stay connected... policy director for Eric Greitens and was hoping this election would go more favorably so he could avoid unemployment. Perhaps no one has explained to Will that unemployment is a pretty sweet gig. Lily Kelly also changed jobs, in her case from environmental NGO work to women’s health. She works for La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland as a fundraiser. Jami Makan is taking time off from practicing law, getting back into journalism, and relocating to NYC, where he hopes to connect with fellow alums. Benn Waters repatriated after living in Israel for seven years and serving in the IDF, where he rose to the rank of captain. Benn will start at Georgetown Law in the fall. Welcome back, Benn! I hope law school is only slightly more intense than the Israeli army! Here in LA, I am braving pitching season. Pitching season is where introverted writers must leave their homes and interact with actual human people. It’s terrible! I got to take a break when Jenny Byer Elgin and her 6-month-old son, Maddox, drove up during a visit to her in-laws in Orange County. Jenny is enjoying life, having moved back to her home state, Michigan, but was glad to have a proper LA fish taco. Apparently, Detroit hasn’t quite nailed that dish.
2005 Ian Schmertzler Ian.Schmertzler.Andover@gmail.com
News from the Class of 2005 was sparse this summer, likely because so many people were in motion. Nate Scott was in Rio reporting on the Olympics for USA Today. He got engaged to his girlfriend, Kelli Nicole, in mid-July while in Maine. Mac King supplied a photographer to capture the moment. Kelly Stecker competed in several triathlons and made it to the podium in Nantucket. David Billingsley and Ben Lasman ’06 got together in Brooklyn to form Nobody’s Ghost, resurrecting a portion of the Angkst band from Andover days. Though they technically formed in September 2015, the two-man act began hitting the circuit in earnest this year, doing performances with Band of Young Saints and Hell Yeah Babies. Alex Moris managed to pry Kenechi Igbokwe from his desk and they, along with Clarissa Deng, spent a day on the beach with Ian Schmertzler. Sims Witherspoon moved to London to lead Google.org’s EMEA marketing and to work on the development of crisis response products. Mary Burris Riordan is also over at Google in the UK, and the two see each other quite regularly. Shawn Fu summered in Washington and shared some air-conditioned time with Derek Nnuro and Stefanos Kasselakis. Derek has finished an MFA degree at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is now pressing ahead with his first book. Shawn also attended a sendoff for Andrea Rowan and her
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husband, who are now bound for Uganda. Lastly, screeching in under the wire for this magazine’s submission deadline, Charlotte Pougnier married Noel Lopinta, and Hector Inirio married Bianca Pelzel. If you have any news you would like to see printed in the next edition, please email me at Ian. Schmertzler.Andover@gmail.
2006 Jeni Lee 18228 Mallard St. Woodland CA 95695 925-846-8300 Jeni.lee519@gmail.com Owen Remeika Oremeika@gmail.com 617-794-7898 Justin Yi 250 Mott St., Apt. 10 New York NY 10012 978-886-3307 justinyi@gmail.com
To quote childhood heroes Kenan & Kel, “Aw, here it goes!” Emily Frumberg shares that BFF Lauren Bissell is engaged to Matt Ragland. Emily writes, “She will murder me for sharing this [engagement] photo, which I very much forced out of her...but whatever!” Email Emily for a copy! In September, Mike Spiak married his college sweetheart, Margaret Owen, in Montana. Attendees included “best person” Kristin Spiak ’08 and groomsman and former soccer teammate Pumi Maqubela, along with Sam Hall, Ben Weiner, T.J. Thompson, Alex Clifford ’07, Jon Hillman ’05, Mary Buttrick Burnham ’78, and former faculty members Temba and Vuvu Maqubela. The couple lives in DC and would love to host visitors, mostly to put their new wedding dishware to use. Pumi Maqubela himself got married—to fiancée Akhona on June 10, the Friday of reunion. Peter Kalmakis married Simone Berkower last June; in attendance were Rachel Isaacs and Peter’s cousins Kathryn Doyle ’03, Billy Doyle ’05, Mary Doyle ’08, and Jack Doyle ’10. O’Doyle rules, indeed. While cups were being flipped at Rockwell during reunion, the newlyweds were honeymooning in Bora Bora. They are now living in Manhattan, which I hear is an up-and-coming neighborhood west of Brooklyn. After four years in the Bay Area near Sarah Takvorian, Catherine Wright moved to Boston to pursue an MBA degree at MIT Sloan. There’s strong Andover representation (every year from ’04 through ’08!). In Boston, Catherine reconnected with Chris Sargent and Ali Holliday. Before going back to school, Catherine was on a Kiva microfinance fellowship in Mexico City, where she
saw Anna Ho. Pressed for comment, Anna responded, “lol I’m not sure my everyday life stuff needs to go in the Andover bulletin?” The masses disagree! And Anna, the Bulletin was rebranded in 2009. Come on. John Lippe has started a management role with DaVita Health Care Partners in Kansas City, running dialysis clinics. He and his girlfriend, Rachael (whom many met at reunion), are happy to host visitors for some local BBQ! In May, Matt Boylan married Meredith Senter; they met as undergrads at Brown and both graduated from medical school in May. After honeymooning in Spain, they started their residencies in July—Matt at NYU for orthopedic surgery and Meredith at Columbia for psychiatry. Jeff Zhou writes, “Panda Express opened on Third and 51st. It’s changed my life.” Jeff moved to NYC this fall but will also be spending time in LA. “Hi from Anchorage!” writes Marty Schnure. What’s she doing there? We’ll never know; Schnure did not respond to requests for comment. Knowing her, I’d guess on account of “wilderness.” Louisa Rockwell married Adam Drici in September at the Providence [RI] Public Library. The bride will be keeping her name. Bridesmaids included Emily Chappell and Claire Collery, and attendees included “the usual whoevers.” Merit Webster hosted an “end-of-summer party” in August on her Tribeca rooftop with Justin Yi, Claire, Emily, Jackie Price, and squashers Derek de Svastich, Simon Keyes, and Dan Wagman. Highlights included Merit trying to make plans for “two falls from now” and explaining that “cold red is the new rosé.” Lucretia Witte moved to San Francisco after completing a master’s degree program at Georgetown. She’s now a principal for Summit Public Schools. Longtime roommates Aaron Weisz and Rachel Wilson got married at Northwestern (where they met as undergrads). Sam Woolford, Jeff Bakkensen, Alex Campbell, and Mike Galaburda served as best men. Tom Tassinari, his wife, Erica, and sister of the groom Samantha Weisz ’03 also attended. This summer, Jeff Bakkensen married Jen Bender in Buffalo. In the wedding were Eric Bakkensen ’01, Mike Galaburda, Sam Woolford, Tom Tassinari, Aaron Weisz, and Alex Campbell, and in attendance were Justin Yi, Cornelia Wolcott, Christa Vardaro, Simon Keyes, Owen Remeika, and Emily Chappell. Following the wedding, the Bakkensens moved from NYC to Boston, where Jen, a doctor, started her residency. Andrea Coravos interned as a software engineer at Akili Interactive, a company making video games to help children reduce their ADHD symptoms. She’s back in Boston for her last year at HBS and writes, “Haven’t seen many Andover friends except for reunion! But also haven’t seen
many friends outside of my laptop.” Does Andrea consider her laptop her friend? Please reach out to her if you’re in Boston, to provide human interaction. Andrew Park sends in an unflattering photo of himself and Owen from spring break 2006, captioned, “How about this for class notes?” Scroll back far enough on Park’s Facebook photos to find it. Maxwell Parsons visited Emily Pollokoff in Syracuse and had dinner with her and her family (husband Elliott, children Hazel and Clara), which included sidewalk chalk drawings, s’mores, and some very special butter that Emily procured through her extensive local farming connections. Emily elaborates: “Late summer harvest preservation madness is in full swing.” After finishing a PhD degree in physics in May, Max backpacked in Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park and visited Han Cheng Lie ’04 in Berlin. Max then moved to Seattle to work as a research scientist at Oculus. He enjoys hiking with crossword champ Julian Jacobson and girlfriend Chelsea and lives across the street from Rajeev Saxena. Could this be the start of a Pease House reunification project? Speaking of Pease, Dan Bacon and Ben Levenback visited Paul Engelhardt and Carly Williams Engelhardt for the day in Napa. Cheesecake was served. Ben visited after taking the bar and before a trip through Asia. They drank wine and talked about ways to take over the world, “like any good ’06ers.” We look forward to our future subservience. Caroline Pires also stopped by the Engelhardts’ while in SF. They too drank wine, and Paul busted out the piano-playing skills he honed in Fuess. Carly later joined Emma King in wholesome Las Vegas for Emma’s bachelorette. Insiders report that
Mason Fried ’06 A Career on Ice
www.andover.edu/intouch
W
hen Mason Fried ’06 was a student at Andover, glaciology may have been the furthest thought from his mind. After playing lacrosse, football, and squash and studying piano at PA, Fried entered college intent on becoming a writer. But after taking an introductory geology class at Hamilton College, his curiosity was piqued, and Fried set his course toward a career studying massive chunks of ice. Today, Fried is working toward a PhD degree at the University of Texas at Austin. As a research assistant at UTA’s Institute for Geophysics, Fried works with a team of glaciologists and oceanographers to determine the role that oceans play in glacial melting, the effects of which range from rising sea levels to diminished drinking water. Explains Fried, “The majority of the world doesn’t have the resources to address the change.” Fried’s work addresses those concerns. Although most of his time is spent compiling results and recording trends, Fried and his team do fieldwork in Greenland once a year—always in summer, when the weather is most hospitable to their work. Reaching their destination isn’t simple: The team flies with the Air National Guard on C-130s to Kangerlussuaq, on the western coast of Greenland. There, they board small planes or helicopters for the trip to Uummannaq, an island town in northwest Greenland. The trip takes five days and covers more than 3,000 miles. According to Fried, “There are no real highways in Greenland, and most summer travel is accomplished on planes and helicopters.” Once in Greenland, the team stays for roughly one month, two weeks of which are spent installing weather stations, GPS systems to measure ice motion, and seismometers to measure glacier calving—the breaking away of ice from glaciers. Fried enjoys collaborating with other scientists who study geology and glaciology, as well as traveling to remote and beautiful parts of the world, such as the Ukrainian Vernadsky Research Base on the Antarctic Peninsula, which he visited as an undergraduate. The base is a former British station and famously features a lounge with a gorgeous handmade wooden bar dating back to the 1950s. The trip not only was productive but also gave Fried and his team the opportunity to engage with other geologists. “At the end of the day, we all made time for vodka and music at the bar.” Looking back on his days at PA, Fried recalls piano lessons with his music instructor, playing songs as they popped into their heads. He also has fond memories of starting the spring lacrosse season with snow still on the ground. Fried believes there are many routes to a career in science, and says his diverse studies at Andover helped shape his path. His advice to students interested in pursuing glaciology? “A career in science is certainly attainable, and there are many avenues to get there. … We need physicists and writers and people with big ideas.” —Elizabeth O’Brien Andover | Winter 2017
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