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Summer 2024 Class Notes Preview: 2010s
2010
Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu
[Editor’s note: CCT thanks Billy Organek for his two years of service as class correspondent. This is his last column. If you are interested in taking on this role, please send a note to cct@columbia.edu with the subject line “CC’10 class correspondent.” In the meantime, please send your news, updates and/or College memories to CCT using the email above or through the Class Notes webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note.]
Hello, 2010ers! I’m happy to include class updates here.
Stefan Vutescu finished an orthopedic surgery training and residency at Brown University and a fellowship in hand/upper extremity and microsurgery at Stony Brook University. He will practice as a hand surgeon in Oakland, Calif., at a Level I trauma center.
Rachel Phin (née Vishnepolsky) was married this past November.
Congratulations, Stefan and Rachel, on the professional and personal accomplishments!
This will be the last time I write you as your class correspondent. I’ve enjoyed serving in this role in the last two years and have reconnected with a handful of classmates with whom I haven’t spoken since college. Unfortunately, in light of recent events, as a Jewish person I can no longer support Columbia University or its efforts in fostering its donor community.
2011
Nuriel Moghavem and
Sean Udell
nurielm@gmail.com
sean.udell@gmail.com
Happy Summer, Twenty-Eleven!
If a child was born on our graduation date — and surely there were a few — they’d be celebrating their b’nai mitzvah right now, awkwardly dancing to “YMCA” while their recently divorced dad was hitting on the bartender and their mom was running around the tables begging the other children to get off TikTok to join their child in dancing to a catchy tune written by gay men who would have no idea that their song would decades later be used to pump up crowds of straight white men at far-right rallies. Happy 13th graduation anniversary, everyone!
We were thrilled to get several updates this time. Olivia Shih recently started teaching as an adjunct professor in the Jewelry and Metal Arts Department at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She is also the assistant editor at Metalsmith magazine and continues to run her own jewelry business (oliviashih.com).
Taimur “TM” Malik founded a large-scale, regenerative farm in the Thal Desert of Pakistan seven years ago. His goal has been to craft and model a nature-based solution to climate change, malnutrition and the sixth mass extinction. In the interval, TM also was a policy adviser on building a regenerative economy to Pakistan’s minister for climate change and the environment and co-authored the country’s first green growth plan. TM is now consulting for the World Bank, the IFC and other important stakeholders alongside global investors to bring regenerative agriculture projects at scale across the planet. He hopes that fellow Columbians will reach out if they have collaborative ideas that they’d like to pursue with him!
After moving from NYC to Boston to San Diego to Los Angeles to Detroit, Nicole Oparaeke has finally settled down with her family in Chicago. At the time of this writing, she is married to Ramon Lee, raising her daughter, Cheluchi, and looking forward to opening her own pediatric dental office, Smile Squad Pediatric Dentistry, this summer! She would love to reconnect with other Columbians in Chicago.
And, finally, Betsy Morais and Thomas Rhiel have expanded their family. They recently welcomed John Morais Rhiel, born on Nov. 25, measuring 7 pounds, 2 ounces in weight, and 51 centimeters in length. His sister, Minna, calls him “Johnny Boy” and “Baby Bruddah,” always with a thick Brooklyn accent. John enjoys eating, lap naps, carrier walks and watching his sister dance around the apartment.
2012
Pat Blute
pblute@gmail.com
If we count solely in Leap Years, we’ve only been out of Columbia College for three years. But in that “abridged” time, it’s astounding the impact our class has made on the world.
Kristin Simmons has developed an expertise redesigning her art website, showcasing a decade of her work: kristinsimmonsart.com. As she shared, “It’s been a love-hate project, especially with the countless images and SEO surprises. If anyone’s using Squarespace and needs assistance, feel free to reach out!”
Take a look, as Kristin’s paintings, silkscreens and illustrations pop with incredible character and demonstrate immense talent.
Dr. Vasilis Hristidis GS’16 was made chief resident of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and was excited to start his PGY4 year this summer.
Congratulations, Vasilis!
Wonderful news that Brenda Salinas Baker and Nick Baker welcomed their first child in October, and Erik Kogut BUS’19 and Becca Fine welcomed their first child in January!
Philip Crandall moved back to New York from Australia in July 2023, with his wife, Paige, and 7-year-old son. He works in SoHo, plays squash on Fridays in FiDi “and would be happy to reconnect with schoolmates!”
After six years in Pakistan, Gillian Rhodes recently moved to Dubai after producing her stage play, The Clown & His Shadow, a new twist on the famous sad clown tale that involved duplicating herself through a screen. She also conceptualized a gallery exhibition, All These Faces Are Mine, based around her four artistic alter egos. She says, “I showcased my short films and did a live performance transforming into each character, alongside four other showcasing artists.” In Dubai, she will look to be part of the booming arts and culture scene in the Middle East.
To all our Columbians across the globe, have a safe and healthy summer!
2013
Tala Akhavan
talaakhavan@gmail.com
No news this time.
2014
Rebecca Schechter Fattell
rsf2121@columbia.edu
David Su contributed two chapters to the book Game Audio Programming 4: Principles and Practices, to be published on Dec. 6! Both are on building a real-time pitch tracker, with one covering fundamentals and the other covering practical techniques. David gave a talk at the 2024 Game Developers Conference with composer Megan Carnes and sound designer Jamie Lee; the session was “The Art of Cherry-Picking: Selectively Ignoring Career Advice.”
Chris Zombik lives in Somerville, Mass., and is a writer and freelance education consultant. He spent the last year researching and co-authoring a personal history of modern China focused on the life of a Shanghainese business lawyer from 1972 to the present; the book is now in the editing phase. Chris is also revising his first novel and looks forward to querying for it later this year.
2015
Kareem Carryl
kareem.carryl@columbia.edu
Hello Class of 2015! Hope everything is going well on your end! We have an update from a classmate:
Bitania Wondimu is finishing her fourth year of anatomic and clinical pathology residency at the University of Washington, where she has also spent the last year as chief resident. Next year, she is looking forward to beginning a surgical pathology fellowship at Washington, followed by a dermatopathology fellowship at the University of Arkansas.
As always, classmates want to hear from you! Please submit updates to Class Notes by writing me at the address at the top of the column or via the Class Notes webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note.
2016
Lily Liu-Krason
lliukrason@gmail.com
Happy Summer to my fellow CC’16-ers. As always, this column reminds me that the seasons pass quickly. By the time you read or skim this, we’ve had another reunion and another class of graduates behind us. If you attended Class Day or Columbia Reunion 2024, please send me your photos and updates!
Here’s a note from Jackie Dubrovich: “I’m very excited to represent Team USA at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. To be able to call myself a two-time Olympian is surreal, and I’m so grateful for everyone who has helped me get to this stage. I’m looking forward to training hard the next four months [as I write this in April] and excited to give it my all in Paris.”
Please cheer Jackie on this summer! And go to this column online on July 11 at
college.columbia.edu/cct to see a photo of her and Polina Porotsky!
CC’16 classmates (left to right) Mohit Jain, Kelly Echavarria and Lily Liu- Krason had lunch at Balthazar in NYC on March 9.
If you’re ever in town, please let me know. I would love to catch up, no matter how long it has been.
2017
Carl Yin
carl.yin@columbia.edu
Sophie Zmorrod shares, “[As I write] I’m in rehearsal for the Broadway National Tour of The Kite Runner. We tour from early April to the end of June, ending at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.”
Lauren Green’s novel, The World After Alice, will be published on July 2.
Nick Wolferman’s company, Wolferman Consulting, which he started in college as a freelancing gig, is celebrating 10 years.
Celebrating Jeremy Cooper ’17’s 30th birthday at Penny Williamsburg in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 3 were, left to right: Mikaella Bernstein Apfel ’17, Benjamin Apfel ’18, Alexander Rabinowitz ’19, Cooper and Ellin Mitchell Cooper BC’19.
2018
Alexander Birkel
and Maleeha Chida
ab4065@columbia.edu
mnc2122@columbia.edu
Alex Bass founded Salon 21, a company that offers a rotation of art and design exhibitions, dinner parties, panels and other programming with the goal of bringing together individuals in the New York area who want to discuss and explore arts and culture. We heard from Alex in the Fall 2018 issue, and since then, Salon 21 opened its first physical, long-term location, in Soho.
Riley Burke ’18 (acoustic guitar/vocals/artist), accompanied by Nick Loud ’21 (piano), of Riley Burke Band, performed at Songwriters Night at NYC’s The Bitter End on Jan. 16.
Riley mainly wrote, arranged and recorded the album while earning a master’s in film scoring from NYU. She is also in the process of developing a solo show based on the album’s story.
The closing song, “I Know How These Things Go,” was recently selected for the Songwriters Night at The Bitter End, hosted by the Society of Composers & Lyricists, Songwriters Guild of America and New York Songwriters Collective. Riley has also written music for the SNY television network and scored Hillia Aho’s film In Passing, which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Riley shared a link to her Spotify. See the nearby photo of her performing!
Alex Fay is moving to Oklahoma to start this fall as an assistant professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law, researching and teaching Native American law subjects.
Congratulations to all on these accomplishments!
Columbia golf teammates (left to right) Sunny Yan ’19, John Robertson ’21, Daniel Terrell ’21 and Joshua Suh ’18 got together for a meal at Let’s Meat BBQ in NYC’s Koreatown on Aug. 22.
Please stay connected! You can send updates to Class Notes by emailing us or through the Class Notes webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note. Photos should be sent through the Class Notes photo webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note_photo.
2019
Tj Aspen Givens and
Emily Gruber
tag2149@columbia.edu
emilyannegruber@gmail.com
Hello, Class of 2019! We hope that you are all well and having a good summer. We hope that you enjoy these notes from classmates!
Bernie Bridges wrote: “Bernie Bridges’ Los Angeles-based band, Tetherball, released its first single, ‘Sad Parade,’ on April 5! Listen wherever you get your music! :)”
A group of CC alumni — clockwise from bottom left: Emily Sun ’19, Yunzhe “Matthew” Nie ’23, Alex Siegal ’21, Emily Gruber ’19, Elif Memet ’19 and Avantika Kumar ’15 — reunited as grad students at Harvard on Nov. 9.
Eleanor Pressman, Connor Moore and Nicholas Rio sent the following: “We all moved to California after graduating! El is in her D.V.M./Ph.D. graduate program at UC Davis but advanced to candidacy. Nick lives and works in San Francisco, and Connor lives in Los Angeles and recently started a position with the Los Angeles Unified School District. We enjoy getting to see each other lots, whether visiting each other in the city or enjoying California’s great outdoors together. Go to this column online at college.columbia.edu/cct to see a photo of us in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in February. We’re looking forward to more adventures this summer!”
Abby White is thrilled to announce she has sold her debut novel, D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. This young adult novel follows Jewish teenager D.J., whose beloved cousin Rachel allegedly died by suicide but whom D.J. is convinced was murdered. When she moves to Rachel’s hometown, D.J. must juggle prepping for her bat mitzvah with investigating Rachel’s death. Levine Querido, an independent publisher with a focus on diverse authors and stories, will publish D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. in fall 2025.
CC’19 friends (left to right) Justin Strauss, Elif Memet and Eric Li, together here on Dec. 21 and visiting from New York, Massachusetts and Amsterdam, respectively, reunited in Chamonix, France, for a ski trip.
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cct@columbia.edu
Columbia Alumni Center
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 4th Fl.
New York, NY 10025
212-851-7488
ccalumni@columbia.edu