December 2011 - Dartmouth Class of 1983
Transcription
December 2011 - Dartmouth Class of 1983
class of 1983 DARTMOUTH Class Officers Co-Presidents Mac Gardner Andre Hunter Class Head Agents Beth Winnick Falcone Kathy Bachelder Coster Treasurer Jim Gregg Communications Becky Wolcott Ankeny Class Project Manager Peter Kilmarx DAM Secretary Maren Christensen Reunion Co-Chairs Sarah Reynolds Walton Bill Huber Alumni Council Maren Christensen Webmaster Mac Gardner foreverGREEN notes december 2011 Greetings ’83s! Holiday Greetings! We enter the final stretch of our 50th birthday year with much to celebrate. Lots of well attended and really fun mini-reunions were capped off in Hanover over Homecoming weekend. Those who attended got a great boost of Dartmouth Spirit, as the weather was awesome, and the company even better. As the executive committee closes out this calendar year, our attention shifts to gearing up everyone’s attention and energy to our 30th reunion in the Summer of 2013. With the date just over 18 months away, we are looking for more reunion committee members and class agents. Speaking from personal experience, it is one of the best ways we can think of to reconnect with Dartmouth, our class and old friends. Please reach out to Sarah Reynolds Walton, Bill Huber or Mac Gardner to find out more. You can find us on the revamped class website at http://dartmouth.org/classes/83. On the new website you can pay your class dues by using Paypal or credit card, and as we get to the point where it’s time to register for the reunion, we hope to make it easy to do online. Suggestions for improvements to the website are welcome and should be forwarded to the webmaster at the bottom of the website pages. While we look towards our 30th, we don’t want to dissuade you from reaching out to fellow classmates in the interim, and hope that if any of you have the desire, or interest to host a mini-reunion that you’ll contact Sarah or Bill, or any other member of the Executive Committee. They are easy to arrange, and it’s safe to say, that those who attended last year, all had a great time. Also, for those of you who are active social media users, please “like” our class page on Facebook and join our class group on LinkedIn as it is the easiest way to keep up with classmates, as well as class wide activities. We hope that this year was healthy and successful for all of you and we look forward to serving you and the rest of the class through the next reunion. Happy holidays, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Best, Andre and Mac Featured Current International Students Name: Nejc Zupan ’14 Home address: Kamnik, Slovenia by Becky Wolcott Ankeny Henry David Thoreau once said that it is “not until we are lost, that we begin to understand ourselves,” and it was not until I came to Dartmouth, that I fully began to understand these words. Coming to Dartmouth as a freshman, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had never visited Dartmouth or any other American university before, and I had been actively learning English for less then four years. My family and friends back at home thought I was crazy for doing it, but I knew I had to go through with it. After all, time defines space, and moving is an essential part of living. When I first arrived on campus, I was thoroughly shocked. Coming from Slovenia, a small European country with 2 million people and an alarmingly homogenous society, I received an unexpected cultural shock that shuddered the foundations of what constituted my identity and my beliefs. Prior to coming to Dartmouth I had never spoken to an Asian, African-American, or a homosexual person and I have never in my life felt like an outcast. Suddenly, however, everything changed. A whole new world was dropped on my shoulders and it was my job to hold it up. Fortunately, people at Dartmouth were very open and friendly and it did not take me long to find some friends on campus. I joined the swim team and became very good friends with my teammates, I integrated well with the people living on my floor, and I developed some friendships within the international community on campus. Eventually, despite all the social, cultural, and language difficulties that I was facing, I began to put the shattered pieces of my identity back together. My family went through a lot of difficulties, getting me to Dartmouth, and they had a lot of faith in my success. I knew I could not let them down. I was working really hard, inside and outside of the classroom and despite the rough beginning my freshman fall, everything came around in the winter. I have managed to get the highest grades in all of my classes and I even received a citation in my writing class, which meant a lot to me and to my family. Outside of the classroom, the hard work paid off as well as I became a 2-time Ivy League Champion in 1650 and 1000 freestyle and broke 4 Dartmouth Swimming and Diving records. I was also elected Freshman of the year and Athlete of the year by the students and other followers of Dartmouth Sports Network. Going into my sophomore year, I feel much more confident and comfortable about my situation here, at Dartmouth. I have made some good friends and I know that for as long as I keep working hard and follow my goals, good things will happen to me. I am excited to further explore all that Dartmouth has to offer and I cannot wait to encounter the new challenges of a foreign student studying at Dartmouth. Class Dues for 2011/2012 by Jim Gregg On the heels of our enormously successful mini-reunion in Hanover over Homecoming Weekend, I want to reach out and remind all of you who have not done so to send in your annual class dues. In addition to funding your subscription to the Alumni Magazine, our class dues help subsidize events like mini-reunions. Class dues are $45 with a recommended contribution of $15 to our Class Scholarship Fund, and an additional $15 towards our Class Gift. Visit our Class Website at http://dartmouth.org/classes/83 to pay your dues online or send a check to: James C. Gregg, Treasurer, Class of 1983, 11 Belfry Terrace, Lexington, MA 02421. Thanks in advance for your support! Featured Current International Students by Becky Wolcott Ankeny Name: Nicholas Peisch ’14 Home addres: Frankfort, Germany Nicholas Peisch grew up in a small town outside Frankfurt, Germany. When he was 15, he went to a boarding school in Scotland where he spent 3 years and obtained the IB Diploma. Coming to Dartmouth College for Nicholas was not a big adjustment. He was used to living by himself and being independent. Both his father, who graduated in ’75, and his sister ’11 had told him many stories about Dartmouth. Nicholas says that both his father and his sister had a great time at Dartmouth, and both of them were varsity athletes. His freshman fall he walked on to the Varsity Lightweight Crew team. Freshman year was great and crew was a huge part of his daily life. approach to writing essays than Germans or British people. Clothing styles are very different in the US than in Europe. People in the US are generally friendlier and more outgoing with strangers than people in Europe. But besides these minor cultural differences, Nicholas felt he was pretty well prepared Although Nicholas had come to the US many times coming into Dartmouth, before college and had met many American people in having had his sister on campus his freshman year and summer camp in New Hampshire, there were some also having lived independently before. Nicholas is also cultural differences and adaptations he had to make bilingual, so language was not a major issue for him either. coming into the College. Americans have a different Name: Mathieu Bertrand ’14 Home address: Canada Being Canadian and living merely three hours away from campus, Mathieu did not expect to experience much of a culture shock when he came to Dartmouth. He anticipated recognizing the staples of North American culture and seeing very little contrast with his lifestyle back home. However, despite many similarities between American and Canadian culture, there is a huge difference that Mathieu has noticed since his arrival at Dartmouth: the immense sense of pride that students have for their Alma Mater. Having such strong feelings of pride and belonging is simply not a common aspect of student life in the majority of Canadian universities. It is far more common for Canadian students to create a divide between their social lives and their linkage to school. Dartmouth students are much more invested here, academically and socially. Whether it is their apparent enthusiasm to learn, upholding age-old traditions, wearing a variety of Dartmouth apparel around campus, or being tremendously involved in campus activities, there are countless aspects of this college that create an impressive sense of community he never expected to encounter here. Despite college not being what he expected, he couldn’t have imagined anything better. The sense of pride and community that is ubiquitous here at Dartmouth is definitely one of the major differences from Canadian schools that has made him appreciate his experience here, thus far, that much more. Class Notes Maren Christensen and Becky Wolcott Ankeny Susi Seidl-Fox took us up on our request for international news and sent the following: “Greetings from Salzburg, Austria, dear Classmates, where I have been living since 1995, when I took on a job at the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit institution that brings future and current leaders from around the world together to discuss issues of global concern (www.salzburgglobal.org). I still work at the Seminar, as program director for culture and the arts. We are fortunate to be based in a beautiful castle where parts of the Sound of Music were filmed (i.e. the terrace by the lake where Maria and the kids all fall into the water...). Every now and then Dartmouth alums participate in our programs and several have been interns, so I do get regular updates on the Big Green. Stop by if you are ever in the area! I married an Austrian photographer a few years after I came to Salzburg and he runs a contemporary art photography gallery (www.fotohof.at). We have a ten-year-old daughter, Emilia, who loves to read, dance, and spend time with her friends. What I love about living here most are the spectacular alpine surroundings and the vicinity to wonderful places to visit (Italy in 2.5 hours, a 2.5 hr flight to Crete, etc.). What I miss most about the US is being able to see old friends for a weekend... and going to a bookstore at 10pm at night... Our favorite destinations are Crete and Burgundy. I am attaching a picture of me in Tlissos, one of my favorite Minoan ruins on Crete... Again, I hope to be able to welcome some classmates to Salzburg in the future!” ======================================= Gary Portugal also wrote in: “February will 15 years that I have been living and working in the UK. I came to London in 1997, in theory for a year or two, at the insistence of my employer, and ended up never going back!! I trade emerging market currencies for Gelber Group, which is a Chicago-based proprietary trading company. I live in a suburb about 30 miles east of London along the Thames estuary, and thoroughly enjoy it. In the time that I’ve been in the UK, I have been coincidentally lucky to see London become a much more “European “ city and less of an “English” one. Although London is quite a bit bigger than San Francisco or Seattle, it has a lot in common with both, not the least of which is a healthy dose of fog/rain, though nowhere near as bad as myths suggest. You could live here a hundred years and never see all of London, which makes it great. Of course London is also a convenient springboard to go all over Europe-my family and I have had a host of great trips both in the UK (Glasgow and Edinburgh stand out) and across the continent (Stockholm, Valencia, Bruges, and Lille apart from the more “traditional “ headline destinations). Living in the UK is that rare combination of having your cake and eating it- living in a foreign country, yet speaking English. ======================================= Also living in London is Stuart Grider with his partner of 20 years, Nelson Castellanos. “I agreed with my previous law firm to come to London in 1998 and moved over to a UK-based int’l law firm in 2002. For work, I travel to India, Russia, Ukraine, China/Hong Kong quite a lot, as well as more exotic locations like Mauritius. From 2007 to 2009 I was based in Hong Kong. He and Nelson miss friends and family in the US but the thing they like most about living abroad is the variety of people and cultures, as well as food! Recent interesting holiday travel has included Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, as well as long weekends in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Belgium centered on food, architecture, beer and/ or wine, as appropriate! The big trip this year is northern Brazil based in Salvador and local beaches. ======================================= London is a popular destination for expats. Mike Adams gave us a little education: “Thanksgiving is not particularly celebrated in the UK, but we had a turkey dinner last Saturday. He attended the Class Notes Maren Christensen and Becky Wolcott Ankeny Thanksgiving Day church service at St Paul’s Cathedral for the American community - about 2,000 people attended. It is probably the single day of the year when I most miss being in the US. Mike lives in London as a result of work - he works for a construction company called Bechtel, which is based in US. He first came to London 21 years ago, and in total have lived here for 14 years, with 7 years in Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong) in the middle. Mike particularly enjoys the multicultural experience of daily living outside the US. He is endlessly fascinated by the wider world - its cultures, politics, and business. Mike misses American sports and not spending enough time with family and friends in the US. Of course, he is now a big soccer, cricket and rugby fan, so it isn’t all bad! “Living anywhere outside of your own native culture/country teaches you humility and respectfulness of other cultures and how people do things differently, not necessarily better, just differently.” and hasn’t really left. Kurt’s favorite thing about living abroad is international people. And easy to get to places. Europe is sort of right in the middle of the known world - halfway between American, Asia and with very close proximity to Africa and the Middle East. He most misses driving across America, especially the small roads like Route 66 and the small towns. But then, he brought his Corvette back two years ago to England so he Mike is married to an Englishwoman and has four sons, has a little bit ofAmerica everyday on the streets of London. ranging in age from 11 to 3. They attend an English school, so are very English in their sports, but his family has a One disadvantage of living abroad is standing in the house in Vermont and they all love spending time in the US. foreigners queue at Heathrow Immigration! At the moment, despite being a long-time British Resident, Mike recently discovered that he lives in the next Kurt only has an American passport. He’s considering village (about 20 miles south of London) to an ‘84, the idea of getting a European (German) one as his Michelle Dorion, and they have enjoyed getting to family has German roots, but has yet to do this. “Americans typically have a know each other. He keeps in peripatetic contact with Kurt writes that Peter Schoppert (just saw him and his wife Chor Lin in very parochial, self-centric view of the world (not Singapore last month). Judson Reis and his wife Lisa and Dartmouth alums obviously!). Living outside the States Bill Scully and his wife Mary spent a fun weekend with definitely helps to foster a great world perspective.” Mike and Joanna at their house in Vermont in August. ======================================= Many years ago, Kurt was in investment banking. Now Jay Alexander “loves living in London. Best time I’ve he has his own business - in hotels. He is the founder, had since Dartmouth. But, I’m about to get on a plane creator and co-owner of The Hoxton Hotel in London’s trendy Hoxton/ to go to Nigeria, and then The Hague, and then Shoreditch Moscow over the next 2 weeks.” We’ll get more district. The information from Jay for our next newsletter! hotel has been =================================== a winner three Last, but not least, for our responding London years in a row classmates is Kurt Bredenbeck. Kurt was “so of the ‘Best completely bored as a 22 year old (after graduating UK Hotel’ Dartmouth) doing an MBA at University of from London’s Chicago, that I signed up for their joint MBA - MA Guardian programme with LSE and jetted off to London for Newspaper a year. “ After returning for 6 months to finish his Travel Awards. MBA at Chicago, he came back to London to work, Class Notes Maren Christensen and Becky Wolcott Ankeny Kurt has lived for many years in a famous 20th Century modernist block - at the top of a 40 story tower with an amazing view of Central London, from the dome of St Paul’s on his left to the Thames and Big Ben straight ahead, around to the field of Hampstead Heath on his right. On the weekends, Kurt goes to his converted Georgian Barn on the outskirts of Bath. ======================================= Marika Olsen had just landed in Kurdistan when she received my email. She is currently living in Baghdad. She writes: “My job title is (cue the raised eyebrows) “Chief of Party.” Believe it or not, that is a normal title for someone heading up an NGO project out in the field. In my case, the NGO is Internews and we are helping develop media expertise in Iraq. The disadvantage is a very high kidnapping threat. Must have security. Can’t walk about freely. Can’t get on a bike or go for a walk. One of the cool things about living abroad is that it forces you to question all your assumptions about your own life and your own thinking. It also makes you appreciate your country more, as well. There is so much about America that is a blessing and so many of us completely take it for granted.” ============================ Liz Mueller does a lot of traveling internationally. Lucky girl! Her favorite destination is Italy. She has a work colleague who owns a villa in Tuscany near Lucca. She visited him last summer and then went to the Cinque Terre to hike. The summer before, Liz hiked in the Dolomites. Liz adds “I especially enjoy a few days in Milan – I have a friend who lives there who shows me around – where else can you see women getting off Vespas wearing haute couture and high heels?” Liz actually wants to move to Italy next summer and immerse herself in an Italian language school in Tuscany. She’s already hired a private tutor in San Diego and also bought at Vespa. Living abroad is perfect for someone like me who wants to nourish that childish sense of wonder, feeling a sense of discovery even in the most ordinary moments or with the most common objects. “Wow, so this is how they serve tea,” “Wait, THIS is the bathroom?” or “This is a wonderful festival. I wish we had this holiday.” Living in Baghdad means adjusting to a world of brown and beige. I long for lush greenery, fresh, clean air, public art and not worrying about being kidnapped. As for what I am missing about being in America, at this moment I’d have to say Whole Foods and being able to go on a date. The major advantage of being from the US and residing in Baghdad is that I haven’t a clue what or whom Kim Kardashian is doing. But seriously, the advantage of being an America in Baghdad is that the Kurdish Peshmerga that guard my housing compound in Baghdad genuinely like me because of my nationality. ======================================= Laszlo Madaras hasn’t written in a while, but now has some time on his hands while recovering from his 10th consecutive JFK 50 mile ultramarathon (that’s how he celebrated his 50th birthday!) Laszlo has done Class Notes Maren Christensen and Becky Wolcott Ankeny international work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Congo/ Zaire, as a Pediatric sub-intern at theAlbert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene, Gabon, at a refugee camp medical director in Rwanda in 1994, and as a physician with Project Hope in Eastern Europe (Hungary) during the schedule 1995 tragedies in the former Yugoslavia. Over the past 10 years, Laszlo and his colleagues have taken Johns Hopkins 4th year medical students on a 3-4 week international health elective to Santa Lucia, Honduras where they work with Honduran counterparts and learn to become doctors. Periodically, he find himself speaking other languages (for which he is very grateful to Dartmouth), enjoying new foods that remind me of green eggs and ham, and living without air-conditioning and plumbing. He was able to take his daughters and wife with him on the less dangerous assignments, and the girls grew up seeing much more of the world than Laszlo ever did before college. His older daughter uses some of her international experience studying at M a c a l e s t e r, and his younger one is college shopping now. “It was so good to show her the campus in September of this year. I wish I could have returned again in October, but I could not swing it.” I ran on my own on the beautiful trails at Dartmouth and finished the 1983 Maine Coast Marathon in 3:18:50 as part of Outward Bound. I was usually in some biochem lab otherwise, or hiking trails, but I wish now that I had run for the school. =============================== Paul DeVierno resides in Singapore although his mailing address is in Johor, Malaysia. Johor is the Malaysian state that borders Singapore, and he and his family used to visit their house there every weekend until the kids’ started making it too complicated a juggling act to go. Paul moved to Singapore in 1993 (previously he lived in the UK and Switzerland). Singapore is a clean, efficient, m o d e r n English speaking country. One doesn’t really need to do much adapting to get used to the place. When you’re living in a financial center, there is little sense of foreignness. There was a time when living overseas for a prolonged period of time meant losing touch with American popular culture. That ended when every place in the planet got cable TV. “Dancing with the Stars” and the Republican primary debates are just as available to Paul as they are to us. The morning Paul wrote, he had gotten up early to put his 16-year-old daughter, Ida Mariah, on a 6:00 am flight to Sarasota, Florida. Ida just finished her “O-Levels” at the Singapore Sports School. She asked if she could go with some of her friends to Sydney, Australia to celebrate their graduation, and Paul counter-offered a trip to visit her aunt in Florida. Ida has done a fair bit travelling with her school swim team, but this the first international journey by herself. Paul and his son, Benjamin, are flying to Sumatra for a father-son vacation. They are going to visit Lake Class Notes Maren Christensen and Becky Wolcott Ankeny Toba (big lake caused by volcanic eruption) and then travelling to surfing camp on Nias Island. Ben is going to learn how to surf, and Paul is bringing a biography of Otto Von Bismarck to read. While we are away my wife Nor Arfah, will have our apartment to herself. She intends to go to a lot of yoga classes. ======================================= Peter Kilmarx and his wife are now in Harare, Zimbabwe since July 2011. Peter is the CDC/Zimbabwe country director. The CDC is implementing the U.S. P r e s i d e n t ’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ( P E P FA R ) as well as a general health system strengthening a n d addressing other health concerns. Peter likes leading his office in working directly with Zimbabwean counterparts in implementing health programs. Zimbabwe is a beautiful, fascinating country. They miss family and friends in the U.S. Skype and Facebook are nice, but not the same as being there. ======================================= Greg Curhan also receives a round of snaps. His novel, Indomitable Spirit (Max Singer Adventures), is now available on amazon.com. ======================================= Another round of snaps for Bill Robbins! He has coauthored the second edition of Seed-Stage Venture Investing: An Insider’s Guide to Start-ups for Scientists, Engineers and Investors. The book “takes a fresh look at the world of start-ups, focusing on life science and technology spin-outs from academic and biomedical research centers. This book provides a substantial update to the previous edition, explaining the current challenges of financing research-intensive academic spin-outs and offering new insights and advice about evaluating technology, navigating the technology transfer process, developing intellectual property, and applying for grant funding under the NIH SBIR Program. “ ================================= And in relatively local news, Gina Balkus has been named the Chief Executive Officer of the Home Care Association of New Hampshire. The Association represents agencies licensed to provide in-home health care and supportive services to individuals living in New Hampshire. A resident of Nashua, Balkus was most recently Director of Government Relations at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, where she was responsible for developing and implementing strategy to enhance public policy involvement for DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock community practices throughout the state. Gina also served as Vice President for Public Affairs at the New Hampshire Hospital Association (NHHA) from 1990 through 1999, and Director of Public Relations at NHHA from 1986 through 1989. Gina was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Warsaw, Poland. “Gina is an accomplished healthcare leader,” states Gail Tattan-Giampaolo, president of the Board of Directors for the Home Care Association of New Hampshire. “She has successfully led public policy initiatives and understands the unique challenges that face the home care industry in this rapidly changing healthcare environment IF YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER, BUT ARE NOT GETTING THE CLASS E-MAIL MESSAGES - YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED. Please send your preferred e-mail address to [email protected]. Class Project Update Dartmouth Organic Farm Michael Bush Michael Bush went to the Dartmouth Organic Farm The more intensive part (and the element where our on Saturday of homecoming to see the progress. His capital has been deployed) involves the greenhouse report follows: where Scott Stokoe is doing work in sustainable aquaculture. Here the fish are in large tanks (our I had a wonderful 90 minute tour with the folks there. money) along with some basil plants floating on the top with oxygen being pumped in. But the most The farm is really fascinating part is the system to take all the fish a two-part affair. toxins out of the water and circulate them through There is the the soil and from the soil into earthworms and organic “garden” though the earthworms back into the fish. In this element behind the sense what we have really financed is a small scale, barns and down by mostly fully sustainable biosphere of transference the river. While from plants to water to fish to earth to worms to this was once a fish. It is all about creating the self-sustaining circle couple of acres the of needs and solutions. One critter’s “too much” is project has now another’s “not enough” and we pass along what we been scaled back cannot use to be used by the next link in the chain. because production outpaced appetite demand and student labor’s ability to deal with it all. Now it is really a very I cannot imagine what each fish costs to maintain — large plot where each season students come and learn they are probably the only $1000 per pound tilapia the bio- in the world. But I am glad we are supporting a little systems of corner of the world where someone is doing something. the earth, plants and how food is created f r o m both an ecological perspective and a labor perspective. They are not farming there so much as “food gardening” with great helpings of organic chemistry and interesting interpersonal experiences. Plus the fields are right along the lovely Connecticut River --what could be wrong? Class Agents Report Kathy Bachelder Coster and Beth Winnick Falcone Please consider Dartmouth in your year end giving plans! Thanks to many generous ’83s, we are coming off a record breaking year during which we raised over $1 million for the Dartmouth College Fund. This year we hope to bring more classmates into the effort as donors and volunteers. To help out, first please make a pledge and/or gift. If your donation is received before 12/31 you can deduct it in this tax year. To use the on-line giving form, go to http://giving.dartmouth.edu. Second, join our team! We are already planning for our 30th Reunion and need all hands on deck. Believe it or not, working as a Class Agent offers a great excuse to reconnect with Dartmouth friends. You can contact members of your fraternity/ sorority, team, or club - or you can take on the ultimate challenge: the cold case list of missing ’83s!!!! FMI or to sign on, contact Roger Baumann at [email protected]. Thanks for your generous support of Dartmouth and the great Class of ’83!!!! Alumni Council Report Maren Christensen As you all may know, I’m your newest Alumni Council representative. I attended the most recent council meeting in Hanover December 1-3. The days were full of meetings. As we were told, this isn’t like a reunion where you can relive your college days. In a few weeks, you’ll get a more comprehensive report from me about what went down, including the minutes of all the committee meetings. But in a nutshell, we discussed strategic planning and the direction of the college, how to keep the College “relevant” in a quickly changing world. We met the three trustee candidates, who were all remarkable people with great dedication to the college and their fields of work, and had great senses of humor. President Kim handed out the Alumni Awards to Sue Finnegan ’85, Kurt Weiling ’71 and David Eichman ’82 for their dedication to the College, their communities and their work. Very inspiring. Maren and Kathy after a long day of Alumni Council meetings! I’m on the Athletic Committee and listening to Harry Sheehy, the athletic director, talk is really exciting. We’re heading in a good direction. Overall, I’d have to say the College is moving in a positive way. We have really good leaders in place who are listening to what the faculty, the students, and the alums are saying and seem to be making wise decisions. If you have any questions about anything, please let me know. And if you haven’t been getting class emails, please, please, please update your email address with either me or Becky or the college. We want you to know what’s going on and to be engaged with the College. Maren [email protected]