JENNIFER GALLAS
Kristal Romero ’13 works in communications with the International
Knox Seniors Raise $8,000 for Knox Each year, Senior Challenge marks the transition from student to donor for most Knox students. This year, half of the Class of 2019 contributed $5,008.01 to support financial aid and scholarships, student experiences, and faculty recruitment and retention—earning a $3,000 challenge gift from Nyerere Billups ’99, a member of the Knox Board of Trustees. Senior Challenge was organized by a committee of student volunteers. Left to right: Poorva Anand, Co-Chair Jacob Elliott, Senior Class President Bob Lallky; Evan Economos (who designed the Senior Challenge glass), Jordan Anderson, Co-Chair Val Varanese, Salar Malik, Leela Yeleswarapu, and Nyerere Billups. Not pictured are Senior Class Vice President Pam Dang and Jack Dechow.
home in Peoria, Illinois, with the boys—Casey Spencer and Justin Steele—and wonderful and delightful dog Ginger. Sophie has started her second year as the physics and chemistry teacher at Quest Charter Academy in Peoria, and Gaige will finish up his computer science degree at Knox. Sophie spends most of her time these days explaining to her students that she is, actually, funny. ❯ Mike Youkhana: “I just graduated law school from John Marshall. I plan to work at a personal injury firm as an associate attorney after the bar.” ❯ Matthew Turley and Monique Noto were busy planning their March 2019 wedding. Matthew works as a JPA for a telecommunications company, while Monique is a second grade teacher and plans to attend Mount Saint Mary’s University to clear her teaching credential. They’ve added a new addition to their family: Hazel, a 1-year-old puppy, who gets along well with cat Shadow and dog Cece. ❯ Kristal Romero still survives and thrives in Washington,
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D.C., only now she works in communications with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and lives her best LaCroix life with new roommate Tim Schmeling ’11. ❯ Stephanie Fore has begun her fourth year of living and working in Honduras, where she deeply misses sour cream but enjoys (badly) dancing bachata and (even more badly) singing karaoke. ❯ Kristin McDonald and William Milleville ’14 tied the knot on July 28, 2018. Woohoo! They also bought a home last June and currently reside in Crystal Lake, Illinois, with furbabies Biscuit and Ollie. Class Correspondent: Danny Schaefer danielcschaefer19@gmail.com
2014 Amanda Shiew still lives in Malaysia. By day, she puts her English lit degree to good use as operations manager at a public relations agency; by
night, she runs a small creative studio that she co-founded with a friend. It’s a lot of work, but she’s still learning new stuff every day—which is all that she can really ask for! ❯ Grant and Paige Anderson Lowe are very happy to report they moved out of Silicon Valley and are back in Seattle (almost literally next to the Space Needle). She still writes code for Facebook. He still writes boring manuals for semiconductors that go into interesting things. Both would rather be playing D&D than doing either. ❯ Philip Bennett says, “Don’t fund the wall. End family separation. As Adam Serwer reminds us, ‘The cruelty is the point.’” ❯ Natalia Binkowski Kaplan got married on October 20, 2018, and was thrilled to have a few of her Delta sisters celebrate her day! ❯ Ashley Wolfgang now curates and writes weird travel content as the newsletter editor for Atlas Obscura and moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with her cat. ❯ Chelsea Embree has finally adopted a cat, so this is probably peak adulthood. She still lives in Idaho after almost five years, somehow, but will move back to the beautifully flat Midwest soon! Until then, she’s preparing for Idaho’s own Womyn’s March and debating if her giant sign should read “Sisters, not cis-ters!” or “My body, my choice!” Maybe both? Maybe both. Class Correspondents: Esther Farler-Westphal and Natalia Binkowski Kaplan Knoxnotes2014@gmail.com
2015 Class Correspondent: Erik Gustafson gustafson.erik.j@gmail.com
2016 After graduating, Alejandra Andrea Santoyo spent the summers of 2016 and 2017 working alongside multidisciplinary artist Chris Silva, graphic artist CHema Skandal, and Yollocalli Arts Reach restoring and creating murals across the west and east sides of Chicago. She was then hired as a high school program assistant at her alma mater, Little Village Lawndale High School, one of the eight community schools that extends its walls into the community and its high school students. There, she has coordinated classes, resources, events, and opportunities for academic acceleration, arts and cultural enrichment, sports, and outdoor programming. Alongside that, the school has also emphasized summer youth opportunities, high school to college transition, postsecondary success and career exploration, health and wellness, and adult education with family leadership opportunities. Since April 2018, Alejandra has worked as a paralegal and translator/interpreter for a law firm in the Chicago Loop. ❯ Ellyn Rolett received a master’s degree in athletic training in May 2018 and moved to Alabama last August for a job working with three rural high schools in West Alabama. Class Correspondent: Kati Stemple kstemple2012@gmail.com