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CLASS NOTES
Ana
S. Salper Greetings, classmates! I hope this fall finds you well. Melissa Kagnoff is a second-year medical student at UC San Diego and lives and studies by the beach in La Jolla. Not a bad lifestyle for a med student ... This summer, she was an intern for the UCSD student-run Free Clinic. Matt Lasner is a third-year student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, busy teaching an undergraduate class this fall. Bekah Burgess is a fifth-year student in American studies at Boston University, writing her dissertation on photo history. Also in Boston is Ben Donner, who recently moved there to work on his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Kara Finck completed a judicial clerkship in Boston and moved to New York on a Skadden Fellowship, a prestigious public interest fellowship awarded to accomplished law students. Jin Lee is in Chicago getting a master’s in industrial design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Lara Bazelon works at the Federal Public Defender’s office in Los Angeles. Also in L.A. is Cecilia Cabello, who works for Hilda Solis, the congresswoman representing the 31st district. Dan Cole recently began a program at the Journalism School, Caitlin McElroy is a registered nurse at a community health center in the Bronx and Amanda Cox is doing her residency in pediatrics at Long Island Jewish Hospital. And, in a sunnier climate, Dalina Sumner works and teaches at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan. A big thanks to Matt Lasner for providing me with much of this information, as all of you have been very quiet these past couple of months. Please continue to send in more news of your lives. Now, for all you Blue Crush fans out there, here’s your moment of Zen: “Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle!” Until next time …
Sarah Katz Jennifer Willis was married in Cleveland on September 1. In attendance were Cristina Bonaldes (a bridesmaid), Ayana Cuevas, Aba Yankah, Shirley Irick and Kellie Durham Lewis. In October, Lauren Winner’s spiritual memoir, Girl Meets God, was published by Algonquin. It has been chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers program, and at press time had received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Ross Zeltser is doing his preliminary year in internal medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC and will start his residency in dermatology at the BU/Tufts program next year. Chris Johnston lives in San Francisco and teaches English at Oakland High School across the bay. He recently was back East, and spent a night with Boris Kachka in Brooklyn. He writes an excellent column for New York and continues his fight against racism in all its forms. He also hung out with Emily Kaiser ’98 in Washington, D.C., who recently retired from working as a chef and is pursuing a freelance writing career. Rohit Modak is newly married to Prema, and began his residency at George Washington Hospital in D.C. Alyson Maloy is a third-year med student at the University of Vermont and is doing rotations in Portland, Maine. She plans to do a fellowship in acupuncture and practice integrative medicine. Kenichiro Toko graduated from Georgetown in 2000 with an M.A. in foreign policy and worked at the Japanese Consulate in N.Y. for about a year (he ran into Matt Wang a couple of times on the street, as they worked in the same building for a while), moved to Japan last September to work at Sony HQ in Tokyo (where he works with the CEO/chairman), was married in May, and lives in Tokyo with his wife. After graduation, Kali-Ahset Amen (Eryn Scott while at Columbia) worked on her master’s at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She does population research at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. She moved to Paris in September to study at La Sorbonne. Tony Roach’s band, Catalytic, based in Birmingham, Ala., released its first full-length album, Capo a Baby. The album was self-financed/recorded/produced. The other principle singer/guitarist/ songwriter in the band is Jeff Gale ’96. The CD, t-shirts, pictures and other info are all available at the band’s Web site: www.catalytickicksass.com. The band is doing limited touring this fall in preparation for a full southeastern tour in the spring (that might see them creep up to NYC) and a possible European tour next summer. All the while, they are entertaining label support. Avi Orlow, who is studying to be an orthodox rabbi, was married at the end of July to cantor Adina Frydman. Claire (Fenton) Simmonds teaches theology and serves as a college counselor at an independent high school. She lost her mother in 2001 after an 18-year battle with cancer. Her husband, David Simmonds, is in real estate. Anne Kojima works in architecture in Manhattan Laura Kaufman finished a Ph.D. at Berkeley in physical chemistry. In September, she moved back East to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. Erin Song started a residency in optometry in Southern California.
Sandra P. Angulo Chen Happy fall, everyone. Thanks to my desperate plea for updates, a few of you contacted me. In August, Ted Rebholz wrote from Berlin, where he was studying on a fellowship with the Robert Bosch Foundation. Ted can explain what he was doing better than I: “In addition to participating in various seminars around Europe with government and business leaders, I’ll be doing research at a state development bank in Frankfurt. Specifically, I’ll be studying more effective financing methods for water projects in developing countries and researching Germany’s overall approach to international development.” Next up for Ted: moving to Washington, D.C., next autumn to start in the international development program at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. One-time Spec photographer Makeda Moore attends medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Makeda wants to specialize in reconstructive surgery one day, but for now, she’s “interested in sleep.” Michelle Ahn got engaged last Christmas in the most romantic-sounding place on Earth: “overlooking the sunset in Bali.” Michelle and her fiancé met at an NYC charity event a few years ago and are planning a fall 2003 wedding. Michelle is a consultant in Seoul, Korea, where she has lived since October 2001. Before leaving for Korea, Michelle had a short stint at the United Nations helping the Korean Consulate prepare for South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs’ presidency of the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and for South Korea President Kim Dae-Jung’s keynote address, along with Nelson Mandela, for UNICEF’s Special Session on Children. But forget all about that — Michelle seemed most excited about the World Cup, which she says created an “electric” atmosphere in Korea. She attended several matches, including the opener. Thanks for the updates! I’d love to hear from more of you, especially if your name has yet to appear in this column.
Charles S. Leykum Thanks to those classmates who sent in updates. Congratulations to Elana Weinberg and Scott Poulter, who were married on July 27 in Boston. Their wedding party included a number of classmates as well as other Columbia graduates including Kimberly Singh ’99E, Kay Rokhsar and Jaren Casazza ’98. For their honeymoon, Scott and Elana traveled through parts of Spain and France. Elana has started her second year at P&S. Asha Payne recently finished her first year at Duke’s School of Medicine. Previously, Asha spent two years teaching high school biology and chemistry in Houston. She reports that Leslie Gore recently graduated from Teachers College and is teaching fifth and sixth grade in the NYC public school system. Also a graduate from Teachers College in May, Nancy Kim is teaching middle school math in Westchester. After freelancing with different choreographers and performing around New York City for the last three years, Meredith Fages was chosen on July 26 to dance with the Virginia Ballet Theatre in Norfolk. She will be returning to New York City on her weeks off. Hopefully, some of us will be able to see her perform in Virginia. Congratulations are in order for Nicole Macellari, who graduated from Penn Law School with honors in May and was recently engaged to Brad Berman. She has returned to New York and is an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom. Please keep in touch and e-mail with any and all updates.
Prisca Bae Greetings, Class of 2000. I hope this update finds you well. As I write this, I am in Dallas working on Ron Kirk’s Senate campaign. Hopefully, by the time you read this, he is officially Texas’ Democratic senator. David Nigel Pisapia still lives in New York. I’ve been told that he recently moved back to the Columbia area to be closer to Tap-a-Keg, which he frequents. “Nige,” as some call him, has been an all-star paralegal at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, but left there at the end of this summer to work at a lab and take post-baccalaureate pre-med classes at Columbia. In his free time, Nige enjoys playing the drums (which he began playing over his many summers at band camp), and he remains the president of the book club that he started while he was at Columbia. Jenny Park began her second year as a graduate student of architecture at UCLA. After an intense first year, she had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for two summer studios and continued that into the fall. In addition, Jenny works part time at a professor’s firm, SERVO (which won the Young Architects award last year). Overall, she is having a great time out on the West Coast. Bill Bocra is a 3L at the Law School and spent the summer working for Clifford Chance. Robert Culpepper is a 2L at Ole Miss Law School and is enjoying every minute of it. He and Nissim Schaul had a “wild” time in Amsterdam. Nissim, after living in Paris, attends graduate school at Stony Brook and studies music composition. In Paris, Robert ran into Brendan Jones, who is doing well. Megan Williams works in public radio in Birmingham. Barry Mason is in his third year of medical school and busy in rotations at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Gregory Bowman was married on July 5 in Upstate New York to a fellow Ivy League graduate, Haley Flynn (Yale ’00). For their honeymoon, Greg and Haley went to Sandals Ocho Rios in Jamaica which, he reports, was a very relaxing ending to more than a year of planning. Greg lives in South Norwalk, Conn., and works for Synapse Group, where he is the consumer marketing campaign manager. Juliet Ross and Dan Burstein (contact them at julietr@gwu.edu for some great news) are in Washington, D.C., where Dan is a 2L at Georgetown Law and Juliet started a doctoral program (Psy.D.) in clinical psychology at The George Washington University. This summer, they attended the wedding of Laura Weber and Brian Wallace ’00E in Westchester. Also present were Chris Sandersfeld, Rob Duffey, Laurie Marhoefer, Sara Waugh and Rushin Desai ’00E. It was lovely, and the happily wed couple has moved to Connecticut in order for Laura (officially Laura Weber Wallace), who received the Mellon Fellowship, to begin a Ph.D. program in music at Yale. Sander Cohan has left for Bologna, Italy, for the first year of his master’s in advanced international studies at Johns Hopkins. Eric Laufgraben started law school at the University of Michigan, where he has met up again with Kirsten Olds, who has started a Ph.D. program in art history. Leah Vickers is in law school at Stanford. Susie Freeman completed her master’s at Teachers College and teaches in New York City, where Annie Ulevitch is starting Cardozo Law School. Finally, some sad news. Alison K. Ahern died in an accident in Belgium on June 9 [see obituary]. Alison was 23 years old and is survived by her parents John F. “Jack” and Kathleen F. (Sullivan) Ahern, brother PFC John J. “JJ” Ahern, and sister Heather A. Huish. Alison’s services took place in Needham, Mass., at the Eaton Funeral Home and at Saint Joseph Church. Alison was a graduate of Needham High School, Class of 1996, captain of the women’s soccer team at Columbia, and an employee at the Hudson Hotel in Manhattan. In lieu of flowers, her family requests that donations be made to the Alison K. Ahern Memorial Fund, c/o William F. Brooks, Esq., 210 Broadway, Ste 102, Lynnfield, MA 01940; (202) 210-7747.
Jonathan Gordin Hello, everybody. Thankfully, quite a few people have written, and I have had to hound very few people this cycle. Please keep those e-mails pouring in. I recently attended Annie Lainer’s housewarming party at her delightful studio on the Upper West Side. In attendance from the College were Dina Epstein, Becca Siegel, Jeff Lee, Eri Kaneko, Molly Thompson, Joe Rezek and Charles Donohoe ’02. Sam Oppenheim recently returned from a five-month journey, spending four months in India (where he learned Hindi, traveled extensively and visited important spiritual and archaeological sites). His favorite experience was meditating at 6,000 meters in the Himalayas surrounded by pure nature, alone, above glaciers and alpine lakes. Sam also found time to see Spain, Morocco, Vienna, Prague and London on the way back to the United States. This fall, Sam begins an M.A./Ph.D. program in archaeology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lisa Zebrowski got together with a few classmates recently and filled me in on what they’ve been up to: “Andrew Danberg-Ficarelli recently returned from nine months in Mexico, and he’s very tan. He was in New York recently visiting Chris Uglietta, who works for an advertising firm, and Tony Slokar ’01E, who has put his computer science genius to good use as a senior systems analyst. Matt Whitman is working near my office on Wall Street as a paralegal, and they keep him so busy that I rarely see him! “Outside of the heavyweight crew team, many other friends are in the city. Kristy Overman is an art dealer on the Upper East Side and Jenny Moussa works for Penguin Publishing. Jon Lemire is making a name for himself in the world of journalism working in the Queens office of the New York Daily News.” Lisa recently attended an engagement party for Sumathi Rajamanickam in New Jersey. She was on summer break from New Jersey Med. At the party, she saw Chrissy Okereke, who is working near the Columbia Club and was recently promoted to program coordinator. Trina Chaudhuri ’01E also was a guest. She works for Merck and lives in New Jersey with some fellow Columbia graduates. Lisa continues, “I’ve been living and working in NYC since graduation. I am coming up on my one-year anniversary at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where I recently was promoted to meetings and travel coordinator. I count myself among the very lucky because I love my job and my co-workers. I’ve been planning large meetings and traveling a bit. At our 700-person conference in May, I had the chance to see Jorge Herrera just before he moved from Washington, D.C. He, of course, is very involved in politics in Texas.” Thanks, Lisa, for that comprehensive update! Julie Grinfeld works at The New 42nd Street Inc./New Victory Theater in Times Square, which does performing arts for kids and families. Julie commutes from Stamford, Conn., and notes that it’s “scary riding with all the suits in the morning!” Ethan Perlstein has returned to Cambridge for another year of graduate school at Harvard. He started teaching in the fall (biology for first-years). He’s spent a lot of time thinking about exactly what kind of thesis research he wants to pursue. I wish him lots of luck in the classroom. I recently joined several classmates as we wished Andrew Pyo well in his graduate studies — alas, he is leaving NYC. Drew will be pursuing a Ph.D. in economics at Duke. Tamer Makary moved to San Francisco recently after a large-scale layoff at ABN AMRO (doing corporate finance in the telecommunication sector). Tamer works for Putnam Lovell NBF as an investment banking analyst doing mergers and acquisitions within the financial services sector. He is “doing well and looks forward to a few more years out West, hopefully with a final move to Europe.” Tamer reported on the following people in New York: “Tamer Obied — worked with him at ABN AMRO, got laid off as well and found a job with a logistics consulting firm in NYC. Emeka Ofodile landed a job marketing with ESPN SportCenter. Avery Moseley, football captain turned paralegal ... I love it!” Sam Josephs works at a brand consulting shop in NYC and Adrian Kachmar works at a hedge fund. Tamer reported on the following people in San Francisco: “Alejandro Olarte moved to California (drove, to be exact) with a group of guys in a serious attempt to put together a rock band; things should pan out for him in the next few months. Emily Wilkinson completed her first year at Stanford, where she is pursuing a five-year Ph.D. in the English department. Eric Allbin was hired by an investment management company and is doing well; he lives a few minutes from me. Enjoying himself as he prepares for the Series 7 exam.” Andy Housiaux returned in the summer from a year studying in Nepal and southern India and also traveling to Tibet. “During the course of my travels, I encountered notables Alex Chung, Matt Poindexter and Alexandra Alter. Since my return to the United States, I have again been working as a personal fitness instructor back home in Wisconsin, and will be moving out to Boston in the fall to enroll in school again.” Christine Dunphy has been very busy as well. “I will appear on an upcoming TV special called Spotlight on You. The show will interview me about my acting and modeling career and my ambitions in acting, writing novels, finance and all the other interests that I have as a well-rounded, business-minded individual and CC grad! I’m preparing for the 2003 Miss America Scholarship, and recently starred in a commercial for Sonicare Sonic Toothbrush. I also did a promo for Dove deodorant, which involved runway modeling for a fashion show at Grand Central Station. I am seeking a new agent to send me on auditions for more ‘Girl Next Door’-type roles. “In addition, I work from home writing a weekly research report on the financial market for Gordon Haskett Capital Corp. My report, which is sent to its best clients by e-mail, summarizes the week’s news and events concerning Wall Street. The focus is on U.S. stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. Recently, I started promoting for the new agency PrimeConnections1.com, which recruits executives for networking and matchmaking services. I also do research for three Columbia Law School professors and aim to complete my second novel. The topic is dating in NYC.” Ronen Landa lives on the Upper West Side and scores films; he had one at the Cannes Film Festival in May (the film was by Catherine Tingey, a grad filmmaker). He also scored a short, Autobiography of Red, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt ’02 and produced by Aaron Raskin ’02. According to Ronen, “More projects are always in the works.” Ebele Okpokwasili had been working for the NYC Department of Health on the West Nile Virus, as well as traveling to Spain and doing some singing in N.J. She’s attending the University of Illinois at Chicago for medical school. Erica Sturdivant attends Tufts University for medical school, Abigail Waugh attends the Smith School of Social Work, Christopher Leake attends the New England Conservatory in Boston for opera, Vanessa Buia has been traveling in Italy for about a year scoping out the art scene and prospective art endeavors and Nikhil Shimpi works hard in a N.Y. law firm. I recently attended Becca Siegel’s birthday party at a UWS favorite: the Evelyn Lounge. In attendance, besides the guest of honor, were Joe Rezek, Charles Donohoe ’02, Michelle Grzan, Ali Kidd, Anne-Marie Ebner, Jenny Tubridy, Jessie Tubridy, Jaime Pannone, Jen Hoekstra, Cate Jenkins ’02, Eri Kaneko and Jamie Rubin ’01 Barnard. Last but not least: Andrew Dennington, who is a legislative correspondent at the Office of Representative Zoe Lofgren in Washington, D.C., wrote in with a request. He recently took over from Prisca Bae ’00 as the Young Alumni Coordinator for the D.C. area. Interested young alumni should contact Andrew at ard16@columbia.edu. Take care, and please keep in touch.
Ishwara Glassman [Editor’s note: CCT thanks Ishwara Glassman for her work in getting the Class of 2002 column under way. Beginning with the January 2003 issue, Ali Hirsh will be the ’02 Class Notes correspondent, so please send news to alihirsh@yahoo.com.] I hope that you are all doing well and enjoyed fun, productive summers. The updates for this month are as follows: The ever-hilarious Jessie Daniels says, “After realizing that a career as a high-profile hip hop artist was not in my immediate post-graduation future, I took some time off. During the last two weeks in June, I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity in southwestern Georgia (and attended a Sunday school class taught by Jimmy Carter) and chilled for a bit in Washington, D.C., visiting with the future world’s foremost anthropological mind, Ali Gold, and other friends. I worked at Lincoln Center for the summer while mulling a move to D.C. in the fall. Any contributions for my 2004 presidential election campaign would be greatly appreciated.” Charles Donohoe accepted a job at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and works in New York City. Greg Shill is enjoying Washington, D.C. Greg works for Congressman Tom Lantos as a legislative assistant, handling Social Security, health care, civil rights and other domestic and international issues. He lives with Andrew Dennington ’01 and hangs out with Laura Hertzfeld ’01 Barnard a lot. He says D.C. is a great place to be young — “like New York but more manageable and less smelly” — and his only gripe is that “it’s hot as hell down here in the summer, and you can’t get a good bagel anywhere in town.” He is applying for master’s programs in international affairs and Ph.D. programs in political science. Greg can be reached at ghs13@columbia.edu. Pooja Agarwal works at Columbia as a financial analyst in the office of investments and lives in Harlem. Miriam Sheinbein is back home in Phoenix for the semester finishing up her sciences to apply to medical school next summer. Tiffany Rounsville writes: “I am an account manager at the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine at Columbia’s Health Science campus. In February, I will apply to the Mailman School of Public Health for its master’s in public health program. Living in Manhattan is great, and living near Columbia’s Morningside campus is even better because it allows me continued use of its facilities and easy access to friends in the neighborhood. Life as an adult is quite different, but I think I’m going to like calling my own shots from now on!” From Ben Letzler: “I’m in Berlin, studying history at the Freie Universität and showering, European-fashion, in the kitchen. I’ve deferred Harvard Law School for a year. I saw Dick Dale live at a bar here recently. He’s still the king of surf guitar, though mostly remembered for the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.” Kyla Pavlina writes: “Figuring out the difference between ‘estoppel in pais’ and ‘promissory estoppel’ is about as fun as hearing the construction at 7 a.m. in front of John Jay. Yes, those days of lounging on the steps of Low are over; now they are filled with law students trying to grasp the Socratic method, while I dream of returning to Columbia in October for homecoming festivities with Bobbin.” Justin Lappen: “I spent the summer as a water-skiing instructor in northern Ontario, which was quite a relaxing experience ... exactly what I needed before starting medical school at Johns Hopkins. Baltimore is not New York, but I love living downtown ... the city has quite an underappreciated charm. I hope I’ll have the time to make it to NYC sometime in the near future.” Ali Hirsh: “I am doing program development
for a nonprofit in the Bronx called the Women's Housing and Economic
Development Corporation. I am living in the Columbia area (100th
Street) and am excited to be an alum!"
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