1995

1995

Though ’round the girdled earth we roam, her spell on us remains. Warren Valdmanis and Adam Dixon proved the truth of this in September when they traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, to compete in a marathon and raise money for ALS in honor of Vuyi Radebe, who lives in Johannesburg with his wife and two children. Warren reported: “We had a great experience running the marathon (inspiring place to do it—the pacesetters had drums and were singing the whole way!). We completed in a respectable 4:24, mostly thinking of Vuyi to get us through. He is doing amazingly well spiritually and appreciated all the support he has had from his friends at Dartmouth, especially rugby and the ’95 class more generally. Anyone who wants to support can contribute to Compassionate Care ALS. Thanks for your help!”

From elsewhere ’round the girdled earth, Alex Lesk writes: “I’ve just started a new job at my high school alma mater, having returned to Vancouver with my family seven years ago to be close to my parents. It is wonderful and strange to have come full circle: teaching high school English and journalism, coaching sports in my old gym, scolding girls for mis-wearing the same uniform I once wore, and teaching alongside my former teachers from 30 years ago! My family is thriving. Seb is almost as tall as me and just started high school. Spencer is audacious and full of questions I can’t answer. Paul is loving the flexibility of his job at UBC as the director of the clean energy research center and as an independent energy consultant.”

Andrea Wetzler left the United States in 2001 after graduating from Wharton to pursue a position with Accenture’s strategy department in London. “I ended up meeting a Frenchman while there and moved to Toulouse, France, when we got married. I continue to work as a strategy consultant and travel throughout Europe to see clients. My travels take me to beautiful and diverse cities such as Dublin, Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, and Copenhagen. I have four kids, so I try to avoid cross-continental client work. Daily life is less convenient than in the United States but rich in experience. Forinstance, food shopping is an almost daily venture and consists of goingto local markets where there are different stands for fish, poultry, beef, cheeses, and produce. Everything is fresh and sourced locally, so food in general is delicious and not as taxing on the environment. I keep in touch with classmates, but there are not many alumni opportunities for me in Toulouse.

Julie Erikson writes: “We moved in December 2010 to Christchurch, New Zealand, for six weeks. We had planned for everything...except for a devastating earthquake that reduced the city and our house to rubble. Fortunately, the container ship with our belongings was a few days from arriving at port so we simply redirected it back to the States. After recovering from that experience, we applied for permanent residency in Australia and moved to Melbourne in 2014. We’ve lived here for the past five years and are in the final stages of Australian citizenship. Our motivation for moving overseas wasn’t the pull of a job or family or a push to leave the political climate of the United States, but simply a desire to try something new and expose our son, Ethan, to new places, people, and culture. Ethan is now exploring the possibility of returning to the States for his undergraduate years, since there is no NCAA in Australia.”

More from our international classmates in the next issue. Keep your news coming!

—Kaja (Schuppert) Fickes,2 Bishops Lane, Hingham, MA 02043; kaja.k.fickes.95@dartmouth.edu