Vassar Quarterly - Spring 2018 - 100

Class Notes
living, drinking coffee, and working at a social
justice organization. Here's hoping one of them
has found the other by the time this prints. Also
in NYC is Jason Storch, now working as a clinical
research coordinator in the cardiovascular
surgery department at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Basically, he's doing research to develop new,
less invasive ways of making hearts healthier.
Down in Long Island, Katherine Poulos is
working as an agricultural stewardship
technician at Cornell Cooperative Extension
of Suffolk County.
Moving north a bit, Rachel Plotkin now works
as a Spanish teacher at The Woodhall School in
Connecticut. Sammy Augenbraun is living in
Boston with fellow Vassar alum (and best
roommate ever), Jonah Williams '16, while
working on the business development team at
Partners in Health. Also in Boston, Marie Lugo is
working in a nonprofit that deals with affordable
housing. She is working on getting HUD certified
as a housing counselor.
Hopping back south, Elizabeth Dean is in
her first year at Rutgers, pursuing a PhD in
literatures in English with a focus on 19th-century
American literature. She invites anyone coming
through northern New Jersey to meet her cat,
Gerty (and I have never wanted to go to New
Jersey more, cats are amazing).
Drifting further down, Christa Ventresca is
working as an IRTA post-bac at the NIH in
Bethesda, MD, where she has been hanging out

with Imrul Islam, Maggie Ginoza '16, and Ellen
Jones '16. She's also playing in the saxophone
section of local band DC Different Drummers!
I (Conor Flanagan) am also in the DC area,
pursuing my obsession with politics (it's been a
wild ride, folks). I survive by living and nerding
it up with Kim Carlson, Mackenzie Little, and
Atticus Kramer. We sometimes visit (or are
visited by) our friend Elise Elliott over in
Baltimore, which is at once so close and so very
far away.
Meghan McDonell, meanwhile, has
journeyed to the Midwest, studying clinical social
work at the U. of Chicago School of Social Service
administration. Since that apparently doesn't
keep her busy enough, she's also interning at a
community health center. Zip farther in that
direction and you run into Megan Forster, now
living in Sioux Falls and working as the finance
director of the South Dakota Democratic Party.
She apparently likes a good challenge.
Pushing out to the West Coast, Bryce Daniel
has been keeping busy, working at Airbnb and
building a start-up-Nubko.com-with Quinn
Rutledge and Zechariah Lee '18. Yes, these are
the ambitious ones. Bryce and Quinn are also
living together and with Alayna O'Bryan.
Finally, still within the country but stretching
well beyond mere California, Elizabeth Bennett
has traded in gray Poughkeepsie to study Pacific
Islands Studies at the U. of Hawai'i at Mänoa. She
is a student affiliate at the East-West Center and

plans to write her MA thesis on food sovereignty
in Tahiti Nui/French Polynesia.
Ah, but we're not done yet! Zooming back
across the globe, Karli Bentley is getting her
MFA in acting at East 15 Acting School just outside
of London. At the time of submission, Karli was
preparing to perform at Shakespeare's Globe (!!!!)
at the completion of her first term. Karli is much
cooler than the rest of us. (That's me saying that,
not her.) Also in England, Sam Gartenstein has
been awarded a Higgs Centre MSc Prize
Scholarship for master's level study in mathematical physics at the U. of Edinburgh for the
2017-2018 school year. He actually submitted this
just before the deadline for the last notes, but
given I had only gotten this gig two days before
that, publication didn't so much happen. Hope
this is sufficient, Sam!
Last but not least, we return to the Americas,
where Rachel Tankersley dodged my rule about
not printing engagements by getting married!
Congratulations! Rachel and her husband now
live in Ontario, Canada, where she attends
culinary school and he pursues his doctorate.
That's it for this round of Class Notes. I'll come
calling again sometime in March, so keep a
lookout! I wish you all the best of luck in your
endeavors. Please continue to send me interesting
stuff that makes me jealous. Farewell, all!
Conor Flanagan
vc2017.classnotes@gmail.com

Remember the
womp-womps?

Jim Mills

Yup. Still oblivious to humans,
unless someone attempts to
interfere with their eating of
free-range salad.

100 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Spring 2018