Author: Randi Alexandra Plake

Greetings class of 2009! We have some exciting updates from our classmates!

Brian Studwell graduated with a master of human-computer interaction and design from the University of Washington and jumped down the coast to work at Ravel Law, a Bay Area startup building tools for legal research. Having spent several years in the Pacific Northwest and originally hailing from New York, he has yet to come to grips with Californians’ general cheerfulness.

Aviva Tevah just graduated with an MPA from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, and is working for the City of Philadelphia, coordinating the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition, which brings stakeholders together to share information and resources and develop city-wide systems solutions to reduce recidivism. Aviva is hoping to see a lot more of Elana Baurer now that she is done with school!

Katie Shelly and Jean Willoughby ’08 write in with exciting news of their forthcoming book from Chronicle Books, due out in bookstores later this year (but is already available for pre-order online). Titled Nature’s Remedies: An Illustrated Guide to Healing Herbs, the book was written by Jean, who has studied and grown medicinal plants for several years, and illustrated by Katie, whose previous book, Picture Cook, is an eclectic cookbook whose recipes are explained with pictures instead of words.

In the meantime, Katie will complete her MA in experience design at Hyper Island in the UK this summer. She’s planning her next career adventure in design thinking and innovation consulting. Jean has worked for the past four years at the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) as a project director and was recently promoted to communications manager. She looks forward to finishing up an advanced herbal medicine program at the Herbal Academy of New England, premiering a new documentary film that she is co-producing called Under Contract, and growing lots of medicinal and culinary herbs in her garden this year.

Seth Halpern recently founded 1healthy.world, an angel-backed HealthTech venture developing mHealth solutions like chatbots for medicine.

Brittany Delany is enjoying desert life in Greater Palm Springs, and working in the arts and culture sector: “Excited to be continuing dance collaborations this summer and fall with Sarah Ashkin ’11, Samantha Sherman, Aaron Freedman ’10, Khalia Frazier ’07, Chelsea Smith ’07, and Allison Hurd ’11.”

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Happy summer, Class of 2010! See below for our classmates’ most recent happenings, but first, a few notes that failed to make it into the last issue:

Rachel Shopper “teaches nature connection and primitive skills in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. When not building friction fire or foraging for native medicinals, she’s associate poetry editor for Orison Press, which publishes spiritual literature from a variety of perspectives.”

Tara Kelton updated us that the last year has been rather exciting. In August 2015, Tara was promoted to supervising producer at Brave New Films to run the shorts department. In November, BNF asked the shorts department to help finish the feature film they’ve been working on, and Tara co-produced said film, which was released this year and is called Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA.

Katherine Kitfield Bascom has a (relatively) new position as the marketing director at Solace New York, a CrossFit and gymnastics training facility in Manhattan. “She’s flying high as an aerial performer, managing other business ventures including a B&B, and volunteering with the IRC.”

As for our more recent updates, Julie Huang graduated from NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine this May, and she’ll start a residency in internal medicine at Winthrop University Hospital. Before that, however, Julie is taking a trip to Havana.

Chloé Bolton, a first-time class note provider, has this to share: “For the last two years I’ve been working with an ayahuasca shaman and Umbanda priestess in Brazil, healing myself, developing my mediumship, and opening to the incredible wisdom and light of ayahuasca. Now I am becoming a therapist within the group, helping people from Brazil and all over the world. We will soon be starting the construction of our eco-village and healing center!” Chloé invites all to pay her a visit soon!

Chiara Di Lello recently completed her master’s in childhood general and special education at Bank Street College of Education in NYC. In the fall, Chiara will be teaching third grade at Compass Charter School in Brooklyn.

Craig Ewer adds that he “moved to Brooklyn last year to be with every other Wesleyan graduate.” He still works at Uber.

Greg Hurd earned his PhD in geology at the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on sedimentology and stratigraphy. Greg also got married to the love of his life, Marlo Gawey!

Hilary Burke also has marriage news: “On a sunny day in June, Hilary Burke married AJ Chan ’11 at Wesleyan. The newlyweds enjoyed their big day with a very Wesleyan wedding party including Matt Burke ’07, Steve Cooper, Allie Southam ’11, Tim Morley ’11, and many other Wes attendees. They plan to send their firstborn to Wes, Class of 2041.”

Lonny Blumenthal and Cate Haring took their special day in May to the West Coast, where a beautiful California sunset in Santa Ynez Valley saw them married in front of a diversity of Wes alums including Nick Ajello, Bo Pratt, Colin Campbell, Ram Sivalingam, Gavin Brennan, Gina Yeomans, Nate Green ’09, John Harding, Jon Killeen, Dan O’Brien, and many more (whom I’m sure will let me hear it when they see I left them out of this note). Cate graduated from medical school at George Washington University and will be starting her residency at University of Michigan in otolaryngology—head and neck surgery.

In the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, the Cardinal marriage tradition continued, where Matt Ward and Erin Fitzsimmons were married in a beautiful ceremony in Stowe. Fellow Cardinals sharing in the festivities included yours truly, pretty much everyone in attendance at Lonny and Cate’s wedding, Woody Redpath, Eliza Newman, Sarah Hoefle, Anika Fischer, Russ Follansbee ’09, Field Yates ’09, Nick Hayes ’09, Meredith Holmes and Casey Simchik and more.

Jeffrey Beck married his beautiful wife, Caroline Trottier, in a rambunctious ceremony in Montreal. Toasting to the newlyweds, in full black tie garb, were myself, Tim Archibald, Sam Robinson, Tony Christiano, and Beth Kenworthy. Jeff used the exact same dance moves with Caroline on his wedding day that he tried to teach me in Clark Hall freshman year. I guess you just don’t mess with what works!

As always, I hope everyone is doing well. Chime in any time via e-mail or on WesConnect!

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

So great to see so many of you at our 5th Reunion. It was a huge success, with more than 300 members of our class making an appearance! Thanks for those who contributed this cycle; the class is really up to some great things!

Margaret Aldredge writes, “I just graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU with a master’s degree in art history. I will also be getting married this summer and look forward to seeing several Wes alum at the wedding.”

Allie Lynch and Ross Shenker both finished their first years of graduate school this past May. Allie is getting her MBA at University of Virginia Darden School of Business and will be working for Microsoft in Seattle and exploring the West Coast this summer. Ross reports, “I just completed my first year at the University of Louisville for my master of fine arts in acting. I was fortunate enough to work with the casting director at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville this past semester. This summer I will be the education director at Timberlake Playhouse in Northern Illinois.”

Maddy Harrington writes, “I was sorry to miss Reunion; it looked like a ton of fun. I stayed in D.C. that weekend for my law school graduation. This summer I’m prepping for the bar and if all goes well I will be working in NYC in the fall”

Christopher Ceccolini is thrilled to announce that he and his partner, Jordan Gratch ’13, are moving to Boston this fall to pursue their graduate careers. Chris just completed his master’s degree in psychology at Columbia University, and is starting his PhD in counseling psychology at Boston College. There, he will be working with Dr. Paul Poteat, researching the effects of gay-straight alliances on LGBT youth mental health and resilience, in Massachusetts schools. Jordan will be starting his law degree at Boston University, and the couple will be living in Brookline, right off of Beacon Street!

AJ Chan married Hilary Burke ’10 at Wesleyan in the Memorial Chapel with a beautiful reception on Andrus Field on June 11, 2016. Lots of Wes alums were in attendance to help them celebrate the special occasion.

Lauren Mandell was selected by the Millenial Trains Project to join their 2016 journey in August from LA to Detroit. She will be implementing her project, Deal Her In, in the five cities where the train stops: igg.me/at/deal-her-in-2. You can also follow her journey @deal_her_in.

After spending the last three years at Facebook working across product, analytics, and partnerships, Alison Cies recently co-founded Decovo, an online destination for art and design, with her husband, Henry Mori. Alison writes, “If you’re an artist, designer, or maker and are interested in having your work featured on Decovo, please reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks again to everyone for making our first Reunion such a success and keep the contributions to class notes coming! Go Wes!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Mateusz Burgunder now works at Accenture in Switzerland and continues to enjoy making sense of numbers.

Adin Vaewsorn is a sexual health counselor, STI tester, and case manager for HIV-positive clients at Boston Children’s Hospital.

John Pacheco is operating out of Boston Children’s Hospital as a tiny cog in the enormous machine that is NIH-funded clinical research, hoping against hope that wasting two years of his life in this farm system will actually pay off and allow him to entry to medical school in 2017.

Kate Weiner is living in Boulder, Colo., and working with Nicole Stanton, on Loam, an environmental arts organization that publishes a biannual magazine as well as coordinates workshops on arts, activism, and outdoor adventuring. With Lily Myers, she is the co-founder of The Shapes We Make, a site for exploring holistic feminism. Lily and Kate are at work on their first book.

Sara Guernsey left CBS in June to attend UCLA to get her MFA as a part of the UCLA Television and Film Producer’s Program.

Shortly after graduation, Ibironke Otusile headed to Lagos, Nigeria, to conduct a water sanitation service project. She interned with the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency and Lagos State Water Corporation, working in their microbiology lab and traveling to different water sites to learn about the water purification process. Ibironke also taught a class of about 100 students at Opebi Senior Grammar School, in Ikeja, Lagos, about the current water in crisis in Lagos and how to prevent further damage to Lagos’s water source. Currently, Ibironke is in Queens, N.Y., working for New York City Health and Hospitals on Rikers Island, a jail complex. Here, she works in the medical records department serving the underprivileged jail population of New York.

Scarlett Perry has been in Beijing at Elite Scholars of China as a college counselor. This past application season, she helped guide eight Chinese high school students through every step of the process. Her role varied from teacher, to mentor, to friend. A couple weeks ago her students decided on which U.S. university/college they’ll be attending this fall, and she’s very excited for what they’ll accomplish in their four years abroad. While there have been many highlights to the job (and also to living in Beijing), what she values most from the experience is the opportunity to have been a part of this important period in her students’ lives.

Matthew Lynch has been completing a one-year MS healthcare management program at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He is the committee leader for the most active organization at Carey (Healthcare Business Associate), he is heavily involved in administrative school marketing and branding efforts, and he participates in national business case competitions. He recently received the “Carey Brand Ambassador Award” for advancing and promoting the brand of the business school in an outstanding way. After graduation this August, Matt will be moving to Pittsburgh to start as a healthcare consultant for Highmark Inc. in the data analytics and informatics department.

Jessica Seidman will be attending the University of Connecticut School of Law this fall. She hopes to pursue a career in sports and entertainment law.

Andrew Yin will attend Weill Cornell Medical School this fall and is very excited to be moving to NYC. He’ll be sad to give up coaching baseball, working at Sibley Hospital, and spending time at home in DC, but he is ready for this next adventure!

Since graduation, Dylan Niehoff has been an account executive in the digital client services department, at Epsilon, a marketing agency. He recently began a second job as the digital marketing director for a start-up, Way of Life Athletic Co. (Wola-Co) out of a WeWork lab in downtown NYC

Alissa Myer writes: “I will be attending the USC School of Social Work to concentrate in military social work with a focus on PTSD and reintegration for veterans and their families. During my time off from school, I’ve been occupied with a collection of volunteer and paid positions. I’ve been volunteering at a therapeutic preschool and the Veterans Administration, I was hired at a mental health and addiction recovery center, and I am a piano and homework tutor as well as part-time hostess.”

Katherine Lu continues to teeter between the illusion of being a recent post-grad and the wonders of adult life. Currently working as an office manager at an IT consulting company in San Francisco, you can often find her at the newly opened SFMOMA or reading in Erik Islo’s living room. She welcomes new friends and new adventures.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Newly equipped with Wesleyan diplomas, the Class of 2016 continues to venture into post-grad life. We’re traveling to new cities, signing our first leases, and getting used to no longer wondering how many meal points we’ve got left.

Miranda Haymon is enjoying time with her family at home in Boston before moving to Berlin, Germany, for the summer. She will be taking on this adventure with Lynn Ma and Russell Thomas ’17. Miranda also plans on meeting up with a lot of other alums while there. Afterwards, she’ll head to D.C., to be the directing fellow at Arena Stage.

Matthew Siegelman, doing cognitive neuroscience research at MIT, has moved into a house with a cat.

Celia Joyce is traveling around Europe for the summer, visiting 10 countries and 19 cities throughout her adventures.

Melissa Leung is prepping to take her driving exam, and also au pairing in Barcelona and Istanbul this summer. In the fall, Melissa will be traveling to Southeast Asia before moving from New York to D.C., where she will be joining IBM as a consultant in the public sector.

Bulelani Jili will be a member of the 2016 class this fall at the Yenching Academy, an elite interdisciplinary graduate leadership program at Peking University in China. The academy hosts a program designed to cultivate global leaders with broad critical thinking skills and a cultural understanding of China. Bulelani is excited for this opportunity, and believes that this experience will greatly add to his understanding of politics and its ills, and also to his passion for crafting concrete public policy solutions, especially for a geopolitical landscape that continues to shift increasingly towards China.

Madeleine Junkins is a research associate in the neuroscience department at NYU Langone Medical Center. She’ll be moving to Brooklyn with Nina Stender and Alyssa Glanzer, and is excited to meet up with Wes alums in NYC!

Ellen Paik moved to Manhattan and started work in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs. Ellen is still getting used to the bustle of New York City, but enjoys the abundance of delicious pizza, New York bagels, and fellow Wes alums. Ellen also continues to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack on repeat.

Thank you to those who wrote in! Hope to see many of us during Homecoming Weekend later this fall!

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu