KALEIDOSCOPE - UWC-USA

UN I T E D WO RLD C O L L E G E-USA 

Armand Hammer United World College of the American West 

KALEIDOSCOPE 

SPRING 2005 VOLUME 31 

Remembering the Geier Era 1993-2005 

Amy and Phil Geier in the Nelson Mandela Peace Garden on the UWC-USA campus. 

“Phil and Amy's tireless efforts 

and tremendous results have 

brought UWC-USA to a level 

unimaginable upon their arrival 

in the summer of 1993. We have 

embraced and achieved strate- 

gies that raise the bar for all of us 

in Montezuma as well as for our 

colleagues in the UWC move- 

ment and throughout the field of 

international education. As a 

result of their leadership, we can 

look ahead to our future with 

confidence and assurance for the 

long-term viability of UWC-USA.” 

Board Chair James B. Taylor from his 

letter of September 22, 2004 

announcing the Geiers’ decision to 

conclude their tenure in 2005.

Kaleidoscope Interviews President Phil Geier 

For the past twelve years, Phil Geier has served as President and Amy Geier as Director of Development. 

Under their leadership, UWC-USA has been transformed in many ways. Kaleidoscope conducted the following 

interview to gain Phil’s personal insights into his presidency and the future prospects of the school. 

Kaleidoscope: At your 

induction ceremony in 1993, 

you spoke of "Building 

Bridges" as the theme of 

your presidency. Do you 

think this theme is still key? 

Phil: In 1993 the world was witnessing 

the dissolution of the former 

Yugoslavia and the most graphic 

depiction of that phenomenon 

was the destruction of an historic 

16th century bridge in the city of 

Mostar. That became the metaphor 

for my induction speech: the need 

for building bridges between great 

cultural divides in the human race. 

Rebuilding that bridge in 

Mostar took over a decade, until 

2004. Throughout all that time, as 

evidenced in many of my 

“President’s Reports,” the theme of 

“Building Bridges” has been recurring 

and central. Second year student-led 

orientations of their new 

first year students have adopted this 

theme of “Building Bridges.” It is 

Building Bridges 

“May we be 

purposeful and 

persistent in our 

devotion to 

‘Building Bridges.’ 

As I leave, I hope 

this theme has 

become a permanent 

part of the 

UWC culture.” 

– Phil Geier 

Phil Geier’s induction ceremony, October 1993. Chairman of the Board Alec Courtelis presides 

with Faculty Marshals Neil Hunter and Margaret Summerfield, Barbara Johnson, then Vice 

President at far left, Jon Hunstman, speaker, on Phil’s right. 

also the theme of the upcoming 

UWC International Council Meeting 

in Singapore. 

Literally building (or rebuilding) 

bridges cannot, of course, solve the 

underlying problems which divide 

people. In Mostar, the ethnic divides 

remain in spite of the repaired 

bridge. So, efforts must persist in 

Mostar, just as they must on UWC 

campuses, to build community and a 

sense of common purpose among 

people who are different from one 

another. May we be purposeful and 

persistent in our devotion to 

“Building Bridges.” As I leave, I 

hope that this theme has become a 

permanent part of the UWC culture. 

The 16th century bridge spanning the Neretva River in Mostar—destroyed during the Balkan war 1992-95 and 

rebuilt in 2004—was the focus of Phil’s induction speech. 

2 UNITED WORLD COLLEGE-USA


Kaliedoscope: Of the many 

achievements of your 12 

year tenure, what would you 

say is most significant? 

Phil: I think the most significant is 

probably the most intangible of all: 

reinvigorating our sense of professional 

pride, purposes and possibilities. 

In 1993, we weren’t sure we 

had a future. Now we have confidence, 

resources, momentum and 

we are connected to the outside 

world. 

Kaleidoscope: What do you 

mean by “connected to the 

outside world?” 

Phil: We have become and, I 

believe, should continue to be outwardly 

focused: relevant and meaningful 

not just in our own eyes but 

in the eyes of those outside the 

organization. 

For example, the renovated 

Castle is much more than an 

enhanced facility on campus. The 

Castle is an essential link between 


our campus and the outside world. 

While it is our signature building, it 

is also the pride of our surrounding 

Northern New Mexico community 

as well as of great value to the historic 

preservation community 

nationwide. In the Castle we host 

Amy and Phil being greeted at the White House in 1996 by President Bill Clinton and Hillary 

Clinton at a dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fulbright Program. 

Phil met South African President Nelson Mandela in Washington in 1994 and presented him with 

a letter signed by all UWC-USA students at the time. In 1995, at the UWC International Council 

meeting in Johannesburg, Mandela became the UWC’s "Honorary President." 

speakers, university interviewers, 

visiting fellows, trustees, major 

donors, even our international 

patron Her Majesty Queen Noor. 

The Castle is a venue for everything 

from public concerts to visits by 

civic groups and school children. It 

houses the Bartos Institute for the 

Constructive Engagement of 

Conflict and its outreach programs. 

Our students learn history and public 

speaking by offering free Castle 

tours to the public. The Castle is a 

metaphor for our peace building 

mission. Above all, the renovated 

Castle symbolizes how substantial 

and significant our work is for the 

future of the world. Because we are 

relevant to and engaged with the 

outside world our unique work is 

vital and valued. 

3


Making connections from Montezuma to the world. 

Amy and Phil being received by HM Queen Noor of Jordan and 

HM Queen Sofia of Spain at an event sponsored by the U.S. 

Committee for UWC Schools in New York. 

During the Geier era, Shelby M.C. Davis became the largest supporter 

of international education. He serves as UWC International 

Patron and Trustee of UWC-USA. He is seen here at a graduation 

ceremony. 

“My own experiences in Congress, at the U.N., in the Cabinet, on 

special missions overseas, and here in New Mexico have taught me 

how critical it is to establish and develop strong personal relationships 

with allies and adversaries alike. The UWC program is based 

on that same premise... these relationships are an important prerequisite 

for peace in the 21st century.” 

Governor Bill Richardson 

Phil in 2002 with former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev and 

his daughter at a dinner celebrating the 95th birthday of Kathryn 

Davis, the mother of Shelby Davis. 

In his voluntary capacity as President of the Fulbright Association in 

Washington, D.C., Phil presented the Fulbright Prize for 

International Understanding to Czech Republic President Vaclav 

Havel, with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright applauding. 



Kaleidoscope: Speaking of 

the Castle, why was saving 

it so important? 

Phil: On one hand, the Castle was 

a neglected, vandalized and crumbling 

white elephant, in many ways 

a liability to the school, demanding 

huge resources to be saved. On the 

other, the Castle embodied important 

history, occupied the center of 

the campus, and represented 

tremendous potential for our future. 

Saving the Castle speaks volumes 

about our institutional character: 

linking the past to the future; fulfilling 

our founder’s dream; 

restoring a community icon; 

affirming our commitment to this 

campus; demonstrating our belief 

in quality and excellence; and 

opening up numerous possibilities 

for our future. One of those 

possibilities is seeing the Bartos 

Institute for the Constructive 

Engagement of Conflict, which is 

housed in the Castle, as a mechanism 

for far greater impact than we 

are currently achieving with 200 

students each year. 


“Make No little Plans...” 

The Geier era launched and successfully completed the school’s first-ever 

capital campaign, amassing gifts in excess of $80 million from 1998-2002. 

That campaign remains both the largest-ever non-profit campaign in New 

Mexico and the largest-ever for international education in the U.S. With a 

theme of “Save the Castle-Serve the World,” this campaign was guided by 

the prophetic words of the Castle’s 19th century architect Daniel Burnham of 

Chicago who wrote: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s 

blood and probably will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope 

and work, remembering that a nobler, logical diagram once recorded will 

never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself 

with ever growing insistency.” 

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the Castle 

renovation featured the Trustees and 

Volunteers who guided the process: John 

Loehr, Jim Taylor, Kak Slick and Bill Moore 

with Amy and Phil (Karen Berlanti and Joe 

Schepps missing from photo). 

The September 2001 opening ceremony of 

the renovated Castle—now the Davis 

International Center. Honored guests Gale 

and Shelby Davis, HM Queen Noor, Kathryn 

Davis (Shelby’s mother), Phil and Board Chair 

Jim Taylor. 

5


Phil visiting in New York with Celeste and 

Armand Bartos whose generosity established 

and sustains the Bartos Institute for the 

Constructive Engagement of Conflict housed 

in the renovated Castle. 

“Constructive Engagement,” a monumental forged steel sculpture made 

by blacksmith artist Christopher Thomson, adorns the inner courtyard 

of the historic Castle. The sculpture was a gift of the artist. 

Kaleidoscope: The last issue of Kaleidoscope featured current 

activities of the Constructive Engagement of Conflict 

program, but what do you see as future possibilities for the 

Bartos Institute? 

Phil: My vision for the Bartos 

Institute includes the following 

components: 

� host what are called Track Two 

Diplomacy approaches to both 

domestic and international 

conflicts; 

� establish a Visiting Fellows 

program for practitioners of 

conflict resolution from around 

the world; 

� organize Roundtable 

Discussions among 

practitioners with differing 

methodological approaches to 

conflict; 

� publish Proceedings of these 

diverse approaches in order to 

reach a broader audience of 

practitioners and educators; 

� expand our Campus Speakers 

program; 

� develop our Public School 

Outreach in Northern New 

Mexico; 

� multiply our Worldwide 

Training, including at other 

UWC schools and for our 

voluntary national committees 

in nearly 120 countries; 

� explore broader impact of our 

program through Technology. 

Phil with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum and 

Selena Sermeno of the Bartos Institute at the annual "Peace Jam" in 

Santa Fe. 



Phil: I’ll comment briefly on four 

areas of opportunity. First, constructing 

the Dwan Light Sanctuary 

brought us far more than a strikingly 

beautiful building. Through that initiative, 

we have witnessed numerous 

intellectual and practical expressions 

of spirituality, religion and crosscultural 

values. Much more can be 

done here. 

Second, our pilot projects in 

alternative energy, both wind and 

solar, are indicative of the many 

ways we can be both more environmentally 

conscious and cost conscious. 

My first inclination in this 

regard twelve years ago was to try 

to harness the geothermal energy of 

the natural hot springs on our property. 

While those early forays came 

to naught, perhaps the time will 

come again to assess and realize that 

potential. 

Third, we are fortunate to have 

the best information technology of 

all the UWC schools. We invested 

in technology for three primary reasons. 

First, to increase student 

access on an equitable basis. We 

created a technology center with 

satellite computer rooms in the student 

residences. Second, to enhance 

the learning process through technology. 

Faculty training, “smart 

classrooms” and other teaching initiatives 

were taken to assist students 


in turning unlimited access to information 

into valuable knowledge. 

Third, to foster greater interaction 

with issues and peoples beyond our 

campus. This coincides with my earlier 

point about the importance of 

being connected to the outside 

world. What next steps in technology 

are most appropriate to our highly 

personal, residential educational 

delivery systems? How might these 

engender greater impact and growth 

of the UWC movement at considerably 

lower cost per capita? We have 

a long way to go in understanding 

and using technology most productively. 

Fourth, our IB Teacher Training 

Summer 

Programs have 

demonstrated the 

value of being 

focused and 

remaining on 

plan. Early in my 

tenure, we discarded 

a multipronged 

approach 

to summer programs 

in favor of 

a single summer 

program focus 

built on what I 

have called the 

3Ms: mission, 

market and 

The Dwan Light Sanctuary opened in 1996 

and was blessed by representatives of many of 

the world’s major faiths, shown here with Phil, 

donor Virginia Dwan and singer Judy Collins. 

The Light Sanctuary has launched greater 

awareness and study of the world’s religions 

and serves as a place for quiet meditation on 

the UWC-USA Campus. 

Kaleidoscope: Would you highlight some other programmatic innovations from your tenure 

that represent potential opportunities for the future? 

money. Simply put, our Summer 

Programs in I.B. Teacher Training 

serve our mission, help us penetrate 

the educational market, and generate 

net revenue (money) to our operating 

budget (which is otherwise solely 

dependent on the philanthropic 

dollar). On top of all that, we can 

take great pride as a private school, 

that we are contributing to the 

improvement of public education (as 

90% of our summer teacher trainees 

come from American public high 

schools). I would like to think there 

are ideas in this model which could 

inform a successor about missiondriven 

entrepreneurial leadership. 

Phil and Amy admiring the Wheel of Time Sand Mandala in the Dwan 

Light Sanctuary. This Tibetan ritual art was constructed in 1997 through 

the generosity of Virginia Dwan. 

7


Leadership 

“Leadership is a combination 

of traits and behaviors without 

which individuals and institutions 

become essentially meaningless 

or useless. Without 

leadership, ideas do not get 

translated into action. At the 

UWC, we give our students a 

wide variety of leadership 

opportunities and expect that 

they will act on their 

leadership potential in the 

years ahead.” 


Kaleidoscope: You mention 

leadership. Would you mind 

commenting on the role of 

leadership? 

Phil: Leadership is essential. Being 

a leader means seeking and passionately 

embracing personal responsibility 

for transformation in a chosen 

field of endeavor. Leadership 

requires defining clear goals; 

becoming extensively knowledgeable; 

building a base of support; 

learning to communicate and listen 

effectively; engaging the ownership 

of others in one’s objectives; refining 

those objectives based on the 

input of others involved; and, not 

insignificantly, attracting the monetary 

resources necessary to realize 

the desired goals. Leadership is a 

combination of traits and behaviors 

without which individuals and institutions 

become essentially meaningless 

or useless. Without leadership, 

ideas do not get translated into 

action. At the UWC, we give our 

students a wide variety of leadership 

opportunities and expect that they 

will act on their leadership potential 

in the years ahead. 

Phil and Amy with Alec Courtelis and Phil’s predecessor Ted Lockwood. Following Armand 

Hammer’s death in 1992, Alec became Chairman of the Board until his own death in 1995. His 

Board leadership spanned the tenures of the school’s only two presidents to date. 

Kaleidoscope: How would 

you characterize your own 

leadership style? 

Phil: People-oriented. I am a pragmatic 

idealist, energetic, have a 

clear focus, and am able to engage 

and motivate others. 

Regardless of my own leadership 

style, I think it is important for 

UWC students to be exposed to a 

variety of leadership styles, so I 

have purposefully surrounded 

myself with others 

who project different 

leadership styles. 

Diversity, after all, is 

our hallmark. 

Kaleidoscope: 

How can institutions—like 

UWC- 

USA—demonstrate 

leadership? 

Phil: Institutions can 

certainly demonstrate 

leadership, not by any 

authority or power 

they have, but by 

example. Our school has no formal 

authority or power over its peer 

institutions in the UWC movement, 

yet it has been an exemplar in program 

innovations, campus development, 

resource generation and building 

a rejuvenated sense of purpose 

and spirit. Leading by example 

doesn’t necessarily command followership, 

but it can provide the 

impetus for achievement by others; 

it sets benchmarks to which others 

aspire. 

Jim Taylor assumed the chairmanship of the Board in 1996 and 

remains the school’s lead volunteer. He is shown here at the 

1996 graduation ceremony with HM Queen Noor of Jordan and 

then Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. 



Kaleidoscope: With all you 

have accomplished in fundraising, is it still a 

high priority for UWC-USA and its next president? 

Phil: Without a doubt. We have 

been fortunate over these past 12 

years to attract a growing cadre of 

donors who share our commitment 

to the UWC. We have achieved balanced 

budgets and have seen our 

endowment skyrocket from $2 million 

to $70 million. But let’s look at 

some of today’s real numbers: our 

operating budget is over $8 million 

this year; until we have an endowment 

of $160 million (given a 5% 


payment from endowment investments) 

annual fundraising will be 

critical. Such a calculation doesn’t 

take into account that our operating 

expenses will obviously increase 

each year. We want to continue to 

give rational and well-earned raises 

to our faculty and staff, absorb 

increases in costs for such things as 

health insurance, and match up to 

8% of employee retirement contributions. 

Without annual fundraising, 

meeting these needs as well as 

those for our facilities and vehicles, 

our community service and wilderness 

programs, our spirit of innovation, 

and everything else would be 

impossible. In sum, fundraising of 

all sorts—for the Annual Fund, for 

special projects and for the endowment—is 

an ongoing requirement of 

school leadership. 

Fundraising and Philanthropy 

“Frankly, if we want to realize 

our mission we are dependent 

on the generosity of others. We 

live or die by philanthropy. 

Without it we would not exist, 

couldn’t pursue our goals, be 

innovative in our programs, offer 

increasingly generous scholarships 

to students from 

throughout the world, nor have a 

certain future.” 

– Phil Geier Bill Richardson, Her Majesty Queen Noor, Phil and Gary Johnson, then New Mexico Governor, 

at the opening ceremony of the renovated Castle in 2001. 

9


Kaleidoscope: Thank you for your perspectives and, more importantly, for all you have 

accomplished over these past 12 years. In concluding this interview, will you share with our 

readers what you are going to do next? 

Phil: First let me say a word about 

what has been accomplished. Amy 

and I have been privileged to be 

associated with such a meaningful 

mission and very special group of 

people. If there have been accomplishments, 

they have been the 

result of a team effort. That team 

has included outstanding members 

of the faculty and staff on campus 

but has also included unbelievably 

committed volunteers and donors 

off campus as well. Thinking back 

to the beginning of this interview, I 

would reiterate the theme of 

“Building Bridges.” It is essential 

that we continue to “Build Bridges” 

between those of us in Montezuma 

and those volunteers, donors and 

graduates spread out across the U.S. 

and beyond. 

As for future plans, Amy and I 

will remain dedicated to the UWC 

mission but will take our leadership 

skills to the world of philanthropy. 

Philanthropist Shelby Davis has 

entrusted in us the challenge of 

growing the Davis UWC Scholars 

program from the original five pilot 

colleges and universities (Colby, 

College of the Atlantic, Middlebury, 

Princeton and Wellesley) to well 

over 60 colleges and universities in 

the immediate future. The Davis 

UWC Scholars program is designed 

not only to provide scholarships to 

highly qualified UWC graduates 

from our worldwide campuses, but 

to internationalize the undergraduate 

experience for all students at the 

selected American colleges and universities. 

Managing philanthropy of 

this magnitude—awarding approximately 

$20 million each year to 

these schools—is an opportunity for 

transformative leadership. Through 

the Davis UWC Scholars program 

we hope to bring a more international 

world view to the undergraduate 

experience so that succeeding 

generations of leaders, here in the 

U.S. and elsewhere, will embrace 

the world and its opportunities, 

rather than take refuge within and 

remain blinded by national persuasions. 

Our new tasks, not unlike those 

of running this school over the past 

twelve years, are driven by a sense 

of hope and promise personified by 

the students themselves. It is, after 

all, the students to whom we as 

educators devote ourselves. It is 

they who will shape the future of 

the world. 

HM Queen Noor on 

the Castle veranda 

at the opening ceremonies 

in 2001 

with (left to right): 

Mu’ath Abudalo 

(Jordan) ’02, Adriana 

Qubaia (Jordan) ’03, 

HRH Prince Pavlos 

of Greece ’86, Gadi 

Maayan (Israel) ’02, 

Phil and Board 

Chair Jim Taylor. 

Phil with Nyoko Muvangua ’99 and Ronald 

Tjiho ’04, both of Namibia, on campus along 

with Trustee Sarah Taylor. 

The Geiers’ Future 

“As for future plans, Amy and I 

will remain dedicated to the 

UWC mission but will take our 

leadership skills to the world of 

philanthropy... growing the 

Davis UWC Scholars program 

to well over 60 American colleges 

and universities. Through 

philanthropy of this magnitude, 

we hope to bring a more international 

worldview to the 

undergraduate experience so 

that succeeding generations of 

leaders, here in the U.S. and 

elsewhere, will embrace the 

world and its opportunities.” 




Campus Development 

During the Geier era, 95% of the 

campus has been improved. The 

following are only highlights of 

recent campus development. 

Montezuma Castle Renovation 

The centerpiece of campus, the 

castle was renovated as a multiuse 

“Davis International Center” 

where students eat, sleep, learn 

and play; the Castle also houses 

the Bartos Institute for the 

Constructive Engagement of 

Conflict. 

The Lansing Fieldhouse. 

Lansing Fieldhouse 

This major new building includes 

a dance and movement center, 

gymnasium, squash courts and fitness 

center; architecturally, it is 

the link between lower and upper 

portions of campus and provides 

an expansive outdoor plaza for 

social functions. 

Geier Technology Center 

The school’s former dining hall 

has been converted to a wellequipped 

technology center that 

serves as the hub of greatly 


The Kluge Auditorium in front of the 

Montezuma Castle. 

expanded access to information 

technology for students and faculty 

and includes two “smart” classrooms. 

The Trustees named this 

center in honor of Amy and Phil 

Geier on the 10th anniversary of 

their service to the UWC. 

Moore Welcome Center 

This new structure was built at 

the entrance to the school 

grounds and houses Security 

while providing a welcome area 

for campus visitors. It was given 

by Trustee William Moore and 

designed to be harmonious with 

the style of the Castle and 

stonework used elsewhere on 

campus. 

Dwan Light Sanctuary 

This beautiful space where spiritual 

reflection, religion and cross- 

The Geier Center for Technology and 

Languages. 

cultural values are given significance 

as part of the learning 

process was designed by donor 

Virginia Dwan, artist Charles Ross 

and architect Laban Wingert. 

Kluge Auditorium 

Extensive renovation, upgrading 

and expansion of space, just 

completed in early 2005, 

enhances the arts, music and theater 

arts programs housed in 

Kluge Auditorium. 

Alternative Energy Pilot Projects 

Solar and wind pilot projects 

have 

been 

installed 

near the 

Zeinal- 

Zade 

Science 

building 

for educational 

and planningpurposes 

with the 

intention 

that the 

Wind generator and solar 

panels. 

UWC can become both more 

environmentally conscious and 

cost conscious. 

Anixter-Poole Hall 

Through the generosity of three 

Trustees-Nancy and Bill Anixter 

and Suzy Poole-the campus has 

an indoor recreational swimming 

pool; recently installed solar panels 

are another test of alternative 

energy on campus. 

11

Our very own Alan Wicks, 

mathematics instructor here at the 

United World College-USA, has 

Alan Wicks 

Jonas Schönefeld (Germany) ’06 

How do I organize a meeting 

and get the most out of it? What do 

I have to know if I want to be an 

effective community leader, and 

what strategies are successful? 

What are the things that we are 

most concerned about? 

These questions were part of 

the “Practical Activism” workshop 

held here at the UWC-USA on 

January 14 and 15, 2005. Naomi 

Swinton, a 1989 graduate from our 

college, led the workshop in cooperation 

with fellow UWC alumna 

and activist Agnieszka Kajrukszto 

’94 and Gen Weart, an activist from 

Greenpeace International, who is 

currently working in New York. 

Over 40 students, faculty and 

staff attended the workshop. 

Organized to inspire students to be 

more active, this workshop made a 

difference. 

Activism topics covered during 

the workshop included environmen- 

Around Campus 

UWC-USA Faculty Member Publishes Book 

published Mathematics Standard 

Level for the International 

Baccalaureate: A Text for the New 

Syllabus. 

Since the book closely follows 

the outline of the new syllabus for 

IB mathematics, it is ideal for mathematics 

instructors with little or no 

experience in IB mathematics teaching. 

After working as an aeronautical 

engineer in the UK, Alan Wicks 

became a mathematics teacher. He 

has taught IB mathematics in the 

UK, Swaziland and the United 

States for more than twenty years. 

He has served as an International 

Baccalaureate Examiner and 

We want to be active and make a difference - but how? 

Practical Activism Workshop at UWC-USA 

tal sustainability on campus, how 

students spend their time and 

money, food consumption and 

waste, local resources and the availability 

of organic products. Lack of 

contact between current students 

and alumni was another point 

addressed during the workshop. 

Large and small group discussions, 

personal conversations and 

games were used to teach attendees 

the critical points and methods of 

practical activism. Many found 

hope in discovering that they were 

not alone with their concerns on 

different topics. At the workshop, 

they found companions for further 

action. 

As a result of this weekend, 

there are now several groups on 

campus working on issues while 

applying the principles learned during 

this great workshop. 

Due to the great success of the 

workshop, it will be offered again 

next year. 

Internal Assessment 

Moderator for over 

ten years and has 

authored many questions 

for IB examinations 

papers and 

curriculum development 

materials. He 

has conducted 

numerous IB teacher training workshops 

in North America, Latin 

America and Europe. 

The book is available at 

Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) 

and from Infinity Publishing at 877- 

BUY-BOOK or www.bbotw.com. 

For more information email Alan at 

alan.wicks@uwc.net. 

UWC-USA Movie Star 

Sonam Lhamo, a first-year student 

from Bhutan, stared in the 

film “Travellers & Magicians.” 

Released this year, this is the 

first movie made entirely in 

Bhutan. The movie was filmed 

in 2002 when Sonam was 14, 

and she plays the part of the 

19-year-old daughter of an old 

man traveling to the city. 

For more information, go to 

www.travellersandmagicians.com. 

Kaliedoscope Photography 

� Current and past UWC-USA 

Students, Faculty and Staff 

� Don Gray 

� Polly Mullen 


On the morning of Saturday, 

September 18, 2004, the UWC-USA 

held a ceremony to mark the reopening 

of the Dwan Light 

Sanctuary. 

The Sanctuary is a striking 

building on the UWC-USA campus, 

designed by conceptualizer and 

Virginia Dwan, Phil and Amy Geier in procession. 

Tito Naranjo, Native American 


Dwan Light Sanctuary Re-Opens! 

donor, Virginia Dwan, artist Charles 

Ross and architect Laban Wingert. 

The building was closed for a year 

for repairs. 

The Re-Opening and Blessing 

Ceremony was attended by special 

Anne Gonzalez (U.S.-Illinois) 

The Dwan Light Sanctuary 

guest Virginia Dwan. Blessings 

were given by representatives of 

eight different religious traditions 

and included a UWC-USA student, 

a UWC-USA parent, faculty members 

and other members of the 

UWC-USA and surrounding communities. 

Lobsang Llalungpa, Tibetan Monk 

A candle burning in the sanctuary. 

Lighting incense for a blessing. Kaushalya Devi Parashar placing Tilak. 

Sun shining through the prisms. 

13

Montezuma Post 

1984 

Sandra Thomas 

2 Harbour View Road 

Port Chevalier, Auckland 

NEW ZEALAND 

sandra.thomas@xtra.co.nz 

Kimberly Vickers 

128 Sherburn Road 

Severna Park, D 21146 

kim.vickers@verizon.net 

Class Agent needed. 

Anyone interested can email 

beth.johnson@uwc.net. 

After a couple of years working on 

his own, Luis Amor has returned to 

the corporate world, working for a 

2005 M O N T E Z U M A R E U N I O N 

Make plans to return to Montezuma in August. 

While this year’s reunion will celebrate the classes of ’85, ’90, ’95 and ’00, ALL GRADUATES ARE MOST WELCOME! 

Friday, August 5th – Monday, August 8th 

Optional Two-Day Extended Stay Monday, August 8th - Wednesday, August 10th 

Registration Information 

Early bird registration: Register by June 10th, and the per person reunion 

registration fee is $200.00, or $315.00 for the extended stay option. 

After June 10th but by July 15th: The registration fee per person is $225.00 

or $340.00 for the extended stay option. 

The registration fee per person after July 15th is $250.00 or $365.00 for the 

extended stay option. 

For more information and to register now, visit the UWC-USA website: 

www.uwc-usa.org and click on 2005 Reunion. 

REGISTER EARLY AND SAVE! 

We must have a commitment from a minimum of 30 paying reunion participants 

in order to offer the optional two-day extended stay package. 

Registration deadline for the Extended Stay is July 1, 2005. 

German company as the manager of 

the Quality Department. He and his 

wife, Itza are living comfortably in 

Mexico City with their son Ecab 

who is growing by the minute! Luis 

says, “All are welcome regardless of 

the year of graduation.” Although 

Ed Burns still works for NASA, he 

has retired as a class agent. Thanks 

to Ed for all his hard work, especially 

with planning the Class of 1984’s 

incredible 20-year reunion. The 

other class agent, Sandra Thomas 

may be looking for a break as well 

because. . . she just became a mom! 

Sandra and her partner, Matt 

Whineray, welcomed the birth of 

their daughter, Tess Amy Whineray 

on January 12, 2005. So, if anyone 

else would like to step forward and 

give Sandra some “maternity leave” 

as a class agent—contact Kim 

Vickers who returned as class agent 

from an almost 10 year hiatus. 

Andres Franco is still in Peru as 

UNICEF Representative but has 

been visiting some old UWC friends 

throughout Latin America. He had 

dinner with Jose Pablo Pineda, 

Luis Amor and their respective 

Marcelo Calliari ‘84 and Sandra Thomas ‘84 

during his visit to Auckland, New Zealand in 

October 2004. 


wives. Andres reports that while in 

Colombia in December 2004, he 

shared breakfast with former 

teacher, Ivan Mustain and his wife 

Marissa Leon ’86. Ivan plans to see 

another former faculty, Charles 

Hanson, early in 2005. Jaana 

Remes and Andrés Reséndez ’85 

are very happy with their children, 

Samuel (6) and Vera (4). Andrés just 

published his book Changing 

National Identities at the Frontier. 

Jaana works for the McKinsey 

Global Institute. The two welcome 

visitors to Davis, California. Sandra 

Thomas had her own UWC 

encounter in October 2004, when 

Marcelo Calliari visited New 

Zealand for the International Bar 

Association Conference. Marcelo 

now works for a large law firm in 

Sao Paulo, where he is one of the 

partners in charge of antitrust and 

international trade. Lousewies van 

der Laan visited Washington, DC in 

February ’05 to study anti-terrorism 

while also visiting her sister 

Nanette van der Laan ’86 who 

recently moved to the area. Kim 

Vickers sat at the same table as 

Andrea Tisi at the UWC Trustee 

dinner in DC back in November. 

Both said, “It was great to see one 

another again so soon after 

reunion.” 

Please visit the newly created Class 

of 1984 website at www.uwcalumni.org 

to share photos and news. 

1985 

Helen Durham 

29 Goodhope Street 

Paddington, NSW 2021 

AUSTRALIA 

hdur4534@mail.usyd.edu.au 

Saïf-Deen Akanni is splitting his 

time between London, Bristol and 

Lund, Sweden. He is in the process 


of buying a house 

in the London 

area. He still consults 

in the aerodynamicsdepartment 

at Airbus 

and dabbles with 

race car aerodynamics 

and yacht 

design. He is too 

busy to get up to 

much mischief. 

He hopes to 

attend the 2005 

Reunion and 

looks forward to 

seeing everyone 

there! He’s also 

trying to arrange his life so he can 

spend more of the year in Barbados. 

He was there for three weeks at 

Christmas and visited with 

Jacqueline Bell and her family. 

Tamer Abdel Gawad says hello to 

everyone. He’s been working in 

New York City for just under a year, 

and would love to meet up with 

anyone passing through or living in 

the area. Charlotte Brenner Zeile 

has no news, apart from the fact that 

she, her husband and three children 

are all planning to attend the 

reunion. Dorrie Brooks also intends 

to make it to the reunion, dragging 

her partner, Helen, and kids along 

with her. Eric Eileraas has been living 

in the San Francisco Bay Area 

for the past few years, working in 

the technology industry. Recent 

changes in the industry have kept 

him busy and having fun, traveling 

to Australia, Europe and India. He 

and Karen Theriot celebrated their 

marriage at Grace Cathedral in San 

Francisco, California on Saturday, 

September 18, 2004 with classmates 

Donald Schaeffer and Tony 

Spearman-Leach ’86. This year 

will bring additional changes, as 

Karen and Eric are relocating back 

to Texas, where they originally met 

several years ago. Eric certainly 

hopes to be at the reunion, but his 


Eric Eileraas '85 and bride Karen Theriot at their reception in the historic 

Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill in San Francisco with UWC friends 

Tony Spearman-Leach '86 (left) and Donald Schaeffer '85 (right). 

summer schedule is pretty hectic 

already. Shawn Forbes is still practicing 

law in the world of international 

private banking. He manages 

the legal department of the local 

branch of a Geneva-based private 

bank. He finds that the writing bug 

continues to bite, and he is publishing 

his first novel in April this year. 

Sometime after mid-March, the 

novel, When Worlds Collide, should 

be available from www.trafford.com. 

Please be on the lookout for it! With 

work (and book commitments), 

Shawn very much doubts he’ll be 

able to make the reunion; but hopes 

to re-establish contact with his 

classmates through his travels. 

Felicity Gallagher lives on a lake 

in the country, an hour’s drive from 

Johannesburg, and loves every 

moment of being a ‘plaas-vrou’. The 

kids, Ellie (5), Cassie (5) and Gus 

(3) are thriving—spending their 

days catching frogs and climbing 

pecan-nut trees. Felicity works half 

Class of 1985 

Montezuma Reunion 

August 2005 

Celebrating 20 Years! 

15


Former UWC faculty Ivan Mustain and Maria Isabel León 

Gomez '87 with daughters, Fiona Isabel (left) and Francesca 

Anais (right). 

days trading futures and options, 

and the other half days with “the 

three monsters”. All her spare time 

is dedicated to establishing an educational 

trust to benefit the local primary 

schools in South Africa, most 

of which have no desks, no chairs 

and no books. She writes: “The glaring, 

terrifying differences between 

the rich and poor in this country 

never ceases to amaze me, as we all 

live within a few kilometers of each 

other. So if anyone has any spare 

cash, or any contacts who would be 

interested in supporting very needy 

schools, please let me know! 

Anything would be welcome.” After 

three years in the San Francisco Bay 

area, Oskari Jaaskelainen and his 

wife Eira, are back in Helsinki, 

Finland. They live in an old wooden 

house close to the city center and 

work close by. Eira works for Nokia 

and Oskari for a local mobile graphics 

startup. Oskari says, “It was 

great to see Paul Moore and his 

wife in San Francisco and we’ll 

surely miss Jaana Remes ’84, 

Andrés Resendez and their two 

children, who are now living in 

Davis, California. In December 

2004 Muctaru Kabba left the U.S. 

after 21 years to return to 

Sierra Leone briefly 

before moving to South 

Africa where his wife 

Christina will be working 

as a professor at the 

University of Pretoria. 

Jennifer Keith and 

Stephen Blanding moved 

to a new home in 

California. Her pediatric 

practice has grown to 

eight offices with twelve 

physicians. Jennifer says, 

“I’m busier than ever with 

our 14 month old boy 

Keagan.” Roger Kenna 

sends greetings from 

Cairo, where he works at 

the U.S. Embassy on 

human rights and democracy 

issues. He and his wife Lisa, 

who also works for the State 

Department, have two girls, Amelia 

(7) and Isabel (4). Prior to Cairo, 

Roger worked in Peshawar, Pakistan 

(1999-2002) and Mbabane, 

Swaziland (2002-2004). He welcomes 

contact with any UWC-USA 

alumni, especially those planning to 

visit Cairo. Stephan Klasen plans 

to attend the 2005 Reunion with his 

family and would love to see many 

of his classmates there. After completing 

her MS in State, Society and 

Development at the School of 

Oriental and African Studies, 

Nobumi Kobayashi-Hillary now 

works as a senior research analyst 

for Commonwealth Business 

Council Technologies in London, 

creating a new research publishing 

program that focuses on assisting 

development by connecting the private 

sector with government. Her 

husband Mark recently published 

the first major book analyzing the 

processes involved in outsourcing to 

India. Katarzyna Koslinska 

Buchen lives in Manhattan with her 

husband Daniel, their two sons 

(Julian and Kasper) and two dogs 

(Lola and Gustave). She graduated 

in 1994 from Columbia Law School 

and is now a patent and trademark 

attorney, specializing in pharmaceutical 

patents. Kasia is expecting her 

third child at the beginning of July, 

which may complicate her plans to 

attend the 2005 Reunion. Sandy 

Lowitt has been redeployed from 

the Department of Finance to the 

Department of Science and 

Technology with the South African 

government, where she’s been allocated 

two years to redesign the legislation, 

business model and institutional 

structure governing the commercialization 

of publicly funded 

intellectual property. Sandy reports, 

“Since the government is allocating 

increased funds to technology development 

especially in the areas of 

biotechnology, advanced manufacturing 

and poverty education, it’s a 

really interesting project.” On a personal 

note, last December Sandy 

moved into her renovated house. 

She is now moving on to fixing the 

garden (huge but barren) so if any 

horticulturally inclined alumni wish 

to come and visit—the main planting 

season is March to May and 

there are two guest bedrooms available. 

Theotonio Monteiro de 

Barros has recently moved to a 

house with a nice garden. He plans 

to attend the 2005 Reunion and 

hopes to see many of his classmates. 

John 

Morris 

lives in 

Bergen 

County, 

New 

Jersey 

with his 

wife 

Diana and 

their three 

children. 

He is 

Chairman 

and CEO 

of 

Manhattan 

Saif-Deen Akanni '85 and his 

daughter, Sanna, in route to 

the Bahamas for the holidays. 


Sandra Thomas' '85 new little 

girl Tess Amy Whineray 

born January 12, 2005. 


based 

Fulcrum 

Investment 

Group 

which he 

founded 

two years 

ago. 

Fulcrum 

specializes 

in hedge 

funds and 

alternative 

investing. 

His three 

passions 

are his 

family, his 

firm and collecting art. He is in 

touch with Melanie Weston ’86 and 

Jacqueline Bell. At least once a 

year he reunites with Robert Espat 

somewhere in the world for a weeklong 

golf trip. He has also been in 

touch with Saif- Deen Akanni who 

now lives in the UK. Arthur 

Ndhlovu wishes everybody a Happy 

2005 and hopes most will return for 

the 2005 Reunion scheduled for 

August of this year. Besides work 

and attending to his daughter, he’s 

playing a lot of golf. His handicap is 

now 10. Ken Neal moved to the 

Bay area in December 2004 to start 

his own non-profit program working 

with children. Valerie Oke is 

thrilled to announce the birth of her 

first child, Neil Beverley Wagner- 

Oke, in August. His middle name, 

Beverley, was Valerie’s father’s 

name. Many of you knew Valerie’s 

parents and Valerie is sad to report 

that her dad died last March. Her 

mother, however, is doing well and 

still very active. Valerie took about 

two months off when Neil was born 

and then worked part time for the 

rest of the semester. With the New 

Year, she is back at her job as a 

biology professor full time. So far 

the juggling act is working! Xavier 

Preud’homme is completing his 

fourth year of residency in Medicine 

and Psychiatry at Duke. He initially 

trained as a psychiatrist and practiced 

in Brussels for a few years 

prior to moving back to the US. 

During the American Psychiatry 

Association meeting in May 2004 in 

NYC, Xavier had the opportunity to 

meet with Bjorn Bjerke who is 

doing well and has an impressive 

collection of pictures of his kids in 

his office. Right now everything is 

new in Diana Quilarque’s life. She 

decided to move to Canada (from 

Venezuela), with her husband and 

two sons, 4 and 7 years old. They 

have been in Mississauga, close to 

Toronto, for 10 months. After studying 

psychology, Diana had her own 

consultancy firm developing and 

facilitating corporate training programs. 

Helle Ringaard lives a family 

life at a farm with her (second) 

husband, two children, hens and 

cats. She left her career in journalism 

and expects to complete her 

training as a school teacher in 

August 2006. Helen Rowlands still 

lives in The Hague, and hopes to 

attend the reunion for the first time 

this year. Helen Durham has finally 

completed her law studies. Please let 

Helen know if you have e-mail contact 

details for Mohamed Abdalla 

Amer, Clarissa Avendamo, Glenn 

Bernardo, Dele 

Fasalojo, Lynda 

Girard, Bonnie 

Horie Bennett, 

Nader Ismail Saleh 

Hussein, Koichi 

Hiramoto, Tatjana 

Kosovac, Azita 

Maleki, Meenakshi 

Mani, Clara 

Missick, Alexandra 

Moreno-Vintimilla, 

Susanna Ting Siu- 

Ping or Carolina 

Waters. Talal 

Soghaier is doing 

well and now lives in 

Dubai. He is the 

father of two girls. 

1986 


Rebecca Lloyd 

Erikastrasse 57-A 

Hamburg, 20251 

GERMANY 

rebecca.lloyd@de.pwc.com 

Melanie Weston 

40 West 15th Street Apt. 5A 

New York, New York 10011 

chineygirl@aol.com 

Fahmeeda Gil is on maternity leave 

with her third child—a gorgeous 

boy. Her other two children are 

growing quickly, a son (4) and a 

daughter (2 ½). Fahmeeda hosts 

weekly women’s study circle meetings 

as well as Quranic Arabic and 

Tajweed classes. She’s also organizing 

local fundraising bazaars for her 

son’s Islamic pre-school and raising 

awareness of home education for 

parents. Nanette van der Laan and 

her husband Jamie Coomarasamy 

recently moved from London to 

Chevy Chase, MD with their two 

children, Maya and Finn. While in 

London, Nanette worked as a producer 

for the BBC interview program 

Hard Talk. The program is 

viewed by some 350 million 

Mieneke Smit van Dixhoorn '87 with husband, Timo, and children 

Tobias and Tette. 

17


Carl St. Remy's '88 new 

born son, Javier Aidan St. 

Remy. 

viewers 

and has 

had guests 

like V.S. 

Naipaul, 

Michail 

Gorbachev, 

Rocco 

Buttiglione 

and Daniel 

Liebeskind. This past November 

Melanie Weston visited Argentina 

for a wedding where she visited 

Federico Nazar ’87, his wife 

Josefina and their two daughters. 

During her trip, she had lunch with 

Daniel Kampel ’85, who is married 

and has a newborn daughter. 

Melanie tried to look up Fernando 

Skerl but couldn’t find a working 

phone number for him. Back in 

NYC, she had lunch with Thomas 

Schwingeler as he was visiting 

from Frankfurt for a few days. 

Martin Weiss reports, “Given that 

Munich has the fastest growing airport 

in Europe, Montezuma classmates 

are bound to come here every 

once in a while. If you do, my three 

kids Constantin (9), Cosima (7) and 

Theo (2) will ensure a lively stay for 

anyone...free beer and wurst guaranteed.” 

1987 

Arild Drivdal 

adrivdal@uwc.net 

(email only per his request) 

Karen O’Leary 

Beragh Hill House 

60 Beragh Hill Road 

Derry BT48 8LY 

NORTHERN IRELAND 

K.OLeary@CaldwellRobinson.com 

From Texas, Mike Aaron reports 

that he is to be married on July 4, 

2005, to Carol Stanley. He’s been 

working with a renewable energy 

consultant for the past five years, 

but is in the process of transferring 

to a dual career of dialogue facilitation 

and teaching martial arts. Carla 

Castellanos Bass and her husband 

Ron had twin girls on November 12, 

Isabella and Sofia. “We couldn’t be 

happier and are enjoying every 

moment,” says Carla. “Isabella 

looks like a little peruanita, just like 

mommy, and Sofia looks like a little 

gringuita, just like daddy.” Last 

Axel Kravatsky '88 and the UWC-USA contingent 

at a March 2004 UWC event in Quito, 

Ecuador. 

September, Åke Densert and his 

family moved to Puerto de Santa 

Maria outside Cadiz in southern 

Spain, where his wife, Ruchi is 

posted at a U.S. Naval Base. “I quit 

my job in the U.S. and have spent 

time getting everything organized 

and enjoying some extra time with 

our kids, Alexander (3) and Priya 

(10 months)”, says Åke. However, 

Åke’s “Lutheran work ethic” is 

making itself known to him. So he’s 

looking for work, trying to start up a 

computer business as well as a consulting 

firm using the talents of 

other unemployed professional 

spouses. He and the family live 

close to the beach and plan to be 

there for another 2.5 years. Åke 

says, “Everyone is welcome to stay 

at our house.” When he is not traveling 

to Africa for work, Arild 

Drivdal lives in Washington, DC. In 

December, he came down with 

malaria after visiting Northern 

Kenya, but lived to tell the story. 

Earlier in the fall, he met Mieneke 

Smit Van Dixhoorn and her family 

in South Africa and reports that they 

are all doing great. Abdalla El Said 

is currently on vacation and informs 

everyone that he’ll not be reading 

his email for some time. Changela 

Hoohlo reports that nothing much is 

new except that his son, Maqhawe, 

turned one year-old in December. “I 

just relocated to Shanghai with 

Carlyle,” writes KC Kung. “The 

family moved from Singapore to 

Shanghai, and we are all settling in. 

My wife Rita, the kids, and I all like 

Shanghai quite a lot. It’s an exciting 

place to be. If anyone happens to be 

planning a trip to Shanghai, please 

look us up.” Maria Isabel León 

sends greetings to everyone. She 

continues to work as principal at 

Gimnasio Fontana in Bogota, while 

husband Ivan Mustain works as the 

principal of another bilingual school 

in the city. “As of April 2004, we 

relocated to Newburgh, Indiana, due 

to my husband’s job,” writes Vera 

Siregar. After completing a Latin 

Rene Celaya '88 with his wife, Nancy Wong, 

and sons Mattias (7) and Andreas (4). 

Barbara Burger '88 with husband, Mark 

Schilling, in Honduras, December 2004. 


American research project in August 

2004, Vera is now staying at home 

to take care of son, Alberto (3) full 

time. She says, “In the summer, I 

had the pleasure of seeing Arild 

Drivdal again after almost 17 years 

and meeting his wife Svetlana.” 

Douglas Turner spent the 

Christmas break doing exit polling 

in the Ukraine and reported that it 

was quite an experience. Mieneke 

van Dixhoorn and Timo live happily 

in Johannesburg with their children, 

Tobias and Tette. Meineke 

says, “The city provides lots of 

enjoyment, great foods and tree-densities 

equal to those of forests, so 

lots of fresh air!” In addition, she 

and Timo enjoy the getaways into 

the Drakensberg and towards the 

North to see game of all sorts, 

including South Africa’s big five. 

Timo works for Technoserve, an 

American-based not-for-profit 

organization, setting up various selfsustaining 

farms (vegetables, cotton, 

cashew nuts) in rural areas while 

Klaus Desmet '88, Charmaine Lee '88 and 

Daniel Diguele Jimenez '88 in Spain last spring. 

(Left to right) Paula Nunes PC Alum and her 

husband Gil, newlyweds Fabiana Hanaoka de 

Arruda and Mauricio Arruda '88 and Kurt 

Stuermer '90. 


Mieneke is working as a researcher 

at the University of the 

Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. 

Boyd Waters and Leila Whelan 

’88 welcomed Reagan Alexander in 

March 2003. Since then the two 

have been busy with nothing but 

kids and family. Reagan Gibbs ’86 

and his wife Janice visited them in 

New Mexico this Christmas. 

Marina Wes '88 and her husband Neil with 

their son, Emil Lambert born January 31, 

2005. 

1988 

Ben Thompson 

3300 Sawtelle Boulevard Apt. 105 

Los Angeles, CA 90066-1636 

bent@lobo.net 

Barbie Burger is still a helicopter 

pilot for the U.S. Army and is stationed 

in Honduras. Barbie married 

fellow soldier Mark Schilling in 

November. They’ll be moving 

together to their next duty station in 

Germany. She’s visited several times 

with Rene Celaya and his family. 

Fran Brinn sends greetings from 

New Zealand where she lives in 

Wellington and teaches Clinical 

Psychology at Massey University. 

She, her partner and two cats are 

expecting their first baby in early 

July. She sees Liz Tan ’87 a fair bit, 

but not as much as she’d like since 

Liz’s film career takes her away 

from New Zealand most of the time. 

Since Montezuma, Rene Celaya 


Renata Dwan '88 works at the 

Stockholm International Peace 

Research Institute in Sweden 

where she heads the project on 

Armed Conflict and Conflict 

Management, concentrating on 

non-military aspects of crisis 

management. 

and his family have lived in Russia, 

the Caucasus, NY, and now Central 

America! And they’ll probably be 

on the move again in another few 

years. Rene works with CARE 

International and his wife Nancy is 

a teacher. They have two sons: 

Mattias (7) and Andreas (4). Rene is 

the regional CARE director. Karin 

Christiansen is expecting a baby 

boy in May. She’s working as a 

graphic designer in Copenhagen 

while attempting to retain her love 

of travel once the baby is born. 

Kirsten Cooke Healey and her husband 

Sean welcomed a baby girl, 

Corinna Siobhan in September 

2003. The baby met everyone at 

Mudit Tyagi and Amy Karon’s ’95 

beautiful wedding. Anasuay Dubey 

and her husband Ravi Bhaskaran are 

celebrating their 9th anniversary this 

year. They and their 2 fluffy cats sill 

live in San Francisco. She is in her 

final 2 years of a doctoral program 

in Clinical Psychology. Anasuay 

recently visited with Mukul Kumar 

’89 and hopes to see Uzma Mirza 

in March while traveling to 

Pakistan. Renata Dwan has been in 

Sweden long enough to get a taste 

for fish paste and knäckebröd. 

During 2002-2003 she was with the 

EU, working on the EU’s first foray 

into crisis management in the 

Balkans. She might be on the move 

to New York later this spring, to 

work at the UN Department for 

Peacekeeping Operations. Her partner 

Carl won’t be moving right 

away, so Renata will be commuting 

19


Nicolas Borenstein '88 and Eugénie (3). 

Ben Thompson '88, Ann Petit (Community Service 

Coordinator '94-'95) and their son, Finnegan, at the Grand 

Canyon. 

Igor Morgatchev '88 and his son in Moscow. 

from Stockholm at the start. She 

looks forward to reconnecting with 

Montezumians in New York and 

anyone else passing through! 

Miguel Herrera is happily married 

to his wonderful wife Monika who 

works as an ecologist. They live in 

Chicago and sail as much as they 

can in the summer. Miguel still 

works for a “boring” bank but he 

Anna Ljunggren's '88 daughters, Liv and 

Alva. 

spends a lot of time on the 

board of a micro-credit 

non-profit. He was 

shocked to run into 

Mauricio de Arruda on 

the floor of the NY Stock 

Exchange the other day. 

Small world! Life in the 

Caribbean is still great for 

Axel Kravatsky. He and 

his wife finished building 

a new house in a lush valley 

of northern Trinidad a 

few months ago and there 

is plenty of room for visitors. 

And it’s only 15 minutes 

from the most popular beach on 

the island. So stop in for a visit! 

Over the past year Axel has become 

actively engaged in the UWC movement 

by helping form the Trinidad 

& Tobago National Committee. In 

their first year, they were able to 

offer a full scholarship to the Nordic 

UWC. In his spare time, Axel runs 

the organizational consultancy company 

he founded five years ago 

which takes him throughout the 

Caribbean and Europe. Charmaine 

Lee says hi from Hong Kong where 

she recently visited with Koichiro 

Ambe ’89 and Chor Jye Lee. She 

also traveled to Spain last spring 

where she got to spend time with 

Klaus Desmet and Daniel Diguele 

Jimenez. Anna Ljunggren’s “lat- 

est” news is that she has two little 

girls: Alva, who will be 3 in April, 

and Liv, who turns 1 in March. 

Sweden’s generous maternity and 

paternity leave regulations have 

allowed Anna and her husband 

Martin to be home with the girls for 

their first years. Anna’s surprised by 

how much she enjoys being a 

housewife-mom. She loves being 

able to spend so much time with the 

girls! Igor Morgatchev is a successful 

entrepreneur who consults 

on trade financing and IT projects. 

His latest venture is a tour company 

that specializes in deluxe properties 

worldwide. Carl St. Remy and his 

wife Ada are celebrating the birth of 

their second child. Javier Aidan St. 

Remy was born December 14, 2004 

and weighed 7lbs 5 oz. Javier’s 

older sister, Lily, is “unfazed” by the 

new addition to the family. Ben 

Thompson and his wife Ann Petit 

are still celebrating the birth of their 

first child Finnegan Leo Thompson, 

who was born September 29, 2004. 

Ben’s still in graduate school at 

UCLA, which allows him to stay 

home with Ann and play with 

Finnegan when he should be working 

on his writing. Marina Wes and 

her husband Neil had a baby boy, 

Emil Lambert on January 31st. He 

weighed nearly 9 pounds. Their new 

baby greets the world in 

Washington, DC, where Marina 

works for the World Bank. 

1989 

Gina Neff 

858 Moraga Drive, Apt. 3 

Los Angeles, CA 90049-1671 

ginasue@panix.com 

Gerardo Banuet currently lives in 

Boiro, La Coruña, Spain, working as 

an export manager for a local company 

there. In July 2004 Cesar 

Castillo and his wife Zoe (a periodontist) 

contributed to “Operation 


Smile” during a four day session of 

volunteer work in a public hospital 

located in Barcelona, on the 

Northeastern side of Venezuela’s 

Caribbean coast. This worldwide 

movement aims to correct facial 

birth defects on babies from poor 

background families, by means of 

free surgical procedures. “It was a 

very gratifying experience, although 

very exhausting,” writes Cesar. On 

Saturday, September 18th, Alon 

Magen and Seagal welcomed Ori. 

The birth was natural with no pain 

killers, although Alon reported he 

needed some himself. Gina Neff 

moved to San Diego, where she 

works as an Assistant Professor in 

the Department of Communication 

at the University of California, San 

Diego. She’s back to teaching economics 

classes on the Internet 

industry and on The New Economy. 

She and her fiancé, Philip Howard, 

are planning a big wedding in 

Kentucky in June. She hopes everybody 

can make it. Pontus Rosén 

lives in a suburb of London now 

with his wife, Emilda. She is a journalist 

at the BBC. Pontus works as 

an Operations Manager at the 

Foundling Museum. The museum 

recently had its royal opening with 

Koichiro Ambe '89, Charmaine Lee '88 and 

Chor Jye Lee '88 in Hong Kong, October 2004. 

Owain Harvey '89 with his lovely baby girl 

born in early November 2004. 


Prince Charles (just like when the 

UWC-USA opened). See the news at 

www.princeofwales.gov.uk/news/200 

4/09.sep/foundling.php. Jenny 

Smith and her partner are expecting 

their second baby in March. They’re 

living in Somerset, UK where Dr. 

Jenny is training in General and 

Vascular surgery, and about to deliver 

her thesis on optical diagnostics 

in breast cancer. Oscar Ugalde 

graduated in 2003 with a Master’s 

in Development Economics from 

the Institute of Social Studies in The 

Netherlands. He now works in education 

at Long Island University in 

the Friends World Program’s Latin 

American Center. Jan Wilhelm 

completed his Pediatric Residency 

at Chile’s Catholic University in 

April 2000. He and Silvana 

Droppelmam married in May 2003. 

The following September, Jan started 

his fellowship training in 

Infectious Diseases at the University 

of Alabama. 

1990 

Lance Meister 

122 Summer Street 

Waltham, MA 02452 

lanceandgabi@comcast.net 

David Collison and Sandra 

Gastanaduy-Collison are doing 

very well, still living in Houston, 

TX. Their first child, Elena Sofia 

Collison was born in April 2004. 

“She’s absolutely adorable and into 

everything already,” say both David 

and Sandy. Sandra received her JD 

at University of Houston Law 

Center last year and is studying to 

take the bar while David works as a 

Senior Training Engineer with five 

people on his team. Last year the 

two discovered that Mohan 

Ambikaipaker ’91 had been living 

in Austin, TX with his wife Briana 

for a couple of years. Sandra also 

gets together with Paola Asbun 


Nicole Romer '90 visiting Dinesh Shrestha 

'90 in Nepal. 

Catherine Jheon '90 made her 

national television debut in 

October 2004 on CBC 

Newsworld in Toronto, Canada. 

who is living in Houston with her 

husband and her three children. 

Paola’s youngest, Samuel and Elena 

Sofia are the same age (8 months). 

Henry Everts recently moved to 

Athens to begin working with the 

Intercontinental Athens Hotel. 

Havovi Framji Tavadia and her 

husband Erich visited Park City, 

Utah for the first time to ski. Havovi 

is busy with her children along with 

their music, piano and swimming 

activities while Erich manages his 

new business in home electronics 

and computing. Julia Heimberg 

Putzier recently worked with the 

German committee pre-selecting 

new students. She and her family 

recently moved to a neighboring 

town in Germany. Her children Paul 

(4) and Philippa (17 months) are 

doing great! She says, “Please come 

by!” Gaurav Kumar is currently 

living in Baltimore, where he works 

as the medical director of a pediatric 

clinic. He returned to the city two 

years ago after working on the 

Navajo reservation in New Mexico 

and Arizona on a large project that 

evaluated the impact of a new vaccine 

against streptococcus pneumonia 

(the primary cause of meningitis, 

21


Class of 1990 


August 2005 


blood infections, pneumonia and ear 

infections in children in the US). As 

a result of this study and a similar 

study in California, this vaccine is 

now part of the routine immunization 

schedule in the US. Now that 

Gaurav is in Baltimore, he’s desperately 

seeking contact with fellow 

UWCers especially Montezumans of 

the classes that graduated in ’85-’87 

and ’91 and ’92. It was great to see 

some of them, including Gavin 

Dock ’86, Arild Drivdal ’87, 

Karen Taylor ’87 and Heather 

Deutsch ’92 at the Pearson HooHaa 

in DC a few months ago. Jenny 

Lovitt-Riggs recently moved to 

Jacksonville, Florida. Son, Jack is 

nearly two with a baby brother or 

sister due in late June/July. Jenny’s 

other baby Nota Bene (shoes for 

women) is going great. Rami May- 

Ron visited Lance Meister in 

November in Boston, where he fulfilled 

his lifelong ambition of seeing 

the Boston Celtics, his favorite NBA 

team, play for the first time! Liliana 

Ortega is still in Spain. She and 

Gabriel are very excited about their 

baby, expected in August. Liliana 

says, “I feel great!” Nicole Romer 

traveled to Nepal with her mom earlier 

this year, spending two weeks 

with Dinesh Shrestha ’90 and his 

family in Kathmandu. While there, 

one of Dinesh’s five brothers was 

married, providing the opportunity 

for all to witness the entire traditional 

Nepali week of ceremonies. 

Dinesh works with a non-profit 

organization, researching child labor 

issues while managing his own great 

little bar/restaurant in Kathmandu 

called “Jatra” in the evenings. 

Emmanuelle Abrioux ’89 also lives 

in Kathmandu with her husband. 

Nicole says, “Emmanuelle is doing 

great and has a beautiful one-yearold 

baby boy, Noah.” Emmanuelle 

works for Save the Children and 

travels all over India, Sri Lanka and 

South Eastern Asia. Kurt 

Stuermer sends his regards from 

down in São Paulo, Brazil. Jarreas 

Underwood ’90 married Jennifer 

Brown on August 1, 2004. “Yar” 

works for the Jefferson National 

Acceleration Facility in Newport 

News, Virginia. 

1991 

A UWC mini reunion in San Francisco with Class of 1990 

alumni - Sophie Mosko, Kyriell Muhammed, Mike Brown, 

Anneka Swinehart '91 and Katherine Alendal. 

Max Jones 

813 Independence Drive 

Albaster, AL 35007 

misterplow@mindspring.com 

In November 2004, Paul 

Bjerk visited the Simón 

Bolívar UWC in 

Venezuela with a 

Tanzanian Member of 

Parliament and the 

Director of the Mwalimu 

Nyerere Foundation to 

investigate the possibility 

of establishing another 

vocational/agricultural 

UWC in Tanzania named 

for Julius Nyerere, the 

first president of Tanzania. 

(Left to right) Christian Olsen '91, groom - 

Harald Tuckermann '92 and Chris Palm '92 in 

December 2004. 

They visited the campus, met with 

Dr. Luis Marcano Coello, the 

founder of the college, and attended 

a wonderful Christmas concert hosted 

by Dr. Marcano Coello’s family 

(who produces such a concert every 

year, performing at hospitals and 

orphanages). After leaving Los 

Angeles to spend three years working 

in San Francisco, Michelle 

Brathwaite returned home to 

Barbados in 2003. In December of 

2004, she finished a stint as the inhouse 

counsel for a large bank there 

and is looking forward to her next 

professional pursuit. Stina 

Bridgeman is teaching computer 

science at Hobart & William Smith 

Colleges. She and her partner 

Elizabeth are enjoying home ownership 

after many years of apartment 

living. Stina says, “We now have 

room for visitors, should anyone be 

traveling through the Finger Lakes 

region of upstate New York.” Julia 

Broehl Hesse is back in the UWC 

loop thanks to Mike Taylor who 

recently located her. She’s an attorney 

practicing health care law at 

Choate, Hall & Stewart, living in 

suburban Boston with her husband 

Randy and their children Jacob (7) 

and Madeline (3). Julia’s very excited 

by the prospect of getting more 

involved with UWC again and 

encourages all Boston-area UWC 

alumni to contact her. She says, “I’d 

love to organize a happy hour or 

other social gathering.” After five 

years on the Isle of Skye, Ian 


(Left to right) Camila D'Araujo Olsen '91, 

bride - Bertha Camacho '93, and Gema Diaz 

'91 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. 

Chisholm and his family have 

returned from Scotland to live on 

Vancouver Island. Ian was recently 

named a Fellow of Columba 1400, 

the organization he served as CEO 

since 2000. He recently established 

his own company, The Roy Group, 

and hopes that lots of classmates 

will come to visit. Emiliano Fiori 

still lives in Paris and hopes to see 

any UWC alumni who may be passing 

through the city. Last year, he 

had the opportunity to visit with 

Michael Sugar when he was traveling 

on business. Ilyanna Kreske 

reports that she and her husband are 

expecting their second child in July 

2005. Andre Machado and his wife 

Sandra are both in Cleveland, Ohio 

working in the medical field. Andre 

writes, “It’s funny that I used to hate 

winter and ended up in Cleveland, 

isn’t it?” John Manton finished 

2004 with both a new daughter and 

a new title. He and his wife Marion 

welcomed little Evie to the world 

last October, and John recently started 

a postdoctoral research fellowship 

at Oxford. He also reports that 

he met up with Tracey Carter and 

Paul Bjerk at the African Studies 

Association Annual Meeting in New 

Orleans in November of 2004. 

Christian Olsen and Camila 

D’Araujo Olsen have stayed in 

touch with several classmates, 

including Heidi Rhoderick and her 

husband David as well as the elusive 

Newman Horton (who may be 

headed to Brazil). The Olsens are 


currently in Bolivia with Gema 

Diaz, who is working as an architect 

near Lake Titicaca. They joined 

Chris Palm ’92 at the wedding of 

Harald Tuckerman ’92 and Bertha 

Camacho ’93. Vjera Pavicevic is 

completing her studies in civil engineering 

and sends her best wishes to 

everyone. Though he has been doing 

quite a bit of traveling over the past 

few months, Vivek Satsangi and his 

family (including his son Neil) are 

still living in Rochester, New York, 

where they recently purchased a 

home. Michael Taylor managed to 

see Trevor Hallstein and Minette 

Hillyer as well as Jorge Oria in 

New York City recently. He reports 

that they are all doing well-Minette 

is studying for her doctorate in film 

studies, and Jorge has worked with a 

New York City law firm for a year 

since receiving his Master’s in Law 

at Columbia University. 

1992 

Liliana Lezcano Frutos 

Benjamin Constant 835 c/ Ayolas 

Edificio Jacaranda - 4th Floor 

Asuncion 

PARAGUAY 

liliana.lezcano@berke.com.py 

Carla Castañeda has been living in 

Bradford, northern England, with 

husband Peter since September of 

last year. In 

October, she 

bumped into 

Claudia 

Vincenzi at the 

local gym. 

Claudia has been 

living in 

Bradford for four 

years. Claudia 

and Carla have 

been hanging out 

from time to 

time, including at 

Carla’s 30th 


birthday party in December. As part 

of her Master’s studies in Conflict 

Resolution, Carla is traveling to Sri 

Lanka in March and Northern 

Ireland in April. Carla says, “The 

trip to Sri Lanka will come at a difficult 

time—not only a country 

recovering from a natural disaster 

but still a country in conflict.” 

Heather Christine Deutsch completed 

her Master’s in Urban 

Planning. She returned to 

Washington, DC where she purchased 

a house. Heather says, 

“Anyone is welcome to stay but be 

forewarned that it is a work-inprogress.” 

Xavier Furtado reports 

that he and his wife, Carrie Lee, 

have settled into Addis Ababa, 

Ethiopia rather well. Xavier is posted 

there with the Canadian 

International Development Agency 

and is situated in the Canadian 

Embassy. Since being in Ethiopia, 

Xavier received a visit from Sophie 

Mosko ’90. Xavier has also been in 

touch with Mirko Deponti ’93 who 

is posted with the Royal 

Netherlands Embassy in Asmara, 

Eritrea. He looks forward to more 

visits from UWC friends as well as 

his future participation with the 

UWC Ethiopian National 

Committee. Kristine Hauge 

Storholt graduated from University 

of Kent in Canterbury in 1996 with 

a B.A. in Development Studies and 

received a Master’s from Johns 

The UWC Bolivian network at the wedding reception of Bertha 

Camacho '93 and Harald Tuckerman '92. 

23


Zvezda Chan Van Pelt '93, Dan Van Pelt and Mariana 

Estelle Van Pelt in their home in Washington, DC. 

Hopkins University - School of 

Advanced International Studies 

(SAIS) in 1998. The following two 

years, she worked for the World 

Bank in conflict affected countries 

in Africa. She now lives in Norway, 

and is currently on a secondment 

from the Research Council of 

Norway to NORAD, the Norwegian 

Agency for Development 

Cooperation. Kristine and her husband 

Lasse had a daughter, Ada 

Amina, in July 2003. Among many 

changes this fall, the family moved 

to a house by the sea. She says, 

“Everyone is welcome to visit!” 

Each summer, Kristin and Idun 

Munkejord ’91 visit with their families. 

Michael Fuchs is still in 

Barcelona making a living in “new” 

media with UrbanJunkies.com 

although cheating occasionally by 

doing some freelance management 

consulting gigs. He spends a lot of 

time in London where he regularly 

sees Astrid Nellemann ’93, who’s 

back in investment banking, working 

with Goldman Sachs after completing 

her Master’s at Wharton this 

past summer. He also visited with 

Miguel A. Rivera ’92 who’s living 

in Paris. Mirjam Müeller 

Leuchtenberger recently completed 

medical school and is now practicing 

medicine at the University of 

Heidelberg in Germany. She’s in the 

final days of finishing her 

doctoral thesis. Mirjam is 

engaged to Andreas 

Reuland (not a UWCer). 

Their marriage is planned 

for sometime next year. 

Chris Palm opened a 

gallery specializing in fine 

art photography in 

Singapore. He invites all 

UWCers to visit on their 

way through Asia. He’s 

traveled to Bolivia to 

attend Harald 

Tuckermann’s and 

Bertha Camacho’s ’93 

wedding celebration in 

December 2004. 

1993 

Bertha Camacho 

Casilla 6199 

La Paz 

BOLIVIA 

bcamacho_74@yahoo.com 

Samir Abhyankar still lives in 

London. He’s moved in and out of 

consulting and is now working in 

development, this time with CDC 

Capital Partners, an emerging markets 

fund that focuses on Sub- 

Saharan Africa and South Asia. 

Marjan Anwar sends greetings 

from Toronto, Canada! 

Asim (her husband) and 

she just celebrated their 

3rd wedding anniversary 

on December 29th. Last 

summer, the two traveled 

to Pakistan for 3 weeks, 

visiting with family and 

friends. Then in the fall, 

they visited Barcelona, 

Spain. Marjan is working 

as a Project Manager at 

Apotex, which is 

Canada’s largest generic 

pharmaceutical manufac- 

turer and enjoys her work. 

She also teaches an 

evening Project Management course 

in Canada as part of a group of 

Instructors for Boston University. 

Bertha Camacho met Xavier 

Furtado ’92, his wife Carrie Lee 

and his sister-in-law last August in 

Koblenz, Germany while they were 

vacationing before moving to 

Ethiopia. After that, Bertha spent 

two months in Santiago de Cuba 

working as a consultant for a 

German NGO in a Rural 

Development Project. In December, 

Bertha and Harald Tuckermann 

’92 celebrated their marriage in 

Cochabamba, Bolivia. The two 

shared their special moment with 

good UWC friends, Chris Palm ’92 

(who came all the way from 

Singapore), Camila D’Araujo 

Olsen ’91 (who came from Brazil), 

Christian Olsen ’91 (who was in 

Lesotho) and Gema Diaz ’91 and 

Adriana Zegarra ’96 (who both 

currently live in Bolivia). All of 

them and some other friends traveled 

through Bolivia to the jungle 

and some cities in Bolivia. This 

gathering provided Harald and some 

friends (from his home village) with 

the opportunity to run up mountains 

higher than 5000 meters. Harald is 

back in Switzerland, completing his 

Ph.D. while Bertha is actively job 

searching. Gerco Bosch ’92 graduated 

from veterinarian school and is 

Chiko Tanaka Ikeda '93 with her husband, Takao and children, 

Yuto (4) and Leo (2). 


Tamas Orban '93, Kalpa Shah '93 and her boyfriend Errol in 

New York City. 

now specializing in Equine Surgery. 

Next year, Gerco will start a Ph.D. 

program, specifically the repair of 

tendon lesions in horses. He and his 

wife live close to Utrecht in a small 

village with their daughter Julie, 

born in February. Zvezda Chan 

Van Pelt and her husband Dan Van 

Pelt celebrated the birth of their 

daughter, Mariana Estelle on July 

23, 2005 in Washington, DC. Jason 

Coady has exciting news. His wife 

and he are expecting their first child 

in early May! Tala de los Santos is 

still in Seattle completing her 

Master’s in Business Administration 

in March 2005. After graduation, 

she plans to work in business development 

for PATH a non-profit, 

improving global health. In October, 

Tala visited Kalpa Shah who is 

studying for her Master’s at 

Columbia University. Jason Dinger 

and Kristen Keely Dinger welcomed 

with great joy Luke Willem Dinger 

born August 27, 2004. Juan Carlos 

Fuenmayor finished his MBA at 

INSEAD in France last December. 

He was married in Venezuela on 

February 12th. He then plans to 

move to South Korea, working in 

Global Strategy for Samsung. 

Steven Golding completed his 

Bachelor’s in Philosophy at Johns 

Hopkins University in 1997. He 

then worked as a network analyst 


for four years at Rutgers 

University before leasing 

and operating an 

Ethiopian Restaurant in 

New York City for two 

years. Steven served on 

the board of trustees for 

the Universal Negro 

Improvement 

Association & African 

Communities League 

and the African 

Orthodox Church while 

living in Harlem. He 

recently opened an 

African Restaurant in 

Kingston, Jamaica while 

continuing his work as 

Commissioner to Jamaica of the 

UNIA-ACL. He’s considering a run 

for office as a member of parliament 

in 2007. Anyone coming to Jamaica 

should look him up. Ferdinando 

Menga published his first book in 

November 2004 in Italy. The title 

(in English) is The Passion of Delay, 

Within Heidegger’s Confrontation 

with Nietzsche. He still lives in 

Tuebingen, Germany, working on 

his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the Ruhr 

University in Bochum. Nghia 

Nguyen marched the streets and 

danced with Rebecca Bray where 

(according to Nghia) she does both 

wonderfully. Nghia visited many of 

his UWC friends over the last year: 

he discussed the finer points of the 

labor movement along with the subtleties 

of Las Vegas with Pilar 

Weiss ’94; he and Katie Romich 

’94 planned “the revolution” while 

in Mexico, where she won the salsa 

contest and most importantly, the 

Mezcal prize; he held and cooed 

Peter Yeoman’s (wilderness intern 

’93) baby girl, Ada Ruby, and 

Kiersten Johnson Ambach’s 

daughter, Elke; he saw a spirited 

Kalpa Shah on the wild streets of 

Manhattan on New Year’s Eve; he 

shared many beers with Melanie 

Bush in Austin, Texas toasting their 

31 years of age; he noted that Matt 


Morse has many cute boys to raise 

in North Carolina; he raised a toast 

to Aura Kanegis ’92 for her general 

tremendous-ness and wished best 

blessings to Rebecca Rogers ’92; 

and he shared many a meal with 

Sarah Lancaster in swing-state 

Minnesota during the pre-election 

months to discuss the failed presidency 

of George Bush with voting 

union members. Tamas Orban is 

still in Heidelberg, working as a 

postdoctoral fellow at European 

Molecular Biology Laboratory 

(EMBL). Last September, he visited 

Kalpa Shah in New York. She’s 

well and is busy as usual (still 

studying although she gave up on 

biology). The two enjoyed remembering 

school times. Neil Pyper still 

lives in Oxford where he works as a 

Latin America Editor at Oxford 

Analytica while studying part-time 

with the Open University. He continues 

to enjoy living and working 

there where he reports, “Life is generally 

good.” Kalpa Shah spent 

some months in Ecuador and now is 

back in Columbia. Sergio Tjong 

Alvarez shares some happy news. 

He and Shira Braunstein, whom he 

met in Jerusalem a bit over a year 

ago, were married on March 8th in a 

kibbutz outside of Beit Shemesh, a 

city between Jerusalem and Tel 

Aviv. Following the wedding they 

hope to have additional celebrations 

with family in California and the 

Netherlands. Sergio returned to the 

job search following a two year sabbatical 

to study at Yeshiva 

University in Jerusalem. He’s currently 

working with new immigrants 

Correction from Last Issue: 

Kaleidoscope 

Fall 2004, Volume 30 

Montezuma Post, Page 22 

Katrin Bennhold '93 is living in 

Paris with Tomas Grace AC '93. 

25


from China to Jerusalem, allowing 

him to keep up his Chinese, with 

hopes of working in China longterm. 

1994 

Aly Kassam-Remtulla 

140 S. Dearborn Street, Suite 1200 

Chicago, IL 60603 

617-548-7039 (cell) 

aremtulla@stanfordalumni.org 

Lee Bruce Douglas reports: “My 

husband has decided to make a 

career as a Navy Submarine Officer 

so we moved to Groton, CT (from 

San Diego) at the end of February 

instead of New York in August. 

Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to see 

all the folks in the northeast while I 

am out that way as I will be working 

part-time at most.” Jennifer 

Dykstra Mink is headed back to 

Memphis in July to join the Raleigh 

Pediatric Group. Her husband 

Wayne will be the newest attorney 

at Apperson Crump Attorneys at 

Law. Their son Walter and puppy 

Angus are looking forward to the 

big backyard of the home they are 

building as well as being closer to 

grandma and grandpa. Any UWCers 

are welcome to their guest room if 

passing through. Agnieszka 

Kajrukszto traveled to Montezuma 

for the reunion this past summer. 

She says, “I had a blast!” In January 

2005 she returned to campus again, 

at the invitation of Hannah Tyson, to 

Jude Uzonwanne '94 with Ellen and newborn 

son, Damien Javier. 

facilitate a weekend of practical 

activism workshops with the assistance 

of Naomi Swinton ’89. 

Agnieszka hopes to foster progressive 

political involvement with 

UWC students and alumni. She’s 

now back in NYC teaching political 

science to undergraduates while 

struggling to find time to write her 

dissertation. Martin Mok is working 

in the private equity field in 

Hong Kong after a stint at 

McKinsey and Company. Marilla 

Pettman Swift spent Christmas 

doing an off track crossing of the 

Victoria Range on the South Island 

of New Zealand. Koru (her dog) and 

Marilla continue to train as a wilderness 

SAR team and are close to 

Aly Kassam-Remtulla '94 

joined the MacArthur 

Foundation in November 2004 

as a Program Officer and 

Special Assistant to the 

President. He also now serves 

on the boards of the ACLU of 

Illinois and the National Board 

of Governors of the Human 

Rights Campaign. 

qualification standards now. She’s 

busy mountain biking and climbing, 

and preparing a ski trip to Park City, 

Utah with her husband, Graeme. He 

still enjoys teaching outdoor education. 

Marilla just started a Master’s 

in the Physiology of Ultra- 

Endurance Sport. Aly Kassam- 

Remtulla moved to Chicago in 

November to join the MacArthur 

Foundation. He says, “I’m having a 

ball!” He spent Thanksgiving with 

Preeta Samarasan and her husband 

Rob Whelan in Ann Arbor, 

Michigan where Preeta has started 

an MFA in Creative Writing. The 

three of them plan to vacation in 

Australia, December 2005. They 

hope to 

catch up 

with 

UWCers 

there. 

Katie 

Romich is 

busy in 

Texas 

attempting 

to overturn 

a 

state law 

passed last 

session 

that would 

privatize 

the Texas Department of Human 

Services and close two thirds of the 

offices to the public. She is looking 

for organizers, if anyone wants to 

move to Texas! Katie continues to 

play capoeira but fears she looks 

pretty silly doing it. Her Portuguese, 

however, is improving. She just 

saw Liane Lohde Asta and Pilar 

Weiss in DC in December. Katie 

and Liane spent New Year’s together 

in Texas. Congratulations to 

Annelise Sprenger who married 

Sander Kroeze on November 27, 

2004. Eva Hoffman and her husband 

Ben were there to celebrate 

with the newlyweds. The couple is 

expecting a baby in early May 2005. 

Also congratulations to Vera 

Varhegyi who moved from 

Barcelona back to Budapest and was 

married on September 10, 2004. 

1995 

Marilla Pettman Swift '94 with 

Graeme and their dog, Koru. 

Kathryn Holmgaard Shaffner 

5316 Brookstone Lane 

Virginia Beach, VA 23455 

kafryn99@yahoo.com 

Mohammed Abu Zaid recently 

joined the ranks of the married 

when he wed his beautiful bride 

Majd on December 9, 2004 in 

Jordan. The couple now live in 


Isa Benitez and Carlos Varela Manzano (both 

'95) in NYC this past December. 

Boston where Majd is happily 

adjusting to life in the U.S. Ricky 

Aguilar is enjoying ‘Florida life’ 

with his wife. They spent Christmas 

in Guatemala and are planning to 

visit Italy and Germany in 2005. 

They are also in the process of 

building a house! Paulina Ahues 

moved to Atlanta in August and 

works at Emory University’s 

Vaccine Center researching HIV. 

She hopes to study for her Ph.D. 

while there. Isabel Astroza Zuñiga 

is a proud new mom. She gave birth 

to a daughter, Rayen, on November 

9, 2004. She regrets that she’ll most 

likely not attend the reunion with a 

new baby in her life. She is however 

looking forward to a visit with 

Maria Almond ’96 who will be 

doing a rural medical internship 

nearby. Paola Babos is currently in 

Trento, Italy working as a policy 

analyst on local development in 

Central Eastern Europe and the 

Balkans for the OECD. Before moving 

there last March, she spent some 

three years working in the Balkans, 

first on a gender project in 

Belgrade/Serbia, and then with 

UNHCR in Prishtine/Kosovo working 

on the return of minorities. 

Class of 1995 


August 2005 



Emre Bayrak is living in Ankara, 

Turkey working for the Ministry of 

Transport as a European Union specialist 

as well as working on his 

Ph.D. in International Relations. Isa 

Benitez was living in New Jersey 

for a month, working for Unilever. 

However, her stay in NJ was shortlived 

since Isa was relocated to 

Connecticut. She met up with 

Carlos Varela Manzano in New 

York recently and reports that he is 

doing well. Dario Betti has been 

working in London for the last five 

Mohammed Abu Zaid '95 and Majd in Jordan 

on their wedding day, December 9, 2004. 

years in a consultancy, specializing 

in new media/mobile phones. Marie 

Bourgeois recently changed jobs 

and is now working for 

the ‘Rural Foundation of 

Wallonia” (which is a 

region in Belgium). She is 

in charge of European 

programs dealing with 

rural development. She’s 

quite happy with the job 

and enjoys cycling to the 

office which is just about 

5 kilometers away. Nari 

Bowie lives with her husband 

in New York since 

last May. She works with 

an advertising firm on 

Park Avenue helping to 

create ad campaigns for 


pharmaceutical companies. Though 

the work hours are brutal, she and 

her husband did squeeze in some 

time to safari in Kenya’s Masai 

Mara, a visit which helped Nari better 

appreciate the preciousness of 

nature. Liza Carroll Thiel is now 

married and is in her first year of a 

pediatric residency in Wisconsin. 

She is considering specializing in 

pulmonary/allergy-immunology. 

Martin Clutterbuck sends news of 

Azzurra Carpo’s Lima wedding 

which he attended as did Gisele 

Cuglievan ’94 and Gert Danielsen 

’96. As for Martin himself, he is still 

holding down the fort in Buenos 

Aires. Conrad Dombrowski lives 

in Cortes Island, a small place off 

the west coast of Canada, where he 

lives with his wife and his two children, 

Osha (4) and Aislin (1½). He 

earned his degree in Outdoor and 

Experiential Education and now 

teaches at a small alternative school 

on an organic farm beside a pristine 

lake. He loves living the simple 

“joyous and full” life with his family. 

Look for Conrad on the ultimate 

Frisbee field at the reunion! Erik 

Du Rietz is in Mexico starting an 

internet company. He’s worked in 

the internet business for several 

years and is pleased to return to his 

childhood home, Mexico. Alicia 

Estrella is living in Spain continu- 

Isabel Astroza Zuniga '95 with her husband, Ademir and 

new baby Rayen born November 9, 2004. 

27


Mini UWC reunion in Toronto with Hili 

Tsarfati, Mike Leach, Benedicte Lovald, Kyle 

Faas and Edward Weatherly (all '95) in 

October 2004. 

ing her medical education. Kyle 

Faas is living in Toronto, working 

in television as a closed captioning 

editor, on the web as a writer and 

survey administrator and as a systems 

consultant for PAIRO 

(Professional Association of Interns 

and Residents of Ontario). He coordinates 

the screening and evaluation 

of short film submissions to the 

Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay 

Film and Video Festival on weekends, 

when he is not designing and 

knitting sweaters and toques, or 

shooting photos of the Toronto arts 

scene. He will be somewhat disoriented 

entering the castle through a 

door this August, but he can hardly 

wait to see everyone again. Ana 

Lydia Fernandez is living in 

Madrid and working for the NGO, 

Action Aid Spain. Her work 

involves international cooperation 

for development and awareness 

campaigns as well as education for 

development activities. When not 

working, she’s volunteering with a 

Women’s European Platform called 

WIDE involved in gender and 

development issues. Ana Lydia 

lives with her boyfriend of nine 

years and their cat, Yore! After 

being with Electronic Arts (video 

game developer) for two plus years, 

Jonathan Gallina is now a 

Producer for FIFA, which means he 

designs parts of the game to be 

made and sold across the world. It’s 

not an easy job, with lots of stressful 

hours and deadlines, but Jonathan 

really enjoys being responsible for 

games that sell 5 million copies or 

more! Rashna Ginwalla writes 

from Philadelphia that Viet Le is 

also in Philly working for WHYY, a 

National Public Radio affiliate 

“doing fabulous interviews”. She is 

also in touch with Risana Zitha 

who still works in London as an 

investment banker. Matt Goyer 

lives with his wife Liz and fouryear-old 

son Parker in Kansas City. 

He works as a project manager for a 

company that provides software and 

database solutions to pharmaceutical 

companies. Amy Karon is enjoying 

married life as she looks towards 

her third year of veterinary school. 

This spring, she plans to pursue 

studies for a Master’s in Public 

Health. At this point, she and Mudit 

are parents only to two mischievous 

cats and a dog. Clio Knowles 

recently ran the Disney Marathon 

and is training for the New York 

City marathon in November 2005. 

Last year, she and her teammate 

won the Toyota Tundra Adventure 

Racing Series in the two-person 

female team division. She has also 

recently purchased a condo in Boca 

Raton. Anyone needing a break 

from the snow is welcome at her 

home. A busy Mike Leach checks 

in from Budapest where he works 

for the Civil Society Development 

Foundation which is an NGO that 

does capacity building training for 

the nonprofit sector in Hungary and 

Central and Eastern Europe. Mike 

classifies his future as “somewhere 

between being an open page and a 

foggy blur”, something that many of 

us can relate to. Justin Lee returned 

to New York after graduating from 

architecture school. He’s hoping to 

wind up in Europe eventually but 

enjoys meeting up with so many 

friends in NYC. Kasia Leon- 

Lubowicz moved to London with 

her husband after finishing Harvard 

Business School. She recently met 

up with Risana Zitha who is working 

for Morgan Stanley in London. 

Benedicte Lovald will join the 

ranks of the married on July 30th in 

a little village in Norway. She has 

another two years before completing 

her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. 

She lives in Toronto. Kaisu Luiro 

graduated from medical school and 

is now finishing her Ph.D. studies at 

the National Public Health Institute. 

In August, she married her 

boyfriend of three years in Helsinki 

where Benedicte Lovald was one of 

Annelis Sprenger '95 and Sander Kroeze married 

November 27, 2004. 

her bridesmaids. The couple honeymooned 

in Malaysia and then 

enjoyed traveling in South Africa 

for a month. Kabo Mbaakanyi is in 

Botswana where he established a 

company manufacturing automobile 

leaf springs. He enjoys traveling 

throughout Africa but is seeking 

other opportunities in the resource 

sector. He’s in contact with 

Pelesana Mphakalasi who is in 

Cape Town “still trying to take over 

the world.” Gabbi Moore works as 

an environmental consultant in New 

Jersey while also studying for her 


Master’s in Environmental 

Engineering in the evenings. She 

also participates in community theater 

in her spare time. After residing 

in Pune, India for a year, living on 

the isle of Curacao for some time 

and graduating from two studies, 

Martijn Muys now works as an IT 

infrastructure specialist in the 

Netherlands. This year, he plans to 

travel to South America for a period 

of at least six months. He hopes to 

do volunteer work there, teaching 

English and math and working in 

orphanages. He welcomes any ideas 

or contacts! Mongkut Sim has left 

his ball and chain job at Accenture 

and now works for an exciting 

Australian company, Hitwise 

Competitive Intelligence. Mongkut 

is currently writing, illustrating and 

marketing a book on sequential 

kinesthetic learning. He spends 

weekends kayaking and sailing on 

Sydney Harbor, trying to avoid the 

sharks. Nok Siriphonlai works for 

an engineering consulting firm in 

White Plains, NY. In November, she 

ran the NYC marathon. She recently 

met up with MuRan Heo when she 

was traveling along the US east 

coast, visiting UWCers and college 

friends. Joe Stevens’ out-of-office 

reply indicates that he will be in the 

Galapagos filming for the BBC until 

July. Sandhya Subramanyam 

recently made contact from 

Shanghai where she is working and 

living with her husband. Levi Toth 

recently married in Hungary and is 

working as a lawyer-linguist in 

Luxembourg. Hili Tsarfati wed last 

September in Toronto and UWCers 

Oscar Owens ’94, Scott Pearce 

’94, James Wisener and Ed 

Weatherly attended the wedding. 

Hili plans a wedding in Israel for 

friends and family. She now works 

as an art director for a large post 

production company in Toronto. 

After UWC, Constantin Von 

Daniels studied international business 

administration in Germany and 


Paris. He then studied Russian 

which provided the opportunity for 

a development consulting position 

with the German bank KFW. 

Constantin now works with the 

European Commission as the project 

manager in charge of countries such 

as Poland, the Czech Republic and 

Slovakia, promoting SME lending 

activities in those countries. He 

says, “The projects are fulfilling and 

so is the travel!” Constantin hopes 

to begin his Master’s in Business 

Administration soon in Europe or 

the U.S. While living in Frankfurt, 

he invites anyone passing through to 

stop in for a visit. Ed Weatherly 

lives in Toronto, working with his 

sister at a company using media and 

technology to build awareness concerning 

social issues. Beyond his 

day job, Ed finds time to work with 

audio/video productions and his art. 

Andrew Wonjoni also lives in 

Toronto, working for a non-profit 

housing umbrella organization in the 

areas of research, analysis and 

municipal-relations. Gina Wurst 

plans to resign her position as the 

foundation relations manager at the 

Atlanta History Center and relocate 

to Charleston, South Carolina where 

her boyfriend has accepted a new 

position. As a former social magazine 

editor, maybe Gina will abandon 

her “disgruntled writer” status 

and return to her passion. 

1996 

Brittany Marr 

3147 Buttercup Lane 

Evergreen, CO 80439 

brittanyladd@yahoo.com 

Gert Danielsen 

Ringduevegen 4 E 

N-2032 Maura 

NORWAY 

gertico@yahoo.com 


Alison Quin 

9 Wyena Street 

Rye, VIC 3941 

AUSTRALIA 

banambirr@hotmail.com 

Moataz Abdel Rahman married a 

great girl and is “having loads of 

fun.” He moved to Bahrain where 

he works as a regional brand manager 

for Coca Cola. Maria Almond 

is entering her fifth year at Harvard 

Medical School, staying an extra 

year to work on a child mental 

health project in Moshe, Tanzania. 

She spent time in Chile for a medical 

rotation and visited Isabel 

Astroza Zuniga ’95 and her family 

in Chiloë. Laura Anderson is still 

working on a forestry project in 

Medellín, Colombia, and was 

recently promoted to management. 

She traveled (on a month long trip) 

to Southeast Asia, and then visited 

San Francisco to see Lana Nasser 

before completing her M.B.A. applications. 

Jorida Banda now works 

for Deutsche Bank as an associate in 

their investment banking division. 

“Hours continue to be crazy, but I 

kind of enjoy my crazy/hectic 

work,” she says. For the last two 

years, Vicente Behrens has been 

living in Miami, working as a 

Research Fellow in Orthopaedics at 

Mercy Hospital. He successfully 

Levente Toth '95 and husband Matthias on their wedding day 

in Sopron, Hungary, August 2004. 

29


passed his Step 1 and is preparing 

for the second test later this year. 

He’s also trying to keep up with his 

guitar and soccer hobbies. Any 

UWCers lost in the midst of Florida 

are welcome to visit Vincente. 

Alvaro Berg finally returned home, 

after studying in Kansas for six 

years. Now that he’s completed his 

majors in Biology, Film and French, 

Alvaro is searching for a teaching 

position in Santiago for the next 

eight months. He then will study 

Sustainable Development at the 

London School of Economics. 

Philippe Bergeron is still in 

London, UK but recently migrated 

Arvin Robles '96, Justin Lee '95 and Erik Leung '96 together in 

downtown Hong Kong. 

“south of the river” for the cheaper 

rent. His film Deep Vain will be 

released soon (visit www.phbpictures.com 

for more information). 

Recently, Phillippe met up with 

Carianne Gran for a ‘pint and 

chat’. James “Jim” Bowen is still a 

law student and just became a landlord 

in Boston. This spring and summer, 

he plans to travel to 

Guadalajara, studying the Mexican 

legal system at the Universidad 

Panamericana while hopefully 

interning at a local law firm. Tobias 

Breidthardt, living in Switzerland, 

is, among other things, working 

‘tough’ nightshifts. Still in NYC, 

Alba Cabral is finishing the fourth 

year of her Ph.D. studies in Clinical 

Psychology. According to trustworthy 

sources, Michael Cope lives in 

London and is loving it. Catherine 

Cronin climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 

mid-February raising over £4,500 

for Voluntary Service Overseas. She 

still works for Random House and is 

part-way through her studies to 

become a solicitor. She says, “I’m 

mourning the temporary suspension 

of my social life until I finish.” Gert 

Danielsen encourages all “Fat Cats” 

from 1996 to contribute to the 2006 

Reunion Travel Fund, enabling 

“Thinner Cat co-years” to travel 

back to 

Montezuma in 

2006. Anupreeta 

Das is currently a 

Sauvé Scholar at 

McGill 

University in 

Montreal. Her 

studies occasionally 

allow for 

canoeing and ski 

trips to the cold 

white north in 

addition to shuttling 

between the 

Canadian and 

American east 

coasts in search 

of stories. 

Anupreeta is also learning Mandarin 

Chinese while enjoying the cultural 

and culinary aspects of Montreal. 

She keeps in touch with Lamiae 

Aidi and Eneza Mnzava ’97 occasionally. 

Still in London, Sebastien 

de Halleux now lives with his wife 

Auriane. After a civil wedding in 

London in November, they are busy 

preparing their July wedding to take 

place in Belgium, and living through 

very happy times. Sebastien sees 

Kristian Segerstråle lots since they 

both work at Macrospace. In 

London, the two visit regularly with 

Aleem Siddiqui and Nicola Mai 

’97. Josser Eduardo Delgago 

Almandoz is completing his medical 

internship in NYC, and plans to 

move to Boston in June to begin his 

residency in Diagnostic Radiology. 

He and his girlfriend, Angela, 

recently caught up with Gert 

Danielsen in Buenos Aires while 

traveling to Bariloche and San 

Martín de los Andes in Southern 

Argentina. Recently, Josser and 

Angela became engaged while visiting 

Guadalupita, NM. Nancy Egan 

is back in Los Angeles, working as 

an assistant to an artist. She says, 

“After many years of working 

insane hours with no time off, a part 

time arts job is very welcome.” 

Nancy looks forward to becoming 

an aunt, and plans to apply to graduate 

school this year. On occasion, 

Nancy sees Estelle Davis ’95 and 

Carmen Bilbao ’95. She also met 

with Anna Links, Kat Waite, 

Carrie Jones, Tracy Stewart ’97, 

and saw Terra Louise Ussery, 

Kevin Park and Chad Jones at the 

Republican Convention protests 

where they also ran into Viet Lee 

’95. Eric Endres is living in Ithaca, 

NY, and welcomes any visitors. For 

the last four years Ali Ihsan Erdem 

has lived in Bucharest. “Life here is 

fun especially after learning 

Romanian,” he says. Since his time 

there, he’s established a chain of 

clothing stores in Romania, even 

dressing the British women in partnership 

with the TopShop brand. Ali 

established a fund for the education 

of the Romanian gypsy children. 

Anyone traveling to Romania is 

welcome to visit. Still working in 

the northern region of Guatemala, 

David Garcia directs an ecotourism 

and sustainable agriculture program 

implemented by Counterpart 

International. Anybody who wants 

some adventure in this green paradise 

can join them at www.visitchisec.com. 

A little bird says that 

Bartosz Gostkowski lives in 

Krakow, completing a Ph.D. in 

Philosophy. So the rumours of him 


sailing the Baltic can be laid to rest. 

Mike Cope also saw him last fall. 

Carianne Gran still lives in 

London. Hessel Haker is in 

Freiburg, where he will be studying 

at the Faculty of Forestry, looking at 

the markets’ influence on forestry in 

less industrialized countries. Bashar 

Hamdan and family are ‘chilling’ in 

Cleveland, Ohio. “This 2005 winter 

is the lousiest yet since I graced this 

side of the ocean with my arrival in 

the mid-nineties. My entire family, 

except for the baby, is enrolled in 

some school or college.” Jessica 

Hoff has passed her General Exam 

and almost completed all require- 

While studying for his Master's 

in Buenos Aires Gert Danielsen 

'96 reports, "It's been thrilling 

to intern at the Norwegian 

Embassy, researching Culture of 

Peace issues at UNESCO in 

Brasília." 

ments for her Ph.D. However, she 

says, “Those pesky first author publications 

will take a few more 

years.” Carolyn Hunt has, according 

to Nancy Egan, been doing great 

work with the Gay and Lesbian 

Center in San Diego, and set up “an 

incredible conference for the 

Center’s HIV positive community.” 

Carrie Jones is reported to be in 

Boise, where she’s busy putting 

together her performance troop/circus. 

Chad Jones moved across the 

river to Brooklyn, NY but continues 

“to work and fight in the belly of 

the imperial, corporatized, capitalist 

beast.” Emily Jones is still working 

for the Ministry of Trade and 

Industry in Ghana and loves her 

work. She says, “Social life too is 

fun and the small charity I manage 

in my spare time now has 32 lateteens 

in senior secondary school on 


scholarship - so my house is like a 

mad-hostel in a constant state of 

reggae and no food, but it keeps life 

fun!” She’s also building a small 

beach house in Ghana. Brittany 

Ladd just returned from a climbing 

trip in Ecuador. “I’m enjoying winter 

in Colorado now, skiing almost 

every weekend. Within the next 

month, I need to decide between 

graduate school in Denver or 

Montessori training in Boulder. 

This is my biggest dilemma at the 

moment,” she says. Having been 

reported “missing” by the Class 

Agents, Erik Leung reports that he 

is “still alive and would still very 

much like to receive all the benefits 

and allowances generally associated 

with a missing person.” Anna 

Links lives in Seattle and works for 

Humanities Washington, the state 

affiliate of the National Endowment 

for the Humanities. She participates 

in the standard extracurricular battery 

of classes, volunteer work and 

travel. She went to NYC over 

Thanksgiving with Estelle Davis 

’95 and saw Carlos Varela ’95, 

Viet Lee ’95 and Eric Endres, 

Carrie Laverne Jones and Kevin 

Park. She also saw Sean Smatt ’97 

in Paris last spring. Lately, Iris 

Marlovits’ money has gone to travels 

and visits, most recently to see 

Annalies McIver in Oxford this 

past January. Leaving “freezing 

Vienna” she was very excited to 

travel to Australia in February. 

Though, she was saddened to learn 

that the Austrian UWC National 

Committee may lose state funding 

for scholarships. Living in 

Melbourne, Corrine Ng recently 

became engaged. She reports, “We 

bought our first house, and are planning 

the wedding for early 2006!” 

Corrine works for HSBC Asset 

Management as an analyst and still 

thoroughly enjoys the challenge. 

She would love a visit! Luke 

Pustejovsky now focuses his venture 

capital interest in new 


energy/environmental technologies 

(sustainability). He and Katie are 

moving to California (to live and tan 

forever). After two years spent in 

Turkey, Guillaume Rougale and his 

wife are back in France, currently 

working in Paris. Devika Sahdev is 

in her first year of Law at the 

University of Warwick. “Being a 

mature student has its merits,” she 

says. She has met with Catherine 

Cronin and Mike Cope, “who’ve 

fed me lovely meals”. Kristian 

Segerstråle still enjoys the fast 

paced life in London, working for 

Macrospace looking after production 

of games for mobile phones and 

Kevin Yoonchul Park and Nancy Egan (both 

'96) stand and sit in opposition to the August 

Republican National Convention in NYC. 

traveling the globe. He sees Aleem 

Siddiqui, Rosa Bruno, Sebastien 

de Halleux, Nicola Mai ’97, 

Carianne Gran and Catherine 

Cronin in his free time. His company 

has turned into a mini-UWC with 

17 nationalities among 50 or so 

employees. Having studied Hindi 

and trained with the US Diplomatic 

Corps, Laura Taylor now works at 

31


the US Embassy in New Delhi. She 

also did some tsunami relief work in 

Sri Lanka. Laura reports, “The 

island was so hard hit but I was 

heartened by the way ordinary people 

pulled together to help people in 

need in the worst hit areas.” In 

India, she met up with Devika 

Sahdev, who showed her around a 

bit. Laura met Pema Seden’s brother 

while interviewing him for a US 

visa. Enrique Torres is doing great. 

Life is excellent and he keeps busy 

with work, sports and philosophical 

conversations. He recently met up 

with Tobias Breidthardt and his 

‘famous’ sister (the one on Tobi’s 

shirt). Takeomi Yamamoto enjoys 

his assignment with the Japanese 

Mission to the UN. Japan’s inclusion 

to the Security Council as a 

non-Permanent Member has kept 

him so busy that he has been confined 

to the east side of Manhattan 

recently. 

1997 

Renu Badiani 

211 Buckley Road 

South Gate, Wellington 6002 

NEW ZEALAND 

renu@badiani@gmail.com 

Serap Bindebir 

1111 Arlington Blvd., Apt. 442 

Arlington, VA 22209 

bindebirserap@hotmail.com 

Raquel Fraga-Encinas 

9314 Cherry Hill Road, Apt. 1125 

College Park, MD 20740 

raquel@astro.umd.edu 

Renu Badiani recently spent a couple 

of weeks in Japan visiting her 

sister and honed her driving skills in 

Tokyo as part of a road trip around 

central Honshu. She moved to 

Sydney, Australia in February to 

start a new job with a wholesale 

financial services team at a corpo- 

rate law firm. She caught up with 

Michelle Aitken ’98 when Michelle 

came to Wellington, New Zealand in 

August and with Matt Hallanger 

’98 while in Japan. Idan Ben-Horin 

is in his third year of medical school 

in Jerusalem, about to embark on 

end of semester exams. He recently 

was asked to follow up on his cultural 

exchange to Italy last year by 

writing an article on his experiences. 

Wanda Troszczynska '97 

works with the UN mission in 

Kosovo, located in a Serbian 

NATO-protected enclave, 

addressing refugee and IDP 

issues as a humanitarian liaison. 

She says, "I'm learning a 

lot and enjoying the dynamic 

and demanding work." 

He’s also played host to a group of 

50 Italians recently visiting in Israel, 

along with continuing his involvement 

with the Israeli UWC National 

Committee. Bibiana Cuintaco 

Gonzalez is living in Bogota, 

Colombia working for a consulting 

company. She hopes to work with 

an NGO if the right opportunity 

comes along. Tyler Davis still 

works in North Sulawesi, Indonesia 

on economic studies of marine protected 

areas in Buanken National 

Park. His spirits are boosted by the 

reception of additional funding from 

the University of Washington, WWF 

and NaturalEquity. He’s perfecting 

his Indonesian and trying to enjoy 

the tropical island beauty while diligently 

working. He returns to the 

United States in June and looks forward 

to hanging out with Jon 

Vegard Larssen and Beatriz Diaz 

Acosta who have moved to Seattle. 

Thomas Henage is currently at the 

University of Wisconsin in Madison 

working on his Ph.D. in Physics. He 

enjoys his research in quantum com- 

puting. Thomas and his wife, Emily, 

are expecting their second child in 

May. Flora Monsaingeon lives in 

Beijing, China. She reports that 

besides being compelled to learn 

Mandarin on a daily basis (no 

choice really, if you want to survive 

here), she works for a Chinese 

media company, producing a TV 

show—interviewing high profile 

international guests from all fields 

and disciplines. She’d like to catch 

up with any UWCers heading her 

way. Anke Schlevoigt lives in 

South London suburbia and is working 

at the Catholic Agency for 

Overseas Development, where in 

her role as Quality Assurance 

Officer she has coordinated the 

response handling side for the 

Sudan as well as the more recent 

Tsunami Emergencies. She recently 

caught up with Julia Keutgen. 

Dawningstar Sikorski will graduate 

from law school in May. Her 

upcoming tasks are to tackle the bar 

exam as well as to locate a job. 

Megan Sullivan completed her two 

year stint with the Peace Corp and 

will travel this spring to Bolivia 

before returning to the US in August 

2005. Lena Valenzuela is living in 

Valdivia in southern Chile. Since 

completing her studies in Marine 

Biology, she’s now working as an 

academic assistant at the Centre for 

Environmental Studies at 

Universidad Austral de Chile while 

also working on her thesis in 

Evolutionary Biology. She helps her 

partner, Raul, a documentary maker 

with filming and editing and recently 

became involved with creating 

2D and 3D animations. She generally 

travels back to Mozambique 

every year to see her family, and has 

caught up with Jessica Horn, 

Lerato Molefe ’96 and Mauricio 

Delfin in the last few years. Daniel 

Wilkins is still in Canberra at the 

Australian National University 

working towards his Ph.D. and playing 

ultimate frisbee. He expects to 


un into Alison Quin ’96 since she 

recently moved to Canberra in late 

January. 

1998 

Jay McKinnon 

499 Poplar Avenue, Apt. 3 

San Bruno, CA 94066 

jay@openDNA.com 

Pierre Monteux 

470 Route des Oliviers 

Domaine de la Peyriere 

06250 Mougins 

FRANCE 

pierrevmm@yahoo.com 

Siu-Fung Yau 

75 West End Ave., Apt. P10F 

New York, NY 10023 

sy192@columbia.edu 

Nii Saka Addo works in the Credit 

Risk Technology group at JPMorgan 

in New York. He says, “Work generally 

is alright; one of my projects 

has a patent pending on it.” Nii Saka 

claims to have discovered a new 

love—cooking—and has been 

immersing himself into the culinary 

delights of the kitchen. He’s constantly 

in touch with a bunch of 

UWCers in New York City and 

beyond. Mike Alcock works for 

British Airways and still enjoys the 

benefit of cheap flights. He visited 

Hong Kong in January 2005 for 

Mustu Barma’s brother’s wedding 

where he met all his Hong Kong ’98 

classmates (very rarely do all five of 

them happen to be in Hong Kong at 

the same time). Alfonso Alegre 

completed his undergraduate studies 

in Lima in December 2004. He 

expects to graduate with a major in 

Economics after complying with 

some minor requirements in April 

2005. Alfonso then plans to continue 

working as Project Assistant in 

International IDEA, an inter-governmental 

institute dedicated to foster- 


ing sustainable democracy and political 

reform around the world. His 

job allows him to travel in Peru to 

organize political workshops which 

he says is both exciting and 

demanding. Ghislaine Arecheta is 

about to complete her Master’s in 

History in Santiago, Chile. 

According to Ghislaine, Georgina 

Niemann is working on her 

Master’s in Cordoba and Ruth 

Padilla-Ruiz is 

studying French 

in Paris. Timea 

Beres suffered a 

serious illness in 

the summer of 

2004. Luckily, 

although difficult, 

she overcame 

the sickness 

and is now much 

better. She completed 

her first 

semester at 

Music College in 

Hungary and 

received a scholarship 

to Trapani, 

Italy. Timea will be in Trapani from 

February to June 2005, participating 

in a project with the Italian 

Language School, Scuola Leonardo 

da Vinci. Karla Bjelanovic completed 

her Master’s in Applied 

Mathematics in Italy this past July 

2004, receiving the best results. 

After a month vacationing in 

Belgrade, Karla returned to Trieste, 

Italy, where she started her Ph.D. 

studies in Corporate Finance at the 

University of Trieste. Mustu 

Barma moved to New York from 

London in late 2004. He works as 

an associate for HSBC investment 

banking, and plans to stay in New 

York for a year before returning to 

the UK. He keeps in close touch 

with Wojciech Domanski, who 

works at a private equity firm in 

New York. John Brandsema is in 

his second year of studies at medical 

school in Halifax, NS, Canada, still 


managing to keep his music alive 

too. John and five of his classmates 

released a CD as a result of their 

singing at long-term care facilities 

around the Maritimes last summer. 

This spring, John and his group will 

organize a concert version of a 

musical to raise money for the 

Children’s Hospital. Mieke 

Bruynooghe is studying medicine 

in Belgium with four more years of 

Ghislaine Arecheta '98 on expedition with her buddies. 

studies since she started a bit late. 

She said, “I’ll be old before I finish.” 

Other than studying, Mieke is 

involved with starting a co-housing 

project, in which a group of approximately 

20 families and singles will 

live around an old farm-yard. While 

everyone will have his or her own 

rooms, there will be shared rooms 

too for social activities and courses. 

Mieke mentioned, “All of this is as 

ecological as possible!” Mieke also 

met with Lissy Prinzl and Wipa 

Chaisantikulwat when they visited 

Belgium. Wipa Chaisantikulwat 

now lives in France, where she’s 

earning a Ph.D. She hopes to complete 

her studies by the end of next 

year. Wipa says, “I’m enjoying life 

so far. I like living here, my work is 

interesting and I get chances to go 

aboard once in a while.” Wipa skis 

almost every weekend since 

Grenoble is right in the middle of 

33


Alison Gilman '98 ice climbing in southern 

Colorado. 

the Alps. Mei Fong Chan works 

with a marketing research company 

in Hong Kong. She’s gained significant 

recognition within her firm by 

recently traveling to the firm’s 

Mumbai, India office for a couple of 

months to train new employees. 

Carlos Dominguez is managing his 

own travel agency in Santo 

Domingo. Sergio Estrada Villegas 

completed his biology classes in 

May 2004 at the Universidad de los 

Andes in Bogotá. During the summer 

2004, he worked in the 

Smithsonian Tropical Research 

Institute in Panama as a field assistant. 

He says, “The work environment 

was quite similar to the UWC 

experience: about 35 scientists from 

all over the world, living in a semiclosed 

environment on an island and 

sharing 24 hours a day with the 

same people.” Sergio returned to 

Colombia, moving to a wonderful 

national park (crowded with exotic 

birds, howler monkeys and bats) in 

the middle of the Andes where he’s 

completing his undergraduate thesis 

project. His research focuses on the 

possible impact of seed dispersal by 

bats on mountain rainforest regeneration. 

Sergio hopes to study in 

Venezuela this July before graduating 

in September 2005. Julianne 

Fraser Cooper and her husband 

bought their very first house at 

Saranac Lake, NY. She said that the 

house is “a completely refurbished 

100-year-old beauty with 6 bedrooms.” 

Julianne also mentioned she 

loves every moment she has with 

her daughter, Joy, who is “running 

around getting into all the mischief 

she possibly can.” Julianne is still 

working as an interpreter about 28 

hours per week and is enjoying her 

job. Besides, she still works for the 

local weekend paper part-time, writing 

a couple of articles a week for 

them. As for hobbies, Julianne 

hopes to enjoy some winter sports, 

including snowshoeing and crosscountry 

skiing. Alison Gilman continues 

to work as an assistant in 

Neonatology at Children’s Hospital 

in Denver. One of the perks for 

Alison was accompanying her boss 

and several other doctors to Peru for 

a pediatrics conference last fall. 

Afterward, Alison spent ten days 

with her boyfriend, Doug, who was 

climbing in Peru for a month, in and 

around Cuzco. The highlight of their 

trip was visiting Macchu Pichu, 

where they spent about five hours 

exploring the ruins. Alison spent the 

New Year weekend ice climbing (a 

first for her) in southern Colorado. 

After working in Washington, D.C. 

for almost three years, Margaret 

Lau plans to return to school for a 

Master’s in Public Health. 

According to Margaret, Yangchen 

Tshogygl is working in Bhutan and 

has a lovely daughter. She and her 

husband may plan to apply to universities 

overseas for some further 

studies. Trine Haastrup and 

Fabricio Smillo still live in 

Montreal. Both of them completed 

their Master’s studies. According to 

Trine, they “are now working like 

crazy” and feel like they “live to 

work at the moment”. Fab is working 

for his dad and Trine is working 

at PricewaterhouseCoopers. During 

the Christmas break, the two traveled 

to Venezuela, visiting Fab’s 

family. Oksana Mashchak 

Stolyarchuk lives in Edmonton, 

Canada and is enjoying a very cold 

Canadian winter. She works for 

Sunlife Financial in a senior position. 

Oksana reports the highlight of 

2004 was her vacation in Spain 

(Barcelona and Ibiza). She said, 

“Thanks to Spanish classes at UWC 

I had no trouble communicating at 

all. The sights of Barcelona were 

simply breathtaking. Ibiza was not 

as wild as I expected it to be, but a 

true paradise. My favorite part was 

crystal clear waters and silky sand 

on the beach, and of course, the 

clubs, people, Sangria and hot 

weather.” Back in Canada, Oksana 

and her husband enjoy hiking, 

camping and skiing in the unspoiled 

wilderness of Canadian lakes and 

mountains. “Lissy” Prinzl moved 

to the UK (Edinburgh/Scotland) for 

her Master’s in Comparative 

Literature after completing her B.A. 

in the Netherlands. She plans to stay 

in Edinburgh for a year, enjoying 

the city life. Siu-Fung Yau tried different 

outdoor activities in 2004, 

including rock climbing and hiking 

around in a desert park in 

California. Back in New York, she 

works as an investment banker in 

the securitization sector. Rachel 

Yeung teaches biology and English 

at a secondary school in Hong 

Kong. Islam Youssef started his 

second semester in 2005 at the 

University of Tromsoe in Norway 

(the world’s northernmost university). 

He’s studying for a Master’s in 

Linguistics with plans to be there 

until June 2006. Being in Norway, 

Islam experiences the two most 

exotic climate changes: the three 

month polar darkness and the northern 

lights, which are spectacular. 

Islam met up with a couple of UWC 


graduates in Norway and they talked 

about UWC at a local high school. 

In the summer of 2004, Islam traveled 

to Romania. He plans to visit 

Poland and Italy this coming summer. 

1999 

Amanda Riehl 

7275 Charmant Drive # 315 

San Diego, CA 92122 

riehl@panda.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu 

Sabrina Das 

Flat 3/6/1 

St. John’s Court 

Howden Road West 

Livingston 

West Lothian EH54 6PP 

Scotland 

sabrina@uwc.org.uk 

Back in his hometown Tokyo, 

Japan, Issei Tsurumi works for 

Morgan Stanley as an associate. He 

still finds time to play basketball 

and DJ. Occasionally, he meets 

other Japanese UWCers. 

2000 

Mahdi Bseiso 

235 Adams Street, Apartment 5E 

Brooklyn, NY 11201 

mwbseiso@yahoo.com 

Javier Lopez Aranguena 

C/ Conde Duque 44 

Esc. 2-3B 

Madrid 228015 

SPAIN 

javierlopeza@yahoo.es 

Yngvild Blaker is still in Krakow, 

completing her fourth year of medical 

school. She says, “I’m enjoying 

student life quite a lot, and apart 

from studying hard, I still find time 

to go climbing and skiing often.” 

Mahdi Bseiso has finally settled in 


New York City, working in the 

Analytic and Forensic Technology 

division of Deloitte. He currently 

serves on the Independent Inquiry 

Committee investigating the allegations 

made against the UN in the 

Oil-For-Food scandal, working with 

Paul Volcker. He was lucky to meet 

up with Emma Martensson, Inna 

Poliakova, and Nii Saka Addo ’98 

in late 2004. Guinevere Casey- 

Ford works as an English teacher 

and enjoys life in Madrid. Sarah 

Green is enrolled in a course in 

journalism in Portsmouth, which 

she’ll finish in July. “It’s fun, but a 

lot of work. I doubt I’ll actually 

become a journalist full time but it’s 

a useful qualification. Maybe I’ll go 

into PR for an NGO/charity. Or 

maybe I’ll go back to university and 

complete a Master’s in Human 

Rights.” Siri Engstrom is at the 

Gothenburg School of Economics, 

still studying logistics. Veronica 

Herken lives in Paraguay, completing 

her last year of studies as an 

Economics major. Last July, she 

traveled to Toronto where she spent 

a month learning how to do social 

projects, attending classes and visiting 

organizations. She is also an 

active member of the Paraguayan 

National Committee for the UWCs. 

Joel Hunt is preparing for graduation 

this coming May. He’s applying 

to graduate schools in NY, 

Washington, DC and Chicago. Joel 

is also preparing for his wedding, 

which will take place on June 19th 

in Alaska (a wedding to which 

everybody is invited!). Ayal Kantz 

says, “As always life in the middleeast 

can’t be boring...with the nonstop 

‘interest’ the place always gives 

us, I’m still in my antroposophy 

studies and still finding it very interesting.” 

Next year he expects to 

travel to Europe and the Far East. 

Karim Kelany graduated from 

Aberdeen University with a degree 

in Economics. He moved to 

Montreal in July 2004 and now 


works as a financial planner for a 

finance company. He says, “Life is 

good in Montreal, if you’re a big fan 

of snow. However, if you weren’t 

born for this kind of weather like 

me, knowing how to ski is a must. 

Otherwise, the sofa will be your best 

friend on the weekend.” He plans to 

travel to South America and learn 

Spanish next winter. Ibrahim 

Khader works for the Washington, 

DC bureau of Al-Jazeera Channel. 

Marie Soenderup Kolling still 

lives in Copenhagen. She’s in her 

second year of anthropology studies 

and plans to spend her third year in 

Brazil. She’s very involved in the 

Danish UWC network and plans to 

organize the selection process this 

year. Marie hopes to meet Diana 

Denham in Salvador, Brazil this 

July. Gabi Lopata is very excited 

about completing his Computer 

Science studies this June. He is also 

working as an IT contractor and 

opened an online store in March. 

Adri Norris visited him in late 

2004 and they had an amazing time 

exploring Melbourne. Javier López 

Arangüena is still studying in 

Madrid. He will graduate from Law 

School this coming June, then intern 

with UBS in London. Afterwards, 

he’ll continue his studies in 

Business Management. Javier still 

volunteers for the Spanish UWC 

Committee. Marcelo Mendoza 

Pereira still lives in Sao Paula and 

plans to graduate from college at the 

end of this year. He recently was 

invited to join the investment banking 

division of JPMorgan Chase & 

Co. Alisha Musicant graduated 

from Antioch College with a 

Class of 2000 


August 2005 


35


Siu Fung Yau, Margaret Lau, Mike Alcock, Musty Barma, Rachel Teung 

and Mei Fong Chan (all '98). 

Bachelor’s in Cultural 

Interdisciplinary Studies. She will 

continue to live in Yellow Springs, 

Ohio until May. In the meantime she 

works with elderly people, paints, 

meditates, dances and contemplates 

becoming a Buddhist nun. In March, 

Karin Neira began her fifth and 

final year of law school which she 

likes a lot. She intends to specialize 

in European Law. Otherwise, she’s 

really happy with her 2-meter-tall, 

medical technologist and basketball 

player boyfriend. Inna Poliakova 

moved to Charlotte, North Carolina 

after graduating from Wellesley. She 

works with Bank of America and is 

happy, loving her job. She says, 

“Charlotte is a wonderful place to 

live and anyone is welcome to 

visit.” Inna visited her getaways in 

New Mexico for Thanksgiving and 

also toured the castle and the campus. 

She also ran into Fernando 

Mejia, Adriana Botero and their 

daughter Mariana Mejia PC ’00 

when she entered Fernando’s biology 

class. Inna spent time in NYC, 

including Christmas, where she visited 

with Mahdi Bseiso, Naa Aku 

Addo, Nii Moi Addo ’99, Endri 

Trajani ’99, Vikram Rupani ’99, 

and Nii Saka Addo ’98. Last spring 

Caroline Schmutte graduated from 

Dartmouth College, just like Gigi 

Modrich and Nii Moi ’99. She 

returned to 

Germany and is 

now working as a 

management consultant 

for Booz 

Allen Hamilton 

in Frankfurt. She 

invites everybody 

to her new apartment 

there—if 

you can catch her 

in the city, as she 

is travelling quite 

a lot! Caroline 

says, “Life’s 

quite weird not 

studying anymore, 

and I can’t wait to get back to 

grad school! Until then, I truly hope 

lots of faces (come on guys!) are 

planning to attend our first reunion 

in Montezuma this summer!” Rick 

Slettenhaar is now studying 

European Politics at Oxford and 

loving it. This winter he met up with 

Lenka Chludova in Amsterdam and 

Gerfried Aigner in Vienna. Rick 

and Gerfried hope to see everybody 

again in Montezuma this summer! 

In May 2004, Pamela Sunstrum 

graduated with highest honors with 

a Bachelor’s in International Studies 

(concentration in Trans-national cultures 

and Latin American Studies) 

from the University of North 

Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). 

She now works as an Outreach 

Coordinator and Resident Artist at 

the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for 

Black Culture and History at UNC- 

CH. Jormquan Suwanketnikom 

just graduated from the University 

of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 

earning a Bachelor’s in Electrical 

Engineering. She plans to be home 

in Thailand with her family for the 

next six months. In the fall, 

Jormquan will return to the US for 

graduate school. She reports that her 

friends and family are all safe from 

the Tsunami. Elena Valenzuela still 

enjoys working in professional football 

with The Oakland Raiders as 

the editor of their Hispanic website. 

Additionally, she serves as a correspondent 

for a sports show for the 

Spanish television network 

Telemundo, presenting exclusive 

material regarding the Silver and 

Black. 

2001 

Deidre Ann Ciliento 

2 Cypress Road 

Lake Hopatcong, NJ 07849 

deeg82@hotmail.com 

Chi Fung Ng 

Flat F, 18/F, Block 10 

Royal Ascot, Fo Tan, NT 

HONG KONG 

imaginejeff@hotmail.com 

Akiko Terai 

Macalester College 

1600 Grand Avenue 

St. Paul, MN 

aterai@macalester.edu 

Angela Vignoli 

Via aprilia 15 

04012 Cisterna di Latina 

ITALY 

angelavignoli@virgilio.it 

Liza Anderson will be graduating 

from Swarthmore College in May 

with an independent major in 

Theology, Peace and Conflict 

Studies. Sarah Gettie Burks’ summer 

began on a sad note with her 

father’s passing away in June. Yet, it 

ended on a positive one when Sarah 

and Christopher Anderson (her best 

friend from home) were engaged in 

July. In October, she presented a 

paper titled “Sathya Sai Baba in Sri 

Lanka” at the Midwest Conference 

on Asian Affairs, where she was 

awarded the Mikaso Hane Prize for 

undergraduates. Sarah is about to 

complete her senior year this spring 

at Carleton College, majoring in 

Religion with concentrations in 


Cross-Cultural Studies and South 

Asian Studies. During her time at 

Carleton, she frequently visits with 

Anthony Wong ’01, Wain Yee ’03, 

Felix Amankona-Diawuo ’04 and 

other UWC graduates from around 

the world. Gareth Carter is the 

Treasurer of the London School of 

Economics and Political Science 

Students’ Union, having graduated 

from LSE last July. He says, “I’m 

doing much less work, but I’ve far 

more money, so it’s the best of both 

worlds.” Gareth still plays football 

for the first team and occasionally 

sees Bobby Redwood and Susanne 

Mueller who visit London. Erick 

Castillo just graduated from Ave 

Maria College with a B.A. in 

Economics and a minor in Finance. 

He says, “I was the best student of 

the Economics department, UN 

MILAGRO VERDAD!” Zaheed 

Essack will be graduating in May 

with a B.A. in Theater. Afterwards, 

“I’ll be diving into the deep end of a 

raging sea with no lifejacket and so 

the struggle to carve out a 

life/career/etc will begin...” Adani 

Illo says, “I’m in my final semester 

of college. I cannot believe how fast 

it has gone. Already four years since 

I left the UWC. I will be graduating 

in May from Middlebury College 

with a double major in Economics 

and Spanish. Upon graduation, I’ll 

be relocating to New York City 

where I’ll be working as an investment 

banker. I am quite excited 

about the new challenges that lay 

Liza Anderson '01 was awarded 

a George J. Mitchell 

Scholarship which funds graduate 

studies in Ireland for 12 

Americans each year. So this 

September, Liza will attend 

Trinity College in Dublin, 

studying for a Master's in 

Ecumenical Relations. 


ahead. If anyone 

happens to be 

around NYC this 

summer, do not 

hesitate to contact 

me so we can 

visit and revive 

UWC memories 

over a beer or 

coffee.” Samir 

Mastak graduated 

from 

Middlebury 

College in 

January with a 

major in 

Economics and 

Russian. After graduation, he flew 

to Italy, where he’ll live and work 

for several months. Samir then plans 

to travel to Russia, visiting friends 

from his semester abroad. In May, 

Samir will attend graduation festivities 

in Vermont, and then move to 

NY to begin working in Investment 

Banking with Morgan Stanley in 

July. Anyone is welcome to visit 

him when you have a chance. 

Cristina Matos-Albers graduated 

from Ohio Wesleyan University in 

May 2004 with a B.A. in Journalism 

and Latin American Literature. 

Since then, she moved to New York 

City and joined the production team 

for 20/20 and PrimeTime Live (both 

weekly TV shows at ABC 

Network). She is currently in 

Venezuela looking forward to producing 

television and working on 

her photography. Lionel McIntosh 

will be graduating from Johns 

Hopkins University in May 2005 

with a major in Neuroscience and a 

minor in Italian Studies. After graduation, 

he plans to take a year off to 

pursue some personal interests as 

well as some neuroscience research 

opportunities that he’s been offered 

before entering medical school. 

Bobby Redwood and Jonathan 

Mason are hiking the 5,000 km 

Appalachian Trail from Springer 

Mountain in Georgia to Mount 


Ariel Hearne Maddocks, Patricia Schofield and Amie Ferris-Rotnam (all 

'98) in NYC for New Year's Eve. 

Katahdin in Maine. The journey 

takes about six months and three 

pairs of boots. Vanessa Moisan- 

Willis is presently completing her 

final year of University at the 

Université de Sherbrooke, about an 

hour south of Montreal. Her degree 

is in Business Administration with a 

concentration in Communications 

and Marketing. Vanessa reports, “It 

was hard finally finding exactly 

what was right for me, but I finally 

did!!” She is looking forward to 

working after school is over, but is 

planning an even bigger trip to 

Europe in 2006! She says “I need to 

get out of Canada!” Annie Sorich 

plans to catch up with Bobby and 

Jon after attending her commencement 

in Oberlin this May. She graduated 

from Oberlin College with a 

degree in Biology this past 

December. While at Oberlin she 

worked with a few non-profits, 

decided she enjoyed ‘bossing people 

around more than invisible molecules’, 

and will begin work in 

Chicago’s financial district in July 

2005. In the meantime, Annie will 

be in Montana working temporary 

jobs and enjoying the ski season, 

with plans to spend the spring in 

Central America, finally perfecting 

her Spanish. Jakub Sroubek graduated 

from Hamilton College in May 

2004, and is now studying medicine 

37


Brooks Cato '04 in Santisuk, Thailand in 

January 2005. 

and conducting research at The 

Albert Einstein College of Medicine 

in NYC (for the next seven years). 

This summer he plans to visit the 

Balkans. Akiko Terai traveled to 

Tokyo in February but hopes to 

return in time for graduation from 

Macalester College this May. In the 

fall of 2004 Lani Visaisouk started 

her Master’s in Medieval Studies at 

Utrecht University. She’s says, “Let 

me assuage anyone’s curiosity by 

mentioning that there’s not much 

exciting going on in either Medieval 

Latin or paleography. However, 

adding another language to my arsenal 

is proving amusing.” Lani visited 

her host family and friends in 

Switzerland this past holiday season. 

And yes, she still considers Basel 

her European ‘hometown’. As for 

UWC news, Roeland de Wilde, 

Ines David, Judit Koppany (all 

’02), Lenka Chludova ’00, Maja 

Bulatovic and Lani try to get 

together for dinner on the second 

Sunday of most months. 

2002 

Dafna Herzberg 

3 Levona Street 

Rehevot, 76350 

ISRAEL 

dufi10@hotmail.com 

Michael Janda 

80 Gordon Street 

Lane Cove, NSW 2066 

AUSTRALIA 

aw00mjan@uwc.net 

Ingrid Stige 

Djupvik 

Frauske, N-8200 

NORWAY 

ingrid_stige@hotmail.com 

Kathie Chong moves an average of 

four times per year. She says, “It’s 

chaotic to move so much stuff, but I 

managed to keep the important 

things from three continents with 

me.” Her internship with BASF is 

exciting; learning more than genetic 

manipulation at work. 

Arpunchanok Chumsai Na 

Ayudhya is majoring in Accounting 

at Florida Atlantic University. 

Anyone who visits Miami is welcome 

to contact Oui for travel guidance. 

Ryan Erickson will marry Lis 

Gayer on September 25, 2005, in 

Cape Elizabeth, Maine. All are 

invited to attend! Dafna Herzberg 

traveled to Europe last September, 

meeting Ugo Gragnolati, Emma 

Tilquin and Ingrid Stige in the 

beautiful city of Brussels. After a 

few days, they met with Colette 

Murphy ’03 and traveled off to 

Utrecht to see Patrick Samx’03, 

Judit Koppany, Ines David, 

Charlotte Meyer ’03, Roeland de 

Wilde and Lucas Josten ’01. Dafna 

is an officer in the Israeli Army, 

planning to finish her service in 

January ’06. Michael Janda is now 

working part-time as the Education 

Officer for the Sydney University 

Students’ Representative Council. 

He reports that Chian Karagoz ’01 

is now a permanent resident in 

Australia, living in Adelaide. 

According to Michael, Murilo 

Tanouye enjoyed a relaxing summer 

at home in Brazil, and in February 

returned to his guitar studies at the 

Conservatorium in Sydney. Andy 

Dykema is staying in Murilo’s 

neighborhood in Sao Paulo. 

Christina Nickolova is studying 

Political Science and Economics at 

Amherst College. Now in her junior 

year she says, “It’s been a fun and 

rewarding time, although a little 

hectic at times.” This fall, Christina 

was in Princeton where she met 

with Adelina Grozdanova ’03 and 

Yana Kirilova Krasteva ’01. 

During her visit, Bettina Miguez 

De Mori and Seamus Abshere 

were missing since they were both 

abroad. Last spring, Christina was in 

Montreal where Bassirou Thiam 

took her to the most amazing Indian 

buffet ever. January of last year, she 

visited Alexander Kling and his 

family for a day in Darmstadt. 

Christina will be in Paris this semester 

where she looks forward to finally 

seeing Patricia Enzi. Jennifer 

Spanier is still in Virginia not far 

from Washington DC. She says, “I 

love school and all my classes!” She 

and Mitch Troup ’01 are excited 

about their June wedding. It’s going 

to be a very small, very casual ceremony 

in a wooded park. Shortly 

after that, Jennifer will begin her 

student teaching in order to become 

a certified teacher. 

2003 

Adriana Qubaia 

Middlebury College 

MC Box 4010 

Middlebury, VT 05753 

adriana.Qubaia@uwc.net 

Denise Jennings 

OCMR 0976 

Oberlin, OH 44074 

denise.jennings@oberlin.edu 

Last summer, Ben Carlson was in 

Albuquerque working for a weekly 

newspaper. While in the area, he 

visited with Ninya Loeppky ’02 

and traveled to Wyoming to visit PJ 


Christeleit. This year, he lives in a 

vegetarian co-op at Brown and is an 

editor of the weekly newspaper. 

Jessica Mowles reports that after 

much reflection, she has tentatively 

and quite reluctantly decided to do 

the mature, responsible thing and 

stay at Macalester College to complete 

her studies in Political Science 

and perhaps Geography. If, unlike 

last year, she manages to resist 

jumping on the next plane to 

Amsterdam for a spring reunion, she 

is anticipating being on the road 

again this summer! Adriana 

Qubaia spent New Year’s Eve with 

Matt O’Rourke in Vermont and 

had a lot fun meeting his friends. 

Her future plans include attending a 

cousin’s wedding in Canada in May 

and then returning to her second 

home, the Czech Republic, for the 

month of August. She would like to 

see everyone she can in Europe. 

2004 

Margarita Capi 

Rauga “Myslum Shyri”, Pall 47 

AP. 14 Shkall 1 

Tirane 

ALBANIA 

Margarita.Capi@uwc.net 

Claire Chun 

8A Kings Road 

Singapore 268057 

SINGAPORE 

claire.chun@uwc.net 

Kris Cortez 

119 Birchwood Lane 

Cadillac, MI 49601-9776 

k_onstar@hotmail.com 

Brien-Courtney Darby 

Kansas State Univeristy 

1122 Pierre Street 

Manhattan, KS 66502 

briencourtney@hotmail.com 


Julene Aguirre Bielschowsky, who 

recently visited campus with 

Nadine Abdullah and Aubrey 

Bodden, is studying in Mexico. 

Aubrey is attending Cornell 

University while Nadine is at 

Earlham College with Sergey 

Grechukhin and Karel Raba. Over 

the summer, Crister Brady biked in 

Bolivia, and will spend the remainder 

of the year biking and surfing 

down the Chilean coast. This fall, 

he’ll attend the University of North 

Carolina. Claire Chun, Kris 

Cortez, Brendan O’Connor, 

Vareeya Thangnirundr and June 

Tibaleka are all spending their first 

year at Johns Hopkins University. 

Brien Courtney Darby is studying 

at Kansas State University, majoring 

in Music Performance (clarinet) and 

Biology. In true English fashion, 

Imogen Curnew spent her summer 

working in a tea room. She attends 

the University of Edinburgh, spending 

her free time in a successful 

German play. Chao Lu is reportedly 

working very hard on his English 

skills at Princeton University. 

Rachel Markowitz is studying at 

the University of Texas, Dallas 

where she lives in her own apartment 

with other scholarship students. 

Brendan O’Connor works in 

the Admission Office of Johns 

Hopkins University. When not 

working or studying, he’s involved 

with the school’s debate team. 

Andras Szollar is enjoying life and 

university in Hungary. Reportedly, 

he’s balancing cooking his own 

meals with biking back and forth to 

campus every day. Justin Turkus is 

at Haverford where he has his own 

radio show. Over Thanksgiving, 

Kieran Ledwidge visited him and 

then traveled over his Christmas 

break to see Chelsea Sherbut. 

Chelsea is busy working with children 

and musical theatre. With her 

gap year ending soon, Chelsea is 

thinking about her future plans 

while still enjoying her employment 


Brooks Cato '04 is living in 

Thailand teaching classes to 

Thai children, attending 

Buddhist retreats and visiting 

neighboring countries in the 

area. Physically, he was unaffected 

by the Tsunami but is 

now dedicated to helping 

Tsunami victims. 

with a local book store. Nicole Van 

Tongeren is studying Fashion 

Design and French in Geneva during 

her gap year. She says, “At the 

moment I’m crazy in love with my 

cute Dutch boyfriend, Chris.” In the 

fall, she’ll attend Johns Hopkins 

University. Philosophy Walker and 

Margarita Capi are attending 

Vassar College and really enjoying 

it. Presently, Margarita is seeking a 

campus job and will most likely 

accept a position as campus 

patroller, since all other jobs are 

taken and the PoliSci department 

suddenly doesn’t require a research 

assistant anymore. As an English 

major, Philosophy is learning more 

and more about what it takes to 

have her writing published. 

Recently, the two of them got 

together with all the UWCers at 

Vassar for a fun dinner at a 

Vietnamese restaurant. Over 

Christmas, Kris Wilson traveled to 

India to visit his sister, Lara, 

Mahindra UWC student, class of 

2005. He then returned to his studies 

at Middlebury College. 

39

The Davis Double Match Ends May 31st! 

For every dollar you give to the Annual Fund before May 31, 2005, 

Shelby Davis will give two additional dollars! 

One dollar will be given to the Annual Fund, supporting scholarships 

of current students. A second dollar will be directed to the international 

scholarship endowment, helping to ensure that in perpetuity 

the United World College - USA will be able to provide full merit 

scholarships for remarkable young people from throughout the world. 

We invite you to join in making the most of this generous challenge. 

Please use the enclosed envelope for your gift, or visit 

www.uwc-usa.org and click on Make an Online Gift. 

KALEIDOSCOPE, VOL. 31 

United World College-USA 

The Armand Hammer United World College of the American West 

Post Office Box 248 

Montezuma, NM 87731-0248 USA 

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED 

Amy and Phil at a “buddy dance” in the student 

center of the renovated Castle. 

Nonprofit Org. 

US Postage 

PAID 

Permit No. 1 

Montezuma NM

KALEIDOSCOPE - UWC-USA

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