www.andover.edu/intouch 2009 Alexander McHale 101 NE 53rd St., Apt. 2714 Oklahoma City OK 73105 703-786-3330 arxmchale@gmail.com Deidra Willis 2815 Rohret Road, Apt. 201 Iowa City IA 52246 347-342-7447 willis.deidra@gmail.com
What a lovely and productive few months it has been for all of us! It has been so great to hear from you all. Compiling these class notes for the past few years has not only allowed me to see our lives change in real time, but also to notice general trends. In the past several iterations of the class notes, the theme that comes to mind is “commitment”—a word that I know can sound like a vague platitude sometimes but that actually manifests itself in very concrete ways with us. Many of us have finished graduate/professional degrees, or are in the process of beginning doctoral studies. Some of us have found a calling of sorts, and have decided to devote time, resources, and energy to academic studies that animate us. We have found fulfillment in things as varied as gender studies, veterinary medicine, and security studies. Others have finished their first jobs out of college and have decided to focus on a certain industry or field. We might have been hockey players, Blue Key heads, or debaters in high school, but have now become real estate professionals, chemistry instructors, and oilmen. Most importantly, we are starting to get married—oftentimes to other Andover alums. The connection here to “commitment” should be obvious: Some of us have found our person. None of this should be taken as implicit pressure to settle down in one way or another. (I, for one, am still power swiping through Oklahoma trying to find Tinderella.) But it’s amazing to see how quickly things are starting to fall into place for some of us. It feels like the beginning of a new phase in life. Sarah Rutter got married May 29 in Woodstock, VT. Her husband is one Gordon Vermeer, and the two of them met at Dartmouth a few weeks before Gordon graduated, in 2012. A hearty congrats to Sarah and Gordon! We wish them health and happiness and lots of cute little Dartmouth legacy babies. Speaking of legacies, our very own Jill Kozloff and Trey Meyer are getting married next summer. A sincere congrats to the two of you! I think I speak for the whole class when I say we were all rooting for this to happen. Jill met up in Williamstown, MA, with Annie Glancy and Eliza Dewey for a little reunion to celebrate the news. Lauren Wilmarth graduated from Cornell with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. She is moving
to NYC to spend her internship year working at the Animal Medical Center (AMC). Her sister, Tori Wilmarth, finished three years of work consulting with IBM Global Business Services, where she focused on the life sciences industry. She was awarded the Park Fellowship to pursue an MBA degree at Cornell starting this past July. Congrats, Tori! Alissa Fromkin completed a master’s degree in Middle East studies at George Washington University and recently received a Fulbright Scholarship to study religious practices of genderqueer Jews in Israel. If anyone else is part of the Fulbright family or will be around Israel, let Alissa know! Johnny Carmona, Kevin Ofori, Mike Kaluzny, and Kyle Ofori were all in Atlanta recently to see a concert. Mike and Kevin are roommates. Jean Fang met up with Chelsea Carlson and Gloria Odusote in Las Vegas, Cleveland, and Chicago this year. She is moving to San Diego for graduate school in August. If anyone is in the area, let her know. Andi Zhou will begin a master’s degree program in public affairs this fall at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he and Kaki Elgin will once again be classmates. Kaki is pursuing a PhD degree in security studies at the school. Andrew Ang ran into Ricky Chen, Teddy Toussaint, and Brendan Deveney at an Andover alumni event in Cambridge recently. Ricky is a software engineer at Demandbase and Teddy is a software engineering associate at Vecna. (What is Brendan up to? Someone let me know.) In Oklahoma City, I recently ran into Ishan Kapoor, who was driving through on his way to Dallas, where he works for Schlumberger. In addition to being a crack oilman, he has also started an amazing cold-brew start-up, called Wide Eyed Cold Brew. My office is hooked. As for me, I continue to plod along here in Oklahoma, where I regularly see Forrest Cox, who works in governmental relations for Cherokee Nation in Tulsa. Deidra Willis recently live-Snapchatted me a jealousy-inducing trip to Thailand, and I continue to follow the Brew Crew adventures of Marvin Blugh and Max Abitbol at Mel’s Burger Bar near Columbia, as well as in the Hamptons. Overall, 2016 has been a great year so far, the Thunder’s loss to the Warriors notwithstanding. If anyone is ever around in Oklahoma, please let me know! Will happily give you the VIP tour. —Alex
2010 Courtney King 343 15th St. Santa Monica CA 90402 310-984-0882 (cell) courtney.king116@gmail.com
Jen Oesterling moved to NYC in January to work at a veterinary clinic in East Harlem. She reports that “in just three months, I have had more Andover reunions than I could have imagined!” She met up with Nicole Okai, Khalid McCaskill, and Isabella Uria and ran into Alex Gray, Emily Johnson, and Jeremy Hutton ’11 while exploring the city. She says she is excited to begin veterinary school at the University of Illinois in August. Jen says that she is “hoping to make the most of my time before starting vet school, which will hopefully include more reunions with people from Andover.” Vivian Chen recently caught up with Michelle Mariko in Miami over brunch. Michelle was visiting New Orleans, Miami, and Orlando, FL, before heading up to Baltimore for her graduation from Johns Hopkins University. Vivian is planning a trip to Japan later in the fall and hopes to hang out with Michelle there! Will Winkenwerder still lives and works in NYC and, at this writing, was preparing for a six-week trip around the world with Spencer Macquarrie, departing in May. They planned to travel to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, St. Tropez, and London. Mat Kelley is approaching his two-year anniversary in Shanghai. He now works as the regional marketing director for Chope Shanghai, which he describes as “a restaurant reservation app similar to Open Table.” In May, he and Stephen Xenakis went to Graham Miao ’09’s place for a party. Mat says it is “always awesome to catch up with alumni in China!” Trevor Braun worked in the McGill Data Mining and Security lab in Montreal for the summer and will be entering a master’s degree program in economics at McGill this fall for one more year of school. He planned to spend his summer weekends hiking in the Adirondack Mountains. He traveled to Toronto to see the NBA Eastern Conference Finals with Khalid McCaskill. Duncan Crystal recently drove down to the University of North Carolina with Kate Bulger ’11 to celebrate Alexis Dawkins’s graduation and upcoming move to China. Duncan reports that they were also joined by John McKenna and Jackie Wallace, and that “good times were had by all.” Matt Renner says that he is “happy to say things are finally falling into place” and that he is tattooing professionally in Denver at a cooperative shop called Illustrated Gypsy. He reports that Sophia Bernazzani, Anne Hunter, and Anne’s boyfriend, Bjarni, stopped by a few weeks ago while Andover | Reunion 2016
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