Tag: 2010

Greetings Class of 2010! I hope you’ll enjoy these brief notes from our classmates around the world:

     Katie Roose (Zackin) and her husband Robert Roose ’04 welcomed their second son, Alden, to their family on February 15, 2021. He joins big brother William, who is thrilled with his baby brother! The family lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

     Sam Schilit and husband Jeremy Rosenweig welcomed their first child, Henry Schilit Rosenweig, in September. Henry is looking forward to becoming a Cardinal in 2038!

     Peter Hull shares: “In July I’ll be moving to Providence, Rhode Island to start an assistant professor position in the Economics Department of Brown University.” Peter would love to connect to any Wes folks in the Providence area!

     Sherry Sybertz has recently joined the board of directors of the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club. Sherry adds “I enjoy spending free time, year-round, sailing on California’s beautiful Monterey Bay!”

     Matt Tannenbaum recently joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he prosecutes hate crimes, law enforcement misconduct, and other civil rights violations.  Matt owes a deep debt of gratitude to Wesleyan for teaching him about critical race theory and how to gracefully fail at public speaking in courtrooms across the country.

     Finally, Mark Fajans, after working on the COVID Epi Task Force during the outbreak, left his job at the CDC to move to Seattle and start a PhD in epidemiology at the University of Washington, where he will be back to focusing on pediatric tuberculosis and diagnostics.

     Thanks to those who contributed this time around and, as always, feel free to pass along notes anytime at DavidALayne@gmail.com, or dlayne@wesleyan.edu.

Greetings Class of 2010! Please enjoy the following notes from our classmates around the world:

Gina Yeomans and Nate Green (’09) welcomed their second son, Milo, on June 5. Milo is “a sweet, happy boy despite being born amidst a global pandemic and historic national protests.” 

Kiran Sheffrin and husband Sam also welcomed a child into the world, a little boy, Kamran, this past May!

Danielle Mor recently accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia, which is part of Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia. As a native New Yorker, Danielle is excited to experience southern living for the first time.

Melina Aguilar has adapted to the pandemic and is now offering virtual tours of Puerto Rico with her local startup Isla Caribe Tours based in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Melina is staying creative and the 

business is growing in the virtual experience world. You can find her tours at islacaribetours.com. 

Hannah Barber Doucet continues her fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Her newest project is launching the curriculum DARE-EM: Discussing Anti-Racism and Equity in Emergency Medicine for all frontline emergency medicine providers in her hospital system. Hannah is also enjoying the additional task of keeping two young kids entertained through quarantine with her wife, Samantha Doucet ’09!

Thanks to those who contributed this time around and, as always, feel free to pass along notes anytime! 

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

 

Greetings, Class of 2010!  Please enjoy the following notes from our classmates around the world:

Keisuke Yamashita and Ginger Patana started an omakase food tour business in Japan. “We take people to very top-notch restaurants people do not otherwise have access to. If anyone comes to visit Japan and wants to try amazing authentic food (sushi, tempura, Japanese western food, etc.), please DM us! Keisuke and Ginger’s business can be found at instagram.com/gastropolitan.tokyo.

Emily Sheehan reports: “In the little Philadelphia row home where I reside with my husband and daughter, I’ve been learning what a social 2-year-old enjoys when she needs to stay home and can’t play with friends, including a lot of tower-building and some drive-by-birthday celebrations. I’m grateful to work in the safety of my home, where I’ve been conducting therapy sessions through the magic of technology. (If anyone finds this to be a challenging time, there are plentiful therapists accepting new clients through telehealth, and many insurance companies are waiving copays, so it’s a good time to add mental health care into your routine.) I’m also enjoying video meetups with friends, including a huge group of fellow ’10 alumni. Grateful for the Wesleyan community in this bizarre time!”

Tony Zosherafatain hopes all of the Wes 2010 family is doing well and staying safe. Tony is still living in NYC (going on a decade now!), but is still a loyal Boston sports fan. He completed production of Trans in Trumpland, a forthcoming documentary about being transgender in the Trump administration era. The film follows four trans Americans living in North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Idaho. Keep a lookout for the film’s release around the fall/winter of this year! You can learn more about the film at transintrumpland.com. Tony looks forward to seeing everyone at our next Reunion!

Lauren Valentino finished her PhD in sociology at Duke University and has accepted a tenure-track position as an assistant professor of sociology at the Ohio State University, to begin this summer. “My research focuses on how Americans understand and make sense of social inequalities and social hierarchies—a topic I became interested in as a wee sociology major at Wes!”

Shannon Sun-Higginson and Andrew Murphy ’10, MA ’11 are social distancing at their home in Philadelphia with their cat, Professor Minerva McGonagall. Shannon is editing the sizzle for her third feature documentary, Losing Face, while working remotely as a producer and director for All Ages Productions. As a Democratic committeeperson, she works to find safe ways for Philadelphians to vote in the primary and general elections. Andrew received his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in August 2019 and is now entering his final year of medical school, with plans to graduate in May 2021. He is taking clinical classes remotely while studying for his Step 2 exam, and continuing his research on neural networks, for which he was recently published in Science Communications. Since the pandemic has begun, Andrew and Shannon have attended a weekly video chat bad movie night with Gabriel Furtado, Yulhee Cho ’11, and Julien Burns. Their top recs are Jupiter Ascending, Little Italy, and Fateful Findings.

Niki Holtzman-Hayes graduated medical school at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and is headed to NYC with husband Nick Hayes ’09 for residency, where Niki matched into neurology.

A wonderful note from Dan Heinrich: Since graduating, Dan’s path has been largely shaped by Wes, his experiences, and the beautiful people he was lucky to call friends and mentors at Wes. After serving as a senior assistant dean of admission at Wes for four years, Dan finally left Middletown for warmer climes to work at ‘Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Lindsay Kokuna ’09 and Lindsay Kosasa ’13 welcomed him with much aloha. Graduate school called him back to New England, where he studied education policy and management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and got to share some laughs and treats with Jorge Delgado. Earning his Ed.M. in 2019, Dan zipped westward yet again to be part of a new and exciting mission-driven secondary school at UCLA, where student wellness and wellbeing are centered equally alongside academic prep and community engagement. In reflecting upon our 10-year Reunion, Dan is grateful to have cultivated lifelong friends at Wes and regularly connects with and sees the likes of LaShawn Springer ’08 and countless others (200 Church!) during his work and personal travels and via the Reading and Writing Rainbow group with Miles Tokunow, Chelsea Rodriguez, Genesis Grullon, and Lorena Estrella who continue to be anchors in his life.

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

David Layne | dlayne@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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, Class of 2010! Here are a few updates from our classmates around the world:

First, tons of marriage news! Last August, Sean Foley married Liz Collins and received a master’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis.

Ben Smolen married Carolyn Cohen ’12 on April 27 in a ceremony at Cielo Farms in Malibu, Calif. Siddhartha Aneja served as Ben’s best man and delivered an outstanding speech. Simon Reinhardt also took part in the ceremony as an usher.

Elizabeth Larner married Bryan Leonard in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Lancaster, S.C., on May 18. Liz’s former “Haus”-mate Gwynne Hunter was a bridesmaid, and Elizabeth’s brother, Aaron Larner ’08, was a groomsman.

Sam Schilit ’10, MA’11 graduated from Harvard Medical School with a PhD in genetics and genomics in March. Three weeks later, she married Jeremy Rosenweig and celebrated with David Baranger, Franni Paley, Emily Hoffman, Emily Sheehan, Chris Ceccolini ’11, Jordan Gratch ’13, Bill Kaplan ’09, Annina DeLeo ’09, Joshua Parks ’09, Becky Eidelman ’11, Todd Rosenthal, Kelsey Tyssowski ’11, and Ian Coss ’11.

Jiun Kimm is marrying her soulmate in this summer. She met her soon-to-be husband randomly at a bar in Koreatown three years ago. Emily Johnston, Eric Daniels, and Simone Jennings will be walking down the aisle with her as part of her bridal party. Jiun started a new job as Squarespace’s diversity and inclusion lead. She is working on designing and leading the company’s first retreat for Employee Resource Group (ERG) Co-Chairs. She will be joined at the retreat by Squarespace colleagues Julian Applebaum ’13 and Maimouna Siby ’16.

Lucas Hidalgo contributes: “I moved from NYC last summer and am now living in Austin with my fiancé.” Lucas is working in operations for a charter school and progressing towards a career as a school administrator.

Melina Aguilar is back in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and has founded her own social enterprise on cultural tourism named Isla Caribe. Their goal is to create jobs in the southern part of the island and expose the rich culture and history of Puerto Rico. Melina has gotten many visits from classmates, and suggests that if you want a break, visit the south of Puerto Rico.

Luke Pang reports: “Some of us in Asia are unable to attend the Wes Reunion next May so we are planning to organize a reunion in Tokyo at the end of May 2020. Any alumni who are interested in joining the fun, please contact me (lukepkf@gmail.com), Keisuke Yamashita (yamasubmarine@gmail.com), or Ginger Tangpianpant (patana.tangpianpant@gmail.com).

Eugenie Carabatsos and Nick Miller ’09 welcomed future Cardinal Josephine Carabatsos Miller (’37) on March 21.

Finally, yours truly will be moving to D.C. this summer for a third tour with the Navy JAG Corps, this time in their appellate review division. Here’s hoping there are still some 2010 Cardinals floating around the District. I would like to find some happy hour company.

Thank you to everyone who submitted inputs for this column (even you, Tim Archibald, though your poem did not make the cut due to some dicey copyright concerns). As always, feel free to pass along your life updates anytime to me.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

 

Greetings, Class of 2010! Just a few updates this time around from our friends worldwide.

Rachel Shopper is now pursuing a master’s in clinical mental health counseling at Western Carolina University.

David Baranger completed a PhD in neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis, and is a postdoctoral scholar working in psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is engaged to Tayler Sheahan and will be married in March in Chicagoland. Miles Krieger is a groomsman.

Jessie Schiewe “gave birth to a website in September . . . called OK Whatever (okwhatever.org), it’s an online publication dedicated to weird news and strange stories. Journalism shouldn’t be boring. Read weirder.”

Peter Hull is engaged to Alexandre Staples, and the couple has plans to marry next year! This summer they moved from Boston to Chicago, where Peter is an assistant professor in the University of Chicago’s economics department.

Elizabeth Plantan has had an eventful year: “My husband and I welcomed our first child—a daughter—in June and I finished my PhD in government at Cornell University in August. I am now a postdoctoral fellow at the Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School from 2018-2020.” Elizabeth looks forward to our upcoming 10-year Reunion in 2020 (gasp!).

That’s all for this issue! Here’s hoping everyone is well and as always, feel free to pass along your life updates anytime. Thank you to everyone for contributing!

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu