ALUMNI NEWS

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Buckingham Friends School, The Office of Advancement, PO Box 159, Lahaska, PA 18931

1950s

Katharine “Kitsie” Converse ‘55 - Joy! BFS memories - I have a lot - my life started out wild and crazy there in 1947. Leaving in 1953. I lived on a farm on Street Road, a dirt road, and walked to school across the fields with my brothers. Memories are vivid - nature walks seeing lady slippers and red winged black birds with Mrs. Haines, hanging upside down and inside out or from my feet on the trapeze after whirling myself sick on the May pole, or setting off the school fire alarm by mistake and hiding in a closet as the whole school evacuated. Or sadly in third grade, when I dreamed of being the perfect Snow White and Chrissy Keene got it… and I was cast as the echo hiding in the well, repeating her lines! But my most humiliating memories were: 1. Peeing in the front window well during recess - clueless - and hearing the class laugh inside! 2. Doing my braggart stand-up slide down the board, taunting a crowd to witness my show-off stunt after sprinkling sand and pebbles down the chute for speed, and knocking the wind out of myself so badly I couldn’t cry, move or speak from pain and humiliation. Mrs. Haines to the rescue! I have a ton more - My Bucks County childhood rudely interrupted by a move to the ghastly Main Line and Shipley! Kitsie recently visited with Linda (Root) Kenyon ‘53 to hear David Barry ‘55 play piano.

Betsy Todd Uhl ‘56 - I still live in the Perkasie area. Retired Feb. 2018 after 30 years as Literacy Admin. Clerk at Vita Education Svcs(adult ed. agency, Doylestown ofc.). I now volunteer 1 day/wk at Vita & participate in church activities at Good Shepherd Episc., Hilltown, including serving on the Endowment Committee. I’m able do some yard work, but my arthritic neck, back, hips & knees make movement less easy than in my younger days. Looking forward to May 9 celebration at BFS, the day I’ll turn 78. (Ouch!) My sister, Nancy ‘57, is well & living just outside Pasadena, Calif. Fortunately, not affected by the fires.

1970s

Elisabeth (Hamilton) Karotkin ‘70 - I believe this spring is my 50th! anniversary, having gone all the way through from K to 8. Things I value from BFS: learning French which I still use (even if, at times, only in my own head!), the Friends’ philosophies, and most valuable, my lasting friendship with Eleanor (Funk) Schuster ’70 from kindergarten to present day. We’ve talked about possibly coming to this year’s reunion. A couple of years ago, I was able to show the school to my husband—the Meetinghouse was open and brought memories of suppressing giggles and singing Simon & Garfunkel’s “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme” in that building. All in all a good bunch of years!

1980s

Chris Chandor ‘82 - I’ve stayed in intermittent contact with Bill Dare ’82. He lives outside Phoenix, AZ and we went to a Diamondbacks game last August together. I have also spoken with Chris Brower ’82 within the past year.

Carl King ‘84 - I have been married for 28 years to the love of my life, Amy. We have spent the last 21 years living in Charlotte, NC. I have two wonderful daughters, Mia (16) and Caryn (12). Both were students at Friends School of Charlotte for several years, when I also served on its board. For over 20 years, I have been a member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, in Charlotte, where I regularly serve as a sub-deacon. Professionally, I am a senior partner at the tax law firm of Culp, Elliott & Carpenter in Charlotte. Beginning in 2020, I also am a member of the faculty at the University of Miami School of Law in the Heckerling graduate LL.M. program in Estate Planning. Last year, I was honored to be asked by the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) to serve as one of four primary coauthors of an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States for the first big tax case heard by the Court in 11 years (Kaestner).

1987 CLASSMATES at Lexi Lowe Logan’s house in the fall 2019. L to R - Laura Swanstrom Reece, Lexi Lowe Logan, Amy Copper Buitung, Stevi Wright, Reba Barrett, Sarah Crofts, Cori Ginsberg Seryadarian, Ana Pearson

Taiya Smith ’87 - An avid horse rider, mountaineer, and aspiring alpine skier, Smith resides with her husband and three children in Washington, DC and at their farm in Rappahannock County, Virginia. 0s

Elijah Dornstreich ‘89 - I live in Elkins Park, PA (near Abington) with my wife Gennifer and our two daughters Miriam (almost 6) and Penny (4). I work in asset management for a firm called AllianceBernstein. My siblings who some of you know are all well – Sophie ’92 is married and has two little girls, living in LA. Jesse ’94 and Eva ’01 are also well, as is my mom Judy, who still lives on the family farm in Perkasie where we all lived when we went to BFS, Branch Creek Farm. My father Mark also passed away from cancer, about 6 years ago. I am pretty involved with various non-profits and Philadelphia, and I’m a trustee of the National Museum of American Jewish History down in Old City across from the Constitution Center, so if any of you ever want to go there with family and get a tour, just let me know. Wishing you all the very best, and looking forward to seeing you soon.

Sam Moyer ‘89 - Things in our life are going pretty well. Our second kid, Levi, was born about a year ago and he’s made our life so fun and so much more exhausting than I could have imagined. Everybody loves this little dude, he’s bubbly and relaxed and has a great sense of humor. He’s scooting all over the place. He’s been at daycare for about 4 months now so that gives us a little time to actually work. Our daughter, Oona, is in kindergarten at Poughkeepsie Day School, which reminds me a bit of BFS. She loves it. She’s very creative and loves art and reading and writing. She’s an awesome big sister and the two kids clearly get along. My wife, Casey, and I are both furniture makers, which is at times stressful, but also gives us a lot of flexibility to spend time with the kids. It also challenges our creativity and work ethic everyday. It’s rewarding, if not exhausting. We are also still working on an old farmhouse that needs lots of love. Slowly but surely we are bringing it back, but it’s a long road. Finally, I became chair of my town Democratic Committee a couple of years ago. I’m regularly involved in doing what we can from a grass roots level trickling up, to bring civility, safety and sanity back to our politics and our country. It’s rewarding to be engaged with neighbors and community in concrete ways, rather than reading the headlines and feeling hopeless and angry. Sending love from Dutchess county, NY.

1990s

Krispin Leydon ‘91 - I’m currently learning all about utility-scale energy storage; one of the “missing pieces” in a renewable energy infrastructure... Also considering a move from San Francisco to Bellingham, WA, Boulder, CO, or Bainbridge, WA... If you have any recommendations re: towns that start with “B”, I’m all ears!

Evan Rattner ‘93 - I live near Minneapolis with my wife Elizabeth, our 1-year old son, Leo, and our 3 dogs. My 6th Grade Movie prediction came true: I make video games for a living!

Josh Lipes ‘93 - All is well with me and my family. I’ve been living in DC for about 13 years and I’m working as an editor for Radio Free Asia - a congressionally funded non-profit that reports on human rights issues in the languages of Asian nations that lack a free press (and broadcasts that reporting to them via radio). I have a two-year-old son named Everett, who my wife Samantha and I brought to BFS for the first time a couple of weeks ago to show him where I went to school. We’re getting ready to put him into pre-k, and I thought he might enjoy seeing where my formative years were spent.

Anna Resek Chung ‘95 I live in Maryland with my husband and 5 year old son. I am the Director of Portfolio Management for a company called Brookwood Hotels, a hotel owner/developer, where I oversee a portfolio of over 115 WoodSpring Suites, an economy extended stay brand. My BFS friends are still my oldest and closest and my parents’ social lives still very much revolve around other parents from that time.

Alex Ryan ‘96 - With my wife Valentyna and our two girls (Anna, 3 years, and Milana 1 year), I am currently living in Rome while working on economic issues at the U.S. Embassy. Rome is a beautiful city, though also a challenging one with two small children. We are enjoying the experience, especially the opportunity to travel to the many small towns outside of the city on weekends. My best wishes to the BFS community.

Betsy (Cepparulo) Renzo ’96 - is living in Wilmington, DE with her husband, stepdaughters, Evelyn (10) and Amelia (8), and 85 lb step-dog, Travis. She teaches a course called Global Peace & Social Justice at Wilmington Friends School, coaches field hockey and basketball, and teaches a Zumba class at the YMCA. In other words, not much has changed since 1996.

2000s

Whittney Yarnall ‘01 - After graduating from Johnson & Wales, I pursued a career in hospitality and moved to New York City where I landed a dream job, working in Sales at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. While in NYC, I also began pursuing my passions of wellness, healing and spirituality on the side in any free time I had. In 2014 I picked up and moved to San Diego with the intention of shifting my passion into a career. In 2017 I opened a healing center, yoga and meditation studio called Sojourn Healing Collective. I manage the collective in addition to offering private healing sessions, Breathwork, Reiki and customized mentorship programs for spiritual entrepreneurs and those seeking further alignment to their soul’s purpose and life’s work.

Wiley Robinson ‘01 - My wife, Heather, and I welcomed our first child on January 29th 2020. Elizabeth is a bouncing, happy baby. We continue to work and live at a boarding school in Western MA.

Ian Forster ’01 - is working as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department’s General Litigation Division. He defends the City and its agencies in federal and state court in major cases challenging important City programs, in areas such as constitutional rights, education, health care, public benefits, prison conditions, foster care, homelessness, day care, election law, and freedom on information law. With an eye towards policy, Ian and the other attorneys in the General Litigation Division work to affect the City’s day-to-day governance, and to improve the well-being of City residents, often litigating issues at the forefront of developing legal theory. Ian lives in Tribeca with his girlfriend, Ella, and their cat, Ross.

Chris Danilo ’02 - has moved to Denver, CO. He’s currently working with Early Childhood Education companies to make them more productive and have a better impact.

Jesse Sandberg ’03 and his wife Emily with their son Eliot Becker Sandberg.

Emma Forster ‘04 - I’m currently still living in New York, where I work for a wine importer and distributor called T. Edward. I just returned from a two-week trip to the Loire Valley, France, where I toured the vineyards of the winemakers I currently work with and met lots of new producers. Before joining the wine industry, I spent two years getting my MBA at Columbia Business School, where I had a concentration in marketing and did my internship at Duclot, a NYbased Bordeaux importer. Prior to that, I spent four years in the music industry booking hip hop concert tours around the world. As you know, my brother Ian ‘01 also lives in the city and we see each other most mornings for a workout.

Jill Moody ’04 and husband Eric are the new owners of the Cornerstone Bed & Breakfast in Philadelphia (built by a Quaker family, no less!). This has been an exciting adventure so far and has provided an amazing opportunity to be a part of history in a gorgeous 1870s Victorian mansion. We hope some BFS friends will someday grace our inn. Jill is also still very involved in theatre in both Philly and NYC. She has been the proud founder and Artistic Director of Imagine Works Youth Theatre in NYC for the past seven years and partners with an Off-Broadway theatre to produce and direct incredible plays and musicals with kids and teens.

Evan Boerner ’05 moved back to PA and is the Marketing Manager at Nursing Care Services. Evan’s goal is to continue the growth of NCS; he currently holds an Associates in Business.

Liv Berelson ’06 graduated in December 2018 from the University of Vermont on the dean’s list with a degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. During the month of February 2019, she volunteered with RAICES in San Antonio, TX, working with asylum seekers who were released from detention. She currently lives and works in NYC with the goal of attending law school.

Spencer Pretecrum ‘06 - After graduating from BFS, Spencer completed high school at Princeton Day School where he was a captain of the fencing team and medaled at Model UN. He then attended the University of Miami with Majors in English and Psychology and enjoyed helping lead clubs such as the Jews and Muslims Alliance. Spencer then worked in the health outreach office of Fox Chase Cancer center for a year before attending the University of Virginia to begin his Master of Public Health. The research portion of the degree was coupled with Spencer’s Peace Corps service in Eswatini, a small south African country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world. He served in Eswatini for 27 months, developing preschools, educating the local community on HIV prevention, and analyzing drug cessation methods. After the completion of service, Spencer travelled around the world for 6 months before returning to the United States. He is now located in Washington D.C and is beginning his tenure as a Public Affairs Specialist in the USDA’s Congressional and Public Affairs office. Spencer wants to thank BFS for fostering his love of travel and public service. From teachers who valued their students’ opinions, to a culture of inclusiveness, BFS ensured a positive environment in which to grow. Traveling to Ecuador in the eighth grade and hosting exchange students helped create an appreciation for the global community to which we all belong.

Travis Boerner ’08 works for NCS and is working on developing his own business. Travis lives in South Philly. Travis graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in business marketing.

Lily Collins ‘08 - Having learned the Quaker values at an early age at BFS and subsequently attending George School and Guilford College, I have developed a great respect for and stewardship of my environment and community. This year, I boldly decided to pursue a J.D concentrating in Environmental/Resource Conservation Law. For the last five months, I have been adamantly studying for the Law School Admissions Test and absorbing must-read law books in preparation. In addition, I have been shadowing a local attorney, who is a long-time family friend and former BFS parent. My goal is to someday work on my passion: the policies and water law of the Delaware River Basin.

Skyler Coelho ’09 - A lot has happened since I left BFS. Most importantly, I married the love of my life and had two amazing little boys! Bowden is now 3 years old, and Brooks just turned 2. After I graduated college with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing, I began working as a pediatric nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in their Children’s Center. I am currently attending graduate school at the University of Maryland to obtain my doctorate with a pediatric acute care specialty. My husband and I also just recently bought a home in northern Maryland so that we could be closer to family than we previously were in D.C. In our free time, we love to travel and be outdoors as much as possible with our boys and dog, Winnie!

Philip Zielke ’09 - graduated from Germantown Academy in 2013 and from Wake Forest University in 2017. He is currently working for Moody’s Investment Services and living in New York City.

2010s

Aaron Boerner ’10 - was accepted into the Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program at Emory and Henry College in Marion VA. Becoming a physical therapist has been Aaron’s goal since high school. Aaron holds a bachelor’s degree from Temple University in Science of Kinesiology.

Katie Sigety ’12 attended Germantown Academy for one year then transferred to Blair Academy. She is graduating from George Washington University this May. She studied fine arts and art history. She loved GW and plans to remain in DC after she graduates.

Ned Sigety ‘12 will be graduating from the College of Charleston in May ‘20 with a BS in Business Administration and Management, Finance concentration, and is actively looking for a job back up north in the NYC area.

Sam Oswald ’12 Sam is currently a Senior at Georgetown University and is looking forward to graduating in May. Having spent summers interning in India and the Philippines, Sam worked in DC this past summer for a startup solar energy company and lived with fellow BFS graduate Katie Sigety ’12, a senior at George Washington. Sam currently works for an Italian energy company while he wraps up his last 5 classes.

Anna Honer ’13 - I recently took a trip to Jamkhed, India to study public health and nonprofit management. I took the class through Guilford College where I am in my junior year. We spent two weeks at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in the Maharashtra region primarily studying how the social workers there teach the surrounding villages about physical and mental health. CRHP focuses on holistic health, environmental sustainability, female empowerment and support for the young and the old. It’s an amazing organization that devotes its time to the poorest of the poor in a country that heavily stigmatizes the lower castes. After I graduate from Guilford I plan on working in nonprofit management, specifically focused on animal shelters or animal sanctuaries, so this trip was a great opportunity for me to learn about community involvement and sustainability of nonprofit organizations. I also got to experience Indian street dog culture and gain a deeper understanding of how outcomes for animals are affected by human cultural norms.

Chase Williams ’13 is a junior at the University of Tennessee majoring in communications. He served as the president of Alpha Gamma Rho, which received the Chapter of the Year award under his leadership! Chase revels in the southern comfort of Tennessee, donning his cowboy boots and hat, and driving his Ford 150.

Nathan Zelesko ’13 graduated from George School, Class of 2017, and is currently a junior at Brown University. Last summer Nathan worked on a research project through the Program in Applied & Computational Mathematics at Princeton University looking into a novel approach for manifold learning that combines the Earthmover’s Distance (EMD) with the diffusion maps method for dimensionality reduction. He will be presenting the research paper, Earthmover-based manifold learning for analyzing molecular conformation spaces, at the International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) in April.

Brad Sigety ‘14 is a Sophomore at Southern Methodist University in Dallas where he is pursuing a major in economics with a minor in computer science.

Will Sigety ’14 went to Blair Academy all four years. Will was a long time participant in Scouting and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in ’17. He is a sophomore at Penn State studying engineering

Nina Sigety’15 is a first year student at Bucknell University where she is a member of the college’s only all-female a cappella group, The Silhouettes, and is a Student Development Officer for Bucknell’s Advancement Office. Pictured here with Ian Lawrence ’14.

Corey Quinby ’15 is in his second semester at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an Aeronautical Engineering major with a minor in computer science. He is active in the rocketry and gaming clubs.

Patrick Reardon ’15 is a Freshman at Providence College in Rhode Island where he is enjoying business studies, intramural sports, leading a special management project that will impact the PC community, and everything it means to be a Friar!

Sara Oswald ’15 - Sara graduated The Westtown School in June and is currently a student/athlete in her freshman year at Lafayette College. Sara’s goal of becoming a division one soccer player was realized and, despite breaking her wrist early in the season, Sara played in all 19 games while starting 17. She helped lead her team to the Patriot League playoffs and is currently training for her Spring season which starts in March.

Eva Kinnel ’16 continues to thrive at George School and will attend Smith College in the fall. Among the things she’s looking forward to at Smith is playing field hockey for coach Jaime Ginsberg, ’91. The class of ’16 has been both mourning the loss and celebrating the life of classmate Maggie Popkin.

Joshua Eisen ‘16 - I am currently finishing up my senior year at Abington Friends School, and I have plans to attend Drexel University next year (they offered me almost $50,000/year in scholarships!). I meant to reply sooner, but life gets busy sometimes, and it slipped from my mind. Mr. B was one of my favorite teachers at BFS, and seeing his email re-energized my efforts to respond. He was such a great teacher, and more than that, he was even sort of like a friend to me. He and I went to Russia together a few years back with JEM, along with a few other members from my class, and I still wear my dark blue sweatshirt to this day! Abington Friends School has opened up many opportunities for me following my departure from BFS, including a spot on both the soccer and baseball teams, a leadership role on the FRC Robotics Team (Team #4373), and many other leadership roles throughout various clubs and groups. It is truly such a great school, and though it might not have the upper leg in athletics, the academics are very good, and they work very hard to make you as good of a person as you can be (it reminds me a lot of the mission of BFS). I also have been doing some work on the board of the New Hope Auto Show for the past year or so, and every time I pass that little blue sign in Lahaska, I can’t help but smile and feel cozy. Buckingham Friends will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’d love to visit sometime soon.

Carter Williams ’16 is a senior at The Pennington School and is headed to TCU (Texas Christian University) in the fall to become a horned frog! In his senior year at Pennington, Carter ran cross country in the fall, and is about to embark on his final baseball season.

Elise Sigety ’16 went to Blair Academy. She is graduating this May and plans to attend Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY. Elise is a big horseback rider and hopes to continue her love of horses on the Skidmore riding team.

George Sigety ’17 is a Junior at Blair Academy. He continues to be a very dedicated student and also is involved in Scouting. George hopes to earn his Eagle rank this summer.

Sarah Mayer ’17 is a Junior at George School. She has been both on the Head of School and Dean’s Lists every semester! She is very involved in the GS community in theater as well as a school tour guide.

Julia Eisen ’18 is a sophomore at Abington Friends School. She is on the softball team, robotics team, and is a member of the Gender Sexuality Alliance.

William Reardon ’18 attends Germantown Academy where he is a member of the Varsity hockey team again winning the Independence Hockey League championship, and the lacrosse team in the Spring. Will continues to play AAA hockey outside of school for the New Jersey Rockets.

Mike Cook ’18 attends the Solebury School. Mike enjoys his film class, along with his regular classes at Solebury. Mike plays guitar and drums, and is working towards his black belt in Karate.

BFS 2018 Alum Families Yerkes, Gallagher, Roche and Becker continue the tradition of a ski vacation together. First begun in 2012 during 2nd grade, a big thank you to BFS for lifelong friends.

Balin Moreno ’19 has been busy at George School. He ran cross country in the fall but says he has much preferred his yoga class this term. He is singing with the GS Choir and is looking forward to doing so next year too. In the first term, he made both the Honor Roll and Head of School lists for his accomplishments. He has several close friends from BFS and is making new ones. He doesn’t love boarding so may try to commute next year.

Olivia Garrett ’19 is enjoying George School. She was nominated by her teachers for the Head of School List for her first semester. She rides on the varsity equestrian team and has qualified for the Interscholastic Equestrian Association Regionals.

Ella DeBari ’19 is enjoying her freshman year at Berkeley Carroll in New York. Even though she reports her daily commute is much more interesting than the school bus she rode to BFS— she still misses everyone at BFS!

Grace Kantra ’19 attends The Pennington School. She played field hockey in the fall; she gives school tours to prospective students; and she made the Dean’s List for her first semester.

Frederica Keep ’19 says hello to everyone. This school year, she’s been playing field hockey, taking painting and drawing, and has started track.