Class Notes

The Class of ’03 is also slowly extending its world domination into those ‘middle states’. E.B. Fortier graduated from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in May, and is heading out to Lexington, KY, to begin an internship at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. John Fort recently moved down to the Sewanee, TN, area where he interned in a mental health therapist's office. In between the paper shuffling, he got to sit in on some sessions, and is now looking for a biology research or secondary school teaching position in some exotic local – any leads?. John also reports a few days of fun and yoga when Yehonathon Brodski ‘02 visited in January. Finally, Carrie Cooper-Fenske and Toby Sanan are happily planning their wedding for December in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Bay Area fun is only getting better, as Feng He trades in his swanky management and corporate consulting job in Beijing to attend business school at Stanford. Only a few more months to take advantage of his hospitality in Beijing! In between dermatology quizzes, Phil Blumenshine writes that he’ll be taking a year out of Cornell med school to hang out with all the cool people in Berkeley, CA, working with social epidemiology on a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship. I’m planning massive wine-tasting trips in Sonoma Valley, or even better, Joanne Gaskell and Nori Heikkennen apparently know all of the best wineries reachable by bicycle. Joanne also writes that she’s still chugging away at her Stanford PhD in environmental policy, while spending free moments between problem sets chasing the chickens in her new lovely co-op away from her gigantic trampoline. And, as luck would have it, Kara Levy is finishing up her tenure as a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University (and her book of short stories!). After receiving an MFA in writing from Columbia in May, Kara fancies hanging out in the bay area for a little while longer.

Kevin Bovard is enjoying the paid life but bemoaning the hours working for San Francisco law firm Bingham McCutchen (say that after 2 pints – I dare you!). It seems he will shortly be joined by Perry Grossman (as a summer associate) and perhaps Manu Pradhan in the fall. I will take the liberty of inviting all local Swatties, especially the über-busy Helaine Blumenthal, to party at his new digs overlooking Alcatraz and the Golden Gate.

Cathy Ta writes in from her new job as a public benefits advocate at the Western Center for Law and Poverty, where she’s figuring out whether non-profit legal work is her cup of tea. She also writes that she, Abram Lipman, Ben Juhn, Anne Tantamjarik and William Tran had a fantastic time over New Years when Joan Javier popped over for a visit, a lot of wine and some Edward Scissorhands tickets. William adds the exciting news that he’s just switched practice groups at his firm from general litigation to labor and employment law.

Bearing this all in mind, Chris Keary just wants to remind everyone that Pittsburgh is a pretty cool place too. He’s doing swell, and enjoying his second year at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, with a bonus trip last fall to Las Vegas to present his work on the neurological basis of autism at a national AMA conference. Apparently what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas (in this case $50 of his money). In yet another example of why graduate school rocks, Andrew Fefferman dished all about his recent travel opportunities, including Kyoto for a Quantum Fluids and Solids conference last August, and Paris for the Photons conference this July. Speaking of conferences, Robin Smith reports that she recently attended the Biophysics Society conference in Baltimore with labmate Chris Fecko '98, where they ran into Thalia Mills '00, Ben Geller '01, and Bruce Lichtenstein '02. A week later, Robin hosted former Parrish hallmate Jessica Gersh '06 when she visited Cornell's mechanical engineering graduate program.

Back in the familiar northeast, Becca Van Fleet is still working hard at her growing New Hampshire pottery business, as well as hosting musicians at a new, performing arts center in a beautiful timber frame barn just across the Maine border (including the Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Ralph Stanley), as well as demolishing the competition during slalom races, and enjoying visits by Jane DeRonne, Jake Beckman ‘04 and Sarah Stanton. Becca Burnett (formerly Lipstein) is having a fab time redecorating her new house outside of Philly – the biggest task of which was stripping the floor-to-ceiling mirrors in several of the bedrooms. (ummmmm…). Chris Trucksess headed out to Newark, DE, to work in tech support for HostMySite.com (a cool web-hosting company if you couldn’t guess).

Pooja Chandra is excited to begin her residency in Pediatrics at New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell, and reports that Michael Rutberg is still enjoying working at NYC aerospace engineering firm Honeybee Robotics. Davita Burkhead-Weiner has just finished her second year of med school and is heading up to Michigan’s UP (upper peninsula for you ‘outsiders’) for her clinical years at Marquette. Kiyoyuki Miyasaka has made the most of the months off before his last year at Shinshu University med school, Japan. He spent Christmas in Oahu, Hawaii visiting JJ Lee, who works as a civilian engineer for the Navy in the Pearl Harbor. After a whirlwind tour of Swattie-sightings in NYC, Swarthmore and Philly, he headed off to visit his grandmothers in Florida and a brief engineering internship in Newport Beach (LA).

Still throwing awesome bashes, Mark Angellilo has just started a new job as the chief (and only) engineer for Snooth Inc., which is engaged in the very important process of building a wine recommendation vertical search engine. In February, Sydney Beveridge brought her pen, sun glasses and Swarthmore flip flops to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, for a writing workshop, a little extra travel and Spanish practice before heading back to NYC. Tom Harding is heading into the last year of his JD/MBA at Columbia Business School, and is tag-teaming it as a summer associate at both Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP, and in the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch. This spring Tom headed down to Bolivia to see Francisco Estrazulas, who is working for USAID and considering going back to school for a masters in international affairs.

When she’s not sharing plane flights with Swat alums, Karly Ford is finishing her master's in international education policy at Harvard Graduate School of Education and living with former rugby team-mate Maya Peterson '02 in Cambridge. Karly and Jessica Lee recently tore up the dance floor of Jessica’s medical school's prom. After some email silence, Matt Landreman recently left his Really Big Laser in Oxford, UK to hop the pond and play with thermonuclear plasmas in Cambridge, MA. Since starting graduate school at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Matt’s been sharing an apartment with Mark Romanowsky, and hung out with old Parrish hallmate Tafadzwa Muguwe '05 when he popped back to Oxford for his masters thesis defence in January. In his 2006 free time, Matt returned to Zambia to trade
teaching tips with local high school science teachers, a program he plans to attend again this summer.

Laura Fox is taking occasional time outs from Yale law to hike the Inca Trail with her roommate and organize Denise Finley’s bridal shower. Denise and

John Lillvis are getting married in June. After spending his winter break in Morocco, Paul Wulfsberg is finishing up a master's in Arab Studies at Georgetown this spring, and teaching (not TAing!) Arabic at Middlebury this summer. Next on his plate: a job-search in economic development, Arabic translation or teaching. Finally, recuperated and ready to go, Ingrid Kaszas is heading down to Durham, NC, this summer to begin a physician assistant program at Duke, and hopefully spending some fun times with Durham local Sanya Carley.

That’s it for now – have a fantabulous summer and I look forward to hearing where the wind blows you.

Also, as the College plans all of the fun ways to use their Meaning of Swarthmore funds, we’d like all ‘03ers to write in and tell us what your visions of Swat are for 2013 – send us an email to <classof2003@swarthmore.edu>. I’m thinking we definitely need a Nifty Fifty’s milkshake stand in Kohlberg.