Tag: 2013

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 

Kristen Salustro is working on her fourth book and is expecting to publish it in 2020. Her debut novel was awarded a silver medal in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards in the sci-fi category, which made her so excited she accidentally bounced her partner awake at 6 a.m. on a weekend before shoving the announcement under his nose. She just passed her third-year mark at her day job and has been officially named someone’s manager.

Bryce Hollingsworth’s custom traditional dry stone construction business has been going really well. He spent two months this winter working with a certified dry stone Master Craftsman down in New South Wales, Australia, building a huge 600-foot long slate wall which was awesome. Since then, Bryce received the Preservation Trades Network’s International Trades Exchange grant, and used that to spend two weeks working with a Master Stonemason in Galway, Ireland. Later this fall, he will be traveling down to Lexington, Ky., to work with the Dry Stone Conservancy, a nonprofit organization focused on preserving the craft of dry stone walling. This year has been insanely busy, but he’s been loving every minute of it.

Benjamin Smith completely missed chances to script supervise Batwoman and Utopia and is seeking forgiveness from himself. He completed his short film, Bump in the Night, in September, and is making plans to force it on audiences around the world. He likes to call it a short film, as if he really knows what he’s created. You can also find Ben performing improv and sketch at Second City in Chicago. He’s trying to have more friends and stuff. Improv is good for that. Need life advice? Improv, friends.

After nearly four years gallivanting around Asia Pacific, Julian Azaret is finally moving back to the USA! San Francisco and Cambridge have even odds. Zach Libresco just moved from Brooklyn to Harlem to be closer to his new job, modeling for the National World War I Memorial. His theater company, The Humanist Project, is remounting their devised clown show, centered on quantum physics and Russian fairy tales, in November and December at The Tank in Midtown! He is very happy to have moved closer to his best friend, Emily Hunt.

After spending five years in Washington, D.C., working on environmental policy for the National Wildlife Federation and later as a U.S. Senate staffer, Taran Catania moved to Burlington, Vt. She’s pursuing a Sustainable Innovation MBA at the University of Vermont with plans to confront environmental challenges in new, better ways. (And yes, she still loves birds. In fact, she’s the seventh-ranked top birder in D.C. for 2018—including #1 female birder and youngest in the Top 10.)

Victoria Chu is an entertainment finance/corporate associate at Akin Gump in Los Angeles. She would love to connect with other Wes alumni in the entertainment/legal industry. Evan Hazelett is studying the spatial and racial politics of food and farming as well as critical urban histories and theories as a master in urban planning student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He hopes to pursue a PhD in human geography after this program. He’s also the editor-in-chief for The Urban Review, the student journal of urban studies and planning. On the side, Evan is trying to publish short stories and poetry, and at home he cooks himself to the ground. Shira Gaudet (formally Shauna Pratt) is pleased to announce her marriage to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes on June 2. She now has two children, Rebecca (4) and Michael (1). Both children attended the wedding; Michael slept through the whole ceremony. The couple’s first dance was actually a singing duet, “I’ll Never Tell” from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, “Once More with Feeling.” Rubber ducks abounded.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Last year Zach Schonfeld became the first writer in the 86-year history of Newsweek to submit an expense report for an ASMR therapy session. This year he got laid off by Newsweek and spent the past five months working as a full-time freelance writer. He is working on his first book, which will be published by 33 1/3 Series in about two years.

Ben Smith shoots courtroom documentaries to assist juries that assess monetary damages for plaintiffs with life-changing afflictions. On a lighter note, he is completing his project, Bump in the Night, a horror film with a musical twist. He writes and directs as many projects as he can in Chicago.

Sydney Lowe is associate producer on the A24 and Plan B feature film The Last Black Man in San Francisco that debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film is winner of both the 2019 Sundance Special Grand Jury prizes for Best Director and Creative Collaboration. She is also a 2019 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow and a fellow for the inaugural Times Up Who’s In The Room mentorship program. Sydney lives in Los Angeles, but is forever a New Yorker at heart.

After years of moving around, Gabriela De Golia is headed to NYC late August to pursue a master of divinity at Columbia University’s Union Theological Seminary. Hit her up if you live there!

Anna Swartz lives in Brooklyn with her wife, Netta, and their tiny, very spirited dog Laney. She started a new role as an insurance editor on the content team at Policygenius. Any Wes grads interested in writing for an insurance tech startup should get in touch.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Peter Horton, having never really left Middletown, welcomed his friends back for Reunion. Alex Pogosky, Amanda Morrow, and Ashley Swan removed items from the bucket list, with Simoneil Sarbh getting them up in the morning and making the most of each day. Croy Salinas, Will Davis, Allie Carey, and Laura Ligon recounted updates over discounted plates. Ethan Grund and Evan Carmi were fryed to see each other again. Chelsea Lassiter PhD’16 talked house music with Louise Brown (class dean of 2013) and her band, especially the importance of being on time to the rhythm section. Leah Temes and Jenna Bluestein were excited to meet Susanna Banks’ fresh-faced friend in their freshman-year dorm. Lu Corporan was sorely missed at Reunion, his attention needed on the West Coast with a Sinatra event.

Caitlin Aylward and Corey Guilmette celebrated their marriage in August at a crabbing “resort” on Guemes Island, Wash. Syed Ali, Bill Beluch, Chris Ceccolini ’11, Saumya Chatrath, Jaewon Chung, Gabriela De Golia, Marjorie Dodson, Will Durney ’14, Ryu Hirahata, Jessica Jordan, Melanie Koren, Laura Machlin, Anthony Mascolo ’12, Missy McCabe, Kateryn Nunez, Zack Sulsky, Estee Rubien-Thomas, and Lizzie Williams attended.

After earning their master’s degrees at Boston University, Max Kaplan and Kara Wernick ’14 are headed west, as Max pursues his PhD in linguistics at UC Santa Cruz. They are getting married next year.

Sarah Cassel lives in NYC and works at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, where she focuses on diversion, reentry, and bail reform initiatives. Sarah congratulates the incarcerated students who graduated with associate degrees through Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education.

Zach Schonfeld returned to Wesleyan for Reunion. He visited the Clark room where he published his first Wesleying post in 2009 and was startled to find it occupied by Bobby Burvant and Jake Blumenthal. After five years in Brooklyn, he moved to Morningside Heights with Rebecca Vaadia. In lieu of a housewarming party, they had a Kate Bush 60th birthday party.

Bryce Hollingsworth is a stone worker in Northampton, Mass. He’s been certified by the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain and is starting his own business. He will be apprenticing with a certified master craftsman in Australia. Check out his Instagram @stonebearmason and website stonebearhardscapes.com.

Taryn Murray graduated from medical school and is doing a preliminary medicine year at Cleveland Clinic Akron General followed by a dermatology residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Marjorie Dodson traveled through Kazakhstan last October with Erin Newport. Marjorie worked remotely while scuba diving around the Pacific, primarily in Bali where she participated in a divemaster training and marine conservation volunteer program. She was lucky enough to make it back stateside in time for Reunion. Marjorie moved to D.C. to pursue a master’s in international affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Emma Daniels joined the LA office of Abernathy MacGregor Group, a leading strategic communications firm. Emma will specialize in crisis management and corporate reputation building.

Anna Swartz got married in August in the Berkshires. There were a few of her classmates in attendance. She and her now wife, Netta Bob, are still enjoying the post-wedding glow.

Evan Hazelett traveled with his partner to New Zealand, Japan, Berlin, Amsterdam, Spain, and Iceland. They ate, hiked, hosteled, trained, and drove across these countries, WWOOFing with five different families. They became good friends with an old Japanese couple and middle-aged Catalonian

man who is rehabilitating a 1,000-year-old farm house and making goat cheese. Now Evan is studying urban planning at Harvard.

Janet Cushey rejoined Argot Partners as the firm’s event manager and app development project lead. She moved to Queens and oversees Patch English, a review service for Korean corporations she founded in 2017.

Kevin Curtin rejoined J.P. Morgan this year as an advisor in the private bank. He provides J.P. Morgan’s banking, credit, and investment advice to wealthy families, institutions, endowments and foundations. He’s been encouraging Wesleyan grads in Boston to meet each other—you should reach out to him and join!

Catherine Doren finished her PhD in sociology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and is doing a postdoc with the Office of Population Research and Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton.

Barbaralynn Moseman resides in East Harlem with her partner and graduated with her master’s in social work from Hunter College. She is a home-based family therapist at New York Foundling.

Prince Emenalo earned his master of public health degree with a concentration in public health management and policy. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity of the Kappa Alpha Sigma Chapter in Stone Mountain, Ga., and also an assistant coach for his little sister’s softball team.

After liquidating all assets associated with his entrepreneurial endeavors, Bennett Kirschner has transitioned into naturalist writing. His new book of essays will be published next February by a small New Orleans press.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Our five-year Reunion is almost upon us and we can’t wait to catch up with our classmates on Foss Hill! Read on to hear what some of us have been up to:

Nicholas Orvis and Andrea Ruiz-Lopez met during their first few weeks at Wesleyan and have been together—romantically and usually geographically—ever since. This past fall, they finally got married in in the Catskills. They live in NYC now, where Andrea is a fourth-grade teacher and Nick commutes into New Jersey, where he’s the resident dramaturg at a small theater company. They will forever be grateful to the mandatory sexual harassment presentation at which they met. Go Wes!

When Marina Reza is not working at The Jed Foundation, a suicide prevention nonprofit geared towards college students, she’s practicing Angel Olsen covers and scouting spicy food with Anthony Portillo ’12. She has a few poems in the newest issue of Bone Bouquet. Zach Schonfeld met 30 goats in one day when he visited a goat farm in Vermont. He is a senior writer at Newsweek and has been getting super into Steely Dan lately for some reason. Syed Ali is attending the Master in Urban Planning program at Harvard University. He’s hoping to learn how to grow cities in a way in which everyone can access better health and wealth outcomes.

Brooklyn is busy. Croy Salinas can’t believe it’s been over two years since he brought home Maisey. Watching her grow into her skin is a joy and he is always amazed when she eats with her big bites. Will Davis is approaching the end of his quest to order a coffee from every coffee shop in the borough, and is reaching out to authorities to see if it can be counted as a world record. Sue Banks and Natalie Roubichaud ’14 have been taking pottery lessons, and while Natalie is enjoying superb bowls, Sue has moved on to other designs. Mark Popinchalk and Noah Masur ’15 have helped renovate a small local theater and were able to host a private viewing of Moana for their friends. James Walkup ’12, Chloe Reinhart ’14, and Sora Akiyoshi ’14 were seen with custom light bulbs. While dim, some were refreshing. Peter Horton is translating El Niño lyrics to Japanese.

Ashleigh Corvi and Tori Redding are getting married this August in Newport, R.I.! Kelsey Muller will be joining them as a bridesmaid. Kristen Salustro is publishing her third novel and the closer to her sci-fi trilogy. She was promoted to senior writer on the creative team at her company. She writes all kinds of copy for their main enrollment tool along with entertaining, educational video scripts, and now knows way more about Medicare as a 27-year-old than she ever thought she would as a 65-year-old. Spoiler alert: Medicare is not fun. But she loves her job.

As always, thanks to my classmates for writing in. Can’t wait to see you all at R&C!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Hello, Class of 2013! Read on to see what some of your classmates have been up to:

Nandita Vijayaraghavan left her position at Warner Bros. and relocated to Ann Arbor, where she is an MBA student at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. She’s passionate about the entertainment industry and will be hitting up some Wes alumni in Tinsel Town as she completes her internship. Sandy A. Durosier left igher Edge in New London in March to become Wes’ new area coordinator of the Butterfields (yay, the Butts!). Genelle Faulkner is entering her second year of teaching science to middle schoolers in Boston. Emma Daniels graduated in May with her master’s in strategic public relations from USC Annenberg and accepted a position as a senior account executive, crisis and strategic communications with MWWPR in LA. While it was painful to give up her Massachusetts driver’s license, she can’t complain about the weather, or the palm trees, or the abundance of avocado toast.

She Makes Comics, directed by Marisa Stotter, and produced by her and Patrick Meaney ’07, won Best Documentary at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International Film Festival, and was released on Netflix in October. Also available on iTunes and Amazon Prime, the film tells the little-known story of the important contributions of women to the comics industry, as artists, writers, executives, and ardent fans. [See page 75.]

Anna Swartz is engaged to Netta Bob, younger sister of Amit Bob ’10, and is planning a summer wedding. They live in Brooklyn near plenty of other Wes grads.

Will Davis, Peter Horton, Croy Salinas, and Noah Masur ’15 take the chance to escape NYC every so often and enjoy a series of adventures that Mark Popinchalk has organized. These mostly consist of exploring local mountains, nearby villages, and sometimes even some spelunking. Ethan Grund and Lu Corporan have joined, too. They’ve enjoyed good and bad luck along the way, treasured the skills they’ve acquired, and never let any gloom ruin their day.

Adam Rotstein is living the dream in Los Angeles as a comedy writer. He’s written a series of Facebook ads for the gas station convenience store, ampm. Their mascot, Toomgis, is a mythical monster composed entirely of snacks. Seriously, his hair is Twizzlers, his beard is Cheetos, and his palms are cinnamon rolls!

In 2015, Evan Hazelett was the fourth full-time hire to Imperfect Foods in Emeryville, Calif., America’s first ugly produce company that is fighting food waste on. He spent a year there before returning home for four months to serve as a mentor, coach, and teammate to a family member suffering from severe, chronic depression which resulted in their graduation from General Assembly’s Web immersive program and subsequent job search. Afterwards, he returned to the Bay Area to work as a program manager for Sprouts Cooking Club, a nonprofit engaged in youth culinary education. Now he’s researching grad schools and applying to programs by December before traveling around the world for five months.

Zach Schonfeld got blocked on Twitter by the president of the U.S. for telling him that he’s not as cool as witches. He lives somewhere between Williamsburg and Bushwick and misses Pastabilities.

Tom Lee and Adam Hirschberg head up a weekend exercise group called YogHurt, which is a bootcamp style exercise class that meets every other week in Prospect Park. The workout is a combination of sprint training, calisthenics, yoga, and finishes at a frozen yogurt shop in Park Slope. They would love to share, in case any other WesGrads are interested in signing up. Thomas Cho continues to live in Chicago and works as a medical scribe. He invites you to come visit him and say hello. Go Wes

Last but not least—an update from our Reunion Committee: Arya Alizadeh, Emma Daniels, Jacob Blumenthal, Malik Adán, Melody Oliphant. McKenzii Webster, Sam Ebb: “Class of 2013, this spring marks our five-year Reunion! We’re so excited to welcome you all back home May 25-27, 2018, and are already working with the university to plan a great weekend. Over the next several months, you will be receiving some important information from us, including dates, registration and programmatic information. This year, we want to welcome as many alumni from our class back to campus as possible, and we need you to help us with the hype! Talk to your friends, your classmates, and get ready for R&C Spring 2018.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

The Class of 2013 is one year away from our Fifth Reunion and we’re feeling the feels. Read on to see what we’ve been up to in 2017!

In March, Evan Weber was recognized by Grist as one of 50 emerging green leaders to watch for his work with U.S. Climate Plan, the organization he and Matt Lichtash started at Wesleyan. In April, U.S. Climate Plan re-branded as Sunrise, and is building a movement of young people to make climate action an urgent political priority, with an eye on a major intervention in the 2018 midterm elections.

Janet Cushey launched a private English review service for Korean corporations called Patch English in January and works as an event manager for Shoptalk.

Ben Smith is script supervising on film and commercial sets and has finished his third original screenplay. He’s now looking to get his sci-fi comedy podcast off the ground floor once he finds some good improv actors. Any Wes composers, sound designers, or funny people should hit this dude up at basmith@wesleyan.edu.

Bennett Kirschner has assumed the role of kennel manager at Pan-American Life Insurance firm in New Orleans. Whether he’s providing dogs for the hunt, or simply intimidating debtors, Bennett takes pride in the quality of his service.

Zach Schonfeld lives in Brooklyn with Ella Dawson ’14 and a 1956 grundig tube radio he inherited from his 99-year old great-grandma. He had a brief cameo in a Real Housewives of New York City episode about a dog wedding.

After meeting on their first day of freshman orientation, JD Dieterich and Danielle Springer were married on May 27. They celebrated the occasion with many Wesleyan friends including Jeff Giocondi, Emma Caccamo, Lex Johnson, and Elizabeth Rudy, who were in the wedding party. JD is now an MD, having graduated from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and Danielle is an assistant editor at Penguin Random House. Congrats to both of them!

Aditi Kini just premiered a music video titled “Park Slope” for OHYUNG ’10 with co-director Hanna Edizel ’14, cinematographer Neo Sora ’14, and actor Stephen Acerra ’12. This is on the heels of Inherited Trauma, the exhibit Aditi curated at Local Project for the Long Island City Arts Open Festival featuring Wesleyan artists Hanna Edizel ’14, Hira Jafri, Zain Alam, and Vikrant Sunderlal Chandel ’15. Performers included Rob Rusli ’10, Matt Chilton ’16, Deren Ertas ’16, and Cameron Couch. Get in touch with her if you want to collaborate!

Bryce Hollingsworth quit the oil business. In Europe now!

David Shimomura started a new job with the University of Chicago in alumni relations and development. At the end of May, he put on their largest alumni event, Alumni Weekend, along with the rest of their amazing planning team.

Prince Emenalo earned his MPH from Georgia State University School of Public Health, where he with a concentration in health management and policy.

Melody Oliphant is finishing up a fellowship at Yale School of Medicine in the Child Study Center, and eagerly counting down the days until the Class of 2013 is reunited in Middletown for Reunion.

Gabriel Urbina created a radio drama podcast called Wolf 359 in 2014, which was one of the finalists for this year’s Webby Awards, an award for excellence on the Internet. Their show is nominated in the Digital Audio Drama category. What really makes this a Wes triumph is that the show is a 100 percent Wes production. Wolf 359 is co-produced by Zach Valenti ’12, who is also the lead actor and is co-written by Sarah Shachat ’12. The cast is rounded out by Emma Sherr-Ziarko ’11, Michaela Swee ’12, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs ’11, Zach Libresco, Noah Masur ’15, and Michelle Agresti ’14. On the technical side, their original music is composed by Alan Rodi ’12, and their audio recording is done by Jared Paul ’11 and James Schoen ’05. They even did an apprenticeship with current student Claire Shaffer ’18!

Danielle Craig says, “Hey, what’s up? Hello,” to all her fellow 2013ers. She saw some of them to celebrate JD and Danielle’s nuptials over Memorial Day weekend. Danielle just returned from two months of solo backpacking through Southeast Asia and will start law school at UC, Berkeley, in August. So long to the NYC-Wesleyan crew, it has been a stellar four years. If you live in the Bay, let her know!

Michael Robinson and Lia Monti were married in Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 3, surrounded by countless members of their Wes family. This marks the second generation of Robinson men finding true love at Wes—Mike’s parents Dennis Robinson ’79 and Anne Robinson ’81 met in 1978. Yes, the Beta sweetheart and Wesleyan fight songs were sung, and yes, Buddy wore a bowtie.

Thank you to all my classmates who wrote in, and best wishes to everyone!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

This year has been unfortunately uneventful for Bennett Kirschner. Some avoidable health complications have sidetracked his 10-year plan. Regrettably, he accepted a friend’s challenge to see who could eat more bottles of Flintstones Gummy Vites. While he won the challenge, his body was profoundly disoriented by this mineral glut. It has been eight months and he is still functioning at only 80 percent of his former capacity. Let this be a lesson to us all: be careful with vitamins.

James Gardner writes in from Germany, where one of his stepsons just had a baby, so he is now technically a grandfather (believe it or not!). He writes that there is a Facebook group for Wes alumni living in Germany or any German-speaking countries: facebook.com/groups/wesgermany. Everyone living in or frequently traveling to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland should feel free to join.

Benjamin and Vivianne Swerdlow recently bought a home in Richmond, Calif., with their black golden, Shadow, and their degu, Henry. Benjamin is in his second year of a PhD. program in clinical psychology at UC, Berkeley. Vivianne runs a free salesforce administrator training program for job seekers who have been out of work for six months or more, helping mid-level professionals with technology backgrounds gain new skills and find sustainable employment.

Chelsea Goldsmith is still living in Baltimore, still working in non-profit, and still really enjoying both of those things! Highlights of 2016 include learning to use the overcasting foot on her sewing machine, winning gold at Pirate Olympics, and getting engaged.

Marjorie Dodson is going on her fourth year in Beijing. She noshed on spicy rabbit heads with Dan Nass. If anyone is ever in China, give her a shout!

Kevin Curtin shipped up to Boston from NYC. After spending the last year doing private equity, he jumped ship to Jobcase, a startup based in-town. The company is a social media site for empowering America’s workforce.

Evan Okun coordinates nationwide tours for Circles & Ciphers, a Chicago-based restorative justice organization led by young people who are court-, gang-, prison-, and DCFS- involved. Circles & Ciphers opens each event with a spoken word performance, then hosts participants in a restorative justice peace circle to discuss police, and prison abolition. In 2016, they hosted events at Yale University, Hunter College, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, and a myriad of other cities across the country. It’s time to dismantle the prison industrial complex, so please contact him directly at: Circles.Ciphers@gmail.com 

The end of 2016 saw Nicole Bonneau graduate from Palmer College of Chiropractic’s Florida Campus as a doctor of chiropractic. She is very excited to be back in her home state of Vermont to practice, as well as to be closer to friends, family, and her fiancé.

In October, Kristen Raddatz became the executive editor for the Chicago Review of Books. Feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in reviewing books, interviewing authors, or writing a lit-related piece for the CHIRB. She’s also still working her real (paying) job as a publicist at the University of Chicago Press, and she’d love to connect with any Wes alumni living in or traveling through the city!

After two years as the deputy media editor at Huffington Post, Catherine Taibi left to join Bloomberg as social media editor, overseeing social strategy on various platforms across Bloomberg.com’s many verticals, including markets, politics, technology, and luxury. Catherine had the privilege of traveling to all three presidential debates and covering each event live, interviewing top political/media figures and celebrities. Post-election, she will continue to cover politics both nationally and internationally.

Ian Waldron writes that Rory O’Neill returned to the United States after three years wandering in Brazil, and was duly roasted by his friends for three hours upon returning. He is acclimating well to American culture and norms.

As for myself, I spent the holidays down under and ushered in 2017 in Melbourne. Tried to smuggle a baby wallaby back to San Francisco, but sadly I couldn’t pull it off. Thanks to all my classmates for writing in and best wishes to everyone in 2017!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

With the arrival of fall comes the realization that it’s already been three years since the Class of 2013 graduated from Wesleyan. During this time, we’ve traveled the world, earned an additional degree (or two), and settled into an exciting new chapter of our lives. Keep reading for a snippet of our adventures!

Jim Curley is the director of state relations at Boston University. He is also working towards an MBA at BU. He sees his fellow classmates Derek Lukin and Carmen Boscia in Boston. Amanda Simmons relocated to Philadelphia from NYC to study at Penn Law. She is joined by her partner, Adam Jaskol, who works as a management consultant and engages in casual sax(ophone). Amanda and Adam are hoping to reconnect with Wes friends, so reach out if you’re in Philly. Sarah Cassel finished her master’s in criminology at the University of Cambridge this summer. She wrote her dissertation on higher education in prison, and is working at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Anna Swartz is still living in Brooklyn and is a staff writer at Mic, where a few coworkers are also Wes grads. From her office in One World Trade she can almost see all the way to Connecticut! Happy to say that she still sees Wesleyan friends at least once a week, if not more.

Kristen Salustro missed LA by a couple of thousand miles and wound up in Chicago, which is just fine by her. She is a writer for bswift, an Aetna company, and is working on her third novel. Her first two books, published under the name K.N. Salustro, were nominated for the Chanticleer Book Reviews Cygnus Awards for science fiction and speculative fiction. Sydney Lowe is also living in LA. After working as an associate producer at HBO in New York for three years, she joins the staff of HBO’s upcoming fall comedy, Insecure, as producer’s assistant to show creator, Issa Rae. Sydney continues to work as a photographer and creative producer on several video projects, documentaries, and branded content campaigns.

Despite tenacious efforts to avoid gainful employment in 2016, Evan Carmi ended up with a new job, joining Airbnb’s Portland engineering team. After failing to muster the courage to take Drawing 1 at Wes, he signed up for a local drawing class this fall. Zach Schonfeld delivered a Drunk Ted Talk on the subject of Nicolas Cage appreciation. He still works for Newsweek, and he hasn’t gotten stuck in an elevator since 2014. Julian Azaret moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he’s run into a few Wes alumni. He has been racing bikes, climbing mountains, and consulting in the SaaS industry all over Asia-Pacific. Things haven’t changed much in the last three years. Anyone passing through that part of the world should give him a holler!

After finishing her master’s in sustainable engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, Alissa Santucci has been working at Xerox Corporation in the environmental, health, safety, and sustainability department. Alissa was promoted to environmental technology program manager and is excited for all of her new responsibilities which can help shape the environmental sustainability future of the company. Katie Havlovic writes in from D.C., where she transitioned from working for Congressman Beto O’Rourke to the Opportunity Finance Network, where she advocates for the interests of community development financial institutions throughout the United States. While she continues to explore the D.C. food truck scene, nothing can beat the falafel and grilled cheese trucks back at Wes.

Brooklyn is full of entrepreneurs! Noah Masur ’15 has started a humane pesticide business (very popular in Williamsburg), and William T. Davis has taken his experience in the coffee industry and now runs an online exotic coffee bean store on the deep net. Sora Akiyoshi ’14 and Chloe Rinehart ’14 began a volunteer outreach program that offers ultimate Frisbee classes for those in senior housing, and Peter Horton and Croy Salinas are still making sweet music together as they enjoy the start of their fourth year of happily living together. Mark Popinchalk enjoys keeping tabs on his friends, both in Brooklyn and afar, including Ethan Grund, who is starting his second year working on his comprehensive lake survey of Minnesota.

Matt Lichtash, much like Andrew Perlmutter is wont to do, is also working away, doing all things BKE. Aside from pursuing all forms of football except for the actual thing (fantasy, flag), Matt has also embarked on a new creative venture: a website dedicated to presenting information about climate change in concise posts containing three bullet points or fewer. The site, thecarboncapital.org, is easily digestible, shareable, and nonpartisan, and posts info to motivate anyone to take climate action.

Evan Okun (aka E. Oks) performed a solo show at the NYC’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe alongside Sam Friedman and other members of his Chicago collective. The show celebrated the release of his new single (soundcloud.com/eoks). The next morning, he flew back to Chicago to continue his work with Circles & Ciphers, a hip-hop infused restorative justice organization led by young people who are court-, gang-, and DCFS- involved.

As for myself, I wrapped up three years at Apple and transitioned to Fitbit to work in advanced product development. When I’m not searching for the latest and greatest technologies to apply to future Fitbit products, you’ll find me traveling, watercolor painting, and (still) eating my way through the wonderful city of San Francisco. Would love to reconnect with any Wes alums living in or traveling through this area!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu