Yana Zelinsky ’28 and Zachary Cohen-Neamie ’28, who met while interviewing for a dentistry program at another college, were surprised to see each other again at Muhlenberg’s admitted student event. Now, they are close friends who take many of the same classes.
Yana Zelinsky ’28 attended a small high school in New Jersey. Zachary Cohen-Neamie ’28 went to a huge high school in Florida. Both were aspiring dentists, and they met at a college interview session last March in Cohen-Neamie’s home state, where they and three other students answered questions and then went to lunch as a group.
During the group lunch, Zelinsky and Cohen-Neamie discovered that they had both interviewed for Muhlenberg’s partnership program with the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine that allows students to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology from Muhlenberg and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Penn in seven years instead of eight. They had not yet received an admissions decision, so they thought, “small world,” and moved on.
The next month, Zelinsky spotted Cohen-Neamie at the Through the Red Doors event for admitted students on Muhlenberg’s campus. “I looked over to my right, and I was dying laughing,” she says. “What was this guy doing here?”
“The program brings a small group of students together who have the same goal in life.”
—Yana Zelinsky ’28
While chatting, the two realized that they had both been admitted to Muhlenberg as honors students, Zelinsky as an RJ Fellow and Cohen-Neamie as a Dana Scholar. They decided to be friends and exchanged numbers. They texted as they weighed their college options — and both ultimately chose Muhlenberg for its UPenn partnership.
“Already knowing someone in the program … added a bit of familiarity, so it wasn’t such a leap of faith,” Cohen-Neamie says.
Since coming to Muhlenberg, Zelinsky and Cohen-Neamie have grown closer. “We coordinated our classes,” Cohen-Neamie says. “This semester we have almost every class together,” Zelinsky adds.
Both Zelinsky and Cohen-Neamie wanted to have a rich, well-rounded life outside their biology studies, and they felt that Muhlenberg would offer them this opportunity. Cohen-Neamie is a member of the intramural volleyball team and rock-climbing club, and Zelinsky has made friends all over campus whom she supports at sports games and in theatre productions.
Over the past year, their cohort in the UPenn program, which includes four other students, has grown much closer. “The program brings a small group of students together who have the same goal in life,” Zelinsky says.
Zachary Mannheimer ’99, a theatre and philosophy double major, is founder and board chair of Alquist 3D, a company that 3D prints commercial and residential buildings.
Muhlenberg’s 23rd varsity team had a successful first season, and the pool of recruits is only expanding as the sport continues to grow at the high school level.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies Tiffany Montoya explains how she chose to study philosophy and, specifically, the concept of flourishing.
