Class Note 2002
I am writing this column in the last days of 2009 and hoping that, as you read it in the middle of February, 2010 has gotten off to a great start for you and yours. At that point I will be resting up from a little Caribbean cruise with Allyson Terpsma (because honestly, why not?) and getting ready to visit Katie Price in Kathmandu. She is living in Nepal this year on a Fulbright scholarship, studying Bhutanese refugees. I love having cool friends who do things like spend a year in Nepal and my teacher’s calendar that leaves me time to visit them.
John Cortese wrote in with this update: “After seven and a half years at Lehman Brothers in New York, my trading desk was snapped up by Barclays Capital in the wake of last year’s bankruptcy. Since then I’ve transferred to London to run European high-yield credit trading for Barclays and am living in Knightsbridge. I still keep in touch with old schoolmates and flew to L.A. last May for Adam Feffer’s wedding, where I also caught up with Jeff Heminger among a few others.”
Raj Chowdhury recently started up an artist collective and social enterprise in San Francisco called Kismot (www.kismot.com), to expand opportunities for artists and musicians to contribute their skills to international development efforts in distressed communities. The nonprofit will apply art and music to address poverty, healthcare, education and conflict. These projects range from inspiring disadvantaged youth in Cambodia through hip-hop dance to rebuilding community identity for refugees in Colombia through sculpture to educating children from rural villages in Bangladesh through writing and theater.
I also got a press release from the Dartmouth Medical School about Matthew Cheney, who was recently selected as a Rolf C. Syvertsen Fellow. Matt and five of his fourth-year classmates, based on their academic achievement, leadership qualities, personal attributes and community involvement, were chosen by a faculty committee to receive the annual distinction in recognition of special leadership qualities and the potential to go beyond the traditional role as a physician. Matt was also recently selected by his peers for induction in the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society. He plans a career in radiation oncology.
Send me news, send me news! Seriously, the only way this column gets longer and juicier is by you shooting me an e-mail and letting me know what you’ve been up to—which I know is probably great stuff. Happy winter!
—J.T. Leaird, 229 East 21st St., Apt. 16, New York, NY 10010; jt.leaird@gmail.com
