CLASS OF 2011 | 2021 | ISSUE 1
Hi Class of 2011, thanks for everyone’s contributions. Lots of great updates including announcements of growing Wes families! Congrats to everyone!
Joe Giaimo and his wife, Emily, welcomed their daughter, Siena, back in August! They’re enjoying every second with her and can’t wait to get her to campus soon for her first football and baseball games!
Alyssa (Bogdanow) Arens is living in the suburbs outside Boston and working in philanthropy at the One8 Foundation. Her day-to-day portfolio is focused on Jewish community engagement, Israel education, and combating anti-Semitism, though in the early months of the COVID crisis, she also helped support the MA COVID-19 Relief Fund. Alyssa and her (non-Wes) husband had a baby daughter, Eleanor, in July 2020. Alyssa includes, “she was born about 10 days before Allie and Katie Rowan had their son, and we’ve had an incredibly active and helpful Wesleyan new moms text thread ever since. Eleanor is looking forward to toddling around Foss in the adorable little Wes outfits her 76 Lawn uncles and aunts sent her—hopefully at our 10 year reunion, if it happens!”
In other good news, Joella Jones tell us, “I graduated from Columbia Law School in May and am now practicing at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP in New York City. My husband and I are also expecting our first child, due in April.”
Ameen Beydoun (Film Studies) writes—“Publishing my first graphic novel about a young African girl that immigrates to the Middle East and faces off against monsters and shawarma. Check out the Indiegogo fundraiser and consider pre-ordering your copy of Habibti Pada for yourself or a young person you love!” Ameen is currently living in San Diego, California. Since graduation Ameen was product manager for EdTech Company in Nairobi (2018–2020), launched a solar refrigeration start-up in Dakar, Senegal (2018) and received an MA/MBA from Middlebury Institute of International Studies 2016–2018. Ameen was an English teacher at Peace Corps Comoros and Libera in 2015–2016 and 2013–2014, respectively.
Cheryl Chitty Tan started pushing singing lessons like crazy during her lockdown and is now an established vocal coach, which helps her choose projects. She wrote lyrics to a musical called The Monster in the Mirror fulfilling a bucket list item. It’s a Birdman meets High School Musical one-take film filmed in a black box; please watch it! She was briefly on Westworld Season 3, episode 1 with Aaron Paul, and is creating a solo show aiming for Australia. She started playing D&D and has been enjoying reconnecting with Alpha Delts. She wants to break into Los Angeles but maybe after things have improved. She hopes everyone will help each other. @cherylchittytan on Instagram.
Chris Ceccolini writes, “I am excited to be moving to New York City this summer to begin my clinical psychology residency at NYU Langone—Bellevue Hospital Center. I’ve missed New York while working on my counseling psychology PhD in Boston these last five years, and am looking forward to setting down permanent roots. I’m coming home!”
Ruby Lin is a country HR manager for Hong Kong and Taiwan at Hyphen Group, and Nigel Stacey wants us to still know he is still related to Arthur Stacey ’13.
Mallory Cruz includes, “Recently, I wrote a piece for a book being published on March 14 this year. The book is called Sincerely, Your Autistic Child, and it’s an anthology of letters autistic adults wrote for parents of autistic children about our own childhoods. It’s so those parents can read it to consider how to approach and think about their child. I’m sure the book description on Amazon explains it better though.”