Jan/Feb 2001

It's hard to imagine we're about a year and a half away from our first reunion. Over the next 18 months, your alumni class officers will be working behind the scenes, putting your class dues to work to ensure Reunion goes off without a hitch. All you need to do is show up. Meanwhile, keep reading our Class Notes to get the latest on who's doing what.

Neal Rubin (nrubin@carlson.com) moved to Taos, NM, last year. Neal serves as vice president of development and operations for Carlson Vacation Ownership, a division of Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, and works with Amy Belanger Isom '88, MBA '89. He's played golf with Nabil Moubayed, MMH '97, general manager for Wyndham Garden Hotels in Chicago, and met up with Deanna Quan, MMH '96, at Carlson Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN. This past summer, Sara Kaminski (sara_kaminski@mastercard.com) said she was joining the e-service team at MasterCard International in St. Louis and taking art classes at St. Louis Community College. Sara sees Jon Richard '96 on a regular basis and reported that Sarah (Ball) and Jake Hooper '98 stopped for a visit on their way to Jackson, WY. Last January, David Hollman (dhollm@sapient.com) drove from New York to California and back again, visiting 20 states during a 30-day vacation.

I'm still trying to catch up on Class of '97 wedding news. Frank Noschese, MAT '98 (fpn1@cornell.edu) and a number of other Cornellians attended the wedding of Madonna Nakamura '98 and Seth Fischbein in Cincinnati, OH, in June 2000. Jay Mueller '99, MA IN T '00, served as Madonna's "Man" of Honor. Others attending included Jeff Jakubek, Carrie Wood '99, Alicia Pattison '00, Addie Tyler '98, Kellie Gauvin '98, Quinn Caldwell '99, and Justin Canada (started at Cornell, transferred to UNH). Frank continues to teach physics and astronomy in Katonah, NY, and notes that Jay Mueller was planning to begin teaching chemistry at the same school. Frank also reports he attended an astronomy teachers conference in Pasadena, CA, where he met Bill Nye '77, the Science Guy.Meanwhile, Shelly Tyler (tyhill2@aol.com) said she joined a few alumni in Buffalo, NY, for the January 2000 wedding of Melissa Silver and Mark Zittel '95. Nancy Liu, MAT '98 (nanliu@maryknollhs.org) and Dwight Schuster, GR '97-98, got married on July 8, '00, in Hawaii where both Nancy and Dwight work as science teachers at local private schools.

After graduating from Fordham U. law school last May, Melissa LaRocca planned to work at Chadbourne and Parke in New York City. Mark Klempner (mtk2@cornell.edu) received a master's in folklore from the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as of July was working full-time on his book about Dutch citizens who rescued Jews during World War II. Scott Beicke (sbeicke@gsbpop.uchicago.edu) said he was enrolled in the MBA program at the U. of Chicago. After spending a year in India conducting research on the Self-Employed Women's Association's rural microfinance program as a Fulbright Scholar, Sharmila Murthy (sharmilamurthy@hotmail.com) enrolled in a joint JD/masters of public policy program at Harvard law school and the Kennedy School of Government.

Nicole Alexander (nealexander@excite.com) finished her third year at Upstate Medical U. in NY. After working as a paramedic for Rural/Metro Syracuse for two years, Kate Hagendorn (kateh@swns.net) was planning to start the post-baccalaureate, pre-medical program at Bryn Mawr College. Kate reports that Jen Bishop '96 is back hard at work on her degree. Last spring Sunny Kim (kimsu@umdnj.edu) was "doing great" during her third year of med school at the U. of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and has seen Milind Parikh, Simon Cheng, Valerie Novellano, Ythan Goldberg, and Alex Ho '96. Erwin Lin wrapped up his third year of medical school at Syracuse. Catherine Vuong (cv10@cornell.edu), who is working on a master's in nutrition at NYU, reported in March that Castadera McGee was a member of the Silicon Valley Poetry slam team--one of the top four teams in the finals at the slam competition in Chicago. Catherine, Christy Veeder, and Daryl Erik Lucas '99 went to see him perform at the Nuyorican Café in NYC last year. Catherine lived in Taiwan for a year and traveled around South Asia; she's seen Migi Matthews '96, Amitha Reddy '98, and Suzanne Bourguignon (suzybourguignon@hotmail.com), who was also in Taiwan. Suzanne planned to start a city and regional planning graduate program at UC-Berkeley this fall. Abby Wheeler (aiwheeler@hotmail.com) wrote that she worked as a designer in Sydney, Australia, Washington, DC, and Miami, FL, before relocating to Seattle, WA. Deborah Smith (babyd-97@hotmail.com) traveled to Boston and Chicago and attended a Comdex conference in Las Vegas with Chris Ho '98 and Geoff Hoffman.

Jonathan Frazier (jaf@mindspring.com) got his "wings of gold" from the Navy in September 1999 with orders to fly F/A-18 Hornets in Oceana, VA. Jonathan said his training included dropping bombs in Southern California, flying 400 miles per hour in canyons in Washington, and landing on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic. He's seen Andy Fox '95, stationed in Norfolk, VA, and Chris Rakov '96, ME C '97, in Kingsville, TX. After finishing med school at Penn State's Hershey campus, Drew Keister said this spring that he hoped to move with his girlfriend to Florida to complete their residencies in family practice through the military. Carl Keske (keskec@hq.44sigbn.army.mil) finished nearly six months of company command in the army and became the battalion adjutant. He spent Thanksgiving of 1999 skiing in Austria, celebrated his 25th birthday at Oktoberfest, and rang in the millennium in the Arctic Circle. Matt Glenn (mmg1@cornell.edu) has been flying P-3 Orions with the US Navy. In July, he was on deployment in Puerto Rico with Patrol Squadron Five, the "Mad Foxes," on a counter-narcotics mission. Matt, who is permanently stationed in Jacksonville, FL, has seen Jeff Baskin, who was working as a television weatherman in New Orleans, LA. Last January, Matt Willer (NavyFO@aol.com) returned to Jacksonville, FL, where he is stationed as a P-3 naval flight officer after a six-month deployment in Sigonella, Sicily.

After working for a mixed animal veterinarian and doing some research at Cornell, Toby Emo (temo@upei.ca) finished his first year at U. of Prince Edward Island Atlantic Veterinary College. Last February Lynn Stravinski (lynn.stravinski@mssm.edu) was finishing a master's degree in clinical psychology at Columbia and doing breast cancer prevention research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine; she hoped to enroll in a PhD program in clinical psychology. Kathy Rodriguez (krodriguez@greatermiami.org) has helped establish the Pi Gamma alumni chapter of Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad, Lambda Pi Chi Sorority Inc., a Latino sorority established at Cornell in 1988. Kathy did some community development in Puerto Rico and was working as a project coordinator for a non-profit affordable housing development company. She's kept in touch with Heather Hill, in medical school at U. of Illinois, Kathy Rivera, at Bronx Medical School, and Kevin Williams, who was working for an insurance company in NYC. Bayan Takizawa (btt2@cornell.edu) was finishing up his third year at Yale medical school last spring.

It's great to hear from you, please continue to send in your news!--Erica Broennle, 425 N. First St., #1, Charlottesville, VA 22902; e-mail, ejb4@cornell.edu. Class website: www.classof97.cornell.edu.