Bardian SPRING 2011

Class Notes
Editor’s note: More extensive versions of many of these notes and additional notes
are posted on AnnandaleOnline.org, the Bard alumni/ae website. Class Notes of
any length, with accompanying photos, may be posted there.
’10
1st Reunion: May 20–22, 2011
Staff contact: Brad Whitmore, 845-758-7663 or whitmore@bard.edu
After a summer internship in San Francisco, Charlotte Ashlock moved to
Rochester, New York, where she works for AmeriCorps, doing afterschool
programming for teens in an inner-city library.
Justin White is an adviser in the College Success Office of the Harlem
Children’s Zone in New York City, providing academic, financial, and career
guidance to local college students.
’09
Neşe Lisa Şenol completed her master’s degree in comparative literature
and literary theory at the University of Pennsylvania in December 2010. She
continues to work on her Ph.D., which she aims to receive by 2015.
In June, Dan Whitener released a CD entitled On the Tracks, which is available
through many online distributors, including iTunes.
’08
Class correspondent: Patricia Pforte, patricia.pforte@gmail.com
Robin Brehm lives in Brooklyn, where she’s finishing her first year of the dual
M.D./M.P.H. program at the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine.
Nathan Churchill-Seder and Sarah Mercer ’07 were married in November
2010 in Seattle. Bardians in attendance included Emily Shornick, Rachel
Sanders, and Ella Reily Stocker; Charlotte Hendrickson ’07 and Shraddha
Rosidivito ’07; Lilah Steece ’06 and Victoria Jacobs ’06; and, of course,
Nathan’s mom, Bard dance professor Jean Churchill.
In 2010 Alex Davis worked as sound tech for a one-man show touring two
theater festivals in Europe. In August he also worked tech with the Edinburgh
Fringe Theater Festival in Scotland. He now works in arts and education in his
hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.
Mary Kate Donovan lives in Madrid. Arriving in 2009 as a Fulbright grantee,
she is now a master’s candidate in Spanish and Latin American literature and
culture at New York University’s Madrid campus.
Elen Flügge is pursuing a master’s degree in sound studies at the University of
Arts in Berlin, Germany, where she is active as an installation artist and writer.
Chris Herring is pursuing a doctorate in sociology at UC Berkeley, after having
completed a master’s degree at Central European University in Budapest and
worked in New York City government.
Patricia Pforte is working on a master’s degree in museum studies at New
York University. This spring, she is interning for the Tenement Museum’s
“Tenement Talks” program.
Ace Salisbury’s short film A Headless Nun on a Swing Set that Is on Fire, a satire
of European cinema, won the award for Best Foreign Film at the 2010 Zero
Film Festival in New York City.
Sam Scoppettone and Reanna Corinne Blackford ’07 are studying city and
regional planning at Cornell University. Both plan to earn their master’s
degrees there in 2012.
In October 2010, Emily Shornick spoke on a Levi’s Photo Workshop panel
organized by Spin magazine, on the topic of breaking into music photography.
Emily lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and works in the photo department at
Lucky magazine.
Basha Smolen married Gus Hoffman in early 2011. She is working in conjunction
with the BBC, producing a short documentary series on fortune-tellers on
New York’s Lower East Side.
Jack Woodruff is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, working on
organic fertilizer production with groups of sugar cane growers.
’07
Class correspondent: Reanna Blackford, reanna.blackford@gmail.com
Caity (Cook) Bolton completed her master’s degree in Near Eastern studies
at New York University in May 2010 and works with Sudanese refugees in
Cairo. She was right in the middle of things when the Egyptian revolution
toppled Mubarak’s government, blogging on the events in Cairo at
owayfarer.wordpress.com.
Desiree (Porter) Costello lives in Portland, Oregon, and has three jobs—at a
Montessori toddler community, at an organization called Backline
(www.yourbackline.org), and with PDX Doulas. She married her “high school
drama club crush” in August.
Stephen Dickinson spent a semester in Buenos Aires and is working toward a
master’s degree in architecture at Arizona State University. His thesis
explores urban issues, marginal spaces, and societal values.
Christine George graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in June,
and is now in a law librarianship program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Allyson Grennille received a master of arts in social sciences degree from the
University of Chicago in 2008. Her thesis focused on the construction of
authority in alternative news outlets.
Jack Woodruff ’08 working with Ecuadorian sugar cane farmers as a Peace Corps
volunteer. Photo: courtesy of Jack Woodruff
This spring, Nevada Griffin completes his final year of a joint master’s program
in international relations and public health at Yale University.
class notes 35