Class Notes, May/June 2000
Saturday July 01, 2000 Category: Archives Permanent Link
Come May 27, most of us will have officially spent longer post-life on the Hill than we spent on our fair campus. A frosh-year buddy remarked that we have probably changed more in our four years after school than during our four years in school. That’s debatable, but it’s interesting to ponder. I muse about that very question as I interview prospective students for the (gasp!) class of 2004 for Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network (CAAAN), and make myself feel older by thinking, “Wow, I had that bad Dorothy Hamill haircut goin’ on when you were born.” I haven’t come up with anything except this: instead of the endearing nicknames we might have assigned to our college pals, we now need to add “Doctor,” “Esquire,” and “CEO.” Thoughts? Drop us a line here at Class Notes and let us know.
Eva Silvestre, BS HE ‘97, is pursuing her PhD in nutritional anthropology at the U. of Colorado , Boulder . Waaay long ago, when she wrote us, Eva reported that Jonelle Bradshaw is working at Columbia U. in admissions, Jen Shaw was in Chile working in nutrition education (but has been recently spotted in the Bay Area), Keely Dunaway is working with a landscape architect, Tanya Cantu is studying graphic design at Southwest Texas U., Christie Kaefer is a nutritionist, working for the army in Georgia, and Eva’s former roommate Marsha (Cervantez) and husband Brian Wigton are both in the Air Force and living in Tucson. Todd Kashdan is a graduate student in the clinical psychology department at U. of Buffalo . Todd writes, “Despite the perpetual inclement weather, greasy fast food, and rabid sports fans, Buffalo is in fact a habitable city.” Philip Wang Jr. is currently residing in Hong Kong .
Michelle Falzone recently accepted a position as an instructional designer for American Management Systems, a business and technology consulting firm, and moved back to the DC area. Michelle is doing classroom and computer-based training for the company’s clients. Rajul Vaishnani wrote in, “I’m currently in the process of moving back to Atlanta from Phoenix , AZ. After three years in the desert, I thought the time had come to be amongst the trees again, so I am finishing up med school in Atlanta .” Over New Year’s, Raj had a mini Cornell reunion in New Orleans . He and Mike Smiarowski, also in Phoenix , met up with Brian Bosart, who lives in Westwood in LA, Jesus “Jondy” Syjuco, who came all the way from Manila , Gautam Bhave ‘95 from Houston, and Owen Evans, MC CH ‘97, and Ryan Hoppe from Boston . The guys spent four days in New Orleans ringing in the New Year. Raj wrote, “At one point, we ran into some other Cornellians on a balcony overlooking Bourbon St. Not believing we were Cornellians, they challenged us to sing ‘the song’ to validate our claimed degrees. So, on New Year’s Day, on a balcony in New Orleans , we sang ‘Far above Cayuga’s Waters …’ All questions as to our Cornell affiliations were stopped on the spot and reminiscing began. We plan to repeat such an eventful trip in a few years; this time maybe in Rio . All of the above Cornell gang are doing well.”
Samantha Klein will be finishing Columbia Law this year and heading down to DC for a fellowship at the Environmental Law Inst. to do domestic and foreign policy work. In 2001, she’ll be heading back for a job in New York City . Patrick J. Connell recently returned from a eight-month assignment in the UK , working as a management consultant. He is happy to report that Nick ‘97 and Alison Weinstein Dumbell ‘97 are doing well, as is Fearghal Downey, PhD ‘94, who lives in Cork , Ireland . Patrick was also visited by Chris Rubino ‘92, BS Ag ‘94, Ryan Duran ‘97, and Damien Casten ‘97.
Carin Lustig married Josh Silverman in Great Neck, NY, on May 30, ‘99 . Josh is in his fourth year of an MD/PhD program at NYU and Carin is working at Ernst & Young in Manhattan . (Class columnist note: Carin and Josh just might have set the Class of ‘96 record for most Cornellians at a wedding.) Cornellians in the wedding party included Joe Cook, who is working for RFF in Washington, DC, Andy Swan ‘97, in his second year of medical school at the U. of Buffalo, Eric Sinoway, working at Cendant in New Jersey, Al Pizzica, who is in the Navy and has recently relocated to Indianapolis, and Jeanine Schoen, working for PricewaterhouseCoopers in New Jersey. Other Cornellians in attendance included Bill and Gina DeMartini Hander, Jon Decristofaro, Sheri Tian, Chris Silveira, Amy Heusinkveld, Miriam Solomon, Lori Marino, Julie Wu, Julie Chiang, Ross Goldstein, Ahmed Kandiel, Alex Brose ‘98, Keith Adler, Brian Chu ‘94, BArch ‘98, Michael Banino ‘94, BA ‘95, John Macris ‘93, BS Eng ‘94, ME I ‘95, Ryan Lee ‘95, Josh Romalis, Terence Goff, Elin Westrick ‘97, Sarah Davies, and Robyn Bilinski.
And hey, it’s not too early to start thinking about our 5th Reunion . Check it out, they have a whisky bar on College Ave. now. And Tower Road actually, like, works. If that’s not a must see, I don’t know what is. Psst–Are you on the class listserv? If not, visit the class website at http://www.classof96.cornell.edu to find out the latest about REUNION 2001. So, near, far, wherever life may have taken you until this point, let us know. Cheers!
—Sheryl Magzamen, Class Correspondent
