Class of 2003
January 2007
Dear Classmates of 2003:
Hello! I hope
everyone had a great time celebrating the New Year in January. I sure did! It’s become a tradition to go up to my
boyfriend’s cabin with a pack of friends to go bowling in the back of Club
53―a bar of Amery, WI, wander frozen
This letter has lots of news and updates about our
classmates, so I won’t have to ramble too much.
I’m still living in
Other exciting happenings this year:
…After a
grueling and intense championship game, our kickball team finished in second
place in the Wednesday night summer league.
The Gustie all-star members of “Kick This” include (in addition to me,
of course) Elizabeth Danks, Kristen (Peterson) Juhlin, Paul
Wojahn, Britta Johnson Bergland
’04, and Jill Peterson ’99. Look for us next summer…we’ll be the ones
dominating the field (when we’re not falling over each other!).
…My old roommate, Becca Smith (who happens to be a member of kickball rival
“Ball
Movement”), just started a new position at Secure
Computing in
…A few weeks ago Mary
Rosener Swiggum and Mike Swiggum came back from
…Way back in March, classmates Becca Smith, Elizabeth
Danks, Sara Kilby Wright, Kelli Swanson Matzek and Britta Johnson Bergland ’04 celebrated their
25th birthdays in
Before I get to the latest news about our classmates, here
is the Alumni Office’s report from the closet in the basement of the Edgar M.
Carlson Administration building:
CAMPUS NEWS
Alumni Starring in The Cherry Orchard
The Department of Theatre and Dance is celebrating 75 years
of theatre at Gustavus this year with two featured events: Theatre Reunion May 11-12 and a gala
performance of The Cherry Orchard
followed by admission to the cast party on February 10. The
Cherry Orchard will be Professor Rob Gardner’s final directing work before
retirement. A cast of professional
theatre alumni will join the student actors for this very special production. The alumni cast includes: Peter Breitmayer
’87, Karen Esbjornson ’80, Kevin Kling ’79, Scott Novotny ’75, and Michael
Glenn (Waldhauser) ’97. A
sold-out performance is expected for this unique celebration, so order your
tickets soon. For more information and
to order tickets, go to the Cherry Orchard site from
<gustavus.edu/alumni>.
Gustie Pages
Looking for a dentist, doctor, lawyer, pastor, Realtor, or
other professional? Make it a Gustie! Look in the Gustie Pages, an online database
of Gusties who have submitted information about their profession. Use the Gustavus network to meet your needs,
or submit your professional information if you would like other Gusties to
become your customers. Go to the Gustie
Pages at the alumni website at: <gustavus.edu/alumni>.
Career Connections
with Students
Sign up now for the 2007 Gustavus Career Connections
Reception. The reception will be Monday,
February 19, from
Give Every Year to
Gustavus?
Do you give to Gustavus every year and plan to give every
year in the future? Then you should
become a member of the Cec Eckhoff Society.
Members of the Cec Eckhoff Society simply make the public commitment
that they plan to give financially to Gustavus every year. It does not matter how much you give and this
is not a formal pledge for a certain amount of money. Cec Eckhoff ’56 led the alumni office from
1963-1994. Cec believed that part of
being an alum of Gustavus was to give monetarily each year to the College. To become a member of the Cec Eckhoff
Society, please call The Gustavus Fund office toll-free at 866/487-3863 or
e-mail <gustavusfund@gustavus.edu>.
Thank you for your support of Gustavus!
Upcoming Music
This year nearly 300 students will participate in music
tours as members of the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, Gustavus Choir, Gustavus
String Orchestra, Gustavus Jazz Lab Band, and Choir of Christ Chapel. The Gustavus Choir will tour
Upcoming Alumni
Events
The Cherry Orchard
Gala Performance – February 10
Naples/Marco
Now for the fun news about classmates. I received some newspaper clippings from the
Gustavus Alumni Office in addition to replies to my email solicitations for
updates. I hope I didn’t mistype
anything or include any really old information.
If I did―apologies! If you’re
not listed and/or have updates on what you’ve been doing lately, please email
each of the class agents and the Alumni Office by emailing: 2003classagent@gustavus.edu. If you wish to contact us individually,
please see addresses at the end of this letter.
It’s great to keep connections with Gustavus and each other!
Arranged by topic…kind of…beginning with the many nuptials!
Kristen Peterson
married Nic Juhlin in August (it was a great party!!!). They both work at Boston Scientific―Kristen
is a senior QA lab technician in the microbiology department and Nic is a quality
engineer. The Juhlins live in
Jon Tripp married Linda Reuter ’02 this past July at
Rachel Gruber and Matt Beran ’04 were married this past year.
Sarah Holm lives in
Beth Kasid married Matt Wakefield ’02 last
April. They live in
Sue Halverson married Jamie Wagner in August. They live in
Leslie Carlson married John Pietila in August. They live in
Tori Greer married Paul Regan in October. They live in
Lisa Smart married Andrew Bornhorst in
July. They live in
Abby Roessler married Steve Edgar this past summer. She is currently employed at the
Joe Malkovich married Sarah Prichard in the summer of
2005. (I think this is old news, but I
had the newspaper clipping!).
Erin
Schumacher married Aaron
Zondervan in October. She works at
Children’s Home Society and Family Services in
Sonja Spande married Dana Menard ’01 in November.
She just completed her master’s of art in teaching from the
Anna Knoblauch married Phil Bromeland last
June. Anna graduated from the
David Newell and Alicia Lunde were married
Christina Jeannette married Tony LePage this past
July. They live in
She is a graduate student at the
Emily Dahlquist married Wade Laughlin ’02. She is a
math teacher at
Sarah Handahl ’03 married Lucas Ahlberg ’04 in
Erik Christenson married Angela Hanske on
December 30th. Erik is working at his
family’s insurance agency, Christenson Agency.
Angela has finished law school and is now working as a judicial law
clerk.
Kira Rice married Tom Hilden in
September. She is currently employed at
Minnesota Psychological Resources and is working on her master’s in psychology
at
Joanna Olson married Tyler Kroschel this past
July. She is an RN at
Kathleen Batalden married Justin Smith last May. They live in
Jen Moses married Brad Bailey in August. She is an executive team leader at Target in
Katie Schweer married Shane Weckwerth in
September. She works for Schwan Food
Company in
Anna Battisti married Jason Arnebeck in August. She is at St. Mary’s University pursuing a master’s
of art in education and teaches math at
Erin Colon married Mike Koolen last July. They live in
Beth Marinac and Ryan Watkins are either
engaged or married (sorry, I couldn’t tell by the newspaper clipping!) She is an account executive and he is an
insurance adviser for Associated Financial Group in
Vanessa Young ’03 is studying dentistry at the
University of Minnesota School of Dentistry.
She will graduate this coming spring with a D.D.S. and will be getting
hitched to Tom Burton this May.
Beth Jorgenson is engaged to Matt Gissibl and
a wedding date is set for May of 2007.
She is working as a nurse in
Christen Johnson is employed at Target Corporation as
a merchandise planning manager in the domestics division. She is engaged to Ryan Herman with a wedding
planned for July of 2007. She lives in
Hans Sviggum recently got engaged to Rachel Schwingler ’04 and they are
planning a June 2008 wedding. Hans will
get his medical degree this May, so if you need a doctor, please let him
know. He is planning on doing his
residency training in the field of anesthesiology and will know where he’s
placed and will live for the next four years in March.
COOL JOBS
Dana Langer Kohlbeck
still lives in
Eric and
Lindsay (Parker) Nerland live in
Eric Wirta works at Fairview Clinics out of
Sigrid Gustafson Pettersson lives in
Ambryn Melius lives in
Carla Kern Betchwars graduated from Bethel Seminary
in June 2006 with a master’s in marriage and family therapy. She is working for FamilyMeans out of
Jaime Haugen Annis is a marketing assistant at Hormel
Foods Corporation. She lives in
Nicholas Novak is a senior auditor at Wells Fargo,
Greg Nix lives in
Anne Wenstrom was in
Chris Stavenger is a physician assistant at
Orthopedic Associates of Duluth.
Liz Barth graduated in May from the
Rachel Lohn graduated from
Jenny Lingle Beer (class agent) is in
Nick Peterson is an environmental consultant for On
My Mountain, Inc.
Nicole Polanco is working as an RN in the float pool
at
Braden Grams has a new job as program coordinator of
the master’s of arts program in humanities at the
Nate Bergengren is a worship leader for Jacob’s Well
in
Meredith Godfrey St. Pierre lives in
Lindsay Zumbrunnen is a senior account representative
for Benfield, Inc. Lindsay works for the
Andrea Johnson Selander celebrated one year of
service as a therapeutic recreation assistant at Inver Grove Good Samaritan
Center. Her husband, Nate Selander
is studying for his master’s in software engineering at the
Meghan Severson Johnson (who’s married to Joe
Johnson) works for Shop NBC. He
works for Benfield as a senior account representative. (Anyone else noticing a trend with
Benfield?!?!) They live in Savage, MN.
THOSE WHO ARE
CONTINUING THEIR EDUCATION
Emily Johnson Mamun will graduate in May with her master’s
in library science from St. Kate’s. She
currently works in marketing at Definity Health and will chair the
Communications Committee for the Minnesota Library Association this year.
Elizabeth Danks works at Benfield (I think she’s the
last one in this letter!) as a senior contract writer. In January she will start her master’s in business
communication (part-time) at
Melissa Radniecki (who’s known as “Mel” to me)
graduated from
Jeffrey Strom is at the
Megan Kromann recently moved to
Danielle Dryke is currently in
Abby Roen Flores started graduate school this past
fall for art history at the
Aaron Crowell lives in
Lindsay Wright started law school at the
Matt Hennek is at graduate school for chemistry at
the
Anne Mariel Peters, my old political science study
buddy at Gustavus (we had every class together, seriously), is a doctoral
student in the department of politics at the
NEWSPAPER
CELEBRITIES
Sarah Grimsby McQuade was recently featured in a Star Tribune newspaper article titled,
“You’re Hired!” about how people got their job.
Ryan Hanson had a great article written in Minnesota Meetings and Events in the winter
2006 issue about “A Day in the Life of Ryan Hanson” while he organized a major
event for Menttium Corporation.
Lane Cowger graduated from the University of North
Dakota with a master’s degree in geography this past summer. He was featured in an article in the Grand Forks Herald where he described
his study of Liberian refugees in
FUTURE GUSTIES!!
Kara Haroldson Pryde is anxiously awaiting baby
#3! She and her husband, Dan, live with
their daughter, Macy, and son,
Kristen Swanson Hauge gave birth to Lyndon Mayer
Hauge in September. Proud father and
husband is Eric Hauge. Kristen is at Saint Mary’s University
pursuing a master’s of education degree and has started her K-12 principal’s license. She’ll be done this fall.
Hope all is well,
Leslie Wilcox
2003 Co-class Agent
2003
Class Agents:
Leslie
Wilcox: lesliewilcox@yahoo.com
Jade
Bakke Rowland: jrowland@umn.edu
Mik
Gusenius: mgusenius@csom.umn.edu
Jenny
Lingle Beer: jmbeer@gmail.com