CLASS OF 2012 | 2019 | ISSUE 2

AhDream Smith wrote, “I was accepted into the Class of 2022 for the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s MFA acting program in conjunction with the Playmaker’s Theater Company. I will be heading there in the fall and am excited about this next chapter.”

Gemma Doll-Grossman completed her MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory. She lives in Los Angeles, working as a cinematographer.

Harry James Hanson is producing, directing, and styling photo/video shoots in Brooklyn. This spring, his photo series Legends of San Francisco, featuring drag elders, was published on Vogue.com.

Tasmiha Khan wrote, “I just completed my master’s in social impact and looking forward to next steps as a coach in the nonprofit sector and corporate world while taking on a new interest in writing.”

Han Hsien Liew received his PhD in history and Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University. He will be joining the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute as an assistant professor of arts and humanities this fall.

Nate Mondschein is doing production and recording work with artists Spencer  Hattendorf and Josh Smith. He produced the debut album Young and In Debt for his band Old Flame, released in May. He recorded the album with Andrew Oedel at Ghost Hit Recording and in his own studio, Echo Base. It was mastered by Andy Casella of Shape Recording. This fall, he’s releasing his debut self-produced solo album . . . And The Sky under the artist name Best Mann, also recorded at Echo Base and Ghost Hit and mixed by Andrew.

Matthew Figueroa is pursuing a poetry and spoken word career more seriously. He’s been featured at different NYC events and artist showcases. He piloted a creative writing poetry workshop which highlighted the therapeutic benefits of artistic expression as mental health. It was done at a couple middle schools and he’d like to get more on board this fall.

He also published his first poetry book Adolescence. His book “focuses on the anxiety and depression I struggled with in high school,” he explained. “I wanted people to know that they aren’t alone in the problems they face; that none of us need to strive for ‘perfection.’ And, most importantly, that healing becomes possible once you accept and talk about your demons. It’s a domino impact that empowers others, while silence only feeds self-destructive beliefs.”

2019 marked the tenth anniversary of David Wei, Noah Feingold, Peter Frank, Julian Silver, Phil Hall-Partyka, Kevin Walters, Jeremy Koegel, and Adam Ilowite’s first Warfish games, with Kevin introducing much of the eight to the website freshman year at Wesleyan. The group has played 300-plus games of Warfish almost nonstop and has met for tournaments in places like New York City and Cape Cod. As the eight have spread out around the country, Warfish has evolved to become an important way for the group to stay connected and acts as a welcome respite during the day-to-day.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2011 | 2018 | ISSUE 2

Hi, Class of 2011. Hope this finds you doing well! Lots of exciting things from our classmates.

Christopher Ceccolini and Jordan Gratch ’13 are thrilled to announce that they are finally engaged, eight years after first meeting at Wesleyan in the Alpha Delta Phi living room. They reside in Brookline, Mass., where Chris is a third-year doctoral student in counseling psychology at Boston College and Jordan is a third-year law student at Boston University. “We are really excited to start this next chapter of our lives together even as we juggle so many other life changes and responsibilities.” Chris hopes to have a completed dissertation proposal by their wedding in late 2019, while Jordan completed a summer associate position at Latham & Watkins in New York, where he will begin full-time in October.

Lindsey Davis writes, “I gained employment as a research associate handling rare books and manuscripts, largely dealing with abolition, African-American, and women’s history, as well as the transcendentalists’ and Lost Generation’s works.”

Austin Woolridge reports, “My company (playerslounge) that I started with Zach Dixon ’12 went through ycombinator, and we have raised around $2 million from funds and angels including: Comcast, RRE, Marissa Mayer, Strauss Zelnick ’79, and more. We also have the founder of Fanduel as a very close advisor.”

Simone Plummer writes, “I’m starting my second year at New York College of Podiatric Medicine; I graduate in 2021. I also got engaged to Evan Huggins ’10 last November! Mallory Cruz spoke at the UN for international autism awareness day back in April, specifically about the abuse of autistic girls and women.”

Corrina Wainwright reports, “I graduated from the Harvard School of Public Health with a master’s in health policy this May—although I finished coursework in December 2017. During the gap, I started a health equity consulting business, working on various projects with NYC agencies. My biggest client is the Center for Health Equity (CHE) in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. I’m working with CHE to add critical historical, political, and economic lenses to the social determinants of health approach. I’m excited to return to NYC but will miss my community and the social justice library at Harvard. I founded the library with strong inspiration from my time in the Center for African American Studies’ DuBois Library—taking Wes with me wherever I go.”

Thanks for the updates! Always nice to hear from everyone!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2018 | ISSUE 1

And just like that, we’ve entered into a new year. The days are long, but the years are short. Even in these short years, the class of 2012 is still foraging new adventures.

Andrew Dominguez is back in his hometown of Manila, Philippines. He plans to found a Wesleyan and NESCAC club in Manila. He hopes to bring the fun tradition of GOLD parties, NESCAC mixers, and Summer Send-offs to Manila (complete with free giveaways of buttons and flags and stickers, and pleas for donations to the alma mater). If anyone would like to help Andrew found the club, please reach out.

Just an ocean away from Andrew, Sarah Schorr is in graduate school at Cal State Los Angles. Upon graduation, Sarah will head off to D.C. to join her boyfriend.

Abaye Steinmetz-Silber is a work team leader at Gould Farm in the Berkshires.

Peter Frank and William Schragis live in Brooklyn. William is the national director for Barrell Bourbon and Peter is a co-founder of dev.to, an online community for programmers. John Snyder works at Vimeo in data analytics, and occasionally teaches at General Assembly. He also drums in a few Wes-originated music groups. Haley Baron received her master’s in food studies from NYU, focusing on sustainable food systems. Haley is joining the pineapple NY team, a collaborative community for women who care about food. John and Haley will be married in 2019.

Another Wesleyan couple who deserve a celebratory toast are Hannah Berkman and Luke Erickson. Hannah and Luke were married on Nov. 11 in Alexandria, Va. They were joined at the celebration by Casey Reed, Becky Baskin, Tom Oddo, Richard Leuchter, Matt Stinson, Sky Stallbaumer, Benjie Messinger-Barnes ’09, Jamie Sandra Messinger ’11, Julia Alschuler ’11, Lauren Goldstein ’11, Nick Scotto ’13, Alissa Santucci ’13, Justin Metz ’13, Ryan Sblendorio ’15, and Jane ’77 and Tim Klemmer ’77.

As for me, I will be ringing my own wedding bells with Derek Sellhausen (Skidmore ’12) next spring. Wishing the entire class of 2012 continued health and happiness.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2017 | ISSUE 3

As the Class of 2012 rounds out another year, they are proving to make a difference in the medical field.

JoAnna Bourain was awarded the National Health Service scholarship to dental school this year. She’ll begin at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry and will work for four years in an underserved community as a dentist. JoAnna says, “It was highly selective this year (3.8%); my Wesleyan experience definitely helped me to prepare for this experience.”

Lennox Byer is living in San Francisco and attending UCSF School of Medicine. Lennox was awarded funding for a clinical research fellowship. In 2018, after completing this fellowship, Lennox will return to the school of medicine to complete his final year of medical school and will be applying for residencies in neurology.

Katherine Mullins is in her last year of medical school at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and is applying to residency programs in the field of internal medicine.

Sunil Chulani graduated medical school this year and is a resident at Rutgers University hospital in New Jersey. With his busy schedule as a first-year resident, he still manages to make trips to NYC to see Wesleyan classmates.

Tasmiha Khan and Jisan Zaman are also continuing their impact. Tasmiha has returned from Bangladesh and is working as a maternal justice consultant for MomsRising. Tasmiha is looking for any lawyers who deal with religious discrimination cases in higher education. Jisan has gotten involved with grassroots progressive activism in his adopted hometown of Arlington, Va. Jisan is working at a small startup called Dynamo Technologies in the D.C. area. Despite moving jobs and apartments, Jisan has made it to all his Wes friends’ weddings.

Lila Becker is pursuing her MFA in (theater) directing at the University of Iowa. She has enjoyed meeting other Wes alumni in Iowa City and is acclimating to the earnestness of the Midwest. She is looking forward to traveling to Japan with former Wesleyan taiko professor Kaoru Watanabe in November. Her first production, a new play called bad things happen here, opened at the University of Iowa in November.

Congrats to Ernest Turner who started a new job as a senior Android engineer at Synchrony Financial in Stamford, Conn.

Hannah Berkman and Luke Erickson were married on November 11 in Alexandria, Va. They were joined at the celebration by Casey Reed, Becky Baskin, Tom Oddo, Richard Leuchter, Matt Stinson, Sky Stallbaumer, Benjie Messinger ’09, Jamie Sandra Messinger ’11, Julia Alschuler ’11, Lauren Goldstein ’11, Nick Scotto ’13, Alissa Santucci ’13, Justin Metz ’13, Ryan Sblendorio ’15, and Jane ’77 and Tim Klemmer ’77.

Finally, Abaye Steinmetz-Silber is living and working on Gould Farm in Monterey, Mass. Abaye shares, “If you’re in the Berkshires, hit me up!”

As for me, I celebrated my one-year anniversary at Bridgewater Associates and am looking forward to what the new year brings.

Wishing the entire class of 2012 continued success, health, and happiness.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

I’ll begin by congratulating all my fellow Cardinals on five years from the nest. I think I speak for all when I say that this time has gone by in a blink of an eye. It comes as no surprise that within these five years, our classmates have been busy changing the world around them.

Hannah Monk graduated with her doctorate in clinical psychology from William James College in Newton, Mass. Congrats Hannah!

Michaela Swee received her master’s and is going on to complete her PhD at Temple University’s clinical psychology program in Philadelphia, specializing in the research and treatment of adult anxiety and depressive disorders. She fills her spare time doing the voiceover for Hera, an intelligent computer operating system that runs the Haphaestus station. Michaela is also working on Wolf 359’s fourth and final season with fellow Wes alumni Gabriel Urbina ’13, Zach Valenti, Sarah Shachat, Emma Sherr-Ziarko ’11, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs ’11, Zach Libresco ’13, Noah Masur ’15, Michelle Agresti ’14, Scotty Shoemaker ’13, Ariela Rotenberg ’10, Alan Rodi ’12, and Jared Paul ’11.

Julian Silver is working in film and writing with Reiss Clauson-Wolf ’13. When not writing, he is also keeping the LA coffee market afloat with Reiss’ better half, Dana Levy ’12.

Adrian Rothschild is working at Nickelodeon on interactive preschool content for Noggin, which just launched as a revamped iOS app. Adam also started as the director of digital content for the Children’s Media Association, a nonprofit network of producers, writers, artists, and researchers in the children’s media industry.

Grace Ross is living the New York life as a literary agent at Regal Hoffmann & Associates. She recently moved to Brooklyn, and in her time away from reading, she sings in the Grace Church Choral Society.

JoAnna Bourain is starting dental school at the University of Minnesota in the fall. In four years’ time she will be JoAnna Bourain, DDS.

Jake Walkup is teaching at the middle school of his youth in Manhattan. When he is not shaping the minds of our future, he is coaching the school’s first Ultimate Frisbee team, which is vying for a championship in its debut year. Dan Verdejo and Gabriel Finkelstein are also teachers who teach math, writing, literature, science, and social studies classes, among other things. As a previous educator, I can say confidently that this is no easy feat!

Raghu Appasani is finishing up his final year of medical school in Massachusetts, but continues to make frequent trips to NYC to visit his old roommates from Wesleyan. He runs the MINDS Foundation, along with the involvement of many Wesleyan community members and spends as much time as possible in India.

Finally, Peter Frank, Stephen Nangeroni, Drew Hudson, Sam Tureff, and Bill Walen bested Alex Meadow, Robert Troyer, Malcolm (Mac) Schneider, and Zach Dixon in the championship game of their 4v4 soccer league. May the best team win!

Allegra Heath-Stout married Laura Heath-Stout ’11 in October, and has been enjoying married life in Somerville. Allegra runs a fellowship program at JOIN for Justice in Boston, training Jewish young adults in community organizing.

As for me, I am approaching my one-year anniversary at Bridgewater Associates and enjoying the East Coast summer. Wishing the entire class of 2012 continued success, health, and happiness.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2017 | ISSUE 1

Nathaniel Draper writes in, “The Syros International Film Festival will be held on July 14-19 in Greece. Now going into its fifth edition, the film festival was started by Cassandra Celestin ’13 during her senior year at Wesleyan, along with Jacob Moe (Pomona ’13). It was a self-funded endeavor the first year, and was subsequently joined by Aaron Khandros ’13 and myself, with the four of us making up the core organizational team.

“The festival has since grown to one of the most important art and film events in the region, and has earned recognition in the film world throughout Europe and further abroad. The festival is held every summer on the island of Syros, the capital of the Cycladic islands located just south of Athens, and embeds a rigorous curation of new and old films into many reconstituted spaces on the island, in open-air cinemas purpose-built for the experience. All of which is quite special, since the quality of the programming and the unique experience and community tend to turn guests into devotees who come back again and again.” You can learn more about the festival at syrosfilmfestival.org.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2016 | ISSUE 3

As many of you know, or perhaps some of you are in denial (like myself), 2017 marks our five-year Reunion. That’s right, it has been five years since that beautiful spring day on Foss Hill when we threw our caps in the air. Similar to time, the class of 2012 has not slowed down.

Alex Ketchum is finishing up her PhD in the department of history at McGill University, focusing on feminist restaurants and cafés in the United States and Canada. She coaches lacrosse and teaches in Montréal where she lives with her husky/lab mix, Bubbles. Laura Bliss is a staff writer for CityLab, the Atlantic’s urban affairs vertical, also based in Montréal.

In New Jersey, David Amrhein has been working at TAG Optics, a recently acquired startup spun out of research at Princeton University, making ultra-fast focusing liquid lenses for microscopes and laser systems. Also on the East Coast, Kenny Feder is in Baltimore doing his PhD in public health at Johns Hopkins. Kenny studies how parents’ mental health and substance use challenges can spill over and affect the well-being of children.

Down in Texas, Katie Silver is a support manager at Atlassian, a software company. She is getting married in this spring, and Benny Kaufman is officiating!

Jed Rendlemen is an independent naming consultant. While he works out of his hometown of Portland, Ore,. he partners with businesses around the world to help them create strategic, memorable brands.

Julia Mulhern just finished her PhD in geology at the University of Utah and is moving to New Orleans to work for Shell this fall.

Out on the West Coast, Henrik Cotran is a sector lead at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), based in San Francisco. SASB is chaired by Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor, and is developing sustainability accounting standards. Outside of work, Henrik can be found mountain biking, backpacking, skiing, or volunteering at a youth reading program in Oakland.

After working for a year in Denmark and nearly three in D.C., Adam Fishman is now enrolled in a master of environmental management degree program at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Kwasi Ansu ’09 and Nate Kaufman ’08 are in the same program.

After co-founding an independent record label in NYC called Par-ka Records, Charlie Hanna is now working at Paradigm Talent Agency to rebuild the brand partnerships department. You can check out his work in the IBM commercial featuring Stephen King. Charlie is not slowing down anytime soon. He is applying to MBA programs to continue building the knowledge and skills necessary to fulfill his aspirations of one day creating a business at the intersection of media and technology.

After beginning their romance in the basement of Psi U, Anna Brugioni and David Sedgwick finally got engaged. They’re also both at Stern Business School.

Kurt Lyn successfully graduated from Columbia Law and is gainfully employed as a lawyer. Erin Kelly received her MPH from Columbia and is working for the NYC government to improve health.

As for me, I am trapezing between NYC and Connecticut as I have started a new role with Bridgewater Associates in Connecticut. As always, wishing the best to the entire class of 2012!

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2016 | ISSUE 2

We are officially “graduating” out of being the “new” kids on the block and have made New York, Chicago, Boston, India, D.C., Maryland, Vermont and California our homes (just to name a few).

The class 2012 can find their fellow Cardinals embarking on the prestigious road of post-graduate degrees. Tess Minter will begin a MBA program at the University of San Francisco this fall. For the past four years, Tess has been working in data at Goodwill’s career services. Kenny Feder has just completed the first year of his PhD in public health at John Hopkins, and Robert Echeverria will also be pursuing a PhD this fall in cultural studies—critical theory at UC Davis, respectively.

It comes to no surprise that the class of 2012 is continuing to change the landscape of technology, social entrepreneurial, and the arts. In 2012 Connor Larkin moved to Bangalore, India, on a social entrepreneurship fellowship to work for a South Indian medical technology startup. For two-and-a-half years, he rode 36-hour trains up to Delhi on marketing trips, sampled dosas in 10 different Indian states, and led product launch and expansion in China. In early 2015, he (rather happily) landed back in Washington, D.C., to lead business development for the same company in Mexico, Canada, Central and South America, and most recently to oversee product FDA approval and launch in the U.S. Connor would love to connect with any Wes grads in the DC area!

Zach Valenti is well on his way to leaving his mark: He presented a TEDx talk last spring at the National University of Singapore to share his “insane” mental health awareness campaign—Project Uplift, uplift.is. In May, Zach announced his official Open Source launch at the annual conference of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Southwestern Pennsylvanian’s chapter. Zach is also involved in a few voiceover projects, one being Wolf 359 with writer/creator Gabriel Urbina ’13. Wolf 359 is a science fiction audio drama podcast, with cast and crew including: Sarah Shachat, Alan Rodi, Emma Sherr-Ziarko ’11, Michaela Swee, Scotty Shoemaker ’13, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs ’11, Zach Libresco ’13, Noah Masur ’15, Michelle Agresti ’14, Ariela Rotenberg ’10, and Jared Paul ’11. With more than 400,000 downloads, you may want to give it a listen yourself: wolf359.fm.

Transferring his skills to the tech world, Zach also lends his voice to the App Pillow Play and also serves as the director of video production at a Y-Combinator backed startup, One Month, where he works with Noah Masur ’15 producing online courses for the next generation of tech entrepreneur. To follow along on Zach’s many adventures subscribe to his YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/zvalent1.

Zach Dixon has also been making his mark on the tech sphere, with his social gaming company, Players’ Lounge. Collaborating with Austin Woolridge ’11 and Mark Murphy ’10, Players’ Lounge lets gamers play their favorite sports video games for money. Zach and his team recently placed third in UC Berkeley’s LAUNCH accelerator. Strauss Zelnick ’79 is an investor in the company and serves as an advisor.

Abaye Steinmetz-Silber is volunteering as a work leader on a residential therapeutic community in the Berkshires called Gould Farm.

Sarah Wolfe will join the East Coast alumni: She’s moving back to Vermont from Oakland, Calif., after traveling across the country and abroad to Iceland and Norway. Sarah is excited to start working as a clean energy advocate at VPIRG.

Lila Becker is leaving us Northeasters for Louisville, Ky.! Lila will be directing at Actors Theatre of Louisville and would love to connect with any Wesleyan folks in the area.

Tasmiha Khan is continuing her tremendous work with Brighter Dawns in Bangladesh. She recently was invited to have dinner with President Obama and reports that the meeting went really well and President Obama acknowledged the need for Tasmiha’s work with Brighter Dawns. When she is not busy making the world a better place, Tasmiha is planning her wedding and will be married this summer. Standing beside her with be Kim Muellers and Alejandra Olvera, who will be bridesmaids. Speaking of wedding bells, Hannah Berkman and Luke Erickson have recently announced their engagement! I know I speak for the entire class when I send a huge congratulations to Hannah, Luke and Tasmiha!

As for me, I am still working and living in the best city in the world, New York! Wishing continued success and even brighter futures to the entire class of 2012!

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2012 | 2016 | ISSUE 1

Happy 2016! It is hard to believe that this May will mark our fourth anniversary away from the Hilltop. I am proud to highlight some of our classmates who have been pioneers of social change by dedicating their life to improving the lives of others.

Noah Heau is living in Queens and works as a community health specialist at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center. The majority of his clientele are current and former injection drug users, many living with hepatitis C, HIV, and other unaddressed healthcare needs. Noah coordinates rapid testing and vaccination services, patient navigation services, and establishes linkages with community health clinics that are sensitive to the needs of marginalized populations.

Lena Solow and Katherine Wolf reconnected as members of Resource Generation. RG organizes young people with wealth and class privilege to work towards the equitable distribution of land, wealth, and power. Together they helped organize the NYC chapter’s fundraising efforts for It Starts Today Campaign to move resources to black-led black liberation community organizing efforts, which raised more than $1.3 million. Lena and Katherine continue to work together as chapter coordinators in NYC, and would love to talk to any interested Wes alums about RG!

Nathan Mackenzie is doing tremendous work with the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs.

Emily Brown is an MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is working on her thesis, a collection of poems. At the University of Iowa, Emily teaches an undergraduate literature course called Hybrid Forms, which incorporates works that defy genre boundaries. Emily also works as a projectionist at FilmScene, Iowa City’s only independent cinema.

Marjorie Romeyn-Sanabria started working for Audible, one of Amazon’s child companies that creates audio content. She says, “I never imagined I’d be working in tech, much less enjoying it!” Additionally, Marjorie met a wonderful man last winter and they are planning a small wedding for the spring of 2016. Lilah Sloane ’11 agreed to be one of her bridesmaids. Congratulations on two new beginnings, best wishes to you, Marjorie!

Many alumni, including myself, have followed Kennedy Odede’s journey since his days at 200 Church. This fall, Kennedy and Jessica Posner ’09 released their book, Find Me Unafraid. I was able to join the many Wesleyan alumni who turned up for the book launch on Oct. 13th in New York City. Kennedy and Jessica have unfolded the story of SHOFCO and their joint mission to improve education for girls and build infrastructure in one of the world’s poorest neighborhoods in Kenya. If you have not already, go onto Amazon and order this extraordinary and powerful book!

As for me, I am still working towards education equity in New York City and recently celebrated Teach For Americas 25th Anniversary.

Wishing the entire Class of 2012 all the best!

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu