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Five friends from the Class of 2000—three with their infant sons—got together in July for a mini reunion at Hillary Fitzpatrick Peterson’s Cambridge, Mass., home. From left are Aynslie Accomando, Katie Witman, Laura Fitzgerald Clark, Hillary Fitzpatrick Peterson, and Anne Bernard Arnett. Babies, from left, are Aynslie’s son, Gus; Laura’s son, Connor; and Anne’s son, Spencer.
1999 15th REUNION June 13–15, 2014 Marisa Connors marisaconnors@gmail.com
The countdown to our 15th Reunion continues! There are only a few short months until we are back on campus. I can hardly believe so much time has passed—it seems like only yesterday we were all trudging back and forth between classes and hanging out in the Ryley Room. Well, maybe it doesn’t quite feel like yesterday…but it certainly doesn’t feel like 15 years have passed! How is that even possible? Faran Krentcil e-mailed while in the middle of what she dubbed “fashion month: the fourweek sprint, in heels, that magazine editors make from New York to London, Milan, and Paris.” Faran reports she “had a blast covering the collections for Elle (you can see some of the stories on www.elle.com) while also working on a side project illustrating a book on British fashion for my friend, UK stylist Lou Teasdale. Guess all those runway drawings I sketched during math class actually paid off!” Carrie English had a busy year. She writes, “Last December I quit my job at Boston’s WGBH, sold my condo, and proceeded to spend the next seven months traveling and working in Asia. I visited Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and Japan and lived in China. After returning to the United States, I continued my
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Andover | Winter 2014
travels and visited friends all over the country.” Heather Collamore has lots to celebrate these days—she became engaged to her significant other, Ari, and completed her ninth season with the New York Mets organization. She recently caught up with Brooke Currie and Catherine Kannam in Washington, D.C., and attended the Citi Open tennis tournament. Thanks to all who sent in updates. If you have anything you’d like to include in the next notes, please feel free to e-mail me at marisaconnors@ gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing everyone in June!
2000 Jia H. Jung 550 11th St. #4R Brooklyn NY 11215 917-589-5423 (cell) jiajung@alum.berkeley.edu
All right, class, the day that I’m turning this in is my birthday, so I’ll just get right to the good stuff this time—starting with myself. After a really annihilating bout of unemployment through much of 2012, I am glad to report that I am now working at a new job that pays a living wage and provides health insurance. It really doesn’t get much better than that. Last August, I attempted the eight-mile Boston Light Swim but was one of nine (in a field of 22) folks who were shut out by the Boston Harbor tides. I didn’t give up, though, and was at the maximum
five-hour limit and within sight of the finish when the turning tides prompted the Coast Guard to remove everyone from the water. Nowhere like Boston to suffer heartache. Shortly thereafter, on Sept. 14, I attempted a 15.1-mile circumnavigation around Cape May, N.J. (home of the oldest boardwalk in America). Seemed stupid after an incomplete swim of half the distance, but the water was supposed to be 10 degrees warmer and the course was supposed to be parallel to the shore and less subject to outgoing tides, funky winds, or chop. I guess you’ll all see if I made it in another four months, when the next class notes get published. Now, enough about me. In August, Poyuan Chen and Sam Sherry got married in true style at Boston’s Wang Center. In the main hall of marble, the couple’s personal vows rang clear and true. Po’s moving speech mentioned his arrival in the United States as a new lower at Andover and went on to describe his journey to finding his identity, his home, and the American dream in the love of his life. Not an eye was without tears of emotion, particularly given the presence of so many Andoverites, who very well remembered Po’s first days here: Praveen Kankanala, Mindy Lo, Mabel Ning, Alicia Wagner Larsen (who’d been wed over Memorial Day weekend up by the sea in Maine), Yiyun Tsai, Maria Tellez, and Susie Wager. Po’s brother Leo Chen ’04 was also present. A little while after the joyous event, Po reported, “Married life is kind of the same as unmarried life. Except our next vacation will now be called a honeymoon.” The newlyweds had a “mini moon” in Quebec City shortly after their wedding and were planning a bona fide trip to Thailand in January. Good luck, both! This past fall, Kate Mason and her wife, Jen, both began working as professors at Miami University (located in Ohio, not Florida). They’re still learning what it means to teach at an institution whose “party school” reputation is well earned, but they enjoyed the lead-in from a rural Ohio summer and were battening down for the winter at this writing. Pam Williams-Cheers is happy to announce that she has recently transitioned into working on her business, Party Prep, full time. She considers it her duty to ensure that the entire world has a glitter tattoo, if it’s the last thing she does! Pam’s daughter, Eleanor Olivia (and yes, she’s named after Pam’s big sis Eleanor Williams Erinna ’97), began attending school at a dual-language Spanish kindergarten, so mom Pam is loving every minute of surprising her child with her Español when helping out with the homework. Pam herself is shocked to find that she knows any Spanish at all! Meanwhile, Pam celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary with her husband with a tropical and warm brief getaway from central Illinois, which has grown on the family after eight and a half years—six and a half years longer than they had planned to spend there. Ursula DeYoung has emerged after many years to reveal that, post-PA, she spent several years in academia. Upon graduation from Harvard, she