2016 – Spring ’19 Class Letter
Class Agents:
Sara Driebel ’16
[email protected] / (262) 439-8124
Zach Peterson ’16
Elizabeth Yamat ’16
Hey Class of 2016! With the new year comes a new letter full of fresh updates, and of course, dogs (my favorite kind of update). Each time the class letter rolls around, I am so grateful to reconnect with everyone and get a perspective on what all of my classmates are doing!
When we reach out to our classmates to see if they have anything to add to the letter, one of the most common answers we see is “nothing important.” It is easy to see our classmates’ updates and think that what we are experiencing is not significant enough to share, but your experiences and growth right now are substantial. Maybe you just finished a book that made an impact on you, or ventured into a new part of town, or started hanging out with your friends more. Whatever you are doing is making you, you – and can be celebrated! Everyone is on a different timeline, and that is totally and 100% cool. I want to hear it all!
We hope to see all of your experiences for the next class letter – no matter how grand! Be sure to let me, ELIZABETH YAMAT ’16 and ZACH PETERSON ’16 know your updates!
Sincerely,
SARA DRIEBEL ’16
ALEX MORIARTY ’16 recently adopted a dog named Jill! She is a 7-year-old rescue from Tennessee and is a terrier supermutt. She gets to go with Alex to work sometimes, enjoys walks through the neighborhood, and has a matching red coat with her owner! With permanent Sara McLachlan shelter dog eyes, Jill is spoiled silly.
ALI LEAVER ’16 is getting her white coat at the end of April and is starting her clinical rotations in the spring! After that she will be graduating from OSU College veterinary medicine in May of 2020.
ALYSSA KENNEDY ’16 is in her third year medical school rotations at Advocate Bromenn Hospital.
COURTNEY BLOOMER ’16 is kicking ass in nursing school one day at a time!
ELIZABETH PETERS ’16 has accepted a part-time 3rd grade teaching position at St. Edward School in Mackville for the 2018-2019 school year. She also teaches Adaptive Aquatics at Neenah High School and is loving both teaching positions! She is currently looking for full time teaching positions for the 2019-2020 school year. Lizzie will be teaching summer school again this year, and is anticipating finding out the subject that she will teach. She stays busy by lifeguarding a few nights a week and teaching swim lessons as well. Lizzie hopes to have more time to teach private swim lessons for students of any age, which she has started herself!
EMILY GARY ’16 is now a service member at the bank where she works! At the end of December, Emily purchased a house and is now taking her time to fix it up and decorate.
ENYA NETT ’16 got a job working as an assistant stage manager for Forward Theater Company at the Overture Center for the Arts. It is the only professional theater in Madison! She also got a second cat, Vivi.
ERIKA NELL ’16 is living in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her dog still runs her household and she has started watching Dexter on Netflix (#creepydude). She has enjoyed connecting with other Ripon alumni in the Twin Cities!
FRANK STELTER-HOGH ’16 is working for his old elementary school and is coaching.
HOPE BELL ’16 is living in Daegu, South Korea. At the end of March, Hope is going to start at a kindergarten/elementary immersion school. She now has an apartment in Korea, adopted a dog, and is attempting to learn Korean. With the Daegu theater troupe, Hope will be a part of “the Vagina Monologues” at the end of February. Occasionally Hope can be found hanging out with fellow Ripon College Alum NICO PRICE ’16 and enjoying hiking the three mountain ranges that surround her beautiful town.
CAMERON CASS ’16 and his wife Stacey are expecting the arrival of their first baby girl early this summer.
GARRISON ANDERSON ’16 started working as a Management and Program Analyst at the U.S. Small Business Administration and moved to Washington D.C.
JADEE KELLOG ’16 is in the midst of planning her wedding this August with AKASH SEN ’16.
JAMES MARK OOKO OOMBAKA ’16 is a programme assistant at Code for Africa and is based in Kenya. CFA is the continent’s largest network of open data and civic technology labs and has a diversely talented and multicultural team that helps to enact change through providing digital tools that allow fellow citizens to engage with those in positions of power. As the programme assistant, James is part of a team that ultimately helps to create more open data and a more open government in Africa.
JEN KELLER ’16 is lucky to live close to so many of her near and dear Ripon College friends! Things have been great for Jen living in Mequon and working for the Village of Richfield. This year, she is looking forward to some fun trips to North Carolina and California!
JEN NIGGEMEIER ’16 was young, cool, and broke (college was costly!) one minute, and the next is all excited about her new furniture set! She is finally adulting with a new job as a 4K Coordinator and is moving in with SARA DRIEBEL ’16. Also, Jen hopes to buy her own place, so if you know anyone selling a condo in the Waukesha area, willing to give the Ripon alumni discount, hit her up!
JORDAN POLK ’16 is working with Contemporary Services Corporation in Indianapolis.
JOSH LUNA ’16 is finishing up his clinical work.
KARI BROWN ’16 is living with her life partner and they are pursuing real estate together! He and Kari have already invested in one rental property and have many more to come – especially now that Kari has her Real Estate license and is working as a buyer’s agent with Landro Fox Cities Realty, LLC.
KATIE TREDINNICK ’16 was recently accepted to vet school at UW-Madison!!
LANI WINGER ’16 was married in December.
MADESON WALGENBACH ’16 is getting married in April!
MCKALA KIESSLING ’16 has started a new job as the Lab Manager for the City of Oconomowoc Wastewater Treatment Plant!
MINH DO ’16 recently started doing Human Resources for a Vietnamese company.
NICK LUEDTKE ’16 is currently three years into his doctorate degree in chemistry and is working full time at Integrated DNA Technologies as a Research Scientist Intern in molecular genetics studying CRISPR.
NICK MASTERSON ’16 has been busy finding new adventures! He is currently reigning as Mr. Madison Gay Pride, which he is proud to have won in July 2018. Recently he competed in the Northern Star All American Gent pageant and won First Alternate. He is heading to Daytona Florida at the end of March to compete for the National All American Gent title. According to Nick, “Being a male performer and becoming a face in the LGBT community has been beyond rewarding. It’s rewarding when kids come up and say you’re like a ‘hero’ to them. In today’s world kids are scared to express themselves and be who they really are. It’s rewarding to be someone they can look up to.”
RACHEL ROKUSEK ’16 has recently left her employment as a legal assistant to move to Chesapeake, Virginia, and has found employment as a legal assistant at a law firm in downtown Norfolk. She has also earned her Paralegal Certificate in December 2018.
RACHELLA BENNETT ’16 just took a management position for her company running an entire remote team on the east coast. This new position works under the CEO in the company after the restructure. She is graduating in December with her MBA with a Human Resources emphasis!
RAE BRIXIUS-FAHNRICH ’16 moved to Arlington, Virginia with Nick Fahnrich. They hiked a mountain there and got married at the summit! Rae spent last fall at Army Basic Training and then started Army Officer School in Georgia during December. In March, Rae will commission as a US Army Military Intelligence Officer. She is headed to Fort Huachuca, Arizona sometime in the coming year for more training!
SAM CARES ’16 got engaged to GABRIELLE HORSTMEIER ’17!
SARA DRIEBEL ’16 has been promoted to the role of Human Resources Generalist with the City of New Berlin and works at the Milwaukee County Zoo on the weekends teaching kiddos about creatures! She gets to play with all sorts of odd animals, including chickens, snakes, turtles, bugs, and even a really rad groundhog! She just adopted a new lizard named Boris and purchased a condo in Pewaukee where she will be living with the amazing JENNIFER NIGGEMEIER ’16.
STEPHANIE ROSENOW ’16 is keeping busy with plenty of work and coaching!
TY KETZ ’16 is teaching and coaching at St. Croix Central High School. He is the Head Girls Basketball Coach and teaches high school physical education and health!
ZACHARY PETERSON ’16 has been accepted into East Carolina University’s PHD Program in Rhetoric, Writing and Professional Communication in Greenville, North Carolina. He will be moving there after completing his Master of Arts in English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in May.
SAM CANNING ’16 ran her first marathon in Disney to celebrate her birthday.
KATLYN TROISI ’16 graduated from Boston University School of Social Work in May 2018 and began working as an Integrated Team Clinician through Advocates, a non profit agency. She also became professionally licensed as a Licensed Certified Social Worker.
ELIZABETH YAMAT ’16 recently purchased a house in Glendale with her husband, Brady.