District News

Reflecting on a Navy career that provided the chance to serve on the waters of the Arctic Circle and help cultivate a new generation of military leaders and service members, Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Schmiegel-Luvera shared appreciation for the people in Lancaster who helped chart a course for her professional life. 

“If I close my eyes and think of my time in the Lancaster School District on the surface level, I’m going to see the activities, I’m going to see the classes, I see the dances and the football games, the hallways and the locker assignments and my friends,” she said. “But when I let the emotions go deeper, I see the development. I see the opportunities. I see empowerment. I see a school district that took a student growing up in Lancaster, New York and gave that student every tool they needed to make something of themselves because that’s what Lancaster School District did for me.”

Schmiegel-Luvera, a LHS graduate in 2008, currently serves as the commander of the Buffalo Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), where applicants for military service complete their enlistment process. Personnel at a MEPS ensure that each applicant meets standards set by the Department of Defense and individual service branches. Earlier roles in her career included time as operations officer, Navy Talent Acquisition Group New England, admissions counselor and regional director for her alma mater, the United States Naval Academy and assistant chief engineer aboard USS Normandy which deployed to 6th and 2nd Fleet Area of Operations. 

Speaking to Lancaster staff during the district’s Legendary Day of Learning on August 28, Schmiegel-Luvera spoke on key connections in her academic career that ranged from the warmth she felt starting her schooling in Kristine McLouth’s class, to feeling valued after being asked for her opinion by her fourth grade teacher Ami Cole, to the encouragement she received from her lacrosse coach Donna Aquino and field hockey coach Kathy Majeski. Teachers like Tony Tylenda shared the value of a firm handshake, a lesson felt by those greeting SchmiegelLuvera during the event, and science teacher Bernadette DuPre (formerly Tomaselli) inspired her to be her best.  

“Each one of you in this audience are to someone who Kristine McLouth, Ami Cole, Donna Aquino, Tony Tylenda, Bernadette (Tomaselli), and Kathy Majeski were and are to me,” Schmiegel-Luvera said. 

The naval officer said her appreciation for Lancaster grew as she became an admissions counselor for the United States Naval Academy, giving her a chance to view schools across the northeast and understand not every district had the talented faculty and opportunities for students found in Lancaster. For Schmiegel-Luvera, that ranged from a litany of instrumental and vocal music performances, to the empowering feeling of being asked to work with fellow students, upon graduation, to develop a curriculum that would become the high school’s Leadership Academy. 
“Lancaster faculty just made their students strive harder and left every door open and available,” she said. “Lancaster faculty never put a metaphorical ceiling on their students.” 

Schmiegel-Luvera encouraged the faculty of Lancaster that they could leave a legacy through the way they inspired their own students. 

“The slightest encouragement, the slightest investment that you show your students goes a very, very long way,” she said. “It’s going to last a lifetime.”

This article was published in December 2025 as part of the Lancaster Central School District’s Winter Newsletter. Read this year’s edition at https://bit.ly/3Lggqoy.