CLASS NOTES
58
WINTER 2013 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
Fellow swimmer
Jason Britt
wrote to catch me
up on the last five years, which included marrying
Katie Meyer
on June 16, 2012, in Bolton, Vt. They
live in Boston, where Jason is working in the fi-
nancial aid office at UMass-Boston and Katie, who
recently got her master’s at Suffolk University, and
is a mental health counselor.
It was a big year for
Ryan McConville.
He mar-
ried MeganWelch on July 14, 2012, and was hired
at Haldane Middle School, Cold Spring, N.Y., to
teach seventh grade social studies and coach
football and basketball. “The cool part is that Hal-
dane is my alma mater,”he says.
I also had a pretty big “life thing” happen – my
sister, Sara Bernier ’08, married Ryan Glennon
M’09, a Colby College graduate, on August 17,
2012,
in Haverhill, Mass. It’s one of my favorite
love stories because she’s my sister and he’s one
of my most dear friends and I introduced them! It
was an incredibly beautiful day, and several Lau-
rentians made it to the party, including
Andrea
Lee
,
who was a bridesmaid, and
Hank Anderson.
A few weeks later, Hank married Mary BethWood
’08,
but I’m sure we’ll get those details in due time.
Ngwatilo “Neema” Mawiyoo
took parts of her
St. Lawrence Fellowship research to the interna-
tional stage last summer. For her fellowship, she
researched and wrote a manuscript of poems
around the idea of “home,” which caused her
begin to consider what it meant to be “Kenyan,”
at home and abroad. This has inspired her since
then, and was the theme of her TEDx Nairobi talk,
“
Framing the Future,”in July.
“
While working on my fellowship, I realized that
while I had lived in Kenya most of my life, I didn’t
know it,” she says. “That realization is a large part
of what made me return to Kenya quickly after
graduating. I’ve realized that ‘my Kenya’ has to
growwider, especially given the privileges I have
as part of a small middle class that defines Ke-
nya for itself and others,
that asserts what develop-
ment and growth look like.
When we do this without
understanding who and
where we are, we can eas-
ily fail but also destroy as-
sets that would help us in
our cause. That’s why the
lessons of this project are
urgent for Nairobi to learn
and urgent for me to tell.”
I sound like a broken record, but please don’t
wait for an email asking for your news – you can
send it as it happens so none of us forget! And if
you’ve never written in, maybe you can make it
a late New Year’s resolution, along with coming
back to visit campus. Hope to see you in 2013!
2008
Justin Lynch ’08
217
Woodlawn Terrace
Syracuse, NY 13203
Mobile Phone: 585-506-5592
JustinRyanLynch@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 5
th
, 2014 (
cluster with ’09, ’10)
Greetings, Class of 2008! A new bride, a new
baby, a new business and a big bass top this
issue’s headlines.
Let’s start with the bride.
Rachel Smedy
re-
ports she and Matt Manz tied the knot at the
end of June in Vermont. Plenty of Saints were on
hand for the nuptials – enough to form a chorus
to sing the alma mater. It was a bit off-key, says
the bride, but heartfelt nonetheless. Rachel also
completed her M.Ed. at Saint Michael’s College
and landed a job teaching first grade at Summit
Street School in Essex, Vt.
A future Laurentian entered the world on June 7.
Elizabeth Clippinger was born to Kiernan “Kate”
Mittlefehldt ’06 and
Bowen Borgeson
.
Baby Eliz-
abeth is part of a big St. Lawrence family: Mom,
Dad, grandma and an aunt are alums!
Slater Latour
says that he and his brother,
Henry ’14, recently launched a business called
Battenkill Strategies. It’s a small web design and
marketing firm serving political candidates and
small local businesses throughout New England.
They launched websites for Dustin Degree, a
state representative running for state senate in
Vermont, and for Jack McMullen, a business ex-
ecutive seeking the Republican nomination for
attorney general in Vermont.
Finally, brothers Scott ’99 and
John Slattery
scored a nice-looking bass at Squam Lake in
New Hampshire last summer. Thanks to Scott
for sharing the photo!
2009
Cassie Coughlin ’09
4
Prince St. Apt 5
Boston MA 02113
802-779-3623
cassandracoughlin@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 5
th
, 2014 (
cluster with ’08, ’10)
Whitney MacClaren
recently was engaged to
Daniel Oraweic.Whitney toldme that
HollyDavis
,
Jess Sweeney
,
Sarah Fincke
and
Rachel Benja-
min
are four of the bridesmaids and the wedding
is set for August 17, 2013, in Madison, Conn. Whit-
ney and Daniel are living in Boston.
Zoe Bludevich
is also still in Boston. She has a
new job as a paralegal at Ropes and Gray.
Amanda Forbes
has moved to Phoenix, Ariz.,
where she is a fifth-grade teacher. “I love it so far!”
she wrote in the fall.
Adam Kyamatare
has been in Rwanda since
graduation. He’s worked in micro-finance, for the
country’s president, and most recently as an ad-
viser to theMinister of Finance. He recently left his
job and is getting his MBA in the United Kingdom.
He is looking forward to seeing his classmates at
our 5th Reunion in 2014!
2010
Joshua Johnson ’10
1110 8
th Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
716-499-3016 (
cell)
joshua.david.johnson16@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 5
th
, 2014 (
cluster with ’08, ’09)
Adrienne Woodworth
has graduated from
GE’s Information Technology Leadership
Program (ITLP). This is a two-year program,
which consists of four six-month rotations
with different IT functions within GE. She
then became a project manager for GE’s Le-
gal Systems team in Fairfield, Conn. Adrienne
had a mini-Laurentian reunion with several
classmates who lived in the Hub.
Taylor
Betit
,
Matt Gadziala
,
Valerie Nelkin
and
Jessica Schofield
all met up for a long week-
end at Keuka Lake, N.Y.
A gathering of recent graduates last July in Webster, Mass., brought together, from left,
Shoshanna James‘10,
Madeleine Garone‘12, Samantha Short‘12, Darcy Buckingham‘12, Crystal Vendrell‘12, Stephanie Pena
‘12,
Paula Hance‘12, Evelyn Cruz‘12, Padma Seemangal‘12
(
foreground),
Anel Leon‘12, Krystal Cum-
mings‘12
and
Yessenia Chimelis‘11.
“
Krystal was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army upon
graduating from St. Lawrence and was set to head to her base in Texas on July 21,”says Chimelis, who kindly
sent the picture to her class reporter.“As a way to celebrate her graduation and accomplishments, several (of us)
got together to wish her well on her new endeavors in the military.”