Class Notes | 2010s

Hey everyone! Hope you all are continuing to stay safe and healthy. Here are some updates from our classmates: 

Anna Knes (she/her) has moved to the Netherlands to pursue her second master’s degree (her first being Wesleyan MA ’20). For the next two years, she will study forensic science at the University of Amsterdam. While she will miss her family and friends in the United States, she is excited to explore Europe, and she is thankful that COVID-19 cases are quite low and well-managed. Anna isn’t the only Wes alum living in the Netherlands, however, as she is accompanied by Sarah Paulson (she/her) who moved to Groningen, a town two hours away! She is pursuing a master’s in marine biology at the University of Groningen. Follow their travel Instagram @thestroopwafeleffect for more updates!

Zachary Obstfeld (he/him) just started a master’s in public policy at the Harris School at UChicago. 

Katie Tyner (she/her) recently completed her Master of Science in Politics Research from the University of Oxford (Balliol College). She absolutely loved her time in Oxford. This year she is working from home in Connecticut, co-authoring a few research projects and serving as a substitute teacher for fifth and sixth graders to help out the community during this COVID-19 craziness. She hopes everyone is keeping safe and happy.

Aaron J. Cheung (he/him) is still in Berkeley, California, and still living with Dominic Vazquez (he/him). Aaron sleeps a lot but wants to say hi to all his friends.

This fall Wesley Villano (he/him) is starting a master’s program in Chinese medicine at the New England School of Acupuncture. He is currently living with his girlfriend, Ainsley Kass ’20 (she/her).

Robin Waterman (she/her) just started a dual-degree PhD program in plant biology and ecology, evolution, and behavior at Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan), working with Professor Jeffrey Conner. 

Nic Yeager (he, they, she) is living in Austin, Texas, writing culture and politics articles for the Texas Observer and a few other publications. They wrote a guidebook about Austin that’s out now, even though it’s not a great time for travel. They’re hoping everyone is staying safe, sheltered, and politically engaged however they are able.

Marisella (Sella) Andrews (she/her) started school as an MBA candidate at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. Sella plans to pursue a specialty in health sector management and strategy. 

Thank you to everyone who shared their life updates with us this time around. And check your inboxes for another email from me soon! 

Justin Campos | jxcampos@wesleyan.edu

Didn’t receive any notes this round, so just wanted to say I hope everyone stays healthy and safe! Peace and love, and send me your updates!

Najwa Anasse | nanasse@wesleyan.edu

Rachel Kaly starred in the season finale of HBO’s High Maintenance, is learning how to make rugs, and has been rejected from 22 jobs.

Ali Felman moved to Brooklyn, New York three years later than everyone else and started work at the Trevor Project as a training coordinator. She would like to be eating more bagels, so please say hi if you’re in the area to help her do that!

Rachel Waugh launched the Museum of Food and Culture based in Denver, Colorado. The museum’s mission is to inspire curiosity, creativity, and excitement for food, history, and culture. She is currently working on food and social justice (virtual) programming.

Anna Lu is remotely finishing up her last credit for the master’s in health science degree from Clark University. Her graduate research has been on cultural medical anthropology, as she worked within the urban Worcester community. She’s been able to follow her passion, working part-time at UMass Medical School while developing policies for the growing cannabis culture in Massachusetts. She’s awaiting her candidacy with Clark’s psychology PhD program to continue her work and research in providing more mental and behavioral health help and opportunities for the growing Asian and Asian American populations in urban settings. She wishes everyone well!

Nisha Grewal started her PhD in astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh in September, and she is very excited to study dark matter and the evolution of the universe. If you are traveling to Edinburgh in the next few years, she is happy to show you around! Feel free to email her at ngrewal@wesleyan.edu. 

Leneil Roderique officially became an ADCOLOR FUTURE, a program dedicated to developing the next generation of leaders in the advertising, marketing, and tech industries, after being rejected the year before. He was also promoted at work, from a creative to senior creative at VICE Media Group. This is all to say, he doesn’t sleep and will probably crash soon.

Cam Arkin somehow made it into medical school and is now attending the University of Utah School of Medicine. 

Jackson DuMont can in fact say that winter is indeed colder in Russia.

Alexandra “Zandy” Stovicek is in her third year and final semester at Yale School of Nursing. She has become a midwife and women’s health nurse practitioner after falling in love with patient care through the Wesleyan Doula Project! With any luck she will be beginning “Integration” in January, a full-time residency of sorts (location still unknown due to COVID-19) before graduating the program. One day at a time!

“Erica Arensman just started law school at University of Michigan which is ‘incredible and exciting!’”—Nate Warner (I didn’t think she would submit a note about herself)

Hilary Brumberg is still living in the Costa Rican rainforest as a Princeton in Latin America Fellow. She manages community-based conservation initiatives at a grassroots nonprofit, including creating a collaboration with NASA DEVELOP to assess the impact of policy on land management. Hilary hosts undergraduate interns from Wesleyan every summer through the College of the Environment to expose students to careers in conservation. She is grateful to use the skills she learned in her double-major in earth and environmental sciences and Hispanic literatures and cultures every day.

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu 

Please write to your class secretary.

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

After a successful first run of our primordial beings dance tour in the fall, Andrew Hove, Julia Chanin, and Zia Grossman-Vendrillo have had to postpone their second run because of the pandemic. Despite this setback, life has flowed on and they are still in the process of creation! They are all currently living together in a tiny home on Mt. Tam with their pet turtle. They are dedicated to exploring sentience through dance in public again soon. Stay tuned!

Mateusz Burgunder finished his MBA at INSEAD, which felt like a small hub of Wesleyan alumni. He is now continuing his studies in management at MIT Sloan and looks forward to reconnecting with friends in Boston.  

LaDarius Drew got promoted to director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, making him the first Black administrator since The Frederick Gunn School’s founding in 1850, despite its founder being an abolitionist.

Marco Martinez writes: “I’m disappointed that we did not get a chance to celebrate our 5-year together and hope that can happen in the near future. I started a new job at Twitter as a research analyst and it’s been a wild experience onboarding and working remotely for the past six months but I feel that this work has never felt more relevant given the current climate. Currently I’m hunkered down in Los Angeles, which has been home for the past two years; riding my motorcycle and dancing have been my favorite escapes and I recently rode solo up the coast through central California. I hope everyone is holding up the best they can. Drop me a line if you ever want to catch up!

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Please write to your class secretary.

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Holyoke College, Stephanie Huezo joins the Department of History as an assistant professor at Fordham University. She is happy to be teaching Latin American and Latinx history in NYC where she grew up. 

Evan Carmi is now a puppy papa, spending his days reparenting himself via his Brittany, named Pluto. Cute puppy photos can be found on Instagram @plutzthepup.

 Krysten Thomas was elected to be a 2020 Democratic National Convention Delegate in D.C. She is excited about the upcoming general election.

Michael Steves and Lucas San Juan have been making commercials and documentaries through their production company, Rule of 3. Their work, for clients including Amazon, Ring, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Bloomberg, and others, has been featured in CNN Business, The New York Times, and at Michael Moore’s film festival. They are also in production on their first documentary feature film, following a community of Rohingya refugees living in Chicago. They’ve loved working with fellow Wes alums on their productions, so reach out if you want to collaborate!

Vivianne Swerdlow has been working for over a year as a mental health coach at Joyable (acquired by AbleTo, Inc.) where she supports people in completing and getting the most out of eight-week digital cognitive behavioral therapy programs to reduce depression, generalized anxiety, or social anxiety. She recently started her own coaching practice, specializing in behavioral coaching, life coaching, and career coaching. As someone with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, she often works with chronic pain clients in particular to develop more fulfilling lives.

Benjamin Swerdlow (nee Abravanel) is in his last year of a clinical psychology PhD at UC Berkeley, where he has been studying interpersonal emotion regulation and emotion-related impulsivity. 

Zach Schonfeld recently survived a near-death encounter with an exploding can of shaving cream. His first book, chronicling the strange story of the widely sampled funk band 24-Carat Black, was published on November 12. It’s called Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth and it’s part of the 33 1/3 series of books about individual albums. 

Thank you to my classmates who contributed to this column! Hope everyone continues to stay safe during this time.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Please write to your class secretary.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

Hi Class of 2011, hope this finds you healthy and well in a year that has proven to be full of challenges. See our class updates below. 

Lots of new additions to the Wes Family! Ilaria O’Keefe informs us “I gave birth to baby #4 in February, we bought our first home in August, and I continue to work as a birth doula, homeschool our kids, study herbal medicine, and direct and sing music in upstate SC.” Katie (Colasaccco) Rowan writes, “On July 24th, Allie Rowan and I welcomed our son, Nico, into the world! We’ve been settling into the whole parenting-during-a-pandemic thing as best as we can, and Nico’s been a real joy to watch change and grow over the past two months.” Last but not least, Julian Sonnenfeld and his wife Gia had their first baby on July 20, 2020. Grant Jonas Sonnenfeld was born at a heavyweight 9 lbs 13 oz in Charlotte, North Carolina. Julian writes “Grant and Gia are doing great, hopefully a future Cardinal!”

In more exciting news, Alexandra Furnas writes, “I got married to Amy Cesal, just completed a PhD in American politics from University of Michigan, and started as a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.” Laura Heath Stout is also continuing her education as a new postdoctoral fellow in the writing program at Emory University. She is excited to report she just got a book contract with Routledge for her first book, provisionally titled Identity, Oppression, and Diversity in Archaeology: Career Arcs. Congrats Laura!

Charlotte Cerf writes “my fiance and I are moving to the Burlington, Vermont area as both of our jobs in tech can be done fully remotely.”

As always, thanks for the updates and look forward to continuing to hear from all of you. Stay healthy Class of 2011!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Greetings Class of 2010! Please enjoy the following notes from our classmates around the world:

Gina Yeomans and Nate Green (’09) welcomed their second son, Milo, on June 5. Milo is “a sweet, happy boy despite being born amidst a global pandemic and historic national protests.” 

Kiran Sheffrin and husband Sam also welcomed a child into the world, a little boy, Kamran, this past May!

Danielle Mor recently accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia, which is part of Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia. As a native New Yorker, Danielle is excited to experience southern living for the first time.

Melina Aguilar has adapted to the pandemic and is now offering virtual tours of Puerto Rico with her local startup Isla Caribe Tours based in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Melina is staying creative and the 

business is growing in the virtual experience world. You can find her tours at islacaribetours.com. 

Hannah Barber Doucet continues her fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Her newest project is launching the curriculum DARE-EM: Discussing Anti-Racism and Equity in Emergency Medicine for all frontline emergency medicine providers in her hospital system. Hannah is also enjoying the additional task of keeping two young kids entertained through quarantine with her wife, Samantha Doucet ’09!

Thanks to those who contributed this time around and, as always, feel free to pass along notes anytime! 

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu