Josh Aberman is enrolled in a Modern Literature and Culture MA at King's College, London.
Julia Adamo spent much of 2020 focusing on songwriting. Collaborating with her classmates on Kenyon’s Harmony Project inspired her to continue singing and writing songs.
Since starting law school, Eric Albrecht has come to appreciate how demanding the curriculum was at Kenyon, “as it prepared me for the workload, constant reading, and synthesizing that is now a daily occurrence in my life.”
Cameron Austin is a member of Teach Kentucky. He is working (remotely) as a high school math teacher in Louisville, KY.
Jake Barnett is getting a M.S. in Commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.
After her strange departure from Kenyon in March, Brittany Beckley went home to New Jersey and nursed her COVID-19 positive mother back to health from death's door all while finishing her last semester from home. The bulk of her quarantine was spent renovating her childhood room to a more mature space. “Shoutout to my Danish semester abroad for the hygge minimalism inspiration! Now I'm currently in the middle of my first semester at Temple University getting my masters in hospitality management.”
Francis Byrne has been shipping his photography prints off to local fashion brands, the Center for Contemporary Arts in Abilene, Texas and Paducah, Kentucky. When asked about what motivates him, he thinks that having everything come to a standstill caused him to want to create more. “It ended up being pretty therapeutic.”
Srila Chadalavada is a post baccalaureate research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD. Working in a neural coding lab, she is “contributing towards bettering our understanding of the visual pathway and how it ties into decision making and reward valuation.”
Sarah Dailey is working as a Senior Editor of “Venti: Air, Experience, and Aesthetics,” a new online journal that considers air and atmosphere through interdisciplinary scholarship. As the host of On Air: A Venti Podcast, she recently interviewed a Kenyon College Professor of English, Orchid Tierney. Sarah has also been tutoring, song writing, and practicing guitar.
While time seems to have simultaneously halted and sped along, Juliana Delsante still finds herself longing for the Hill and wishing for the closure she never received. But until then, she is happy to spend time teaching as a high school Greek instructor and middle school English Lit instructor.
Until last month, Jon Hammond had been helping out his parents at home and volunteering for a science-teacher-turned-Connecticut State Representative! Now, he is in Washington, D.C., interning with the German-American Cultural Vistas program.
Lucy Irwin has been living in Ireland for the summer and she is about to start working at a law firm in Baltimore.
Colleen Kemp recently relocated from Nashville, TN to Madrid, Spain, where she teaches English and science in a Spanish public school as an Auxiliar de Conversación. “Without the usual horde of tourists, Madrid has been quiet, beautiful, and not wholly unlike Gambier because I'm living with a fellow Kenyon alum, Rose Bialer!”
India Kotis started an internship at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, NY, cataloguing elements of Lesbian history for public, online consumption. In September, a paper she wrote for Alex Novikoff's course on Medieval Spains discussing sex and gender in Umayyad Iberia was published in the Macksey Journal, of Johns Hopkins University.
Izzy Kotlowitz has been working as a prevention educator at WISE after graduating and moving back to Vermont. WISE is a non-profit in Lebanon, NH that supports survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking.
Anonymous ‘20 When we all got sent back home from Kenyon, I struggled a lot with being "productive", and also defining what "productive" now meant. I wrote in a journal that I would come out as a better and stronger person than who I was coming into the pandemic. I thought a lot about the scene in Game of Thrones, where you are first introduced to Tywin Lannister, father of Jaime Lannister. He's in a tent with Jaime, cutting open a boar, and he tells his son "Jaime, I need you to become the man you were always meant to be -- not next year, not tomorrow, now". Some of the days at the beginning of the pandemic were so tough -- each day bled into the next. But today, Wednesday Oct 7 2020, I can look back on things and say Yes, I was productive. I learned how to ride a bike. I got a job doing cancer research during my gap years. I lost 12 pounds and gained 7 back (good). I've learned a lot of medical science in a very short amount of time. I'm still working with Kenyon to get free tampons/pads permanently available. And most importantly, I think I've changed a lot in this short span of time -- I think I am becoming the man I was always meant to be. One day at a time.
Carly McDonald recently started working as a Casework Assistant for her local congressperson in Kansas.
Callen Morris’s favorite memory was James Cook's live art show on middle path in the fall of 2019…”a beautiful memory I will cherish forever.”
Almost immediately following graduation, Devon Nothard moved out to LA and interned with AIDS Healthcare Foundation in their Global Advocacy Department. He is now a Global Advocacy Program Assistant and he spends half his time researching for policy proposals and advocacy campaigns. He is currently engaging with #RaiseTheMIC campaign that calls on the World Bank to raise the middle-income country (MIC) classification. As it has been interesting living alone in a new city during a global pandemic and extreme social and political unrest, Devon has also cultivated a mentality of self-acceptance and reminds himself that “Sustainability is key. Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
He reminisces his time at Kenyon: "I deeply miss the homies. I miss grooving the night away without a care in the world. But I know those times will come again - they’re just not here today. I also miss how most individuals at Kenyon, despite engaging in such disparate activities, have similar worldviews that are grounded in human rights and equality. It’s wonderful to watch my peers changing the world in their own spheres - as that’s the only way true reform can be accomplished."
Kylie Milliken’s latest gig has been working as a pod teacher for a group of four kindergarten boys who are currently trying to do online school. A recent conversation with one of the boys:
Joe: Are you a grown-up?
Me: Yeah, I guess so.
Joe: Do you have a husband?
Me: No.
Joe (confused): Well... Who do you live with then?
Me: *sigh* I live with my parents.
Joe: You're a grown up and you live with your parents? Why?
Me: Sometimes life is difficult, Joe.
Joe: Is it snack time yet?
Meg Schimelpfenig is putting her college degree to use working on a veggie farm! Since she has connected with a couple of awesome Kenyon alums, she is currently saving up to move to LA in January to pursue acting and eager to meet more Kenyon folk in the industry.
Madeline Stover is now a first year PhD student in physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (where there are many Kenyon physics alum!).
Lydia O'Donnell has spent the past few months of quarantine swimming, hiking, and reading around Lake Superior. After a six month delay, she is finally heading to South Korea in early January on a Fulbright ETA scholarship.
When asked about why she is so fond of her college on the Hill, Shannon Paige remembers “how almost every student on Middle Path would look up and, all together, we would pause and enjoy the always-shocking beauty of an Ohio sunset. Then, we’d all rush off, so very busy with our own lives but we still always made time for that pause.” She hopes that wherever we all are, the Class of 2020 continues to take a few moments to savor the quiet beauty in our lives.
Henry Ratliff recently started his job as a First Grade Associate Teacher at The Collegiate School in Manhattan! “I’m having a really great time working with the kids so far. It’s an (ostensibly) all-boys classroom, which means that the energy is high—especially right now, since they’re all stuck at home on Zoom. Despite this, I’m loving the job and can’t wait to teach them in person!”
Ben Reingold has been working on publishing a board game that he created at Kenyon! The game is called Risky Chicken and it will be available in January. “Kenyon was a great place to host playtests and get feedback from all sorts of smart people.”
Nina Samaan has moved to Philadelphia and began working with a non-profit called ArtistYear, an organization that pairs recent graduates of fine arts to underserved schools across the U.S. She is now virtual-teaching acting to K-5 students at James Logan Elementary! She is also working with a Kenyon Alum, Lisa Timmel ‘91, on her new project Theater-19: An Oral History.
Haley Witschey has been working for AlphaSights, an information services firm, as a Campus Recruiting Coordinator. “It has been an exciting few months of virtual work, moving to NYC, and connecting with many Kenyon alums around the city.”
Garrick Schultz comments, “Stay safe and happy, everyone! We'll make it through this mess.”
Carley Townsend sent the following greeting; “No news, hope you are well though.”
