Class Notes

This is a column full of congratulations (and variations on the word) so I hope you won’t get tired of seeing it!

Congratulations to Stan Parish, whose first novel, Down the Shore, will be published by Viking in June 2014. The novel is about a promising high school student at a boarding school in New Jersey whose path to an Ivy League School and success is preempted when he gets caught selling drugs. Stan guarantees that it is a vastly different version of his Wesleyan honors thesis. The novel has received a great review by former Wesleyan teacher and acclaimed author Alexander Chee.

Speaking of creative congratulations, Anna Moench was awarded a fellowship in playwriting/screenwriting by the New York Foundation of the Arts. Anna’s plays have received rave reviews and have appeared at the Old Vic, 59E59, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Dance Theater Workshop. She’ll probably buy an island or two with the cash; I’d say go for Turks and Caicos.

In the same writing vein, congratulations are in order to Katey Rich who is now the Hollywood editor at Vanity Fair’s website, working out of New York City. Katey was previously editor-in-chief of the website CinemaBlend for six years. She promises not to give off any Miranda Priestly vibes!

Ronald Lim works in Singapore as an architect and regularly sees Sam Han, who now teaches sociology at Nanyang Technological University. He also goes on regular urban culinary excursions with jetsetting alums who fly in like Tokyo-based Takahiro Haneda, as well as U.S.-based alums Kingston Wong, Elizabeth Khoo, and Wilson Co.

Juan Sebastian Moreno graduated with a M.A. in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) from the New School University in January 2013. He is engaged to Enie Rosales Ramos; the wedding will take place in the Philippines in 2014. Ben Magarik is still D.C.-based, although he has been traveling a lot for his job at MSCI (ISS) to help companies improve governance practices and sustainability reporting. He had the rare of treat of dinner with Louis Caditz-Peck and Jesse Watson in Berkeley in November.

Daniel Dykes plans to finish his law degree at Harvard in May 2014, after which he’ll be working in corporate law in NYC. This spring, he will direct the Harvard Law School Parody, a musical comedy making fun of law school and life in general.

Congratulations to Becca Seely who got married to the delightful Abby Ferjak at Yale Divinity School in New Haven. Alix Sleight Warner, Sara Covey Ortiz, Aurora Maoz, and Molly Greenberg ’05 were bridesmaids. An amazing Wes crew was in attendance, including Diego Ortiz ’05, Phil Amidon ’05, Bettina Schlegel, Nona Willis Aronowitz, Sarah Gunther, Lizzy Cohen, Matt Ferrisi ’03, Kate Mitchell ’05, Daniel Rubin, and Maggie Starr. Currently, Becca and Abby are living the dream in Venice Beach. Becca is completing the final step in her ordination process to become a Lutheran pastor by serving one year as vicar of a church in Santa Monica.

Belated and huge congrats to Vanessa Meer who married Marc Schreiber at Beach Point Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., on Oct. 6, 2012. Wesleyan was well-represented by Andrew Beckler ’91, Leslie Shasha ’82, Amelia Geggel, Beck Straley ’07, Jaimie Dougherty, Michelle Atwood ’05, Zach Strassburger, Anna Pinkert, Astrid Hesse ’08, Rachel Schreiber ’05, Alan Witt, Stephen Hartley, Maya Wolf Hartley, Samuel Duncan ’05, Kate Thorpe, Kim Landry, Sharisse Kanet, Leah Stern, and Teague Hopkins, as well as their associated significant others. Vanessa and Mark are living in Jersey City, where she is an environmental consultant at a multidisciplinary engineering firm and Marc is on an interest-rate-products trading desk at Goldman Sachs.

Jessica Pearce married Adam C. Jonas ’04 on July 19, 2013, at a lovely outdoor ceremony at Bryant Park Grill in NYC. Wesleyan alum attendees include Emily Titterton, Kaylea Moore, Jenna Bonczewsk, Douglas Collins ’07, Molly Adams ’07, Jaime Wendel ’07, and Megan Willey ’07. Congrats and best wishes in 2014!

Congratulations to Rachel Berger, who gave birth to a son, Colin Ezra Jankelowitz, on Aug. 14 2012. Rachel lives in Brooklyn with her husband Ari Jankelowitz. Ilana Davis Sharpe and her husband Dan Sharpe welcomed their first child Lorelei Olivia Sharpe born on September 18, 2013. The new family of 3 greatly enjoyed their first holiday season together. Needless to say, congrats! And last but certainly not least, congrats to Tal Beery and his wife, Eugenia, who gave birth to a bouncing baby boy Abraham Manwelyan Berry on August 8, 2013.

I wish you all the best in 2014 and hope to run into you in New York City soon!

Calvin Cato
catocals@gmail.com

This time around we tried to do something a little different for the class of 2007. As the call for class notes came out around Thanksgiving, I asked my fellow ’07ers what they were thankful for over the last year. We got great responses, but far too few of them! Next time around I look forward to knocking it out of the park.

To start, I am thankful for my beautiful wife and family. I am thankful that my friend Thomas Bendon is getting married this summer and was fortunate to see Hooter Glidden, Jared Ashe, Julian Canzoneri, and several others during travels the last few weeks.

Deirdre Salsich has had a great year and is thankful for a number of things “1) I passed the New York Bar Exam; 2) I have a fabulous job with New York State United Teachers, the public school teachers’ union as a labor and employment attorney; and 3) I love my neighborhood in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and that so many Wesleyan people are nearby! Last but not least, I am so thankful that my sister, Mairead Salsich Viegas ’04, married a wonderful guy, Bob Viegas, on Nov. 23.”

Grace Nowakoski is thankful for America’s interstate highways which allowed her and her fiance, Jeff Diteman, to switch coasts this October, trading Portland, Ore., for her hometown of Putney, Vermont; for four good years in Portland, the wonderful community of people they left behind, and the friends they’ll always keep; for snow, and stacked firewood and a woodstove to burn it in; for Thanksgiving with her family.

Tess Amodeo-Vickery is thankful for finding her true passion in song writing and the Wesleyan music mafia (she plans on giving you all a call when the time is right).

Doug Rubenstein sent this my way “I’m thankful for my lovely wife, my family, my cool kick ass dog, my health, my amazing friends and my new pilot that I shot.” Best of luck with the pilot, Doug!

Lauren Smith scored an invitation to the White House Harry Truman bowling alley—and was kind enough to invite her pals Jesse Young ’06, Seth Samuels ’06, Molly Gaebe, and Margaret Dickson. The final score of the game remains unknown…but they are all winners.

Thanks again to all who wrote. I can’t wait to see what 2014 has in store for Wes 07!

Victoria Belyavsky and Jesse Bardo
wesleyan2007@gmail.com

Lauren Goldman writes: “I just finished working my third campaign cycle as a field organizer. The last campaign I worked on was called Garden State Forward—a campaign to elect progressive politicians to New Jersey’s highest offices. Although Christie won the governor’s seat, the state senate and assembly were carried by Democrats. I got to work alongside Michael Berger and we shared many laughs and good times. Looking forward to seeing the whole of Wesdom/NYC in the coming weeks.”

Emily Hauck writes: “I’m working for the city of Beauvais (about an hour outside Paris) in charge of various sustainable development action plans. Being a French public servant has its perks, notably nearly seven weeks of paid vacation. Julien and I took full advantage and came back to the U.S. for a month this summer. While home, we stayed with Izaak Orlansky in his Brooklyn apartment, ate burgers in Harlem with a bar-exam-wearied Emma Rosenberg, visited Becca Feiden ’09 on Martha’s Vineyard, and hung out with Maura Scully and Emily Malkin in D.C. Stephanie Schwartz used her frequent flier miles to come visit us in Paris last spring and we’re looking forward to hosting Mark Purser for Thanksgiving!”

Chaz Ganster writes: “I’m in Tokyo, visiting family and Wes friends. I’m the first person in my family to go to Japan after my grandmother left in 1956. But I live in L.A., animating and character designing for an all-Wesleyan educational software company called Pup’s Quest for Phonics. The software is being used in many elementary schools in L.A. (pupsquest.com)

Liat Olenick is recovering from liverfest.

Nick Benacerraf writes: “The Assembly, my performance collective (with Edward Bauer, Jess Chayes ’07, Stephen Aubrey ’06, and Ariela Rotenberg ’10), has been invited to perform at the CFA Theater in January! It’s really exciting for us to come home to where it all began. We will be presenting HOME/SICK, our collectively-written show about the Weather Underground, which recently ran for three sold-out runs in New York and was a critics’ pick in the NY Times. We make smart, visceral theater and if you live in New York, you should hang out with us. I am also one of the leaders of an initiative called The Brooklyn Commune Project (brooklyncommune.org) that is writing a position paper about the economics of the performing arts, which will be published online in January. I’m making lots of theater and visual art, while still managing to eat food. (Yes!) People at LA Weekly gave me an award for set design. And… I went to India for six weeks this summer! All thanks to Wes.”

Steph Calvert writes: “Some recent news of mine is that I was the youngest alumni artist to show work in the Alumni Show II that was recently up in Zilkha Gallery. I went for Homecoming & Family Weekend for gallery talks, and interview, and to participate in a panel discussion on art and science, along with two other artists from the show and a couple of scientists from Wesleyan. I stood out there as well, as the youngest and only female on the panel.”

Grace Overbeke is in her first year of the interdisciplinary PhD in theatre and drama at Northwestern University.

Anthony Albrecht writes: “Although I have lived in Middletown my whole life, I just bought a house in town (as opposed to living with parents and then in an apartment) with my wife, Kelly. After my first teaching job last year at New Britain High School, I currently teach (and happily am doing so) at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, also in Middletown, as a language arts teacher.”

Maggie Siddiqi began studying at Hartford Seminary, pursuing a master’s in Islam and Christian-Muslim relations, as well as a graduate certificate in Islamic chaplaincy.

Zachary Davis and Travis Fitzgerald ’09 are closing Appendix Project Space, their art residency and gallery space in Portland, Ore., after a successful five-year run. They are moving to NYC, where they plan to collaborate with Joshua Pavlacky on another curatorial project, American Medium.

Alpay Koralturk writes: “After four years in the investment banking and startup scenes in New York, I moved back to Istanbul to start a mobile gaming company. We have raised venture capital funds from Europe and the US and will be expanding our team over the next year. You can check out Gram Games on the iOS AppStore.”

Devon Golaszewski began a PhD program in history at Columbia, focusing on African history this fall, after several years in Mali.

Phoebe Jones is in the second year of her master’s degree in public health at Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she has been falling hard for the City of Brotherly Love. She is concentrating in health management and policy and her work focuses on autism, aging, and ethics. She traveled to Israel this past summer to do research with her professors and she is excited to get back to the workforce after graduation this year. She is also loving being an aunt to two adorable nephews (sons of Serena Jones ’00!) and living with her boyfriend, a seasoned Philly native.

Sam Grover has moved to Madison, Wis., to start a career as a staff attorney for the nonprofit organization Freedom from Religion Foundation. He will work to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church while learning to eat cheese curds and enjoy ice fishing. Go Badgers!

Before starting grad school in May, Leslie Prado did a road trip in March and saw the Grand Canyon. Now she is in D.C., doing a dual master’s degree in physician assistant and public health at George Washington University where she will be for the next three years.

Ruby Ross writes: “My only big news is that I released my first CD, an EP called Solid Ground, back in October. I recorded it in Jess Myhre’s ’09 basement when she lived in Baltimore last year and she and her friends laid down a bunch of tracks on it so it turned into much more than I’d originally envisioned. I’m excited to finally have the finished product. I also have a track on a new compilation CD of New Orleans songwriters, recorded and released by Buffa’s Back Room Bar. Other than that, life’s still pretty much the same: waitressing at JIMS cafe, teaching adult ESL, and making music as Ruby Ross & The Precious Gems and as Pyeya with other NOLA Wesfolk.”

Caitlin O’Shaughnessy
caitlin.oshaughnessy@gmail.com

Winter is near and what better way to enjoy a warm fire and a big mug of hot chocolate than with some class notes, right?! Here’s what some of your fellow classmates are up to:

Seth Halpern is working in Washington, D.C. as a strategic consultant for hospital executives at The Advisory Board Company, and is also in his second year of the evening MBA program at Georgetown University. Seth is overworked and underpaid, and looks forward to seeing everyone at the five (5!!!) year Reunion in the spring.

Laura Masulis is working as the senior partnerships manager at Interise, a social enterprise that trains local business owners to help take their businesses to the next level. On the side, she is helping found a community bike and board shop, The Lawrence BiciCocina, to improve the quality of life in Lawrence, Mass., encourage more physical activity, and provide job and leadership training for youth. Laura also just had a wonderful woodsy get-a-way weekend with Tressa Eaton, Sara Hirsch, and Ellie Wiener.

Lilly Fink Shapiro shares that she is studying public health and sustainable food systems at the University of Michigan.

Dominic Ireland left Bridgewater Associates back in February, spent March wandering solo around Turkey (awesome), and now he’s in Connecticut, working IT at Stamford Hospital.

Elana Baurer is a first-year associate at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia, PA, working in the Employment, Labor, Benefits, and Immigration group. She splits her time between employment and immigration matters. Elana passed the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bars and was to be admitted formally before the New Year.

Ray Ward, Sawyer Greene, and Jeremy Finch are now living in Cambridge, Mass., where their apartment features nearly one pull-up bar per capita.

Ari King has launched a website and podcast titled Off Campus, which is based on his book Now What?! Conversations about College, Graduation, and the Next Step and has a Kickstarter to raise money to produce the show. To find out more, see: thisisoffcampus.org

Only five months until our 5-year Reunion. Get excited! And keep the notes coming!

Alejandro Alvarado
ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Although most cardinalis cardinalis in fact do not migrate south for the winter, several of our classmates are making big moves and here is what they report:

Alice Maggio reports the following: “After making pie in Brooklyn, teaching English in the Alps, and cooking Basque food in Manhattan, Alice Maggio (Sociology and French, 2010) has found herself back at home in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, working on the region’s local currency, BerkShares. Much to her surprise, her role at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics has had her traveling around the world (and even back to Wesleyan) to speak about the potential of local currency to create more democratic and sustainable local economies.” Alice even had time to make an appearance on PBS News Hour to discuss the benefits of local currency!

Jory Kahan has moved to Boston to start medical school at Tufts University. Jory is happily living in downtown Boston and is excited to hang out with any Wes Alums in the area.

Jeffrey Rovinelli wrote in with perhaps the coolest note of the year: “Razor (formerly Ray) Edwards ’10 and myself just got married in a quiet ceremony in Bushwick, only partially for tax reasons. Jeff is a recently accredited non-denominational minister running a small animal therapy outreach program in Williamsburg and Razor has a side project as a vegan taxidermist. (For real! This is a thing that people want!)”

On Oct. 15th, Grace Kredell welcomed her first child—a healthy baby girl named Maine—into the world with her partner Alex. For the last two years, Grace has been building up a successful tarot card reading practice in Los Angeles.

Katherine Rodriguez-Perez Colone checks in to report that she was married in 2012, has moved to Atlanta, and is now working as a technical editor contracting for an aeronautics company.

Raphaelle Brochet writes in from India, where she is teaching music in a recent school that offers jazz, contemporary world and Carnatic music; the first school of its kind in India!

Katherine Kitfield Bascom “is taking to the air. In 2014, she will be joining the dance company ‘Human Architecture’ as an aerialist, and will be featured in a major public work in NYC’s Central Park (theoneshow.com). Lately, she can’t get enough of the Sufi poet Hafiz, or cooking with goose fat from the farm project she’s running with her brother up in Vermont (Want local organic goose for the holidays? getyourgoose.com)”

Caitlin McHugh is finishing her second to last quarter at Western Washington University where she is working toward an M.Ed. in Environmental Education and a certificate in Non-profit Administration through Western Washington and the North Cascades Institute M.Ed. program. Caitlin spent a full year living, working, and taking classes in North Cascades National Park on Lake Diablo in Washington State and just moved back to Bellingham, WA in September to finish her coursework. Caitlin adds this awesome description of her work: “As part of my studies this summer, I coordinated curriculum and volunteers for a community-based environmental education, literacy, and nutrition program in Concrete, WA. It was a collaborative effort between the National Park Service, United General Hospital’s Community Health Outreach Program, and the Concrete School District. Basically, we pulled together the funds to provide a free, 6 week summer camp for Concrete Elementary school children– most of whom would not have the resources to go to camp otherwise. The camp focused on improving the literacy levels as well as nutrition; we provided breakfast and lunch every day because many of the students receive free and reduced lunches during the school year. We also focused on exploring and enjoying the local outdoors both in Concrete and the neighboring national park (North Cascades National Park). This summer was its pilot season, but our efforts were successful enough that the Concrete Summer Learning Adventure is set to go again next summer!”

A quick update from Seth Rosen: “I moved to Vancouver in September to work for Klei Entertainment as a game designer. I’m enjoying exploring the city and am loving my job: so far I’ve made a short horror game, ‘The Screecher,’ and now I’m working on a second title, ‘Don’t Starve.'”

Ian Pylvainen had the thrill of attending the recent wedding of Kacey Wochna and Samuel Kachuck in Ithaca, N.Y., along with good friends and fellow Class of 2010 classmates Justin Bohn, Ted Nichols, Liza Litvina, Jason Bitterman, Alex Holachek, Greg Storch, Jake Litke, and Anna Mageras, and Ethan Hoffman ’14. It was a beautiful wedding, quaint, lively and full of laughs!

The boys at Lua continue to do big things. If you haven’t heard of Lua either here or elsewhere before, Lua is the company started and run by Michael Keoni DeFranco, Eli Bronner, and Jason Krigsfeld. Lua provides mobile workforce technology to customers with mostly out-of-office employees. Their product makes communication and connection between distant employees simple and efficient. Two years after launching their product, Lua recently announced plans to offer self-service public availability by 2014 (finally opening the product to the public). This is a major step for the company and more can be read by searching for Lua on TechCrunch.com. The guys are also excited to announce that their software will be powering the Superbowl this coming year, and they currently work with such clients as eBayNow, various international airports, hotels, and the Department of Defense. Congratulations to the whole Lua team and keep it up!

Jesse Bordwin recently passed his comps, receiving an M.A. on the way to a Ph.D. in English literature, here at the University of Virginia. Jesse also reported that he “donated to Wesleyan for the first time…the nostalgia is only just kicking in.” Indeed, Jesse.

Thanks again for everyone’s contributions, and, if you have an update to share, feel free to post anytime on WesConnect, or send me a blurb directly at my Wes address. Happy 2014 everyone!

David Layne
DLAYNE@WESLEYAN.EDU

Hope as many of you who could returned to Wes for Homecoming to watch our Wesleyan Football team capture the Little Three Football Title with its win over Williams! Go Wes! As for the Class of 2011, many exciting updates to report!

In California, Bradley Spahn and Maryann Platt have both started PhD programs. Maryann reports, “I moved to sunny Irvine, Calif., to start my PhD in neuroscience!” Bradley is at Stanford, pursuing his PhD in political science.

Terrence Agbi, Jasmin Rahman, and Margaret Aldredge are also pursuing graduate educations. Keep up the good work, class of 2011! Terrance says, “I’m at NYU School of Engineering getting a master’s in management, with a focus on e-commerce and technology management. I’m also working at Dumbo Incubator part time.” Jasmin Rehman writes, “I’m wrapping up my second year of a master’s in social work program at The University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. I’m most likely sticking around Chicago post graduation.” Margaret is working at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, as a curatorial assistant and just started a master’s program at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

Samantha Pearlman reports, “I’ve been living in Philadelphia since graduation and working as a professional actress. My thesis show, Devotedly, Sincerely Yours, had its post-graduation premiere in the 2012 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. From that production, I was invited to bring the show to the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts at UPenn as part of their By-Local Series this past October. In the next year, I will be performing in assorted plays and musicals in the Philadelphia area, as I relocate to NYC in 2014.”

Mike Rosen has moved from Less Williamsburg to Mostly Williamsburg, where he lives with Myles Potters ’12 and practices such alternative lifestyles as veganism, “dating,” and “work.” He sends hair-related updates: Josh Smith had (for a short time) shaved his goatee whereas Louis Russo has maintained his luxurious locks. Mike performs poetry still sometimes and has, believe it or not, been informed that he looks like Macklemore.

Olivia Parkes says, “After graduation, I worked in London as an archivist for Film Finances, dealing principally with material from post-war British cinema. In November of last year I moved to Berlin, where I applied to the Universität der Künste to study Bildende Kunst (Fine Art). I started the first year of the degree this fall.”

Jared Gimbel finished the one-year fellowship at the Paideia Institute in Stockholm and is now in the master’s program in Jewish civilizations at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg. In 2013, he founded “Present Presence,” a media initiative focused on showcasing contemporary Jewry throughout the world, and his upcoming master’s thesis focuses on perspectives and portrayals of Jewish life in Finland and in Greece.

Elana Scudder writes, “Mike Gaines and I have recently moved to New Orleans and we adopted a very cute and lovable dog! Mike is in his first year of law school at Tulane and I am busy saving the world, one cake at a time!”

Seth Alter has been self-employed in Boston for a year as a video game developer. After a year of development, much showcasing at festivals such as PAX East, and a successful Kickstarter campaign, Seth released his first game, Neocolonialism, in November (subalterngames.com). Neocolonialism is a Marxist strategy game in which players attempt to extract as much wealth from the world as possible. Seth now spends his days catching up on sleep and planning the next game.

Jon Sheehan reports, “I’m in Virginia working on the McAuliffe campaign.”

Lots of great updates! Keep it coming!

Allie Southam
asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Daisey Perez
deperez@wesleyan.edu

It’s been a few months since graduation, and the Class of 2013 is already busy taking the world by storm. We’ve been off working, teaching, studying, traveling, and embracing everything that life has to offer. Although there is the bittersweet realization (often accompanied by poignant nostalgia) that we are no longer in college, we’re also excited to dive right into the next chapter of our lives.

Many 2013ers can be found residing in New York. Catherine Taibi is an associate media editor at The Huffington Post. Her job includes managing the media page, writing and editing stories, creating viral content, managing the Facebook and Twitter accounts for HuffPost Media, creating photo posts and slideshows, and tracking site traffic. Kevin Curtin is living on the Upper East Side and working for JP Morgan’s investment bank. Isabella Cucchi is living in West Harlem and working in the South Bronx as a site coordinator for Reading Partners, NYC. She also works with children on their reading skills at the Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School. Isabella loves hanging out with other Wesleyan folks in her free time. Sarah Cassel is a corps member at Avodah, a Jewish social justice group. She also works at The Bronx Defenders and spends her free time volunteering at the Homebound Leadership Institute in Harlem, where she works with young men of color on professional development and leadership through identity-based education. Senior speaker Anna Swartz is rooming with Paul Silverman in Brooklyn. She is writing and looking for full-time work, while he works as a kindergarten teacher. Joining Anna and Paul in Brooklyn is Julian Applebaum, who is a software engineer at Squarespace, where he researches, designs, and codes new tools and workflows for e-commerce merchants. In his spare time, he plays bass in the Sirs & Madams, a five-piece folk/singer-songwriter group.

In other parts of the country, 2013ers are also settling into their new jobs and embarking on new adventures. Chris Pao writes in from Boston, where he is working as a remote services consultant at ServiceNow, a growing IT enterprise cloud management software company. He helps clients with their software platform post-implementation with fixing anything that’s broken, not functioning properly, or even adding new functionality per the client’s request. He hopes to become a technical consultant after graduating from the two-year program. When he is not working, Chris enjoys playing in an adult hockey league, an indoor soccer league, and also exploring what the city has to offer. Robert Vance is living in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., working for Impact Alabama, a community service nonprofit, and writing for Onyx Path Publishing. He’s planning to attend law school next year, focusing on public interest and civil rights law. Ashleigh Corvi writes in from Wesleyan, where she is working as an assistant dean of admission. She lives nearby with her girlfriend (and fellow ’13er) Tori Redding, who also works at Wesleyan as an assistant field hockey coach. They both love staying in touch with friends and professors while being a part of the community in a different capacity. Lisa Sy writes in from the Bay Area, where she is a full-time designer at a Web and mobile application consultancy in San Francisco called Thoughtbot. She works with clients that include start-ups and technology companies to build profitable products and services for their customers. Her day-to-day tasks include interfacing with clients, creating mock-ups and wireframes, leading product design sprints, collaborating with other Web developers, and coding/designing the websites. She is excited by the amount of learning she gains everyday, and is always open-minded to collaborating with other Wesleyan people on interesting projects. Also in California is film aficionado, Michael Steves, who is in post-production on his first feature film, Clinger, a low-budget horror-comedy he directed and co-wrote starring Vincent Martella (Phineas and Ferb, The Walking Dead, Everybody Hates Chris). The cast and crew included about 20 Wes students, including ’13ers Stefan Skripak, Leah Rosen, Paulie Lowther, Becca Kitsis, Sam Barth, Scott Kan, Chris McNabb, Sam Korda, and Ben Smith. Now living in L.A., Michael is co-producing another horror feature with director/producer Jon Hess (American History X) and second-unit directing a horror feature starring Terrance Howard. He also opened a production house specializing in music videos and commercials with two of his high school friends.

On the other side of the world, James Gardner is working as a project assistant for an Afro-German organization that focuses on integration, education, and social work for the Afro-German and African immigrant communities in Berlin. He has been given the opportunity to give presentations on Afro-German history and has also created a “WesGermany” Facebook group for Wesleyan alums and current students in Germany. They had a small event in October and are looking for more friendly faces to join. Shoot him an e-mail (jgarder@wes) if you are in the area! Nearby, Adam Rashkoff is serving as an English language teaching assistant at two different high schools in western Austria on a fellowship funded by the Austrian government and administered by the U.S. Fulbright Commission. He is enjoying teaching and working with high school students, as well as adjusting to the Alpine lifestyle. Any Wes peers who find themselves traveling in Europe and have a desire to go skiing and snowshoeing, eat tasty food and drink superb beer and mulled wine, and explore Roman ruins and medieval cities are welcome to come visit and stay on his pullout couch.

As for me, I’ve settled back at home in the Bay Area and am working for Apple as an engineering program manager. Thanks to everyone for the contributions and wishing all the best to my classmates!

Laura Yim
Lyim@wesleyan.edu