Author: Randi Alexandra Plake

Hi, Class of 2011. Hope this finds you doing well! Lots of exciting things from our classmates.

Christopher Ceccolini and Jordan Gratch ’13 are thrilled to announce that they are finally engaged, eight years after first meeting at Wesleyan in the Alpha Delta Phi living room. They reside in Brookline, Mass., where Chris is a third-year doctoral student in counseling psychology at Boston College and Jordan is a third-year law student at Boston University. “We are really excited to start this next chapter of our lives together even as we juggle so many other life changes and responsibilities.” Chris hopes to have a completed dissertation proposal by their wedding in late 2019, while Jordan completed a summer associate position at Latham & Watkins in New York, where he will begin full-time in October.

Lindsey Davis writes, “I gained employment as a research associate handling rare books and manuscripts, largely dealing with abolition, African-American, and women’s history, as well as the transcendentalists’ and Lost Generation’s works.”

Austin Woolridge reports, “My company (playerslounge) that I started with Zach Dixon ’12 went through ycombinator, and we have raised around $2 million from funds and angels including: Comcast, RRE, Marissa Mayer, Strauss Zelnick ’79, and more. We also have the founder of Fanduel as a very close advisor.”

Simone Plummer writes, “I’m starting my second year at New York College of Podiatric Medicine; I graduate in 2021. I also got engaged to Evan Huggins ’10 last November! Mallory Cruz spoke at the UN for international autism awareness day back in April, specifically about the abuse of autistic girls and women.”

Corrina Wainwright reports, “I graduated from the Harvard School of Public Health with a master’s in health policy this May—although I finished coursework in December 2017. During the gap, I started a health equity consulting business, working on various projects with NYC agencies. My biggest client is the Center for Health Equity (CHE) in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. I’m working with CHE to add critical historical, political, and economic lenses to the social determinants of health approach. I’m excited to return to NYC but will miss my community and the social justice library at Harvard. I founded the library with strong inspiration from my time in the Center for African American Studies’ DuBois Library—taking Wes with me wherever I go.”

Thanks for the updates! Always nice to hear from everyone!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

The Class of 2014 still continues to shine. Take a look at their updates: Sarah Burkett has acted in multiple short films with a handful of other projects. Her most recent role was the lead in the feature film, Phaedra. Phaedra was one of five projects selected for Robert Rodriguez’s show, Rebel Without A Crew: The Series, based on his book of the same name documenting his experience creating his first film, El Mariachi. Phaedra had its world premiere screening at a special press event during SXSW. The project has been submitted to film festivals and will be featured on the El Rey Network later this year. She and her two crazy cats will be moving from Houston to Los Angeles this fall to continue acting.

A little blurb on the series: “The series coincides with the 25th anniversary of Rodriguez’s groundbreaking film, El Mariachi, which he made for just $7,000 without a crew, across just 14 days of filming. In the show, Rodriguez gives five independent directors the same amount of time, and the same amount of money, with a few advantages of having the legendary director involved (gear, costumes etc.), to make a brand-new feature film.”

When not at her day job at Ballet Hispánico, Cynthia Tong is a producer for two Wesleyan-related projects: If Sand Were Stone, a new musical created by Carly Feinman ’16 and Cassie Willson ’17, and choreographed by Nora Thompson ’15, which is making its off Broadway premiere at the New York Musical Festival in July; and Reflux, a new play written by Carly Feinman ’16 and directed by Miranda Haymon ’16, which is premiering at the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival in August.

Simon Riker’s NYC premiere of Me Prometheus: Caveman Love Story was a success. The three-night run at the New York Theatre Festival was extended to four based on strong ticket sales; ultimately every performance sold out. The festival nominated it for Best Musical Score, and leading lady, Korra O’Neill, for Best Singer. Simon is a product manager at Axial and is always happy to connect and talk tech and startups. This summer, he will be traveling to England as a staff singer with the Christ’s Church Choir of Rye, N.Y., where he sings weekly with Nathan Repasz ’14.

Josh Krugman performs year-round with the Bread and Puppet Theater (B&P), touring nationally and internationally, and spending summers in residence at B&P’s farm in Glover, Vt. He encourages Wes alumni to come up to enjoy a weekend of performances in the summer, and to look out for B&P performances in a city near them. Josh is also B&P’s booking manager, so if you’d like to bring this radical theater company to a venue or institution near you, reach out to him.

Jeremy Edelberg is living in Hong Kong and working at Myriad Asset Management, a Hong Kong-based multi-strategy hedge fund. “I welcome all to drop me a line if they ever find their way out to HK!”

Since graduation, Leo Liu has been living in D.C. and working in the progressive election movement. He’s the lead scientist at Analyst Institute, where he runs randomized experiments with progressive groups to learn about how the movement can win more elections. He lives with Emma Golub ’16 in a group house called The Burrow, after the Weasley family home. Although 2018’s going be hectic, when you stop by D.C. you should visit him anyway! He misses his Wes peeps a lot and is eager to plot and strategize around next year’s five-year Reunion.

Your Class Secretary,

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

Sara Guernsey graduated with her MFA from the producer’s program at UCLA in June and works at ABC Studios in the comedy development department.

Kate Gibbel graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in May. She will be teaching poetry and traveling in New Zealand in January. Will you be there? Want to meet up? Or give some recommendations?

LaDarius Drew is teaching history, coaching football, is the director of Black Student Union (BSU), and the director of student activities at The Gunnery in Washington, Conn. In May, he took the BSU kids to the Ebony Singers concert and they had a great time. Meanwhile, he planned and hosted his first event as student activities director, and it went well.

Peter Cornillie was commissioned to do a beer and food pairing for a restaurant in Detroit.

While not at her day job as an administrator for multiple dance organizations and artists, Nora Thompson is working as a choreographer and movement consultant for two Wesleyan-related projects: If Sand Were Stone, a new musical created by Carly Feinman ’16 and Cassie Willson ’17 and produced by Cynthia Tong ’14, which is making its off Broadway premiere at the New York Musical Festival in July; and Reflux, a new play written by Carly Feinman ’16 and directed by Miranda Haymon ’16, which is premiering at the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival in August.

Tim Gallivan is teaching math and DJing on the side.

Rebecca Caspar-Johnson finished her first year at Columbia Law School and will be spending the summer in Harare, Zimbabwe, interning in environmental law.

Silvia Diaz-Roa is a project manager for a tech startup-type law firm. It’s pretty cool because they are working on how law will change with technology. This fall she starts grad school at Yale, so she will be back in Connecticut.

Adin Vaewsorn will be attending the Master’s Entry Program at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing to become a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner.

Grace Nix is petting pit bulls in New Orleans on the set of Pit Bulls and Parolees and making clown-y intramural theater with a bunch of sweet clowns. #wrestlemania

Steve Susaña-Castillo will be attending the Yale School of Public Health under the department of epidemiology of microbial diseases this fall.

Orelia Jonathan will be moving to Boston next year and starting a PhD in education at Harvard University.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Melissa Leung wined and dined with Son Tran ’95, Taran Carr, and Sarah Mi before watching Hamilton on its opening night in D.C. 

Ceci Cereijido-Bloche is in rehearsals for a show called The Hunt, going up at HB Studio in July. It’s a series of five one-acts, each with a different take on the idea of a sci-fi world with different gender dynamics (think Handmaiden’s Tale).

Matt Chilton just finished a run of eight performances of an original production of An Iliad as The Muse, a role bridging improvisation, composition, and acting, at D.C.’s Atlas Performing Arts Center. He is working on sound for Specially Processed American Me, a multimedia play and workshop series focused on Spam in Korean and Korean-American food, culture, and memory, while playing electric sax in a femme-domme math rock ensemble, Wasabi Fox, and working in nonprofit admin.

Eki Ramadhan has been working for the Southeast Asia office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab for almost two years. He had a chance to work with Jenna Juwono ’09, who is now pursuing a graduate degree in the Netherlands. He deferred his admission to a grad school in the States to 2019 and is working as a senior research associate and eager to welcome recently-graduated Aqila Putri ’18 to the J-PAL team at the end of June .

Mads O’Brien is wrapping up her job(s) at Stanford University, where she works part-time as library GIS support (basically being a QAC tutor all over again) and part-time at the front desk of the Rumsey Map Center for rare and antique maps. She gets to geek out over really awesome cartography everyday—ask her about it! This fall, Mads is heading back to Connecticut to pursue a master’s of environmental science at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where one of her personal goals is to learn how to fly drones for aerial photography. Mads is excited to reconnect with her people on the East Coast.

Since graduation, Sean Mihaljevich has been working as a research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York but will soon be returning to his home state of California to pursue a JD at Stanford Law School. He comments, “It is unfortunate that I have to leave many of the close friends I made at Wesleyan behind, but I am excited for what the future holds!”

Ellen Paik placed second with her team in the Global Finals of the Goldman Sachs Analyst Impact Fund, securing a grant for a nonprofit called New Story, an organization that aims to incorporate 3D printing technology to alleviate global homelessness. The grant will go towards constructing the first ever 3D-printed community, to be built in El Salvador by 2019. Check out the amazing work of New Story on their website!

In August, Madeline James will be leaving D.C. and moving down to North Carolina to start a PhD program in history at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Aaron Morgan works in D.C. for Fund II-UNCF STEM Scholars Program, a $48 million Initiative that supports African-American students pursuing careers in STEM and technology.

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

Sam Shillet says that Sam Beck lives in Brooklyn and is generally dissatisfied with the F train, as he must take it every day on his dull and monotonous way to his mundane writing job. Sam Beck also wants everyone to know that he has a boring job in New York and is still single.

This past year Yael Horowitz has been dealing with the standard and classic issues of existential dread, despising capitalism while being a full-time participant in it, and watching the world fall apart in front of her over and over again.

Alyssa Domino is working as a paralegal for a law firm in D.C. called Norton Rose Fulbright. Her boss is a 71-year-old Wes alumnus with so much Wes pride that it sometimes feels like she is still on campus. The firm is an international corporate law firm, and Alyssa is most involved in two practice groups: mergers and acquisitions and “project finance” or energy law. There has been a learning curve—it was not until about a month into this job that she grasped that not all lawyers are litigators—but so far, it’s been so good!

Fred Ayres is a pharmacology lab technician at the University of Michigan Medical School and a therapist on a public health intervention in Flint to reduce adolescent substance use. This fall he begins work as a City Year service member in Detroit and providing academic and social support to struggling teens. He’s excited to be involved in efforts to revitalize the D! He’ll spend the summer applying to medical schools and training for his eighth marathon.

Alexandra “Zandy” Stovicek works at a reproductive health nonprofit and volunteers as a full spectrum doula in NYC. This fall she will attend Yale School of Nursing’s MSN program to become a nurse-midwife and women’s health nurse practitioner. In denial that she is about to learn a ton of science, she spent three weeks this summer on a cross-country road trip and self-drive safari around South Africa.

Harry Rafferty is a Lyft driver in Ann Arbor, Mich., chasing his dream of playing professional basketball. He volunteers for many organizations at the University of Michigan. All Wes family members have a place to stay in Michigan if they need one.

Nick Miceli spent seven months living in Adelaide, Australia, working as a bartender and playing professional baseball over the fall and winter, and is now in his living in Bremen, Germany, playing professional baseball in the Bundesliga.

Catherine “Cassie” Willson’s musical, If Sand Were Stone, opened off Broadway this summer in the New York Musical Festival. Music was done by Cassie, book and lyrics by Carly Feinman ’16, and choreography by Nora Thompson ’15.

Nick Daley is living in NYC. After recovering from a knee surgery in his senior year, he has begun his career as a dancer in New York in collaboration with choreographer Lane Gifford, the excellent Eury German ’16, and many others, while apprenticing under the tutelage of renowned teacher, Max Stone. He is also a tutor to help pay the bills, so he is putting that Wesleyan liberal arts degree to work. Find him on the stage, in the studio, or at the library brushing up on some good old Latin grammar.

Ali Felman is spending the summer driving through flyover country (her homeland) to start at Synergy School in San Francisco. She’s teaching middle school English so that she can stay hip on all the style trends while staying true to mechanics.

Sam Stern, in New Hampshire, is working as a software engineer in test. He spends his weekends volunteering and exploring the local trails. He discovered that his city plays host to the self-proclaimed largest taco tour in the country every year, and he’s since seen the proof. Anyone in or around Boston is welcome to visit.

In July, up your aesthetic toured the Northeast, Philadelphia, and D.C. It was the combined capstone of Jess Cummings, Constance Des Marais, Nola Werlinich, and Cheyanne Williams and they took it on the road this summer with collaborators, Katherine Paterson ’18 and Chloe Briskin ’18. up your aestheticis a short, powerful retelling the Greek stories of the Amazon warriors told in an intimate setting through ritual, song, and dominoes.

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu

Congratulations, Class of 2018! The past four years flew by and we are excited to check in soon to see what amazing things our classmates are up to.

Najwa Anasse | nanasse@wesleyan.edu
Garett Larivee | glarivee@wesleyan.edu

Sam Shillet was hired by Ditto PR in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in December as an assistant account executive. He still lives in Queens, for now. Sam Beck says that Sam Shillet’s favorite snack is the new, limited edition peppermint Twinkie.

Eric Jasinski is working for an Israeli medical cannabis company called Tikun Olam. In Israel they serve 30 percent of the population and do tons of research.

Lizzie Shackney is living in Birmingham, Ala., serving as an AmeriCorps member with Impact America. She’ll be running a VITA tax site in Troy, Ala. She never imagined that she’d be so excited about free tax preparation, but here she is. Alabama has yet to shake her vegetarianism, but has great food all around, so she’s happy. She says, “Y’all are always welcome to come visit!”

Ali Jamali has barely had a break since graduation. He immediately moved to NYC and started working. Since then, he has worked with various theater companies such as Manhattan Theater Club, Second Stage Theater, Network Theater Company, and Musical Theater Factory, where he is a producing resident. He’s also been directing multiple projects, from site-specific pieces at the 34th Street-Hudson Yards subway station, Governors Island, Lincoln Center Plaza, and Riverside Park, to shows at Midtown International Theatre Festival and The Tank. If you are a fan of theater and want free tickets to shows in New York, he’s one message away!

Alexandra Bacchus, living in Nashville, works for an ethical shoes and accessories brand, which is related to what she wrote her senior thesis on.She’s on the brand partnerships team and found the job with the help of Venture for America, a fellowship that helps college graduates go to work for startups in non-traditional startup cities.

Fun fact: She’s already had eight—and soon to be 11—Wesleyan visitors come through Nashville to say hey so far…so everyone please go visit!

Julia Tyminski moved to Philly, where she is working at a wine bar while working on her music. She is going to Nashville at the end of March to record an EP. She’s not sure when this will be released, but hopefully by the end of the spring!

Avva Saniee is a post-baccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institutes of Health within NIAID, the Allergy and Infectious Diseases division. She works in an immunogenetics lab and loves living in D.C.—“there’s so much to do and so much to explore” and thinks it’s nice to have a Wesleyan community to spend time with.

Han How is based in San Francisco working in real estate private equity while biking and hiking on weekends. His Outhouse days sparked his love for the outdoors.

Julia Morrison is an English language and physical education teacher in a small town just outside Madrid. She’s enjoying the tapas and the siestas, and she’s also pleased to finally fulfill her college superlative of “most likely to earn a living from athletics.” She sends love to all her coaches and teammates who helped her make it here, especially those who showed up for Thursday night community building.

Isabel Fine and Penny Snyder ’16 co-habit a small, but bohemian-chic, top story two-bedroom, one-bath duplex in a mid-sized Texas city. They both drive to work, but talk about a day when they will take public transit, or bike! From two ends of one city, from two modern workplaces, they send emails, process documents, schedule happenings, go to meetings, drink coffee, and work for the weekend. They’re on the cusp of becoming involved in a number of hobbies including: women’s carpentry, biking, half-marathon-ing, getting involved in local politics, and reading the New Yorker. Thus far, all they’ve done is watch TV.

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu 

Miranda Haymon is an artist-in-residence at the Roundabout Theatre Company in NYC, serving as assistant director for two off-Broadway shows and one Broadway show, as well as developing her works-in-progress through Roundabout. She’s always looking for audience members so if you’re curious to see what she’s up to, hit her up!

Lizzie Paquette is finishing up the dual-degree engineering program at Columbia and graduating with a B.S. in computer engineering. Last summer she worked as a software engineer at Facebook, but come this fall, will be starting a job as a software engineer at a Y Combinator startup called Pagedraw in San Francisco.

Michael King and Abby Gruppuso are in Huatulco, Mexico, to work on a language learning startup. They have been eating a lot of tacos. They are also looking to collaborate with a product designer, so if anyone has experience, reach out!

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

Ariel Lesnick received her master’s in educational leadership and policy studies from Boston University. She is looking forward to not having schoolwork and spending time with her newly-adopted beagle.

Lina Mamut combined her loves of technology and food with her latest startup, Cheffer. Cheffer is an online kitchen gadget rental service, and combines customized top chef-developed recipes with hand-picked appliances. Lina has a crowdfunding campaign running to bring Cheffer to everyone. More info at cheffer.io.

Christopher Tugman is going to London to open the UK office of the company he works for, Hubdoc. If any Wesleyan grads are around, he’d love to connect.

Chazelle Rhoden has been creating I’Luja Collective, a community organization that facilitates community organizing by using art and the principles of liberatory education, direct democracy, and co-op economics.

Andrew Hove, Julia Chanin, and Zia Grossman-Vendrillo wrote in to say hi.

Katherine Lu is back in Orange County, Calif., learning about medical devices and manufacturing at Applied Medical. When she is not in a bunny suit—and it is definitely as cute as it sounds—she is learning how to safely change lanes and heed traffic signals. She goes up to San Francisco once a month to see familiar faces.

Rebecca Sokol, in 4 4law school at the University of Colorado in Boulder, is pursuing environmental law, public lands, and American Indian law. She’ll be interning in Portland, Ore., this summer and would love to connect with Wes folks there.

Ismael Coleman’s family moved to the UAE in 2017. He spent the beginning of the year in Dubai, learning about the culture. Last year he started a technology and marketing company VIBESPLUS that builds apps and digital marketing campaigns (vibes.plus). This year he launched Easy Orders NYC that provides custom ordering apps for restaurant and retail businesses (easyorders.nyc). He would love to connect with other entrepreneurs and travel enthusiasts.

Hannah Yasin took two years off to gain meaningful clinical and life experiences and to prepare for the MCAT. She first worked as a medical scribe at Mercy Hospital’s Emergency Department, then as a waitress at Texas Roadhouse, and finally as a patient care assistant in the Cardiology Unit of Sparks Hospital. She entered medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She is very hopeful and excited for what the future holds!

Cherkira Lashley is a 12th-grade English teacher at Advanced Math and Science III. She’s an official Jesus freak, and still has enough juice in her knees to school her students in basketball. And, Tim Gallivan is DJing and teaching Math, too!

In between working at MTV in NYC and working on a virtual reality docu-series called We The People with Glenn Cantave ’16 and Rebecca Wyzan, Danielle Pruitt has put her film and environmental studies degrees (lol) to work by starting an e-commerce company called Buy The Way. Buy The Way, LLC has its very own online Amazon store featuring offbeat yet extremely useful products with a socially-driven mission. A percentage of their profits will go to a rotating portfolio of nonprofit organizations. She writes, “If your mug doesn’t collapse, you need a new mug—trust #ad. Check us out on Instagram @ohbuytheway!”

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu