Class Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justin Campos | jxcampos@wesleyan.edu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keyonne Session | ksession@wesleyan.edu 

Melissa Leung spent Thanksgiving with Taran Carr’s family which presented both a turkey and duck and let her assist in putting up the Christmas tree! Thereafter, she took on the honorary title of third roommate to Sarah Mi and Taran, making delicious quiches and apple pies at the Carr-Mi residence in Baltimore. Melissa stopped to say hello to Lars Berg at the University of Maryland, Baltimore library. “Shout out to Whole Foods delivery for making the cooking sessions possible,” says Melissa.

Last summer, Jamie Ember and Arthur Halliday got engaged. Jamie is working as an associate casting director, with credits on Hulu and CBS and upcoming on Netflix, TBS, and CBS All Access, while Arthur is in his first year at Columbia Law School. Their dog, Stanley, is perfect.

Willie Zabar is pursuing stand-up and character comedy in New York City. He is currently developing a comedic one-man show as part of a fellowship with LABA: A Laboratory of Jewish Culture. The performance will take place in April.

Rohan Shriram got a new puppy named Laddu. His older dog, Waffles, likes to steal Laddu’s toys and then lie on them. Tim Israel and Atreya Sinha saw all this firsthand when they visited Rohan in Delhi.

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

Ryan Gardner moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco and started working in video games and interactive tech.

Peter Cornillie wrote in to say that he has been working way too much and not drinking nearly enough.

Jessica Seidman recently passed the Connecticut Bar Exam and was sworn in as a licensed attorney. She is now working at an asbestos litigation law firm in New Haven, Conn.

As a passion project, Julia Chanin, Andrew Hove, and Zia Grossman-Vendrillo have formed an experimental dance company inspired by the lives of primordial beings. Their first installation explores themes of sentience and godliness. They can be spotted in urban centers across the upper-middle West Coast over the summer.

Katherine Lu spent the holidays in South Africa and Madagascar with Maurice Lee, where she saw lemurs and whale sharks and realized she much prefers the great indoors. She also started a new role at Taco Bell to redesign its website. She still hasn’t been to a Taco Bell.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Some great class news coming your way:

Julian Theseira started a new job with Deloitte Consulting Southeast Asia and is based out of the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, office. Outside of work, Julian volunteers actively with the Malaysian Youth (Climate) Delegation, with whom he co-organized the only Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) in Southeast Asia in 2019, part of a global network of LCOYs that gathered youth input about climate change governance in the leadup to COP 25 in Madrid. Julian has also been catching up with other Wesleyan Freeman Asian Scholar alumni in Malaysia and Singapore. He is active with the Taizé ecumenical movement and attended the 42nd annual Taizé European Meeting in Wroclaw, Poland, alongside 15,000 other pilgrims. His testimonial about the spiritual impact of the philosopher Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) was translated into Polish and featured by the Edith Stein House Foundation in Wroclaw.

Remi Ojurongbe happily reports: “Alexander Mehner and I got married last month and were lucky enough to celebrate with lots of Wes Folks!” Congratulations to you both! #gowes

Jason Shatz writes: “In August, I finished up my master’s degree at the University of Chicago for software engineering while working for a consulting firm called Cognizant. I have been relocated to the Raleigh area for a Big Data project. I hope to return to the NYC area soon, but I will let you know of my whereabouts whenever they change.”

Adele Bubnys received her PhD in biomedical sciences from Rockefeller University last spring. After traveling around Europe over the summer and stopping by Wesleyan for our five-year Reunion, she started a postdoctoral position at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. There, she is using novel 3D cell culture techniques and self-assembling “mini-brains” to model neurodegeneration in a dish.

I always look forward to hearing updates from our awesome class. Keep them coming.

Your Class Secretary,

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

Zach Schonfeld celebrated the one-year anniversary of the time he got laid off, got a book deal, and went to see the repulsive 1975 film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom all on the same day. He is nearly finished with his first book, a 33-1/3 volume chronicling the story of the widely sampled funk band 24-Carat Black. He lives with Rebecca Vaadia in New York City, right near the diner from Seinfeld.

Peter Horton has been living it up in Japan for the last year but came back to Brooklyn on New Year’s to see his friends The Strokes. Croy Salinas has moved to a Park Slope adjacent neighborhood and is remembered fondly by his friends. Ethan Grund is loving the trials and tribulations of being a Midwest farmer at his homestead in Minnesota. Will Davis is loath to admit he has a new hobby, and Mark Popinchalk is looking to reinvent his identity as we enter the next decade by introducing an extra consonant into his name. Noah Masur ’15 has found clarity, Sora Akiyoshi ’14 wants to rue the day, Chloe Rinehart ’14 has been there, done that, Susanna Banks is happily employed, and Natalie Robichaud ’14 falls in love almost daily.

Matt Motta is starting his second semester as an assistant professor of political science at Oklahoma State University. Matt joined OSU after finishing his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 2018 and completing postdoctoral work at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (University of Pennsylvania and Yale University) in 2019. Matt teaches courses on political campaigns, public opinion polling, and statistical programming. His research tests the effectiveness of strategies aimed at helping scientists communicate more effectively with the public about controversial environmental and public health issues. His work has been published in academic journals like Nature Climate Change and has been featured in press outlets like Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Matt lives in Tulsa, Okla., and would love to meet up with alumni in the area!

This fall, Nick Orvis returned to Connecticut, where he’s begun working on an MFA in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama. For the past five years, Gabriel Urbina has been living and working in Brooklyn. In that time, he has created, written, and directed a series of award-winning audio fiction podcasts, including Wolf 359, Time:Bombs, and Zero Hours, often collaborating with various Wesleyan alumni. In 2020, he’s excited to dive into new work, including finishing the manuscript for a novel and continuing to produce new original audio content through Long Story Short Productions, the company he runs along with Zach Valenti ’12 and Sarah Shachat ’12. Gabriel also works as a freelance writer, teacher, and public speaker. Ally Bernstein and Audrey Kiely continue to seriously question their life choices as they embark on adventures in other peoples’ problems as newly minted MSWs. They routinely call each other crying, wondering why, oh god why, would they choose to do this work? They could have done those demos for cookware at Costco or given duck boat tours. Instead, they spend their days listening to endless detail of trauma, prompting coping skills, and having things thrown at them. Ally and Audrey have also discovered their dogs are a force dyad, so that’s cool.

Haley Sacks was in the New York Times and on Good Morning America. She is a financial pop star that makes keeping up with the Dow Joneses as fun as Keeping Up with The Kardashians.

Zoe Muller moved to Philadelphia a little over a year ago with her fiancée, Ivy, and two dogs, Roosevelt and Quinn, to start a new job in urban planning and design at WRT Design after graduating from MIT’s master’s program in urban planning. She bought a house in West Philly and went full HGTV on it, complete with surprise basement flood, bathtub leaking, neighbors trimming trees without permission, weekends full of sanding and painting, and beautiful hidden historic fireplaces to help reassure her this wasn’t a crazy idea. It is now a functional and beautiful home with most of the kinks worked out and a handful of half-complete projects. Zoe is looking forward to a year of getting back into more physical activity and outdoor time, spending more time and energy making ceramics, and making time to visit and reconnect with friends.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

A new year and a new decade have arrived. Many of us will look back at the last 10 years and recall the impact Wesleyan had on our last decade. Personally, I am grateful for the foundation provided to me on the Hilltop and the influence it still holds on the journey I am on today. Now a look into what a few our classmates have accomplished in the last year of the decade:

Nate Mondschein started a music production company, Echo Base Production, received the 2019 ASCAP Robert Allen Award for his songwriting and production work and released his debut solo album, . . .And the Sky, under his artist name Best Mann. Nate is working on a few new projects, including some Wesleyan-adjacent songwriting and production work with Spencer Hattendorf and Matt Bernstein ’11, and co-producing Josh the Word’s (aka Josh Smith ’11) upcoming collection of singles. Take some time to listen in on Nate’s debut album.

Benjamin Kaufman started a new job this year at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Benny is the associate director for Team Fox, the grassroots fundraising arm of the foundation.

Tess Minter got engaged in 2019 and will be tying the knot over Labor Day weekend in Santa Cruz. Her fiancé is Craig Lahti, who is from Minnesota and graduated from St. Thomas. They met when they were both working in a homeless youth shelter in 2012.

A few of our classmates ended the decade with an adventure. Noa Borkan, Anne DeBoer, Ally Wang, and Saumya Chatrath ’13 visited Rachel Levenson in Nairobi, Kenya. They road-tripped across Kenya, including visiting national parks and ringing in 2020 by the Kenyan coast. Rachel continued the Wes-in-Nairobi reunions, spending time with Nathan Mackenzie and Yinka Taiwo, who were visiting Kenya.

As for me, I am enjoying the newlywed life and coastal living. Wishing the entire class of 2012 an incredible year and decade to come.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

I hope 2020 is off to a great start for the Class of 2011. Some exciting updates from our classmates below.

Isabel Magowan writes, “I am a working artist and photographer based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and married last June. Thinking of all my fellow Wes classmates and hoping they are doing well!”

Christopher Ceccolini and Jordan Gratch ’13 finally tied the knot, nearly 10 years after first meeting at Wesleyan. The two were married on Oct. 19, at Gedney Farm in Massachusetts. They were surrounded by many close family and friends, including 26 Wesleyan alumni from numerous graduation years (2010-2014). Jordan is now a first-year associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York and Chris is a clinical fellow in psychology at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Chris looks forward to joining Jordan in New York when he finishes his PhD in counseling psychology next year.

Amanda Faraone lives in Austin, Texas, with husband Alex Anthony ’10, and their son, George. She is the new development director for American Short Fiction and is at work on her novel about teenage girls and love magic.

Becky Eidelman writes, “In the fall, I began a two-year master’s degree program in urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University.”

Jared Gimbel became a member of the International Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA) in late 2019. With his video game about Greenland, Kaverini Nuuk Adventures, slated for a 2020 release after many delays, he has begun working on the expansion.

Cheryl Tan writes, “I am still in Singapore! Last year I did four screen projects and a difficult play called Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner, about humanitarian aid workers in conflict zones. It premiered at the Singapore International Arts Festival and took up 13 weeks (two workshop sessions before the full production). It’s a semi-devised work, very tiring.”

Marshall Johnson reports, “Back in September I started a new job in astronomy as a staff scientist at Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) in Santa Barbara, Calif. LCO operates a network of 23 robotic telescopes at seven observatory sites around the world, and, in my new position, I’m working with our NRES high-resolution spectrographs that we operate at four of those sites, in addition to conducting my own research. I now work closely with Tim Brown ’72, among others.”

Last but not least, Jennifer Spero writes, “I will be marrying Tristan Tully ’09 and moving to London!” Congrats, Jen and Tristan!

As always, thank you for your updates!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, Class of 2010!  Please enjoy the following updates from our fellow Cardinals.

Kait Halibozek married Jack Fitzmorris in October in Palm Springs, Calif. Her bridesmaids included Katie Boyce-Jacino, Rebecca Weiss Roberts, and Lauren Valentino Yadav. The wedding was also attended by Dave Bachy, Tony Zosherafatain, Rose Agger, Emily Rasenick, Heather Stanton, Brenna Galvin ’11, Carrie Cohen Smolen ’12, Lindsay Keys ’11, and Danielle Klimashousky ’08.

Justin Papermaster reports that “Gary Garofalo and I have started a new company called LoudCrowd in Austin, Texas. Our software helps consumer brands turn their regular customers into advocates. Our platform makes it possible to incentivize and measure customers to create more user-generated content about them on social sites like Instagram. We raised our pre-seed funding round in October, led by Active Capital. We actually work in the same building as a company called People Pattern founded by Ken Cho ’94, so lots of good Wes stories get shared at office happy hours!”

Dan Bloom moved to Seattle in 2015 when his company, Slope, received investment from Microsoft. Dan and his business partner grew Slope (work management software for marketing and creative teams) in Seattle for the last few years, raising money from Wesleyan alumni like Strauss Zelnick ’79 and Frank Sica ’73, and other investors in the Pacific Northwest. In January 2019, Smartsheet Inc. acquired Slope. Dan has been working at Smartsheet for a year now and the Slope technology has been added to Smartsheet’s core capabilities. Dan still lives in Seattle with his fiancée, Laura.

Seth Rosen moved to Brooklyn a few months ago after four years in the Bay Area. He is preparing to start teaching game design as an adjunct at NYU while continuing to work on a few game development projects of his own, one of which Seth hopes to release this year.

Exciting news from Jess Brownfeld Spierer! She and Eric Spierer welcomed their son, David Ari Spierer, on Dec. 5.

J.P. Valette contributes the following: “I completed my family medicine residency at the University of California San Diego in June and I’m halfway through my sports medicine fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. I’m about to finish the hiring process for my first job in primary care sports medicine in San Francisco, where I’ll be moving in August. I’m excited to move back home and finally get my career in medicine started after a long journey of training. Shout out to anyone already in the Bay Area. I would love to reconnect when I get there. In Wesleyan-specific news, I’ve been hanging out with Jed Rendleman ’12 and together we’ve been getting back into Ultimate Frisbee by playing in a recreational men’s winter league and pickup games. We both played on the club team Nietzsch Factor while at Wesleyan. In other news, I’ve been to Burning Man for the past two years and am looking forward to going back this year for another amazing time.”

Katherine Kitfield Bascom is working as a writer-designer creative lead for the analytics and behavior change marketing team at Aetna-CVS Health in NYC. On the side, she is still pursuing her passion for all things fitness. Katherine is happily engaged and living in Jersey City.

Finally, you may have heard that our classmate and friend Pedro Ventura was shot last October by a stranger outside of a nightclub in North Carolina. Pedro suffered major injuries to his spinal cord as a result of this senseless act. Many of you know Pedro as a dear friend, a fighter, and a joy to all who know him. As he embarks on the long road to recovery, our friend is now in need of support. More details on Pedro’s story and his recovery can be found here: gofundme.com/f/hope-for-pedro. If you can, any contribution would go a long way.

Thank you as always for the wonderful updates, and as always, feel free to send them anytime.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

 

Hi, Class of 2009. Some exciting notes to share on your classmates as we enter the new decade:

Bryan Wieland writes: “My wife, Nicole, and I welcomed the newest future Cardinal to our family, Cameron Wieland. He was born Sept. 18.”

Justin LaSelva and Sarah Yost married in Hawaii in December. Wonderful Wesfolk Jeffrey Kaplan and Laura Rubin attended the traditional Hawaiian ceremony, which took place on an off-grid mountainside coffee plantation. Justin, who has been living in Austin since 2011, works in information security at The University of Texas at Austin; Sarah is a senior product marketing manager with National Instruments. The two recently built a house and share it with their adorable Havanese, Seymour. Outside of work, Justin produces a weekly radio show on the cooperatively owned and operated KOOP 91.7 FM.

Annie Paladino began a barbell-coaching business last year. Paladino Strength is body-positive, identity-affirming, and no-nonsense, helping folks of all ages, genders, and sizes become strong and capable. She enjoys working with beginners and those who are new to fitness, as well as anyone who has felt intimidated or unwelcome in traditional fitness spaces. She coaches private sessions and group classes in Seattle, as well as offering online coaching for folks around the world. Find her at paladinostrength.com.

Daphne Schmon writes: “I am approaching my fifth year living in London and will be going into production on my debut narrative feature film this March. The Eye is a very personal project, a psychological thriller co-written with close friend Emily Carlton, and set on the Greek island where my mom is from. This spring will also mark the third edition of our Breaking Through The Lens initiative, connecting female directors to film financiers at the Cannes Film Festival (breakingthroughthelens.com).”

Sofia Warner and Eric Weiskott welcomed their daughter, Lili, into the world in August.

Katie Hanna got married to Will Cerbone on Aug. 17, in Cold Spring, N.Y. Bridesmaids included Madeline Trimble, Lauren Barth, and Joan Bosco. Eyal Bar-David and Jia Yee also attended.

Lastly, former tennis stars Matthew O’Connell and Ania Prenata are teaming up in doubles play versus a new opponent, their daughter Natalie Halina O’Connell, born on Jan. 4, 2020. This match will certainly end with a score of Love-Love.

Thanks for sending in notes and please keep them coming!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com