on the year. I have been selected to be a Navy pilot and will report to Pensacola, Fla. in September to begin flight school training.”
s Dan Elchert is a senior at St. Olaf College. He recently participated in a study-abroad program called Global Studies, in which two dozen St. Olaf students traveled to Switzerland, Turkey, Egypt, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and South Korea. Saijen Weihe is working on her Bachelor’s in music in vocal performance at the University of Minnesota and singing with various choral groups and chamber ensembles around the Twin Cities metropolitan area. “I also recently got a pet dove!” Saijen reports. After a summer in Beijing serendipitously spent with Ashlee Fukushi ’09, Nick Rosenbaum is heading into his seventh month living in Taipei, Taiwan, “ostensibly taking a year off to study Chinese, but really just eating too much good food and making friends from halfway across the world,” Nick says. Next year he’ll return to yale for his senior year. Mark Battles will graduate from George Washington University in the spring with a B.S. in biology. He plans a year off to work and then applying to veterinary schools.
Catherine Clark is a senior at Princeton University. During her time at Princeton, she has traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, to study the Vietnam-American War; to St. Petersburg, Russia, to study avant-garde art; and to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to present a proof-of-concept satellite design with one of her classes. She is currently working on designing and building a smallscale, on-site recycling machine for polystyrene cups. Reshad Amini transferred from St. Olaf College to the University of Washington-Seattle.
Elise Butler served on the National High School Institute (NHSI) staff at Northwestern University over the summer of 2010. The National High School Institute is a prestigious program where students of print, online, and broadcast journalism study with expert instructors. Elise is currently attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern and is an alumnae of the NHSI, which she attended the summer before her senior year at SPA.
2009 cLASS AGenTS:
s Ali Hussain is the winner of a 2010 Marshall Scholarship, one of 40 Americans chosen for two years of graduate study in England. Hussain will study for an M.Phil. in politics at Oxford University beginning in September, 2011. Hussain also received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship in recognition of his academic achievements, leadership, and commitment to a career in public service. Ali is a senior at Cornell University, where he is majoring in government.
2008 cLASS AGenTS:
Jessie Garretson jesspiperg@gmail.com Nolan Filter lilbddh@yahoo.com Vanessa Levy vanessalevy1@yahoo.com
Colin Cowles colin.cowles@gmail.com Grace Ferrara gferrara@pugetsound.edu Atsuko Fukushi fuku0035@umn.edu Andrew Magne amagne@usc.edu Elizabeth Moertel emoerte@emory.edu Alexander Van Orsow, who attends the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is the recipient of an Undergraduate Achievement Award for excellence in German coursework at the intermediate level. Alex’s award came with a $200 cash prize.
2010 The Class of 2010 is looking for class agents! Please contact alumni@spa.edu or call 651-696-1366 to learn more.
s On February 27, 2011, Annie Hart (pictured above, second from right) completed her first collegiate cross country ski season for Dartmouth College. Annie was named female “Rookie of the year” by the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA), and was also named to the EISA All East Women’s Team. Highlights of Annie’s season included 3rd and 5th place finishes in the women’s 15K classic mass start events at the Dartmouth Carnival and EISA Championships, respectively. Annie’s pink hair is a tradition for freshman on the women’s ski team in connection with the Dartmouth Carnival. An Open House in memory of Frances Welke was held in December, 2010. Dozens of recent alumni/ae, current students, and current and former parents gathered at SPA to make catbeds for donation to the Humane Society where Frances volunteered. Frances’ mother Barbara, father William, and brother Wilder Welke ’08 expressed the following thanks to the community: Thank you to SPA and to the many who were able to join us for the Open House in memory of Frances on December 28. We made 130 bright, soft, polar-fleece cat beds to donate to the St. Paul Animal Humane Society. The event meant a great deal to our family. Frances loved SPA and had a deep commitment to the work of the Animal Humane Society where she was a volunteer. Thank you—the Welkes.
spring 2011 | SPA
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