High school, college friends go separate ways

BANGOR – It is generally assumed that after high school graduation, classmates will go their separate ways and rarely, if ever, see one another again.

But that was not the case for Josh Yardley and Rob Kortedes, both 22, who graduated from Bangor High School in 2000.

They both knew they were going to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. They thought they would select different places on campus to live. They never expected to end up as members of Zeta Psi, living as fraternity brothers in the fraternity house. But that’s what happened.

Both young men tackled double majors – Yardley in computer science and management, and Kotredes in computer science and math.

“We were buddies and roommates for several years [in the fraternity],” Yardley said. “It was good to have Rob here.” It eased the culture shock of going from a small city like Bangor to a large city like Boston, he said. Although the transition from Bangor to Boston took a little getting used to, it was not that big an academic transition from Bangor High to MIT, Yardley said.

“I was so well-prepared for what I found here,” Yardley said. “It was pretty impressive.” He credited Bangor High School math teacher Steve Godsoe with preparing him so well academically. “I did extra work with him, the math team – he learned right alongside us, too.”

Rob Kotredes, who also was a math team member and one of Godsoe’s students, agreed. “I was well-prepared,” Kotredes said. “I didn’t have to struggle like so many others did [to adjust] to the stepped-up pace MIT requires.”

As a student, Kotredes, the son of Tom and Debra Kotredes of Bangor, worked in MIT’s media lab. He worked with the spatial imaging group on autostereographic display tacks – which can see in 3-D -where the human eyes are looking and sends separate images to each eye. He also worked on a project to develop a holographic printer. His adviser on both projects was Stephen Benton, who invented the hologram now used on credit cards.

“That’s why I wanted to go to MIT,” Kotredes said. “Whenever I’d see a story about research or technology, it always came back to MIT. I wanted be where all that was happening.”

Yardley plans to do a two-year hitch in the Peace Corps beginning in February or March. He does not yet know what country he will be sent to but hopes to teach math, English and science wherever he goes. He said the most important thing he will take from MIT are the skills he learned outside of classrooms – learning to work with people of all backgrounds. He said his parents, Rita and Sawn Yardley, are supportive about his decision to join the Peace Corps.

“They are proud of my decision,” he said.

Kotredes, too, is excited about the next step in his life, which he will take in July. He will move to Seattle to work for Amazon.com. He will do software development, using the computer to develop software to aid in tracking and shipping Amazon’s inventory.

“I’m looking forward to earning a living and [having] the freedom of being on my own,” he said.

Asked if he ever thinks about coming back to Maine someday, Yardley said, “I love Boston, but more and more I find myself thinking that some day I want to come back to Maine, when it’s time to settle down and raise a family.”

Kotredes wasn’t so sure about coming back to Maine.

“There isn’t much in the Internet field in Maine,” he said. “If there were jobs in software development and research, then I’d be interested in coming back to Maine.”