ALUMNI
A Simple Phone Call Leads to a Momentous Discovery Adam Solomon
1994 Class Correspondent: Arna Berke-Schlessel Zohlman arnie250@hotmail.com
Adam Solomon was finishing his graduate degree in history at Boston University — after acquiring an undergraduate degree in history from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. — and had just applied for a job at a museum when the phone call came.
1995 Class Correspondent: Jack Hill seaburyhill@aol.com
On the other end of the line was a friend who was working as an assistant principal at St. Procopius, a Jesuit elementary school in Adam’s hometown of Chicago, one of the thousands of Catholic schools struggling to stay afloat as archdioceses throughout the country slashed budgets and closed school doors forever.
1996 Class Correspondent: Brett Nowak Nowak.Brett@gmail.com
“He asked me if I wanted a job teaching first or fourth grade, and I told him I would call him back,” Adam says. “I just didn’t know if I could do it.” He finally said yes, and he and his wife, Brenda Carter, threw their belongings into a U-Haul and drove back to Chicago. After two weeks of teacher training, Adam was in front of a fourth grade class. “First grade was too scary,” he says. He learned two important lessons in his first real job: “I realized that I didn't know anything, and that I loved it.” His two years at St. Procopius, a school whose philosophy he likens to Foote's, became the foundation for his teaching career. Known as a teacher who never takes himself too seriously, he has developed a reputation for creativity, resourcefulness, and kindliness. A runner, jazz fan, and father of Myles, 4, he also works in Foote's summer program, teaching baseball to children or planning field trips often centered on history. He fit right in at Foote when he moved back to New Haven once his wife was accepted to graduate school at Yale in the late 1990s. “I feel supported at Foote, I like the freedom we have here, and I like the kids and that they get along,” he says. “After all these years, it's still fun.”
summer, she will take a break from her busy acupuncture practice to travel to Italy to visit family and introduce her son to his cousins.
1993 20th Reunion, May 4, 2013 Class Correspondent: Jenny Keul jennykeul@gmail.com
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Congratulations to Matthew Cuthbertson and his wife EJ on the birth of their daughter, Gemma, born November 14, 2012. Matthew is currently working as a public defender in San Francisco. Michael Fertik was featured on the front page of The New York Times Sunday Business Section on Dec. 9, 2012, for his work at Reputation.com, a company he founded to help people manage their online reputations.
Katy Zandy Atlas katy91@gmail.com
Katy Atlas, Liz Petrelli, and Susan Canny got together over Christmas this year. Katy writes that everyone bonded over the exciting news that all three of them had just bought houses (Katy’s in Texas, Susan’s in St. Louis, and Liz’s in Manhattan). Ted Bailey’s company Dataminr, a Twitter monitoring firm, worked with the Presidential Inauguration Committee during President Obama’s inauguration this past January. Dataminr was able to detect potential security threats by monitoring Twitter activity in a predetermined geographic area.
1997 Class Correspondent: Eliza Sayward elizasayward@yahoo.com
1998 15th Reunion, May 4, 2013 Class Correspondents Andrew Lebov alebov@gmail.com Elisabeth Sacco saccopotatoes@gmail.com
Congratulations to Katy Clark-Spohn Botta and her husband Robbie Botta on the birth of their son, Wilder Gustav Botta, on Feb. 19, 2013. Foote Prints