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
Dear Class of 2009, Wow. I [Alex McHale] know I start off a lot of our notes with this, but it truly is breathtaking how quickly time is moving. It’s been more than 10 years since many of us started at Andover as juniors! I truly cannot believe how much we’ve grown since then. I think we are really starting to come into our own after two-plus years out of college—many of us are growing out of our first jobs, traveling around the world, settling into grad school, and even starting our own companies. One incredible trend I’ve noticed is how many of us are getting engaged. Congrats to all of the happy couples! You are all motivating me to find my own true love someday. (Probably on Tinder.) Amanda Lin is living in SF and recently cofounded a company called Spindle with her best friend from Stanford. Their iOS app just launched on the App Store and received some awesome press coverage (you can read their Tech Crunch article here: http://tcrn.ch/1EFvR0s). She’d love to see you on Spindle and hear from you if you’re in the area. Congrats to Amanda, and best of luck to Spindle! Amanda also went to visit Sophia Lee in Hawaii for a long weekend and had an amazing time. Sophia writes, “As for my life out here, I love it and I’m never leaving. If anyone ever needs a place to stay on the island of Oahu, I am more than happy to have an Andover alum stay over!” Moving to the East Coast, Eli Grober and Jack Dickey attended a crafting party at Lawrence Dai’s apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y. Jack writes that they “made modern art. Stranger still, none of [our] girlfriends dumped us afterward.” (Nice!) Vincent Jow, Tony Zou, Moses Kim, Alex Park, and Hunter Schlacks ’11 all enjoyed steak at Del Frisco’s in Manhattan in September. (Vincent would like to note that “Tony and Moses shared a steak, while Alex and I had one each, like real men.”) During this dinner, Alex broke the news that he was going to propose to his girlfriend. He did so a few days later. She said yes! Congrats to the happy couple. Mr. Park is not the only one planning a wedding. Charlie Frentz ’06 and Liz Brown got engaged in April! They are still living in Hong Kong and would love to see anyone stopping through. Another engaged alum, Danica Mitchell,
graduated from Brown/RISD in May and is now living in Encinitas, Calif., with her fiancé, two dogs, and a cat. She is working as a design consultant for a small shoe company. Speaking of cool locations, Zoe Weinberg is moving to Nairobi, Kenya. After working in the DC office of the World Bank for the past year, Zoe decided to switch offices and see more of the world. She encourages any PA alums in the area to look her up. Nathalie Monecke, Mathilde Gracia, and Greta Rossi enjoyed catching up over a delicious dinner at Tibits, one of the best vegetarian restaurants in London. Greta writes, “We only manage to see each other every couple of years, but the connection is still very strong. And every time we meet up, we feel we have come home.” Not to get all sappy, but as a class secretary, I love hearing stories like this. Moving to another cool location (but one familiar to all of us), Stephen Levy, Yiwei Li, Bowen Qiu, and Veronica Faller met up in downtown Andover to catch up. Stephen is in his final year at Georgetown Law. Bowen and Veronica are both third years in medical school, Bowen at UMass and Veronica at Boston University. Yiwei is working in Boston as a software engineer at Wayfair. Patrick Woolsey writes that after working with the Environmental Law Institute in DC for the past two years, he spent this summer backpacking around South America. He is in his first year at Yale Law School. Finally, Taryn Wiens moved to Portland, Ore., where she manages Disjecta, a contemporary art gallery, and works at a letterpress printshop. Taryn writes, “If anyone is in the area, I’d love to get drinks!” She is also beginning a joint curatorial project called “s/plit.” If anyone knows any exceptional emerging artists who want to do a show in Portland, send them her way! As for us, your secretaries, Deidra Willis has recently moved to Iowa City after getting promoted at General Mills. Right after the move, she spent a few weeks living without furniture or Internet access, and she is very thankful for her awesome partner, Alex, with regard to composing class notes. In case any of you missed it in the last notes, I have recently moved to Oklahoma City to pursue the simple life, away from all you overachieving types in New York. I am enjoying my stint as a cattle rancher so far. (I actually work at an oil and gas company.) If anyone is ever in town and wants to catch a Thunder game or have some high-quality drinks, please do drop a line. Would be happy to give you the VIP tour. (No, seriously—I don’t know anyone out here. Save me! Just kidding. Kind of.) Anyway, as always, it’s been a pleasure. Stay good, everyone, and we miss you terribly! —Alex & Deidra
2010 Courtney King 343 15th St. Santa Monica CA 90402 310-984-0882 (cell) courtney.king116@gmail.com
Vincent D’Andrea has been living in Palo Alto, Calif., and working in a biochemistry research laboratory at Stanford. He’s had the opportunity to cross paths with many Andover graduates who are either attending Stanford or in the area for work. He’s applying to medical school and hopes to begin in September of this year. Juliet Liu is living in LA and recently started a new job at a film production company run by Michael De Luca, who has produced movies such as The Social Network, Moneyball, Captain Phillips, and 50 Shades of Grey. Juliet recently reunited with Sophie Fourteau and Caitlin Aylward in LA and is looking forward to seeing more Andover alums on the West Coast. Sophie is living in London and working in market research at TNS, and Caitlin is based in NYC and doing research for L2 Inc. Mia Rossi moved out to LA in July via a crosscountry road trip and is now living on the Westside. She is working on music, writing, and editing projects and has found a job at School of Rock, an international after-school program that puts kids in bands and teaches them to rock. She is signed on to be the studio manager at a brand-new location that opened in Venice, Calif., in the fall. She has high hopes for the coming year and would love to collaborate on any creative or musical endeavors. She warmly welcomes you to hit her up and come visit if you are ever in the LA area. Stassja Sichko and Mia Pecora had an awesome “new upper” reunion with Scotty Fleming at Scotty’s wedding this past August. Mia is living in San Francisco, and Stassja is based in LA. Scotty lives in Utah with his wife and is working at Brigham Young University, in the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. Scotty returned last year from his two-year Mormon mission to Brazil. Duncan Crystal started playing rugby this fall in Washington to, as he put it, “restore some violence to my life” now that his wrestling career has ended. He recently took a three-week trip to Australia with his family, where he visited Mandi Thran ’11 in Sydney. Kyleigh Keating is starting her second year as a fifth-grade teacher at Edward Brooke Charter School in East Boston. She reports, “I love my kids, and I am pumped to work with teachers and staff who are all trying to close the achievement gap for the students in Boston. I am always inspired by the teachers and students at Andover, whose love of learning and working hard gives me something to strive for—for myself and my students!” Kelsey Lim spent Labor Day weekend at Michael Scognamiglio’s beach house with some Andover | Winter 2016
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