Mar/Apr 2003

Since much of the news of our class seems to be weddings, weddings, and more weddings, I am starting with non-wedding news. Please keep us posted of career changes, graduations, and other life events, too. Your fellow classmates always enjoy hearing a variety of interesting facts and tidbits!

Several of our classmates have moved from the academic world to the "real world" upon recent graduation. Suzann Gallagher (sgallag4@hotmail.com) graduated from the U. of Notre Dame in the winter of 2001 and now lives in the Washington, DC, area while working for the FEMA Office of National Preparedness. Angie Datta (adatta@nyc.rr.com) updated your class correspondents with the fact that she graduated from the master's program in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard U. While working as the executive director of Street Wise Partners, a nonprofit that trains and mentors low-income adults, she has managed to see Jill Akst Sheflin, Stephanie Shaps, Heather Markovitz, Heather Brill, and Melissa Silver Zittel.

Anjana Samant (a_samant@yahoo.com) finished law school at New York U. and is currently completing her clerkship with a judge in Santa Fe. We recently got one of those handy Class of 1997 update cards from Bill Schwab. Bill was married in 2000 and is doing his urology residency at the U. of Pennsylvania, where he graduated from medical school in 2001. Richard Baecher (RBAECHER@fordham.edu) began his MBA at Fordham U. in their Finance and Information Systems Management program, while Katherine Hagendorn (katiefh@hotmail.com) is in her second year of medical school at SUNY Downstate. Claudia Sherine Arafat (reenie7@aol.com) completed her master's in Social Work at New York U. in 1999 and has been spending her summers vacationing to Croatia, Italy, Las Vegas, and Puerto Rico. She has kept in touch with Gwen Bernacki '98, Angela Cho, and Ilana Graf.

Other extremely busy classmates include current class officer Ken Olsen (bluewaterk@go.com). Ken recently purchased a house on the water on Long Island, as well as flood insurance--luckily, before he got flooded. He managed to look on the bright side of things and added, "I am now officially broke, but at least I don't have to live with Mom and Dad." Melissa Pinto Heller has been taking advantage of her vacation time to meet up with Renee Knoll '96 at Disney World. She also took a motorcycle trip up the East Coast from her home in Florida en route to the Laconia Bike Week festival in Laconia, NH. Deborah Smith (babyd_97@hotmail.com) has kept busy with a complete career change into the field of aesthetics. She is now working as a receptionist/hostess in an upscale day spa and may supplement her Cornell education with a certificate in aesthetics and skincare.

As promised, here is the much-requested wedding information on your fellow classmates. Congratulations and best wishes to all! Charles Spaziani (cspazdog@cs.com) married Amy Hutton '99 in March 2002 with a plethora of Cornellians in attendance--so many that we can't fit them all in this column. Those present included groomsman Dean Pourakis, Paul Guillet, Beth Manchester Czajkowski, Emily Peck, Jason Garlock, and Rob Halpin. Other classmates attending were Blair Jenness, Matt Kirouac, Matt Mariani, Jeremy Mason, Kevin Nihill, Matt Organ, G. James Papa '96, and Ryan Zimmerman.

Also tying the knot in 2002 was Seth Guikema (guikema@stanford.edu). Seth married Janice Wynn '98 last August in California. Classmates participating in the happy occasion were bridesmaid Julie Newman Woodruff, MS M '98, groomsman Aaron Stump, Brian Ayres, Ken Coppola, ME I '98, Joseph Fick, and Tobin Woodruff. Seth and Janice are both currently completing PhDs at Stanford. Jason Matyas (jason.matyas@cornell.edu), who is currently a captain in the US Air Force and a KC-10 Aircraft Commander, married Shannon Kintner this past July in the Poconos. Jon Luminati '98, ME M '99, served as best man and Gil Besana was groomsman. Jason returned the favor by serving as Jon's best man later that month and as groomsman at Gil's wedding in August. As of his update, Jason was flying combat air refueling missions over Afghanistan and serving as Chief of Mobility for his squadron.

Michael Buff and Kate McAdoo '98 married in October of 2002 in Massachusetts. Mike is currently a second year resident in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where Kate is a designer at Gensler. Classmates at the wedding included best man Stephen Dewey, Mike Van Brunt, MS Ag '01, Ed Miranda, MD '01, Eva Chiamulera, MA '00, and Kermit Dewey '63, MD '67. Kathryn Dodge married Jay Canzonier, also in October of 2002, in Belleville, NY. The couple honeymooned in Bar Harbor, ME. Phyllis Staub (phstaub@yahoo.com) reported on her marriage to classmate Dan Wallitt that took place in September. Several classmates participated in the occasion, including maid of honor Pam Roodin, groomsmen Dan Freyman and Jason Horwitz, MS M '98, and guests Gray Pearson, Harley Dresner, Katie Roberts, Jami Gorman Schultz, Randy Schwartz, Mike Matays, and Marisa Waldman. Phyllis recently completed a clerkship with a federal district judge in Manhattan and is working as an associate at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, while Dan is working as an associate at Seneca Financial Group after graduating from Columbia Business School.

If you did not see your news here, please check back next month. There was plenty of news, but not enough space to tell it all!--Sarah Deardorff Carter, sjd5@cornell.edu; and Erica Broennle Nelson, ejb4@cornell.edu.