CLASS OF 2001 | 2014 | ISSUE 3

Class of 2001, you never disappoint. The rest of the many notes I received are available on Wesconnect and will appear in the next issue, too.Nora Friedman writes the following: “I’ve been teaching violin in Brooklyn for the last 12 years (hard to believe). I’m now the assistant Suzuki violin department head at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and at the Thurnauer School of Music (in Tenafly, N.J.) and teach at the Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, N.J. I’ve been really, really lucky because I love what I do and find it so exciting to be part of shaping so many children’s futures. My dog and I also have a private studio at home and a few slots are opening up for the summer into fall. It would be so fun to work with the children of Wes alum! I start teaching Suzuki method violin at age 3-1/2.”Brenna Cothran lives in New York with wife Jasmine Ma, who is on the faculty of NYU. Brenna writes, “I work as a registrar for an art advisory firm that helps individuals and corporations care for their collections. Our first child, Sammy, is four and just started pre-K, and our baby son Max was born in April.”Aryn Kalson-Sperandio and her husband and kids spent the best August ever visiting family and friends on the East Coast. Now they’re back in western Canada, and back to work and school, which isn’t so bad either.Louisa Michaels is now the finance manager of Carnegie Robotics in Pittsburgh. Son Leon is 4 and thriving.Tracy Manaster writes: “I am thrilled to announce that my debut novel, You Could Be Home By Now, will be published this December by Tyrus Books. It’s set in a luxury retirement community whose regulations prohibit full-time residents under the age of 55. When a struggling resident, underwater on her mortgage and unable to relocate due to the nation’s ongoing housing crisis, is discovered to be raising her grandson in secret, the story—with the help of a teenage beauty blogger, a pair of young professionals dealing (badly) with a recent loss, and a retiree with reasons of his own to seek the spotlight—goes viral. The book takes on the fallout for all involved. My (presumably insufferable) 17-year-old self told my admissions interviewer at Wes that I wanted a book out by 35—looks like I made it just under the wire. Delivering on a 2001-vintage promise, my housemates at 40 Fountain (Ben Paradise, Emily Archibald, and Nicky Pessaroff ) all have characters named after them, and my husband, Marc Alifanz ’99, scored the dedication.”Jeffrey Lane finished his PhD this summer and just started a professorship at Rutgers University, in the School of Communication and Information on the New Brunswick campus. He is still living in Harlem with his wife, Emily, and now a pooch named Peanut as well.Dispatch from Kavi Reddy: “I left Boies Schiller in 2012 after about seven great years to go in-house at NBC Universal, where I worked as a lawyer, mostly on reality television for Bravo, Style, and Oxygen, and then on acquisitions for Syfy, Chiller, and Cloo. This past spring, I left NBC and am now on the tiny but mighty, two-lawyer legal team at Gawker Media LLC in New York. I love Gawker and love walking to work in Soho from my place on the Lower East Side.”Joanna Weaver writes, “I moved to Louisville, Ky., in the summer of 2013 and have just begun a PhD in experimental psychology at the University of Louisville. I study the cognitive and situational factors that affect learning and performance and conduct experimental research in schools. We welcome all visitors for Derby or at any other time of year!”Alex Gordon’s son turned 1 at the end of August, and Alex has started a new job handling internal investigations at Swiss Reinsurance Company in Zurich.Adam Goss writes, “My wife, Janice, and 2-year-old son, Joaquin, welcomed Amelia Paz Cruz Goss in June to our growing Texas family. She is happy and healthy! Also, I joined BHPBilliton in January as an exploration geologist working on our new Mexico team and preparing for bid rounds following Mexico’s historic recent denationalization of its energy industry. Looking forward to a somewhat cooler Houston fall and winter. If anyone’s in Houston we got a spare room and a pool!”Yvette Luxenberg and Jeff Rose bought their first house this June and their 2-year-old son Jasper still asks, “Are we going home to the new house?” when they pick him up from school!Amos Hausman-Rogers has left his life and job in the Bay Are and is traveling—and still checks his Wesleyan e-mail, by the way. His report: “This summer I visited the town in Poland where part of my dad’s family/ancestors lived untll WWII. I didn’t realize until I got there that I was the first person back there from the family since they left under quite unfortunate circumstances. Powerful and quite healing for me.”Jonathan Osler and Rose Cahn have this report: “March 28, 2013, we welcomed our second daughter, Aya Simone Osler-Cahn, into our family. Jonathan and I have both started new jobs in the past year. Jonathan is now director of the San Francisco Teacher Residency Program which trains new teachers who commit to work in San Francisco’s high needs schools. I received a Soros Justice Fellowship to start an immigrant post-conviction relief project, helping people vacate criminal convictions that would otherwise cause their deportation.”Ben Spatz recently moved to the UK to become lecturer in drama, theatre and performance at the University of Huddersfield. He also finished a book on embodied knowledge that will be published by Routledge in 2015. He and his partner have a baby, Caleb Reza, born March 1, 2014.

Best wishes to all of you.

MARA VOUKYDIS | maravee@gmail.com