Generation Orange in D.C.
The Washington, D.C., area is home to 3,451 members of Generation Orange—alumni who graduated from SU in the past 10 years. Buoyed by a network of established SU alumni, they are working their way toward successful careers in fields like law, public service, public relations, and journalism.
Here’s a profile of two Generation Orange alums who have taken what they’ve learned at SU and launched promising careers in D.C.
Jocelyn Lederman ’09
Jocelyn Lederman gladly credits the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE) at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management with enabling her to see the possibilities of her potential.
“My professors would say ‘can’t is not an option,’ pushing me to aim higher than I ever thought I could,” Lederman explains. As a double-major in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and supply chain management, with a minor in information management and technology, she took this philosophy to heart.
While at Whitman, she started participating in small business consulting engagements on the south side of Syracuse through the EEE department and SU’s Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship learning community. Later, she participated in the Entrepreneurship Empowerment in South Africa program, spending six weeks during the summer between her junior and senior years consulting with small businesses owned by previously disadvantaged women in South Africa.
“My various experiences at SU and abroad changed my perspective on how the world works and how I view myself,” Lederman says. “I was able to realize that I loved strategy and business consulting and have been able to start a career doing what I love to do.”
Today, Lederman is an associate strategy consultant at CSC, a Fortune 150 company and one of the world’s largest, most respected providers of information technology services. There, she is the lead business analyst helping to create the health claims processing system for 9/11 first responders and survivors.
“My SU experience provided a foundation for me to enter post-college life as a young mind prepared to take on anything,” Lederman says. “I was able to translate this to my professional life by striving to deliver quality to my team and my manager, even when the answers aren’t clear.” When her colleagues at CSC discovered this quality, they offered her an extraordinary opportunity to join a high-profile team building out a business plan for a new corporate business unit.
As a Generation Orange alum, Lederman feels it’s important to stay connected to and support Syracuse. “Appreciating the impact SU has had on all of us is important,” she states. “The abroad programs, community engagements, and various clubs around campus—on top of the academics—have helped shape most of us. To see them continue to grow will only ensure that the next generation also has meaningful experiences at SU.”
Oswaldo Ortega ’05
Oswaldo Ortega got his first taste of architecture in a class at Brooklyn Technical High School. That propelled him to Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, where he not only earned his bachelor’s degree, but took on leadership roles that included founding the Society of Multicultural Architects and Designers and joining the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
“Syracuse University provided a solid foundation for my professional development,” says Ortega. “In the School of Architecture, I developed my understanding of design. And through SMAD and Alpha Phi Alpha, I gained skills in management, team dynamics, and negotiation.”
After graduating from SU, Ortega attended Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in urban design and architecture. During that time, he worked for the Urban Technical Assistance Project, where, through a grassroots process that included interviewing community leaders, residents, and store owners, he assisted in designing the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building Plaza in Harlem.
In 2007, Ortega joined the Washington, D.C., office of HOK, one of the world’s largest design practices. Since then, he has operated as project architect for three office buildings and one biotech laboratory facility. He has also continued to develop his leadership skills through the Leadership Development Program at Johns Hopkins University and by leading the Architecting, Construction, and Engineering Mentoring program at Wheaton High School, near his home in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“I attribute my employment at HOK to SU for two reasons,” explains Ortega. “The first is that I was properly prepared to enter the workforce. The second is that there’s a strong alumni base at my office with a successful track record. The alumni helped ease my transition from academia to the workforce and served as excellent mentors.”
Ortega feels it’s important to stay connected to SU. “It’s through staying connected that opportunities for professional and personal growth will appear,” he says. “Mentoring is one of the primary reasons I stay involved. Former alumni served as mentors for me, and I continue to provide that for current SU students.”
The networking aspect of his involvement with SU is just as important to Ortega. “In college there was a curriculum, and we knew that as long as we accomplished that list, we would achieve the goal of a degree,” he says. “Once we leave college, there is no set curriculum, and it becomes critical to learn from senior alums and to take advantage of any professional development opportunities SU has to offer.”
Brian Spendley ’09
When Brian Spendley (below, in a photo by Rachel Fus ’08) came to Syracuse as a freshman in 2005, his interests in engineering and medicine led him to major in bioengineering at the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. But through a multitude of experiences outside the classroom, he “quickly realized that my passions were wider and deeper than I ever knew prior to college.”
Those experiences include public health work in Gambia through Operation Crossroads Africa, experience as an EMT with Syracuse University Ambulance, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and fighting for equal education opportunities through Teach for America. “My experiences at SU have formed me into the person I am today,” he adds.
Syracuse University also played a key role in helping him move into his current position as an associate for Hagerty Consulting Inc. in Washington, D.C.
While in graduate school at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Spendley realized that consulting was the obvious next step. One of his mentors at SU connected him with SU alumnus Steve Hagerty ’91, G’93, founder and CEO of Hagerty Consulting, a public sector management consulting firm. “One thing led to another,” says Spendley, “and I’m now working with the firm in a role that I can truly say I love.”
Currently, Spendley is supporting emergency management projects at the local, state, and federal levels, working with FEMA’s Joint Housing Solutions Group, a multi-agency task force that seeks to improve FEMA’s disaster housing assistance capacity. It’s work that brings together his backgrounds in housing, emergency medicine, public health, and even his work with nonprofits.
“The statement ‘I would not be where I am today without Syracuse University’ could not be more precise,” says Spendley. “And while my relationship with SU has changed since graduation, it has changed for the better, and continued to grow in ways I would have never imagined.”
That includes supporting the University with annual gifts. “I believe it’s important to give back to the school that gave me so much,” he adds. “I also think it’s important to support the school so it can continue to grow and continue to create incredible opportunities for SU students. I’m so proud to be a Syracuse University alumnus and to this day, I continue to bleed orange.”
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