Abe Hill, Class of 2009
We chatted with Abe Hill, Class of 2009, about his life since graduating from Berkwood Hedge and his work at Delta Airlines!
What did your academic journey look like in the years following Berkwood Hedge School?
After graduating from Berkwood Hedge in 2009, I attended King Middle School and then Berkeley High School, where I graduated from BIHS. After years of playing travel baseball, I became a competitive rower with Oakland Strokes in my sophomore year and won a national championship in the men's varsity 8+ in my senior year, 2016. I was recruited to Colby College in Maine, where I studied physics and continued to row into my 2nd year. My collegiate rowing career ended due in part to a recurring hamstring injury, but I used my newfound free time to invest more in friendships I cared about, sing in an a capella group, start a band where I played guitar and sang lead, and found the Colby Chess Club. I graduated from Colby in 2020 (remotely) with an honors degree in physics. In 2021 I enrolled in a one-year master's program in Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell Tech in NYC, and have since worked for Delta Air Lines in Atlanta as a decision scientist. In 2024 I went back to school (albeit a different type of school) in my free time to learn to fly! I became an FAA-certified private pilot in June and continue to train towards further ratings.
What fueled your interest in Physics, Operations Research, and Information Engineering?
In high school when I was applying to colleges, I looked for schools with strong physics and economics programs because those were the classes that I enjoyed the most. At Berkwood Hedge I had discovered that I loved math, and had always enjoyed learning about the physical world around me in science lessons. Both physics and economics required applying math to a problem to obtain a solution that has some significance in the real world--which would enable me to utilize my skill at math while learning about interesting problems. I hoped that following this pattern would eventually lead me to a fulfilling and interesting career, and although I wouldn't have predicted the field I ended up in, it did.
What is most important in the work that you have done to date and what are you most proud of in this work?
My team builds digital decision-support tools for Delta's operation. My role is to build custom algorithms that leverage available data to evaluate the cost or benefit of a decision and recommend what action to take, such as how to deploy reserve pilots to reduce flight cancellation risk or developing an engine maintenance strategy to maximize reliability. I am proud to help Delta run more efficiently--we carry hundreds of thousands of passengers each day, so even small improvements can positively impact a lot of people.
What lessons did you learn at Berkwood Hedge School that you still use in your every day life?
At Berkwood Hedge I learned many of the skills that I take for granted, but make me who I am: how to interact with others and make friends, how to appreciate and resolve our differences, and maybe most importantly, how to learn and how to follow my passions. There's probably much more that I've integrated but couldn't name!
