Jul/Aug 1999

Members of the Class of '97 have been very busy lately, so I'll delve right into the news. Madhuri Putta (rimap@pcom.edu), a student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine after spending a year with Americorps in Washington, DC, shared a lot of news. Madhuri has seen Karen A. Szczepanski '96, and ran into Ntiedo Etuk, a Dickson hallmate, at International Spirit of Zinck's Night in Philly. Ravi Ghanta took a year off from Harvard's medical school to do ophthalmology research at MIT. Madhuri was on the look-out for Sharmila L. Murthy.

David Hollman (dhollm@sapeint.com) moved back to New York City from Boston last fall, and would recommend the move to anyone. After doing research in a lab at Children's Hospital, Robert Andler (RHA9T@virginia.edu) also left Boston and is completing his first year at the U. of Virginia medical school. Meanwhile, Kristie L. Johnson moved to Boston and is enjoying her work with a service/consulting firm called Work/Family Directions, though she still misses bartending at Rulloff's. Melissa Martinchick (martinchick@juno.com) moved to Somerville, MA, and was working for a vet clinic and living with Margaret A. Safford. She reported that she was maid of honor at the October 1998 wedding of Amy Schafer '96 and Chris Erickson '96, MS Ag '97. Outside Boston, A. Bobby Nandi (abn@wpi.edu) continued work on a master's in biomedical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Inst.

In Ithaca, Heather S. Adivari (hsa2@cornell.edu) is continuing her studies and, when she wrote, was looking forward to work as a summer associate with Battle Fowler, LLP, a full-service law firm based in NYC. She spent last summer in Paris taking law classes at the Sorbonne, and in the fall she caught up with Leda A. Anastasiades, Ed Miranda, and Steve Dewey at the Cornell-Princeton game. In Palm Beach, Kirsten P. Knipp has transitioned to convention services manager at the five-star resort The Breakers. Kirsten recently caught up with several alumni, among them, Phil Miller '83 and Christina Staalstrom '95, at the second annual Cornell Hotel School Winemakers' Dinner, which featured John Mariani '54 of Banfi Vintners. In October, Dolores G. Perera (naluma@aol.com) wrote that she was completing her last year in the creative writing/poetry MFA program at the U. of Miami.

Nicolas Béliard is a reservations manager at The Pierre in New York. Megan E. Clark (meganc@ck.com) was living with Sarah E. Glovsky and working at Calvin Klein in the public relations department. She's spent time with her parents, Tom Clark '63, MBA '64, and Nancy Williams Clark '62, M Ed '64, at their inn in Old Chatham, NY, and has seen the following folks: Lynn M. Stravinski, Emily W. Mead, Terence Kane O'Neill, Maneli Khodai, Amy C. Barbato, Elizabeth A. Guevara, as well as Meredith Clark Shachoy '91 and Greg Clark '88, BS Ag '89. Maneli (maneli_khodai@yr.com) wrote that she is working at Young & Rubicam, an advertising agency in NYC. Seth Perretta is a law student at New York U.

Sunny Kim (kimsu@umdnj.edu) is looking forward to a career in medicine as he continues his studies at U. of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Samara Friedman (sfried01@epo.hsc.sunysb.edu) is continuing medical school at SUNY, Stony Brook and has visited Dan Turinsky, a second-year law student at George Washington U. Adrian E. Gall (agall@cheerful.com) has adopted a nomadic lifestyle while completing ornithology field research and has spent time in Europe, Midway Atoll, Washington, Alaska, and Baja California. Adrian caught up with William Dana Hooper, MS C '98, and E. K. "Katie" Granger '98.

After graduation, Adam Berg (adam_berg@landon.net) worked with juvenile adjudicated youth, taking them on backpacking expeditions. Adam started the 1998-99 school year as a sixth-grade science teacher outside Washington, DC, and continues to keep in touch with Adam Stumacher and Elysa L. Christy. Also in DC after backpacking through 21 countries in Europe, concert-goer Colin Cushing (ccushing@hotmail.com) is an economist with Economic Analysis Group Inc., and has kept in touch with Peter J. Quinn, Ben Krein, Elizabeth Soto-Seelig, Ally Brown, Laura B. Steigerwalt, Melissa Carey, and Jean K. Waldbieser. Brad Aldinger earned an MEng in civil engineering from Virginia Tech and is now a consulting geotechnical engineer with Silver Spring, MD-based Haley and Aldrich Inc. Sean Holt left his job with Goldman Sachs & Co. for an exciting position with Emerging Markets Partnerhsip, a private equity firm in DC specializing in global emerging markets infrastructure development.

Rebecca A. Ratner, employee relations counselor, and Charles "Jamie" Papp, slot operations manager, are working at Bellagio casino and resort, and have seen several Hotelies, including Audrey E. Wong and Garrick Smith. In the Midwest, Anthony Cotroneo (anthonycotroneo@hotmail.com) lives in Chicago and works for Kraft Foods.

Some of our more creative counterparts have accomplished some interesting things. Elizabeth J. Fichtner (ejfichtn@unity.ncsu.net) started a Tae Kwon Do school in the World Tae Kwon Do Assn. while a grad student at North Carolina State. She's seen Christine K. Wood, Sean Burrows, and Lori J. Unruh '96, MS Ag '98. Mark Longo (godman99@hotmail.com) left his job with Archelon LLC in October and founded his own derivatives trading firm with several former colleagues. Mark says "nothing beats working for yourself," and encourages anyone with interest to contact him. Another entrepreneur, Brian Procida (procida@alltel.net), moved from Long Island to Georgia, where he continues to build his business, which involves gathering discounted carpet information from manufacturers and selling it to flooring dealers on the Internet. Brian notes that Adam Schomer is doing well, and encourages classmates to send feedback on his website, www.thefloorspace.com. "Carpet diem!"

Here are some e-mail addresses and locations for classmates: Jess Melanson, Washington, DC, (jessmelanson@mailexcite.com); Adam Simon, NYC (adam_simon@nera.com); Paul Lucas "Luke" Shoberg, Richmond, CA, (luke@onyx-pharm.com); Annie Scorza, Washington, DC, (ascorza@air-dc.org); Alison L. Schajer, Bellmore, NY, (ASchajer@aol.com); Sarah Lok, Los Angeles, CA, (sarlock97@gte.net); Laura M. Kozuh, Brighton, MA, (lkozuh@ibm.net); Miessha N. Thomas, Decatur, GA, (mnthomas@law.emory.edu); Amy S. Hsu, Rowland Heights, CA, (ahsu.2001@scco.edu); Jasmina Burdzovic (burdzovic@brandeis.edu); Susan Colvert (susan_colvert@merck.com); Tom Damratoski (Tom_Damratoski@merck.com); Daniel Fischer (djf6@cornell.edu); Manisha Gupta (dmd2b@hotmail.com).

Finally, Adam Berliner (arb4@cornell.edu), a med student at Johns Hopkins, writes, "I love listening to the chimes over the Web. Brings back so many great times." Another neat feature of the Cornell website (www.cornell.edu) is the virtual campus tour, which has a lot of fodder for wallpaper for your monitor at work! Check for regional updates on the Class of '97 website (www.classof97.com), and sign up for FREE e-mail forwarding from your Cornell e-mail address.

Keep the news coming; all updates are welcome. Check our website for updates on regional events; we hope many of you attended Slope Day celebrations at cities throughout the country!--Erica Broennle, 1678 N. 21st St., #1, Arlington, VA, 22209; e-mail, ejb4@cornell.edu.; www.cornell.classof97.edu.