Class Note 2017

Hi, ’17s! I hope you’re ready to fling right into spring! Here’s some updates on what our classmates have been up to the last few months. Back in September Edom Wessenyeleh began classes for her master’s at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which is part of the University of London. During Edom’s first term she took a wide variety of courses spanning from extended epidemiology to health economics. Edom enjoys her courses because the curriculum is interdisciplinary, and she looks forward to solidifying her thesis topic during the upcoming months. After she completes her studies, she hopes to stay in London either doing research or working in health or medicine. Although her academic program is extremely rigorous, Edom stays active outside of the classroom. She began working at a migration collective, where she and a few other Londoners mesh art and activism. Along with her counterparts, she coordinated a six-day film festival in London focusing on migration.

Also across the pond is Shivam Chadha, who moved back to his hometown of London to pursue a job in asset management at JP Morgan. Shiv feels fortunate to work on his team because nearly everyone holds a senior level position, so he feels motivated to produce higher-quality deliverables. When not at work Shiv works closely with the Dartmouth Club of London. Recently he got dinner with Edom Wessenyeleh and Hannah Solomon, also studying London. From their seats at the restaurant, they watched a fire-throwing group that performs on the Thames embankment every full moon. Before the winter holidays Shiv decided to start learning Hindi with Rosetta Stone to enhance his knowledge of the language.

In October Karen Jacques began work as an English teaching assistant for two primary schools in Grenoble, France, which is in the southeast by the Alps. Karen is a part of the program called Teach Abroad Program in France (TAPIF) and works with children ages 7 to 10 years old in 12 different classrooms. Her responsibilities differ among classes; sometimes she works alongside the schoolteacher to produce lessons and assist with pronunciation, whereas in other classes she manages small groups and teaches the lessons herself. In Karen’s free time she explores Grenoble with various other teaching assistants from TAPIF. Like Shiv, Karen has spent ample time with other ’17s in Europe. Tegwyth Alderson-Taber visited Karen in November and then in December, Karen met up with Jessica Link and Josephine Cormier (who is working in Lyon) in Annecy, France. Although he’s spent the majority of the recent months in the United States, Jeff Lang has kept himself quite busy as well. The week after Commencement Jeff and many other ’17 Frisbee players rented a cabin on the Grant. The group thought it would be a good idea because David Klinges’ father and his Dartmouth classmates used to go to the Grant to reconnect. While at the Grant, Jeff, Klinges and their friends grabbed dinner with Klinges’ father and his friends. In the fall Jeff moved to Boston to work at Bain & Co. He enjoyed the firm’s holiday party at the Boston Public Library, which was filled with Dartmouth alums. Since moving to Boston Jeff’s weekends have been filled with playing board games with Chris Loughlin and numerous other ’16s and ’17s. They started with Settlers of Catan, which ended up being a gateway to a lot of weirder and lesser-known games. They’ve become so invested that board games were on the top of their Christmas lists this year.

—Dorian Allen, 117 West Grant St., Apt. 123, Minneapolis, MN 55403; (973) 986-5988; dorallen@comcast.net