Class Notes

Hello again to everyone now a whole year out of Swat. . . I know, it seems totally improbable to me too! Your officers are hanging in there: Jeremy Schifeling is consuming copious amounts of milk and cookies as a kindergarten teacher in Upper Darby, Renee Willemson-Goode is practicing self discipline in her own classroom, Kai Xu enjoys the prestige of a white medical cote at UPenn, and I am neck-deep in my Master’s Dissertation (and the pub).

The inescapable pull of the Quaker matchbox is slowly reeling our class in. Tim Applebee wed Jessica Cuni Applebee ’00 on September 6. They were joined by many Swatties, including Tiffany Gong and Naomi Baumol. The Applebees are living in Brooklyn, NY where Tim makes sawdust for a living. Alicia Munoz and Ben Hamilton will be married this June and attended by Hang Le (maid of honor), Dan Dan (best man), Gabrielle MonDesire, and Tony Nguyen. Alicia has just finished up her first year at Cornell, Ben is working in a genetics lab there, and both are excited for their housewarming in Ithaca, NY.

Congratulations also go out to Lizzy Pike (an editor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Prague) who married her Czech fiancé David Vanca in a castle with Claire Hoverman, Erica Kaufman, and Amanda Parrish in attendance. David January, another among the Philly bunch, is marrying long-time sweetheart Elizabeth Hamm on June 26. For anyone feeling left out, don’t forget that our two-year reunion is just around the corner. You never know! (Scary, huh?).

Many are joining the ranks of the world travellers. Ingrid Kaszas is in the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa working on public health education and Davita Burkhead-Weiner is doing malaria research in Malawi. Paul Wulfsberg, wins my personal envy award for his time outside of Cairo, copy-editing for a newspaper and studying Arabic. Just back from a visit, Katie Cloonan writes that Katey O'Donnell and Sara Parent love teaching at American Schools in Morocco. After working as a biomedical engineer in Irvine, CA, Kiyo Miyasaka packed his life into two suitcases and began medical school at Shinshu University in Nagano, Japan. Franzi Dickson is teaching English in Osaka. Karly Ford is in Sri Lanka, and enjoyed a visit from Jacob Hodes this spring. Robin Smith has absolutely loved her time doing physics research in France on a Fulbright, and is understandably trying to prolong her European tenure. Finally, Elcin Akcura is studying Economics at Oxford.

Back in the Philly area, the law firms and schools are blessed with ‘03 grads. Neil Cavanaugh and Felicia Carter both grace the former. Ellie Salgado, Dan Consiglio, Katrina Clark, and Hang Le have all finished up their student teaching last semester. Ellie has been teaching Language Arts in Darby, and Mike Camilleri is teaching in Philly. Like Becca Lipstein, who has a permanent position at Germantown Academy, I imagine they are all looking forward to summer vacation. In other news, Geoff Klein is living the good life as an engineer in Swarthmore and rooming with Catherine Vanderwaart in Philly. Lisandra Lamboy is working for Public/Private Ventures in Swarthmore, has her own scrapbooking business Creative Memories, and adds some salsa dancing on the side. From a Master of Arts in Teaching at Duke, Emily Chavez is moving back to teach and hopes to bring along the mild Durham weather. Alyssa Timin is working at the Philadelphia Music Project, and she, Amelia Hoover (entering a PolySci PhD program in Yale this fall), and Laurel Eckhouse (working with Outward Bound in Philadelphia) are spoiling furry Bonnie and Clyde. Robyn Harshaw is in a biochemistry PhD program at UPenn. Carolynn Laurenza is working in the UPenn Psychiatry School studying addictions and living in West Philly with Alyssa Bell (a paralegal at Community Legal Services) and Ilana Luft (who works as Swat’s Ann Renninger's research assistant). They live around the corner from Matt Rubin (teaching some long days in southwest Philly), Aaron Goldman, and Joel Blecher ’04, whose awesome band The Perfection!sts draw in huge Swat crowds.

In New York, Andrew Fefferman invites anyone nearby to check out his new Ithaca house. Nearby, Mike Smith eagerly awaits law school acceptances after a year learning the true meaning of relaxation. Rachelle Isip is home in NYC eating envious home-cooked food, departing on au pair stints to Paris and Milan, and having a wonderful time. Tanya Chotibut is postponing the real world in a psychology graduate program at Columbia. And, although I don’t understand why, Kara Levy and Ted Alexander are leaving Prague for NYC where Kara will earn an MFA in fiction at Columbia.

In Boston, Mark Romanowsky (studying physics at Harvard) and Laura Fox (a research assistant in the MIT Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department) team up to tackle the Haymarket fruit and veggie market on Saturdays.

Down the coast in D.C., Kuzman Ganchev is researching Natural Language processing for StreamSage and plans to study the same at UPenn this fall. With fond memories of European breads and spreads, Ben Galynker is working as an LSAT instructor in Baltimore. Chris Keary is a behavioral therapist for two young autistic boys in an after school ABA program and applying to med school this spring. Dan Dan is interning with the U.S. State Department this summer and then heads back to NYC to complete a Masters in health policy and management at Columbia. Emily Clough is moving to Berkeley, CA, after a stint at international peacebuilding organization Search for Common Ground. Though she’ll keep up the hip hop dancing and hummus, she will miss seeing Nori Heikkinen, Claire Weiss, Mike Morse, Marina Boevska, Joanne Jacobsen, and others. Joanne Gaskell is a research assistant for the International Food Policy Research Institute, runs into Martin Rio in bike parks, and raves about her ice climbing trip with Laura Fox. Although Sanya Carley enjoyed consulting for the World Bank, this fall will likely find her in Madison, WI studying urban and regional planning.

Farther down the coast (yes, I know I’m reaching here), Akira Irie is a paralegal in Virginia, Todd Gillette is working for a small web programming firm in Alexandria, VA and taking Brazilian Jiu-Jitzu, and David O'Steen is in an engineering PhD program in Florida.

In other venues, Carrie Cooper-Fenske (in medical school) and Toby Sanan (in a chemistry PhD program) are both attending Ohio State University, Laura Barker is in a PhD program in biology at UCSF, Kirstin Bass is doing an MD-PhD at Mount Sinai, Joan Javier is working on a new voter’s project for the state PIRGS in New Mexico, and Sarah Stanton and Than Court are in Seattle. David Whitehead misses his Carib but loves Ann Arbor as a Programming Analyst for the U of MI building a national service for earthquake engineers. Ursula Whitcher is doting on her cats and her cooking while doing a math PhD at the University of Washington. Emily Almberg is tracking wolves in the beautiful Yellowstone Northern Range dotted with bison, hot springs, and fallen snow. In sunny CA, Heather Fleharty is in medical school at Stanford.

The enterprising Swattie of the year award goes to Becca Van Fleet who opened her own NH gallery: Becca Van Fleet Pottery (www.beccavanfleetpottery.com).

Well, that’s enough to make us all feel proud and inadequate at the same time.  Keep ‘em coming; I love hearing from you!