Class Notes | 2010s

Hey, Class of 2019! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy (and inside!) amidst the global pandemic we are facing. Here are some updates from our peers:

Jackie Leete is living in Washington, D.C., and working in a lab at the National Institutes of Health investigating traumatic brain injury and sleep disturbances (although currently, she is working from home!). She plans on applying to PhD programs this fall with a focus on sleep research.

Shana Laski is moving to D.C. this summer to start a position at Mosaic Theatre Company as their resident dramaturgy fellow.

Rebecca Goldfarb Terry is living in Philadelphia with her dear friend and fellow Cardinal, Carina Flaherty. She spends most of her time working at Temple University Hospital as a Community Engagement Representative with the Office of Patient Experience. When she’s not at the hospital, she’s hanging out with her dog Emmie or playing frisbee.

Anna Knes just finished Wesleyan’s BA/MA Program in late April and will soon start a summer internship at the Connecticut State Crime Lab. In the fall, she will move to Amsterdam to start a two-year master’s in forensic science (coronavirus-permitting, of course).

Aaron Cheung hopes that the Class of 2019 and their families remain safe. Aaron is working, as part of his pro bono project, with the ACLU of Northern California on surveillance and privacy issues. It is important for everyone to pay attention to COVID-19 tracking, as it may leave unwanted precedent for future unconsented privacy invasions. Dom Vazquez and Aaron have also moved. They are living together again, for the third year in a row. Dom is still teaching seventh-grade world history and science in Oakland, Calif., remotely now, and has been accepted to a teacher credentialing program, which will keep him busy over the next two years. He’s doing much less hiking and much more Netflix binge-watching.

Jennifer Gagne is finishing her first year in the classroom as a Kindergarten and ENL teacher. Her district has recognized her and her team for their distance learning efforts that are low-tech. She is also finishing her first year of her master’s in urban childhood education and TESOL program.

Andrea Weires was working as a peace corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic until COVID-19 hit. She was evacuated from her community in less than 24 hours. She now lives in Minneapolis, Minn., and recently started working as a paralegal at an immigration law firm. She wishes health and safety for the Class of 2019!

Allison Quintana just finished her post-baccalaureate year at Smith College in their math and statistics department. And she was also sent home several weeks ago, along with every other student across the country, to finish her last semester. Her plan for the fall is to go to grad school at the Brown University School of Public Health to get her ScM (master’s degree) in biostatistics. Assuming Brown will allow for in-person classes, she is currently looking for apartments in Providence. She says, “It’s a very interesting time to be entering the world of biostatistics and public health.”

After graduating, Fred Willis moved to Bangalore, India, and started working full-time as a business consultant/data analyst, partnering with various Fortune 500 companies on projects to improve their business processes. During his time abroad, he had the opportunity to travel all over India and parts of Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Nepal. He even met up with several Wes alumni and current students, which was comforting to connect with familiar faces amidst so many unknowns! Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, he has since returned to NYC where he continues to work from home as he waits out his move to Dallas, Texas, for his current project with Citigroup. He hopes everyone is keeping safe and doing well.

Joy Adedokun is finishing up her accelerated program for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa. Upon completion, she looks forward to joining “the most trusted profession” on the frontlines. She hopes everyone is healthy, staying connected, and still has a reason to smile in these peculiar times.

Rosanne Ng had a fantastic year in the San Francisco Bay Area, working in LinkedIn’s Strategy and Analytics Program. She recently moved to Dublin, Ireland, to continue working in LinkedIn’s EMEA headquarters (where they call it the Strategy and Analytics Programme).

Daniel Gordon is working for Google as a part of the software engineering residency program, where he works (remotely at the moment) with a variety of different teams in the NYC Google office.

Thank you again to everyone who shared! Look out for an email from me about the next edition of the alumni magazine soon.

Justin Campos | jxcampos@wesleyan.edu

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Jake Lahut moved from New Hampshire to NYC in February and started working for Business Insider to cover the 2020 election and national politics.

Katie Holbert will be starting her PhD in philosophy at Boston University in the fall. At this point, Katie intends to focus on 19/20th century continental and classical philosophy, especially Nietzsche and Plato. Katie and Jake Rosenberg will get married at some point in the near future and will finally adopt a kitten companion for their senior cat, Itty Bitty Bean.

In the fall, Anthony Dean will be attending The New School, pursuing a master’s in media studies. For the last few months, he has served as the creator, sound designer, and co-producer for the New York Neo-Futurists’ new podcast Hit Play, which the New York Times praised as “cathartic” and “a treasure chest.”

Zach Lambros ’17, MA ’18 is back in Colorado and now has a girlfriend. Applications for the position are no longer being accepted at this time.

Liz Farrell is quarantining with their family in San Antonio, Texas, and recently launched their own digital writing and arts publication, Lizard Letter (LizardLetter.com).

After graduating, Taylor McClain completed the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in New York City. Since the fellowship, she has worked in urban planning to support inclusive economic development in cities across the country. In March 2020, she moved from Brooklyn to Atlanta to prepare to attend the University of Georgia School of Law. She is engaged to AJ Wilson ’18 who will be starting law school at UGA alongside her in August. You can reach her at taylorfmcclain@gmail.com.

Callie Monroe is combining her passion for mathematical analysis and skincare as a CX operations analyst at Glossier. This is her second time working at a start-up since graduating, and she’s loving the experience of working for a smaller company.

Hyunji Ward helps brands stay relevant and connect to pop culture through her role in entertainment marketing at United Talent Agency. She works in talent strategy and management for Covergirl and helps oversee a program created in partnership with Queen Latifah, Procter & Gamble, and Tribeca Studios that empowers female filmmakers of color to tell their stories on the big screen, supporting their projects from concept to distribution.

Leneil Roderique is crafting stories that help brands make an impact in the world. As a creative at VICE Media Group, his work sits at the intersection of human-centered storytelling and audience insights to ultimately create powerful narratives for brands. At the moment, he is creating a documentary series that highlights COVID-19 essential workers for Mailchimp.

Sofi Taylor is glad her documentary series, (413)Art, premiered on Feb 28 instead of even one week later. This is her first major film project post-Wesleyan. She was lucky to have help from fellow Wes folk: Dylan Beckman, Ben Goldberg ’13, Josh Rode ’19, Alex Fabry ’18, Ellie Black, and Sarah Corner. The nine episodes on different Western Massachusetts-based artists are available on saltboxfilms.squarespace.com.

The Racquets (Sam Beck, Ryan Breen, Jared Fineberg, and Jeremy Freeman ’18) released their debut EP and played their first New York show at the Mercury Lounge in January. The EP is streaming on all platforms.

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu 

Pierre Gerard is helping develop the City of Oakland’s Slow Streets Program by mapping proposed streets to be closed to vehicular through-traffic. While the program may not close all 75 miles of streets as announced, they have closed 20 miles of streets so far, and are working on a number of new traffic safety improvements throughout the city.

He is also helping his bicycle shop, The Missing Link Bicycle Cooperative in Berkeley, stay in business. They raised $30,000 through a successful business crowdfunding campaign ($10,000 more than their initial goal), and look forward to keeping the community rolling during and after the pandemic.

Last year, Matthew Stein left his job at YouTube to start an immersive puzzle design studio. He released an album of Romanian folk music and is working on a new collection of forest-inspired Yiddish songs with his klezmer trio, Baymele.

Melissa Leung moved back home to NYC and has been settling in by taking Kate Davis, Vanessa Chen, and Ammar Zafar to her favorite dumpling shop. Their adventures have also included Teresa Wu introducing the group to vegetarian char siu, which is pretty dank.

Madeline James just received her master’s in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is beginning her PhD in the same department (history).

Mariam Torres ’16, MA’17 and Martin Malabanan have been roommates in Boston for the past three years. Mariam has been busy conducting clinical trials for an antiviral drug that could help treat COVID-19 patients, while Martin has been making sure the apartment is full of freshly baked goods for Mariam to come home to.

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

Katherine Lu has hit all the quarantine milestones, including, but not limited to, panic-buying eggs, making focaccia, baking banana bread, cutting her own hair, celebrating her birthday over HouseParty, buying Animal Crossing, and redecorating the house. In between these activities, she dreams of one day being able to congregate in groups of more than three and make breakfast for her friends.

Eric Lopez and Andrew Kang send warm wishes and positivity to all the frontline workers. They’ll be playing Call of Duty: Warzone and cooking food to make their moms proud for the foreseeable future.

Amy Zhang is a segment producer at Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, gearing up for the quarantine version of their show. She also helped start a fundraiser for NYC Chinatown businesses called “Dumplings Against Hate”—check it out, share, and donate if you can!

Caitlin Bray ’15, MA’16 married James Tracht on April 26 in a quarantine wedding. They had to cancel their original wedding plans so decided to get married and throw a party later. They had a friend from high school take pictures, and another friend as the officiant. They all met up in Caitlin’s parents’ backyard and Zoomed the wedding to their family. It was a great day even if everyone couldn’t be there. They are happy to have each other and look forward to being able to celebrate whenever they can.

Dana Louie and Jonathan Coombs are passing the time in lockdown in Cambridge, Mass., with their two Siberian kittens, Biscuit and Bun. Jonathan is working remotely at Liberty Mutual, and Dana is finishing up her first year at Harvard Business School via Zoom. They are thankful for the grocery store two blocks away that has allowed them to try their luck at cooking creative meals. They cannot wait to simply go to a restaurant again.

Marianna Illgan has been spending quarantine advising Wesleyan undergrads via Cardinal Connections (a really fun way to help out—ask Jim Kubat for info!), and developing an unhealthy obsession with the K-drama, Crash Landing on You (CLOY). She and Xian Hui Ang send each other CLOY memes daily.

I know the Class of 2015 laments the loss of our fifth Reunion weekend, but this gives us more time to plan for next year! If anyone is interested in being part of that planning, reach out to Steph Velarde, Wesleyan liaison, at svelarde@wesleyan.edu. The Reunion Committee looks forward to when we can celebrate together. For now, make sure to share some throwbacks on Instagram and use #wes2015.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Dear readers,

I hope you and your families find yourselves safe and healthy during these tough times. While these are challenging times, I find beauty in how we’ve found ways to come together as a community. Part of what I loved most about my Wesleyan experience was exactly that—the community. That community does not go away after graduation, so I hope you are remaining connected, are using the values Wesleyan cultivated in us as a call to action, and are keeping the innovative and fierce Wesleyan spirit alive. I am an email or phone call away if you ever want to reach out.

Speaking of community, here is what the Class of 2014 has been up to:

Emily Mullaney is enrolled at Parsons in their industrial design program, and one of her studio partners is also a Wesleyan graduate. They recently won a grant from the Design for Aging Research Fund. Congrats, Emily!

Ellen Alexander received her PhD in geology from UCLA in March. She has since moved to Boulder, Colo., to begin a postdoctoral research fellowship at CU Boulder in order to work on the geology and petrology of the lower crust under the Colorado Plateau.

Joshua Krugman works for Bread and Puppet Theater, the 57-year-old political theater company based in Glover, Vt. He encourages fellow alumni to come up (post-COVID) to the beautiful Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to catch a summer show, and look out for B&P touring dates near you in the U.S., Europe, or Latin America. Contact Josh about bringing B&P to your school, synagogue, theater, or town square.

Jake Barack is wrapping up his doctorate in clinical psychology at The Chicago School and is heading towards his internship at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He also was commissioned as a captain in the Army and would prefer if his friend, Will Dubbs, would please stop saluting him.

In March, Ella Dawson joined the founding team of Meet Cute, a new entertainment startup, to run marketing, brand, and social media strategy. She is revising her first romance novel.

After six years in Brooklyn, Maureen Gorman and her husband, Aurélien, have moved to Paris, France. Maureen will attend INSEAD’s MBA program starting in the fall.

Jeremy Edelberg writes: “After 3.5 years, I’m still living and working in Hong Kong.  I just hit my two-year anniversary working for Myriad Asset Management, a Hong Kong-based, multi-strategy hedge fund. I hope that everyone is staying well, and I still welcome anyone coming through Asia to reach out once this virus subsides.”

Leah Khambata (who earned an MBA from Cornell in 2018) moved back to Mumbai in December from LA where she was acting in films and singing at concert venues such as the esteemed Hotel Cafe. She released seven original songs on Spotify/Apple Music last year, including an EP, and two music videos for her originals “Higher At Last” and “Something Still Here” (both directed by Wes graduates!) premiered on VH1India on Feb. 27. She recently performed an online concert for the Indian edition of one of the world’s greatest music/pop culture magazine, Rolling Stone, and is set to star in an Amazon Prime series. Instagram @Leahkhambata.

As for me, I graduated from Fordham University School of Law in May and look forward to this new chapter of life as an attorney! I always enjoy connecting with alumni and invite other Wesleyan attorneys to reach out to me and chat. Congrats to those who have graduated during these unexpected times! In other news, I’ve been taking advantage of this new downtime with plenty of Zoom video calls and book club sessions with Lauren Seo, Nicole Okai, Esthefany Castillo, Reina Barnswell, Lizzy Steiner, and Juliana McLain on top of the Netflix, wine, and cooking.

Be well and take care of each other.

Your Class Secretary,

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

Anna Swartz and her wife, Netta, are quarantined with Anna’s parents in Massachusetts. They’re lucky enough to still have their jobs and be able to do them remotely. She hopes all her fellow Wes alumni, as well as faculty and campus staff, are similarly safe and well and able to stay home. She reminds everyone to tip their delivery people!

James “Jim” Curley and Maryalice Gill were married in Boston on Aug. 17, 2019. Many of his Wesleyan teammates and classmates were in attendance: Andrew McKeon, John Guay, Carmen Boscia, Matt Hadge, Derek Lukin, Nick Ferris, and Glenn Stowell. He said it was great to see everyone. Jim and Maryalice honeymooned in Italy, Croatia, and Greece. Being Game of Thrones superfans, they were able to visit the filming locations while in Croatia. Jim also completed his MBA at Boston University in May.

James Gardner made the transition from German corporate to the U.S. public sector in 2018, where he works for the Department of Veteran Affairs. His role is to oversee the VA hospital—the inpatient wards, emergency room, outpatient care, patient administration, and emergency management—outside of business hours. He finds himself surrounded by health care civilian and veteran employees who really care so much about the veterans coming through their doors. Especially with regard to the current pandemic, this dedication is terribly necessary.

Max Ward recently moved from Chicago back to his hometown of Portsmouth, N.H., where he’s now doing promotional videos for Gutermann, Inc.—a company specializing in selling leak detection equipment to water utilities. In his free time, he’s posting art on Instagram and helping write and illustrate a comic book that’s funded through Patreon. In his other free time, Max enjoys playing with his parents’ dog, Nash. He is a good boy!

Ben Smith is a video editor at Evidence Video, which produces documentaries to help attorneys build damages for clients whose lives have been catastrophically changed. Good stuff. He also continues to write, produce, and direct sketch comedy and short films. His film, Bump in the Night, will be hitting festivals around the country this fall.

Elisa Waugh has had a whirlwind year! A long cross-country drive with her boyfriend and dog rooted them back in her home state. They then decided to plan and throw a tiny wedding in a beautiful inn. Now there is a baby on the way and a house in the works! As the school year finishes, Elisa is looking forward to enjoying the bounty of Colorado and redirecting the energy usually used for her lively middle school students to a ferociously large garden.

In the fall, Evan Okun will attend the Yale School of Management in pursuit of his MBA. He hopes to expand his capacity to help nonprofits and social enterprises do courageous work. Evan also hosts weekly Zoom calls for anyone wanting to freestyle rap. Reach out!

As for me, I’m still in the Bay Area, working remotely for Apple. During shelter in place, I’ve picked up puzzling and also enjoy playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons with Sam Jacobson. I hope that all my classmates, their loved ones, and other readers stay safe and sane during this time.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Yael Chanoff works as an archival film researcher in San Francisco. The most recent documentary she worked on, Athlete A, will be available on Netflix this summer.

Tyler Wuthmann writes, “I’ve moved part-time up to Seattle from San Francisco to attend naturopathic medical school. I’m in my third year as a medical student here in Seattle at the School of Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University. It’s a four-year medical program where I will receive an ND degree and plan to get a residency down in the Bay Area once I graduate in 2021.” He is loving the program and adds, “I still make it down to San Francisco often to be with my fiancé, Mike (unfortunately not a Wesleyan alum, but I try not to hold it against him). We are planning our wedding in the Bay Area for the summer of 2021. I’m mostly seeing patients through telemedicine with attendings in our internal medicine clerkship due to social distancing while helping Seattle flatten the curve.”

Siena Kramer has relocated to Boston, where she will be working at Tufts Medical Center as a neurointensive care nurse.

Ruby Lin Ka Tung is based in Hong Kong, working at MoneyHero/CompareAsiaGroup as a country HR manager.

Jared Gimbel writes, “After becoming viral in Greenland as a result of a video series, I will release an early access version of my first video game, Kaverini: Nuuk Adventures, after multiple delays.” Jared is plotting the sequel, which will take place in a “completely different country.”

Julia Leonard is excited to move back to Connecticut to be an assistant professor of psychology at Yale starting summer 2021.

Thanks for the updates. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

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

Keisuke Yamashita and Ginger Patana started an omakase food tour business in Japan. “We take people to very top-notch restaurants people do not otherwise have access to. If anyone comes to visit Japan and wants to try amazing authentic food (sushi, tempura, Japanese western food, etc.), please DM us! Keisuke and Ginger’s business can be found at instagram.com/gastropolitan.tokyo.

Emily Sheehan reports: “In the little Philadelphia row home where I reside with my husband and daughter, I’ve been learning what a social 2-year-old enjoys when she needs to stay home and can’t play with friends, including a lot of tower-building and some drive-by-birthday celebrations. I’m grateful to work in the safety of my home, where I’ve been conducting therapy sessions through the magic of technology. (If anyone finds this to be a challenging time, there are plentiful therapists accepting new clients through telehealth, and many insurance companies are waiving copays, so it’s a good time to add mental health care into your routine.) I’m also enjoying video meetups with friends, including a huge group of fellow ’10 alumni. Grateful for the Wesleyan community in this bizarre time!”

Tony Zosherafatain hopes all of the Wes 2010 family is doing well and staying safe. Tony is still living in NYC (going on a decade now!), but is still a loyal Boston sports fan. He completed production of Trans in Trumpland, a forthcoming documentary about being transgender in the Trump administration era. The film follows four trans Americans living in North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Idaho. Keep a lookout for the film’s release around the fall/winter of this year! You can learn more about the film at transintrumpland.com. Tony looks forward to seeing everyone at our next Reunion!

Lauren Valentino finished her PhD in sociology at Duke University and has accepted a tenure-track position as an assistant professor of sociology at the Ohio State University, to begin this summer. “My research focuses on how Americans understand and make sense of social inequalities and social hierarchies—a topic I became interested in as a wee sociology major at Wes!”

Shannon Sun-Higginson and Andrew Murphy ’10, MA ’11 are social distancing at their home in Philadelphia with their cat, Professor Minerva McGonagall. Shannon is editing the sizzle for her third feature documentary, Losing Face, while working remotely as a producer and director for All Ages Productions. As a Democratic committeeperson, she works to find safe ways for Philadelphians to vote in the primary and general elections. Andrew received his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in August 2019 and is now entering his final year of medical school, with plans to graduate in May 2021. He is taking clinical classes remotely while studying for his Step 2 exam, and continuing his research on neural networks, for which he was recently published in Science Communications. Since the pandemic has begun, Andrew and Shannon have attended a weekly video chat bad movie night with Gabriel Furtado, Yulhee Cho ’11, and Julien Burns. Their top recs are Jupiter Ascending, Little Italy, and Fateful Findings.

Niki Holtzman-Hayes graduated medical school at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and is headed to NYC with husband Nick Hayes ’09 for residency, where Niki matched into neurology.

A wonderful note from Dan Heinrich: Since graduating, Dan’s path has been largely shaped by Wes, his experiences, and the beautiful people he was lucky to call friends and mentors at Wes. After serving as a senior assistant dean of admission at Wes for four years, Dan finally left Middletown for warmer climes to work at ‘Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Lindsay Kokuna ’09 and Lindsay Kosasa ’13 welcomed him with much aloha. Graduate school called him back to New England, where he studied education policy and management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and got to share some laughs and treats with Jorge Delgado. Earning his Ed.M. in 2019, Dan zipped westward yet again to be part of a new and exciting mission-driven secondary school at UCLA, where student wellness and wellbeing are centered equally alongside academic prep and community engagement. In reflecting upon our 10-year Reunion, Dan is grateful to have cultivated lifelong friends at Wes and regularly connects with and sees the likes of LaShawn Springer ’08 and countless others (200 Church!) during his work and personal travels and via the Reading and Writing Rainbow group with Miles Tokunow, Chelsea Rodriguez, Genesis Grullon, and Lorena Estrella who continue to be anchors in his life.

Thanks to those who contributed and, as always, feel free to pass along notes anytime.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

 

Hey, Class of 2019! Hope everyone is doing well. Here are some updates. George Poulos is working on his YouTube channel and clothing brand, Arrow Skate Co, in NYC. He is rooming with Maddy Paull and Izzy Creavin this year.

Kati Young is living in NYC where she studies DNA repair as a lab manager for Professor Lorraine Symington at Columbia University.

My favorite former housemate, Dom Vazquez, has moved to Berkeley, Calif., and is roommates with Aaron Cheung (again). He is teaching seventh-grade world history and science at a public charter school in Oakland, and he is looking into starting a teacher credential program in the summer, though he’s not sure where yet. He is enjoying life by the Bay and is filling his free time with hiking and SAT/ACT tutoring. Meanwhile, Aaron is still in law school. He sends his regards to the class of 2019.

Rachel Williams is starting her second semester as an English teaching assistant in Segovia, Spain, where she works with primary school kids from second to sixth grade. She will be in Spain at least until June and potentially for another school year after that before making her return stateside.

Adam Wells has started working as a content manager at a digital music distribution company called AudioSalad in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Nikolas Ortega has been living in Ann Arbor, Mich., since July working full time as a business consultant at Google. Through his work, Nikolas partners with countless small to medium-sized businesses throughout the U.S. to fuel their long-term growth—via Google’s products and solutions. He’s been making the most of living in the Midwest.

Jordan Legaspi has been spreading Christmas cheer in Taipei, Taiwan, where he is teaching English as part of his Fulbright Grant with Fulbright Taiwan. He shared with us a photo of a very tender moment where he sang the song “Silent Night” in English while his students responded singing “Silent Night” in Chinese.

Big thanks to everyone who chose to share their life updates with us! Watch for my next email for the next edition of the alumni magazine.

Justin Campos | jxcampos@wesleyan.edu

On Christmas Day 2019, Liam Tran, 25, informed his friends that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Four days later, he passed with his family at his side.

He was a four-year board member of AASC; cofounder of SHADES, Wes’ SOC theater collective; senior interviewer; and a friend and chosen family to more than can be named.

At Wes, he was the first friend to so many. As a tour guide, admissions intern, and senior interviewer, often he was the first person a baby cardinal ever met. If you attended WesFest during his tenure as a student between 2014-2017, then you met him or benefited from his organizational handiwork.

You heard him before you saw him. Sometimes, you just heard him because he was belting Rihanna in the shower while everyone had left for Thanksgiving break. From Olin to Exley to Foss, as part of the Spirits, you could catch his tenor voice reverberating, hurtling at you like the most loving vocal body slam.

It’s a social faux pas to self-declare your test scores as a sign of your intelligence, but maybe if a friend does it, it’s not as cringeworthy. He was a Questbridge scholar who aced every single test he took. You wanted to hate him because he was a music major taking organic chemistry for fun and skewing the curve while you were crying your eyes out in the Butts lounge studying until the sun rose.

But you couldn’t hate him even if you wanted to because he would be there at the end of midterms, hosting an AASC self-care night at AAA house, offering you a plate of Vietnamese spring rolls with a heap of peanut and hoisin sauce.

In a world where fighting the good fight for humanity is too often draining and seemingly impossible, he would slide in with a smile and witticism to keep you going. He was a laugh-and-a-half, a day-one-er, a ride-or-die, a build-with-you-from-the-ground-up kind of guy.

Post-Wes, he spent two years at another NESCAC school working as an admissions counselor, doing the college-access work he was so passionate about. He left Maine for his hometown of Houston in pursuit of the big stage. If you missed the opportunity to see him shine on stage, some of his performances can be viewed on the Wesleyan Spirits’ YouTube channel.

He is missed by his mother, brother, sister, best friends, 260 Pine St. housemates, and all those whose lives he touched. If you want to help continue his legacy, consider donating to MECA, a Houston-based nonprofit organization providing underserved students access to the arts.

On behalf of AASC Board 2013-2017, we love you dearly, Liam. You will never be forgotten.

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu