Pottstown High School class of 2012 graduate, Vaughan Shirey is another example of Pottstown School District mission to prepare each student by name for success at every level. He holds a B.S. from Drexel University in Environmental Science. Dr. Shirey earned a PhD in biology ( ecology, evolution and animal behavior ) from Georgetown University. He is currently a conservation research fellow at the University of Southern California. Read about his work here; https://conbio.org/mini-sites/smith-fellows/meet-the-fellows/2023-fellows/vaughn-shirey) He successfully defended his PhD research this summer on the effect of climate change on cold adapted butterflies in North America. His research included multiple field season trips to polar and alpine regions in order to document and conserve butterflies. His work is now published in some of the top journals in the field. In speaking to him, Vaughan credited a lot of his success to teachers at PHS, including biology teachers, Justine Donnelly and Paul Castanzo, as well as computer science teacher, Laura Luzeski; he dedicated his thesis research to his life science teacher at Pottstown Middle School, Michelle Andre. Vaughan Shirey, another reason to say, proud to be from Pottstown.