alumni at large Channamsetty, M.D., has joined the medical staff at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Massachusetts. She graduated from the American University of the Caribbean medical school and completed her residency at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. —Yuhgo Yamaguchi
96 Corey Burnham-Howard
is thrilled to share that in November 2004 she and her husband, Michael, welcomed into the world their baby girl, Abigail. After practicing environmental and construction law at a Boston law firm for the last two years, Corey decided to put her law practice temporarily on hold to spend time with
Abigail at their home in Princeton, Mass. Corey also reports frequent visits with Kirstin Rohrer McPolin, who lives in New Jersey with husband Greg and daughter Emma, with Courtney Marum Robaczynski, who lives in Connecticut with husband Marc and daughter Sabrina, and with Kristen Drake Patterson, who herself writes that she and husband Dan are moving to Madagascar for two years. Kristen was the recipient of a Population-Environment Fellowship and will be working on integrated family planning, health, and environmental initiatives with communities located near protected areas in the central highlands of Madagascar. . . . Kevin Smith writes that this summer he’ll
receive his Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where for the last four years he’s been studying the impacts of invasive species on native wildlife in the southeastern United States. In July, right after receiving his degree, Kevin planned to move to South Africa for a few years for a post-doctoral research position. He’s excited to get back to Africa for both work and play and asks anyone in the neighborhood to drop him a line for an Afrikaans mini-reunion. . . . Speaking of the neighborhood, Jennifer Pope graduated in May with an M.A. in international development from Johns Hopkins and an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland.
She is now working for PSI, an international development organization that specializes in social marketing for health impact. She recently moved to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, to head their family planning project and writes that she has plenty of space for any visitors! Jennifer also writes that in August 2004 Tammy Smith wed AJ Wilkerson in Anguilla and that she and Steph Bunker ’95 were bridesmaids. She also reports that Jason and Abby Smith Derrig had a boy, Tyler David, on Dec. 31, 2004, that Amie Sicchitano Taylor is still teaching kindergarten in Wellesley, Mass., and that Courtney Sullivan Homer graduated in May with an M.B.A. from MIT. She and her hus-
emily taxson meadows ’98 | one cool cat By day, Emily Taxson Meadows ’98 works in human resources at accounting firm Ernst & Young in northern Virginia. But ask her what she does for a living, and she’ll tell you she’s a professional singer. That’s because on weekends, Meadows sings with a swing band called Big Ray and the Cool Cats. “It’s cool to be able to be paid to sing,” said Meadows, whose group performs at corporate events, weddings, and parties. “It’s a very big part of my identity.” The former Colby singer wants to start her own singing group, maybe a trio, near her home in Fairfax, Va. A music major at Colby, she’s continuing her music education by taking voice lessons in jazz and singing jazz standards, most of which were in the repertoire of Ella Fitzgerald, one of Meadows’s strongest influences. So when will she quit her day job? That’s something to look forward to, Meadows said. “If I could make enough money, I would,” she said. “Maybe in a later stage of life.” Meadows said her music career is blossoming in part because of the flexibility of her job at Ernst & Young. “I can just take my laptop with me, and when I was on the road with the band, I could work from there,” she said. “It made a really big difference, and it still does.” A newlywed, Meadows is still adjusting to her new last name. She and her husband, Mark, eloped in December after being overwhelmed by the pressures of planning a wedding. They were married in a Mexican-style chapel in Sedona, Arizona, with only six 62 COLBY / FALL 2005
pews. “We were in the middle of the whole wedding process, hating every moment of it,” Meadows said. “We just decided to do it.” The couple met in New York City several years ago when Mark, a 1997 Bates graduate who lived in the same apartment building as Meadows, noticed his neighbor’s NESCAC attire. “I was moving out and I was wearing my Colby T-shirt, and he struck up a conversation,” Meadows said. “The funny thing about it was that we just said goodbye, and that was that.” Weeks later, Meadows returned to the apartment with her roommate, Jen Stevens ’98, and again ran into Mark. “At that point, it was fate.” A member of Colby’s new alumni of color network, Meadows first visited Colby on a whim, then chose the College in part because she felt comfortable there. After growing up as a child of mixed racial background adopted into a white family, she also appreciated that Colby didn’t show signs of the racial tension she’d felt at other schools she visited, she said. At Colby, Meadows was active in Colby’s music scene; she sang in chorale and was a member of the a cappella group, the Megalomaniacs. Just recently, she got together with a few of her fellow Colby alumni singers after finding out that they, too, lived near Washington, D.C. “That was the first time we’d seen each other since we graduated, so that was pretty hilarious,” she said. After graduating from Colby, Meadows worked in admissions at the Mannes College of Music in New York City before getting a job with Ernst & Young. A year and a half ago, she and her now-husband moved to northern Virginia, where she grew up. As an adult, she sees life near the nation’s Capital a bit differently than she did as a child. “Life is so political down here,” she said. “It’s just different.” Despite being busy with her two-career schedule, Meadows finds time to serve on Colby’s Alumni Council. “It makes me feel like I’m helping,” she said. “Helping to keep Colby how I enjoyed it … a great place to be.” —Alexis Grant ’03