April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
uncle and friends who went to
Williams.
I think that covers the news
from our class for now, and I
look forward to hearing from
you again soon!
2009
Mijon Zulu
377 East 33rd St., Apt. 8H
New York, NY 10016
2009secretary@williams.edu
A friend of mine recently said,
“Oh my God. There is a TV
on my phone. I am living in the
future.” Guess what? He was
right. Most futuristic films from
our childhood had ultra thin
screens and videophones. Now
that this is quickly becoming
the norm, one has to wonder,
“What is next?” If we are in
the future, I can’t help but feel
that we are at the end of an era.
Currencies are crazy, the Arabs
have sprung, Congress is trying
to police the Internet, publishing
is being redefined, etc. What
lies ahead is, put simply, quite
uncertain. However, I still see
people continuing to invest in
new ideas, their education, their
careers and, most importantly,
their family. Thus even in the
future, we must not forget
where we come from and who
was there. So why are we
checking in? We check in just
because.
Because they build bridges
for tomorrow’s innovation and
have to deal with everyone’s
children, I begin with our
educators.
Jim Lowe, in Shiprock, N.M.,
left the classroom and now
advises the Bureau of Indian
Education on secondary science
and math for Shiprock High
School. In North Philly, Rashid
Duroseau is transforming a
historically low-performing
school’s culture to increase
performance and is teaching
seventh-grade social studies.
Mary Wilson Molen in
Wetumpka, Ala., which is near
the shooting locations of films
such as The Grass Harp and Big
Fish, is teaching seventh-grade
social studies at Wetumpka
Middle School. And, in Boone,
N.C., Elissa Brown is finishing
up her first year teaching in the
classroom at an expeditionary
learning public charter school.
Next, because they are learning
what we need to learn
tomorrow, we turn to the
increasingly more educated.
At the University of Wisconsin
108 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
at Madison, Sara Riskind will
finish her MA in choral conducting,
while, at the University
of Idaho, Emily Olsen has
finished an MS in the natural
resources program in conservation
social science but still
needs to finish student teaching
in Boise this spring in order to
finish the teaching certification
requirements for secondary
science.
In Beantown, Ed Newkirk took
a break from his PhD in math
at Brown and attended the
annual Joint Math Meetings in
Boston, where he ran into Jess
Levitt ’08, Ralph Morrison ’10,
Jake Levinson ’11 and Diana
Davis ’07 before stepping away
to catch up with Bret Thatcher.
Also in the land of the Red Sox,
Kari Lyden-Fortier will complete
an MS in speech-language
pathology at the MGH Institute
of Health Professions. When
not studying, Ms. Lyden-Fortier
paints the town red with Jackie
Berglass ’11 and, when not
in Boston, Ms. Lyden-Fortier
reunites with old friends like
Rahul Bahl and his close proximity
to South Beach in Miami.
Mr. Bahl is clearly starting a
trend, because he also hosted
Brandon Halloway and Chris
Chiang for what was rumored
to be an absolutely epic New
Year’s beach party.
In Texas, Sarah Hill is working
on finishing her MA at UT but
spent a month back in England
enjoying immediate family, her
new niece, high school friends,
her home church and the comfort
of the English countryside.
In Philly, Lauren Philbrook
is enjoying a graduate school
program in human development
at Penn State and was looking
forward to running the Boston
Marathon in April with Ryan
Ford, Beth Links, Karin Knudson
and Rachel Asher. Last, Steve
Van Wert and Ms. Philbrook
have set a date for a wedding at
Williams this June!
Over in London, Aroop
Mukharji started a second
MA in war studies at Kings
College London. During his
holidays, Mr. Mukharji went
to Morocco with Alex Lees ’03
and was joined by Jake Gorelov
and friends for more fun in
the Canary Islands in Spain. In
whatever free time he has left,
Mr. Mukharji is working on
a book about Williams from
the 1940s till the present with
fellow Octet alum Kevin Waite
’81. Claire Rindlaub returned to
the States to start her master’s
program in New York after
spending two months in India
and a month in Thailand, where
she caught up with study-abroad
friends, including Francisco
Bisono. Ms. Rindlaub’s new
locale is shared by Jess Kopcho,
who stopped nursing school and
begun a post-bac premedical
program at Columbia, and Jess
Walthew, who, after completing
her first year in her conservation
program, will spend the summer
in Turkey as a junior conservator
at the ancient Lydian capital of
Sardis.
Because we wonder when
we will ever get to go abroad
for a significant period again,
let’s hear some news from our
travelers.
Up north, Anouk Dey is still
doing an Action Canada fellowship
and was to present her
findings to the Canadian parliament
in March. Before the end
of the year, Ms. Dey ski-trekked
over La Foglietta in the Alps,
crossing from France to Italy.
In the new year, she will host
Molly Hunter, Arianna Kourides,
Riki McDermott, Helen Hatch
and Nanny Gephart for hardcore
adventures and encounters
with bears and beavers for Ms.
Hunter’s 25th in the Canadian
North. In England, Ali Tozier has
been living in London and volunteering
at a charity that helps
victims of human trafficking
become economically independent,
but she plans to return to
Maine in the fall for law school.
Outside of work, she has been
having fun with Mr. Mukharji
and Lindsay Moore, before Ms.
Moore left her job working at
U.K. Parliament and for the MP
fo Cambridge and journeyed to
Somaliland to teach biology at a
boarding school. In Russia, Jon
Earle is still a news reporter for
The Moscow Times, an Englishlanguage
daily in Moscow.
Finally, Fiona Worcester took
a break from Alaska to travel
around Ecuador to practice
Spanish and scale some
mountains. Now returned, she
has completed a 50-mile ski
race and began training for a
100-miler that will take place in
February.
Because we are now wondering
if people still have their
jobs, let us hear from Ephs in
working America.
Ted Kernan, at ExxonMobil
in Houston, got accepted into
the Colorado School of Mines.
Andy Ward, in Beantown,
announced that he landed a
walk-on role as an extra in the