2001

It's always a little bizarre to write this column when I know it will get read almost two months from when I am concocting it. Instead of Happy New Year (it's December 27 as I write this), I think Happy Valentine's Day is more appropriate. Such is life. And from all reports, life has been good for many '01s these past few months. Here's the word on the street from some of our classmates...

Kristine Klebe recently finished studying at the National Theater Institute ("the most intense acting experience ever" she claims) and has had a film of hers selected for the Ivy Film Festival at Brown next October, to be judged by Oliver Stone. Ben Mandelker and Andy Hoey share this impressive distinction. Also in the arts scene, Margaret Grace sends her regards from Seattle, where she has been working in the costume shops of various theater and dance companies.

Farther afield, Pawan Nihalani reports that he left his NYC job for ayear to work for a wood and wood pulp distribution company in Santiago de Chile, where he is happily taking questionable taxis home from clubs at 8 a.m. Steve DeVecchi wrote from the Bahamas that he is spending the winter as a deckhand on a yacht that's headed to Saint Maarten. Ellie Leahy extends her warmest wishes from Quito, Ecuador, where she is teaching English, "surrounded by the gorgeous Andes." She'll be there until August and would love any '01s in South America to get in touch with her.

Several ois can be found in chillier foreign climates these days: Dory Tisdale is playing professional ice hockey in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski town in southern Germany, until April. Hilke De Smedt recently landed a position at a fantastic financial consulting company" in London, and Ivan Cestero is "relatively happy to report that he is alive and residing in Madrid, Spain. He asks that someone send him some Jif peanut butter ASAP.

Perhaps that someone should be Jeff Dutremble, who is currently between seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and working at Foodstop in Hanover. Spring training starts in March for Jeff, as well as for Mike Levy with the Johnson City Cardinals and Brian Nickerson with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the not-for-profit side of '01 endeavors, Sean Alpert has been working in D.C. for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a nonprofit firm that lobbies Congress in favor of proIsrael legislation. Sean is working specifically to recruit college students to do pro-Israel programming on campus. Aidan Marcuss, working at Decision Architects in Boston, has also found time for work with other Dartmouth grads in the "Inspire" program, offering free consulting to non-profits. Emmett Hogan is thrilled with his work at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based non-profit that specializes in the defense of individual rights on college campuses. Dan Pollock spent the fall working on the campaign to get Jim McGreevy elected governor of New Jersey, and has since been helping with the transition team and hanging out in balmy Trenton.

Mike Byrne reports: "The coolest thing I have seen from the '01 class was Peter Mahler's extravagant proposal to Kristin Verdiani. There were probably 50 of us on hand to watch it. She accepted and I think they are planning on getting married sometime next fall." Details remain to be confirmed—but congratulations! Best of luck as well to Todd Jelen and his wife, Michelle; they are expecting their second child in June and are currently living in Houston with their 2-year-old son, Preston.

Keep warm this winter and send more wonderful news my way!

1738 Commonwealth Ave., Apt. 1,Brighton, MA 02135; amiable@alum.dartmouth.org