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Class Notes
2003–2004
Jessica Held and Jim and Julie
Munoz Mangarillo. It was an
amazing summer, and I can’t wait
for summer 2010! Go ’Pards!”
Please continue to email me
your updates.
2004
David R. Norton
3415 B. Holmead Place NW
Washington, D.C. 20010
david.r.norton@gmail.com
President: Alex L. Karapetian
Fund Managers: Megan Longo Villanella,
Christine L. Bender
Reunion Chair: Amy A. Giacobone
I don’t know about the rest of you,
but after the two blizzards that
rocked D.C. and a good part of the
East Coast this year, summer
couldn’t have come sooner. I hope
all of you are taking advantage of
the warm weather, but it looks like
a number of our classmates took
advantage of the colder months
to hit some major milestones.
Jena Newman and Scott
Dengrove were married Jan. 21
in a small private ceremony in
Walt Disney World in Orlando. (See
photo online.) They celebrated a
perfect day with 25 of their closest
family and friends and continued the
festivities at EPCOT later that night
with a dessert party and a viewing of
the “Illuminations: Reflections of
Earth” fireworks show. Jena and
Scott live in Port Chester, N.Y.
Mark Slobodien married Rachael
Seidenschnur; they celebrated their
first anniversary in June. Mark resides
in Washington, D.C., where he
works for Citizens Against
Government Waste, a conservative
government watchdog group. He
plans to attend graduate school
part time in the fall.
Amy Giacabone writes to tell us
that Tara O’Neill married Andrew
Clarke (Georgetown University ’04)
at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in
Tarrytown, N.Y., this year.
According to Amy, Andrew and
Tara met at Ridgewood (N.J.)
High School and remained close
in the years following high school
graduation. Christine Siebold,
Ilana Strauss, Amy Giacobone,
Kim Sica, Sam Molyneaux, Kate
Quinn O’Hara, Stephanie
Napolitano Mejia, and Sylvia
Anserian Cooper attended the
ceremony. Tara and Andrew work
at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
and live in NYC.
Lauren Sefcik, now an assistant
professor in Lafayette’s department
of chemical engineering, is engaged
to Bucknell graduate Christopher
Anderson of Avon Lake, Ohio. The
couple, who were set to marry July
17, resides in Bethlehem, Pa.
Molefi K. Asante produced a
new film called Motherland. It
premiered to a sold-out crowd in
February at the Pan African Film
Festival and won the Board of
Directors Best Documentary Award.
Look for the film online at www.
mkasante.com.
Class President Alex Karapetian
continues to be involved in his
family’s nonprofit organization in
Armenia: Acopian Center for the
Environment. According to Alex,
the organization’s mission is to
protect Armenia’s biodiversity and
natural resources through research,
education, and public involvement.
Alex and the company have worked
closely with The World Wildlife
Fund, Green Lane, members of
Armenia’s parliament, and other
environmental nongovernmental
organizations. Alex is based in New
York and is excited to announce the
launching of Acopian’s web site:
www.acopiancenter.org.
Jessica Merkel-Keller graduated
May 24 from the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey’s Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School, New Brunswick,
N.J., with distinction in medical
education. Jessica will continue her
OB/GYN training at the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine–
Montefiore, with a plan to continue
in gynecologic oncology.
Katherine “KC” Horigan
graduated from Tufts University
School of Veterinary Medicine in
May with a D.V.M. degree. Since
then, she has been interviewing for
a general practice for small animal
medicine in the Boston area.
Brandon Ripley still lives in the
Washington, D.C., area but moved
from Falls Church, Va., to a new
town home in Silver Spring, Md., in
October. He’s been busy traveling
the world as well, having visited
India in December and Paris in May.
Elizabeth Ponder graduated
from Stanford University in
September with a Ph.D. in
microbiology and immunology.
Tom Gauntner just finished his
fourth year of being Lafayette’s head
fencing coach. Through Tom’s
efforts, Lafayette was able to host
its conference championships on
College Hill this year, and Tom was
voted 2009 Coach of the Year by
his peers in the conference. Tom
continues to work for Picatinny
Arsenal and indulges his creative side
by headlining as a regularly recurring
solo act at Bucky’s, a local pub near
his office. “Me and my guitar can
be seen every month on the first
Thursday of the month,” Tom
wrote. “Nothing beats all-youcan-eat
wings and governmentsubsidized
beer.”
Mike Beatrice lives on Long
Island and works on the National
Synchrotron Light Source II project
at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Mike has been involved with
Lafayette’s Career Services outreach,
and this past January, he hosted
three mechanical engineering externs
from the Class of 2011. (See photo
online.)
John Sullivan graduated from
MIT last August with a master’s in
real estate. Since then, he and several
MIT classmates started a real estate
and due diligence firm called
AspinWall Partners. The firm was
featured in an article by MIT news
services touting the success of young
entrepreneurs amid the recession.
You can find a link to the article
on John’s company web site:
www.aspinwallpartners.com.
Derek Pizarro accepted a
position at Premier Chemicals LLC
in West Conshohocken, Pa., as
national account manager–remedial.
Derek is in charge of national and
international environmental sales for
the company’s line of heavy metals
and stabilization chemicals.
Jennifer White Sekellick has
been promoted to assistant director
for compliance and student services
for Temple University athletics. A
college track star and two-time
SUMMER 2010 • lafayette 93