CLASS OF 1994 | 2019 | ISSUE 2

Greetings from Chicago! I (Samera) had a wonderful time attending our 25th Reunion over Memorial Day weekend. It was great to see and catch up with Steve Henn, Emily Henn, John Lewis, Jiyoung Lim, Charlotte Castillo, Tomer Rothschild, Aaron Yeater, Shalini Shankar, and many others.

Steve and Emily announced that their daughter will be attending Wesleyan in the fall!

Our class president, Charlotte Castillo, SVP, Global franchise planning at Viacom Nickelodeon Consumer Products, spoke at Reunion on a panel presented by the Wesleyan Alumni of Color Council, The Coloring of Corporate. Also, Tomer Rothschild and I received Wesleyan University Service Awards at our class dinner.

Shalini is a professor of anthropology and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University. She splits her time between Evanston, Ill., and Brooklyn.

In other news, David Nesbett was appointed by the Governor of Alaska as a trial judge in state court in Anchorage.

Ken Barnett starred in the acclaimed short film Lavender, which premiered this year at Sundance and was acquired by FOX Searchlight. Ken also will appear in a beautiful, new off-Broadway play, Novenas for a Lost Hospital, about NYC’s recently departed St. Vincent’s Hospital. It will be premiering at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in the West Village this fall.

Aram Sinnreich is an associate professor and chair of communication studies at American University’s School of Communication. His new book, The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property, was released by Yale University Press in May.

Adrienne Truscott finished a performance at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art theater. THIS was a one-woman show written, directed, and starring Adrienne. She is slated to perform another show at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York in September.

Kate Gordon has joined Governor Gavin Newsom’s staff as the director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research—a think tank within the governor’s office—as well as senior advisor to the governor on climate policy. Her job requires her to commute to Sacramento from Berkeley, where she lives with husband Gino Segre, kids Julia, 12, and Jacob, 8, and dog Mochi, 2.

Jesse Hendrich serves on the School Leadership Team of his local public school, PS 9, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and is on the committee of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council. Last February, at the swearing in ceremony and “state of the district” address of New York State Assembly Member Walter Mosley, Jesse was given the Community Service Outstanding Achievement award for his work with both organizations (especially in the areas of public education and affordable housing).

Finally, for those who are not aware, our classmate Andrew Berends, Oscar-winning filmmaker died in March. His documentary Free Solo won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar earlier this year. Andrew’s first documentary Urk, about Dutch fisherman on the North Sea, was nominated for the International Documentary Association’s Pare Lorentz Award and was awarded the International Documentary Association Courage Under Fire award for his film, The Blood of My Brother, about an Iraqi family whose son was killed by an American patrol. Andrew risked his life to tell stories that needed to be told. I urge you all to read the obituary that detailed his life’s work at independent.co.uk.

Samera Syeda Ludwig | samera.ludwig@gmail.com

Caissa Powell | cdp2000@hotmail.com