Class of ’08 Spotlight: Matt Alderman & Mario Sansalone

Sansalone (left) and Alderman (right)
Mario Sansalone (left) and Matt Alderman (right)

Alumni Weekend is just days away and we’re gearing up for this year’s class reunions! Find out how the GW connection helped bring together two Class of 2008 Colonials…while they were living in Seattle: 

For Matt Alderman, GWSB BBA ’08, and Mario Sansalone, CCAS BA ’08, GW is a place not just where they spent four years; it is also the common thread that brought these two former classmates and acquaintances together long after they graduated and went in seemingly opposite directions in life.

Alderman and Sansalone were members of the 2006 Colonial Inaguration (CI) Cabinet and had friends in common, but it wasn’t until after college in 2011 that they really clicked.

Both were living in Seattle and they reconnected through, as they put it, “a combination of Facebook and a mutual friend [from CI].”

Since Alderman was new to Seattle, that mutual friend, Barbara Joseph, CCAS BA ’08, set up a time for the three of them to meet for dinner. When “schedules became complicated” and Joseph couldn’t make the outing at the last minute, Alderman and Sansalone agreed they would still meet.

What started out as a reunion of former acquaintances developed into a relationship that is nearly three years strong.

These days, Alderman is a senior consultant at Deloitte, a job he got through a GW campus recruiting event his senior year. With the company, he’s moved from DC to Los Angeles to Seattle and back to DC. Before being recruited by Deloitte, Alderman held internships at Morgan Stanley, UBS and The White House.

Sansalone currently works as a project manager for LivingSocial, where his job focuses on “improving the customer experience for our entertainment offerings.” The opportunity with LivingSocial also allowed Sansalone to move back to the District–he and Alderman now live near DC’s H Street Corridor.

Aside from meeting each other through their alma mater, Alderman and Sansalone agree, for different reasons, that their experiences at GW and in DC influenced how they got to where they are today.

Sansalone says that GW helped steer his professional work in the right direction, noting “[it] certainly helped prepare me to navigate complex organizations and lead people toward a common goal—both incredibly important in my professional life.”

Alderman feels off-campus activities, such as a two-year internship as a fund analyst at Morgan Stanley, and a year-long stint in UBS’ Private Wealth department, “provided me with a wealth of real-world experience.”

While both were involved in on-campus activities such as CI, each has their own memories of GW.

Sansalone fondly remembers being a participant of and guide for Project Exploration, which ensured for him “a smooth transition into college.”  He was also active in the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

Alderman cites living in Thurston Hall and being part of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity as highlights.

–Anne Oblinger, CCAS BA ’08

Learn more about the Class of 2008 through past alumni spotlights: Amy Nane, Alex Winn & Casey Pierzchala, Ketan Patel, Julia King, Shannon Holmes, Joseph Ward and Jessica BrownAnd don’t forget – walk-in registrations are welcome at #GWAW13!

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