Class Notes | 2010s

Jenna Starr has switched positions at Wesleyan! She is now part of the alumni and parent relations team. Keep your eyes open for fun event invitations, and, as always, keep sending her your class notes.

Katherine Lu works in human resources at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center in San Francisco. She enjoys hearing more Spanish than English, and is putting her HISP major to the test.

Peter Cornillie earned his certified cicerone, which is the equivalent of a beer sommelier, or someone who knows way too much about beer.

Marissa Castrigno accepted a job writing for the public affairs department of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She will also be attending the 2017 Wesleyan Writers’ Conference during her time off between positions, and looked forward to a spending few days of early summer back on campus.

Michael Leung gave a presentation on behavioral science at Morningstar Investment Conference—the flagship conference for Morningstar, Inc.—to a crowd of 200 finance professionals! He enjoys his work of incorporating behavioral science methods into software development to help people reach their goals

Since graduating, Catherine Chase works at the San Antonio Museum of Art and is the assistant to the director for a little over a year. She reunited with her former Wes roommate, Katherine Du. They met up at Reunion and Commencement and ate a lot of dumplings at Tibetan Kitchen.

After two years of sharing a wonderful apartment together, Diana Lin, Angela Yoo, and Elaine Tsui are ready to take the next step in their careers. Following her role as a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, Diana is looking forward to attending Penn State College of Medicine. Likewise, after spending two years at the NIH, Angela will be heading off to medical school this fall. Elaine will miss them dearly, but is excited to return to academia and attend Princeton’s chemistry PhD program. We are glad to have shared so many great memories over the last two years and look forward to our next Reunion!

Virgil Taylor and Gabe Gordon recently took the Staten Island Ferry. In the stormy Friday evening light, they could see for themselves the possibilities offered by a life at sea. Taylor and Gordon live as one in Brooklyn.

Aletta Brady is moving to Jordan in September for a research Fulbright studying the intersection of drought, water scarcity, and the refugee crisis.

Rebecca Caspar-Johnson is starting law school at Columbia in the fall.

Mateusz Burgunder has not changed much since the last issue. He still lives and works in Switzerland. He has met many Wesleyan friends around the U.S., Europe, and on Skype, and he looks forward to more conversations. He is also very impressed by how many of his Wesleyan friends finished marathons.

Orelia Jonathan just graduated from UPenn with her master’s in education. She plans to teach English in China for the summer before heading back to The Lawrenceville School to teach and coach as full-time faculty.

Geneva Jonathan is headed off to Northwestern University in the fall to start a PhD program in clinical psychology in Dr. Evan Goulding and Dr. Cynthia Dopke’s Bipolar Technology Lab.

Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell began singing together at Wesleyan and formed a band called Overcoats. They released their debut album, Young, via Arts & Crafts in April, and performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. itunes.apple.com/us/album/young/id1199218160 and youtube.com/watch?v=pXtAhfQhEG4.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

The beloved class of 2014 has taken 2017 by storm. Read below for the latest on what they’ve been doing!

Will Dubbs spent the last two years working for Hillary’s presidential campaign, but has now moved to Prague.

After a few years of doing nonprofit and startup work, Alex Cantrell is happily employed as a UX design consultant in Watertown, Mass. He regularly draws upon his liberal arts background during client calls, using authoritative, fluffy language to justify why the website header should not have a lime green drop shadow. He lives in Brighton with his gecko, running shoes, and beer fridge. He accepts one freelance design gig each quarter—feel free to reach out!

Rob Roth, a third-year ENL/ESL K-12 public school teacher in the NYC Department of Education, as well as a recent NYC teaching fellow and Hunter College MA TESOL program graduate, looks forward to embarking on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant to Bogotá, Colombia, where he will support Universidad Nacional students in acquiring English proficiency.

Grace Smith writes, “I just started law school at the University of Michigan and want to do international environmental law right now, but what, exactly, you want to do changes during the course of school. I was a ski instructor in Colorado for two years before this.”

Ellen Alexander just completed her master’s in geology at UCLA, and is continuing in her PhD program.

Maddy Oswald just finished her first year of a PhD program in developmental psychology at The University of Chicago.

Nick Petrillo, Keegan Duffy, Sky McGilligan, Ben Kafoglis, Remy Lieberman, and Casey Lasda ’13 have “completed a feature length, shot-for-shot, low-budget, high-passion remake of Dirty Dancing, which premiered at Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn on May 23. Emily Nussbaum (New Yorker) described it as ‘sexy, funny, and lovable.’ Barstool Sports described it as ‘an outrageous idea.’ Nick’s mom said, ‘Don’t show Dad.’ The New York Times had no comment. You can find the film on Youtube under ‘Boiz Club Fancy Pants Presents Dirty Dancing’.”

Richie Starzec has been traveling around Bhutan for the last few months. He connected with a selective training society, where he is learning the arts of ninjutsu, jujitsu, and mixed kung fu.

Henry Cheung writes, “After three years of teaching high school mathematics through Teach For America, I am transitioning to a management consultant position at Oliver Wyman. I will miss teaching, but am looking forward to the travel and the change of pace. If anyone is interested in pursuing teaching through Teach For America (or not) or consulting, feel free to reach out!”

Jason Shatz is moving to Chicago to earn a master’s in computer science at the University of Chicago. He writes, “Yes, there is a summer ‘immersion’ program for liberal arts students and others without the proper background. In other words, I’m making up for the computer science studying that I should have done at Wesleyan (at least if I wanted a decent job afterwards)! I still plan to write on the side.”

Maggie Feldman-Piltch is getting a master’s from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in the security studies program and started her own national security consulting company called Unicorn Strategies. In March, she led a trip of retired U.S. admirals and generals to Havana, Cuba, to meet with members of the Cuban government on issues of security cooperation. She writes, “On a perhaps less serious note, I recently won the mojito-making contest at the Cuban Embassy here in D.C., and have been declared Best Mojito Maker. Anything else I do in my life will pale in comparison.” She adds, “All other things are normal. Still having my life over run by two obnoxious pit bulls. Still seeing too much of Julian Purkiss. Still seeing just the perfect amount of Izzy Rode.”

As for me, I will be putting my love for the show Suits on the side, and will be starting at Fordham Law School in the fall where I will be focusing on litigation. Have a wonderful summer, and keep the notes and all of the wonderful things you are doing, coming.

Your Class Secretary,

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

The Class of 2013 is one year away from our Fifth Reunion and we’re feeling the feels. Read on to see what we’ve been up to in 2017!

In March, Evan Weber was recognized by Grist as one of 50 emerging green leaders to watch for his work with U.S. Climate Plan, the organization he and Matt Lichtash started at Wesleyan. In April, U.S. Climate Plan re-branded as Sunrise, and is building a movement of young people to make climate action an urgent political priority, with an eye on a major intervention in the 2018 midterm elections.

Janet Cushey launched a private English review service for Korean corporations called Patch English in January and works as an event manager for Shoptalk.

Ben Smith is script supervising on film and commercial sets and has finished his third original screenplay. He’s now looking to get his sci-fi comedy podcast off the ground floor once he finds some good improv actors. Any Wes composers, sound designers, or funny people should hit this dude up at basmith@wesleyan.edu.

Bennett Kirschner has assumed the role of kennel manager at Pan-American Life Insurance firm in New Orleans. Whether he’s providing dogs for the hunt, or simply intimidating debtors, Bennett takes pride in the quality of his service.

Zach Schonfeld lives in Brooklyn with Ella Dawson ’14 and a 1956 grundig tube radio he inherited from his 99-year old great-grandma. He had a brief cameo in a Real Housewives of New York City episode about a dog wedding.

After meeting on their first day of freshman orientation, JD Dieterich and Danielle Springer were married on May 27. They celebrated the occasion with many Wesleyan friends including Jeff Giocondi, Emma Caccamo, Lex Johnson, and Elizabeth Rudy, who were in the wedding party. JD is now an MD, having graduated from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and Danielle is an assistant editor at Penguin Random House. Congrats to both of them!

Aditi Kini just premiered a music video titled “Park Slope” for OHYUNG ’10 with co-director Hanna Edizel ’14, cinematographer Neo Sora ’14, and actor Stephen Acerra ’12. This is on the heels of Inherited Trauma, the exhibit Aditi curated at Local Project for the Long Island City Arts Open Festival featuring Wesleyan artists Hanna Edizel ’14, Hira Jafri, Zain Alam, and Vikrant Sunderlal Chandel ’15. Performers included Rob Rusli ’10, Matt Chilton ’16, Deren Ertas ’16, and Cameron Couch. Get in touch with her if you want to collaborate!

Bryce Hollingsworth quit the oil business. In Europe now!

David Shimomura started a new job with the University of Chicago in alumni relations and development. At the end of May, he put on their largest alumni event, Alumni Weekend, along with the rest of their amazing planning team.

Prince Emenalo earned his MPH from Georgia State University School of Public Health, where he with a concentration in health management and policy.

Melody Oliphant is finishing up a fellowship at Yale School of Medicine in the Child Study Center, and eagerly counting down the days until the Class of 2013 is reunited in Middletown for Reunion.

Gabriel Urbina created a radio drama podcast called Wolf 359 in 2014, which was one of the finalists for this year’s Webby Awards, an award for excellence on the Internet. Their show is nominated in the Digital Audio Drama category. What really makes this a Wes triumph is that the show is a 100 percent Wes production. Wolf 359 is co-produced by Zach Valenti ’12, who is also the lead actor and is co-written by Sarah Shachat ’12. The cast is rounded out by Emma Sherr-Ziarko ’11, Michaela Swee ’12, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs ’11, Zach Libresco, Noah Masur ’15, and Michelle Agresti ’14. On the technical side, their original music is composed by Alan Rodi ’12, and their audio recording is done by Jared Paul ’11 and James Schoen ’05. They even did an apprenticeship with current student Claire Shaffer ’18!

Danielle Craig says, “Hey, what’s up? Hello,” to all her fellow 2013ers. She saw some of them to celebrate JD and Danielle’s nuptials over Memorial Day weekend. Danielle just returned from two months of solo backpacking through Southeast Asia and will start law school at UC, Berkeley, in August. So long to the NYC-Wesleyan crew, it has been a stellar four years. If you live in the Bay, let her know!

Michael Robinson and Lia Monti were married in Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 3, surrounded by countless members of their Wes family. This marks the second generation of Robinson men finding true love at Wes—Mike’s parents Dennis Robinson ’79 and Anne Robinson ’81 met in 1978. Yes, the Beta sweetheart and Wesleyan fight songs were sung, and yes, Buddy wore a bowtie.

Thank you to all my classmates who wrote in, and best wishes to everyone!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

I’ll begin by congratulating all my fellow Cardinals on five years from the nest. I think I speak for all when I say that this time has gone by in a blink of an eye. It comes as no surprise that within these five years, our classmates have been busy changing the world around them.

Hannah Monk graduated with her doctorate in clinical psychology from William James College in Newton, Mass. Congrats Hannah!

Michaela Swee received her master’s and is going on to complete her PhD at Temple University’s clinical psychology program in Philadelphia, specializing in the research and treatment of adult anxiety and depressive disorders. She fills her spare time doing the voiceover for Hera, an intelligent computer operating system that runs the Haphaestus station. Michaela is also working on Wolf 359’s fourth and final season with fellow Wes alumni Gabriel Urbina ’13, Zach Valenti, Sarah Shachat, Emma Sherr-Ziarko ’11, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs ’11, Zach Libresco ’13, Noah Masur ’15, Michelle Agresti ’14, Scotty Shoemaker ’13, Ariela Rotenberg ’10, Alan Rodi ’12, and Jared Paul ’11.

Julian Silver is working in film and writing with Reiss Clauson-Wolf ’13. When not writing, he is also keeping the LA coffee market afloat with Reiss’ better half, Dana Levy ’12.

Adrian Rothschild is working at Nickelodeon on interactive preschool content for Noggin, which just launched as a revamped iOS app. Adam also started as the director of digital content for the Children’s Media Association, a nonprofit network of producers, writers, artists, and researchers in the children’s media industry.

Grace Ross is living the New York life as a literary agent at Regal Hoffmann & Associates. She recently moved to Brooklyn, and in her time away from reading, she sings in the Grace Church Choral Society.

JoAnna Bourain is starting dental school at the University of Minnesota in the fall. In four years’ time she will be JoAnna Bourain, DDS.

Jake Walkup is teaching at the middle school of his youth in Manhattan. When he is not shaping the minds of our future, he is coaching the school’s first Ultimate Frisbee team, which is vying for a championship in its debut year. Dan Verdejo and Gabriel Finkelstein are also teachers who teach math, writing, literature, science, and social studies classes, among other things. As a previous educator, I can say confidently that this is no easy feat!

Raghu Appasani is finishing up his final year of medical school in Massachusetts, but continues to make frequent trips to NYC to visit his old roommates from Wesleyan. He runs the MINDS Foundation, along with the involvement of many Wesleyan community members and spends as much time as possible in India.

Finally, Peter Frank, Stephen Nangeroni, Drew Hudson, Sam Tureff, and Bill Walen bested Alex Meadow, Robert Troyer, Malcolm (Mac) Schneider, and Zach Dixon in the championship game of their 4v4 soccer league. May the best team win!

Allegra Heath-Stout married Laura Heath-Stout ’11 in October, and has been enjoying married life in Somerville. Allegra runs a fellowship program at JOIN for Justice in Boston, training Jewish young adults in community organizing.

As for me, I am approaching my one-year anniversary at Bridgewater Associates and enjoying the East Coast summer. Wishing the entire class of 2012 continued success, health, and happiness.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

Devon Hopkins made the move to Brooklyn this spring and started a new job as the director of content marketing at CARTO. He’s enjoying the availability of bodega breakfast sandwiches, a walking commute, and reconnecting with other Wes kids.

Storyteller Mike Rosen also has gigs as a teaching poet and copywriter (heymikerosen.com).

Barbara Fenig and Patrick Cline were married on May 27 in New Haven, Conn. The couple met at the Wesleyan Writers Conference.

David Puelz wrote in with news about his twin, Charles Puelz. Charles received his PhD from Rice University in computational math. Over the next three years, he will be completing post-docs at the University of North Carolina and New York University’s Courant Institute.

Corrina Wainwright started the MPH program in health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is working at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene this summer for her practicum project, researching structural violence as a public health issue with the Center for Health Equity.

Mary Weir is at the University of Southern Denmark on a Fulbright scholarship, studying and working with women in prison. This is an area in which she became interested while at Wesleyan, where she was involved with the prison project.

Cheryl Tan is in Singapore, starring in her first TV show, and is leading a musical at the Esplanade, playing a young Dowager Empress CiXi, and doing another musical at the end of the year. Another highlight was playing Juliet for Shakespeare in the Park during which she nearly died. Figuratively. Search for “faculty” on Toggle.sg if you want. She’s changing focus to the commercial side of things to make more money so follow her at @thecheryltan. She’s also teaching singing, less scarily than before. #hireme

Lastly, Joe Giamo, class agent, has an update on the class gift: “Thank you to all of this year’s 2016-17 donors to the class gift and who helped to make the difference for our current undergraduates! We look forward to updating on our success when results come in after June 30.”

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Kate Linde just got promoted to digital campaign manager for Teen Vogue.

Silvia L. Diaz-Roa worked for a year with the nonprofit DKMS: Delete Blood Cancer to help register people to the bone marrow registry and save lives. Then she started a digital marketing consulting company called DR Digital Studio with her sister and it’s going well so far! She also applied to graduate school and has been accepted to Yale and UPenn.

Andrew Hove has been in Boise (Idaho, for those who may not know where that is…) since graduation working as an analyst at an engineered wood products company called RedBuilt. He’s spent about 40 percent of his working time in Mississippi assisting the management team of a plywood mill rebuilding and refinancing the facility that was leveled by a tornado two-and-a-half years ago. Outside of work, he tries to play music around town about once a week and usually head up to the mountains or camps somewhere right outside Boise on weekends.

Kimora Brock ended her first year in LA with a guest appearance on an Investigation Discovery Channel show called Married with Secrets, and a trip to Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, and Qatar as a yoga model for 2016 Udaya Live, a yoga festival. With the second year just underway, she has moved to Malibu with her partner and launched her company, Malibu Trail Mix, in early 2017. Malibu Trail Mix, LLC, is a 100 percent raw, organic, and sprouted trail mix designed to share the highest quality nutrition and love to the world. Please share the news, follow on IG and like on FB @malibutrailmix, malibutrailmix.com, and info@malibutrailmix.com. She thanks everyone for all of their support thus far and sends love and blessings.

Anthony Antonellis is coaching football and getting his master’s in liberal studies (both at Wesleyan). Previously, he worked at EMC corporation in Boston doing tech sales.

2016 was a great year for William Mendoza. In May, he graduated from Wes again with his M.A. in psychology. Recently, he started working as a research analyst at Ipsos, a market research company.

Anqi Guo got a master’s in finance and risk from the London School of Economics, and is starting her new job at Accenture London in January.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Two updates this time around. Ali Ozols writes, “For the past two years, I’ve been working as a speechwriter to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.”

Glenn Hartman-Mattson writes, “Right after Wes, I taught human ecology and sustainable design for a year at The Island School, a semester abroad program for high school students in Eleuthera, The Bahamas. The following year I diddled around backpacking, ski bumming, and teaching kids about rocks, and have now made my way back to The Island School. Moving to admin, I do admissions and alumni relations and call Boston home base (with a few cherished trips to the Bahamas).”

Simon Riker gave an update on his production, Me Prometheus: “The New York Theater Festival has accepted our show, and we have the honor to present three performances of it at the Hudson Guild Theatre, a 96-seat theatre in Chelsea. The shows will be July 11, 15, and 16. We are excited about the momentum that the festival is creating for our project and we are excited at the future opportunities it could unlock.”

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

This year has been unfortunately uneventful for Bennett Kirschner. Some avoidable health complications have sidetracked his 10-year plan. Regrettably, he accepted a friend’s challenge to see who could eat more bottles of Flintstones Gummy Vites. While he won the challenge, his body was profoundly disoriented by this mineral glut. It has been eight months and he is still functioning at only 80 percent of his former capacity. Let this be a lesson to us all: be careful with vitamins.

James Gardner writes in from Germany, where one of his stepsons just had a baby, so he is now technically a grandfather (believe it or not!). He writes that there is a Facebook group for Wes alumni living in Germany or any German-speaking countries: facebook.com/groups/wesgermany. Everyone living in or frequently traveling to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland should feel free to join.

Benjamin and Vivianne Swerdlow recently bought a home in Richmond, Calif., with their black golden, Shadow, and their degu, Henry. Benjamin is in his second year of a PhD. program in clinical psychology at UC, Berkeley. Vivianne runs a free salesforce administrator training program for job seekers who have been out of work for six months or more, helping mid-level professionals with technology backgrounds gain new skills and find sustainable employment.

Chelsea Goldsmith is still living in Baltimore, still working in non-profit, and still really enjoying both of those things! Highlights of 2016 include learning to use the overcasting foot on her sewing machine, winning gold at Pirate Olympics, and getting engaged.

Marjorie Dodson is going on her fourth year in Beijing. She noshed on spicy rabbit heads with Dan Nass. If anyone is ever in China, give her a shout!

Kevin Curtin shipped up to Boston from NYC. After spending the last year doing private equity, he jumped ship to Jobcase, a startup based in-town. The company is a social media site for empowering America’s workforce.

Evan Okun coordinates nationwide tours for Circles & Ciphers, a Chicago-based restorative justice organization led by young people who are court-, gang-, prison-, and DCFS- involved. Circles & Ciphers opens each event with a spoken word performance, then hosts participants in a restorative justice peace circle to discuss police, and prison abolition. In 2016, they hosted events at Yale University, Hunter College, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, and a myriad of other cities across the country. It’s time to dismantle the prison industrial complex, so please contact him directly at: Circles.Ciphers@gmail.com 

The end of 2016 saw Nicole Bonneau graduate from Palmer College of Chiropractic’s Florida Campus as a doctor of chiropractic. She is very excited to be back in her home state of Vermont to practice, as well as to be closer to friends, family, and her fiancé.

In October, Kristen Raddatz became the executive editor for the Chicago Review of Books. Feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in reviewing books, interviewing authors, or writing a lit-related piece for the CHIRB. She’s also still working her real (paying) job as a publicist at the University of Chicago Press, and she’d love to connect with any Wes alumni living in or traveling through the city!

After two years as the deputy media editor at Huffington Post, Catherine Taibi left to join Bloomberg as social media editor, overseeing social strategy on various platforms across Bloomberg.com’s many verticals, including markets, politics, technology, and luxury. Catherine had the privilege of traveling to all three presidential debates and covering each event live, interviewing top political/media figures and celebrities. Post-election, she will continue to cover politics both nationally and internationally.

Ian Waldron writes that Rory O’Neill returned to the United States after three years wandering in Brazil, and was duly roasted by his friends for three hours upon returning. He is acclimating well to American culture and norms.

As for myself, I spent the holidays down under and ushered in 2017 in Melbourne. Tried to smuggle a baby wallaby back to San Francisco, but sadly I couldn’t pull it off. Thanks to all my classmates for writing in and best wishes to everyone in 2017!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Nathaniel Draper writes in, “The Syros International Film Festival will be held on July 14-19 in Greece. Now going into its fifth edition, the film festival was started by Cassandra Celestin ’13 during her senior year at Wesleyan, along with Jacob Moe (Pomona ’13). It was a self-funded endeavor the first year, and was subsequently joined by Aaron Khandros ’13 and myself, with the four of us making up the core organizational team.

“The festival has since grown to one of the most important art and film events in the region, and has earned recognition in the film world throughout Europe and further abroad. The festival is held every summer on the island of Syros, the capital of the Cycladic islands located just south of Athens, and embeds a rigorous curation of new and old films into many reconstituted spaces on the island, in open-air cinemas purpose-built for the experience. All of which is quite special, since the quality of the programming and the unique experience and community tend to turn guests into devotees who come back again and again.” You can learn more about the festival at syrosfilmfestival.org.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

Exciting updates from the Class of 2011!

Tim Dodds reports, “It’s been a crazy and fun year of notables in D.C. After finishing my master’s in June from UPenn, I rewarded myself with a heli-ski trip to New Zealand, only to come back broke, but with a rescue puppy. I’m looking forward to repping the Wes jugg squad as the head lacrosse coach at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School in Virginia, and building on their #10 national finish from last year.”

Jared Gimbel is in Brooklyn, developing his first video game, Kaverini: Nuuk Adventures, as a co-production with Appetizer Mobile. The game, set in contemporary Greenland, is scheduled for release in 2017 or 2018.

Jon Sheehan, along with other Wes alumni (Sean Corlett ’07, Kim Wittmer ’01, Jacalyn Lee ’79, Molly Steinfeld ’15, and Noel De La Rosa ’01), participated in College Awareness Day at the NYC Department of Education in January.

Steve Hauser and fellow football teammate Nick Seara both married their longtime girlfriends last year with several Wes alumni attending these special events. Congrats!

Jennifer Cheng writes, “I’m still in Salt Lake City, working on my PhD. in neuroscience at the University of Utah. Every now and then I have time for less important things, like climbing and sleeping.”

And, last but not least! Devon Hopkins is moving to Brooklyn after living in D.C. since graduation. He is the new director of content marketing for CARTO, a software platform for creating data-driven maps.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2017!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu