For Dr. Natalie Capan Amerkanian ‘84 and her husband, Gregory J. Amerkanian, the Elisabeth Morrow School (EMS) is more than Natalie’s alma mater — it is a cornerstone of their family’s multi-generational journey. While every institution tracks its progress through ledgers and milestones, the Capan-Amerkanian legacy is best understood from a specific vantage point — the hill overlooking the campus, where a single moment of quiet revelation helped define their children’s future.
Years ago, while roaming through Englewood, Natalie and Greg found themselves on Next Day Hill, overlooking the bucolic EMS campus. Though they were only just married, Natalie felt a pull toward her roots. “I said, ‘One day, our kids are going to have to come here,'” Natalie remembers.
Greg, reflecting on his wife’s formidable academic resume — which includes three Ivy League institutions — The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and Columbia University — was initially amused by her conviction.
“She’s telling me, ‘If we have kids, God willing, I don’t care where they go afterward, but they have to go here,’” he recalls. “There are all these impressive schools on your resume, and you want to make a stand about The Elisabeth Morrow School?’ And she said, ‘Yes, absolutely,’ with a totally straight face. She said, ‘Everything after here was easy. This is where I learned how to learn.'”
“I said, ‘Okay, I guess that’s where they’ll go,’” Greg continues. “That was a very convincing argument.”
The Power of Being Valued
Natalie’s certainty was anchored in her early years as the child of Armenian immigrants.
Her parents viewed education as the ultimate gateway to success. “My mother just really wanted me to get a college education and wanted to make sure that she set her daughter up for the best situation possible,” Natalie recalls.
When Natalie began her time at EMS, she faced immediate challenges. “I knew no English when I came to the school,” she says. “When I entered, everything was whooshing right past me because I didn’t have the language skills.” Yet, in that whirlwind of a new culture, Natalie found a profound sense of belonging. “I distinctly remember to this day, being six years old and knowing that I was cared for… the teachers at EMS made it clear that I deserved to be taught just the way that everyone else was.”
She notes that while the school talks a lot about inclusivity and belonging today, she felt the essence of those values as far back as 1984. “I felt how special this place is in terms of how much EMS values the mind of a child, no matter their background,” says Natalie, a specialist in orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics. This spirit permeates the entire EMS community, a supportive network of families and educators who ensure every new family feels welcome and every student feels seen, heard, and championed from their very first day.
Launching From a Strong Foundation
Today, Natalie’s vision — that her children would one day gain the same essential EMS foundation — has come full circle. She and Greg — a senior vice president at UBS Wealth Management and EMS board trustee — have seen that promise manifest in the lives of their three sons.
Their oldest son, Shant Amerkanian ’15, is currently helping humanity reach for the stars. After EMS, Shant attended Horace Mann, where he served as chairman of Model UN and captain of the varsity golf team. Following his graduation from the University of Michigan with a degree in aerospace engineering, he is now a lead propulsion software engineer at SpaceX.
Shant’s work involves the “big exploration” of Starship, the world’s most powerful launch vehicle. “A persistent theme of my job is dealing with unknowns and knowing that failure is a possibility,” Shant says. He credits EMS for this mindset, noting that the teaching philosophy focused on process and curiosity rather than just right and wrong answers.
In March of 2025, a milestone of galactic proportions brought that foundation into sharp focus. As a result of his work during an internship with Firefly Aerospace, Shant’s name was included on a commemorative plaque titled “The Team that Touched the Moon.” Attached to the Blue Ghost lander — the first fully successful commercial, private-sector lunar landing — the lander now rests indefinitely on the lunar surface, a permanent marker of a literal moonshot.
A Tradition of Excellence
Following a similar path is the middle brother, Garo Amerkanian ’17, who also attended Horace Mann after graduating from EMS. During his alumni induction address to the EMS Class of 2025 last year, Garo reflected on how EMS prepared him for the rigors of the University of Michigan and for his career in finance. He shared a story about sitting in a business class as a college freshman, staring at a chart comparing the growth and fixed mindsets.
“I was a little confused, didn’t know what it was. And then as the lesson went on, I thought, oh, right, this is what I learned in EMS,” Garo told the eighth graders. “We really learned how to have that growth mindset here… whether it’s getting a test back or a discussion in class.” He recalled times when he received scores in the 70s and, rather than being discouraged, went to his teachers to ask, “What could I have done better? How can we practice better?”
Beyond mindset, Garo credits the school with providing a superior academic toolkit. “You learn how to learn at EMS, not just facts and subjects,” he explains.
Garo emphasizes that this resilience and ability to advocate for himself are what secured his offer from Morgan Stanley to become an equity research associate following his summer internship. He notes that while many candidates arrive with impressive technical backgrounds, the differentiator is often the soft skills rooted in the EMS experience — skills he honed, in part, while serving as student council president.
“There were kids who already started their [investment] portfolios, but…how good are you at taking feedback and running with it and continuing to explore?” he observes.
The 14-Year Journey
For Natalie, the consistency of this excellence over the decades is no accident. It is driven by a unique faculty culture. “One thing about every single teacher at Elisabeth Morrow, and I really mean that — every single teacher — is that they really care for a child and help them grow from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. That’s what they live for,” she says, adding, “The quality of the education at EMS is tremendous.”
The faculty’s deep investment in each student creates an environment where students can truly thrive over the long term. For the youngest brother, Saro ’27, who will be entering eighth grade next year, the lessons in character and resilience have been second nature from the start. “That’s kind of the first thing we know,” he says.
Saro has already begun to carve out his own entrepreneurial path, launching a company, Logo Labs, that creates custom workspace nameplates. His passion for math and science — fields his brothers also championed — is balanced by a love for the arts and athletics, from a decade of playing golf to taking center stage as a warm and vivacious Lumiére in the school’s spring 2026 production of “Beauty and the Beast Jr.”
Saro’s experience also highlights the school’s ability to foster collaboration. During a “Shark Tank”- style project for Leadership Lab, he found pride not just in the product but also in his ability to lead. “I learned how to regulate a group,” Saro explains, to keep them productive and on-topic. This extends to the newly-formed EMS Robotics team, where he helped lead his peers to a trophy through steady collaboration.
This nurturing environment allows students to develop a rare resilience. “They’re not afraid to fail,” Greg says of his sons. “They’re not afraid to try and see where it takes them. Those risks are very important for understanding what works and what doesn’t. That idea of a holistic education — not just the facts, but being able to understand yourself — was very evident early on.”
The “Secret Sauce” and Beyond
Natalie believes that the final years of the EMS experience are crucial to this development. “The ages of 13 and 14 are a very important time for shaping,” she explains. “At EMS, they are able to start experimenting with being a leader, being confident, and being willing to take risks from the time they enter. Then, they are trusted to become the school leaders in the final year, and that sets them on a path of success.”
She recalls how this confidence manifested when her older sons moved on to high school and then college, prepared to pursue opportunities earlier than their peers. “Shant went out for a club in freshman year of college, even though sophomore year was when they typically take people,” Natalie recalls. “When I asked why he did it, he said, ‘Well, I might as well try. Why wouldn’t I try?’ He actually did get it, because he had the confidence to try. That comes from Elisabeth Morrow.”
Greg admits that his appreciation for the full 14-year journey was a perspective gained over time. “Honestly, when we first started at EMS, I thought, OK, they’ll go there, and they’ll get a base, and then if we can transfer them early into a school with a high school, it’ll be important,” he says. “Looking back on it, I could not disagree with my former self more. There are so many good things that came out of staying through the whole program.”
He believes that staying through eighth grade was the catalyst for his sons’ future successes, providing the space for profound personal transformation. “I don’t think they would have gone to the schools they ended up going to if they hadn’t finished EMS because they grew so much: In fourth, fifth, sixth, and even seventh grade, they were different children. By eighth grade, they were entirely different individuals.”
For Greg, observing this growth revealed a unique aspect of the school’s methodology — what he calls the “secret sauce.” “There’s a progression that happens in this school that I did not expect, and I was amazed to see it. There is a formula that says we know when the child is ready to experience this or that. And when they’re ready, it explodes in a good way.”
Again, Natalie and Greg find themselves navigating the secondary school placement process, this time with Saro. They are guided by Dr. Jed Silverstein, who serves as both the secondary school placement counselor and the head of middle school. This familiar journey, while always significant, is met with the calm confidence that comes from seeing that “secret sauce” work its magic twice before.
A Mission Fulfilled
Beyond the tremendous individual accolades and the global impact of the family’s collective careers, the heart of this legacy remains that poignant visual of Natalie and Greg as a young couple on the hill. Natalie’s own story began there as a young girl who found her voice in a place that valued her mind before she even knew the language. Today, that same “zest for learning” has seen one son lead propulsion engineering for the world’s most powerful rockets and another launch a promising career in global finance.
Now, as the family watches Saro prepare for his own graduation, there is a palpable sense of anticipation for all that he will achieve. Guided by the same values and curiosity that defined his brothers’ early years, Saro stands on the threshold of his own unique future, ready to carry the family’s legacy of excellence and integrity into a new chapter. It is a path defined not just by achievement, but by the intellectual curiosity that EMS instills in every student.
“In my work — and outside my work — I always ask ‘how’ and ‘why’ before asking ‘what?'” Shant says, echoing the school’s core philosophy. It’s a way of thinking that began on that hill in Englewood, took root in the classroom, and reminds us that when you truly learn how to learn, there is no limit to where that foundation can take you.
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