater, made art, and lived in an environmental house off-campus. This year, Jordan would like to focus on reflecting on and working toward building sustainable and resilient communities through space.
Jordan's service work is with Hudson River Housing and Northeast Dutchess Mutual Aid, as well as other projects around the Millbrook community. |
Nick Augustine |
Nick Augustine is originally from Oyster Bay, New York, a small town on the north shore of Long Island. Grace Year is his first experience not living near a large body of saltwater, and he is semi-nervous about it! Nick graduated from Hunter College in 2018, where he was part of an honors cohort focused on public policy and public service. Having studied politics and journalism, he worked for BerlinRosen, a public affairs-focused PR company after graduation. After his time there he began working at The Waterfront Center, an environmental and marine education non-profit on Long Island. He learned about Grace Year through his connections to the Episcopal Church on Long Island in which he grew up. He is excited to live in Millbrook, to become an active member of the community, and explore all the things the Hudson Valley has to offer.
Nick's service work is with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, where he serves in the Communications department. He also works with Northeast Dutchess Mutual Aid. |
Eliza Petrie |
Eliza Petrie graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, CT in December 2019 with a Bachelor's in Human Rights Studies and Hispanic Studies and a minor in Legal Studies. She was born and raised in Lower Manhattan and is a proud New York City native. She has also spent a considerable amount of time in the mid-Hudson Valley growing up, and its beautiful countryside and rural charm hold a big place in her heart. She loves to travel, especially in South America because of its diverse cultural traditions and breathtaking natural beauty, but also because of the opportunity it provides her to hone in on her Spanish language skills. While in college, Eliza studied and lived in both Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. After volunteering at a legal aid organization in Tijuana, Mexico and with our very own EPIC program last summer, she felt called to pursue a career in immigration legal services, noting her deep concern about the current political and humanitarian crises at the U.S./Mexico border. She is very excited to live in an intentional community with other like-minded young adults who are committed to self-reflection and personal growth, and determined to make a positive difference in the world.
Eliza’s service work is with Grace Immigrant Outreach, a program of Grace Church committed to serving the needs of the rural immigrant population in Dutchess County. |
Affiliates |
In the 2019-2020 cohort, we experimented with piloting an affiliate program. Affiliates are existing members of our community who are working towards their undergraduate degrees and are invited to affiliate with Grace Year for a period of one year or more. Our affiliates spent the Fall of 2019 living on-site at Grace Church in the Rectory.
Alex Freeman |
Alex Bayanbek Freeman was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and grew up in Pleasant Valley, New York. As a lifelong parishioner of Grace Church, he is excited to give back in a meaningful way. After graduating from Arlington High School he began attending Dutchess Community College where he took a plethora of classes ranging from business to architecture to music. He has used his passion for music having grown up playing the piano, and now runs his own DJ business on weekends. After getting certified as an Emergency Medical Technician, he spent five years driving ambulances throughout rural Dutchess County. Having grown up in the Episcopal Church he is excited to continue his role in Connect, the regional spiritual youth group at Grace Church. He hopes to use what he learns during his Grace Year to change people’s lives through music and education. He has a knack for juggling, and can even do it on a unicycle!
Alex's service work was with the Millbrook Community Preschool, Connect, Sunday School, and assisting the director of program development with logistics. |
Wilfido Macz |
Wilfido Estuardo Macz Cuc is originally from San Luís, Petén, Guatemala, and now he is proud to say that he is a student at Dutchess Community College, where he is studying music and performing arts. He is trilingual; in childhood he learned both Spanish and the indigenous language Q'eqchi. In 2014 he moved to the United States and began to learn the English language. He earned his high school diploma from Millbrook High School. During his high school years, he was a member of EPIC, a leadership group that helps teenagers to develop skills so that they have a greater knowledge base for their futures. EPIC has helped Wilfido to continue with his studies and also to obtain permanent legal status in the United States. He belongs to a Q'echi church in Kingston, where he plays guitar for the Sunday services.
Wilfido's service work was with EPIC, assisting the program director with transportation, case management, and meeting facilitation. He may be reached at wilfidoepic@gmail.com. |