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Happy summer, Class of 2002. Our fantastic 15th Reunion came and went. Overall, it was an incredible weekend. I want to give a special shoutout to my co-organizers on the planning committee who did an excellent job in recruiting our classmates to attend, especially co-chairs Suzanne Appel and Jamie Novogrod.
Suzanne relocated to New York City and is the managing director at the Vineyard Theater, an off-Broadway theater company dedicated to producing bold new plays and musicals. Jamie left his job at NBC News in NYC to relocate to Los Angeles where he is now the West Coast bureau chief for Vice News.
And thank you to the other organizers—Britton Boyd, who is the FBI supervisory special agent in charge over-the-counter terrorism programs in El Paso, Texas, and Kerry Holahan, who is the managing director of The Bridge Ensemble, a professional 16-voice chamber choir that explores the connection between pre-17th, late 20th, and 21st, century choral repertoire, and Heather Alderfer Abbott, who is the associate registrar at Yale Law School. Kerry also won an award for her service to Wesleyan at our class dinner!
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend of walking around campus, hanging out on Foss Hill, and attending various events and seminars (extra points for Alex Horwitz’s screening and Q&A for Hamilton’s America and Jamie Novogrod’s panel about fake and real news). I was very impressed by the next generation of Wesleyan students who offered astute observations about the college and the world outside of Wesleyan. It was great to see and meet illustrious alumni across all industries speak at seminars, receive awards, and interact with their classmates in inspiring ways.
The Foss Hill dance party was a lot of fun, as was our wonderful class dinner with retiring Professor John Finn in attendance (though our drinks reception could have used some more alumni in attendance). Some interesting observations only at Wesleyan: finding a pop-up tattoo studio operating out of a creative work space in Hewitt, a freshman making Turkish coffee for her friends out of the somewhat brand new kitchen in Butterfield C, the fact that Mocon was erased from Wesleyan history without any physical evidence for where it used to be, a fleeting appearance by the Douglas Cannon for the first time that I’ve ever been on campus.
We had a great class dinner, where we invited Professor Finn to attend. I had the opportunity to visit the new R.J. Julia Bookstore, Wesleyan’s new campus bookstore located in the heart of Middletown. While I will always miss Atticus and the black bean soup, the new bookstore is incredible and I think it will be a great bridge between the campus and the city, hopefully fostering new and positive interactions between the residents and the students. And in walking the downtown area, I was pleasantly impressed by the amount of new restaurants, boba shops, and stores (extra points to see our mainstays First and Last Tavern, Thai Gardens, and Tuscany Grill still thriving). And of course, a visit to Wesleyan isn’t complete without breakfast at O’Rourkes, which is still very tasty after all these years.
I also want to thank everyone who did attend from our class. While I am sure I am forgetting a ton of names, I wanted to give a shoutout to everyone:John Milioti, Amanda Gordon, Conor Flynn, Jamie Zibulsky, Scott Perceval, Rich Boatti, Heather Perceval, Dina Levi, Steve Scribner, Mia Unger, Nitika Nadgar, Nilaya Sabnis, Carlos Rojas, Dawn Papacena, Graham Rockwell, Dion Mueller, Heather Hominoff Woodley, RaShawn Woodley, Angie Schiavoni, Amanda Hansen, Evan Newell, Shawn Lemerise, Kevin MacDermott, Michelle Rabinowitz Carney, Jessica Weinstein, Amy Shapiro, Noah Levine, Noah Rauch, Allison Kennedy, Tarsah Dale, Hagar Berlin, Sara Lesin, Nicole Daley, Anne Thompson, Ghasi Phillips-Bell, Nina Laing, Anthony Rosario, Tadashi Dozono, and Alex Horwitz. Let us know if we skipped your name and we’ll get it up ASAP—and send some news!
Everyone seems to be doing great and I appreciate everyone attending—now onto our 20th Reunion!
Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com