class notes

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People & projects | UWW | In Memoriam

2000s

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2003

Betty Juncker
elizabethjuncker@gmail.com

Congratulations to Taryn Howard and Jeff Drake ’00, who were married on July 31 in Littleton, NH. Bridesmaids were Kristin Dutcher, Jackie Flanagan ’04, and Karen Troxell; groomsmen were Sean Casey ’00, Mike Losier ’99, and James Conway ’00. Also in attendance were Conor McDavitt, John Colozzo, Stephanie Walters, Lindsey Measeck, Bridget Cummings, Karlene Kuniguil, Mara Mornaghi, Vanessa Raptopoulos ’00, Hans Beyer ’99, Mike Votano ’99, Ryan Quigley ’01, Chris Dunn ’02, Ashley Decker ’02, Ryan Mahady ’02, Kendra Pariseault ’05, Risa Whipple ’05, and Lindsay Leal ’05.

In Connecticut Katie Campbell is pursuing a master’s in teaching at Sacred Heart University. She also works with the special education department at a middle school in New Canaan and coaches high-school volleyball.

Rachel Herrmann works for the Passaic County Board of Social Services in NJ, where she assists clients applying for food stamps and other social services. Rachel reports she is “learning a great deal and loving every minute of it.”

Ryan Brennan is pursuing a PhD in chemistry at George Washington University and lives in Arlington, VA. He can be reached at rgb@gwu.edu.

Jennifer Nathan is producer of WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s morning show, The Roundtable. She finds producing this three-hour mix of music, politics, literature, and art “always a challenge, but incredibly rewarding.”

Akira Thompson and Ryan Delorge are living together in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Akira is studying digital arts at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and can be contacted at akirathompson@gmail.com.

Jason Dudley works at JPMorgan Chase, providing derivatives trade support for the Global Credit Risk Management group in Manhattan.

Julie Vaillancourt works in the front office at her alma mater, St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, OR. While teaching third-year Spanish at St. Mary’s last year, she says, “I quickly found out that teaching was not my forte!” She spends her free time hiking, biking, surfing, and flying airplanes with her boyfriend, friends, and family.

After spending several months in Prague, Czechoslovakia, trying to land a job teaching English, Charlie Achuff headed for the University of Warwick in England, in pursuit of an MA in film studies.

Michael Kilivris is a doctoral student in philosophy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where he is also a teaching assistant. The program requires students to be able to translate philosophical texts from Greek, Latin, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Ryan Merrick and Eric Hanson got an apartment together in Brooklyn Heights and regularly see Robin DePesa, Caitlin Kilts, Micah Greenbaum, and Lee Greenbaum ’02, who all live in the area. Eric is working as a guide coordinator on the editorial staff of About.com and continuing a recording studio internship at Stratosphere Sound in Manhattan.

Seth Shonkoff works at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, a nonprofit environmental research organization. He tromps around in rivers, lakes, and coastal hills, collecting data to submit to water districts and other groups. Last summer he took a three-week excursion to Costa Rica, to teach 19 high-school students environmental education. In the fall he spent six months traveling in Central and South America.

Tim Hitchens is running service programs for a church in Bryn Mawr, PA, a few minutes from Philadelphia. This past summer he organized groups of parishioners to perform community service in Washington, DC, the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, and Costa Rica.

Vera Ventura (vchipv@yahoo.com) plans to earn an MBA or otherwise get “a solid foundation of the fundamentals of business” so she can fund her own documentaries and also sponsor other artists. For more on Vera, see “People & Projects” on page 42.

After living in Chicago for a year, Megan Rhodes has returned to Saratoga Springs, where she is assistant director of admissions at Skidmore.

Last winter Tamsin Imrie and Jessica Bloomfield lived together on Maui in Hawaii. A sales assistant at Inc. and Fast Company magazines in San Francisco, Jessica can be contacted at bloomfieldjessica@hotmail.com. Tamsin traveled to Chile last summer (winter down there) to snowboard. She currently lives in London.

Evelyn Brensinger is a research associate with the Stern Group, an international political and economic consulting firm in Washington, DC.

At Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus Robin DePesa is a counselor for the Higher Education Opportunity Program. Caitlin Kilts is working at Mother Cabrini High School in Manhattan, teaching chemistry. Robin and Caitlin live together in Cobblehill, Brooklyn.

Tim Chase has been offered a 20-month teaching position with the American Academy of English in Poland and is applying for admission to graduate school.

Lori Pelech spent a year working for a variety of nonprofit organizations in Cambridge, MA. In September she and her partner moved to London, where Lori is studying geography at King’s College, University of London.