BRIEFS

1982 Raquel Bennet, PsyD., is a psychologist and ketamine specialist living in Berkeley. She is the proud founder of the KRIYA Institute and KRIYA Conference, which are both devoted to the use of ketamine in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Raquel has been studying the therapeutic applications for ketamine for over 20 years and was recently named as one of the most influential women in the field of psychedelics.

1992 Natascha Sherman

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Do you have news or personal updates you’d like to share?

We invite you to submit a class brief about exciting personal events, including marriages or new arrivals, professional experiences or accomplishments, recent travel, reunions with fellow Nueva alumni, and more. nuevaschool.org/ classbriefs

Hess competed on an episode of Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay. The Colorado-based chef and restauranteur’s episode premiered on August 11.

1995 Courtney Stephens received the Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in non-fiction and experimental filmmaking. ¶ “I’ll be using the grant to make a feature documentary in Kansas about weather forecasting and the legacy of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ in the state.”

2017 Inventor, creator, and entrepreneur, Jeremy Trilling graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in December. In May, Boston- based WBZ NewsRadio 1030 profiled his latest endeavor—the ToolBus—a mobile, solarpowered innovation studio. The converted former yellow school bus was built to empower boundless creative freedom and features 3D printers, laser cutters, and a welding station. Passionate about creating meaningful maker experiences, he introduced the ToolBus to excited fourth through sixth graders at a local Worcester, MA public school.

2018 Sinead Chang graduated from the University of Southern California in May with a B.A. in journalism and political science and is now working at creative communications agency Day One Agency in the big city (aka NYC)! Current hobbies include being in a big hurry all the time, obsessively updating Goodreads and still dating Viraj Garg ’18. If you’re reading this and you’ve also ended up in New York, you know what to do! ¶ Zack Chroman moved to New York City in the fall and is loving living in the city. He is working for a trading firm, Jane Street, alongside a few other Nueva alumni. ¶ In the Spring of 2022, Julianna Garber graduated from the University of Michigan with a dual degree in film and directing for theater. Immediately following their graduation, Julianna began working at the Gretchen Whitmer for Governor campaign as a multimedia producer. ¶ “I’ve traveled all around the state with Gretchen. The 2022 Michigan election [was] a big must watch, and I’m grateful [I was] able to do my part in supporting democracy and the right to choose.”

2019 Nehmat Vijan spent the last year living and working in Boston. Before moving to the East Coast, she started working at Vineyard Vines as a sales associate. After a month, she was promoted to crew lead and continued in that role when she moved to Boston. What was supposed to be a part-time job to make extra money became a full-time career in retail. Nehmat moved back to the Bay Area this summer to start a new position at Louis Vuitton Palo Alto as an operations associate.

2020 Lyz BushPeel spent a fulfilling sophomore year on campus at Columbia University, double majoring in English and philosophy, after an entirely online freshman year. During the school year, she interned at Harvey Klinger Literary Agency, where, through vetting queries, she got a glimpse into the triumphs and foibles

Audrey Cho ’19 Named a Udall Scholar

Crediting a 10th grade two-week trip to the Tidelines Institute in Alaska as a pivotal moment, Audrey Cho ’19 has made it her mission to address climate change. A third-year environmental science and policy major at Smith College, Audrey was named a recipient of the prestigious 2022 Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, a program which recognizes students committed to careers in conservation, the environment, and Native American nations.

“Everyone has a different level of education and understanding about the issues,” she said. “We need to talk to people in terms they can understand and resonate with, about how this affects their health and the health of their family.” of human imagination. During the summer of 2022, she spent time focusing on her health, alongside pursuing a short fellowship. She is spending her third year reading English at Cambridge, where she has come to enjoy traditions like formal hall, but still has no small amount of trepidation about looking the wrong way before crossing streets. In her free time, she still writes fiction, and is now working on her 20th novel. ¶ After finishing her gap year in 2020–2021, Isabel Chambers embarked on her sophomore year at Boston University. At BU, she took classes in journalism, Italian, religion, and American studies, and explored her interests in international relations. She dabbled in writing for the school’s independent newspaper, The Daily Free Press, and dedicated many hours to community service after joining Alpha Phi Omega. During summer 2022, Isabel worked part-time at Athleta and began her studies of microeconomics in preparation for the fall. Isabel plans on majoring in international relations with minors in Italian and journalism. ¶ After six months of intensive work as a mental health counselor in an inpatient psychiatric unit, Eugenia Theodosopoulos made the long-awaited return to classes this past fall, marking the start of her third year at Northeastern University. While Northeastern’s illustrious co-op program ate into the better part of her summer, she made the most of the remaining time on a three-week excursion to her homeland—Greece. In combination with some much-needed rest at home in the Bay, she approached junior year’s expected trials and tribulations with a newfound confidence. Currently studying psychology with minors in behavioral neuroscience and human services, Eugenia’s course load is a rollercoaster of psychoanalytic theory, behavioral genetics, and community outreach. Sticking to her roots as editor-in-chief of Nueva’s yearbook, Eugenia is going into her third year of working as the social media coordinator for the Center for Research Innovation, a role that kindly juxtaposes the intensity of per-diem shifts on a locked psychiatric unit. ¶ Stanley Wang is a third-year student at Northwestern University majoring in biological sciences with a concentration in cell and developmental biology. He is a member of the Chinese Students Association, the Northwestern Club Ski Team, and the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. ¶ This fall, he got more involved with the Nueva Alumni Association as a Class Representative and shared, “Being a Class Representative gives me the opportunity to engage with the Nueva community past and present and to try and maintain the interconnectedness of our grade post-graduation. I think it’s important for me to continue to stay connected with the Nueva community as Nueva has given so much to me throughout my life. Starting at Nueva in preK, I quite literally grew up on the Nueva campuses and call Nueva my second home. My experiences and development over the years at Nueva have strongly made me who I am today, so I feel that it only makes sense that I remain connected even after I’ve graduated.”

Audrey was one of 55 undergraduate students selected from a national pool, and she spent summer 2022 at the University of WisconsinStout conducting ethnographic research on community responses to water pollution from agricultural fertilizers.

2021

After concluding her freshman year at Berkeley, where she’s majoring in sociology and psychology with a certificate in design innovation, Maya Chawla started the summer of 2022 with a week in Hawaii and ended it with a week in Bali. In between, she spent a month living, reading, feasting, wandering, and sunbathing in Paris, and then relocated to New York City, where she fulfilled her childhood show business dreams working as a production assistant on an upcoming HBO Max show, while also moonlighting as a graphic designer for a coffee company in upstate New York. ¶ At Berkeley, Maya has carried on her Nueva tradition by overcommitting herself to extracurriculars: she currently works as a design associate for two consulting groups, continues her Nueva yearbook editor-in-chief legacy as the layout director for an arts and fashion magazine, and is an assistant teacher for Berkeley’s Brand Identity and Graphic Design class. She’s also working as a research assistant for a Social Psychology lab at Haas School of Business. Maya currently takes classes in sociology, psychology, economics, sculpture, and sustainable architecture. She hopes to pursue academia, more research, business, design, mixed media arts, and maybe film production…she’s still deciding. ¶ Following a bookdrenched 2021 summer in the WRC, Grace Holmes embarked on her first year at Wellesley, pursuing majors in neuroscience and education. There, she joined the Shakespeare Society, where she stage-managed a chaotic production of Hamlet this time with five Hamlets—and a version of Twelfth Night set in a fraternity house and replete with modern language interjections. She also became a tutor with the Science Learning and Mentoring team and joined Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration as part of the restorative justice taskforce. ¶ This past summer, Grace worked as a vote center representative during the primary elections and wrote lesson plans in preparation for the fall semester as a Zimmerman teaching fellow in Wellesley’s Psychology Department. She also serves as a neuroanatomy fellow for the introductory neuroscience course. Grace also found the time to acquire yet more chickens, embroider at least a third of her clothing, coordinate a rewrite of the Shakespeare Society’s constitution, and practice creating edible Jell-o hearts, which were devoured during a production of Macbeth this fall, for which she designed props. ¶ After pursuing the pre-medical track for one year with a major in human biology at the University of Southern California, Jordan Mak decided to change his major to computer science and business administration. He hopes to pursue a career combining business and marketing, graphic design, and UI/UX design. At USC, Jordan enjoyed highspirited tailgates and football games, rigorous and challenging classes, and plenty of delicious