Class Notes

Stop the presses! Lee and Becca Burnett are expecting their first baby on March 1st! Becca’s entertaining herself teaching full time and continuing grad school – they are “super excited!”

As usual, I love to begin with my favorite part of the notes – people who’ve lain low for the past few years. Karl Heideck is thrilled with the anonymity provided by studying law at a large state university (location withheld); he's glad to hear about Swatties doing well, doing lots of interesting things with his life, and keeping it all on the down low.

Eden Wales writes in from Boston College, where she’s in the final stretch of her MA in English Literature with a concentration in High Modernist Religious Theory. After three post-Swat years of teaching high school English (American and British Literature as well as Creative and Critical Writing), Eden has found time to teach Freshman Writing at BC in conjunction with her own studies. Next step: a PhD in the same field after completion of her master’s in the spring of ‘08.

Great news from David Conners: following completion of an M.L.S. in Information and Library Science from Manhattan’s Pratt Institute in May of ’07 (rooming with Sam Dingman ’04 and Gerrit Hall ’04), David joined the tricollegehood as Digital Collections Librarian at Haverford College, where he’s digitizing their special collections. David is also delighted to report his engagement to 3-year boyfriend Misha Isaak (a law school student at UPenn); they’re living in center city Philadelphia.

In August, Katrina Clark and Maria McMath '99 took a week-long road trip tour of Underground Railroad sites on the way to Cincinnati where they researched their family histories at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. They took the scenic route, Old Lincoln Highway, stopping in Gettysburg, Columbia, and Chambersburg, PN. Maria teaches at Haverford College, and Katrina is a 3rd and 4th grade teacher at Montessori Genesis 2 School in Philadelphia.

Dan Fairchild moved to Cambridge, MA, where he’s sharing an apartment with Chaos Golubitsky '00 and working as the Technology Manager of the I Do Foundation (www.idofoundation.org - check them out if you're getting married) with a bunch of other Swatties: Larry Miller '97, Phil Garboden '02, Megan Hallam '97, and Peter Murray '00.

Krista Cooke (formerly Marshall) graduated from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in May and has started her family medicine residency at St. Margaret Hospital in Pittsburgh. Krista decided her short summer wasn’t keeping her busy enough, so following an enchanting proposal from boyfriend Cleve Cooke on Memorial Day, they decided to plan a wedding in the less than 3 weeks before her residency started. They were married in June in Pittsburgh by both a Lutheran and Presbyterian pastor (to be double sure), and attended by bridesmaid Molly Lewis (formerly Jones). Molly married high school best friend Robert Edward Lewis in their parish church in Columbus, OH, in December, 2006. Molly will continue her indentured servitude to OSU (PhD dissertation on Greco-Roman medical literature), and Mr. Lewis expects to graduate with degrees in Structural and Geotechnical engineering. They have two adorable cats named Athena Nike and P. Cornelius Scipio.

Speaking of weddings – there was clearly something in the water this year… Renee Willemsen-Goode and Josh Kramer ’00 tied the knot under the huppa on August 12 in a beautiful ceremony in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, preceded by a gorgeous rehearsal dinner with lovely Italian food (I have to add!). The guest list was Swattie-heavy, including myself, Jeremy Schifeling and Rachel Burstein ’04, Kai Xu, Caroline Bermudez and Simon Kaufman '02, Helaine Blumenthal, Geoff Klein and Eleanor Salgado, Mark Angellilo, Kevin Bovard, Elizabeth Nolte, Todd Gilette, Danielle Masor, Rashelle Isip, Vincent Ip, Sydney Beveridge, Chris Trucksess, Madalyn Baker, Mike Duffy '01, Trang Pham '01, and Keith Bentrup '01. A fabulous mini-reunion was had by all!

After beginning their relationship during the 1st semester of freshman year in Wharton AB 3rd, Sachie Uchimaru and Manu Pradhan were married in May in NYC among many happy Swat onlookers, including Mike Jones of the Language Lab, Farid Jaffer, Mike Kim, Pablo Montagnes '02, Masabumi Chano '06, Sam Sadow, Frank Martinez '02, Randy Goldstein '05, Gabe Hetland, Ben Zhuk '01, Laura Damerville, Poulami Roychowdhury, and Anna Perng. These two crazy kids are now out in San Francisco.

Laura Damerville and Sam Sadow were married in August in a small ceremony in Honolulu, followed by a trip to Tokyo. They moved to NYC where Sam started a PhD program in art history at CUNY, and Laura is working as an attorney following her graduation from Harvard Law.

Kirstin Bass married new med-school graduate PW Chen at her hometown of Holderness, NH, on May 20. Kasia Koziol-Dube, Davita Burkhead-Weiner, Sarah Kate Selling, and Catherine Vanderwaart were among those gathered to cheer. After a honeymoon in the Galapagos Islands, PW is working on his residency in radiology in NYC, while Kirstin slugs through the rest of her PhD in ‘biomedical sciences’ (aka. yeast genetics, DNA repair and replication, cancer biology ... take your pick). After she’s done, only two more years left of med school before the MD/PhD is complete. Phew!

More congrats to Julie Gregorio and Andrew Stout who tied the knot in Julie’s hometown of of Gettysburg, PA, on July 21 in a mostly-Quaker ceremony combined with the music and other outward trappings of a big fat Italian wedding. Even though most of the wedding guests were up all night reading the new Harry Potter book, best man Mark Angelillo and other wedding party members Emily Clough, Laura Hirshfield, and Collin Peng-Sue made it to the ceremony on time. Olivia Gruber, Oliver Hsu, and Nori Heikkinen all played in the orchestra, and Sarah Stanton, Rabi Whitaker, Stephanie Tonneson, Lela Patrik '04, Joel Price '00, and Fritz Heckel '04 applauded for all. Following a lovely honeymoon in northern California (and Oakland wedding reception hosted by Amelia Hoover, Emily Clough, and Nori Heikkinen), Julie and Andrew settled into their new house in Manchester, CT, where Andrew is back to the grind of his PhD in Artificial Intelligence at UMass and Julie, who graduated from the Mannes College of Music with a Master's degree in vocal performance in May, is kick-starting her singing career.

Olivia Gruber reports that she, Laura Fox (maid of honor), and Sarah Frohardt-Lane were all in Denise Finley (now Lillvis) and John Lillvis’ wedding party on June 30th, along with groomsmen Matt Lillvis ’98 and Chris Bussard. The weather was perfect and the wedding was at a hotel that had a huge balcony over a river. Denise is delighted to finish up her Masters in Government Administration from UPenn and join John in Michigan.

Ben Galynker wrote in from Sapporo, Japan where he and Ester Bloom ‘04 were on the second leg of their honeymoon after being married on August 5th in Chevy Chase, MD. The throng of Swat attendees busted serious moves on the dance floor, including groomsmen Ross Hoffman ‘04, Jedd Cohen ‘04 and Mark Angelillo, as well as Erik Osheim and Kate Duffy '05, Logan Kelly '04, Rebecca Weinberger, Sarah Hughes ’04 and Jonah Gold ‘04, Stefanie Fox ‘04, Felicia Leicht ‘04, and Kate Minear ’04. This fall Ben began as a first year associate at Hughes Hubbard and Reed, a downtown NYC law firm.

Alex Barney and Clare Harney were married on the Swarthmore campus in July after Alex spent the last year working in Monrovia, Liberia, teaching civics to the Liberian military. Attendees included: Matt Asano ‘02, Claudia Zambra '01, Theo Capriles '00, John Anderson, Charles Small, Chris Keary, Helaine Blumenthal, Patrick Hagan ‘02, Professor Carol Nackenoff, and Mike Jones (head of the language lab). Alex is now completing his final year of law school at Emory University (although he will graduate from the University of Southern California) and Clare is loving her second year of medical school at Emory.

Hooray for the Quaker Matchbox!

Thankfully, others have managed to marry outside of the ‘gene pool’. John Murphy married longtime girlfriend Sarah Givens in a small ceremony in Vail, CO, on September 29th. They live in San Francisco where Sarah is a merchant for Gap Inc. and John has been designing and fabricating furniture, artwork, and architectural iron. They celebrated with Ben Wiles, Veronica Herrera and Than Court.

Sanya Carley married Joe Rude (now Carley) in lovely Door County, WI, in a ‘flip-flop’ formal wedding conducted by a Buddhist philosopher on the banks of Lake Michigan. Attendees included Ingrid Kaszas, Meg Nam (formerly Woodworth – Congratulations guys!) and Edwin Nam ’04, Alison Gaffney ‘02/03, and Mavis Biss ‘02. Joe is a city planner for Durham, NC, and a born and bred Wisconsin man. As Sanya reports: “There were many good hook-ups, a few passed out on the lawn, tons of tears and even more laughter, and a decent amount of nudity (what more could a lady ask for?!)”.

And, Melissa Min just wrote in that she’s engaged to the wonderful Kenny Wan, who proposed during their summer trip to Kyoto in a beautiful garden at Kodaiji Temple. For the past three years, Melissa has been teaching middle school math at KIPP Philadelphia Charter School in North Philadelphia, and loves teaching her vibrant and energetic students.

In other news, the force of Westward relocation is taking on strength – specifically to the Bay Area, CA. (Is anyone else reminded of the ‘Oregon trail’?). Phil Blumenshine is taking a year off from medical school to drink good wine and Leslie Murray 02’s homebrew with me on my bayview deck – erm, I mean do a one-year research fellowship in social epidemiology at UCSF, examining socioeconomic disparities in birth outcomes. Catherine Vanderwaart relocated from DC to Palo Alto, CA and is working at the nonprofit American Leadership Forum while Elisabeth Oppenheimer '05 attends Stanford law school.

Cleary clued in to the ‘benefits of academia’, Amelia Hoover spent the summer in Bogotá and Medellín researching data collection methodologies for stats on homicide and disappearance, after a stint in Chicago for the American Political Science national meeting (plenty of Swattie-sightings there, including Rick Valelly '75, Jeremy Weinstein '97, David Laitin '67, and Somali Chakravarti '00). After surviving grocery shopping at the Berkeley Bowl, this fall Amelia began a research fellowship at the Palo-Alto based Human Rights Data Analysis Group and is rooming with Emily Clough in North Oakland.

Kara Levy is still living in SanFran working on her book and teaching writing at San Jose State University. Ben Wiles reports from SanFran that he graduated from Hastings Law School this past spring and started at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in October. Ben writes that Veronica Herrera began her 9-month Fulbright in Mexico City doing dissertation fieldwork examining the politics of water and sanitation delivery. Palo-Alton Joanne Gaskell learned to love durian fruit and karaoke this summer as she conducted thesis research on Indonesia's oil palm sector.

Nori Heikkinen decamped to Burning Man in the Nevada desert for a week of 100-degree heat, blinding dust storms, partial nudity, cheap beer, and all-night dance music. There, Nori shook it with Dave Auerbach '01 (wearing furry pants and horns), Corey Datz-Greenberg '00, and Tim Bragg '99 (who looked great in her faux-fur coat, and was riding a pirate bicycle with a blender on the back). Nori says, “I only know for a fact that I made it back alive; not sure about the others”. Any news?

Ever-enforcing the SoCal pride, Ben Chui spent the past months teaching inner city kids in south east Los Angeles about fractions and decimals, cracked the day trading market, and wrote poetry.

Of course California’s nice, but Swatties never stay in one place for long. For the debut of her company Burnt Mango Dance Theatre, Hofan Chau is welcoming Dan Finkel '02 halfway around the world to make a collaborative dance-theatre piece in Hong Kong.

Liane Rice spent the summer in Durban, South Africa, interning for Lawyers for Human Rights' Refugee Rights Project. She was joined by Betsy Jenkins and they went on safari at Kruger National Park (where their car was surrounded by rhinos and then blocked by three lions in the road) and travelled to Cape Town. Liane reports that South Africa was the most exciting and ridiculously friendly place she’s ever visited - “best summer of my life”.

Lizzy Pike sent her best wishes from a 20-hour train from Delhi to Jaisalmer, India. Since her last update, Lizzy finished law school (YAY!), began working long hours at a law firm in DC (BOO!) and is still married to wonderful Czech hubby, David (big YAY!). As a celebration for finishing the bar exam, they spent the summer backpacking through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and India, and are strategically working out how to retire to Chiang Mai, Thailand (or possibly Sapa, Vietnam).

This summer Olivia Gruber (PhD student in art history at Rutgers) won a grant from the SSRC to do pre-dissertation research in Austria, researching images of Austrian women in the nineteenth century with a special focus on the Empress Elisabeth. Olivia is also thrilled to announce her engagement to Charlie Florek, a biomedical engineering grad student here at Rutgers, with a wedding planned for next summer!

Nicola Woodroffe entered her second year at Harvard Law School, after an amazing summer in Tanzania interning in the Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Nicole was also accepted as an editor for the Harvard Law Review along with Swattie Emily Ullman ‘06.

Also this summer Joan Javier took a break from the fast-paced, politico world of Washington, DC to spend two weeks in the Philippines eating lots of good food, visiting family, and generally recharging her batteries. No Swattie sightings there, but DC seems to be increasingly populated with alums, including from the class of 2007! And, as a side note, the Center for Progressive Leadership is increasing the number of Swatties involved with the organization, including 5 staff members (Mandara Meyers '99, Peter Murray '00, Brandon Silverman '02, Phil Garboden '02, Joan Javier), 1 Pennsylvania Political Leaders Fellow (Anna Perng), and 1 New Leader (Gabriel Zacarias '08).

Abram Lipman spent another month in Bali studying gamelan music and spending time with friends he met on his previous trip; he’s now preparing for a concert at the Kimmel Center. Busy as always, Becca Van Fleet spent a month backpacking through Japan and southwest China, looking at pots and kilns, among (many) other things. Business is great in her New Hampshire workshop.

Graduate school continues on for many more. Aduke Thelwell is pursuing an MBA at the Harvard Business School, with a special interest in Microfinance and socially conscious venture capital. We can all use some advice there! Madalyn Baker is off to Chicago to begin a PhD program in clinical psychology at Northwestern Medical. Laura Hirshfield and I found the best Iranian food in London when she visited before a Sociology of Work and Gender conference. Felicia Carter is doing a semester abroad at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, studying in the Masters of European Law program. Laura Fox was in Boston over the summer, had ice cream with Mark Romanowsky, and did even more rock climbing in the northeast and out west, before entering her third year at Yale Law. Mark is still rooming with Matt Landreman in Cambridge, dragon boat racing (on a Swarthmore-heavy Harvard team), breaking limbs, and is entering year 5 in the physics Ph.D. program at Harvard, where he continues to be perpetually 6-8 months from finishing the ‘big experiment’.

This summer Robin Smith performed a Beethoven trio with fellow Cornell physics grad student Andrew Fefferman (who explored Moscow and attended the Quantum Fluids and Solids conference in Kazan, Russia) and hung out with Jessica Gersh '06 and James Golden '05 who recently moved to Ithaca for engineering grad school at Cornell.

Kiyo Miyasaka had a fun fall full of 21 examinations in two months – hopefully by now his med school exit examinations are over, but he’s still in the thick of it preparing for the Japanese national medical licensing exam in February. While in LA in June for a clinical clerkship, Kiyo had coffee with former roommate Greg Goldman in Studio City, who is working in editing/videography/ cinematography.

Over the summer, Kate Hurster drove from her MFA program at the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, CO, to Chautauqua, NY, to spend three amazing months in culture mecca. With Chautauqua Theater Company, under the artistic direction of Ethan McSweeny and Vivienne Benesch, Kate did productions of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. On her way back to year two of grad school, Kate stopped in Philly for a much-needed reunion with Amanda Parrish and a Phillies game.

And last but certainly not least, there are those with real jobs. Mark Angelillo is still loving Brooklyn and working on the expanding snooth.com which is now the biggest wine review site in the world. Oliver Hsu is now an official Master of Music with a double major in Cello Performance and Music Theory after finishing up at NYC’s Mannes College of Music with Julie Gregorio this spring. Following graduation, Oliver went on a two-week long tour with the New Jersey Philharmonic Orchestra to Korea, did a brief stint at Snooth, Inc. (alongside Mark) as a part-time web-developer, and is now a full-time software developer at Thomson TradeWeb in Jersey City while teaching cello and theory on the weekends and playing freelance gigs as time permits.

Patty Park spends her 9-5 (more like, 8-8) trying to get books on the NYTimes bestseller list as a Senior Publicist at Random House, and any off-hours cracking a first novel in various coffee houses in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Laurel Eckhouse added English to the math in her high school teaching load in Philadelphia, and made a summer excursion to beautiful Shenandoah with Alyssa Timin.

After finishing her MBA in Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May, Joanne Jacobson moved to Chicago to start a development job at non-profit IFF doing below market rate lending, real estate services, and research for all sorts of nonprofits. Her first Swattie sighting was Neal Dandade '06 in his spectacular improv comedy show at the iO Theater. Perhaps around the corner (?), Erika Doyle has been happily living and breathing design, dance, and art, doing the 9-5 gig in downtown Chicago as a Graphic Designer for a local travel company and enjoying a successful freelance photography business. Erika photographed several dance portraits for ‘Flamenco Chicago’ at a recent performance this summer, and had a fantastic first group exhibition in September featuring this work at a wine bar downtown.

Sarah Kate Selling loves the new job in Colorado, teaching math and coaching cross-country and rock climbing at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. She misses the Italian food but is excited to be closer to friends. Davita Burkhead-Weiner continues to live it up on Lake Superior. John Fort’s in Tallahassee, FL, working in an ecology research lab studying the interaction between the noxious weed Solanum carolinense and its insect herbivores, and keeping in touch with his Malawian friends. In particular, Gertrude Ng’ona is doing great work with community-based organizations that address the HIV/AIDS crisis – check her out on Myspace and Facebook.

Ingrid Kaszas began a physician assistant program at Duke, and is living in Durham, NC, and plays on a club ultimate frisbee team that Sanya Carley started. Ingrid also saw Charles Small and John Anderson as they passed by Long Beach Island on their way back to DC from Atlantic City. Nearby, David Whitehead and wife Lisa Ladewski '02 moved from Ann Arbor, MI, to Chapel Hill, NC, where Lisa began her pediatric residency at UNC Chapel Hill and David is working as an IT analyst at UNC Chapel Hill. They had a completely spontaneous rendez-vous with Kadi-Ann Bryan '03 while biking on the American Tobacco Trail this summer!

Finally, Chris Milla experienced the unexpected benefits of international territory, when he realized during his summer internship at the United Nations headquarters that there is still one place where you can smoke in NYC: the delegate's lounge.

Thoughts for our 5-year reunion next June? Send us an email at <officers03@sccs.swarthmore.edu> with your brainstorms and wild ideas. I’ve heard ruminations of a Swattie sex or septet (sorry, I couldn’t resist).