grad school in a year. Y Jess Minty has had lots of change since her last entry. She left Boston and joined the Olympic Development Team, ZAP Fitness, located in Blowing Rock, N.C. She is running a ton and enjoying the warm weather, though she misses her roomie, Liz Turner, very much. Y Tim Monahan now works at American Showa in Columbus, Ohio, as a power-steering design engineer. He is pleased to say that he married Margaux Buchanan Aug. 18. Chase Cohen ’05, Patrick Rodjito, Lindsay Masters, Katie Curtis, and Emily McClure ’07 attended the event, where Mike Fleming and Mike Feldman ’05 were groomsmen. Y Charlie Hale is trying to start a nonprofit called Global Health Corps, which is similar to Teach for America but for public health. If anyone has public health or nonprofit startup experience, let Charlie know! Noah Balazs, Nick Beaird, and Dinah Bengur visited Charlie in San Francisco. Y Emily Boyle married Michael Westbrooks ’07! Michael and Emily live in Dublin, Ireland, where Michael plays basketball, coaches kids, and works in a school. Emily doesn’t really have work plans yet, but spent the first weeks recovering from the election before going back to work. Y Dan Giuliani still works at Puzzles, the bar he manages in Seattle, and recently spotted Kevin Smalley ’03 and Peter Loverso ’03, who stopped by for a few drinks. He writes, “Things are going great out here!” Y Barbara Hough enjoys her new job teaching instrumental music full time at four schools in Haverhill, Mass., as well as flute lessons in Haverhill and at New England Conservatory in Boston. She played piccolo with the Reading Symphony Orchestra Nov. 8 and 9 and sang with her church’s choir for their annual conference that same weekend. She was honored to play with the orchestra directed by Christos Papoutsy for the 100th anniversary of her church Nov. 15. —Jen Coliflores
07 Greg Osborne is earning his
master’s in sports leadership and management from Northeastern and lives in Cleveland Circle with his brother and Joe Rothwell ’08. Greg also works part time at Belmont High School as a special needs aide and plays in a men’s hockey league with about eight Colby grads, including Ben Grandjean. Y Blake Foster reports that Steve Sandak moved to Brookline. In the same neighborhood Anne Cuttler
Music Man | Ben Hughes ’07 Ben Hughes ’07 is obsessed. A music major at Colby, Hughes continues to immerse himself in his passion. All day. Every day. And most nights, as well. “I create, play, and think about music as much as I can because it’s what I love,” he said. Hughes holds two music-related jobs: music program director at the Boys and Girls Club in Pawtucket, R.I., and music teacher at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island. He also gives private lessons at a rented studio in Pawtucket. After nine-hour work days, he plays at open mic nights around Providence. Hughes traveled to Kalimpong, India, in January 2007 to participate in Colby’s pilot Jan Plan in India program, where he first taught children about music. The experience was one more step on his musical road. At the Boys and Girls Club Hughes teaches kids and teens to play piano, guitar, drums, Latin percussion, and how to use digital recording software. He calls his multidimensional class the “One-Room Music Program.” For many of his students, Hughes’ program is their first exposure to music beyond limited exposure in school. “Some of these kids have never even seen a drum kit before, or a piano, even,” he said with a laugh. When Hughes realized that in spite of their lack of formal music training his students had musical talent that rivaled their passion, he recorded a Boys and Girls Club album, which featured approximately 40 of his pupils. “I want to start a record label out of the Boys and Girls Club and try to promote innercity artists,” Hughes said. Hughes also produced a video of one of his star rappers, an 18-year-old who goes by Lil’ Jeff, and it won a “So You Think You Can Rap?” contest on a local hip-hop radio station. Lil’ Jeff was to open for rap stars Method Man and Redman at a December concert in Providence. This, Hughes says, is exactly the type of break his students dream of. He is also contemplating the creation of a record label to promote inner-city artists. “I want to take [my One-Room Music] program to the next step and find grants to implement it in different Boys and Girls Clubs in different cities,” he said. Working with the kids at the Pawtucket Boys and Girls Club is rewarding, but it’s also exhausting, Hughes says. “Life in Pawtucket for these kids is really tough. They have problems from A to Z and pursues her master’s in nutrition and lives with McKenzie Wessen, who continues to work as a research technician at Children’s Hospital with Alex White and Matt Mitchell ’06. McKenzie and Miriam Trotscha engaged in a high-adventure weekend of corn shooting and dancing with the locals in North Conway in late September and completed a 10-acre corn maze in record time. Miriam manages a portfolio of housing
Ben Hughes ’07, at top center, with some of his music students at the Pawtucket, R.I., Boys and Girls Club. terrible home situations,” he said. Up until the moment the kids are in the studio they are often running around and causing general mischief. Once they get into the studio, however, they get serious. Despite these difficulties Hughes feels drawn to working with kids who need him. “I went to high school in Providence, which is five minutes away. You’d go across the world for the Peace Corps to save people in villages, yet five minutes away there are people in abject poverty who can’t afford to live,” he said. Hughes recognizes that, with so many students rotating through, there is no way to change the lives of all of his students. “You have to do what you can and connect with the few that you can. I can’t change three-hundred kids’ lives, but I can definitely change four or five kids’ lives if they hang out with me every day for six months.” While Hughes admits that he isn’t making as much money as he’d like, he is fulfilled by spreading his passion for music to his students. And he hopes that his love for music will be contagious: “It’s kind of like getting infected with the music disease, and then that becomes the meaning of your life.” —Lauren Pongan ’09
cooperatives in Ottawa, Ont. Y Jeff Barrow works for an investment consulting firm in Chicago. Gerrit Lansing moved back to Chi-town and lives downtown while working for Cyber-Ark Software and traveling the country for work. Y Ian London is studying law at the University of Denver and was waiting for snow. Y Betsy Littlefield moved to Reno, Nev., to pursue her master’s in geophysics at the University of Nevada
with a focus in geothermal energy exploration. She spends free time with Dan Pace ’06 and Brad Cantor ’08. Y Sara Morgan spent a week in Costa Rica visiting Julia Lawson, Ryan Graumann, and Mikaela Bolduc, who spent the past year teaching English. Y Jen Anderson, Lauren Oliff, Brianna Tufts, and Aimee Williams still live together in Arlington, Va., and are excited that Naomi Wilson recently moved into their neighborCOLBY / WINTER 2009 61