Class Notes

Thanks to Friendster, the Facebook and your excellent procrastination skills, I’m receiving more updates than ever! Kai Xu, Renee Willemsen-Goode, Jeremy Schifeling, and I loved seeing everyone in June.

Many congratulations to Carrie Cooper-Fenske and Toby Sanan, who plan to tie the knot in 2008 (post-medical school and chemistry PhD, respectively).

Spanning the world, Danielle Masor has skipped off to Trieste, Italy, where she works for an Italian insurance company, adores the local cuisine and half day Fridays, and promises half a double bed to any visitors. Ben Juhn just earned his MBA from Yonsei University, and regrets ending his lovely travels through Thailand and Bali to enter the working world. Feng He says hello from Beijing where he is working as an associate for the Boston Consulting Group and looking to start a Beijing Swarthmore alumni group. Ingrid Kaszas sends her best from Guinea, West Africa, where she will finish with the Peace Corps in February, 2006.

Apparently, we ‘03ers are following the good British tradition of taking a gap year (or two!), and then hitting the books. Olivia Gruber will be studying Austrian Modernism and curatorial studies in an art history PhD at Rutgers University. She’ll miss her Philly opera and ballet subscriptions in, shared with Liane Rice. After 2-years in Cairo and Syria, Paul Wulfsburg returns stateside for graduate school, likely a Masters in Arab Studies at Georgetown. Julie Gregorio spent last year applying for graduate programs in vocal performance/opera, exploiting the auditions to visit Carolyn Laurenza and Alyssa Bell in Philly, Collin Peng-Sue, and Alyssa Timin in NYC. Ben Hamilton has been accepted to a PhD program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell, so he and Alicia are pleased to extend their Ithaca stay.

Jessica Lee is cutting up a cadaver named Cosmo at SUNY Downstate Medical College, and is thankful to Shannon McGrael who accompanies her to post-exam parties. Speaking of med school, Kasia Koziol-Dube will be at UConn next year, and may be joined by Misha Horowitz.

As for the half of our class in law school, Laura Damerville (who worked at the Royal Institute of British Architects and the International Planned
Parenthood Federation) and Sam Sadow (who completed his M.A. in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute), are back from London and in Cambridge, where Laura is finishing her first year at Harvard Law, and Sam is working at
MIT's Rotch Library. Ben Galynker, is one year down at NYU, working for the street vendor project, and loving his Brooklyn Heights digs shared with Ester Bloom ’04.  Perry Grossman is working on education policy in the D.C, area but sees law school in his imminent future. 

The second-year law students have the end in sight and some fabulous summer internships. Kevin Bovard (Stanford) lined up a position at Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco. Noah Metheny (Berkeley) is working at a San Francisco organization that provides public benefits counselling for people living with HIV/AIDS. Dave Haendler (University of Chicago), is working for Dechert in Philly.

But, there is life after school. After graduating from Columbia in December with an M.S. in computer science, Jeff Regier lives in NYC and works for New Jersey consulting firm Sky Solutions. After a year and a half with SAIC Engineering in Harrisburg, PA, Dave Collins has moved to New Jersey for another engineering day job with H2M Group, but spends his nights in NYC and jamming with Israeli Warplane (also including James Zvokel '04). Check out their site at www.israeliwarplane.com for New York
and Philly gigs. Rachelle Isip loves her new NYC job as an assistant account executive in the healthcare practice at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, and her shiny new driver’s license! Kara Levy and Ted Alexander have moved to the Big Apple, where Kara is writing her way through an MFA in fiction at Columbia and Ted paralegals downtown.

Chez Philly, Becca Lipstein’s fairy tale class is constantly over-enrolled, and Catherine Vanderwaart works for a brokerage firm and hangs out with roomie Geoff Klein. Entering year two of his Computer Science PhD at Penn, Kuzman Ganchev doesn’t actually miss making money, perhaps due to the positive influence of West Philly roomies Mike Camilleri and Rachael Fichtenbaum '04. Throwing my mother’s advice to the wind, Kate Hurster has quit her ‘practical’ UPenn research job to pursue acting. She is doing extremely well and works with many Swatties, including Adrienne Mackey '04, Simon Harding '99, and Felicia Leicht ’04. Look for her in Twelfth Night at Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival in August. Kate reports that all is well with Claire Hoverman (in medical school at the University of Texas at San Antonio), and Lizzy Pike and husband David (Lizzy attends Georgetown Law). In D.C., Nicola Wudruf works for a public policy think tank.

Amelia Hoover (who has just finished year one in a political science PhD, is sharing a floor in a lovely Victorian house in Yale, as well as a boatload of cats, with Louisa Egan (who has just finished her second year in the psychology PhD program, playing with monkeys and babies).  Sharing the Victorian house love, Nori Heikkinen and Emily Clough have left D.C. for south Berkeley, where Emily is dancing, working as an SAT tutor, and searching for non-profit work. Joanne Gaskell embarks upon a PhD in Stanford's Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (IPER) this fall, perhaps convinced after a lovely trip to visit Nori and Emily. Note to all D.C. Swatties: you will be missed, but Berkeley is the place to be! Also in Berkeley is Veronica Herrera, who survived year one in the political science PhD program at UC Berkeley. Veronica and roomie Ben Wiles '03 (a first year law student at UC Hastings in San Francisco) are enjoying the sunshine, organic fruit and yoga, as well as emulating Sideways, travelling through Napa wine country one glass at a time with Zak Gelacek (second year law student at the University of Pittsburg) and Lucy Lang (third year law student at Columbia Law). Veronica writes that all is well with Thomas Harding (also at Columbia Law), Brandyn White (at Temple), Teresa Pontual (busy in NYC at Seedco, the Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation), and Than Court (working as a Civil Engineer in Seattle). Cathy Ta is also back in California after an "extended excursion" in New York, now working for Coalition L.A. to organize tenants on housing issues.

Eileen Thorsos writes from Durham, NC. After a year in Santa Barbara working as a geography research assistant, Eileen began a PhD in ecology at Duke, along with Allen McBride ’03.5. Eileen and Allen have a nifty little solar apartment which saves them from the sweltering summer hear, as well as huge energy bills, and Eileen loves the youthful, vibrant contra dance scene.