Hello, ’10s!


Eleni Stavrou, our amazing class president during senior year, is headed to medical school in August. Since graduation Eleni has been working in the program of nutritional metabolism at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Eleni’s research deals with endocrine, metabolic and cardiovascular complications in HIV-inflected patients. Alina Plavsky will also be starting med school in August. Alina was in Hanover for the past year completing a master’s in public health. 


Max Pollack casually decided to turn part of his Brooklyn apartment into an art gallery, which he named Graham Powers Gallery. So far he has featured Kari Cholnoky’s art and plans to do another show with Max Heiges this summer. 


Speaking of Max Heiges, he is currently working as an artist in New York, having a good time trying to make it in this “gosh darn city.” To pay rent he works as a studio assistant for painters Chris Martin (2011 Dartmouth artist in residence) and Joe Bradley. He is gearing up a new body of work for a show in late May at Graham Powers (Max’s apartment). 


This past fall Mike Zirngibl, James Watson, Jeff Friedman, Andy Kim visited Shunsuke Aonuma in Tokyo, Japan. The team of young warriors climbed Mount Fuji and “appalled the local scene with a renditions of 1980s hits in karaoke.” Hazukashii!


More about Mike Zirngibl:Currently he lives in Boston and is working at a private equity fund called Audax Group. In Boston he rooms with Charlie Wolff and Doug Nelson. I am trying to imagine the interior décor of this trio’s apartment—I am thinking contemporary, with a touch of 1980s frat house. This summer Mike is moving to N.Y.C. to work at another fund called Centerbridge Partners and live with Jeff Friedman. 


Eli Mitchell gave me a spunky little update. Her essence would be lost if I paraphrased, so I will keep it verbatim: “I moved back from Rwanda in time for the Fourth of July and have since been doing the New York thing. I run into a lot of ’10s around lunchtime in midtown and at all sorts of inappropriate real-world hours playing pong at Jack Russell’s (a pong bar in the city). Working hard on stealing the Jack Russell’s foursquare mayorship from Jon Hopper ’08. Oh and I still have a house in Hanover, where all you people are always invited to visit if you’re feeling too old to sleep on couches during big weekends.” 


Think Ben Gifford, what comes to mind? Dog Day? Valedictorian? A tall cool-looking bro who camped out in first-floor Berry with a large cup of coffee and 10 philosophy books spread academically about his desk? Well erase these images and replace them with…Double or Muffin. 


A few months ago Ben founded Double or Muffin, which is a small apparel line (and maybe one day a bakery). He founded the company right after he quit his job at Bridgewater. Ben says, “I actually liked Bridgewater a lot and learned a ton in my year and a half there, but ultimately I’m just not that passionate about economics or markets. Eventually I felt like it was time to move on and start figuring out what I really want to do with my life.” Ben is now spending time on his company and starting to look for a new job.


Please hit me up with your life updates, small or big.


Hope to hear from you soon.


—Victoria Stockman, 1730 N. Clark St., Apt. 1215, Chicago, IL 61614; (203) 561-0394; vbstockman@gmail.com