Jelani Cobb, a graduate of Jamaica HS in the class of 1987, has constructed a life at the nexus of academia and journalism. “Jamaica HS set me in good stead academically, intellectually and socially,” he says.

One of the summer’s big stories was the environmental crisis in Toledo, Ohio, where algae blooms in Lake Erie made the water supply undrinkable for several days. It’s an issue with which Menachem Tabanpour is intimately familiar: He has been studying phosphorous in wastewater ever since he was a student at James Madison HS in Brooklyn.

George Monasterio oversees the design, construction and aesthetics of Grand Central and Metro-North’s outlying stations — which makes him responsible for supervising everything from the erection of railroad overpasses to the blueprints of a new store inside the terminal.

A silver medalist in fencing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Erinn Smart credits her Brooklyn public school teachers with helping her succeed in sports and life.

Millions read Jane Brody’s Personal Health column in The New York Times for advice on healthy eating, exercise and the latest research on staying hale and fit. Her column has run since 1976, but she’s been a staff writer at The Times since 1965, when she was the only woman in the science department.

From an early age, Liza Miller Davis, now an archeologist for New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, loved and excelled in math and science in an era when that was unusual for girls. Her public school teachers not only supported her academic interests, but helped her take the next step in her education.

Sandra Fabara, known as the “first lady of graffiti,” credits her public school teachers with encouraging her talent and modeling the life of a working artist. Her work is now in collections nationally, internationally and at the Metropolitan, Whitney and Brooklyn museums in New York City.

Working at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station among rocket ships and spacecraft, Brian Bomser says he is “literally living my dream.” That dream blasted off for Brian as a 7th-grader at Louis Armstrong MS, when the opportunity to attend space camp with his classmates launched him toward a career in aerospace engineering.

Edward Summers, as the director of the Kelly Adirondack Research Center at Union College, drives the research agenda for the study of the Adirondack Park. Summers credits his success to his experience in New York City public schools, from a 2nd-grade teacher who rewarded her class with a pizza party to a high school history teacher who engaged him with classroom debates.

Judge Tingling, who halted Bloomberg’s ban on oversized sugary drinks, went to school in Harlem in the 1960s. “My 3rd-grade teacher Ms. Commack recently reached out to me; my teachers say they are proud of me. But not more than I am of them,” he says. “There’s no way I’d be doing this today without them."