CLASS OF 2004 | 2026 | FALL ISSUE

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Brian Hennessey writes in, telling us he’s living in Coconut Grove in Miami with his wife and daughter and enjoying the winters and hiding from the heat in the summers. On the professional side, “I’m working in strategy for Norwegian Cruise Lines, so any alums should reach out if they are interested in advice on a vacation. Also, I’m still the alumni coordinator for South Florida and welcome any and all alumni to connect.”

Ari Lev Fornari lives in West Philly with his partner and two kids (9 and 12). He has served as the senior rabbi at Kol Tzedek Synagogue for the past 10 years and hopes to do it for 10 more! He is a member of Rabbis for Ceasefire and has his first book coming out, The Path of Repair: Jewish Wisdom on Transforming Harm. Most importantly, he channels his love for Wes rugby as a neighborhood little league coach!

Jamal Cool tells us: “On May 1, 2025, my longtime partner, Tiffany, and I jumped the broom in the Shakespeare garden in San Francisco. We spent our first anniversary slowly touring the south and west of Sicily. Here we are in Gela near Agrigento.”

Twenty-two years after leaving the hallowed halls of Wesleyan, Brian McKenna is still refusing to get a “real job.” Instead, he doubled down on making things up for a living. Somehow, against all reasonable odds, this continues to work.

His award-winning music studio, BtOVEN MUSIC (www.btovenmusic.com), has evolved from a scrappy NYC sound shop into a global playground for music and storytelling. Recent highlights for his team include a song placement in Sony Pictures Animation and Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters (2025 Oscar, Best Animated Feature), original underscore for NBC/Peacock’s Kings from Queens (2025 Grammy, Best Music Film), immersive audio experiences for Disney’s Goofy360 (three Clio Awards), original songs for Winx Club, and campaigns for brands including Samuel Adams and MSG Entertainment.

In January 2026, Brian launched THE LEVEL (www.thelevel.world), a premium content studio combining emerging AI tools with traditional production craft. The company focuses on health care, life sciences, and purpose-driven storytelling, building on more than a decade of podcast and branded content work, including iHeart’s hit Symptomatic with Novartis, along with KOL conversations and executive storytelling programs for brands like Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca.

In other words, making scientists, executives, and politicians sound interesting. Apparently, the liberal arts degree experiment worked.

Away from the studio, family life remains his greatest production. Brian and his wife of 18 years, Carmen, a teacher and certified early-childhood Jedi knight, are navigating the beautiful chaos of raising two daughters as they head into kindergarten and seventh grade at Avenues: The World School.

And because every entrepreneur needs a hobby with questionable ROI, Brian’s legendary BtOVEN Beer Pong League (BPL) has officially gone corporate. The monthly tournament series is now sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery, bringing elite tossing, inspirational trash talk, and highly disputed championships to its BK taproom.

Julia Cohen’s new essay collection is Freak Lip, which published in September. Each essay focuses on an unsaid sentence, a sentence that lives inside the body but cannot be said out loud.

That’s about it for this edition, but as always, feel free to send updates my way at wes04classnotes@gmail.com.

Jenina Nuñez | wes04classnotes@gmail.com