CLASS OF 1993 | 2024 | SPRING ISSUE

Hi everyone! We have some exciting updates: a mini-Wesleyan reunion, a film, a political campaign, and a book. In the final notes, two friends and classmates (Karen and Jessica) write updates about each other. 

Julie Francis writes, “I was shocked to find other Wesleyan peeps hanging out in Santa Cruz, California, thanks to an alumni event at Stanford earlier this year. It has been a total joy to get to know my new Wes buds: David Lakein ’92, Julie Charles ’91 (aka Julie Arlinghaus), and Dan Partland ’92. We’ve eaten some great food together (Julie can cook!), drank some great wine, shared some great conversations about controversial topics, commiserated about online dating (THREE of us are single!), laughed, and thoroughly enjoyed the presence of other slightly wacky kindred spirits. Anybody else hiding out here in Santa Cruz? If so, reach out! David and I are considering putting together some sort of West Coast get-together for early 2024. julie@juliefrancis.com.”

Hadley Gustafson and Dan Kapelovitz, who were college sweethearts at Wesleyan more than 30 years ago, are back together! They recently went to New York, where Dan showed one of his films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. There they met up with various Wesleyan alums, including David Buchbinder ’90, John Wyeth ’92, Deirdre Simon ’90, Kendra Hurley, and Matt Spain ’95. Hadley and Dan currently live in Los Angeles, where Hadley works as a visual digital creator and Dan is running for district attorney. Hadley and Dan greatly enjoyed seeing Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson ’03 for their September Hollywood the Oral History book talk at UCLA. Many Wes alums from many generations were there as well.

Karen Powell writes, “Dr. Jessica Holden Sherwood, author of the book Wealth, Whiteness, and the Matrix of Privilege: The View from the Country Club, has been steadfastly challenging our notions of gender, race, and socioeconomic status since our time at Wesleyan. She’s no less making social change than I am, influencing both her professional community and her students. She has steadfastly challenged the social norms in a way that is authentic and powerful. Shout-out to her husband, Jesse Sherwood ’95, for 30-plus years of partnership. Wes alumni rock!”

Jessica Holden Sherwood writes, “When I arrived at Wes in 1989, the club water polo players announced they’d like to evolve from coed to a men’s team and a women’s team. With that, Karen Powell and I became co-captains of the new women’s team. Through the years, Karen’s athletic career has continued from Ironman competitions through Roller Derby and ice hockey, which she learned at Wes. Now working as a law professor in Melbourne, Australia, Karen played on Australia’s first LGBT+ ice hockey club. Her 20-year-old kid, Grace, is a professional athlete who is nonbinary. Grace and Karen have pressed for progress, respectively, in adding pronouns to IFSC athlete profiles and in adding a nonbinary competition category at their local and state levels. As for me? I’ve had small victories protesting when my kids’ elementary school had a ‘father-daughter dance’ and when their upper school softball field was no match for the state-of-the-art baseball field. Mostly I teach sociology, including a gender course this semester. I was proud to share the news from Grace and Karen with my students.”