Class Notes | 2010s

Zaki Iqbal began his medical school journey at Quinnipiac University’s Frank H. Netter School of Medicine along with Joie Akerson ’17 and Derek Groskreutz ’13.

Jasmine Masand moved to North Carolina in August to pursue her master’s at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. As a Duke-Margolis Scholar, Jasmine is focusing on health care policy and is exploring exciting new models for value-based care in Medicare.

Emily Garvin is happy to be returning to New England to start a new position teaching and coaching at Loomis Chaffee, just up the road from Wes.

Catherine Chase has moved to Seattle and is starting her PhD program in classics at the University of Washington.

Gabe Frankel married Aliya Yule on Sept. 3 in Chicago. They met in 2013 when Gabe studied abroad at Oxford where Aliya was a student. (Big shout out to year-long study abroad programs!) He’ll be moving to London in early 2020 and looking forward to connecting with Wes alumni there; reach out at gabefrankel@gmail.com.

Gordon Petty and Camille Casareno are engaged! He proposed in June, about seven years after they met at Wesleyan. And though they are Cardinals through and through, they are both pursuing post-grad studies at Columbia University. Gordon is entering the third year of his neuroscience PhD and Camille will be starting her MPH this fall.

After more than three years in San Francisco, Hannah Jenkins finally escaped the marine layer, moving across the bridge to Oakland, Calif. She co-founded a holistic healing and wellness center with some other badass women and feels alive and in her purpose more often than not. If you are in the Bay Area, check out The Heartbeat Collective!

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Kristen Salustro is working on her fourth book and is expecting to publish it in 2020. Her debut novel was awarded a silver medal in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards in the sci-fi category, which made her so excited she accidentally bounced her partner awake at 6 a.m. on a weekend before shoving the announcement under his nose. She just passed her third-year mark at her day job and has been officially named someone’s manager.

Bryce Hollingsworth’s custom traditional dry stone construction business has been going really well. He spent two months this winter working with a certified dry stone Master Craftsman down in New South Wales, Australia, building a huge 600-foot long slate wall which was awesome. Since then, Bryce received the Preservation Trades Network’s International Trades Exchange grant, and used that to spend two weeks working with a Master Stonemason in Galway, Ireland. Later this fall, he will be traveling down to Lexington, Ky., to work with the Dry Stone Conservancy, a nonprofit organization focused on preserving the craft of dry stone walling. This year has been insanely busy, but he’s been loving every minute of it.

Benjamin Smith completely missed chances to script supervise Batwoman and Utopia and is seeking forgiveness from himself. He completed his short film, Bump in the Night, in September, and is making plans to force it on audiences around the world. He likes to call it a short film, as if he really knows what he’s created. You can also find Ben performing improv and sketch at Second City in Chicago. He’s trying to have more friends and stuff. Improv is good for that. Need life advice? Improv, friends.

After nearly four years gallivanting around Asia Pacific, Julian Azaret is finally moving back to the USA! San Francisco and Cambridge have even odds. Zach Libresco just moved from Brooklyn to Harlem to be closer to his new job, modeling for the National World War I Memorial. His theater company, The Humanist Project, is remounting their devised clown show, centered on quantum physics and Russian fairy tales, in November and December at The Tank in Midtown! He is very happy to have moved closer to his best friend, Emily Hunt.

After spending five years in Washington, D.C., working on environmental policy for the National Wildlife Federation and later as a U.S. Senate staffer, Taran Catania moved to Burlington, Vt. She’s pursuing a Sustainable Innovation MBA at the University of Vermont with plans to confront environmental challenges in new, better ways. (And yes, she still loves birds. In fact, she’s the seventh-ranked top birder in D.C. for 2018—including #1 female birder and youngest in the Top 10.)

Victoria Chu is an entertainment finance/corporate associate at Akin Gump in Los Angeles. She would love to connect with other Wes alumni in the entertainment/legal industry. Evan Hazelett is studying the spatial and racial politics of food and farming as well as critical urban histories and theories as a master in urban planning student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He hopes to pursue a PhD in human geography after this program. He’s also the editor-in-chief for The Urban Review, the student journal of urban studies and planning. On the side, Evan is trying to publish short stories and poetry, and at home he cooks himself to the ground. Shira Gaudet (formally Shauna Pratt) is pleased to announce her marriage to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes on June 2. She now has two children, Rebecca (4) and Michael (1). Both children attended the wedding; Michael slept through the whole ceremony. The couple’s first dance was actually a singing duet, “I’ll Never Tell” from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, “Once More with Feeling.” Rubber ducks abounded.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

It should come to no surprise that 2019 has been an exciting year for the class of 2012.

Andrew Dominguez has had a wonderfully Wesleyan summer, spending time with new friends from the class of 2012 and his younger sister, a Wes sophomore. Andrew spent a week teaching filmmaking at the nonprofit Camp Hollywood Heart. Andrew then capped off his summer with a week of volunteering up at the Telluride Film Festival, where he was reunited with Adrian Rothschild, who has been working at the festival every Labor Day weekend for seven years since graduation. Andrew ran into over a dozen other Wesleyan people (from the classes of 2009, 2015, many from 2019, and even a new professor in the film department). Andrew is looking forward to the fall season, when he will be working with Raghu Appasani, Geoff Mucha, and Heidi Ransohoff on an event in Los Angeles with The MINDS Foundation for the annual World Mental Health Day.

Raghu Appasani moved to LA last year and is doing a psychiatry residency at USC, loving the sunshine, beach, and mountains.

Rebecca Snelling just started a master’s in management degree program at the CU Denver Business School through her company. She is looking forward to diving more into the business and people aspects of her environmental remediation work. Rebecca is also excited to start another hockey season in the South Shore Women’s Hockey League on a team with former Wes teammates Ann Wheeler, Sydney Morgan ’14, and Cait Bray ’15, MA’16.

Lucas Turner-Owens is the fund manager of The Ujima Fund. Launched in 2018, the fund has raised $1 million to date from over 150 investors. The fund is designed to aggregate investments from working class and wealthy investors to fund businesses based in Boston’s working-class communities of color. Uniquely, the fund requires that all investments be voted on and approved by 51% of the members of Ujima who live in Boston. Ujima has 500 members, 250 of which identify as working class people of color in Boston.

Christopher Fragoso is a computational biologist at Verinomics, an agricultural genomics startup in New Haven, Conn.

Chris Russell co-founded Project77 out of Columbia Business School in 2018 to support education and social sector organizations with data analytics tools and services. He is a member of the Columbia Startup Lab accelerator in NYC. He is the proud partner to Doris Martinez ’10 and the proud fur parent to Tali and Brigitt. Chris is always willing to grab coffee and/or drinks with Wes family and can be reached at chris@project77solutions.com or by text 860/539-9284.

Ashley Garrett just left the U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General as an analyst and transfered to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Inspector General as an analyst in audit.

Love was in the Wes air with many weddings this year. Liz Dalton and Ben Rose were married in September among several Wes friends. They’re living in Oakland, Calif., where Liz is an interior designer for restaurants and hotels.

Kenny Feder was married this year in May and finished his PhD. in public health. He is working for the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service program as an epidemiologist for Maryland Department of Health.

Dana Levy married Reiss Clauson-Wolf ’13 on Sept. 1 in Rhode Island. Julian Silver and Mattison Peters ’13 were members of the bridal party. Father of the bride, Harold Levy ’75, and uncle of the groom, Daniel Wolf ’79, were in attendance.

A little Cardinal joined the nest. Tasmiha Khan and her husband welcomed their first son. Tasmiha also was published on MTV.com.

As for me, I jumped on the bridal bandwagon and got married in May. Wishing the entire class of 2012 all the best in the next year to come.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

Terrance Agbi joined Forbes magazine as a senior product owner for their digital team last summer. (“We’re hiring! Please reach out if you’re interested,” he said.) He also got engaged to long-time girlfriend, Liane Membis, and will be married in June.

Dani St. Pierre was promoted to senior food/drink editor for BestProducts.com at Hearst Digital Media. She said, “It’s a young e-commerce, news, and product review site—and one of the top-performing e-commerce sites and revenue drivers in the Hearst network.” She was previously an associate food/drink editor.

Becky Eidelman just started a master’s program in urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts.

Mike Rosen continues to use the platform WESlam gave him to speak internationally on topics of mental health, masculinity, and sexuality. He is an official storyteller for The JED Foundation, and is earning his master’s at the University of Pennsylvania. He jogs in Fort Greene, where he often sees Josh Smith walking his two blind shihtzus and spends time with Samantha Sherman ’09.

Graham Gnall and Kaitlin Ashley were married on June 1, in a Brooklyn ceremony officiated by Ingrid Parl ’10. Attendees included many Wes varsity athletes, fraternal organization and student government members, and surprise guests, including Topanga Cage ’10, marched along Manhattan Ave., to a bacchanal celebration reminiscent of High Street in its heyday.

Cheryl Tan is “still in Singapore, where things have stabilized in terms of visas and money and houses, all your general 30-year-old stuff. Signed with an agency, shortlisted for a Women of the Future Award, featured in a list of 25 Amazing Women in Marie Claire’s 25th Anniversary edition. Did a new play about humanitarian aid workers that was very intense, and a lot of TV that was not super intense. Contemplating the whole balance thing of acting-for-a-living as opposed to making fulfilling art. Also contemplating more training. Thinking about money a lot.” Watch out for her in a teeny-tiny role on an HBO show out soon. Instagram: @cherylchittytan.

Julian Sonnenfeld married Gia Stagliano on May 18 at Wave Hill Public Gardens in the Bronx. He is in his final year of orthopaedic surgery residency at Columbia University Medical Center–New York Presbyterian Hospital, and soon will be starting a sports medicine/shoulder and elbow surgery fellowship at OrthoCarolina in Charlotte, N.C. in August.

Colin Small is working at The Met and writing a novel.

Julia Heffelfinger married Rick Maynard on June 22 in Weekapaug, R.I. The couple has been together since their senior year at Wesleyan and were both film studies majors.

Eliza Gordon just became the principal at a public school in North Austin called Wells Branch Elementary. This is her first principalship after spending the last eight years as a teacher, instructional coach, and assistant principal in Austin Public Schools as well.

Lastly, Tim Morley and I (Allie Southam) were married on Sept. 21 in Los Angeles. Close friend A.J. Chan married us overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Several other Wes alumni were in attendance. We’re living in Northampton, Mass., while Tim is completing his general surgery residency at Baystate Medical Center. I’m working as a neurologic physical therapist for Hartford Healthcare.

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, class of 2010! A short column this time around:

Aivi Doan and Wade Hsu welcomed their second baby and moved to Los Angeles where Aivi is now a physician at CareMore and Wade is a professor at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering.

Jesse Bordwin is moving on from academia for a new gig. He reports: “I’m leaving my job as an English professor at the University of Virginia to start as a consultant at the D.C. office of Bain & Company.”

Eugene Podborits and Briana Nixon ’11 celebrated their wedding on Sept. 14. Eugene shares: “It was full of Wesleyan spirit—officiated by Sofia Leitner-Laserna ’12, with best man Lu Yang, and attended by Mason Tang, John Jung, Dave Wolovsky, Sam Bernhardt, Meera Bhardwaj, Peter Lubershane, Aaron Kelley, Joanna Kelley, Ashik Siddique, Gary Chance, and Katie Nihill.”

Mytheos Holt completed a Lincoln Fellowship at the Claremont Institute in California. The Lincoln Fellowship provides fellows with the opportunity to study alongside the Claremont Institute’s senior fellows and visiting scholars. Lincoln Fellows study how “the statesmanship and political thought of the Founders and Lincoln should guide policymakers today.”

Finally, make plans for Middletown the weekend of May 21-24, 2020; we are hoping for a great turnout of motivated Cardinals for our 10th Reunion! Details may be found at wesleyan.edu/rc.

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

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

A whole year has gone by and we are excited to share what your fellow classmates have been up to, and will be up to, in the next few months!

Talia Kaplan is moving from D.C. to New York to study for rabbinic ordination and a master’s in Jewish education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Talia is excited to integrate Jewish texts and tradition with her work in community organizing, social justice, and education.

Lily Segal just finished her first year of medical school and has been volunteering in Philadelphia with those experiencing homelessness, to connect them to Philadelphia’s community resources and also get them signed up for health insurance and get them primary care doctors. It’s been insanely rewarding and a lot of what she’s been doing she couldn’t have done without Wesleyan!

Jackson Barnett will be heading to Boston University School of Law in the fall!

John-Henry Carey just finished his first of three years at Columbia for his MFA in acting. This summer, he will be camping in the Maui rainforest and working at Camp Hokukea at Sam Paik’s [’90] summer camp in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Sam is the father of Ellen Paik ’16.)

Joanna Paul and her coworker are taking a group of high school students to Los Angeles for a week this summer to engage in service with people (foster care populations and homeless populations) and with the land (beach cleanup, invasive species removal, and organic farm work). They will be meeting up with Oliver Goodman ’17 for a fire-damage tour.

Last August, Phoebe Howe moved to Honduras to teach English to first graders. It has been an absolutely wild year for her. Next year, she’ll teach second grade and coordinate the volunteer program at her school.

Since graduation, Spencer Gooding has moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles and is working as the special assistant to the chairman of a production company called Mandalay Pictures. He plans to work in the film industry, and before he started this job he tried his hand at making his own short film that is still in the processes of being finished. The experience has taught him he still has a lot to learn, but his job is a great place to start.

Marty Rubin is a high school Spanish teacher in Bridgeport, Conn., working his way towards a master’s in education from Johns Hopkins University.

Marjorie Kozloff has been summoned to grand jury duty.

Brittany Gilmore will be attending the Robert Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont beginning in August pursuing her MD degree! She is very excited but keep her sanity in your prayers.

Margot Metz will be starting dental school at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine this August (class of 2023).

Nicole Boyd has spent most of this year working as an intern at the Center for Italian Modern Art, an exhibition space and research center in downtown Manhattan, and she’ll be starting graduate school in the fall! She will be entering the history of art PhD program at Yale, where the focus of her research will be the Italian Baroque.

Natasha Timmons is working in D.C. as the learning and development coordinator at Conservation International.

Blake Pritchard is working at Gray Organschi Architecture in New Haven, helping out with computer and physical modeling, as well as work in the wood shop.

Henry Lombino has been working in NYC on a couple of off-Broadway shows (Catch as Catch Can and Proof of Love) and this spring he was the operations intern for the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn. He also worked with the Guggenheim fellow Raphael Xavier, who performed his dance piece Point of Interest at Wes by designing his website and helping him establish his mentorship program.

Please keep us updated on your life adventures and make sure to write us about you are up to for the next publication!

Love,

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

Congrats again, Class of 2019! I hope you have all had productive and wonderful summers. We have spent the past four years together, and I can’t believe we are now approaching our first post-Wesleyan fall. I’m excited to hear from you all and find out what amazing things our class has been up to. Look out for an e-mail from me for updates to appear in next issue of the magazine.

Justin Campos | jxcampos@wesleyan.edu

A whole year has gone by and we are excited to share what your fellow classmates have been up to, and will be up to, in the next few months!

Talia Kaplan is moving from D.C. to New York to study for rabbinic ordination and a master’s in Jewish education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Talia is excited to integrate Jewish texts and tradition with her work in community organizing, social justice, and education.

Lily Segal just finished her first year of medical school and has been volunteering in Philadelphia with those experiencing homelessness, to connect them to Philadelphia’s community resources and also get them signed up for health insurance and get them primary care doctors. It’s been insanely rewarding and a lot of what she’s been doing she couldn’t have done without Wesleyan!

Jackson Barnett will be heading to Boston University School of Law in the fall!

John-Henry Carey just finished his first of three years at Columbia for his MFA in acting. This summer, he will be camping in the Maui rainforest and working at Camp Hokukea at Sam Paik’s [’90] summer camp in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Sam is the father of Ellen Paik ’16.)

Joanna Paul and her coworker are taking a group of high school students to Los Angeles for a week this summer to engage in service with people (foster care populations and homeless populations) and with the land (beach cleanup, invasive species removal, and organic farm work). They will be meeting up with Oliver Goodman ’17 for a fire-damage tour.

Last August, Phoebe Howe moved to Honduras to teach English to first graders. It has been an absolutely wild year for her. Next year, she’ll teach second grade and coordinate the volunteer program at her school.

Since graduation, Spencer Gooding has moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles and is working as the special assistant to the chairman of a production company called Mandalay Pictures. He plans to work in the film industry, and before he started this job he tried his hand at making his own short film that is still in the processes of being finished. The experience has taught him he still has a lot to learn, but his job is a great place to start.

Marty Rubin is a high school Spanish teacher in Bridgeport, Conn., working his way towards a master’s in education from Johns Hopkins University.

Marjorie Kozloff has been summoned to grand jury duty.

Brittany Gilmore will be attending the Robert Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont beginning in August pursuing her MD degree! She is very excited but keep her sanity in your prayers.

Margot Metz will be starting dental school at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine this August (class of 2023).

Nicole Boyd has spent most of this year working as an intern at the Center for Italian Modern Art, an exhibition space and research center in downtown Manhattan, and she’ll be starting graduate school in the fall! She will be entering the history of art PhD program at Yale, where the focus of her research will be the Italian Baroque.

Natasha Timmons is working in D.C. as the learning and development coordinator at Conservation International.

Blake Pritchard is working at Gray Organschi Architecture in New Haven, helping out with computer and physical modeling, as well as work in the wood shop.

Henry Lombino has been working in NYC on a couple of off-Broadway shows (Catch as Catch Can and Proof of Love) and this spring he was the operations intern for the Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn. He also worked with the Guggenheim fellow Raphael Xavier, who performed his dance piece Point of Interest at Wes by designing his website and helping him establish his mentorship program.

Please keep us updated on your life adventures and make sure to write us about you are up to for the next publication!

Love,

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

The Wesleyan Denver crew is breaking up. Keyonne Session is moving to the concrete jungle to start a new position at Girls Who Code. Kate Suslovic is taking a cross-country journey with her family to Maine. Avery Kimmell has accepted a teaching position in Denver and Sarah Lazarus will be starting med school at the University of Wisconsin.

Anne Cooperstone has set sail to find what is west of Westeros.

Anna Lu is working at UMass medical school as a research coordinator. She has a great work environment, appreciates the research realm, and will graduate with her master’s in heath science next May.

Jake Lahut has been reporting on the 2020 presidential election and New Hampshire state politics at The Keene Sentinel. He started their first ever podcast, Pod Free or Die, where he interviews presidential candidates and other interesting political figures in the Granite State.

Cole Morissette finished his first year of medical school at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is likely pursuing either orthopedic spine surgery or neurosurgery. He is conducting orthopedic spine surgery research and will be working at Royalty Pharma this summer in Midtown. They are a financial entity that deals with investing in pharmaceutical development.

Han How joined Equity Residential three months ago to work on multifamily acquisitions and developments in the Bay Area.

Kaitlin Chan is moving to Taipei this summer to make comics with the support of the Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship. She would like to thank Professor Jason Adam Katzenstein ’13, Kate Ten Eyck, and Dat Vu ’15 for helping her with her application.

Remy G. Hatfield-Gardner is finishing up grad school at UMass Boston, pursuing a master’s degree in American studies.

Nick Daley has been spent the last year dancing in New York City. He taught his first professional dance classes as a nominated substitute at the Peridance Capezio Dance Center, and his work with Ehrstrand Dance Collective brought him to Taiwan to teach and perform alongside the Seed Dance Company. He is beginning a residency with Ehrstrand Dance Collective in Styggbo, Sweden, then heading to Berlin for b12, Europe’s biggest contemporary dance festival.

Zach Lambros is melting in Georgia and still in search of a girlfriend.

Ilana Ladis is starting a PhD program in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia this fall. She’d love to meet up with anyone living there.

Liz Farrell started a new job in investor relations with the nonprofit Global Health Corps and adopted a dog named Otis.

Mark Otdelnov is an SAT tutor. He lives with family in Moscow and plans to study for a PhD in philosophy in the U.S. So far, he’s received a funded offer from the University of Houston. His writing sample is on Plato’s Timaeus.

Fred Ayres finished his AmeriCorps service term with City Year Detroit and will move to Ann Arbor to begin medical school at the University of Michigan. He will begin seeing patients and examining the role played by cognitive biases in such conditions as hypertension and Type 2 diabetes.

Julie Magruder co-produces a podcast series with Deepak Chopra, called Deepak Chopra’s Infinite Potential. She’s also a producer for Daily Breath, also with Deepak, but more focused on daily uplifting messages and thought-provoking themes.

Sam Shillet needs a roommate in Brooklyn. Hit him up. He’s still gainfully employed. Nisha Grewal is going to grad school for physics at the University of Edinburg. Jack Reibstein is in Portland, Ore., pursuing comedy, writing, and comedy-writing. Althea Turner finished a year of teaching at San Francisco’s Presidio School and is moving to Bar Harbor, Maine. Alex Minton just moved into NYC’s tiniest apartment and is finishing a two-year fellowship in aviation and public policy at the Port Authority. Sophie Miller is starting her first year of law school at Cornell University.

Davis Reid was promoted to senior associate at System1 Research and is engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Kacie Eis. Andrew Rock received a promotion. Eli Spector accepted a position in the Moore Lab at Temple University, where he is investigating the cellular mechanism of circuit formation in neurons.

Ali Felman made it through her first year as a lead teacher physically unscathed; however, middle school students are quite adept at inflicting emotional and spiritual lacerations, so the jury is still out on those. Just kidding. She is still in Oakland, Calif., enjoying the high gas prices and perpetually temperate weather.

Allison Conley, Tricia Merlino ’18, and Peter Dunphy ’18 live together in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. They have been magnificently unsuccessful on dating apps.

Sara Dean and Lydia Tonkonow live in D.C. and are housemates once again (thanks, 7 Fountain)! Coincidentally, they both work in fields related to health policy, and they have been slowly realizing their favorite childhood video game, Zoo Tycoon 2, by adopting a dog and a cat.

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu 

After completing law school in May, Nina Gurak is languishing in Philly libraries studying for the July bar exam. She is moving to Nashville soon and would love to connect with local alumni.

Zach Larabee has been living in South Boston the past three years with Jake Smith ’14. He’s been working happily as the enterprise sales coordinator for two years at Toast, Inc. along with fellow Cardinals Abby Cahn-Gambino ’18, Beau Butler ’18, and Alex Kamisher ’17. In his off time, he bowls with Cameron Rahbar ’15 and carries Jonathan Coombs ’15 in Fortnite on PS4. No one really knows what year Zach actually graduated.

Gabe Rosenberg is working at WOSU Public Media in Columbus, Ohio, where he’s been the digital news editor for the last few years. He won journalism awards for his pun-filled headlines and for a series of stories he did on the city of Columbus tearing down a beloved kangaroo crossing sign—a tragedy that he accidentally caused himself. “All’s well that ends well though!” he notes. You can also occasionally read his reporting on NPR. “Oh, and I started a food blog called Oy Sauce, just for fun, and because the name was too funny to pass up,” Gabe adds.

Madeline Keane’s days have consisted of waking up at 6:25 a.m., eating cheese for breakfast, doing some paperwork, and then later taking a nap. Afterwards, she has an espresso and then goes on her daily stroll around Boston.

Pierre Gerard likes to ride his bicycle(s). He’s interning with the City of Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program to develop safer streets, and crunching the numbers with a worker-owned bicycle cooperative in Berkeley. He dreams of a day when we all stop driving.

Zarek Siegel is living on a cliff by the sea in La Jolla, Calif., finishing up the first year of his PhD in neuroscience at the University of California San Diego. He was living in NYC for two years, doing computational biophysics research at Weill Cornell Medicine with Mike LeVine ’11, and sharing an apartment with Mike Glasser and Conor Hunt. He definitely misses New York, especially his roommates and Central Park, but he’s finding it pretty difficult to complain about San Diego.

Samantha Hellberg, a graduate student in clinical psychology, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Award. The award recognizes outstanding graduate students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Samantha will be recognized at the 2020 Graduate Student Recognition Celebration, hosted by UNC Graduate School.

Caroline Shadle will be starting a master’s program in dance studies this fall at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

After a stint in consulting, Michelle Li realized she really missed being a student and will be starting her PhD in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Becca Winkler returned to Philadelphia after living in Thailand for two-and-a-half years working with Mahouts Elephant Foundation, a U.K. charity dedicated to improving conditions for Asian elephants and the communities that coexist with them. She will begin her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in September studying cultural anthropology. She will the assist foundation part-time with the development of their projects and is excited to begin this new chapter in Philly!

Tim Israel visited San Francisco in May and went to a party, where he met four Wesleyan alumni he didn’t know. “They were chill,” he says.

Melissa “Melysaur” Leung has been roaming Germany searching for the best beer and pretzels with Wy Ming Lin. She has been studying German and learning about the dual health care system by working at Sana Klinikum. Sarah Mi was a lovely visitor but decided to fly just short of Germany, and instead went to Spain.

Bulelani Jili is in Cambridge, U.K. He earned an MPhil from Cambridge University, where he studied as a Standard Bank Africa Chairman’s Scholar. His work examines the relationship between China and African countries, like Ethiopia, that have adopted its model of economic development and surveillance. This fall he will be starting a PhD at Harvard University.

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu