Class Notes, January/February 2003

Monday March 10, 2003 Category: Archives Permanent Link

O to be in England , now that, uh, January’s here? Okay, so it’s kind of gray—I’m happy to be here anyway. And instead of doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I’m procrastinating quite successfully by running what feels like the equivalent of an alumni B&B (my flatmate is a Cornellian too—Rachel Dodes ‘99), and visiting Scotland (where bagpipers are overdone, men look good in kilts, and you learn that most of Scottish history can be summed up in five words: “And then he was beheaded”).

But on to your news: Jessica Cattelino and husband Noah Zatz ‘94, MA ‘96, are happy to settle back into New York after a year apart while Jessica was doing dissertation research with the Seminole tribe in Florida and Noah was a law clerk in New Haven . For the record, Jessica’s studying cultural anthropology at NYU, more specifically the relationship between casino gaming and Seminole cultural, economic, and political self-determination.

So far the award for the farthest traveled to do research goes to Rebecca Silvanic. She and some classmates at Iowa State U.’s vet school traveled to China to take an acupuncture class on horses and dogs. Other classmates hitting the books (closer to home): Julie Farrell is in her first year at the UCLA School of Law, Rajen Shah is a second year student at Columbia Business School , and Janice Chen is in the second year of her MBA at the Johnson School . And you thought you had it bad back in college: Daniah Thompson’s got your workload beat. She’s a member of the class of 2008 at Mayo Med School , doing a combined MD/PhD. Jason Biegelson, ME M ‘97, is on the other side of the desk. After a 3-1/2-year tour on the USS Seawolf, Biegelson is still with the Navy, but now he’s teaching NROTC at the U. of Pennsylvania .

And would a class column at our age be complete without Wedding Watch? Here come the brides (and grooms). Wedding One: Ross Goldstein married Beth Rubenstein ‘97 at the New York Botanic Garden in August. The bridesmaid dresses were not red, though the bridal party did include Greg Rubenstein ‘01, Seth Goldstein ‘00, Matt Ruzz ‘98, Harry Kahn ‘97, Elsie Mao ‘97, Laurie Mandell ‘97, Pamela Feliciano Colosimo ‘97, and Sindhu Culas ‘97. The bride’s (proud) parents are Larry ‘66 and Fran Stern Rubenstein ‘70.

Wedding Two: Maggie Berman married Richard Ewell on July 20, ‘02 on Great Diamond Island in Maine . Irene Feng was a bridesmaid, and Cornellians in attendance included Jeff and Liz Tartell Wall, Joe Maule, Dan Murphy, Chris and Catherine Gallagher Olney, Donna Lee, Charlene Sun, Jen Delong ‘97, and Amanda Dalton ‘98. Maggie just started a job through the Presidential Management Internship Program at the Department of Labor. Wedding Three: Amit Rao ‘97 married Danielle Nedwetzky ‘98, reports Marie Turock, who’s working for Towers Perrin in Arlington , Va. Tyler Kendall ‘98 was also in attendance.

Wedding Four: Jonathan Pearlstein married Michele in June 2000. He’s in his third year as a financial planner, and reports that Pete Kelly is in law school at Columbia . Wedding Five: Allison Jeffer and Troy Patterson at the Metropolitan Club in NYC. Jennifer Tishman Willey (who just started as a Yahoo! account executive) shared maid of honor duties with Jessica Elsinger, and Maggie Maraghy and Marianne Awad were there for the electric slide.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes… well, you fill in the rest. Seriously, you guys are scaring me. We’re getting to the point where there are almost as many babies as weddings. Oldest first: Mark Pizov , ME I ‘97 (mpizov@yahoo.com) and wife Olga are living near Akron , OH , with their 1-year-old son Alexander Solomon. Mark is currently working as a manager of purchasing projects at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Heather Ott Holdermann and husband James—both foot and ankle surgeons in Lexington , KY —welcomed son Hunter James on June 30. Ten days later, on July 10, daughter Morgan Avery was born to Mark ‘95 and Courtnay Kasin Papera. The Paperas own and operate a 65-seat French brasserie in Montclair , NJ .

Random news bits that I could staple together à la all those Abba songs in Mamma Mia but won’t make you (or me) sit through cringe-worthy segues: Paige Adams Pongratz, DVM ‘99, is working at Plymouth County Animal Hospital in Massachusetts as vet and medical director. “Love it,” she writes … Mike Padilla works as a user interface design manager in Center City Philadelphia… Erin Dougherty was recently promoted to accounting supervisor at Pepsico headquarters in Purchase, NY… She’s just back from a trip to Aruba , where she took a jeep tour of the island and went snorkeling… Ami Gadhia started a one-year fellowship at Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group in Washington , DC .

Terri Levine is a civil engineer working for Wawa Inc. as the head of land development in Virginia and Southern Maryland… Jason Ehrenberg recently joined the Groom Law Group as a litigator specializing in ERISA and executive compensation… John and Julie Nesbit Ehinger moved from Washington , DC , to Birmingham last summer. Julie is a lawyer at Huckaby, Scott & Dukes, a boutique litigation defense firm. Her husband is a lawyer at Balch & Bingham.

And finally, Morgan Rich, BS Hotel ‘98, must be working awfully hard as a manager and sommelier at Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca in NYC; in response to our question about her recent vacation, she writes, “I can barely remember it, it was so long ago.” That’s all the news from here. If you find yourself on my side of the Atlantic , definitely drop me a line (though I can’t promise it won’t be used in future columns).

p>—Courtney Rubin, Class Correspondent