Tag: 2010

Greetings, Class of 2010, I hope you enjoy the following updates from our classmates around the world:

Micah Weiss and Nomi Teutsch ’11 were married on May 14. Aaron Freedman has the following report on the celebration:

“Hanukkah/Christmas arrived in May this year as the kickoff of wedding season for many 2010ers. The Meat Locker (167 Vine: Micah Weiss, Gus Seixas, Zach LeClair, and Sam Bernhardt) and Pine Palace (266 Pine: Sarice Greenstein, Joshua Wood, and I) were both in attendance along with many other ‘09, ‘10 and ‘11 grads from Nomi’s crew at the #micahandnomi nuptials. Summer camp weddings are always a good decision. Here’s to many more barn weddings with artisanal kosher pizza by David Schumeister. “

Jonna Humphries has some exciting job news: “I joined Moog Music Inc., and, in addition to marketing for the brand, lead up marketing for our future of music and technology festival, Moogfest. I’m now based in Asheville, N.C.”

Emily Hoffman has a wedding of her own to share: “On July 3, I married Alex Kane, a freelance journalist, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts with many of my Wesleyan friends in attendance. I have been working as an attorney at the Community Service Society of New York since September 2014.”

Also joining in on the wedding news is Michael Keoni Defranco, who got married on Hawaii’s Big Island at Kahua Ranch this past June. Many Wes friends were in attendance including four groomsmen: Jason Krigsfeld, Nick Ajello, Eli Bronner, and Kwasi Ansu ’09. It looked like a great time was had by all.

Michael Pernick submits the following: “Despite the craziness in the world, I’m doing my best to enjoy life as an attorney in NYC and be part of the resistance. Over the last few months I’ve been doing a lot of pro bono voting rights litigation. In my free time, I’m fighting the Republican health care repeal bill (I was born with a heart defect and I’ve had three open heart surgeries), including traveling to D.C. in May to speak at a press conference on Capital Hill with a few Democratic Senators criticizing the Republican bill.”

Hallie Coffin-Gould graduated with her MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon. She will be pursuing a career as part of Thermo Fisher’s Leadership Development Program. She is engaged to Drew Morris and they are living in Pittsburgh with their two dogs.

Lucas Hidalgo is living in NYC and is working at George Washington High School in upper Manhattan as a youth advocate and site coordinator for the 21st Century Community Learning Center.

Peter Hull graduated from MIT in June with a PhD in economics and has moved on to a one-year postdoctoral position at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, Mass. Peter will then head off to U Chicago—first for a one-year post-doc, then as an assistant professor in the economics department.

Finally, Tony Zosherafatain is living in NYC and regularly sees many Wes friends. Tony is hard at work directing and producing I am the T, a documentary about transpeople around the world (iamthetfilm.com). The Norwegian chapter of the film, I am Isak, was accepted into the Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival, My True Colors Film Fest, and the Thessaloniki LGBT Film Festival. Tony is also aiming to direct a documentary about transpeople’s experiences in Trump’s America. In his spare time, he’s enjoying traveling to new places and gradually checking off his bucket list.

That’s all for this issue! As always, feel free to pass along your life updates anytime.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, Class of 2010. Just a few updates to report in this first column of 2017:

Henry Kaplan reports that he is based in LA and is working as a music video/short film/commercial director. He adds: “A short film, We Together, I directed was accepted to Slamdance Film Festival and will be playing in Park City, Utah, in late January! Slamdance is a renowned festival that runs alongside Sundance every year in Park City. The film tells the story of a zombie who comes to remember the person who he used to be before he was a zombie. The film premiered online this fall and garnered a lot of buzz from the online film community. After getting into Slamdance, we’ve taken the film offline and it will have a ‘re-premiere’ at the festival. Find out more  at wetogetherfilm.com.”

Additionally, several Los Angeles-based Wesleyan alumni were involved in the film, including Ben Kuller ’11, producer; Elizabeth Litvitskiy ’15, co-producer; Caillin Puente ’15, first assistant director; Matthew Wauhkonen ’08, digital VFX artist; Peter Cramer ’14, grip; and Jeffrey Kasanoff ’15 and Dan Fuchs ’15 as production assistants.

Sherry Sybertz writes, “I am living in Monterey, Calif., and graduated with an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. I am working with Dole Fresh Vegetables focusing on transportation logistics, while enjoying all that Monterey has to offer like the aquarium, beautiful hiking, and great weather!”

Dave Brustein writes, “After graduating, my mind was set on becoming an alternative television producer. After working on my latest show, American Ninja Warrior, I harked back to my athletic experience in high school and at Wesleyan. I reached out to my high school, Milken Community High School, a Jewish high school, to become the defensive coordinator of the football team. I want to show that no matter what religion, ethnicity, and nationality you might be, anybody with the right football mindset has the potential to play in the NCAA. My goal is to develop well rounded student-athletes who can use football as a platform for opportunities in college and life.”

Luke Pang oversees international restaurant expansions of Les Amis Group and he’ll be happy to host anyone passing through Singapore. Please contact him at lukepkf@gmail.com.

Hannah Masius reports that she “is living in the Bay Area, [expletive] the patriarchy.”

Michael DeFranco and Jason Krigsfeld have continued to build Lua, a secure messaging platform. They focus on the healthcare market and have launched a patient-facing messaging side of their system to increase doctor-to-patient communication before and after visits. Michael spent time at the Standing Rock camp in North Dakota to support the Sioux’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. He is a member of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, was listed as a featured leader for the Global Peace Foundation, and is serving as United Nations delegate at the UN’s 55th Session of the Commission for Social Development.

Finally, it is with profound sadness that I must report the loss of a dear friend and classmate, Matthew Lamothe. Matt passed tragically on Jan. 16 in NYC, where he was pursuing a successful and burgeoning career as a film producer. Anyone who had the privilege of knowing him at Wesleyan, or elsewhere, would no doubt agree that he was a man with a distinctive enthusiasm for life, and an unflinching loyalty to his friends. I had the pleasure of sharing Hewitt 10 with Matty sophomore year. In particular, I recall how much Matt loved hockey, and he was perhaps the biggest fan of the Cardinal Men’s Hockey team that year. I remember coming home from road trips, exhausted and usually discouraged, to find Matt waiting for the boys to come home to discuss the weekend’s games. It wouldn’t take long for Matt to turn our weekend frustrations into smiles and laughter.

After Wesleyan, Matt stood out as a person who refused to fall out of touch with friends. I looked forward to hearing his news from LA, where he quickly put his talents to use in the film industry. Most recently, he worked for Tommy V Productions, but was perhaps proudest of his work on I’ll See You in My Dreams, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and Intruders, which played at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. As busy as he became with his career, he was always good for a round with the boys when we found ourselves together. Matt lived every day to its fullest, and left his friends with more good memories than we could count. While Matt leaves us far too soon, he leaves us smiling as we reflect on his life, and I’m sure he’d have it no other way. He is survived by his parents, Laura and Dr. Henri Lamothe ’80, and siblings, Barrie, Brooke, Luke, Noah, and Austin.

As always if anyone has notes to add—anytime—feel free to send me an e-mail.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Happy fall, Class of 2010! Please enjoy the following updates in the lives of our classmates:

Holing Yip has been working for the past four years in an advocacy group in Hong Kong on education policies for ethnic minority students, and just moved to Cambridge, Mass., to start his master’s in education policy. “I would love to connect with Wes friends in the field and in the area!”

Sarice Greenstein is delighted to report that she graduated with a master’s in public health from Columbia University, alongside Jessica Steinke. The two both received certificates in sexuality, sexual, and reproductive health. Sarice is working for Culture of Respect, a project committed to ending sexual violence on campus. She works remotely from various Brooklyn coffee shops. Sarice has enjoyed a season of celebrations as well, proposing to her boyfriend with some extravagant gifts: an “I said yes” t-shirt and matching pair of socks. They plan to get married next summer.

Jenny Ajl and Ruthie Lazenby are co-habitating and celebrating their 10-year “friendiversary” in New Haven, where they are at Yale, studying to be a family nurse practitioner and lawyer, respectively.

Sam Friedman reports that he got married to Rebecca Cimino ’11, and “we had a few Wes people there to help us celebrate: Nadeem Modan, Eugenie Carabatsos, Nick Miller ’09, Dana Shukovsky ’11, Nic Wilder ’11, and Marlene Sim ’11.”

Niki Holtzman-Hayes is happy to say, “I am (finally) in medical school at Northwestern University in Chicago!”

Seth Rosen reports: “After moving back to domestic soil (San Francisco, specifically) a year ago, I’m finally emerging from crunch mode at work. The past year I’ve been working on Mafia 3, making the ambient life in our version of New Orleans in 1968, and the game will be out in October.”

Ben Seretan writes, “I continue to play music, and performed a concert at the National Gallery of Albania in Tirana.”

Michael DeFranco and Jason Krigsfeld continue to build Lua Technologies, the startup they founded while at Wesleyan. Lua provides a secure messaging solution to the healthcare industry. They are now serving hospital systems, clinics and laboratory environments, encrypting communication wherever patient information is being digitally shared.

Michael added that he enjoyed playing a part in the greeting of the Polynesian Voyaging Canoe from Hawaii, The Hokule’a, as it sailed into NYC in June. The Hokule’a has been on a worldwide voyage, spreading a message of malama honua, to care for the earth. Over 2,000 attendees congregated in North Cove Marina, a few blocks from the Freedom Tower, to receive and honor the canoe. Michael was responsible for the coordination of all the indigenous communities present that day. Since then, he has been playing a larger role with the United Nation’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and has been helping shed light on some of the issues Hawaii is facing. He has also been working with the indigenous tribes of New York to support the Lakota in their efforts to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Danielle Mor is finishing a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. “My work has focused on the mechanisms of neuron death in Parkinson’s disease. I am starting my postdoctoral research at Princeton University to study the genetics of aging.”

Wesleyan alumni of all ages have been collaborating in the Berkshires, Alice Maggio reports. As executive director of BerkShares, Inc., she works with potter Dan Bellow ’87, who serves on the board of directors of BerkShares, Inc. She and Emily Watts ’03 joined forces to bring BerkShares, a local currency, to northern Berkshire County. All three of them hope to work with Adam Hinds ’98 when he gets elected to the Massachusetts state senate in November.

Brendan McEntee has some great news: “I, and projects I oversee at my work, have been honored with major recognitions. I received recognition as the top ’Forty Under 40’ in the association community, and a project I oversee was recognized with top honors for having the power to profoundly impact society. The project is implementing clinical decision software that assesses individuals with addiction to determine what treatment is appropriate. It has been an exciting five years working at the American Society of Addiction Medicine. I will be sharing this experience with Wes students in October as part of a career center event.

“In my personal life I took up the hobby of rock climbing and have been enjoying pushing myself indoors and out on mountains. I’ve been living in D.C. and I spend my free time cooking, seeing friends, and volunteering for mentoring programs and on my condo board. I look forward to catching up with everyone next time we are all back on campus. I am impressed every time I catch up or see what my colleagues are doing. I cannot wait to see the further impact as we keep on advancing. Go Wes!”

Angus McCullough updates us that he is managing a newsletter, At the Present Moment. Angus’ newsletter invites folks to art exhibitions and events around the country. Angus explains: “Art requires being in the room with something to feel and understand it. Over the past few years, I’ve been sending out invitations to exhibitions and events that are, for many city people, hard to get to. So I’m very happy to send invitations to events in three major cities and in Vermont, all happening this fall.” Angus also adds that he has been playing improvisational music. “One notable jam was a live score for Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams at the 2016 Cooperstown Biennale. Another was when we played in a field under the full moon and let the horses decide when the session was over. This fall, there will be a show, potentially in Saratoga Springs and in NYC.”

Jonna Humphries has an update: “For the past year, I have been with Sofar Sounds leading growth in D.C. Sofar Sounds is a global music series that hosts secret concerts in over 271 cities around the world. In D.C. we’ve featured artists like Broods, Vanessa Carlton, BUIKA, Fruit Bats, and more. I am excited to announce that I’ve accepted a position at Moog Music and MoogFest to help lead their branding team.”

As always, if anyone has notes to add anytime feel free to send me an e-mail.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Happy summer, Class of 2010! See below for our classmates’ most recent happenings, but first, a few notes that failed to make it into the last issue:

Rachel Shopper “teaches nature connection and primitive skills in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. When not building friction fire or foraging for native medicinals, she’s associate poetry editor for Orison Press, which publishes spiritual literature from a variety of perspectives.”

Tara Kelton updated us that the last year has been rather exciting. In August 2015, Tara was promoted to supervising producer at Brave New Films to run the shorts department. In November, BNF asked the shorts department to help finish the feature film they’ve been working on, and Tara co-produced said film, which was released this year and is called Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA.

Katherine Kitfield Bascom has a (relatively) new position as the marketing director at Solace New York, a CrossFit and gymnastics training facility in Manhattan. “She’s flying high as an aerial performer, managing other business ventures including a B&B, and volunteering with the IRC.”

As for our more recent updates, Julie Huang graduated from NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine this May, and she’ll start a residency in internal medicine at Winthrop University Hospital. Before that, however, Julie is taking a trip to Havana.

Chloé Bolton, a first-time class note provider, has this to share: “For the last two years I’ve been working with an ayahuasca shaman and Umbanda priestess in Brazil, healing myself, developing my mediumship, and opening to the incredible wisdom and light of ayahuasca. Now I am becoming a therapist within the group, helping people from Brazil and all over the world. We will soon be starting the construction of our eco-village and healing center!” Chloé invites all to pay her a visit soon!

Chiara Di Lello recently completed her master’s in childhood general and special education at Bank Street College of Education in NYC. In the fall, Chiara will be teaching third grade at Compass Charter School in Brooklyn.

Craig Ewer adds that he “moved to Brooklyn last year to be with every other Wesleyan graduate.” He still works at Uber.

Greg Hurd earned his PhD in geology at the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on sedimentology and stratigraphy. Greg also got married to the love of his life, Marlo Gawey!

Hilary Burke also has marriage news: “On a sunny day in June, Hilary Burke married AJ Chan ’11 at Wesleyan. The newlyweds enjoyed their big day with a very Wesleyan wedding party including Matt Burke ’07, Steve Cooper, Allie Southam ’11, Tim Morley ’11, and many other Wes attendees. They plan to send their firstborn to Wes, Class of 2041.”

Lonny Blumenthal and Cate Haring took their special day in May to the West Coast, where a beautiful California sunset in Santa Ynez Valley saw them married in front of a diversity of Wes alums including Nick Ajello, Bo Pratt, Colin Campbell, Ram Sivalingam, Gavin Brennan, Gina Yeomans, Nate Green ’09, John Harding, Jon Killeen, Dan O’Brien, and many more (whom I’m sure will let me hear it when they see I left them out of this note). Cate graduated from medical school at George Washington University and will be starting her residency at University of Michigan in otolaryngology—head and neck surgery.

In the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, the Cardinal marriage tradition continued, where Matt Ward and Erin Fitzsimmons were married in a beautiful ceremony in Stowe. Fellow Cardinals sharing in the festivities included yours truly, pretty much everyone in attendance at Lonny and Cate’s wedding, Woody Redpath, Eliza Newman, Sarah Hoefle, Anika Fischer, Russ Follansbee ’09, Field Yates ’09, Nick Hayes ’09, Meredith Holmes and Casey Simchik and more.

Jeffrey Beck married his beautiful wife, Caroline Trottier, in a rambunctious ceremony in Montreal. Toasting to the newlyweds, in full black tie garb, were myself, Tim Archibald, Sam Robinson, Tony Christiano, and Beth Kenworthy. Jeff used the exact same dance moves with Caroline on his wedding day that he tried to teach me in Clark Hall freshman year. I guess you just don’t mess with what works!

As always, I hope everyone is doing well. Chime in any time via e-mail or on WesConnect!

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Hey, gang! Just a few updates for this edition:

Seth Rosen moved to San Francisco in July and is now working at console game studio, Hangar 13, on its open-world action-adventure game, Mafia III. Seth’s job is to make the game’s setting of 1968 New Orleans feel alive.

In January of 2017, Max Rodriguez will be serving as a law clerk for a fellow Wes alum, the Honorable Denise Jefferson Casper ’90. It’s always good to see Wesleyan paths overlapping in the working world!

Rebecca Lee is taking a short break from medical school to live in Quito, Ecuador, for three months learning Spanish. Becky reports, “The food here is not the greatest. but the weather definitely beats the frigid winter of the Northeast!”

Hallie Coffin-Gould is in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, where she is pursuing her MBA. Hallie added, “Hooray for going back to school!”

Enjoying a new job in admissions and “weaving dreams for the youth of the world” at Boston’s Bentley University is Jorge Delgago, who has this to report: “Bo Jung ’11 misses late nights in SciLi, but is making do. Matt Tannenbaum graduated from law school (UMich) in December (Go, Blue!) and Mike Cifuentes, Bo, and I surprised him at his graduation.”

Micah Weiss responds to the call for notes with this: “I got engaged to Nomi Teutsch ’11. That’s a cool thing to report, perhaps.” Congratulations. Micah and Nomi! Cool, indeed!

Aaron Freedman submits the following: “Christina Boyd just joined me in the master’s program in somatic psychology in SF, so if you need a therapist for the late 20s existential crisis, give us a call and we’ll help you find your body. I got to perform a durational movement piece called ‘Gender x Technology’ with Nathalie Brillant recently, so keep your eyes on her to be the next Le1f ’11 of the art world. Ari B. King ’09 and Maren Ellingboe have a lovely home in Oakland and we’ve been taking some awesome hikes and mountain bike rides if you’re in the area. Every time I go back to Mecca (Aka Crown/Prospect Heights, Brooklyn) I get to have triple dates with Josh Wood, Kaitlin Kall ’09, Sarice Greenstein, David Schumeister (’09 honorary), Erica Rome, Scott Sasso (’09 honorary) and it’s amazing. Who’s ready for wedding season?”

Finally, Ram Sivalingam, a VP at Deutsche Bank, is back in the news. From a pool of over 15,000 of America’s best and brightest young people in sports, entrepreneurship, technology, finance, and entertainment, Ram was named one of the “30 under 30” in the finance sector. [See Newmakers.] Congratulations from the Class of 2010!

As always, feel free to send me an e-mail:

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

The Class of 2010 has a handful of updates to mention for this edition:

Long overdue kudos goes out to Matthew Lamothe, an executive producer for Jeff Rice Films in Beverly Hills, Calif., who this year celebrated the debut and acquisition of his indie feature, I’ll See You in My Dreams, starring Malin Ackerman, Sam Elliott, Blythe Danner, Martin Starr, Rhea Perlman, Mary K Place and June Squibb. The film sold and premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival back in January. Matt is the son of Dr. Henri Lamothe ’80.

In October 2015, Evan Perkoski defended his dissertation, Organizational Fragmentation and the Trajectory of Militant Splinter Groups, at the University of Pennsylvania. Evan is now spending the year as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government while he applies for academic jobs down the road.

Dan Bloom updates us that he “is the co-founder of Slope, a tool that makes it easy for teams to work together on visual content.” In the spring, his company was accepted into Microsoft Ventures Accelerator. He moved to Seattle to work closely with Microsoft and grow the business. The company now has eight employees and is growing fast. “If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, come say hello!”

Emily Sheehan has been living in Philadelphia for the past four years. For the past two she has been working at her current job, a board-certified music therapist in an inpatient behavioral health facility, working with adults and adolescents in crisis. “The most exciting recent event in my life was getting married to my longtime partner, Gilbert Gavigan, on July 25th, 2015, and getting to see awesome Wes alum friends there—Alice Kirkland, Melody Wang and Jon Gillick ’09, Emily Hoffman, and Hallie Coffin-Gould.” Emily was also lucky enough to see Pope Francis ride by in his Popemobile and attend his outdoor mass on the parkway while he was in Philadelphia this past September. She’s feeling “very grateful for the past year :).”

Finally, I’m happy to announce that Ramanan Sivalingam was named one of Institutional Investor’s 2015 Rising Stars of Wall Street Research. The annual list is prepared by Institutional Investor’s All-America Research Team. The research team asks Wall Street’s foremost buy-siders to identify distinguished up-and-comers who have been publishing buy-side economic research for less than three years and who seem destined for greater prominence in the industry. This year’s list reflects the opinions of 675 individuals from nearly 370 firms that collectively manage an estimated $5.9 trillion in U.S. equities. This is a great honor for Ram who adds that he is “eager to help fellow Wes students who want to get started in this industry.” Congratulations!

As always if anyone has notes to add—anytime—feel free to send me an e-mail at:

David Layne | DavidALayne@gmail.com

Greetings Class of 2010, I hope you enjoy the following updates from our classmates around the country:

Niki Holtzman is thrilled to report that she and Nick Hayes ’09 were married July 26 in Chatham, Mass. They were happy to have been joined on Cape Cod by a strong contingency of Wesleyan friends from our class and beyond. Niki and Nick started dating at Wesleyan in the spring of 2008.

Micah Weiss reports that he will begin rabbinical school at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia this fall.

Also continuing his education in Philly is Jeff Katzin, who is starting a PhD program in art history at the University of Pennsylvania. Jeff completed his MA in art history at the University of Texas at Austin back in 2013.

I’m excited to report that my Wesleyan hockey teammate Sam Decock and his wife Tracy have welcomed their second child, Annie, into the world. Annie joins Sam and Tracy’s energetic 2-year-old son Tyler. The Decocks are enjoying life and working at the Indian Mountain School in Lakeville, Conn.

Kait Halibozek started her new job as the campaign coordinator in Picture Motion’s L.A. office back in March. Picture Motion is the leading marketing and advocacy firm for issue-driven films, and has offices in NYC, L.A., and D.C. She loves working with nonprofits and other progressive organizations to change the world through film. In her spare time, she continues to co-write and produce the web series Zach and Anton Save the World with her boyfriend. It’s a sci-fi comedy about two guys who move into a house where the downstairs bathroom happens to be a portal to other universes. Alex Finkel ’08, Dara Jaffe ’09, Ben Kuller ’11, Brian Velsor ’11, Amanda Sonnenschein ’14, and Christian Schneider ’14 have all helped out on one episode or another. Kait loved seeing everyone at Reunion and can’t wait for the next one!

Katherine Kitfield Bascom has a new job with CrossFit Solace, a dynamic athletic training facility in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan. She is performing with aerial hoop and pole dance, and helping run a circus school in Brooklyn. She also tutors with the IRC and works as a freelance editor, and is still in love with the NYC hustle.

Leah Lucid, who has been doing research for the past three years, is now working towards a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Washington. Leah is also singing in a choir and enjoying Seattle life with her puppy, Moose.

Finally, while we are several months removed from Reunion at this point, I’d like to say thank you once more to everyone who made it to Middletown for an incredible weekend. “Officially,” 373 of our classmates gathered on campus—a Wesleyan five-year Reunion record! I trust everyone had a blast, reliving the glory days on Foss Hill, waxing nostalgic at dinner in the Russell House gardens, or in some cases, enjoying a cold one once more in Clark Hall. It truly was a pleasure to see everyone and I hope our 10-year even a fraction as good. Thanks also for everyone’s contributions to this edition!

Greetings, Class of 2010: I hope you enjoy the following updates from our classmates:

Alice Goldsmith has started a floral design studio, Wild Vase, in LA. Check it out at wildvase.com.

Jessie Schiewe is in LA, a freelance journalist and photographer for a slew of publications like The San Francisco Chronicle, LAist, Miami New Times, The Oakland Tribune, Flaunt Magazine.

Caitlin McHugh earned an M.Ed. at Western Washington University in 2014, and moved to Moscow, Idaho, where she is the education coordinator for the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute. Caitlin manages grants that pay the institute to educate children on the diminishing aquifers from which their community draws its water: “Additionally, we have spearheaded a new winter family education series for the community that seeks to connect folks with the natural world and each other even when it’s cold outside. It’s been a lot of fun and really successful this far!”

Alice Maggio checks in from the beautiful Berkshires: “Over the past year my life has intertwined with many Wesleyan graduates, mostly in the realm of music. In March, Eli Hetko ’11 and his 5 Mile String band came to play at the Sheffield Contra Dance that I help to organize. This March, my friend Emily Troll—the girl most responsible for my love of contra—is coming from Somerville to play our dance. I’m excited to tell my fellow organizers that Emily wrote her thesis on contra dance fiddling at Wesleyan. At the beginning of this January I had the pleasure of hosting musicologist and singer Tim Eriksen M.A. ’93 and his Trio de Pumpkintown, who played a concert in my living room to an audience of 50 people. In June, Anna Roberts-Gevalt ’09 stopped by to play her second house concert here, and she will be back on March 17th with Elizabeth LaPrelle to put on a “crankies” show at our local little community hall in Sheffield. I remember Anna’s senior project well—it was the genesis of her current “crankies” project! I have now worked almost three years at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics as the local currency program director, where I’m in charge of BerkShares, a currency for the Berkshires that celebrates our region, supports our locally owned businesses, and serves as a tool for community-driven economic development. My path crossed with Jean Willoughby ’08 in California last January, and then she came to visit us in the Berkshires for a few days. She is doing really cool work at Rural Advancement Foundation International in North Carolina, managing their grants program for farmers. We wish she would come work for us! The two most surprising things that happened to me this year were a visit to Cuba and being interviewed by punk rocker Henry Rollins. Henry came to the Berkshires to learn about local currency for an episode of his show called 10 Things You Don’t Know About Money. I went to Cuba as part of a ‘new economy’ delegation organized by the Schumacher Center and Christopher Reynolds Foundation, to learn about Cuban organic agriculture and social enterprise.”

From Dan Heinrich Manuyag: “I wrapped up four years with the Admissions Office at Wes and landed 5,000 miles away at the Iolani School in Honolulu, as an associate director of college counseling. I had the good fortune of being welcomed by island locals Lindsay Kosasa ’13 and Lindsay Kukona ’07. The transition has been smooth and life couldn’t be better (especially in the winter). I certainly miss all my WesFriends and family dearly back on the mainland but am ready to host with awesome hikes, surf, mai tais, and sunsets to those who venture out here. Until then, I’m looking forward to our 5th Reunion this May!”

Dylan Marron wrote and directed The Human Symphony, a show that is currently running in NYC, entirely performed by randomly selected audience members via individual MP3 tracks that Dylan has recorded for them. Dylan is also going on a two-month tour of every state in the continental U.S. with Welcome to Night Vale, a podcast that he’s been working for since 2013. Finally, he got engaged to his boyfriend, Todd. Congrats from the Class of 2010!

Jess Brownfeld works on communications and event planning in the Psychiatry Department at Mount Sinai, and she teaches yoga in NYC. She is excited to be chair of the Reunion committee and hopes you will all return to campus in May!

Tara Kelton is lead editor at Brave New Films, making social justice short documentaries. “I am also getting married in March on Pi day (because this year is 3.14.15, and we are signing our marriage license at 9:26 a.m.)” Congratulations, Tara!

Tony Zosherafatain found his way back to NYC after moving back home to Boston for a bit. While in Boston, he got to hang with Elise Herrig and Franni Paley and also got to see Kait Halibozek and Paul Edwards ’09 the week before he departed. Tony is attending NYU to become a nurse practitioner, with a focus on trans-inclusive endocrinology. He’s also aiming to take more film classes and is directing and producing (with the help of Kait Halibozek)  I Am the T: an FTM documentary, which chronicles the stories of trans men around the world. He wrapped up production of an I Am the T segment in Norway this November, which will be released for viewing this spring. Check out iamthetfilm.com.

Michael Keoni DeFranco “Things have been going well at Lua: We now have 30 employees and representatives in Boston, Chicago, and London We’re working with healthcare providers such as Kaiser Permanente, professional teams such as the Seattle Seahawks, and branches of the Department of Defense. We’ve also been donating our software to nonprofits such as the Special Olympics and Team Rubicon (a unit of first responders) and are launching with our first hotel chains, retail stores, and airlines, as well as expanding into Europe and Asia. I was featured on BloombergTV’s In the Loop, alongside Strauss Zelnick ’79, where we discussed Lua, the enterprise market and Wesleyan.

“Personally, I’ve been working with a taro root farm on Kauai to ship 60 lbs of poi, a staple food of Hawai’i, to NYC once a month to distribute to the Polynesian community out here. Over time, I am working to powder the root and help ship it into disaster zones as a simple and easily transportable form of nutrition, just add water!

“I am also on the greeting committee for the Hokule’a voyage, landing in NYC in July 2016. The Hokule’a is a four-year worldwide voyage in a Hawaiian outrigger, stopping in 60 ports around the world with a mission of “Malama Honua” or caring for the earth. The Hokule’a is sailing with no navigation equipment, traveling only by the stars.”

From a business trip in Mumbai, Johanne Lin shares that she has been happily working for a tech company going on three years now. Johanne’s territory includes India, Israel, and South African markets. She enjoys her job for the places it has taken her and may be headed to Israel in March. She hopes to connect with any alums living in Tel Aviv!

And Gina Yeomans anticipates graduating from Columbia Law in May, taking the bar in July, and starting a clerkship in New Haven, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in August. “Also in August, I’m getting married to Nate Green ’09 with a little help from my bridesmaid, Cate Haring.” Congrats, Gina and Nate!

Finally, don’t forget that our 5th Reunion is around the corner! For more information, visit wesleyan.edu/rc. We hope to see everyone in May.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Newsmaker: Chia Wei (Wade) Hsu ’10

Chia Wei (Wade) Hsu ’10, a doctoral student working with MIT Professor of Physics Marin Soljacic, has found a new way to confine light. “Typically, in free space, light will go everywhere,” he explained in an article for AZoNano.com. “If you want to confine light, you usually need some special mechanism.” Last summer he demonstrated the confinement of light on the surface of a photonic crystal: held at a certain angle, the crystal would keep light bound to the surface and oscillating continually. At Wesleyan, Hsu was a Freeman Scholar and winner of the Bertman Prize. A math and physics major, he was also the first Wesleyan winner of the American Physical Society’s LeRoy Apker Award. He is using his current research to explore potential applications in crystal lasers. His doctoral thesis will be split between research on nano­particle displays and his work on the confinement of light.

“Ben Seretan has just released a new album. It’s self-titled, self-released, and is the most thrilling and wonderful music you’ll hear all year.” Find his music at benseretan.bandcamp.com.

Dylan Marron writes: “The web series I was in, Whatever this is., was hosted on panel at the Paley Center for Media last year and just a few weeks ago my work on the show was highlighted in a Boston Globe feature on Web series that deserve to win Emmys. Kinda nuts! Also I was cast as a major role on the popular podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, a cult-hit fictional sci-fi podcast that I’ve been touring around with since January.

“What’s kind of singular about these projects is that they are very much indie creations that have made it in the mainstream. I’ve been lucky to find a place for myself in this movement of de-commercializing art and finding new ways to sustain it. Feel very proud of this work.

“Not to pile it all on at once but I’m also in the current TD Bank ad campaign and a play I performed in and helped develop back in the spring was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Production. Forgive the long list I’m just excited to share it with my alma mater where I got to hone these skills! And it’s all part of the same theme; independent art and entertainment can be accessed more readily because of the amazing platforms we have at our disposal. I only got the opportunity to film that TD bank campaign—the literal definition of commercial and corporate entertainment —because I was scouted out from my work with the New York Neo Futurists, a downtown theater company.

“And finally, I’m writing a full-length play for my theater company, the New York Neo Futurists. It’s called The Human Symphony and it’s entirely performed by randomly selected audience members. The quick and dirty tagline is ‘stories of strangers meeting each other online, performed by strangers meeting each other in a theater.’ It’s currently in development and will open on Jan. 22, 2015, in New York.”

Elizabeth Larner writes: “I am in my second year at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Va. In addition to taking classes, I’m serving as a Writing Fellow for the 1L class, as a member of the William & Mary Law Review, as secretary of the Children’s Advocacy Law Society, and as a general board member for the Public Service Fund. Needless to say, I’m super busy, but I’m really enjoying myself. Following graduation in less than two short years, I will be making the move to Charlotte, N.C., to start my career.

Kristen May: “I am currently living in Denver and just started a master’s program at the University of Colorado, Denver. I am working towards a master’s in public administration with a focus on education and nonprofit management. I spent the summer working for Big City Mountaineers leading backcountry trips with urban high school girls in Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains.”

Adrienne Russman: “I’m still a policy adviser in Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s ’74 office, and am also serving as the policy and research director on his reelection campaign through November.”

Matthew Lamothe, production executive at Jeff Rice Films (Academy Award-Winning Lone Survivor, 2 Guns), based in Beverly Hills, Calif., is executive producing the thriller Shut In with Steven Schneider, the creator of the Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchise. Hollywood Reporter article link: hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/beth-riesgraf-starring-indie-horror-729021.

Sandie Weisberger: “I just graduated from Boston College Law School in May and started a job at the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office in September as an assistant district attorney in the Framingham District Court.”

Hallie Coffin-Gould: “I’m living in Boston and working at a private wealth management firm. I just adopted a dog, Paxton (see photo on the web class notes classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu) and am excited for Reunion this spring!”

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Dear friends: Doug Larson said “spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.” I’m not sure I agree, but spring is definitely prime time for some awesome updates from the Class of 2010:

Tess Parker manages an organic vegetable farm in Hudson, N.Y.: “We have a growing CSA locally and in Brooklyn of over 150 members. Eric Sherman, our field manager, has been with us for three years now, and we have employed other Wesleyan alums as longer term seasonal employees as well as shorter term work-trade volunteers.”

Dan Bloom shares that he is about to complete the Venture for America fellowship program. He’s working at a new startup in Cincinnati—Dónde. Of course, Dan also co-founded a separate company since graduation, TernPro. He adds, “We [TernPro] were accepted into a startup accelerator in Detroit called Bizdom. If anyone wants to use GoPros to remember a trip, or create video content for their company, we should talk.”

Some fresh news from Pennan Chinnasamy, Ph.D: “I joined as a hydrology and remote sensing researcher at the International Water Management Institute, and will be working on climate change impacts on water resources in the Himalayan regions. I will also be working on the Ganges Basin to identify physical processes to better aid farmer livelihoods.” More information on Pennan and his work with IWMI can be found here: iwmi.cgiar.org/about/staff-list/pennan-chinnasamy/.

Dave Wolovsky adds that he has quit his most recent job at an orthodox yeshiva, and is now focusing on “tutoring and working on a new math curriculum that integrates principles of neuroscience and cognitive psychology, as well as mind-body coordination.” Dave has begun sharing videos of his curriculum on youtube, and encourages any who are interested to have a look! youtube.com/watch?v=nBoL5v_XeJw.

A frigid winter in North Bennington, Vt., gave Angus McCullough plenty of time to make art. Angus shares: “I’ve got two solo shows on the horizon, at the Bennington Museum in May–July and then at the Buoy Gallery (Kittery, Maine) in September. They’re going to be fun. The architecture project I’ve been leading has won two state grants and there’s really a lot of momentum growing. If you’d like to see what my latest ‘work’ is ‘like’ you can ‘check out’ my site at angusm.cc.”

Stephen Schwarz will be attending graduate school at Colorado School of Mines this fall as a research assistant in the Chevron Center of Research Excellence (CoRE).

Mark Fajans is happy to report that he, too, will be pursuing a graduate degree this fall. Mark will be attending the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University to get an MPH in Global Epidemiology.

David Layne will graduate this spring from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. Assuming he manages to pass the bar exam, he’ll be an active duty officer in the U.S. Navy, globe­trotting with the JAG Corps come August! Dave hopes to connect with fellow Cardinals along the way.

Finally, I am thrilled to conclude with news that Dominic Gibson and Lauren Feld ’11 are engaged and are planning their wedding for the end of May 2015. Dom and Lauren met at Wes while doing research in Prof. Anna Shusterman’s psychology lab in 2008. Congratulations to you both from the Class of 2010!

Thanks again for everyone’s contributions, and as always if you have an update to share, feel free to post anytime on WesConnect, or send me a blurb directly at dlayne@wesleyan.edu.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu