 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
CLASS NOTES
Robert Hardt Jr.
Ten years after, things seemed smaller. For our 10th reunion, the Steps, the bars, the restaurants — the entire campus felt as if it had somehow been put in a very large Xerox machine and reduced by 20 percent. But because of Steve Weinstein and the rest of the reunion committee, this odd shrinkage was barely noticed by our classmates. The weekend was wildly successful (and informally ended at the "new and unimproved" West End at 2:45 a.m.). Two general observations about people who attended this event:
There are too many disparate elements to weave together in a single coherent column, so rather than freak out and damn me to hell ("I can't believe Bob didn't mention my awesome job at Union Carbide!'"), just send me an e-mail and remind me what you told me about your life on that moon-lit June night that was suffused in gin (at least for me). Gigi Gonzalez and Miguel Centeno were among the first people I ran into at the Carriage House, where we had our class dinner (and where I managed to smuggle in John Griffin and Patrick Flynn, who now owe me an e-mail, as does Lara Tabac). Gigi and Migs, who have been married for seven years, sent me the following, which mostly concerns nuptials: Migs got his M.P.A. from NYU and was working for the Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden in economic development until January. He now works at the Small Business Administration in marketing. Gigi got her M.S. in teaching and education from Fordham and teaches in the East New York section of Brooklyn. Jeasmine Aizprua married Ruben Rivera a couple of years ago; they have a son and changed their last name to Aizvera. Michael Camacho married Patty Labrada several years ago; they live in Rockland County and came down for the reunion. Jamie Carter married Darien Jorif '92; they now live in Baldwin, L.I. with their daughter. Maritza de la Vega married Martin Munnelly a few years back; they had their reception at the Faculty House. Cecilia Delgardo married Juan DeLeon; they live in Boston and have a daughter. J.J. Hernandez was married in March; he and his wife, Kim, work at NYU's Bobst Library and live in the Village. Alicia Thomas was present for the wedding, as were Migs and Gigi. Elizabeth Levy is a psychologist, married and living in Austin, Texas. One of the nicest guys in our whole class, Jason Robinson, married Denise Archie in August, 1999. Several fellow Columbians were in attendance including Faustina Haynes, Juny Francois, Evans Kissi and Milton Villanueva — as well as Migs and Gigi. Jason and Denise are living on Long Island. Milton married right before Christmas last year and he and his wife, Ivelisse, work in Manhattan and live in Riverdale. Gigi ended her massive missive by saying I should give the reunion's creative fashion award to Elijah Schachter for his pink pants at the class dinner. I guess I missed them. Part of my reunion night was getting together with my fellow former wonks from the Spec managing board of 1990-91 at V&T's for pizza. Almost everyone made it except for Julie Zuckerman, Barnard '91, who lives in Israel with her husband and kids, and Paul Kuharsky, who was too lazy to tear himself away from the class dinner. Evan Schultz, one of our former news editors, was in rare form and sent me a good little e-mail summing up what's going on in his life and providing updates on some other classmates. Evan describes himself as a "recovering lawyer cum political/legal pundit. After graduating from law school at University of Virginia in 1995, I clerked for two judges (one in Alaska, one in Florida), then came to D.C .to work at a law firm. And they treated me too well, meaning that they were doing everything right and I still didn't love it." After a year of freelancing, Evan landed a job at Legal Times in Washington, where he writes a column every two weeks, along with occasional other writing and reporting. Evan also provided the following info: David Kaufman is now a doctor and teaching at Penn Medical School. He is married, and he and his wife, Anto, just had their first child, Diego. Susie Wood is spending the year working in Tblisi, Georgia, for a public service organization that encourages economic development in that part of the world. Mike Socolow finished his Ph.D. in American History at Georgetown and will be teaching at Brandeis this fall. His wife, Connie McVey, works for the District of Columbia in child psychology and therapy. Ranjan Satija is spending a few months in Spain after the dot.com he worked for went bust. Keith Green works at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and has also written several plays, of which at least two have been produced. Matt Segal is working in the antitrust division of the Justice Department in San Francisco. Ani Mekhjian is an emergency room doctor and married. Marcellene Hearn is finishing up a two-year stint with the NOW Legal Defense Fund, and will start working at a law firm in NYC later this fall. Thank you, Evan. George Takoudes and his wife, Tamara '92, are the proud parents of Alexander Christos Takoudes, who entered the world on May 7. Joel Rubenstein also is bursting with joy and spreading the news that his son, Lucas Emil Rubenstein, was born on March 26 in Hoboken, N.J. John Ehlinger worked at Morgan Stanley for five years, then went back to Columbia for his M.B.A. and graduated in '98. He moved to Los Angeles and joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette as an investment banker doing leveraged finance and telecommunications (which sounds complicated.) Since DLJ was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston, John writes, "I don't know what I am doing but I drink all the Swiss Miss I want for free." John married Sarah Stone, Barnard '91, in 1997 and recently bought a house in Brentwood "a couple of blocks from where Monica Lewinsky's dad lives and where some lunatic killed Nicole Brown Simpson. (We had to get a security system because the neighbors reminded us that the real killer was never caught.) Sarah is acting and writing." Neil Troffkin is a neurosurgeon living in Miami and completing what he hopes is his final fellowship. Apart from being a swell fellow, Neil has specialized in a highly-technical surgical procedure where he guides tiny robotic cables through the body's arteries and up into the brain to remove tumors and clip aneurysms (which makes me feel like my job is really important). I did not see Lee Benaka at our reunion, which made me sad, but he sent me a great note with the news that he and Danielle Feuillan, Barnard '91, are the proud parents of two children, including Dinah Laurel Benaka, born on Oct. 25. They are still in D.C., where Lee is working for the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is part of the Department of Commerce. Lee tried out to be on The Weakest Link but didn't make it. He was always my strongest link in college. Oh, well. The groovy Tina Fitzgerald (the MVP of correspondents) tells me that when she was at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Mich., she ran into Samantha Kahn Herrick. Samantha went to Oxford after Columbia and is getting her Ph.D. in history at Harvard and also specializing in the medieval period. Josh Machleder is living in Ashkent, Uzbekistan, and was sad to have missed the reunion. Josh is the county director of Internews, which works with mass media in the former Soviet Union. Josh also has a small speaking part in a French film that will be released in autumn called Shimkent, where he plays an American backpacker in Tashkent. Josh says the film's producer promised him that his lines weren't cut. We will see. Stephen Jansen has worked in finance since graduation, taking two years off to get an M.B.A. at Chicago. Since October, he's been covering European technology for T. Rowe Price International in London. He says he's been to more plays in the last five months than in the prior five years. So far Stephen has just found one other classmate in London: Lex Maldutis, who works in the fixed income division of Morgan Stanley. Stephen is proposing creating a Columbia Club in London. (I know that Satoshi Kitahama is also working in London, so there's at least three of you there.) OK, folks, that's all for now. Please write. Cheers.
Jeremy Feinberg You'll understand if I feel a little more like the mythological stork, rather than your humble class correspondent this time. Much baby-related news to report. Tamara Takoudes is finishing her residency in OB/GYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston and starting a fellowship in maternal fetal medicine at Women and Infant's Hospital of Rhode Island (at Brown). She and her husband, George '91, had their first child on May 7 — Alexander Christos Takoudes, weighing in at 8 lbs.! She said, "All are well and very happy to be here!" Claire Deegan-Kent and her husband, Bob Kent, had their second daughter, Nessa Anne, on February 10, 2000. Their daughter, Audrey, is now 3, "so our house is hopping." Bob has left the practice of law to join the U.S. Air Force. Their family will be relocating to the Rheinland district of Germany for the next three years, having just spent a year in West Texas. Deborah Frey and her husband, Andres Frey '90E, welcomed Eric Michael Frey on June 13, after a nine-hour labor. He weighed in at 9 pounds and was 19 inches long. Mom reports Eric is doing well and big brother Daniel is adjusting very well. "He mostly just wants to hug and hold the baby, but doesn't know how strong he is when he does so." On March 6, Laura Weinfeld and her husband, Dr. Paul Damski, welcomed into the world twin daughters, Julia Sarah and Maya Hannah. Julia is a blond and Maya is a brunette. "Both are adorable and loads of fun," she says. An honorary member of the Class of 1992, James "Jim" Woody, asked me to announce the arrival of James R. Woody, III. He was born on June 26 and was 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 20 inches long. Jim reports that his daughter, Ashton, is fascinated with her new little brother and that his wife, Tara, is doing very well. This isn't to say that there wasn't news that didn't involve expansion of the '92 family. Cassandra Bowen-O'Neal has left American Express Financial Advisors and is now in charge of marketing and inside sales at Sisters3 in Seattle. That's the company that makes Teddytoes, the blanket with feet. Clay Arnold is still living in Rochester, N.Y. and practicing law at Harter, Secrest & Emery. Clay has switched from being a litigator (which he had done for his first five years) to the corporate department, where he focuses on mergers and acquisitions. Clay called it "an exciting change." He had planned a get together with fellow '92ers Ashish Ja, Matt Grant and Jon Dowell (all of whom live in San Francisco) for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Finally, Nomi Levy plans to start medical school as a member of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Class of 2005. She had been working at Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres on the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines until then. Nomi asked a fair question: are there other Post-Bac medical students among the Class of 1992? Please let me know by e-mail and I'll pass along the information. Bear in mind that by the time you read this, we'll be less than a year away from our 10th reunion. If there's any information you'd like to convey to your classmates before then, I'm happy to help. Just e-mail it to me, and I'll get it into the next column.
Elena Cabral Career changes may be on their second or third turn, children are being born, and as long as the R-word has not quite made it's way to this side of the class notes page again, that's the way we like it. One reunion that already made a splash was El Regreso, the Latino alumni homecoming event Grissel Seijo chaired in April. There was an excellent crowd, and the dancing — like there was any doubt — went on until after 3 a.m. Look for pictures (there better be pictures, hermanito) on the Web site at http://www.laacu.org. If you seek more information on the Latino alumni association, e-mail Grissel, its secretary, at gb73@columbia.edu. Not long ago Grissel left her work at alumni affairs to manage the presidential search committee office, where I've no doubt she wields much influence. Warm congrats to you. Margo Jovel finished a master's in public health policy and management at Johns Hopkins and is on her way to earning an M.D. She will do her residency in emergency medicine. Blame Joe Calcagno for this. He reports that his friend Joe Ori is trying to legally change his name to Tony Soprano. "Ori is the consummate big shot,'' came the Calcagno quote. In 1999, Christine Raker and two friends started Tickmark Solutions, a software company that made just over $1 million last year and continues to heat up. Despite the successes reflected in this column, the number of e-mail messages flowing from every corner of the globe was unusually small, so put down that cell phone and please feed the machine.
Leyla Kokmen
Janet Frankston Dominique Chlup, who didn't start with our class but graduated with us, earned an MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence in 1997. She's published quite a few short stories and poems, and won a fellowship to finish her master's thesis, a novel. "I had the opportunity to be in Jamaica Kincaid's writing workshop last year," she writes. She worked as an assistant professor and liberal arts department chair for two years at a small, two-year private college in New York, then she returned to school to get a second master's at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She finished last year and was accepted into the doctoral program on a full fellowship. Her focus is on the history of women's prison education. "The story behind this is that I actually got my ‘calling' to be a teacher when I was volunteer teaching, while I was at Sarah Lawrence, for a year at a women's jail in New York," she writes. Dominique returns to New York often to visit her boyfriend, whom she's known since age 8. "We hadn't seen each other since high school graduation when we re-met two years ago at a friend's party. It's been true love ever since," she writes. He works for Sony, and was nominated for a Grammy last year and won one this year. "The Grammy ceremonies, both times, were truly thrilling (a little more exciting the second time when he won and got to go up on stage, etc.)," she said. Mala Iqbal finished a solo exhibition of new paintings at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island in June and July. After grad school at the Rhode Island School of Design, two years at the Fine Arts Work Center and an artist residency in Provincetown, Mass., Mala returned to New York for two group shows in June at the Sara Meltzer Gallery and LFL Gallery in Chelsea, and another show in September at the PPOW Gallery (476 Broome Street) in Soho. Helen McBrearty e-mailed from Los Angeles that she and a partner started a company called Webisodic Productions — www.webisodicpro.com. They produce live and video-on-demand streaming media packages for companies. "Recently, I won the Gracie Allen award in broadcast/ web convergence for the production of a live Webcast featuring a breast cancer patient and her choice to have a mastectomy," she said. "It was very exciting!" Helen reports she's learning Italian and going to Italy in the fall to see the harvesting of the wine grapes. "My boyfriend and I are actually going to try our hands at making our own wine," she writes. Jeremy Piques is also in L.A. in the marina area, working in the world of finance, according to Helen. More L.A. stories: Brian Frank and Laura Margolis Frank are also doing well. Brian and a business partner have started a company called Lookout Development Partners that does consulting for Internet and entertainment companies. (Check his company out at lookoutdp.com.) Yes, that's Laura you are seeing on television. She's appeared on commercials for Folger's coffee, Priceline.com (she's wearing a wig à la Marlo Thomas) and Sony Walkman. You can also watch her on episodes of The Huntress on the USA network, Norm on ABC and Family Law on CBS. Rich Altman has a new job at Deloitte & Touche — he joined the mergers & acquisitions practice in June. "My responsibilities will no longer include counting the Heisman Trophy ballots or auditing Columbia's investment holdings," he writes. "However, I will be racking up thousands of frequent flier miles and hotel points traveling to such exciting locales as Little Rock, Ark., and Allendale, N.J." He was promoted to manager in the new group in August 2000, and in September he finished his M.B.A. at NYU. Rich hasn't been in contact with many other '95ers, but added that Sabahat Ali left D&T last December for a new gig at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Baby and wedding news: Matt Weinstein is a dad again. He and wife, Shira (Barnard '94), had another baby girl on March 29. Her name is Aviva Yael Weinstein, class of 2023. "Her big sister, Shulamit Shoshana Weinstein (class of 2022) seems to be adjusting to life with a sibling," Matt writes. Roxana Scoville Alger married Daniel Geffen last June, according to an announcement in The New York Times. Roxanna, a painter, received a master's degree in painting from Boston University. Her work has been shown at the Wingspread Gallery in Northeast Harbor. Her husband is a doctoral candidate in political science at Columbia. Shira Maguen is leaving Atlanta for Boston. Shira, who began with our class but graduated early, finished the coursework part of her Ph.D. program in clinical psychology at Georgia State. She has her dissertation and internship left. Shira has headed north for a yearlong internship at the V.A. Medical Center, where she'll focus on medical psychology and post-traumatic stress disorder. We should be able to call her doctor by the end of 2002. Before beginning her internship, she spent two weeks in Southeast Asia, mostly in Thailand with stops in Seoul and Singapore. Finally, Adam Epstein has started a new venture for wannabe sportscasters called FanCast.com. Adam, who left his job as a lawyer to start the company, has been mentioned in USA Today, Salon and the Sporting News. According to USA Today, he started the online sports broadcasting network in December with $25,000 from family members and his savings. Good luck!
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
