Mar/Apr 2001

Notice a familiar face on the "Today" show last summer? Perhaps you were one of the 30 million people watching Ruby Huang's television debut on Monday, August 21. Ruby was one of the people demonstrating urban rebounding, a new fitness program, with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. Also in New York City, Megan Clark is still at Calvin Klein, where she works as a public relations manager drumming up publicity for fashion shows and the women's collection. She visited Turkey with Josh Eisenberg '96, JD '00, and keeps in touch with Lynn Stravinski, Sarah Glovsky, Emily Mead, Todd Jacobson, Jenn Tishman '96, James Eisenberg '96, Elizabeth Guevara, and Maneli Garahan. Anne Gorham has also done some traveling. She's been to Brazil twice doing research for her master's in soil science, which she'll be collecting this spring.

Shirin Doratotaj (shirin@chickmail.com) is in her second year at Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia. April Bruning (april-bruning@yahoo.com) lives in Cambridge, MA, and works in Boston at Copley/Wolff Joint Venture Landscape Architects. Laura Goddard (lgoddard@ucdavis.edu) is in graduate school at U. of California, Davis studying entomology and coaching polo. She's seen Steve Lasher, MS I '98, Mary Beth Turell, Margaret Macris, and Dan Murray. In May, Kevin Wells (kevinwwells@yahoo.com) said he had been accepted into a dual master's program in International Relations and Korean Studies. He will spend his first year at American U. in Washington, DC, and his second year at Korea U. in Seoul. Chris Groppi started his fourth year in the PhD program in astronomy at the U. of Arizona, where he specializes in learning how stars and planets form. He observes microwave radiation emitted by molecules like carbon monoxide in star-forming gas clouds and designs radio receivers used to detect this information. Chris planned to spend one month at the South Pole this winter installing a radio receiver he helped build on a telescope. He notes Janice Lee '95, MA IN T '96, is a second-year student in the program. Anne-Marie Compton (ac23@dana.ucc.nau.edu) is also in Arizona, studying chemistry as a graduate student at Northern Arizona U.

On the East Coast, Gareth Davis (gadavis@mac.com) started working for the USDA's Plant Germplasm Quarantine Office in Beltsville, MD, in March 2000. The office handles a large portion of the plants coming into the country that go to germplasm storage centers; Gareth works on eliminating contamination (e.g., bacteria, viruses, fungi) so that the material can be released to the intended recipients. Carl Mittleman (mittleman-carl@aramark.com) has left the Mile High City and relocated to Pittsburgh where he is ARAMARK's general manager at PNC Park, the baseball park for the Pittsburgh Pirates slated to open in April 2001. Carl's bought a house and has begun to settle in. Jeremiah Grossman (jlg9@cornell.edu) has been working as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines for two years, and last year applied for a one-year contract extension through July 2001. Jeremiah is helping squatter farmers living in a national park by developing alternative livelihood projects that are more environmentally responsible and have higher potential than their traditional slash-and-burn farming. Jeremiah said he came home in July 1999 to see Aldora Wun and Jarek Hepel tie the knot. Tamarra Strawn (tls5@cornell.edu) was planning to work for Dillingham & Murphy in San Francisco last summer and looking forward to graduating from Cornell Law School this spring. Tamarra spent a summer at Cornell's Summer Institute of International and Comparative Law in Paris, and has kept up with Brad Marshall, Heather Sandford '98, Esra Acet, and Luke Shoberg.

After working two-and-a-half years in Washington, DC, Brian Yeh moved to San Francisco in April 2000 to work as a network engineer for Scient Corp., an Internet consulting firm. In September 2000, he and Josh Norek served as groomsmen at the wedding of Jay Venkatesan in Merced, CA. Mona Walls, a doll artist, has launched Monalala Dolly. She hopes to branch into children's clothing in the coming year. The company can be found at www.monalala.com.

Of course, this would not be a real Class of '97 column without some wedding news. Samara Friedman (samarafriedman@hotmail.com) and Dan Turinsky wed on Aug. 19, '00. Cornellians attending included Matt Hartman, Ray Wang, Pete Nguyen, Dan Davidson, Todd Peskin '95, MBA '97, Lenor Marquis '98, Meredith Chaiken '98, Joan Greenspan '64, and Ross Friedman '00. Dan graduated from George Washington Law School in May and planned to begin work at Sills Cummis, while Samara is finishing up medical school at Stony Brook and preparing for an orthopaedic surgery residency. Jason Eichenholz married Jennifer Rosner in Miami in July 2000. Jennifer planned to begin studying for a PhD in clinical psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson U., and Jason works as an e-commerce consultant with Siebel Systems. Heather (Ziegler) and Bryan Weitzel '99, who met on a Wilderness Reflections trip during orientation five years ago, got married on June 17, '00, in Indianapolis, IN. Jessica Adema, Hiro Kiguchi '99, and Doug Hill '99 were in the wedding party, and more than 20 Cornellians attended the event, including Rachel Kaufman, Natalie Sierra '98, and Brent Alspach '95, MS C '97. Heather (heather_weitzel@hotmail.com) is working on her PhD in biology at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon U., while Bryan works as a fluid systems engineer for Westinghouse. Elisa Kim and Trey Billings tied the knot Aug. 12, '00, at Sage Chapel. Classmates in the bridal party included Grace Kang, Terresa Ock, Geoffrey Moran, and Jonathan Luminati '98, ME E '99. Elisa likened the event to a mini-reunion and estimated at least 50 Cornellians got together for a photo at the reception behind the A. D. White House before the couple dashed off to honeymoon in the Finger Lakes.

In Washington, DC, Colin Cushing and Elizabeth Soto-Seelig got married on Oct. 1, '00. Cornellians attending the event included maid of honor Melissa Carey, Michelle Cirino, Peter Quinn, Peter Heissenbuttel, Dan DiPasquo, and Ben Krein. Elizabeth shared updates on everyone. Melissa is finishing her second year at the LBJ School of Public Policy at the U. of Texas, Austin, and will graduate in June. Michelle is still working for General Mills and was transferred to Toledo, OH. Peter Quinn moved from NYC to Colorado where he works for Great West Life. Pete Heissenbuttel lives in Connecticut and works for Priceline.com, while Dan is in Northern California working for IdeaLab.com. Ben graduated from George Washington U. Law School last year and is working for Katten, Muchin, and Zavis in DC.

Mira Sullivan, MS M '98, sent news from the Netherlands, where she was on temporary assignment for Cordis. Before she left, she attended I-sah Hsieh's wedding to Lindsay West in St. Helena, CA. Mira shared a long list of Cornellians who attended the wedding in wine country, including classmates Vera Kim, MS M '98, Cherilyn Nadal, Jill Dash, Jeff Tompkins, Grace Hsu, Kerstin Johnson Mukerji, MS Ag '98, Kevin Maskell '98, Ryan Nakagaw, and Phil Baugh '96, as well as Professor Scott Tucker. Finally, congratulations to Eric Saidel and wife Tahl (Ben-Yehuda) '92 who had a daughter, Eliana Dora Saidel, on Aug. 31, '00.

Please send news to--Erica Broennle, 425 N. First St. #1, Charlottesville, VA 22902; e-mail, ejb4@cornell.edu, or go online at www.classof97.cornell.edu.