2015 – Spring ’22 Class Letter
Hello, Class of 2015!
How has life been? Whether it’s been seven years(!) since you’ve stepped foot on campus or you live nearby, it’s lovely to be in your inbox today. I hope this letter brings fond memories, where fresh-baked cookies (not cows) lingered through the air, where your friends were just a room away, and where you finally hit the hay after grinding through an essay at 3 a.m. (just me?). Ripon will always connect us.
As I’m closing my first year at my second post-college “adult job,” I’ve had some thoughts about work, life, relationships, and identity, and I’d love to share three notes with you. If this is too long, skip ahead, but know that you are appreciated and that both SAM KAY ’15 and I (KAYLIE LONGLEY ’15) hope life is okay!
Some learnings about attempting to balance life and work in this very strange world:
- Your identity is not simply your job title(s). If you base your life’s satisfaction on your job and you get let go or quit, you may start questioning your life’s meaning. That is natural. However, I recommend basing your identity or identities on much more, such as the work you do that doesn’t come from a paycheck, “likes,” or attention.
- Your worth is not dependent on marriage, family, career, or status. As a human, you are enough. Period, end of sentence.
- I hope you are doing work you’re proud of. As humans, we contrive meaning(s) as coping mechanism(s), but I truly wish you good work and a life well lived.
Now, onto those updates from our very cool classmates:
KATIE BIEDLER ’15 of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, will be working as a financial solutions representative for Alight Solutions, starting this spring.
ANDREW CARBALLO ’15 of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will be marrying his girlfriend, Emily, this summer.
ZACH CONNORS ’15 of Madison, Wisconsin, works as recruitment coordinator at Raven Software which is part of Activision Blizzard studio. ZACH and his boyfriend, Weston, got engaged last summer.
STEPHEN COVALT ’15 and KORRINE PETERSON COVALT ’15 of Crystal Lake, Illinois, celebrated their son Carson’s first birthday last February. KORRINE is working at Karcher Middle School as a Special Education Teacher, and she is also still coaching softball.
EMELIA ERICKSON ’15 of Cincinnati, Ohio, recently celebrated five years with the Lodge Retirement Community. She looks forward to putting a few more thousand miles on her bike and hopes that everyone reading this knows it’s ok to be turning 30 without a marriage, kids, or salaried career.
CHRISTIAN ERTEL ’15 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, married Emily on May 19, 2021.
KAYLYN FREEMAN MACKIN ’15 of Beaufort, South Carolina, was married in April 2021 and hopes to start a family soon.
WYLIE GAHART ’15 of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is currently working as an Elementary School Counselor in the Elkhorn Area School District. She recently got engaged to Ty Iverson and is planning to be married in September of 2023.
CHELSEA GRAHN ANDREWS ’15 moved back to Wisconsin and is now lecturing for UW-Madison in the Psych. Department.
PETER HAYES ’15 of Chicago, Illinois, is working as an investment product manager at Envestnet. He is currently in a part-time MBA program at DePaul and expects to finish in the winter. He plans to move in with his girlfriend at the end of April.
GISELLE DAVIS KAUFFELD ’15 of Ripon, Wisconsin, writes, “I graduated from UW Madison in May 2021 with a Masters degree in Social Work and I recently accepted a job offer at the Fond du Lac County Department of Community Programs as a Children’s Long-Term Support Service Coordinator or CLTS Service Coordinator for short. I am loving it.”
SAMANTHA KAY ’15 has been working with the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy for five years as the Global Outreach Manager. Her work helps to increase access to potentially curative gene therapies in resource-poor countries. SAM bought a duplex in Riverwest, Wisconsin, in 2021 and spent most of last year renovating it. She also adopted an orange cat named Theo, who is waiting for his turn to use the single brain cell that all orange cats share.
JADEE KELLOGG SEN ’15 and AKASH SEN ’16 moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. They and their dog, Apollo, are enjoying seeing the mountains every day and going on hikes on the weekends.
SAM KLEIN ’15 and SERGE FEDOROWSKY ’15 of Aurora, Colorado, have been playing a lot of video games and board games while eating vegan tasties in their pockets of free time. They also adopted chinchillas, bought a house, got engaged, and married each other.
LUKE MORGAN ’15 and JESSICA SKIBA MORGAN ’15 bought an 1800’s farmhouse in Myra, Wisconsin. They have been updating their home and doing lots of fixer-upper projects. They celebrated a year in the house this past February and also welcomed their son, Cyrus.
KAYLIE LONGLEY ’15 is loving life in the Colorado sunshine in Denver. She works at the Montessori School of Denver as marketing manager, co-coach of Girls on the Run, and designer of the yearbook (yep, the yearbook is back in her life!). She’s building partnerships with other creative entrepreneurs on kaylielongley.com and on Instagram @kaylieadventures. When not working, she’s climbing trees, sipping coffee, reading for fun, or playing with doggos.
NICOLE MALLI ’15 of Washington, D.C., joined the America250 Foundation as the Senior Manager of National and Community Partnerships. In her role, NICOLE is building relationships with national and community organizations and leading cultural institutions to support larger-than-life partner programs and initiatives that weave a tapestry of diverse American stories in honor of our nation’s semiquincentennial. Her cats are living their best lives and are an active representation of Feline American planning semiquincentennial events.
KATIE JO MCGEE ’15 is loving her role as English Specialist for Etonkida in Nanjing, China.
CHLOE PIEPHO COREY ’15 of Rochester, Minnesota, started a new job recently. She is back at the Mayo Clinic as a Communications Specialist supporting the Department of Surgery.
MADDIE POULLETTE ’15 of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, got engaged at Peninsula State Park in Door County to her boyfriend, Peter, in November. They enjoy vegan brunch and raising cats together.
BRISTOLE RYFF ’15 of Orland Park, Illinois, is halfway through her first year teaching and loving it. She is a kindergarten special education teacher. Nothing beats the optimism and honesty of kindergarteners! She got engaged to her fiance, Mike, over the summer, and they are in full planning mode for their September 30th wedding this year. They are also beginning to pack up their apartment in hopes of moving in the near future!
KARLYN SCHUMACHER ’15 of Ripon, Wisconsin, the assistant librarian-access services at Lane Library, wrote a blog post titled “Starting from Scratch: OER at a Small Liberal Arts College” for OER and Beyond, posted October 6, 2021. The blog post is about open educational resources.
SAM SEILER ’15 of Cleveland, Ohio, is finishing her family medicine residency this summer and moving back to Wisconsin, possibly even the Ripon area.
LAURA SHIVELY ’15 of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, has celebrated getting fully vaccinated by getting engaged to her boyfriend of five years. They adopted a puppy this summer, named Fraser Lloyd, and purchased a beautiful house for him with a giant backyard in February 2022. She looks forward to turning dead Wisconsin winter grass into lush vegetable gardens and convincing her future husband that no, they will not have white walls in their house.
JOHN ’15 and KRISTY OGLESBY SPADONI ’15 are enjoying life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with their pups, Izzy and Bruce. KRISTY recently decided to quit her previous job to dedicate her time to taking over her family business, Oglesby Hardwood Flooring. If you’re in need of new floors, please reach out!
SHAUNNA BAUMHARDT STEGGALL ’15 and husband KYLUN STEGGALL ’14 of Watertown, Wisconsin, are having baby boy number four in early March.
NATE ’15 and BRI MILROY SIUDAK ’15 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had a wedding so nice they did it twice! They were wed in December of 2020 and celebrated their union again in December of 2021 with friends and family. BRI is working as a school counselor in West Allis, and NATE is working at Titus Talent Strategies.
ANTHONY TAUSIG ’15 of Chicago, Illinois, celebrated four years at Broadspire. ANTHONY is living with his girlfriend of seven years, ALLISON MACKNICK ’17… maybe 2022 will be the year he proposes?
ROB ’15 and KAMELLE VAN DER LEEST WATERS ’15 of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, 
welcomed their son, Theodore, on October 6, 2021. He has already visited Ripon for the Alumni Track and Field Meet in January. KAMELLE is still a Grievance & Appeals Specialist at Dean Health Plan, and ROB is working for Schmidt Landscaping out of Belleville. They are looking forward to getting together with friends and family in 2022.
JILL VANEPEREN BEILFUSS ’14 of Fremont, Wisconsin, writes, “My husband, MITCHEL BEILFUSS ’15, and I welcomed our sweet baby girl, Jordyn Alyse, on January 3, 2021.”
KAITLYN WELZEN ’15 and David Spruill recently traveled to Kauai where they got engaged. In April, they are moving to Durham, North Carolina, to be closer to David’s family. KAITLYN is going to miss working at Woodland Park Zoo but is looking forward to her next adventures in North Carolina.
CETONIA WESTON-ROY ’15 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is expecting a baby girl this spring wth husband, MAX ROY ’14. She has purchased a historic building in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Milwaukee to open her bookstore, Niche Book Bar.
KEVIN WHITENEIR, JR. ’15 of Chicago, Illinois, writes, “I resigned from the Art Institute of Chicago after almost five years and becoming their first Black librarian. I’m now an archives director for a Black nonprofit called the Black Lunch Table, and I had a solo gallery exhibit with a gallery called An Sylvia Exhibitions last June.”
Don’t forget to save the date for this summer’s Alumni Weekend: June 23-26, 2022.
Take care,
KAYLIE LONGLEY ’15
(262) 212-7394
SAMANTHA KAY ’15
(414) 587-5958
Your 2015 Class Agents