Class Notes

We promised more on Dick Mayer in this issue of the magazine. Dick left Wesleyan after his sophomore year and enlisted in the U. S. Army. Following graduation from Officer Candidate School, he became a platoon leader on the front lines of Korea, was seriously wounded, spent a year in a hospital in Japan, and was awarded one of the Army’s highest medals. Beyond this, Dick has forbade me (Hal) from providing any details of his military exploits, so my hands are tied. I am pleased to add, however, that Dick recovered satisfactorily from his wounds and says that he is still in pretty decent shape. He walks three miles a day and exercises for 45 minutes every morning. He has had a great life, especially his 61-year marriage to a very special woman (Ginger). He is still very active in the insurance business he founded, Executive Compensation Systems, Inc. (see issue 1, 2015, class notes for more details), and despite not having graduated, is every bit the epitome of the Wesleyan liberal arts-educated citizen Vic Butterfield so successfully molded.

Ken Taylor and his wife, JoAnne, reside in the same Seabury Retirement Community, Bloomfield, Conn., as Joyce and I, and we often dine together. You might think that we’d run out of old Wes stories by now, but recently Ken bowled me over with a tale I had trouble believing. Ken related (actually regaled) how his fellow Sigma Chi pledge, Russ Doolittle, was sent off on a quest to ride a horse across the Boston Common, lantern in hand, à la Paul Revere, shouting that the British were coming. I e-mailed Russ to find out if Ken was hallucinating, but Russ told me that, although it was probably not as sensational as Ken recalled, it was mostly accurate. Happily, Russ (and the horse) survived the event, and happily also, it turned out not to be the greatest accomplishment in his life. In fact, he says that he would just as soon forget it at this point.

In the course of tracking down the truth of the Doolittle quest, I learned that Dunc Nelson had had a quest on the same weekend and that he had actually accompanied Russ on his Boston Commons escapade. Dunc’s quest assignment was to parade a goose in front of the library at Wellesley, which he did. However, he was also supposed to inquire after the “measurements” of any young women he encountered there. That was a bit too much for Dunc, who wrote, “Flamboyant as I pretend to be, I suspect that I—keeping the ‘fowl’ imagery—chickened out.” On the way back to campus, Dunc’s borrowed car ran out of brake fluid. Having no money on him, he was forced to exchange the goose for two bottles of brake fluid at a gas station. You can’t make this stuff up!

Tom Collins and wife, Mary Ellen, were seen this past May after a performance at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. Tom still goes to his law office in Glastonbury, Conn. daily. He is in great shape for one significantly older than the rest of his classmates—92. Tom was in the service during the WW II era before entering Wesleyan with us.

Walter Pories checked in recently with news of life in the springtime on his North Carolina farm, including a new crop of soybeans, baby goats, emerging pears, rhubarb ready for the table, “show-off magnolia with its huge white blossoms,” etc. Interspersed with that was, “To my absolute surprise, I was asked if I would like to serve as the second vice president-elect of the American College of Surgeons, a small organization of only 70,000 members [note Pories’ humor] and the strongest surgical society in the world.” Then, with his typical modesty and wit, he added, “As I see my job, it’s to get on my knees every morning and pray that none of the officers die. So far, I have a 100 percent success rate.” Amen, Walter!

More sad news. Dick “Sherry” Sherwood, of South Dartmouth, Mass., died on April 7, 2015. Sherry was part of the five-year Wesleyan/MIT program leading to a degree in architecture and civil engineering, so he left to attend MIT after our junior year. He was well known at Wesleyan as a sailing aficionado and, also, he possessed the first lacrosse stick and ball many of us had ever seen. He had a long career as a construction manager of projects in Jamaica, Iran, England, Denver, and other U.S. locations. Later on, his interest in sailing led him to write A Field Guide to Sailboats, and his keen sense of citizenship involvement led him to be selectman and to serve on various town committees of Amherst, N.H., where his wife, Janet, and he then resided. Dick is survived by his wife, two sons, and five grandchildren, to whom we extend our sincerest condolences.

Our class president and class agent, Bill Wasch, reminds us that our class has established the Class of 1952 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship. It is presently held by Michael Glasser ’16, of Forest Hills, N.Y. Michael is a molecular biology and biochemistry major who says his favorite class last semester was Techniques of Poetry, which he took in addition to five science and math courses. Vic Butterfield would have loved this student! We can all build our scholarship fund for the benefit of future Wesleyan liberal arts students by designating our annual Wesleyan Fund contributions to the Class of 1952 Endowed Scholarship Fund.

John White wrote from Minnesota that the times had been flying by so fast, he couldn’t believe he had truly graduated from the old alma mater 64 years ago. John said he’d been married twice, had four children, who in turn had seven kids, who are turning into being gray-headed themselves, who in turn have three kids, two of whom came into this world in Australia. “All this means I’m a great-grandfather to those three,” John wrote. John was unhappy that the Minnesota driver’s liscence bureau had revoked his driver’s license. He was trying to get it back, so far without success. “I am qualified as a senior citizen,” he wrote, “and am now at the mercy of my dear wife Mary and a couple of friends to chauffer if I want or need to go someplace.” I know the feeling, John.

Bob Mack’s wife, Mary, wrote that Bob has become seriously handicapped by his Parkinson’s Syndrome and can do very little for himself. The family has a wheelchair-accessible van, and they can take him out occasionally. They also have excellent home health and Mary wrote that the family has been of great help also.

Jack Pfeiffer reported sad news from Jonesboro, Ga., in the death of his wife, Nancy, earlier this year. Consequently, Jack wrote, he has moved to a senior citizen’s homestead, where he has a two-bedroom apartment. “My health is fair,” Jack wrote, “and I try to exercise fairly often.” Jack said he wouldn’t be able to make our 65th Reunion but wanted to wish his classmates good health and a great time.

I don’t know if I included a very newsworthy letter from a fraternity brother Roger Stimson in Okemos, Mich. At the time he wrote, Roger was recovering from total knee replacement on both knees and hoped to be ready for the sailing season. Other than the knees, Roger said his health was good and he was working out regularly with a group of ex-Michigan State professors. He was still a ham radio operator. For anybody who has the appropriate equipment, you can see some of his handiwork on QRZ.com. Enter his call letters (K8RS) in the little box on the upper left and you’ll see his web page.

Dave Welsh wrote from Fort Myers, Fla., where he and his wife, Kathy, retired to in 2002. “We still travel to see our family by driving or flying to see sons, daughters, grandchildren and, in just the last few years, great-grandchildren,” he wrote. “Our lives are centered on our country club, playing many rounds of golf, going to the fitness center, reading and spending time with our friends for dinner a few times a week.” Dave said that he and Kathy were enjoying amazingly good health for their “young” age.

In my letters to classmates, I’m asking everyone to indicate whether they would be able to make our 65th Reunion next year. I think we’d need at least 10 to make it worthwhile for the university to do anything for us.

In a letter I received from Dave Richards he makes reference to a previous class note I wrote concerning the diminishing number of ’49 classmates. He made the point that he can still be counted as one of those still with us. He also made the point that he is one of the older members of our class, apparently 91 years of age, which makes him a year older than I. Dave further states that he walks a couple of miles a day and is in good health.
Dave and his wife, Mary, traveled through a “good bit of the world,” as he puts it. As a former architect he developed artistic skills and applied those skills to drawing pen-and-ink sketches of places through which they traveled. He has incorporated those sketches in a book, Some Thoughts on Sketching, and is sending a copy to Wesleyan for its creative arts classes.

I appreciate the letter from Dave, as I get very little information from classmates and his was an interesting and succinct description of his career, travels, and current activities. How about the rest of you who remain on this earth: Your friends and classmates want to hear about you…and don’t leave me hanging like this, begging for something and someone to write about.

The editors are saddened to report the death of longtime secretary Charlie Hill, who died June 7, 2015. He was 90. An obituary in the New York Times noted that he “taught French at Brooklyn College for 30 years, where he was a loved and respected teacher and colleague. He served as chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures during the turbulence of New York City’s fiscal difficulties. He would give junior faculty members choice teaching assignments if he felt it would help their careers, since he was securely tenured. He was active as a leader in the New York-area American Association of Teachers of French, a role for which the French government honored him as a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.” His son, Nick Hill ’85, observes: “Obviously, Wesleyan was a special place to him. Although many of our family members were Wesleyan graduates, that was not what mattered to him. He appreciated how well Wesleyan embodied the liberal arts. He would sometimes point out that he and Victor Butterfield started in the same year. I like to think that my time at Wesleyan gave him a renewed appreciation for a Wesleyan education. … As a longtime N.Y. Jets fan, he would jokingly gripe about Wesleyan’s embrace of Bill Belichick ’75!”

Douglas Dorchester writes, “I sent in an article on racism to the Cape Code Times. The editor liked it and waited for the right moment. When the tragic murders in Charleston, S.C., occurred, he said, ‘Now!’ He modified the article and printed it as their official response to Charleston. The article analyzes how racism develops in all of us.”

You can find his article at capecodtimes.com.

The preceding issue of this magazine included notice of the 2013 death of Gene Noble ’47; but before leaving for WWII service, he was a member of our class. He was also one of the 13 of us from Wesleyan who enlisted in the Tenth Mountain Division, which distinguished itself in combat in Italy and revolutionized the post-war ski industry. So far as I know at this June writing, four of us may still be alive; of two I am certain. That division was unique in military history, and its story and Wesleyan’s chapter of that story deserve a place in the college archives.

My last column generated no influx of news from you out there, but I did receive one unsigned scribbled note telling me, “A curse on your nonsense blessings.” Alas, that anonymous curse lacks spirit, lacks sting; it has no hint of elegance. Consider, if you will, how the ancient Irish curser had a fearsome power. To offend him or her was to flirt with a fate that could last four generations. Every chief had his personal bard whose function was to eulogize his employer and to curse without end his employer’s enemies. Next to the bard in cursing power came the widow woman, and a widow’s curse is still greatly to be feared. The orphan’s curse was no joke, either, and the priest’s curse was to be avoided like the plague. There’s a whole litany of curses in the Irish tradition: the hereditary curse; the reverting curse; the ceremonial group curse; the historical curse (probably the best-known historical curse in Ireland is ‘the curse of Cromwell’; the saint’s curse; and the poet’s curse. They take too many words of explanation for these notes’ allotted maximum, so I’ll end with my favorite delineation, the cursing contest, which has an underlying hint of good humor today. In Sligo town I witnessed a cursing contest between a shopkeeper and a woman of the Travelers. They went at it with vigor until the shopkeeper delivered this curse: “May the seven terriers of hell sit on the spool of your breast and bark in at your soul case.” The Traveler woman defeated him with, “The curse of the goose that lost the quill that wrote the Ten Commandments on ye.” American English has no elegance or imagination in what we coyly call four-letter words. The loss of powerful cursing is appalling.

Slán go fóill

I’m sorry to have to report two more losses. George McFarland died Jan. 5, 2015, and Art Snyder died Nov. 11, 2014. Art was a member of Psi U and a fellow soccer player. They will be sorely missed, and our hearts go out to their families.

Hope you are surviving the weather all right. A little too hot for me, coming from New Jersey! On my follow-up visit to the surgeon, they found some more cancer, so I’ll have to go back for another operation—maybe this time they will get it right!

From Jack Ritchie: “You do good work. I recently got to the campus (in May). I went to hear the president do an update on the state of the college, at lunch in the ’92 Theater for old folks. I was the only ’43 graduate, and the oldest there. The lunch was free.”

I received a nice letter from Fred Mellor, in which he writes, “It’s been years since I reported in to you or your predecessor. You deserve a deal of credit for your effort on behalf of the class of ’43. My wife and I are still in our same home since 1954—in good health, except I fell down a set of stairs and injured my left leg—so that I now walk slowly with a cane. It forced me to give up golf at our country club—now we play bridge there instead—men with men, women with women. I still can drive the car easily, but no sports. Ben Buffham ’41 is the only Wesleyan and Beta Theta Pi fraternity brother I have left to communicate with anymore. It has been years since the last visit to Wesleyan. Well, Fred—keep up the good reporting—I enjoy your effort.”

Dick Ferguson writes, “Always so good to hear from you, and the Wesleyan news. There are not any ’43 guys here at Cranes Mill. There is Bob Foster ’45, who was two classes behind us. He, also, likes news! Both of us send our best to Bobbie.”

Gene Loveland reports: “All is well. Tried to win back the cup in the spring putting championship, but bowed to my nemesis who had five aces to my four. A great match, and another crack at it in October. Also, news for the fall! Labor Day weekend I will marry an old friend of ours from Hartford and resident of the Hallmark. A beautiful 93-year-old who went to Wes house parties in our era, with a Deke whose name she can’t recall. [Congratulations, Gene!] Five days later, on Patriot’s Day, I will be 95. Should be a good year. Onward and upward into the 21st century!”

The class of 2014 is continuing to take the world by storm (in true Wesleyan fashion). Here’s a glimpse into what your classmates are up to:

Jason Mix started a job as a relocation accounting analyst at Cartus in Danbury, Conn.

Natalie Robichaud is “doing what all English majors do and working for a technology-based hedge fund in NYC. Of course.”

Lizzy Steiner says: “Hi, everyone! I completed the Columbia Publishing Course in July (along with Hanh Le ’12) and am now interning at a literary agency in Brooklyn. I love living in NYC (especially since many of my friends and Rho Ep sisters decided to move here) and am having fun working in publishing. If anyone is interested in the Columbia Publishing Course/wants to talk about publishing in general, please feel free to e-mail me at esteiner@wesleyan.edu.”

Lawyer in training and yogi Anya Morgan writes, “I’m in my second semester at UT Law in Austin, Texas. I teach yoga once a week, I’m on the Texas Law Fellowships board, and I’m a research assistant for my Critical Legal Studies professor. I’ll be working at the DLA Piper Austin office as a law clerk this summer.”

Julian Harris is working in the sports industry at a startup in NYC, OpenSponsorship. They were recently featured in Forbes; the future looks bright!

Alex Cantrell moved back to Boston and is busily leading a double life: By day, he works through New Sector Alliance (a nonprofit fellowship program that matches young professionals with nonprofits) at Jeff’s Place, a children’s bereavement center in Framingham. By night, he is endeavoring to launch Sealed, a social app that allows users to send time-delayed photos, videos, and gifts. He wishes that he’d had Sealed during college so he could have captured some of those gloriously youthful late nights and sent them to his friends to unlock on their 50th Reunion. Reach out to him if you want to help make it happen!

Tom Brewer: “From Tulsa, I headed westward by bus, ultimately landing softly on the couch of Casey Feldman ’12 in Santa Monica. Inspired by SoCal’s palm trees, dry heat, and pretty faces, I have been working diligently from aforementioned couch on a book of semi-erotic poems, all based on my most beloved sitcom characters: Ross, Phoebe, Rachel, Joey, Monica and, of course, Chandler. I plan to sell the rights to Friends with Benefits (working title) to a big-time LA movie studio by spring of 2016. With any luck this penniless English major will be able to cash in on his much-cherished but oft-maligned liberal arts education.”

Maurice Hill started his career in higher ed administration: he’s an admissions counselor for Kenyon College. He recruits students from the Chicagoland area, Michigan, and Toledo, and he works with the director of multicultural admissions on the recruitment, retention, and success of students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Sarah Litton Burkett: event coordinator and media relations at Henke & Pillot downtown lounge and kitchen in Houston, Texas.

Yusaku Takeda writes, “After graduation, I moved to NYC to take a position as an IT consultant. But realizing that academics is a better fit for me, I quit my job and moved back to Japan. I work as a research assistant at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy of Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. It’s nice to be back home.”

Maureen Gorman: “I live in Brooklyn with my husband, Aurelien. I’m a junior consultant at a financial technology firm. A bit after our intimate wedding back on a gorgeous October day in my hometown of Milwaukee, Aurelien and I spent a lovely honeymoon in New Orleans, enjoying the unique architecture, delicious food, and bayous. We love taking advantage of all of the cultural offerings of NYC and our proximity to Prospect Park!”

From our nation’s capital, Maggie Feldman-Piltch writes, “Julian Purkiss and I are living in D.C. with our newly adopted and incredibly adorable pitbull, ziva bell hooks. (Pretty sure no one cares about this, but just in case, I’m finishing up a national security and international trade fellowship and he’s working at a non-public, tuition-free school for boys in South East.) We’ll be hosting the Wes GOLD party on April 2 and really look forward to seeing everyone. Leo Liu, Izzy Rode, Olivia May, and Benny Doctor are close by, and we get to play Settlers, drink boozy milkshakes, and be homesick for the crunchy people of Wesleyan on the regular. I also see Emma Daniels ’13 weekly during Congressional Chorus rehearsals.”

Leslie Lai started her PhD program in cognitive science at Brown. Her research investigates how perceptual information is transferred to conceptual understanding in human vision. Leslie is interested in how color and perceptual organization influence the way people process visualized information.

Nick Buffie is working at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, DC. He writes blog posts on economic policy, provides research assistance for various economists at the Center, and tracks CEPR’s appearances in the media. His writings to date have focused on the Affordable Care Act’s positive effects on the job market; the pace of economic recovery; hidden regressive features of the tax code; the conditions necessary for wage growth; the difficulty of prolonged unemployment; and living standards in the U.S. versus other developed countries. His writings have been cited in various newspapers and media outlets for public policy.

It’s always great hearing from you all. Never hesitate to write. Much love,

Mary diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu

Class Notes intern: Susannah Betts ’15

Let’s get right to it!

Syed Ali is at the national offices of FoodCorps in NYC, helping get the word out about a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them to grow up healthy. If you’re interested, they’re recruiting!

Corey Guilmette is halfway through his second year at Yale Law School, well on his way to becoming a public defender.

Hannah Bailenson was promoted at the National Dance Institute (NDI), where she’s been working on school-based arts education programming. Her Home Ave. housemate Joel Hochman is on the forefront of recent changes around immigration, working with relevant populations as a paralegal at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG).

After stints in Boston and New York working for Analysis Group, Saumya Chatrath has settled in between in New Haven. She’s now a research associate for a Yale University health economist.

After 1.5 years pursuing being an “employed professional” at a tech startup, Evan Carmi quit his job to go backpacking in South America. He’ll be in Mexico, Argentina and Chile from February to May. He is simultaneously excited and terrified.

Marisa Stotter directed and produced She Makes Comics, a documentary celebrating the history of women in comic books, released in Dec. 2013 to great acclaim. Now based in LA, she’s begun working in TV and film development at Valhalla Entertainment, the legendary producer of Aliens, the Terminator trilogy, and The Walking Dead. Marisa is happy to report that she is not yet a zombie.

Laura Machlin is in DC, doing research on anxiety as part of the Post-Bac IRTA program at the National Institutes of Health.

Estée Rubien-Thomas is going strong as an associate researcher in neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her roommate, Leah Koenig, has been working at a reproductive health advocacy nonprofit in NYC. This fall, she’ll begin pursuing an MPH. Their other roommate, Lisa Lee, is a strategy consultant at Deloitte. She’s making migrations to New Jersey every week as part of her current project posting.

Ryu Hirahata moved to Williamsburg after graduation and has been living there while working for an architecture firm based in NYC’s financial district. Zack Sulsky also made the move from Wes to Williamsburg with Ryu to work at Carnegie Hall, but has since moved to Colorado to work full-time on his start-up, Edify Technologies, Inc. Their mobile app, Sketch-a-Song, makes music composition accessible to beginners.

Janet Cushey moved from Seoul to New York in September and began working for a boutique investor relations firm called Argot Partners. Her clients are pharmaceutical companies, with a majority working in the oncology sphere.

Miriam Kwietniewska left the 9-5 race to freelance and pursue her passion. She’s happy to announce the creation of Four Ingredients, a healthy frozen dessert company serving the vegan, paleo, and health-minded communities with delicious desserts made from the best stuff on earth. Check it out at fouringredients.com

David Shimomura is actually back at Wesleyan after having spent a year back home in Chicago. He is the new program coordinator for the Center for the Arts, otherwise affectionately known as the CFA. His New Year’s resolution is to have more Twitter followers than Gabriel Urbina.

Samantha Melvin is a lab manager at Columbia University’s Neurocognition, Early Experience, and Development Lab. Meaning she gets to hang out with adorable preschoolers and do science. She’s moved in with boyfriend Andy Ribner ’14.

Christina Ermilio has been working for nonprofit executive search firm Isaacson Miller and is living in Somerville, Mass., with Lydia Rex ’14, Sarah Kalish ’14, and Yara Kass-Gergi ’12.

Chelsea Goldsmith has been living, working, and enjoying life in Baltimore, where she’s worked at six different museums and is the volunteer coordinator at the Baltimore Urban Debate League, an educational nonprofit. When not organizing debate tournaments, Chelsea is out and about exploring the city, learning how to use her new sewing machine, and waiting for NYC Wes friends to come and visit. (“Yeah, I’m looking at you, Cassie Liu.”) If life ever brings you to The Greatest City in America, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Anna Swartz is a staff writer for The Dodo, an animal news site. She writes a lot of cat listicles, and is very happy to live within walking distance of so much of the Class of 2013 in Brooklyn.

Since last writing in, James Gardner has taken on an Afro-German mentee and is tutoring him in German and American history. He also helps out at workshops for the parents of Afro-German children. The mothers have reacted positively to the presence of a brown-bodied male figure in their children’s lives. Additionally, James has taken on more responsibility at his job and is showing more entrepreneurial initiative (one of his New Year’s resolutions!). He is working on becoming an even more valuable member of his company’s executive committee. As always, he hopes to convene more frequently with WesBerlin-ers and WesAffiliants passing through the area.

Kateryn Nuñez is getting a second degree at the NYU College of Nursing. She works closely with a midwife as part of her aspirations to join that field.

Jaewon Chung lives on the edge of Queens, NY, working as a clinical research coordinator for the North Shore-LIJ Health System

Bill Beluch is in Tübingen, Germany, working as a research assistant at The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society.

Aria Danaparamita was invited to take part in a documentary series on Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (founder of Singapore; subject of her thesis). After finding her thesis online, the filmmakers asked her to share her insights as one of their experts. The “Raffles Revealed” episodes aired this January on Channel NewsAsia, a Singapore-based news channel broadcast in more than a dozen countries around Asia and the Pacific. It was a great opportunity to share her research on Raffles and the history of British colonization in Java.

Alex Kuwada is in his second year working at Saint James School in Maryland. He teaches upper school math, coaches basketball and soccer, and lives in a dorm with 8th grade boys at the boarding school. He takes pride in being the self-proclaimed best FIFA player on campus and convincing the student body that his nonsensical nicknames are funny, especially “BKE.” Overall, he would describe his journey as an educator and mentor as “flippant,” “circuitous,” and “hardo.”

Michael Steves is still in LA directing and writing. In December, he was hired to write and direct his second feature film The Cold Descent, a horror-western set on a midnight train headed for Atlanta in the 1870s. The movie stars Tony Todd (Candyman), Michael Eklund (Bates Motel), and Lance Henrkison (the Alien series). More recently, Michael directed a horror-comedy feature film, Clinger (made by many Wes students and ’13 alums), that was an official selection of the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival. It premiered January 24,  in the narrative feature competition, as one of 11 selected out of 3,000 feature submissions, and one of three American films in competition. The movie sold out both of its Park City screenings, and has received multiple distribution offers. In between features, Michael writes and directs commercials.

Wishing all my classmates the best! Cheers,

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu

Cheers to the class of 2012! We are celebrating our third anniversary away from Foss Hill. As juniors in the “real word,” many of us are exceeding all expectations, not surprising for a Cardinal!

Grace Ross joined the Denise Shannon Literary Agency, a New York-based boutique agency. They count many distinguished nonfiction and fiction authors as their clients, including Lydia Davis, Karen Russell, and Gary Shteyngart. Grace hopes to begin taking on her own clients, under the tutelage of Denise Shannon. In the meantime, she is always on the lookout for new authors, so you creative Wes alums, be sure to connect with Grace regarding your literary aspirations!

On a similar note, Harry James Hanson was promoted to creative director at Black + Gold, a full service creative agency in Brooklyn. Harry splits his time between Black + Gold and WENN, an international paparazzi agency, where he is a photography editor. Hopefully, Harry will be snapping the picture of one of our many talented Wes alums.

Harry Bartle is fundraising for a short film he wrote and will be directing: Rouler, Sonner (roo-lay, son-nay). The crew is full of Wesleyan folks: The co-producers are Thomas Waltcher and Chachi Hauser ’13, the director of photography is Justin Zweifach ’11, the lead will be played by Bennett Kirschner ’13, and the production designer is the multi-talented Anna McKinsey, among others. Please check out Harry’s Kickstarter campaign and support your fellow Wes alum!

Alexa Narzikul has completed her first semester at Jefferson Medical School in Philly, where she’s been exploring different areas of medicine and pursuing her love of biology. As a freshman, she serves as an interviewer for Admissions. She meets with prospective med students and helps the university decide on the next generation of doctors. In her free time, she enjoys playing on a pick-up hockey team and supporting all Philly sports teams!

Sunil Chulani has traded in his days as a Mandarin translator to China’s ambassador in Jamaica for a white coat. Sunil is in his second year of medical school at St. George’s University School of Medicine and is loving it. He says, “I dearly miss Wesleyan and cannot wait to see everyone again.” I know many of us share his sentiments.

Up in Troy, N.Y., Cella Jones has been working with a prominent alternative energy researcher at RPI. Together, they are transforming developing countries and our environmental footprint. When she is not making the world a greener place, Cella spends her time in NYC.

As for me, I have completed my master’s in education from Relay Graduate School in NYC. I’m still fighting for education equality and have the privilege of working for the hardest working students at Achievement First East New York Charter School in Brooklyn. Wishing the class of 2012 Wesleyan alums all the best!

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu