Class Note 2017

Congratulations to Kaya Thomas and Theo Wilson, who tied the knot back in November 2018! Kaya and Theo got married at the Bellefield Greathouse in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was a very small ceremony with 55 guests, mainly close friends and family. Kaya and Theo now live in Oakland, California.

Back in the spring Kaya began a new role as an iOS engineer at Calm. Kaya chose Calm because she believes in the company’s product and mission. After having worked at organizations such as Apple and Slack, she enjoys working at a smaller company of fewer than 100 people. In addition to her work at Calm, Kaya continues to manage and update her app, We Read Too, which is a mobile directory of books written by authors of color and featuring characters of color. Outside of the office, Kaya has been taking ballet classes and volunteering with Black Girls Code and Hack the Hood.

Additionally, Kaya is continuing her public speaking work that she began at college, when she began giving conference talks about her experiences in the technology industry, the development of her app, mobile accessibility, programming, and more. One of her goals for 2019 was to become an international speaker, and she accomplished this by speaking at three international engineering conferences, one of which she was the opening speaker. iOSCon has already invited her to return to London as a keynote speaker for next year’s conference.

Another ’17 superstar is Trevor Knight. After graduation Trevor moved to New York City to work in sales and trading at Citi. While he enjoyed his work and colleagues, Trevor realized that he was not feeling fulfilled artistically; so he decided to leave Citi and pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. Trevor grew up around music and even sang as part of the Dartmouth Cords. Trevor performed at his first open mic night in 2018 and then started writing original music in 2019. While his first performances last year were challenging, he’s improved drastically as a professional artist.

He now does paid shows regularly, and the Parkside Lounge on the Lower East Side has invited Trevor to perform multiple times. Perhaps one of his biggest accomplishments was the release of his debut single, “Giving It Up,” which he wrote and recorded independently, on Spotify this summer.

—Dorian J. Allen, 93 15th St., Apt. 3F, Brooklyn, NY 11223; dorallen@comcast.net