CL ASS NOTES
Beer Pong Goes Interscholastic Justin Ko ’98 A bunch of boarding-school alumni walk into a bar. They face each other down in heated competition. The game? Beer pong. Justin Ko and Patrick Yeung ’99 represented NMH — unofficially — in a beer pong tournament in Hong Kong last fall, at a small establishment called Bread and Beast. “There were 10 teams in total,” says Ko — besides NMH, there were the usual suspects: Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, Taft, Hotchkiss, Milton, St. Paul’s, Groton, and Choate. “Some bars have darts and pool tables,” Ko explains. “Some bars in Hong Kong have beer pong tables instead.” Ko reports that he never played the game in college and rarely plays it now, but adds that his skills are “actually OK” due in part to his recreational basketball-playing days at NMH. He estimates that he made 60 percent of his shots, all while sipping on a local craft beer called Heroes Beer, brewed by the husband of Jacqueline Wong ’04. Overall, the collective school spirit was “fierce,” Ko says. “It was a lot of fun and everyone really got into it.” Alas, the championship title went to Andover, but despite NMH’s loss in the first round, the event “was a great opportunity to catch up with fellow alums and meet locals who also went to boarding school in the U.S.,” Ko says. Assessing his NMH team dynamic, he says, “I was the stronger player, but Patrick had a lot of heart.” From left: Justin Ko ’98, Christopher Wong (husband of Jacqueline Wong ’03), Jacqueline Wong ’03, Charis Law ’03, Patrick Yeung ’99
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Northfield Mount Hermon Julia Cohen jmacleodcohen@gmail.com
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Northfield Mount Hermon Brian Pressman brainjpressman@gmail.com • Rachel Carfora rachelcarfora@gmail.com Justin Ko wrote, “My wife (Elaine Kwan) and I have two girls now. Erin was born in 2015, and Emilia was born in February 2018. On November 9, 2018, Patrick Yeung ’99 and I represented NMH in an inter-school beer pong tournament that took place in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we lost to Groton in the first round. This was the second time NMH has been ousted in the first round. Last time we lost to Milton.”
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Northfield Mount Hermon Audrey Korte aekorte@cox.net • Melia Knowles-Coursin meliakc@gmail.com • Molly Loveday chefmollyloveday@gmail.com
Justin Ko ’98 and Elaine Kwan ’98 with their children
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NMH Magazine
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Northfield Mount Hermon Rose Jackman Spurgin rosespurgin@gmail.com Rose Jackman Spurgin married Will Spurgin in a private ceremony at the Easthampton mayor’s office on 3/31/16. In addition to her career at Combined Insurance, Rose is involved in the charity Western Mass Arm Wrestling Ladies, and spends a lot of time checking in on friends. She collected a lot of photos and blurbs from classmates and was against the deadline. If the column stops here it means you will all be in the fall issue instead. Please help!
her job as a co-op and career advisor at Wentworth Institute of Technology. • Josh Bigelow is running an office furniture business he acquired and is working on getting a marketing software startup off the ground. He caught up with fellow classmates Benjamin Galuza, Caitlin Inglehart, and Alex Fischer in the Bay Area. Ben continues to work as a principal engineer, designing environmentally green (LEED) buildings for Integral Group, and Caitlin is working with a startup, Angaza, in San Francisco, providing pay-asyou-go solar power to emerging markets. Alex is wrapping up his Ph.D. at Oxford University.
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Northfield Mount Hermon Josh Grubman joshuagrubman@gmail.com • Christopher A Zissi christopher.zissi@gmail.com Ria Jodrie Kalinowski and her husband, Jim, welcomed a son to their family in Sept. 2017. Theodore Jameson (now 1) loves dancing and playing with his sister, Ella Mei (3), in their home outside of Boston. Ria still loves
Northfield Mount Hermon Danielle Henry Beale dhbeale@gmail.com Hello, all! Sara Stephens came to visit me in Nevis, West Indies, and we spent a wonderful week catching up over rum punch. • Karan Khosla welcomed a baby, Feroz, with wife Divya Gupta. • Noah Balazs moved to Cairo, Egypt, with his family. • Matt Farina married Leela Holman. • Heather King
Rose Jackson Lynch ’00 (right) with co-worker and friend April Masefield over the winter holidays
Ria Jodrie Kalinowski ’01 with her children, Ella (left) and Theodore, during the holidays.
