Stories from the Center of the Universe

Mila Liakhovitser

Mila Liakhovitser comes to the podcast by virtue of working together with Paul.  Mila was born and raised in New York City, and though she was born on Long Island and lived for a brief time in Queens, she is a Bronx girl through and through!  She is also a long suffering NY Jets fan. From the beginning, Mila was recognized as very intelligent and gifted.  She attended math camps after school for most of her childhood and then went to a math and science high school.  She attended what she referred to as "nerd camps" and took her first SAT when she was 12.  She later had a super score of 2380 out of 2400 with an 800 on the math portion.  She got accepted to several great academic schools and all the hard work paid off when she decided to go to Duke University.  She told Paul about the culture shock and differences between NY City and Durham, NC. Mila double majored in Math and Philosophy with a minor in Economics. Mila told Paul about the incredible relationship she had with her grandfather.  From her grandfather's birth in 1924 to her family's Jewish and Russian history, Mila discusses how she believes fate saved her grandfather from being killed by the Nazi's.  She discussed how he went in the Russian Air Force when he was 16 and came home at 21 and then became an engineer. She discusses the interesting decision that her grandparents had to make when they immigrated.  She finishes by talking about her Mom, all her mom’s accomplishments and the calming force her mom has been in her life.

Andrew Slater

Andrew Slater joins us for the podcast today.  Andrew is the Head Baseball Coach at The Collegiate School.  Paul and Andrew have known each other since they were both at St. Christopher’s though Paul is a few years older.  Andrew attended St. Christopher’s through 6th grade and then went to Collegiate where he graduated in 1996. Andrew talks about getting a football scholarship to the University of Richmond where he also played baseball.  He tells us how his life changed when he suffered a back injury at the end of his freshman year.  He left UofR and headed to Auburn University where his brother Tom was a baseball coach.  Andrew played baseball for two years at Auburn and spent a third year there as a student assistant coach and he said this is when he really developed a passion for coaching.  He then went onto coach baseball at VMI and then Western Kentucky.  In 2008, Andrew and his wife Samantha decided it was time to move back to Virginia and that’s when he started at Collegiate. Paul and Andrew also discussed how Andrew believes it is important that kids play multiple sports when they are growing up.  They discussed his baseball journey as a player and a coach and how Collegiate won a State Championship in 2016.  Andrew talked about his other duties at Collegiate (he’s busy,) his dad’s work ethic and 1 on 1 basketball games with his big brother.  Andrew finished by talking about Samantha and their three boys … Will (16), Jake (13) and Sam (11.)

Stories From the Center of the Universe™ 2021