Sarah Hill (’08) has been working at a vintage clothing boutique in Chelsea since graduating from NYU Law School two years ago. Says Sarah, “In this economy, I’m just happy to have a job!”
Marcus Jenson (’08) and Leah McElroy (’09) recently tied the knot in Amagansett. The pair chose to eschew the quirky trappings of a modern wedding because “everything’s been done before. At this point, serving drinks in mason jars and getting your friend ordained online is as performative as a traditional wedding. There’s no way to have a wedding without living a cliché so we decided to take it to its logical extreme and had a wedding about having a wedding. Every now and then we would break the fourth wall during the ceremony, turning to the audience to comment on how weird it all is, just to jolt people out of their complacency,” says Jenson.
Andrew Lawson (’08) and John Winthrop (’08) co-founded LoBru, a non-profit organization that offers micro-loans to microbreweries in the Central African Republic. Their next big venture is setting up an artisanal micro-coffee scene in CAP, in the hope of letting locals know that it doesn’t just have to be about Kenyan beans.
Also working overseas is Wendy Nickerson (’08), who moved to Glasgow to teach English as a Second Language. Living in a foreign country has led Wendy to build her entire social life around alumni gatherings.
Lindsey Fallbrook (’08) joined the workforce as a publishing assistant shortly after graduation but found working in an office too awkward, and was so flustered by all social interactions outside of the campus bubble that she’s been confined to her bed for the past six months. She’s using the downtime (and her philosophy degree) to reread Being and Time.
Will Stephens (’08) says, “Hi Everyone! No prizes for guessing that I got into comedy after graduation. You can catch me at one of my indie improv shows around the city on weekends or performing stand-up for my high-school English class in Canarsie five days a week. Okay, fine, prizes for everyone then. I’m a nice guy.”
Like many of his classmates, Dave Wilkerson (’08) chose to steer clear of the soaring NYC rental market and moved home to live with his parents after graduation. When his parents lost their house to foreclosure in 2009, the whole family moved in with his parents’ parents, who are living in a home originally built by Dave’s great-great-grandparents. He and his partner Ruth Wilkerson (’07) (nee Economopoulos) just welcomed their first child, a healthy baby boy named Corduroy. Now there are four generations of Wilkersons living under the same roof. Dave adds, “Our living situation would make for a hilarious sitcom. I’m just sayin’…” We’ll be on the lookout for that one, Dave!
Bobby Buckley (’08) saw graduating in a poor economic climate as a blessing in disguise. He decided to take some time off before finding a job to travel around the world and just live. On returning to New York last year, he began working at his father’s investment company. Bobby writes, “If I hadn’t graduated when I did, I might not have had the opportunity to broaden my horizons and who knows what kind of person I would be?”
Stuart Hauser (’08) resides in Williamsburg and has been profiled in New York Times trend pieces a record thirteen times since graduating. To date, he has abandoned the beekeeping, microbrewing, letterpress printing, apartment dwelling and numerous other pursuits that won him so much media attention. He is now terrified of leaving his bed, or even making plans to do so, lest a stray Times journalist overhear him and attempt to write a trend piece about how young Brooklynites are hosting limbo parties during the summer solstice. (Update: Please don’t publish that last bit. I’m afraid there may be some Style scribes among the alumni.)
In an attempt to recapture the joys of her pre-internet childhood, Alison Quill (’08) channeled her nineties nostalgia into a spec script for a Party of Five film, which she is currently shopping around. Interested buyers can message her on her pager.
Like many others from the class of 2008, Aparna Shetty (’08) became paralyzed by self-awareness after graduation and worried that contributing to this publication would send her on a downward spiral into meta-selfhood. She is currently bedridden. Aparna is one of the lucky few to be completely unaffected by — and even unaware of — the economic downturn.