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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

CLASS NOTES

Our daughter, Lily, is now three and attending preschool. She is an amazing big sister to Miles. Jon continues to enjoy his work at Lake Tahoe School as the PE teacher and athletic director, most recently coaching the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams. I am enjoying my leave from work, but will return in early winter to Truckee Surgery Center, where I am the director and also an operating room nurse.” Molly Betzhold Kusek and her husband, Chris, welcomed a daughter, Savannah Hassana Kusek, on November 11, 2012. Molly reports that all three of them are doing great. Liz Moran Hamel and her husband, Shane, welcomed a baby boy this summer. Holden James arrived on August 11, 2012. Liz writes, ‘He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces and is doing great. Big brother Cooper is also doing very well in his new role.’ Caitlin Hadley Unger and Jeremy Unger ’02 had a second baby girl, Madeline, born in Boston in April 2012. Their older daughter, Sophia, is two and a half and seems to love her new job as a big sister. Tiffany Hayes Romaniello and her husband, Jerry, added a second girl to their family. Piper Mair Romaniello was born on September 9, 2012 at 1:39 p.m. Tiffany shares, “We are overjoyed with love.” Our former class secretary Cara Murphy Linehan shares that she and husband, Tom, welcomed a baby boy into the world this past summer. Emerson Gates Esch was born on August 27, 2012. Elena McSherry has been busy attending veterinary school at Purdue University in Indiana; she looks forward to graduating in spring 2016. Brad Ross and Karen Chicoine Ross ’02 welcomed son Jackson Owen on January 25, 2013, at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. He’s growing and healthy and his hair is ridiculous. Congratulations to Molly Betzhold Kusek and her husband, Chris, on the birth of their daughter, Savannah, in November 2012. Christopher Pepe reported that he and his wife welcomed a son, Forest Alexander, on March 8, 2013. They are living in the Pacific Northwest. His company, Praecipio Consulting, based in Austin, Texas, is a fast-growing IT company focused on process optimization. In addition, they opened in.gredients, a package-free,

zero-waste grocery store this year. On the baby-news wagon, Jill Russo Ruane let me know that she and her husband, Jay, are expecting baby number three in September. I know that siblings Julianna and Robert will love the new addition to the Ruane family. Aron Stephens Goffin wrote in with lots of news. She married Josh Goffin in August 2012, and of course Aron made sure to bring a touch of Vermont to the wedding. They had small maple leaf glass bottles filled with Vermont maple syrup as favors. She has been in southeast Portland, Oregon, for ten years and is a student rotation coordinator at Multnomah County Health Department. She is also an active member of her neighborhood association. And very exciting, Aron and Josh are expecting their first child in October. Congratulations! Finally, I want to thank Cara Linehan Esch for keeping us all up-to-date on the latest and greatest from the class of 2003 over the last few years. Good luck with adorable Gates and your growing business, Cara. I look forward to catching up with you all in October at reunion. Send your news to— Korinne Moore korinne.d.moore@gmail.com

Sarah Glawe Casanovas reports that “This past year was a great one for me. I married my love, Joe Casanovas, in September outside of Chicago, Illinois. UVMers Marisa Muldowney ’02 and Claire Benjamin were in attendance. I also was promoted to product manager for Contigo beverage ware’s international and kid’s product lines.” Anya Gushchin, an MMG and chemistry major at UVM, received an M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009 and will finish an ophthalmology residency at UPMC this year before moving to the West Coast to start an oculoplastics and orbital fellowship at Stanford University in July. Since going to Cuba as part of a UVM course, Anya has been involved in several other medical missions abroad. She spent time providing eye care in Nepal, India, and Honduras and recently returned to Honduras where a team saw two hundred patients and provided sixty surgeries free of cost in five days. In the

future, she plans to continue working in international ophthalmology by doing skills transfer missions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She is actively involved in work with the Himalayan Cataract Project (www. cureblindness.org) and Eye Missions for Developing Countries and www. yotogo.org. It’s certainly been a busy year for a couple of roommates who have remained best friends. Emily (King) Carr and Jaime (Rubin) Cahill are living in Boston, just a few blocks from each other. Emily married Jared Carr in Charleston in April, with many UVMers in attendance. Jaime was married in southern Vermont this summer to Kyle Cahill and also had many UVMers there for the celebration. Lauren Giese lives in the Philadelphia area and earned her CPA license this year. Brierley (Wright) Horton lives in South Burlington and welcomed a baby girl, Holland Horton, this summer. She gets a lot of love from her UVM aunts. Send your news to— Kelly Kisiday 39 Shepherd Street, #22 Brighton, MA 02135 kellykisiday@hotmail.com

Jaclynne Parsons Rush married Phillip Rush on September 22, 2012, on Long Beach Island in Beach Haven, New Jersey. A fun and unforgettable evening was enjoyed by all. In attendance were Amy (Hughes) Creaven, Brian Anderson, and Gary Paul ’04, as well as many of the founding members of the UVM Hit Paws a cappella group, who reunited for a performance of “Higher and Higher” during the reception. Send your news to— Kristin Dobbs Apt. 333 5415 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington, DC 20015 kristin.dobbs@gmail.com

VQEXTRA online

NILIMIA ABRAMS ’06 “It was hard to believe that these happy and healthy kids had picked rags, begged to prevent beatings, or collected hair to sell for wigs. I had visited many schools and orphanages, but never seen such a contrast between the kids’ previous and current realities and personalities.” —Nilima Abrams on the students at the Children’s Project Trust School in India. Abrams is currently at work on a documentary film about the school’s family-based educational approach.

Graham Ollard is an agronomist with a Yakima, Washington, agricultural consulting company that works in a large variety of crops, including hops. The Yakima Valley produces nearly eighty percent of the U.S. crop, and when the company was contacted by UVM extension agent Heather Darby for information on growing hops, one thing led to another and Graham