LANDON ALUMNI C L A S S N O T E S
2003... continued Stew Royer writes, “I am living in the OC in Newport Beach, just moved from NYC in January and started my own commercial real estate company out here.”
2004 Rajiv Shenoy is the CEO and founder of ORCAtv. Read about his business in the article on Young Entrepreneurs on page 21.
2005 Brendan Reilly is a Marine stationed in the Arabian Peninsula. Read about care packages
at the wedding of Trent Pickle ’04 and Sally Summerson on July 9, 2011 at the eastern Shore: Jimmy Pickle ’08, danny evens ’04, Whitson huffman ’08, Matthew underhill ’13, Justin donaldson ’08, Trent and Sally, Thomas underhill ’08, Brian Kelly ’08, Stu nibley, Pearson nibley ’07, Mike Kelly ’08 and Stu nibley ’09.
Sharing Books fter graduating from Wesleyan university with a degree in american Government, Jon Sheehan ’07 became a fifth Grade teacher at a school in West harlem through Teach for america. one of the first things he noticed was how few books the school had. of Landon fifth graders connect via Skype with students in new york them, many were missing cov- city taught by Jon Sheehan ’07. ers and very old. he knew if he could offer his students more and better books, their reading might improve, their vocabularies might expand, even their math skills might be strengthened. Sheehan thought that Landon might be able to help. he reached out to Lower School head Len Armstrong who put him in touch with Lower School Librarian Suman Agarwal. She gathered up extra books that Landon boys were not using and sent them up to new york. The Lower School Book fair also provided an opportunity for boys to purchase books for the new york students. Boxes and boxes of books were sent from Wilson Lane to West harlem. on Sheehan’s end, the books made a huge difference. his students became more interested in reading. They began reading more and talked more about books, while getting excited for each new shipment. Sheehan’s students wanted to share their enthusiasm with the Landon students who had made it possible. he and agarwal organized a Skype session to allow Landon fifth graders to connect with Sheehan’s students in new york. The students in new york started with a huge thank you to the Landon boys. The students then quickly found that they had similar literary tastes, agreeing on several favorite books, like the 39 clues series, and authors, such as roald dahl, fred Bowen and Sharon creech. Sheehan and his students are grateful to Landon for sharing books. he says, “i had hoped that Landon would pitch in. They took it and ran with it!” — Lynn horowitch
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his platoon received from Landon Middle School students and their fathers on page 7.
2006 Michael DeFranco is building his business, Lua Technologies. Learn more in the article on Young Entrepreneurs on page 21. Robert Gelb launched an innovative video project called “Bus 52” at Landon on January 8, 2012. Bus 52 is a year-long project in which Gelb and four friends are traveling the country in a converted school bus. Throughout their journey, they are finding and sharing stories of ordinary Americans who are confronting challenges in innovative and worthwhile ways. Their group was interviewed about the project on CBS This Morning.
2007 5TH REUNION: October 18-20, 2012
2008 Keith Rubin is a member of the water polo team at Yale, which has been successful at the national level, culminating in final rankings of 9th, 7th, and 2nd in the past three years. Keith helped found the Landon team during his senior year. Grant Verstandig’s business, Audax Health, is taking off. Verstandig is featured in the article on Young Entrepreneurs on page 21.