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| JAN./FEB. 2004 VOLUME 106 NUMBER 4 | Class Notes |
2000 | 01 | 02 | 03
00 | What’s better than laughing your head off at a comedy show in New York City? Answer: Laughing your head off at a CORNELL comedy show in New York City! The Big Red Comedy Festival was held last October at the Kraine Theater in downtown Manhattan. It was organized by Alex Zalben ’99 and Monica Hill ’01. The highlight of the show was “Hot Shot City,” a group of Whistling Shrimp alumni. The group included: Linda Nicoll, who is a fourth-year student at Downstate Medical School;Wenmouth Williams ’01, who is working for a medical education company; John McGoey ’01, a Columbia Law School student; Paul Bomba ’01, who just started an independent film; Colin Murchie ’02, member of D.C.Wit, a Washington, DC, improv group; Kelley Burkett ’03, who is working for Americorps; and Jen Weinbaum ’03, a current Cornell student. The group hopes to get together more often and perform in the city. I hope so, too! You guys were hysterical!
It was also great to hear from Judy Seltzer, who wrote to us all the way from England. She is a fourth-year student at the Royal Veterinary College in London and is only a couple of months away from starting rotations. Unfortunately, the program is five years long, so she still has a year and a half to go before she joins us again. But she tells us that she is still loving it and having a great time in London. You’re almost there, Judy! We’re so proud of you! Although she is overseas, Judy has kept in touch with her friends in the States and has shared their news with us. Julia Spivack graduated from Fordham Law School and is now an associate at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP in NYC. Kate Dowling got her master’s in education from Boston U. this past May and is now working for The Home for Little Wanderers in Boston. Kate focused on special education and is currently teaching kids with emotional-behavioral disorders. Sarah Fogelman graduated from Columbia’s Teachers College and is teaching science at Hunter College High School in NYC. Another graduate, Brad Levang, finished Santa Clara Law School and is working at a small law firm in California. Beth Presutti now works at Wrigley doing product development. Shanna Green, JD ’03, graduated from Cornell Law School in May and is working for a law firm in NYC. M.Michael Cole graduated in May 2003 from Northwestern U. School of Law. He is clerking for the Hon. Kevin Thomas Duffy in the Southern District of New York.
As always, we have many weddings to announce. Elizabeth Martin got married on Oct. 25, ’03 to Alan Smith, at a beautiful ceremony in Albany, NY.Her maid of honor was Andrea Ludwig, and her bridesmaids included Sarah Fogelman and Jenan Abdunnur ’02. Elizabeth and Alan have just purchased a townhouse in Flemington, NJ, to begin their new life together.Amy Reback and Jeffrey Lopatin held a lavish wedding this past July at The Metropolitan Club in New York City. The wedding party included: Barbara Zerman Reback ’68, BArch ’69 (mother of the bride), Robert Reback ’69, PhD ’72 (father of the bride), Richard Lopatin, MD ’74 (father of the groom), Lorin Misita, Jacob Hegeman, Josh Kulkin,Michael Gretczko, and Matt Sanders ’87. The couple is currently working in Manhattan. Amy is a design coordinator for David Yurman, a jewelry company, and Jeffrey is a senior investment analyst for the hedge fund, Americus Capital Management LLC. There were over 20 Cornellians in attendance, including classmates Dan Goldburg and Barbara Demonarco.What an amazing turnout!
Our very own Betsy Stein wed Brian Kelder ’99. Among the more than 25 Cornellians at the wedding were classmates Melissa Bersofsky, Sarah Sherertz, Laura Little, Aaron Lustbader, Josh Naylor, Randy Morse, and Clay Reese. Congratulations, Betsy!
Finally, a big group of friends got together for Dave Feldstein’s 25th birthday at MOD on the Upper West Side. Classmates Evan Grossman, Rich Bruckner, Jason Pront, Becky Orlando, Linda Nicoll, Waina Cheng, Chad Nadler, Heather Braunstein, Julie Rodriguez, myself, and many other Cornellians and non-Cornellians were present.Not to mention, Julia Stiles! Yes, the one from Save the Last Dance and 10 Things I Hate About You! Dave Feuerman and Dave Feldstein were two of the lucky few to hang out with Julia that night. Dave Feuerman has been working at NBTY, a leading manufacturer of dietary supplements. As the company has risen proudly within the nutritional industry, Dave has risen as well, an ascent he owes to the fine preparation at Cornell and the Food Science dept. He is now responsible for the majority of new product formulation of tablets and capsules and has recently developed his first functional food—a no carb maple syrup for those on the Atkins diet. Dave lives in Manhattan and recently broke up with his girlfriend—ladies?
That’s all the news for now.We love hearing from you and we love writing for you! v Andrea M. Chan, andrea.chan@brooklaw.edu; Sarah Striffler, sjs34@cornell.edu.
01 | I hope your holiday season was filled with family, friends, fun, and lots of great food. The rush of squeezing everything into the holidays this year reminds me how wonderful those month-long winter breaks were back at Cornell. Alas, those days are over.We have all grown up (or at least we have to pretend we have) and those breaks are long gone. As we begin the new year, it is high time that we celebrate some long overdue news from our classmates. While many of us have concentrated on starting a career or moving along in graduate school, some of us have already begun families. It’s great to see how weddings and babies can bring friends back together.
Morgan Campbell ended his pursuit of a career in Hollywood to be with his now-wife Emily Gangemi, who is in her third year of a PhD in classics at Harvard U. Not long after, Morgan enrolled in Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, where he is studying to become a minister. The two wed in Winnetka, IL, in December 2002. The wedding party included Amira Abuzeid Aycock and Aiyin Chen ’02. There were a number of Cornellians in attendance, including Michelle Tonelli ’00, Jamie Aycock, Christopher Chiambalero ’00, Brian Elliott ’00, Nina Lee ’00, Michael Ikoma ’00, Monica Stump ’03, and Betty Sun. Betty couldn’t get enough of Cornell so she returned for a master’s in nutrition after working at her dietetic internship in Chicago for a year.
Elena Shibaeva works at Towers Perrin as a consultant in NYC. She lives in Hoboken, NJ, with Kristen Benedetto, who will graduate from law school at Rutgers this year. Erica Chatfield has just moved from Boston to Gaithersburg, MD, along with Joan Dejarden. “I am now working for the DoD doing DNA analysis in a forensic lab, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab. Joan is a real estate analyst for Costar, doing hotel development.”
Jamie and Amira Aycock have been busy with their already nuclear family. Amira has the rewarding (and exhausting) job of keeping up with their sons Benjamin Lewis Aycock, born Sept. 19, and their firstborn son Noah, who is just 16 months older. The couple returned to Cambridge, MA, for Jamie’s second year at Harvard Law School after taking a year break in Miami, FL. Benjamin’s birth gave even greater occasion for Trina Lee’s second annual fall pilgrimage to Boston. She is now working in Salem, OR, as the executive director of Oregon DECA, an association of high school marketing students.
Josh Goodman was recently promoted to a consultant at Accenture, where he has been working since graduation. For nearly two years he has been helping his client, AT&T, grow its local phone service business.He is now managing a group of analysts at the project, and his efforts have enabled AT&T to gain a presence in almost all 50 states. He has spent some time traveling, visiting places such as Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Brazil, Argentina, and Costa Rica, and wishes to return to London next summer. He is currently living in NYC with fellow alums Dave Feuerman ’00 and Alan Noah, and on reading this magazine’s previous issue, was humored to learn of his alleged lifestyle. It seems he and Dave have been punk’d by some unidentified prankster who may have been attempting new material for a yet-to-be-realized fulfilling career in entertainment. It should be noted that this hoax has already been pulled; just ask any faithful viewer of “Friends” or “Seinfeld.”Apparently, creativity never blessed the author of last issue’s comedy . . . not that there’s anything wrong with that. Hats off to you, prankster!
Do you have any news to share about yourself or any fellow classmates? Let us know! Email us at classof2001@cornell.edu. v Jamie Aycock, jaycock@law.harvard.edu; Itai Dinour, id22@cornell.edu; Lauren Wallach, LEW15@ cornell.edu.
02 | n02The holidays bring some brief news from members of the Class of ’02. Annette Grew was recently back at Cornell with Aramark, recruiting at the career fair, and met up with many of our classmates over the weekend. She writes that it was great to see so many people back at Cornell representing their companies. She has been working with Aramark Uniform Services in Boston since January and recently joined the sales team. She had an active summer with the Wheelworks Triathlon team in Boston, competing in eight triathlons in Maine and Nantucket and all around the Boston area. Last fall she was to be rowing in the Head of the Charles Regatta in the Cornell Alumni boat with Alex Bisset, Cheryl Engelhardt, and some other older alumni.
Ruthie Levy writes that she is back from the Middle East and stationed at Fort Stewart near Savannah, GA. Her return to the States hasn’t meant a break in her busy schedule, but she hoped to make it to Homecoming this fall. Finally, Lisa Dorfman writes that she is attending Columbia U. School of Law this fall.
We’ve been lean on notes for the last couple of issues and would love to hear what you’re all up to. It’s always great to read what interesting things our classmates are doing. If you haven’t already done so, please send in News with your class dues. Best wishes for the holidays! v Elizabeth Richards, elizabethlauren_richards@yahoo.com.
03 | As we look forward to the coming year, it’s easy to forget some of the events of the recent past. The first day of classes, Columbus Day, Homecoming, Halloween, and Veterans Day have all come and gone. It is strange to think about what we were doing at this time a year ago, and many of us find that the memory of Cornell is still fresh in our minds. Through the correspondence between classmates I have found that our experiences together have laid a great foundation of friendship and camaraderie. Thank you all for writing and sharing your newest adventures!
Peter Penev writes happily from sunny California. He is working in San Francisco for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in the business development and research department. He reports that Deja Goldstein is “working hard at a spa” and encourages classmates to come and visit. Matt Haistings recently moved west after graduating from a six-month Army Transportation Corps training program at Fort Eustis, VA. His new post is Fort Carson, located adjacent to Colorado Springs, CO. Zach Conine has gotten himself far away from Coxsackie, NY, and is living it up as a restaurant manager in Nevada.
Congratulations to Blair Penske! She and Brandon Hall ’01 were married in July at the Bountiful Temple in Bountiful, UT. Blair is currently a host at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City, while Brandon works as an account executive in Salt Lake City for My ePHIT. On the East Coast, Gillian Boyd is attending medical school at Thomas Jefferson U. in Philadelphia. Tom Struble and Adrian Korduba continue to work hard down south at the Navy’s Charleston, SC, Nuclear Power School, and I remain captivated by my naval experience aboard the USS Ross, where there is so much about my job to learn, and every day is something different. Best wishes to you all. Continue to keep in touch! v Samantha Buckingham, sam_buckingham@hotmail.com; Sudha Nandagopal, sn58@cornell.edu.