Class of 2006 | 2014 | Issue 1

This is a column full of congratulations (and variations on the word) so I hope you won’t get tired of seeing it!

Congratulations to Stan Parish, whose first novel, Down the Shore, will be published by Viking in June 2014. The novel is about a promising high school student at a boarding school in New Jersey whose path to an Ivy League School and success is preempted when he gets caught selling drugs. Stan guarantees that it is a vastly different version of his Wesleyan honors thesis. The novel has received a great review by former Wesleyan teacher and acclaimed author Alexander Chee.

Speaking of creative congratulations, Anna Moench was awarded a fellowship in playwriting/screenwriting by the New York Foundation of the Arts. Anna’s plays have received rave reviews and have appeared at the Old Vic, 59E59, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Dance Theater Workshop. She’ll probably buy an island or two with the cash; I’d say go for Turks and Caicos.

In the same writing vein, congratulations are in order to Katey Rich who is now the Hollywood editor at Vanity Fair’s website, working out of New York City. Katey was previously editor-in-chief of the website CinemaBlend for six years. She promises not to give off any Miranda Priestly vibes!

Ronald Lim works in Singapore as an architect and regularly sees Sam Han, who now teaches sociology at Nanyang Technological University. He also goes on regular urban culinary excursions with jetsetting alums who fly in like Tokyo-based Takahiro Haneda, as well as U.S.-based alums Kingston Wong, Elizabeth Khoo, and Wilson Co.

Juan Sebastian Moreno graduated with a M.A. in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) from the New School University in January 2013. He is engaged to Enie Rosales Ramos; the wedding will take place in the Philippines in 2014. Ben Magarik is still D.C.-based, although he has been traveling a lot for his job at MSCI (ISS) to help companies improve governance practices and sustainability reporting. He had the rare of treat of dinner with Louis Caditz-Peck and Jesse Watson in Berkeley in November.

Daniel Dykes plans to finish his law degree at Harvard in May 2014, after which he’ll be working in corporate law in NYC. This spring, he will direct the Harvard Law School Parody, a musical comedy making fun of law school and life in general.

Congratulations to Becca Seely who got married to the delightful Abby Ferjak at Yale Divinity School in New Haven. Alix Sleight Warner, Sara Covey Ortiz, Aurora Maoz, and Molly Greenberg ’05 were bridesmaids. An amazing Wes crew was in attendance, including Diego Ortiz ’05, Phil Amidon ’05, Bettina Schlegel, Nona Willis Aronowitz, Sarah Gunther, Lizzy Cohen, Matt Ferrisi ’03, Kate Mitchell ’05, Daniel Rubin, and Maggie Starr. Currently, Becca and Abby are living the dream in Venice Beach. Becca is completing the final step in her ordination process to become a Lutheran pastor by serving one year as vicar of a church in Santa Monica.

Belated and huge congrats to Vanessa Meer who married Marc Schreiber at Beach Point Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., on Oct. 6, 2012. Wesleyan was well-represented by Andrew Beckler ’91, Leslie Shasha ’82, Amelia Geggel, Beck Straley ’07, Jaimie Dougherty, Michelle Atwood ’05, Zach Strassburger, Anna Pinkert, Astrid Hesse ’08, Rachel Schreiber ’05, Alan Witt, Stephen Hartley, Maya Wolf Hartley, Samuel Duncan ’05, Kate Thorpe, Kim Landry, Sharisse Kanet, Leah Stern, and Teague Hopkins, as well as their associated significant others. Vanessa and Mark are living in Jersey City, where she is an environmental consultant at a multidisciplinary engineering firm and Marc is on an interest-rate-products trading desk at Goldman Sachs.

Jessica Pearce married Adam C. Jonas ’04 on July 19, 2013, at a lovely outdoor ceremony at Bryant Park Grill in NYC. Wesleyan alum attendees include Emily Titterton, Kaylea Moore, Jenna Bonczewsk, Douglas Collins ’07, Molly Adams ’07, Jaime Wendel ’07, and Megan Willey ’07. Congrats and best wishes in 2014!

Congratulations to Rachel Berger, who gave birth to a son, Colin Ezra Jankelowitz, on Aug. 14 2012. Rachel lives in Brooklyn with her husband Ari Jankelowitz. Ilana Davis Sharpe and her husband Dan Sharpe welcomed their first child Lorelei Olivia Sharpe born on September 18, 2013. The new family of 3 greatly enjoyed their first holiday season together. Needless to say, congrats! And last but certainly not least, congrats to Tal Beery and his wife, Eugenia, who gave birth to a bouncing baby boy Abraham Manwelyan Berry on August 8, 2013.

I wish you all the best in 2014 and hope to run into you in New York City soon!

Calvin Cato
catocals@gmail.com