John and Marsha Shyer, parents of Allie ’14, invited parents of current and incoming students and alumni/ae donors to the College to a private reception at their home in Seattle, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Brandes House. The Shyers are supporters of Bard and members of the Parents Advisory Council. photo Donna Clark
’14 Will Anderson was hired as a junior graphic designer for Kaufmann Mercantile, where fellow alumna Alexandra Eaton also works. He will be joining the crowd of Bardians who reside in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. | Richard Max Gavrich was the first recipient of the Bard Lugo Land Residency, an award given to one graduating senior in photography. He was in Lugo, Italy, in June, producing a new body of work to be published as a limited edition artist’s book this fall. | Charlotte Gorant is excited to announce that she accepted a yearlong Sanskrit research associate position at the Mangalam Center for Buddhist Languages in Berkeley, California. She will assist with an online database for Buddhist texts and a Sanskrit lexicography project. | Dylan Mattingly has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to write a work to be premiered in the 2014–15 concert season. His as-yet-untitled work will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall with conductor John Adams on May 26, 2015. | Cooper Roberts will start a three-month position as the leader of a research project for FINCA Microfinance in Honduras in the fall, and in 2015 he will begin his Peace Corps service in Vanuatu. | Katy Schneider is happy to report that she is working as editorial assistant to Adam Moss, editor-in-chief of New York magazine. | Eva Shrestha has begun her Ph.D. in pathobiology at Johns Hopkins University. | Nastya Valentine is doing freelance videography and graphic design work. She will resume her music projects with Red Stripe and video projects with Valentine Enterprises until she makes enough money to buy a hotel in Dubai.
New York City and working in development at a television production company. Her short film, 13 Pieces of the Universe, was an official selection of the Indie Grits Film Festival as well as the Little Rock Film Festival, where she was nominated for best director.
’12 Alina Mergelova is living in the paradise of Miami with her amazing husband, Andres, who works as a graphic designer and publicist.
’11 Claire Phelan married Gary Price on May 30, 2014, at City Hall in New York City, after meeting on OkCupid two years before. They celebrated afterward with fellow alumni/ae Hannah Becker, Bridget Dackow, Ally Davis ’13, Joshua Tanner ’12, Liza Young, and Abby Zwick ’13.
pursuing joint J.D. and M.P.P. degrees at the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He received Harvard’s Presidential Public Service Fellowship to support his summer 2014 work at the U.S. Department of Defense. | Chelsea (Sargent) Smiley married Ian Smiley in New Haven, Vermont, where they are planning to build a home. She is working toward a degree in accounting and is employed as an office manager at the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Vermont.
’08
Gary Price and Claire Phelan ’11. photo Goran Vekijic
Ariel Stess received a five-star review in June from Time Out New York for her play I’m Pretty Fucked Up. | Rye Young was named director of Third Wave Fund, becoming one of the first transgender leaders to hold an executive role in philanthropy. Third Wave Fund supports youth-led gender justice activism focusing on empowering women of color as well as queer and trans youth.
’10 5th Reunion: May 22–24, 2015
’13
Please join the reunion committee of Thomas Serino, Andrew Simon, and Larissa Wohl at your reunion in May. For more information, call 845-758-7089 or visit annandaleonline.org.
Alice Cashel worked with North Atlantic Books to expand her nonfiction written arts Senior Project, receiving a contract for publication in February 2014. Her work, tentatively titled Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial, is set to launch in the fall of 2015. | Tara Sheffer is living in
Ghyslaine Archer now lives in Rome, Italy, after visiting two years ago from New York City and never coming back. She fell in love with Rome—and a Roman—and works as a tour guide for a food tourism company. She can’t wait to see her class-
38 class notes
mates at reunion! | Johnny Brennan works as a program assistant at the American Council of Learned Societies after obtaining his M.A. in philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He married his love, Amy Monaco ’06. | Neha Jain is currently a full-time student at Georgetown University working toward her master’s degree in public relations and communications. She is editing a fantasy novel, is a part-time model, records her own songs, and has sung backup for Dionne Warwick at the Kennedy Center. | Jake Magee has begun his M.F.A. in cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory. | Viriya Ratanasangpunth worked with NVIDIA in the summer of 2014 as a graphics engineer intern and will be joining Amazon in the fall as a software development engineer. | Reginald Raye completed the first year of a master’s program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is in the process of launching a third startup, a manufacturing reshoring enterprise. | Thomas Serino is the assistant director of admission at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is concurrently pursuing a master of public administration degree at Fairfield University. | Daniel Severson is
Rye Young ’08. photo Marika Plater ’08