Junior School students canoeing during a school trip.

York School News

Alumni Spotlight: Jamie Perlmutter '14

1/9/2023

When Jamie Perlmutter graduated from York in 2014, he planned on following his brother to the University of Michigan (U of M) and into the Business program beginning in second year. Although admitted to U of M, Jamie’s Business program application was declined, and he knew that he’d have to find a new direction. “It was unsettling to have my plans blow up in my face,” he recalls, “but if that hadn’t happened, I would never have found my passion for programming.”

For Jamie, as soon as he started studying something that really spoke to him, the sense of curiosity he once felt as a York School student was reignited and everything else fell into place. “Computer programming is like learning a new language and solving a puzzle all at the same time,” he explains.

Outside the classroom, Jamie enjoyed student life and filled his free time volunteering for the Wolverine Support Network (WSN), a peer-to-peer support group co-founded by a close friend who had lost his brother to suicide. Jamie is proud to have been part of an organization committed to empowering university students to take care of their mental health, and the WSN has since grown to become a national school program called The Support Network.

“York gave me opportunities for deep conversations with all sorts of different people,” Jamie says, “and this built and fostered a self-awareness and confidence that I drew upon to lead weekly peer-to-peer groups, and eventually volunteer as the Director of Operations for WSN.”

Today, Jamie lives and works in Manhattan at Spotify as a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst on the Personalization Team. And though he’s far from his formative years at York, he still feels connected to the lessons he learned as a student from Grades 1 to 12: “Mental Health is important and we can’t be afraid to have the hard conversations. Embrace the unexpected and speak up. Your voice matters.”

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About the York School

The York School is a gender-inclusive JK to Grade 12 independent school located in the heart of Toronto. The York School was founded in 1965 and is the first English speaking school in Canada accredited to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) from junior kindergarten (JK) to university entrance. As an IB World School, The York School's motto is Experience Teaches.