the ambassador - Fall 2001

Class Agent Chris McMunn, 220 SW 116th Avenue #302, Pembroke Pines, FL, 33025, Ph. (954) 441-9228, Email: mcmunn@usa.net

Dev Ahuja lives in San Francisco and works for Wells Fargo Bank as a relationship manager/associate. He writes, “It’s fun but extremely stressful.” • Marie Baba attends San Diego State University where she is working towards her moderate/severe special education teaching credential. • Nathan Barrett continues to work in New York City and lives with Daniel Fish. He recently saw Missy Brinkmann, Mel Shimizu, Lyena Nomura, Briney Dillon and Lauren Bretschneider ’91, and reports, “It was a good time.” • Acworth, GA, resident Amy Beverley Boston continues working on the Internet. She still has her business designing/hosting wedding Web sites but her other job now is posing online. Amy and her husband have two daughters and three cats. • Congratulations to Melissa Brinkmann of Syracuse, NY, who was recently promoted to captain in the U.S. Air Force. • Leila Bryner reports that 2000 was a busy year for her. She attended Jennifer Yates Phillips wedding last summer in Illinois and later vacationed on Block Island, RI. Leila continues to live in Port Chester, NY, and works for Thomas Publishing as their strategic marketing manager. • Peter Buckley lives in Toronto, and works for Air Canada. He enjoys his work and the flying benefits of traveling to new places. • Writing from Miami, FL, Richard Bull reports that he loves his job working in the music business for AOL Time Warner as a senior label manager. Richard got together with Jared Green, Brian Stolz, Matt Clark and Julie McCord last year during a business trip to New York City. He also keeps in touch with Peter Buckley and Mary Telling ‘94. • After teaching in Michigan for two years, Ryan Burgess now teaches high school English at Fukuoka International School and loves it. • Andrea Chiller is in her second year at Tulane Law School in New Orleans. She plans to be in New Orleans for another year and a half and she spent the summer working in Manhattan. • Matthew Clark is presently working for JP Morgan in London, England. • Last November, Cathy Cruz moved from Guam to Honolulu where she is employed as the senior editor for Hawaii Business Magazine. • Hisako Watanabe Dewanto continues to live in Surabaya, Indonesia, with her husband and daughter, Michelle (3). Last year they visited Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Paris, Brussels, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Bali, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Hisako reports that it was half business and half pleasure. • Briney Dillon resides in New York City and teaches high school global studies and English. • Amy Beth Thornhill Durward of Los Gatos, CA, is a local pastor serving as the half-time solo pastor for Sunnyhills United Methodist Church in Milpitas, CA. She is also working on her master’s degree while her husband, Doug, is completing law school. • Jesper Edman completed his military service in Sweden, received his master’s degree in macroeconomics and plans to return to Japan to work. He has kept in touch with Brian Stolz, Kin-ei Lin, Jeff Staloch and Jenn Lam. • Bill Endo moved to Boston, but still maintains his home address in Maryland. He is enjoying the change of lifestyle and is employed as a cost estimator. • A resident of Austin, Texas, Tristen Filippo recently completed her degree in criminal justice and works for the Bank of America as a legal assistant. Tristen reports that her son, Ethan (4) is doing absolutely wonderful. • Jill Fink recently started a new job as director of the Women In Learning and Leadership program at the College of New Jersey. She writes, “I’m still living in Philly, so the commute is a bit tiresome, but the job is going well.” • Employed as the catering manager for the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., Lisa Floyd reports that she recently moved to Alexandria, VA. • Paul Fluss lives in Nashville, TN, and is working as a designer for Murray, Inc. He spent summer 2000 road racing motorcycles around the South and Midwest and managed to win the WERA Clubman Novice National Championship. • Harvard medical student Michael Gaies lives in the Boston area with his wife, Elissa. He took a year off between his third and fourth year to get a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. • Ken Gutman is enjoying his work as a copywriter for The Oakland Tribune. He also continues to work part-time as a paramedic. • Blacksburg, VA, resident Mike Hager is kept very busy working 40 hours a week as a bartender/manager at a local bar while attending Virginia Tech full time. • Although Becky Rigsbee Haigler attended ASIJ for only her eighth-grade year she still has very fond memories of it. She presently lives in Efland, NC, with her husband Jamie. Becky teaches preschool children who are deaf or hard of hearing. • Karen Fry Hale of Tomball, Texas, celebrated her third wedding anniversary last December. She continues to work for Aesbus Knowledge Solutions, but switched from graphic design to the technical writing area. • About two years ago, Martha Harrison moved to Boston, MA, due to her job as territory manager with Hormel Foods. She loves living in the city and enjoys playing co-ed sports in the spring and summer. Martha’s brother, Ben ’95, moved to Boston about a year ago and is currently working for an Internet solutions company. • Gali Eshkol Heffer married Chen on May 31, 2000 and writes, “Married life is great!” She is currently taking a break from her job as a marketing assistant with RADCOM, but plans to return after completing her English literature degree at Tel Aviv University. Chen works as a system networking administrator for TEAM. • For the last two years, Jason Holland has been living in Chicago. He shares, “I’ve been fortunate enough to work full time in theater and more recently, full time for Deloitte Consulting in their graphics department. They keep me incredibly busy, but I love both jobs right now, so I have no intention of letting up!” • Kaoru Inahara left ASIJ in the fifth grade and spent some time in the Middle East and United States before returning to Japan to attend university at the Keio Shonan campus. She is now working in Japan for Toyota’s Europe Division and learning how to work in a Japanese environment. • John Jordan lives in Allen, Texas, and is employed by Nortel Networks doing research and development. • Writing from Reston, VA, Jeff Kuperman reports that he is running Jaywalk Design, his own Web design company. He specializes in high-end Web and Flash design. Jeff did a lot of traveling over the last year and visited Las Vegas, Paris, Amsterdam, Germany and Atlantic City. • Lisa Leadbitter lives in Houston and teaches sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade reading. Her future plans include obtaining her master’s degree in reading education and moving back to North Carolina. • Graduate student Shana McIllwain Leeper is working towards her master’s degree in organizational management. She continues to work for The Resource Exchange, a state-run case management agency for individuals with developmental disabilities, and was recently promoted to consumer affairs manager. Shana is in charge of investigating all internal reports for maltreatment, abuse, neglect and exploitation allegations for adults in residential programs. She and her husband, Andy, live in Colorado Springs, CO. • Chi-Ling Lin reports, “Life is good in Hawaii.” Last Thanksgiving she got together with Mayumi Nakayama and Cathy Cruz. • Chris McMunn continues to live in Miami, FL, and work for the U.S. Coast Guard. He is also completing his master’s degree in secondary social studies education. • After living in Europe for the past four years and working in the film/television industry, Croi McNamara has decided to move back to the United States and has chosen New York as her new home. She is looking forward to meeting up with lots of her old friends from ASIJ and pursuing her career in entertainment. • Chris Messenger is out of the military after seven years in the U.S. Army as a cavalry scout and is now in the Kentucky National Guard. He is currently a freshman at Western Kentucky University. • After attending Sorbonne University in Paris, Mari Nagasue spent a few months in Kyoto with her family before relocating to Baltimore, MD, last September. She is currently enjoying a full life with great crabs, chilled beer and fluffy squirrels in her garden. • Mayumi Nakayama is enjoying her life in Hawaii and is working at the Japan Travel Bureau there. Her daughter, Erica, is now in preschool. • Cara Naylor returned to San Francisco, CA, last January after spending a year working in Ecuador. She gets together with Crystal English quite often. • Actress Lyena Nomura traveled on tour last spring around the eastern half of the United States. She recently saw Daniel Fish, Melissa Shimizu, Briney Dillon and Nathan Barrett. • Naoko Matsunaga Ostermann lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, Mark. She has been with TeleAdapt, a mobile connectivity solutions company, doing marketing for the past two years. Naoko recently visited Washington, D.C., and saw Monica Yeung. • Lahaina, Maui resident Shandy Ota was recently promoted to Room Assistant Manager at The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua Hotel. He is enjoying the sun and surf and wants his former classmates to pay him a visit on the beautiful island. • After working on a variety of information technology contracts in London, Sarah Pickering decided to take a break before applying for her residency. Her six-month plan included backpacking and exploring South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. • Eloise Pocock has been with the Transportation Team of the Schroder Salomon Smith Barney corporate finance department in London for over a year now. • Manish Punjabi is employed as a corporate finance analyst with McKinsey & Company. • Homer Reid moved from Tokyo to New Jersey and is now working as an IC research engineer for Agere Systems in the semiconductor industry. He is also pursuing a doctorate in applied statistics. • Since moving from the East Coast to Boulder, CO, Mike Riedy has been enjoying his new lifestyle of mountain biking, camping, hiking, skiing and snowboarding. He continues to work for GE Access. • Lynette Robinson graduated from Howard University in May 2000 with a degree in psychology. She is now employed as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines and lives in Danbury, CT. • Maya Rodrig is a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle. • Last year, David Rothwell traveled over 4,000 miles cross-country by motorcycle. He also spent a couple of months working in Mexico for International Truck and Engine with Andersen Consulting. • Katie Sakuma has been living in Charlotte, NC, for the last three years. She works for Osprey Systems, an e-business services company. • Writing from Havre, MT, Kawika Smith reports that he is working for Roder USA putting up tents. • Haruna Tada is back in Boston, MA, working on her doctorate in mechanical engineering at Tufts University. Last year, Haruna took a month long vacation and met up with Mayumi Nakayama and Junko Tamiya in San Diego, CA, as well as Akiko Hashimoto and Yuri Katada in Tokyo. • Joseph Tseng is employed by Silicon Motion, Inc. as a product marketing manager. He lives in San Jose, CA. • Last May, Liz Tucker graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in zoology and history. • Amy Wechselberger moved from Maryland to Santa Monica, CA, about a year and a half ago. She lives right next to the ocean and is enjoying the warm weather there. Amy recently got together with Marisa Yamano and they reminisced about the good old days at ASIJ. • Beth Mitchell Wilson is currently teaching in Peru, NY. She hopes to eventually receive her reading certification and become a reading specialist. Last year, while working towards her graduate degree in elementary education, Beth took a reading course from Dr. Priscilla Myers, former study skills teacher at ASIJ. • Lisa Witt lives in Columbus, Ohio, and teaches tenth- and eleventh-grade English at a school right outside of the city. She also stays busy coaching basketball and volleyball, and playing in a co-ed flag football league. • Jolene Zajdel lives in Moscow, Idaho, and is a law student and law clerk at SEL Engineering.

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