www.andover.edu/intouch The food—fruit and salad bars, fresh-made crêpes, eggs and sausage—varies across each dining hall. At 10:30 a.m., we gathered for the alumni parade before the reunion ASM. It was a treat to witness the classes, as far back as 1946, walk (or be driven in golf carts, part of the “Bluber” fleet) the Elm Walk. The showing of the Class of 1966 for their 50th Reunion was impressive—one-third of those still living. Equally impressive were the cumulative donations made by these classes, announced by Head of School John Palfrey: upward of $100 million (by a single class!) to the Academy. We have 50 years to beat that. A barbecue on the GW lawn followed ASM, along with shopping with Maggie Reich Manus for Andover swag in the GW mailroom. When the weather turned south, we reunited in the Rockwell common room, where photos of our time at Andover greeted us. The general consensus: We look so different, yet still the same. In the quad tent, three alumni shared their start-up journeys: Jeff Zhou (FIG Loans), Susan Ho (Journy), and Andrea Coravos (Ummo). The State of the Academy presentation at the chapel filled the afternoon, though many ’06ers retired for a much-needed nap. Since the weather let up, a dozen or so ’06ers, including Julia Littlefield, Derek de Svastich, Morgan Abraham, Jeff Zhou, Andrew Park, and Owen Remeika, played a round of kickball on the quad, with Nick Bowen being the most impressive and spritely player. Newlyweds James Watson and Jenny Wu joined us on the kickball field. Emily Pollokoff arrived from upstate New York with her adorable daughter, Hazel, in tow. We were also joined by a flood of Abbot Cluster alums: Ben Lasman, Rosie duPont, Fred Wright, Ginia Sweeney, and Emma Dorsey. The 2006/2011 dinner took place in the Smith Center, atop what used to be the Smith hockey rink. New arrivals that evening included Jake Edwards, Pumi Maqubela and his wife, fresh off their wedding about 24 hours prior (that’s dedication!), and surprises Clinton Prospere and Todd Kwao-Vovo, among many others. Our after-dinner entertainment began with a brilliant crossword puzzle crafted by Claire Collery, which she spent all of Saturday in the PACC creating. The winning team—including Julian Jacobson, Kevin McCarthy, Max Parsons, Brad Colbert, and Faaez Jafarey—was awarded a bottle of peppermint schnapps, while the second-place team, including Tobey Duble and Gabe Worgaftik, “settled” for Malibu coconut rum. Of course, a DJ provided an eclectic mix of high school throwbacks and more recent musical fare. Alyssa Hill, a practicing lawyer in New York, reminded us of the old days when she made the rounds with Katie Faulkner’s identical-looking younger sister, Kristen Faulkner ’11. Rajeev Saxena, Elizabeth Ryznar, Kate Therkelsen, Jen Wang, and Jasmin Baek mixed and mingled on the dance floor. Meanwhile, Justin Yi, Liz Slaughter, Merit Webster, and
Dan Taylor and wife Laura managed to sneak into the 1966 cocktail party in Paresky Commons, complete with a live band! Alex Wolf scored us our own epic dance party in Borden Gym, where all 2006 reunion attendees partook in the ultimate culmination of the night. Our incredible DJ wrapped with “Don’t Stop Believin’” (of course), “Sweet Child o’ Mine” as an encore, and a final encore of ACDC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.” It was the perfect ending to the perfect night, filled with nostalgia and nothing but love for Andover 2006. Tom Tassinari and his wife, Erica, prepared an incredible after-party at their new home three miles down the road in Andover. Unfortunately, we failed to coordinate nearly 100 alumni at 1 a.m. and opted instead to host our after-party again in the Rockwell common room. Tom and Erica graciously forgave us, and Mike Galaburda helped them transport the libations to Rockwell. I reconnected with Sarah Takvorian, now in California, over our mutual love for Boston. Ingrid Murra is now an orthodontics resident at Harvard, while John Lippe recently moved to Oklahoma, after finishing at HBS. Multiple rounds of flip cup later, the last alumni retired to their dorm rooms near 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning was a bittersweet acknowledgment of a fabulous weekend coming to an end, filled with goodbyes and best wishes until reunion 2021. I had breakfast with Khaki Burke, Jonathan Figueroa, Desmond Bonhomme-Isaiah, and Justin Lee, flying out that very day to LA to start his neurosurgery residency. Edwin Kulubya also moved immediately after Reunion Weekend, to Davis, CA, to begin his neurosurgery residency. While some of us hustled out of Commons for cabs and trains, others clung to the memories of Andover. Sprawled on the quad, Tobey Duble, Cornelia Wolcott, Luke Cahill, and Sam Cartmell relived the weekend. Newlyweds Jen and Jeff Bakkensen, freshly moved to Boston, said their farewells as ’06ers emerged from the dorms and into their cars. Chris Cahill and Lindsay Baker ’05 returned to Boston as well, while Emily Frumberg, Lauren Bissell, Andrew Park, Charlie Frentz, and Liz Brown ’09 packed in for the commute back to New York. Our 10th Reunion exceeded expectations. Of course, returning to campus—staying in the dorms, visiting faculty members, seeing the old classrooms—elicited memories that have been buried for many years. More than that, though, reconnecting with other members of the Class of 2006 held the most significance; despite having graduated 10 years ago, we all fell right back in line with one another. We reminded one another of the intimacy and depth of our relationships—ones that never fade—and that we collectively share and make up the Andover experience. It’s said that people make the place: For the Class of ’06, nothing could be truer. Until next time, ’06. —Jeni
2007 M. Conner Stoldt 94 Saddle Hill Road Hopkinton MA 01748-1102 508-954-9185 conner.stoldt@gmail.com Catherine L. Crooke 61 Eastern Parkway, Apt. 2C Brooklyn NY 11238-5916 917-375-5551 catherine.l.crooke@gmail.com
Roxanne Knapp is back in Boston as of this summer, doing design-thinking work for a Fidelity incubator. She has one more year of grad school in Chicago, but is “the most excited” to spend some quality time with Andover people in the area. Allison Callery spent four months at the U.S. embassy in Manila this summer working on South China Sea issues in the political section, then planned to explore New Zealand for a few weeks. Emma Wood graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop this past spring; this fall, she’s moving to Santa Cruz, CA, where her husband, Conner, will be starting a PhD degree program in English. After living together in New York for more than a year, Alexa Reid and Colin Smith moved to LA in May. Alexa took a job as artist liaison at David Kordansky Gallery, and Colin is continuing work as a contemporary art specialist at Sotheby’s auction house. Giacomo Chiaro recently moved to Switzerland with his boyfriend to train in neurology. Morgan Broccoli graduated from medical school at Johns Hopkins and finished an internship at the WHO in the spring; she started a residency in emergency medicine at Boston Medical Center in June. After spending the past year in Stockholm, Laura Minasian moved to Copenhagen in August to run recruiting for McKinsey Denmark. Molly Ozimek-Maier moved to Clifton, VA, this past December with her daughter, who is now 4! She mentioned that the participation of our class this year during the 2015 Andover-Exeter fundraising campaign was amazing. If anyone would like to be a class agent, please reach out to her or Eliot Wall! Lauren Jackson Smiley spent the summer in Europe with her husband, working with Syrian refugees. Rob Sun recently bought and moved into a new place in NYC. Coincidentally, it happens to be in the building where Stephanie Sit ’06 lives. Rob is still at his job, doing real estate private equity with a focus on the U.S. and Brazil. Olivia Pei is still in SF at Meraki. In March, she and Dina Burkitbayeva ’06 hosted an “Andover munch.” Several PA alums were in attendance, including Sarah Guo. Olivia hosted an Easter egg brunch; Cece Yu and her husband were among the guests. Olivia saw Eliot Wall this spring in Boston and had drinks with Peter McCarthy and Larry Zhou ’09 in May. She also ran into Sarah Andover | Reunion 2016
63