Author: classnotes

I hope you are all well!

Please see updates from our classmates:

Zach Larabee is enjoying his new home in Springfield, Massachusetts, with Betsy, his fiancée, and their dog Roxy. When they’re not working their day jobs in the restaurant tech industry, they’re out enjoying the food and beverage scene of New England, or bartending at a local restaurant. If anyone wants to give or get any recommendations for amazing restaurants in New England, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Zach’s excited to spend his summer weekends exploring the golf courses around western Massachusetts and continue to beat Cameron Rahbar ’15 by only a few strokes during their monthly golf outings. They’re excited to celebrate a few upcoming Wesleyan weddings with loved ones and friends this summer and fall, as well as plan their own wedding in the near future!

Sarah Mi, Melissa Leung, Chiara Wabl, Kellyn Maves, Martin Malabanan, Giselle Torres, Taran Carr, Dacheng Zhao ’18, and Deborah Mi ’14 traveled to Puerto Rico to celebrate my wedding in my hometown of Ponce back in February! We even took a walking tour of the historic area of Ponce, led by Melina Aguilar ’10, through her tourism company, Isla Caribe. From Sarah: “It was an amazing time reuniting with old friends and a reminder that our alcohol tolerance is not what it used to be…!”

I am also excited to announce that I matched to residency in ophthalmology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque—which I found out about during the cocktail hour at my wedding! Please let me know if you are out there and would like to connect or have any advice or recommendations—they will be greatly appreciated. I can’t wait to spend (at least) the next four years in the Southwest, closer now to several Wes friends on the West Coast.

Stay well!

Mariam

Please write to your class secretary.

Hi 2014 classmates!

We hope that you are all finding time to take care of yourselves despite how hectic life often becomes. We hope that those who were able to make it to our 10-year reunion had a great time.

Anthony Calderon writes, “I should’ve never taken that flight to Madrid (thank you Dylan Turmeque ’13, MA ’14)! I’m celebrating 10 years of living in Europe. These days you’ll find me splitting my time between Madrid and Ibiza. Work-life balance.”

Happy 2024! Thanks to all my classmates who wrote in!

Anna Swartz is still enjoying life in Boston but was dismayed to see that not a single member of the Class of 2013 wrote in with an update for our last class notes. Hopefully she can rectify this with a small update: she saw the eclipse from her porch last week (partially). She also hopes to plant some herbs this spring and enjoy fresh mint and chives. All the best! Danielle Craig says, “Hey, Wes! I am living in Sacramento, California, (farm-to-fork capital of the world!) where I have been working as a public defender since finishing a clerkship in Anchorage, Alaska, after law school. Life is good and excited to see some Wes peeps at my wedding in June. Hope everyone is doing well!”

Andrew Pfeiffer and Kaya Ceci  got married in McMinnville, Oregon, in front of a beautiful crowd of family and friends, including a wonderful Wesleyan contingent present to celebrate. They are happily settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with their dog, Diego, and cat, Haku. Kaya is working at the Petey Greene Program, a national nonprofit network specializing in carceral education programming, and Andrew is working in student services at a charter school in North Philly and touring with his band, FeelFree. 

Erica Robenalt recently finished her PhD at Newcastle University in media, culture, heritage and has since published her first book, The Queer Museum: Radical Inclusion and Western Museology. It looks at the relationship between museums and LGBTQ+ communities. It is available on Open Access. Nick Orvis graduated from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale this past May with an MFA in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism and is continuing into the same program’s doctor of fine arts degree. He and Andrea Ruiz-Lopez are living in White Plains with their extremely cute dog, Brego. Evan Carmi is still living in northeast Portland, Oregon, with his partner, dog, and ever- growing urban garden. Recently he’s been enjoying skiing on Mt. Hood, gardening, and growing food, and cultivating creativity in work. Reach out if passing though! 

James Gardner was selected in January 2024 as the diversity, equity, and inclusion–health equity officer for the William S. Middleton Veteran Affairs Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. He oversees organizational health and development, strategic planning, education, and coordination for the health-care system covering over 40,000 veterans and 3,000 employees. James also oversees metrics to achieve maximum health equity outcomes and reduce health disparities for underserved and historically marginalized veteran populations. James has been at the Madison Veteran Affairs Hospital (VA) for nearly six years now, having led Madison VA’s DEI strategic planning, cultural and organizational transformation, data-driven health-equity projects, DEI Committee, Anti-Racism Action Team, and worked nationally on the LGBTQ+ subgroup to the VA secretary’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (I-DEA) Council, for which he received the VA secretary’s Coin of Recognition in June 2023. If you happen to be in the Madison, Wisconsin, area, feel free to connect with him over LinkedIn!

Matt Lichtash and Margot Sidman welcomed their baby boy, Adrien, in July 2023. He is happy and healthy, and Matt is already training him to compete in Wesleyan intramural sports. He has had the pleasure of spending time with many Wes ’13ers and ’14ers, especially David Nam ‘14. Zach Schonfeld recently published his second book, How Coppola Became Cage, a comprehensive study of Nicolas Cage’s early career and rise to fame. The Wall Street Journal described it as “delightful” and noted that “Mr. Schonfeld revels in all manner of minutiae.” Speaking of minutiae, Mr. Schonfeld is also collaborating with several other alums on a project to restore the Wesleying archives, which were destroyed in a tragic accident in January. Tobias Butler started a business making electronics in his Oakland apartment: Tuneshine is a live album art display that automatically shows the artwork for the music you play on streaming services on a tasteful lo-fi LED display. He’s sold more than 250 as of April and is planning on selling about 750 more by the time of his wedding in August. 

Prince Emenalo is now a father of two: a two-year-old son and his soon-to-be one-year -old daughter. Prince has been working in telemedicine since May 2023 and also went skydiving for the first time with a fellow alum, Galimah Baysah, for his 32nd birthday. 

Greetings from your Class of 2012 class notes secretary, Amanda Schwartz, in sunny Los Angeles.

Please enjoy the following updates from your classmates:

Raghu Appasani writes, “I’ve been living in San Francisco and running my own integrative/addiction concierge mental health practice while building a new start-up focused on the digital wellness movement. Excited to attend Rishi Shah and Ari Fishman’s ’13 wedding at the end of May!”

Kenny Feder writes, “I live in Baltimore with my wife and three-year-old son, who loves to read, make up songs, and go bird-watching. I’m an assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins. My research focuses on public health approaches to drug overdose prevention and I teach a graduate statistics course.”

Kirsten “Kiri” White writes, “I moved to sunny Santa Barbara, California, in November of 2022, and am still adjusting to the pace of life on the West Coast. In this season of my life, I both wholeheartedly welcome and obstinately resist slowing down, mindfully taking my time, and (literally) smelling the flowers (lush jasmine and orange blossoms).

            “I have been working as a wardrobe stylist for the past 10 years, and more recently, as an embodiment coach. In my coaching work I support curious and heart-centered people to reclaim their inner wholeness by connecting to their bodies, accessing radical self-love, and developing a shameless devotion to their pleasure so that they can thrive and lead vibrant and fulfilling lives.

            “For the past 18 months, I have been immersed in a somatic love, sex, and relationship coaching certification with the VITA™ method. The program has been personally and professionally life-changing, challenging, liberating and a lot of fun.

            “Dancing around in the sun, doing yoga, drinking copious amounts of carbonated beverages with friends, and belly laughing are still four of my favorite activities.

            “If you’d like to connect, drop me a line! Kiri@stillemergingcoaching.com.”

Joyce Chung is the curator at Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. Her curatorial projects focus on Asian diaspora art, new media art, performance, and intersections between feminism and visual arts. Joyce is interested in exploring the complexity of identity and representation through the lens of the politics of place. Her most recent curatorial works include Eiko Otake: I Invited Myself vol.III and The Body You Want, a group of six Asian and Asian American artists exploring their queer identity. Her upcoming exhibition, Dream House: Inside Music + Video, will highlight the shifting roles of music video as a creative form of art. The show will be on view from April 26 through August 3.

She has worked at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, Kukje Gallery in Seoul, Hyundai Card in Seoul, and Performa in New York. Joyce studied art history at Wesleyan and the University of Chicago.

Hi, Class of 2011,

Hope you’re doing well. Fun additions to our class below!

Allie Altman (née Diamond) is living in Berkeley with her husband, Eli, and just welcomed their daughter, Josephine, in the fall of last year. She graduated with her PhD in clinical psychology in 2022 and is currently seeing patients and doing research as a psychologist at UCSF.

Donovan Arthen writes, “This January my wife and I welcomed our son, Avenn, into the world!”

Congratulations, Allie and Donovan!

Best,

Allie

Greetings, Class of 2010! Just two updates to share for this edition:

Shannon Sun-Higginson and Andrew Murphy live in Manhattan with their one-year-old daughter, Kira, and eight-year-old cat, Minerva. Shannon is currently producing two episodes of a true crime docuseries for Hulu, while running her independent production company, Shoes Off
Media. Andrew is in the third year of his psychiatry residency at Columbia Presbyterian, where he is currently doing research as a Leon Levy scholar in neuroscience. Shannon and Andrew recently took Kira on her first flight to New Orleans to introduce her to her uncle, Julien Burns.

And in baby news, Jonathan Killeen and his wife, Alisha, welcomed their first child—and future Cardinal—Kennedy Sterling Killeen on July 22, 2023. Congrats, Jon and Alisha!!

Thanks as always to those who contributed and, as always, feel free to pass along notes anytime at DavidALayne@gmail.com or dlayne@wesleyan.edu.

Sara Beth Hoffman and Matthew Podolin live in San Francisco and welcomed their daughter, Eva, in February. Their sweet baby arrived three weeks early and likes her panda stuffed animal and lullabies.

Sadly, there are three passings to report: Chris Goy passed away on October 21, 2023;  John Harding ’10, who started with our class, passed away on December 7, 2023; and Alicia Garrison passed away on February 15, 2024. Links to their obituaries can be found online in Obituaries.

John McNeil has been writing science fiction stories for the past few years—visit johnmcneil.me/writing—and is happy to share that his story, “Decision Trees,” was published in the March/April 2024 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact.

Marianna Foos writes, “Xue Sun and I did not see the Northern Shrike that was hanging around Middletown in February, but we tried really, really hard and it was really, really cold.”

And finally, I am looking to step back from the role of Class Notes secretary after nearly 15 years. I’ve loved being the first person to hear of all the exciting doings of our class and exchanging emails with old friends and acquaintances. Perhaps someone else from the Class of ’08 is willing to step in? If so, please email me!

The Class of ’07 continues our journey! Lauren Ogden had her second kiddo in the fall and took more than two months to name him (in Vermont you get six months). She’s working part time at the local critical-access hospital and long-term care facility doing infection prevention and control. She’s on the board of a local nonprofit that offers teen and young parents the resources and skills they need to raise healthy families. She goes to cheer for Wes whenever she can at Middlebury sporting events. 

Himanshu “Heems” Suri is very grateful for his soccer and birding group chat with his Wesleyan family: Sara Kim, Alex Magnin, Jared DiMartini ’09, Josh Stephens, and Andre Sternberg. He released a new album, LAFANDAR, on February 16, and another album, Veena, released on May 31. This year he launched Veena (https://veena.nyc), a magazine and lifestyle brand connecting New York with New Delhi. Three times a year Veena drops new editorial and products across “Sounds, Wears, and Naturals.” Heems also started teaching about music tech and global markets at NYU. 

Dawid Wiącek is finally getting around to publishing his book this summer: What My Dog Taught Me: Lessons about Careers, Networking, and Yes, Even Resumes. After a rather lonely year without a dog, he is starting to think about rescuing another pup (but, let’s be honest, the rescuing is mutual/two-way). He is blessed and grateful to visit his 36th country this year, and if the universe allows, he’ll live to 100 and will visit 100 nations. He is currently learning French, polishing his Spanish, and perfecting his Polish, and avoiding Mandarin yet again. He gave up refined sugar for Lent and it was the single best health decision he’s ever made (ask him about it). Dawid is excited for the Summer Olympics! If anyone reading this wants to meet up in person (Zoom is so last year!) in the NYC area, whether to watch the Olympics or just catch up, please hit him up.

As of May 2024, Tori Mair is starting her own law firm with her longtime law partner, Jessica Gray. The firm will be called Santoro & Gray and will be located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Scout James has joined the Groundlings Sunday Company.