CLASS OF 2005 | 2016 | ISSUE 1
Three Wesleyanites from 2005 are living together in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco: Gabe Prager, Smiley Poswolsky and Booth Haley. Gabe is finishing his fourth year of med school at UCSF, Smiley is re-publishing his book, The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, and Booth is working at a community dental clinic in Chinatown/North Beach, where he speaks Chinese every day, connecting to his collegiate academic identity. Amar Shibli and Kevin Haas, who both live nearby, stop by often, as well. And most importantly, Booth and his wife, Iris, are expecting a baby in July. They’re trying to decide if they should stay in their current apartment with Gabe and Smiley as surrogate uncles to their joy-bundle-to-be. . . wouldn’t that be a delightful situation?
Rachel Lindsay is back and settled in western Massachusetts, after what turned into six years(!) in Nicaragua. She finished a master’s in ecological design from the Conway School in June, and is working at a sustainable design firm in Greenfield, helping the Conway School with communications, and working just enough hours at local farms to retain her identity as a farmworker and keep her well fed. “It’s beautiful here; come visit!”
Sam and Henry White welcomed their first child, daughter Hazel Noa White, who was born on Thanksgiving morning. They’ve had post-baby visits from Wes friends, including Anna Talman Rapp and Amar Shibli. They are still living in Bozeman, Mont., and enjoying new parenthood.
Brian Yencho and Sandra Undis married in 2014 and live in Minneapolis, where Brian is an android developer and Sandra is a clinical psychologist. They are expecting their first child this summer.
Jess Firshein and her wife, Kerry Wallach ’02, are thrilled to announce the birth of their son, Zev Elijah Wallach, born Dec. 17, 2015. They now live in Rockville, Md., outside D.C; Jess is a senior manager at Accenture, working with government and nonprofit clients, and Kerry is an assistant professor of German studies at Gettysburg College.
Niv Elis is hosting the JPost podcast and writing about Israel’s economy for the Jerusalem Post. Katie Walsh lives in Los Angeles and is a freelance film critic for the LA Times, Indiewire, and the Tribune News Service.
Molly Catchen and Dave Ahl are happily living in D.C. Molly is a public defender in Baltimore County. Dave is working at The Washington Post, launching and managing digital ad campaigns. He and Adam Tuck produce a podcast, Waste of Time Machine, that is guaranteed to fill your heart with delight.
CPT Jesse Sommer is a military prosecutor with the Army’s 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. He was recently honored by his upstate New York hometown as the Albany County Citizen of the Month for his work with a range of community service efforts. In March, he and Blake Curry ’07—a former performer on his back-in-the-day WESU-FM comedy show—authored and released a parody hip-hop video, No Love for St. Patrick, thus finally blessing Earth with the Saint Patrick’s Day theme song it demands. Then, brandishing the swagger of alter egos developed back at Wesleyan, Blake and Jesse teamed up with Queens rapper Himanshu Suri ’07 to drop “Stand out,” a new single available now, wherever digital music is stolen. He remains grateful to Marcella Martinez Winearls for her dedication to the lifelong task of compiling Class Notes!
In October, Peter Hoy and Becca Mei ’07 were married at the City Clerk’s Office in Brooklyn. Peter’s sister, Elizabeth Hoy ’03, served as the official witness. Colin Gillespie ’07 played the guitar. Jake Hudson read a poem. Catherine Wiggins ’07 took the bus down from Ithaca. Peter is a manager at the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board, investigating police misconduct. Becca is a cataloguer in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art. They’re living happily ever after in Sunset Park.
Stonecutter Spirits, cofounded by Sivan Cotel, was included in Bloomberg Business in their “Six Winter Gins to Try Right Now”—bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-14/best-gins-for-winter-cocktail-recipes-and-bottle-guide
Marcella Winearls | marcellawinearls@gmail.com