class notes Shawna Seth has some exciting news to report: “Fellow members of the Class of 2001 may remember I was starting to talk about exploring a career change at our 10-year reunion last year. Over the past year, I’ve made the switch! I’ve started classes in the Masters of Oriental Medicine program at the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley, and I am slowly remembering the study habits, organizational preferences (planner!), and knowledge of biology and physics I developed at Casti. I’m on my way to becoming a healer. I couldn’t be more thrilled about leaving the tech world behind and doing work that better reflects who I am, but I know the skills I gained there will continue to serve me in running a clinic and having my own patients post-graduation (expected to be December 2015). My goal is to build a practice focused on dancers so I can bridge the two parts of my life. Speaking of dance, I had my first professional show in March and our fledgling company (as yet unnamed) has performances lined up for December 2012 through Summer 2013 in San Francisco. And in the summer I gave myself off between leaving work in May 2012 and starting school in September, I traveled to London and Berlin and then spent time in New York visiting college and Casti friends Emily Heddleson, Angeline Girard ’00, and Maria
Alvarez ’00.
2002
’02 Meredith Wiseman’02, Chloe Leinwand ’02, and Christina Nawas ’02 at Meredith’s Stanford PhD graduation
2003
Jenny Cook jennifernicholscook@gmail.com Katherine Tincher is up in San Francisco, running her own interior design firm. She’s doing mostly residential projects—if anyone is looking for a designer, let her know! Katherine is hoping to get back into some fine arts pursuits on the side.
Vanessa Ishii lives in Danville near
there to celebrate with the happy couple!
Julia Desmond finished her graduate
Kathleen Kelvie is still enjoying life
On July 7, Caitlin Kelly Hannon married Timm Hannon at Stanford Memorial Church. Castilleja classmates Sara
Bowling, Whitney Brown, Katie Fleishman, Katie Gunderson, Kathleen Parkes, and Neela Penumarthy were
degree in real estate at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is staying in Seattle to work at the Starbucks headquarters developing stores for Seattle’s Best Coffee.
Naima Bridges has moved to Chicago for her intern year as a resident physician in OB/GYN. New territories, new people, and a lot of work are in the immediate future for her! So far, Chicago has been treating her well. Let’s see how winter goes. After finally getting her PhD in chemical engineering at Stanford, Meredith Wiseman is moving to the Netherlands for work. “Come visit if you pass through Maastricht!”
Jacqueline Nguyen is currently in her first year of residency at St. Mary’s
84 | full circle
Casti girls celebrating Caitlin Kelly Hannon ’02’s wedding
Hospital in San Francisco for orthopedic surgery. “I’m excited to be back in the Bay Area and I’m looking forward to exploring the city whenever I get the chance.”
some of her favorite hiking trails in Contra Costa County. She reports traffic and weather for the recently formed “Megan and Menace Morning Show” on CBS radio’s Live 105.3 in San Francisco. This summer, she interned in the wildlife hospital at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, where she studied animal husbandry and wildlife rehabilitation. Her favorite moment was fostering and releasing four baby cottontail rabbits from Turlock.
Whitney Brown whitneyalexisbrown@gmail.com
’02
in San Francisco and was recently promoted to manager at Triage Consulting Group, which affords her the opportunity to frequently travel to Los Angeles, Seattle, and even Lubbock, TX. If anyone is now living in those areas, she would love to get in touch!
Jessica Wong Zen recently received her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, moved from Boston to Seattle, became a homeowner, and started a new job. She is a senior vendor manager for Amazon Digital Music and is enjoying it so far. Jessica is happy to be back on the West Coast, and she invites anyone passing through Seattle to drop her a line! Nicole Stasio made an exciting career shift from conducting human factors research at NASA to leading the support
’04 Meaghan Fitzgerald ’04 and Kelly Fitzgerald ’07 cheering on the U.S. women’s soccer team as they go for the gold at the London Olympics
department at a small green business in San Francisco called Dharma Merchant Services. She is proud to be working for a company implementing a philosophy based on respect, compassion, and integrity in an industry that is notorious for the opposite. Nicole is finding her voice to support a network of nonprofits and mission-aligned companies working to make the world a better place. She completed the Wildflower Triathlon this year after rehabilitating from a serious bike crash, and is starting to realize that less is more and balance is key. In September, Nicole participated in the Castilleja Reunion Weekend Alumnae Panel on “Social Change: Standing Up and Speaking Out.”
Elizabeth Wright recently completed her master’s degree program in international relations at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she studied conflict resolution and monitoring and the evaluation of peace-building programs. She is in the process of figuring out what will come next, and invites anyone visiting the Boston area to come say hi! Jenny Cook just returned from a year teaching English in Japan with the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. “I’m happy to be home and am looking forward to my next adventure.”
Julia Sorensen married Andrew Lund on April 21 at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in San Mateo. They are currently