class notes It was my first big booking in LA. My father told me to take my girlfriend out to a nice meal—on his tab.” —Noah Baron, SOC/BA ’09, on how he celebrated landing a supporting role in the Coen Brothers film Hail, Caesar! Tara Foster, SOC/BA ’02, attended the Space-X5 rocket launch. The two-day event took place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 15–16. Kari Klaus, SIS/BA ’02, launched a company, Viva Green Homes, which markets sustainable homes. Kimberly Labenberg, SIS/ MA ’02, and her husband, Christopher, are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Lindsey Erin Labenberg, on March 24, 2008. She joins big sisters Brook Alexandra and Taylor Nicole. Corinne LaPlaca, SOC/BA ’02, married Daniel LaPlaca on October 18, 2014, on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Elaine Mensah, SPA/BA ’02, launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Fashion Source. Nicholas Cambata, Kogod/BS ’03, founded his own company, 8112 Studios. Cambata is a filmmaker and travels around the world for assignments. Christine Miller, SPA/BA ’03, has been named a stockholder of the firm Reid and Riege, P.C. Percival Pineda, CAS/MA ’03, started a new job as a senior economist at CUNA. -2005- TIME CAPSULES TOP TUNE “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey TOP-GROSSING FLICK Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire IN THE NEWS Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf coast, killing more than 1,000 people; cancer replaces heart disease as the No. 1 cause of death for people ages 85 and under; the Terry Schiavo case becomes the focus of fierce debate in Congress FROM THE AU ARCHIVES Students without cell phones gripe as AU pulls the plug on land lines in the residence halls. AT THE HELM Kyle Taylor was 2005–2006 Student Government president. Today, he’s chief of staff and campaigns director at Simon Hughes MP in London. Louis Jim, SPA/BA ’04, SPA/ MPA ’05, joined the New York State Office of the Attorney General as an assistant attorney general in the litigation bureau. Aaron Hake, SPA/BA ’05, has been appointed city treasurer of Corona, California. Andrea Walker, Kogod/MBA ’06, launched a startup, SimplyGenie. com, an online service that creates designer birthday parties in a box for children. Nicole Zangara, CAS/BA ’06, wrote “The Inquisition of Singledom at Holiday Parties,” published by the Huffington Post. Lara Hogan, CAS/BA ’07, published her first book, Designing for Performance: Weighing Aesthetics and Speed. Brett Meril, SOC/BA ’07, is a television editor on the weekday talk show, The Real, seen in 191 television markets across the country. Artemis Antippas, SOC/BA ’08, is a New Orleans-based artist who was featured in the AU Museum’s “Locally Sourced” exhibit. Marie Stratton, CAS/BS ’08, started a small business, Kinderhook Snacks, in Baltimore that recently expanded to the DC area. Noah Baron, SOC/BA ’09, has been booked in a supporting role in the latest Coen Brothers film, Hail, Caesar!, starring George Clooney, Scarlett Johannson, Josh Brolin, and Channing Tatum. Jeremy Feinberg, Kogod/MBA ’09, is a principal at the firm Taksey Neff Feinberg, LLC, in Rockville, Maryland. Ohemaa Nyanin, SIS/BA ’09, SPA/MS ’11, was named USA Basketball Women’s National Team assistant director. -2010- TIME CAPSULES 2010s TOP TUNE: “Tik Tok,” Ke$ha TOP-GROSSING FLICK Toy Story 3 IN THE NEWS A 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastates Port-au-Prince, Haiti; 33 Chilean miners are rescued after being trapped for 68 days; President Barack Obama signs the Affordable Care Act into law FROM THE AU ARCHIVES Six drag queens, including AU student “Athena Ducockis,” strut their stuff on the catwalk to raise money for the Whitman-Walker Clinic. Alysa Mowitz Mehalick, SPA/ MA ’11, married Andrew Mehalick in her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, on May 3, 2014. Mehalick is a management and budget analyst at Public Financial Management in Philadelphia, where she assists with publicsector labor arbitrations. IN MEMORIAM Marjorie Morris Phillips, CAS/BA ’49, November 29, 2014, Olney, Maryland Sajjad Ahrabi, CAS/BA ’81, CAS/MS ’91, December 12, 2012, Silver Spring, Maryland Josette Balthazar, Kogod/BSBA ’07, September 28, 2014, Washington, DC CONNECT alumniassociation. american.edu FOLLOW Twitter.com/ <strong>American</strong>UAlum LIKE Facebook.com/ <strong>American</strong>UAlum VIEW Flickr.com/photos/ <strong>American</strong>UAlum 40 AMERICAN MAGAZINE JULY <strong>2015</strong>
teamwork POWER PLAYERS Asher Raphael, SPA/BA ’02 + Corey Schiller, CAS/BA ’03 PHOTO BY AMANDA STEVENSON LUPKE When Schiller visited AU on a recruiting trip, he was hosted by Raphael—and the two have been VIRTUALLY INSEPARABLE ever since. Today, the former Eagles soccer players are majority owners and co-CEOs of Power Home Remodeling Group, a rapidly growing company headquartered in Chester, Pennsylvania. There’s no way this pair—Schiller was a history major, Raphael earned a political science degree—COULD HAVE FORESEEN A FUTURE IN THE BUSINESS WORLD. “I was set on law school,” Raphael, 35, says. “My brother had just started with a small remodeling company based in Philadelphia. Corey and I were best friends, so I reached out to him. WE HAD NO IDEA THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE LONG-TERM. We were killing time for a year until we went back to school.” They started at what was then Power Windows and Siding, which had fewer than 50 employees and about $8 million in revenue, as entry-level sales reps. As they rose through the ranks, it became clear that THEY HAD A VISION for the company and the skills to execute it. In 2006, Schiller was named chief marketing officer, and three years later Raphael became chief strategy officer. In 2011, they became part owners, and two years later THEY TOOK OVER A MAJORITY STAKE. “Practically, it works great,” Schiller, 33, says. “We’ll have disagreements, but the most important things—what our values are and the mission that we’re on—aren’t in question.” With 1,400 employees in 10 offices around the country, Power will FLIRT WITH $400 MILLION IN REVENUE this year and has “a clear path to $1 billion,” Raphael says. “We started doing the right things, not because someone asked us to or we were required to, but because we wanted to make this company great.” THEY’VE SUCCEEDED. AMERICAN.EDU/ALUMNI 41
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