21 minute read
Class Notes
Alumnae Winter 2023
CLASS NOTES | MILESTONES
1960-69
Lee McIlvaine Manonian ’66 shares, “I am living with my French husband Simon in Wayne. My oldest child Stirling Churchman was married on Zoom during Covid to Andy Strominger in Cambridge, MA. Stirling (Associate Professor of Genetics) runs the Churchman Lab at Harvard Medical School. This winter, Simon and I will travel to Melbourne, Australia to see our Manonian grandchildren (11 and 13 years old) and then to Vero Beach, FL.
1980-89
Margaret Tucker DeTemple ’82 presented a public lecture in April exploring the architectural and historic connections between Harcum College and the residents and developers who shaped the town of Bryn Mawr, beginning In the late 19th century. During the height of the pandemic, Margi, wife of longtime Harcum College President Jon Jay DeTemple, immersed herself in learning more about the Victorian architecture of the president’s residence. Working with the College archivist, Roxanne Sutton, and other references, her exploration expanded into a two-year project to document all the Victorian buildings that are and were located on Harcum’s campus, historically referred to as “The Harcum Mile.” “Learning about the President’s house involved discovery and sleuthing and was a great diversion from the isolation of the pandemic. My curiosity led to a larger journey about Harcum’s campus and the town of Bryn Mawr. I was born, raised, and educated in Bryn Mawr. Now that I live along the Harcum Mile, this journey has brought me full circle and helped me know more about my birthplace and the town’s history.”
In addition to anchoring on Fox29 Good Day, Karen Hepp ’89, is loving running her beach yoga business, Pure Pony Yoga, with her sister Lizzie Hepp Lange ’00 on 82nd Street beach in Stone Harbor, NJ. Karen and Lizzie look forward to seeing fellow AIS alumnae on the beach!
1990-99
Jocelyn Hepp Kotary ’93 resides with her family in Charleston, SC, and returned to Philadelphia in the spring to celebrate her 25th University of Pennsylvania reunion with her sister, Lizzie, also a Penn alum.
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1. Pegze King Campbell ’64 receives her Laurel Society pin in Vero Beach, FL with 1964 classmates Barbara Gibbons Beucler and Laura Wheeler Golding 2. Friends from the class of 1964 celebrated their 75th birthdays together in August on Beech Mountain, NC. From left to right: Daille Reeve Sharpless, Laura Wheeler Golding, Barbara Gibbons Beucler, and Lynne Fort Reynolds 3. Stirling Churchman and Leidy Churchman, children of Lee McIlvaine Manonian ’66, and Andy Strominger, husband of Stirling, at the 2022 Whitney Biennial in New York 4. Lee McIlvaine Manonian ’66 and her son, Leidy Churchman, whose work was featured at the Whitney Biennial 5. The Abbott family is growing in waves. Franny Moran Abbott ’74 and her husband Franny enjoy time with their ever-expanding family of four sons, four daughters-in-law, and seven beautiful grandchildren 6. Sisters Karen Hepp ’89 and Lizzie Hepp Lange ’00 started Pure Pony Yoga in Stone Harbor, NJ.
Alumnae | CLASS NOTES
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1. Jocelyn Hepp Kotary ’93, who now resides with her family in Charleston, SC, returned to Philadelphia to celebrate her 25th University of Pennsylvania reunion with her sister, Lizzie Hepp Lange ’00, also a University of Pennsylvania alum 2. Campbell and Beckett, children of Bill and Brooke Norrett Corr ’95 3. Mike and Tracy Otley Viola ’95 cheer for the Owls at the AIS pep rally with daughters Ashley ’26 and Erin ’30. Ashley performed her pep rally dance with the JV soccer team and they were awesome! 4. 1998 Classmates Hads Ogden Holmgren and Laurel Lundstrom were selected to attend the Tory Burch Embrace Ambition Summit in June 2022. They were accepted based on essays they wrote about how they challenge stereotypes in their professions 5. Lizzie Hepp Lange ’00 celebrated her birthday with siblings Karen Hepp ’89, Jocelyn Hepp Kotary ’93 and Rob (The Haverford School ’04) in Stone Harbor, NJ 6. Mary O’Neill ’04 married Stephen Westcott at Overbrook Golf Club in April 2022. Lexy Pierce ’06 photographed the event 7. Abbe Wright ’03 celebrates her marriage to Nicholas Devlin with classmates (from left to right) Winnie Schulz Most, Amanda Earl, Anastasia Dorrance Grillo, Emily Peters, and Sarah Calvert Lartey 8. Corina Sylvia English ’00 and her husband Mike had their fourth child Charlie on January 26, 2022. Nolan (9), Keira (7) and Ava (4) are in love with their little brother
CLASS NOTES | Alumnae
2000-09
Corina Sylvia English ’00 and her husband Mike had their fourth child Charlie on January 26, 2022. Nolan (9), Keira (7) and Ava (4) are in love with their little brother. Cori lives in Villanova across the street from Agnes Irwin. She is a Principal at Hamilton Lane where she has been for fifteen years, managing Institutional Private Markets portfolios. She is on the Board at the West Hill School and enjoys playing golf with her family and even a few AIS friends in her spare time.
Elizabeth Hepp Lange ’00 celebrated her birthday with siblings Karen Hepp ’89, Jocelyn Hepp Kotary ’93 and Rob (The Haverford School ’04) in Stone Harbor, NJ. Lizzie is enjoying life as a mom with her new baby Charlie, born on December 13, 2021. In addition to her job as partner focused on mergers and acquisitions at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP, Lizzie is loving running her beach yoga business, Pure Pony Yoga, with her sister Karen on the 82nd Street Beach in Stone Harbor, NJ.
Molly Scudder Miller ’02 and her husband, Cullen, moved to Palm Beach, FL before the pandemic in February 2020. Molly is currently the head of the Development Office at Oxbridge Academy, an independent school in West Palm Beach, FL serving students grades 6-12. In her role, Molly oversees Annual and Capital Giving, Alumni Relations, Parent Programming, Community Engagement, and Strategic Partnerships while also serving as the Girls Varsity Lacrosse Head Coach. Molly helped Oxbridge Academy celebrate the school’s 10 year anniversary despite the pandemic and prepare Oxbridge for the next decade and beyond. She is forever grateful to Agnes Irwin and credits the school for helping shape who she is today. From her time both as a “lifer” and as an employee of Irwin’s, she gained valuable exposure to independent school best practices. Many of the new traditions and programming she is bringing to Oxbridge are inspired by the deep-rooted sense of community and spirit that is the culture of Agnes Irwin.
Abbe Wright ’03 was married to Nicholas Devlin on September 17, 2022. The ceremony took place at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Ardmore, PA, and the reception was at the Fitler Club in Philadelphia. In attendance were fellow owls from the Class of 2003: Winnie Schulz Most, Amanda Earl, Anastasia Dorrance Grillo, Emily Peters, and Sarah Calvert Lartey. 1. Amanda “Nan” Hough ’08 married Michael Bacon in a small ceremony in Park City, Utah on September 3, 2022. Nan’s whole family was in attendance including fellow alumnae sisters Caroline Hough ’03, Allison Hough ’01 and Lauren Hough Williams ’99 2. Mikelle Nickens ’05 with her husband Sheldon Fields and son, August 3. Rachel Wahl ’11 married Aaron Hamburger at Jasna Polana in Princeton, NJ. Bridesmaids included AIS alumnae Katey Duffy ’11 (far left) and Kate Wahl ’15 (to the bride’s right). 4. Rachel Wahl ’11 with her new husband Aaron Hamburger on October 15, 2022
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Alumnae | CLASS NOTES
2010-19
Amanda Bunten Smallwood ’11 and husband Connor are happy to share the news of the birth of their daughter, Amy Barbara Smallwood, on April 8, 2022. The Smallwoods live in Columbus, OH.
Lauren Wenger ’12 graduated from Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law in May 2022. Lauren received her Juris Doctor with a concentration in Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution. In midOctober, as an early birthday present, she found out she passed the Pennsylvania Bar Exam with a score high enough to practice in any jurisdiction that accepts scores from the Universal Bar Exam (UBE).
Fenian Kenney ’17 is happy to share that she published a book review in The French Review on the book called Mûr Mediterrannée written by the Haitian writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert. The book is about three women who seek asylum and the atrocities and tribulations that they are forced to endure. Fenian is in the second year of graduate school at the University of Notre Dame and is currently studying in France.
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1. ALUMNAE BOARD (Left to right) Back row: Pamela Brewer Smyth ’71, Katherine Rieger Righi ’08, Gail Evans Guthridge ’71, Janie Whelan ’12, Madeleine Katz Niemiec ’03, Neely Burch Morandi ’09, Elspeth Fergusson Knighton ’04; Second row: Phoebe Somani ’15, Nina Hutchinson Pruitt ’87, Erica Shippen ’99, Jane Finkenstaedt ’14, Alexandra Greco ’07; Front row: Andrea Lucas Schmerin ’07, Krysta Shivick Hopp ’99 (President), Campbell Crochiere ’12; Not pictured: Rafhia Foster ’91, Janet Gilmore ’96, Wendy Chamblin Gunselman ’69, Lexy Pierce ’06, Blythe Tarbox ’09, Madelaine Whitehead ’10 2. Amy Barbara, daughter of Connor and Amanda Bunten Smallwood ’11, is all smiles 3. Kate Tocci ’12 married Marc Hostovsky on September 3, 2022. Kate celebrated with her sister, Lexi Tocci ’09, as well as 14 of her fellow 2012 classmates 4. Lauren Wenger ’12 (right) with sister Katie Wenger ’14 (left) at the Kimmel Center celebrating Lauren’s graduation from Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law in May 2022 5. Eliza Moran ’13 married Carson Buell on September 10, 2022
MILESTONES | Alumnae
MARRIAGES
2000 Allison Dodd to Chris Blake October 1, 2022
Margaret Moore to Joe Bocchino September 3, 2022
2001 Christina Givey to David Oxley February 26, 2020
2003 Abbe Wright to Nicholas Devlin September 17, 2022
2006 Nicole Marchetto to Alan Purtell September 25, 2021
Mary Gretz to Jamie Gardiner September 24, 2022
2008 Emily Christian to Greg Diehl October 1, 2022
Amanda Hough to Michael Bacon September 3, 2022
Lauren Mayer to Branden Sweetser July 16, 2022
2011 Amanda Bunten to Connor Smallwood July 16, 2021
Nancy Taylor to Ryan Holmes July 9, 2022
Rachel Wahl to Aaron Hamburger October, 15, 2022
2012 Kate Tocci to Marc Hostovsky September 3, 2022
2013 Eliza Moran to Carson Buell September 10, 2022
Marielle Berkman to Jonathon Bell October 1, 2022
Abbe Wright ’03 married Nicholas Devlin on September 17, 2022 Charlie Lange, 7 months, son of Lizzie Hepp Lange ’00
BIRTHS
1999 To Ryan and Suzy Schwartz Peffer, a boy, Winston Michael August 21, 2022
2000 To Charles and Lizzie Hepp Lange, a boy, Charles Robert December 31, 2021
2004 To Matthew Betz and Lorraine Lampe, a girl, Kaly Rain Betz July 5, 2022
To Zachary Redlitz and Emily Pickering, a boy, John Pickering September 14, 2022
To Terrance and Hadley Schroll Sullivan, a girl, Mackenzie Malone July 20, 2022
2005 To Paul and Charlotte Dorrance Marshall, a boy, Sage LeRoy August 1, 2022
To John and Natalie Jones Brennan, a boy, John “Jack” Francis III October 11, 2022
To Sheldon Fields and Mikelle R. Nickens, a boy, August Jameson May 7, 2022
2006 To Alan Purtell and Nicole Marchetto, a girl, Lannon Marie October 22, 2022 2006 To Brian and Victoria Johnston FitzPatrick, a girl, Contessa “Tessa” Catherine October 29, 2022
To Sam and Toby Eyre Peele, a boy, Luke Hudson October 11, 2022
2009 To Alex and Laura Wagoner Manion, a boy, Nolan Michael August 12, 2022
To Devin Cela and Frances Chen, a girl, Elliot “Ellie” Debbi October 31, 2022
2011 To Connor and Amanda Bunten Smallwood, a girl, Amy Barbara April 8, 2022
IN MEMORIAM
1940 Molly Billings Hummeler November 6, 2022
1942 Patty Gilkyson Agnew May 21, 2022
1944 Nelly Keffer Lincoln December 2, 2022
1948 Anita Wood Kneass July 15, 2022
1949 Cathryn Wendler Mecaskey June 24, 2022
1951 Xandra McCurdy Schultz October 23, 2022
1953 Pamela Robinson Nichols September 19, 2022
1957 Peggy Justice Scholl November 12, 2022
Mary Elizabeth Rawle Slattery October 7, 2022
1959 Mary Liversidge Stanley September 10, 2022
1970 Sarah Nassau June 30, 2022
1971 Nancy A. Fay August 11, 2022
1976 Liane Armstrong O’Donnell July 4, 2022
1998 Megan Dorsey Clawson October 12, 2022
COLLEGEYoung alumnae share what they are up to in college – and what they brought with them from Agnes Irwin connections
Rachel
Rachel Meng ’21
University of Michigan
Major: Computer Science Over the summer, Rachel Meng ’21 and twenty friends went road tripping from Princeton, NJ to Kansas to Los Angeles. But this was no ordinary road trip. Rachel and her friends are teammates on the University of Michigan’s top-ranked Solar Racing Team. This trip, called the Michigan Sun Run, was an exhibition race that focused on outreach while also collecting data through an advanced sensor outfitted in Aevum, the team’s 16th solar car. “The mission of solar car racing is to develop innovations that can advance sustainable technologies for a greener future,” Rachel said.
At AIS, Rachel was on a variety of teams, including Arts Board, Impulse, RepCo, and varsity tennis and softball. Her favorite classes were science. “I think I took a class with every teacher in the science department and I was on the robotics team,” she said. Wanting to build on this foundation, Rachel joined the Michigan solar car team. While the team is eighty percent male, she felt prepared to jump in. “Agnes Irwin fosters confidence and resilience,” she said. When she is not working on solar cars, you might find Rachel in the Honor Council, on the board at the school’s chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, or ironically, walking. “You do a lot of walking in college. It’s not really emphasized just how much,” she laughed.
Elizabeth Scott ’19
Georgetown University
Major: Biological Physics Double Minor: French and German Elizabeth Scott ’19 is enjoying studying in the nation’s capital and points to the election in 2020 as a quintessential D.C. moment. “My friends and I joined the swarms of people who walked to the White House on election night. No matter your party affiliation or feeling about the results, the celebratory feeling of an election is a moment in history,” she shared.
This feeling of infinite possibilities defines Elizabeth’s time at Georgetown University. “Agnes Irwin prepared me so well that I had an open mind to many paths.” Last summer, Elizabeth studied literature and history in Germany and liked living there so much that she is applying for a competitive fellowship award to conduct research there post-graduation.
A lifer at Agnes Irwin, Elizabeth said that her interest in pursuing a medical profession began at Agnes Irwin. “Ms. [Rosann] Westmeyer encouraged me to apply to be a research intern in the Gene Therapy Program at the University of Pennsylvania,” she said. If her ambitions become realized, she will be part of a group of women who are still breaking barriers in this field, with about eighteen percent of doctorates in Physics currently awarded to women.
ELIZABETH SCOTT ’19
We would love to hear from you!
Contact Brooke Norrett Corr ’95, Director of Alumnae Relations, with updates bcorr@agnesirwin.org
Asiyah Ball ’20
George Washington University
Major: International Affairs, Contemporary
Cultures & Societies concentration
Double Minor: Arabic Studies and Sociocultural Anthropology Asiyah created her blog, “Covered Girl Chronicles: the Life of an Everyday Muslimah,” during her PIP (Personal Interest Project) in AIS teacher Dan Slack’s English class. “The assignment was to spend the year producing a tangible thing of interest that could also help people,” she explained. “I love fashion, culture, and writing, and as one of only a few Muslims or people who covered in the AIS community, I wanted to tie all my interests together while creating space for African American Muslim women like me.”
Asiyah came to Agnes Irwin in sixth grade and remembers prioritizing cross-cultural exchange and awareness in a new space where she was “either the only Muslim womxn or hijabi and one of very few Black girls.” She added that, “My mom and I chose Agnes Irwin because it was all-girls. I felt comfortable speaking up.”
From early on, Asiyah had a focused vision. “I knew I wanted to do something internationally focused,” she said. At AIS, she was involved in the Multicultural Board, serving as co-head, facilitating conversations surrounding diversity and bridging cultural divides. Even as a young alumna, AIS has invited her to speak to the sixth grade history classes about her journey as a young Muslim woman, navigating faith in a secular environment. As though living out the AIS mission to learn, to lead, and to live a legacy, Asiyah shared, “It is important to me to make a legacy in the spaces that I enter and leave.”
Saguna Malhotra ’19
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Concentrations: Behavioral Economics and Management “I love coming up with creative ways to solve problems,” said Saguna Malhotra ’19. “Business allows you to have an impact at a higher level. I also enjoy being surrounded by people from all around the world who have similar interests. My best friends at Wharton are from Turkey, Italy, Russia, and Columbia. Of course, I am close with (fellow AIS alumna) Anne Curran ’19 who attends Penn and is studying Diplomatic History. We started the Penn Mergers and Acquisitions Club together.”
While Saguna has been inspired by all of her Wharton coursework (except Engineering – “It’s not for me!”), Strategic Marketing was a favorite. “We looked at case studies to see how companies’ decisions affected them over time,” she said. Last year, she used some of this knowledge at McKinsey & Co. (global management consultants) where she was a Summer Business Analyst. Looking forward, Saguna can envision herself as a chief brand officer of a retail company.
From her semester in Paris this fall, she wrote: “In Paris, I lived with Cordelia Hare ’17, another AIS alum, who is getting a Master’s in Media and Creative Industries at Sciences Po Paris.” Aside from strong personal relationships, she counts her writing skills as a main takeaway from her Agnes Irwin education. “Mr. [Dan] Slack taught me how to write well. Writing is a foundational skill for the work I do at Wharton.”
Postcard from Paris! Cordelia Hare ’19 (left), Saguna (center), and Sara Wada ’17
A CONVERSATION WITH …
Carrie Volpert ’13
Doctor of Philosophy candidate, University of Maryland NASA Goddard Space Flight Center M.S., Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Maryland B.S., Physics, University of Chicago
laughed Carrie Volpert ’13, a K-12 lifer. What she knew for certain was that she wanted to understand the world as it is; to figure things out to her satisfaction. Carrie was recently selected for the NASA Pathways Program. “This federal employee position will continue through the rest of my PhD, and then I will work as a physicist for the detector systems branch. It’s exciting!” she shared. We caught up with Carrie about her education, passion for learning, connections to AIS, flying in the stratosphere, and yes, aliens.
K-12 AT AGNES IRWIN
A favorite AIS memory? In third grade, we observed the moon and recorded its phases in a moon diary. I loved it. Did you like going to a girls school? I did! Other than friends, there were few distractions. It felt like the primary function of Agnes Irwin was learning, and I like learning. Favorite classes? Studio Art. I still have some of my art, like this piece on my wall. What is it called? It doesn’t have a title. Can you title it now? Sure. It’s now called “The Traveler.” Favorite activities at Agnes Irwin? I am generally bored but widely interested [laughing]. So I did whatever my best friend, Anne [Scattergood ’13], did. We are still close. I rowed, was into photography, and was a member of a bunch of clubs – debate, chess, model UN – each for one year only.
COLLEGE DAYS
How did you decide on the University of Chicago? The questions on the application were vague and open-ended. I liked that creative, inquisitive vibe. Do you remember the application question you answered? Yes. It was “Where’s Waldo?” How did you answer? I ignored the prompt. Instead, I wrote about five times that I almost got hurt while being curious. You majored in physics with a specialization in astrophysics. Yes. Physics seemed to have the most convincing explanations to me. Do you feel like you understand how the world works now? No. I was naive. Now I know even physics cannot explain everything.
ASTROPHYSICS AND NASA
Tell us about your current work as an astrophysics PhD candidate. I am an experimentalist. There is a difference between studying something and interacting with it. If you want to study a distant star or galaxy, you can’t really go there. So capturing it in a way that it can be studied involves experimental astronomy – it is like a combination of astronomy and photography.
What specifically do you do? I am working on building infrared micro-spectrometers. A spectrometer separates light that comes through a telescope by wavelength instead of spatial location, allowing us to identify what generated the light. At infrared wavelengths, we observe the ‘cold’ universe: the dust and clouds of dense gas from which stars first form. I was afraid I might
get lost at this point in the interview.
Yes, unfortunately the language is daunting. This instrument I’m building will fly in a stratospheric balloon about the size of a football stadium. The telescope scans the sky and records data with the spectrometer, creating a map. Can you remote control it from Earth? It turns out that balloons are really hard to control. [laughing] We can control the telescope and the hardware, but for the balloon itself we can only control when it comes down. Most of us have
seen the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
images in the news. Amazing, isn’t it? JWST is pushing the edges of our field. It is providing the most detailed images at these wavelengths that we have ever seen of distant galaxies and deepened our understanding of exoplanets, galaxies, star formation, and more. The way we live in our modern world is really dependent on space technology.
A CAREER IN ASTRONOMY What is the coolest thing your work has allowed
you to experience? Flying in the stratosphere, which is 10,000 feet higher than commercial airplanes on a specialized NASA aircraft. Are there many women in “The way we live your field? In physics, about twenty in our modern world is really dependent percent, and maybe as many as thirty percent for astronomy. But the higher you go, the women thin out. Do you think the root cause of this on space “thinning out” is biology? I think technology.” biology only enters the conversation because we as a society haven’t yet CARRIE VOLPERT ’13 decided to prioritize equitable expectations about the burden of having and raising children. Women’s bodies themselves in no way exclude them from excelling in science, and the idea itself is baffling.
ALIENS & UFOS
Asking for a friend … aliens? UFOs? Statistically, in my mind, I think alien life probably exists. Maybe, or maybe not, in a way that we would recognize. I don’t know if we will ever really get the answer. I think the human race would have to live much longer to have a good shot. Are the UFOs in the news real? More likely, they are products of U.S. or foreign defense and spycraft projects.
FAVORITES
Artist: Hiroshi Yoshida or Marina Abramović
Art medium:
Oil paint and mixed media
Space movie:
“The Martian” or “The Arrival” Book: The ThreeBody Problem by Liu Cixin (“The English version though. Apparently the Chinese version is sexist.”)
Senior Assembly topic:
The correlation between highachievers and mental illness or more simply, ’Genius and Madness.’
