WHAT ’ S NEWS IN PLUM
PLUM HONORS 2017 CLASS OF DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
Plum Distinguished Alumni Class of 2017 members were honored at a banquet that took place at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday , April 23 . On Monday , April 24 , honorees spoke to students during classes at Plum Senior High School , and gave brief remarks at the National Honor Society Induction ceremony . Each inductee received a Proclamation from the Pennsylvania State Senate , Senator Jim Brewster ’ s office , and their photographs were unveiled at the Wall of Distinction .
Cristopher Cooley , Plum class of 1990 , is the husband of Alison and the father of Michael and Maria . Cooley has been teaching math since 1997 and founded the 501c3 nonprofit Serving Other Souls , Inc . ( SOS ) in 2011 . Serving Other Souls is a servant-leadership group built to create leaders through servicebased initiatives . Members of SOS are 6th through 8th grade students at Franklin Regional Middle School . In order to gain the empathy that will allow SOS members to connect to an ever changing world , SOS members offer their time , talent or treasure to SOS service projects that serve the needy . SOS is working on creating chapters within other school districts in the region . Visit the SOS website at servingothersouls . org .
Cooley has received numerous awards for his service to the community including the 2012 Hero of Hope Award from Murrysville
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Cristopher Cooley
Relay For Life , service award from Mayor Hrivnak in 2013 , a Meritorious Award from the mayor of Murrysville in 2014 on behalf of SOS and the Franklin Regional Excellence Award as teacher and SOS director at FR Middle School . In 2015 he received the Jefferson Award for Public Service , which is widely considered to be the “ Nobel Prize ” of volunteerism .
Steven Fabian Lisowski , a 2002 graduate , learned the ropes of television production at Plum High School while working on the Make-A-Wish telethon and hosting the morning announcements . Today he can be seen by 6 million television viewers on a daily basis .
After graduating from Plum and Allegheny College , he launched a career in television that quickly put him in front of a national audience . His presence on the small screen has led him to serve as a correspondent for “ Inside Edition ,” the award-winning , highly rated newsmagazine that has been on the air for three decades . Fabian Lisowski has
Steven Fabian Lisowski
also co-hosted the hit viral-videos show “ RightThisMinute ” and served as a reporteranchor for “ Channel One News ,” a national news program for teens that jumpstarted the careers of Anderson Cooper and Maria Menounos .
Working in broadcast television has allowed Steven to cover everything from the drug wars
in Juarez , Mexico , to the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver , Canada , and stops along the campaign trail during the 2016 presidential election . He ’ s swum with sharks in the Bahamas , been caught in the middle of riots in Baltimore , MD , and Ferguson , MO , and interviewed celebrities on the red carpet of the White House Correspondents ’ Dinner .
Joseph F . Gassette , Jr .
Joseph F . Gassette , Jr . graduated from Plum High School in 1977 . He was a letterman in football and track and a member of the National Honor Society . He earned a National Achievement Scholarship and attended Northwestern University . He transferred after his freshman year to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he graduated with a bachelor ’ s degree in Chemical Engineering in 1981 .
Since that time Gassette has enjoyed a long and varied career with DuPont . He began with two-year assignments in Chemical Engineering and Information Technology . This included stints as a Research Engineer at the Experimental Station and as an I . T . consultant in the Engineering Department . He transferred to the Spruance plant in Richmond , VA , where he has developed and implemented I . T . systems that are used globally .
The I . T . systems are used to control production at multiple sites domestically
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