Class Note 1994
Issue
July-August 2021
Hi, 94s! I have lots of news to report and not too many words to do it all justice. That’s enough preamble; let’s get straight to it!
Classmate Erika Katz adds to her media presence with an Instagram Live show. She continues to offer practical and purposeful parenting advice through TV appearances, write her multi-dimensional blog, and spotlight important moments and people who make those moments happen. Just a few months ago Erika interviewed fellow ’94 and New Yorker Dan Garodnick as a featured guest on her show. Dan served for 12 years as a New York City councilmember and now acts as president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy. Dan’s love for his hometown of New York has led him to a career in service to his beloved city. Recently, he recounted the struggle to defeat America’s biggest real estate transaction and preserve middle-class communities in his former district. His book, Saving Stuyvesant Town: How One Community Defeated the Worst Real Estate Deal in History, was released this past April to five-star reviews on Amazon.
Ozy media has named Sonya Dyhrman as a “breakthrough scientist you need to know.” As yet another New Yorker, Sonya has been educating some of the finest minds at Columbia University (we all know where the very finest minds can be found), where she serves as a professor of earth and environmental sciences. As a marine biologist and microbiologist, she is pioneering work to decode the tiniest interactions in microbes and understand their significant ramifications on the global food chain. She shares her passion for marine life and the entire oceanic food chain with younger students through her development of ocean science literacy initiatives for physical and virtual classrooms.
As a final news bit, I may have accidentally tricked a more modest classmate into providing an update. Brigid Pasulka spent years living and traveling in Europe before moving back to Illinois and settling into a career in writing, as both a teacher and a novelist. For the past 11 years Brigid has been running a writing center at a magnet high school in downtown Chicago. She helps hundreds of students draft and polish their personal essays for college applications. She has even offered to provide advice to any classmates or classmates’ children who might want some guidance in the college essay writing process, an offer that comes at the perfect time for those who have rising high school seniors. Brigid has used her experiences living throughout eastern Europe in her novels. As a sneak peak, her forthcoming novel is set in 1980s East Germany; her next project will be about the underground in a Soviet-controlled Ukraine.
Happy summer to you! I’ll be waiting for your update!
—Laura Hardegree Davis, 520 Meadowlark Lane, Brentwood, TN 03755; lauradavis723@mac.com
Classmate Erika Katz adds to her media presence with an Instagram Live show. She continues to offer practical and purposeful parenting advice through TV appearances, write her multi-dimensional blog, and spotlight important moments and people who make those moments happen. Just a few months ago Erika interviewed fellow ’94 and New Yorker Dan Garodnick as a featured guest on her show. Dan served for 12 years as a New York City councilmember and now acts as president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy. Dan’s love for his hometown of New York has led him to a career in service to his beloved city. Recently, he recounted the struggle to defeat America’s biggest real estate transaction and preserve middle-class communities in his former district. His book, Saving Stuyvesant Town: How One Community Defeated the Worst Real Estate Deal in History, was released this past April to five-star reviews on Amazon.
Ozy media has named Sonya Dyhrman as a “breakthrough scientist you need to know.” As yet another New Yorker, Sonya has been educating some of the finest minds at Columbia University (we all know where the very finest minds can be found), where she serves as a professor of earth and environmental sciences. As a marine biologist and microbiologist, she is pioneering work to decode the tiniest interactions in microbes and understand their significant ramifications on the global food chain. She shares her passion for marine life and the entire oceanic food chain with younger students through her development of ocean science literacy initiatives for physical and virtual classrooms.
As a final news bit, I may have accidentally tricked a more modest classmate into providing an update. Brigid Pasulka spent years living and traveling in Europe before moving back to Illinois and settling into a career in writing, as both a teacher and a novelist. For the past 11 years Brigid has been running a writing center at a magnet high school in downtown Chicago. She helps hundreds of students draft and polish their personal essays for college applications. She has even offered to provide advice to any classmates or classmates’ children who might want some guidance in the college essay writing process, an offer that comes at the perfect time for those who have rising high school seniors. Brigid has used her experiences living throughout eastern Europe in her novels. As a sneak peak, her forthcoming novel is set in 1980s East Germany; her next project will be about the underground in a Soviet-controlled Ukraine.
Happy summer to you! I’ll be waiting for your update!
—Laura Hardegree Davis, 520 Meadowlark Lane, Brentwood, TN 03755; lauradavis723@mac.com