Category Archives: Alumni

EVENT
Senior Week Hackathon: What Would You Build in Exactly 36 Hours?

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Evan Carmi ’13 and Julian Applebaum ’13 want to let you know about the Senior Week Hackathon:

What would you build if you only had 36 hours?

Better course registration? No problem. Tracking down alums? Done. Reliving your campus years with music? Get your smartphone out. On Saturday, May 18th, 3 teams of Wesleyan students will go head-to-head to build the best Wes-themed web app. Apps will be judged by a team of all-star Wesleyan Computer Science alumni and a community vote on campus. The better the app scores, the more awesome the prize. Are you game? 

Check out the website for more information. Five different companies are sponsoring the event with prizes. If you’re interested in joining last minute send an email to ecarmi@wes or japplebaum@wes.

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FEATURED
PostWes: Don’t Fear the Bubble Burst

This year, an enterprising senior by the name of Ross Gormley ’13 unveiled his brainchild: PostWes, a story-sharing project/Internet party designed to connect students and grads. I caught up with Ross over gchat this weekend to discuss his vision. (Pardon the erratic capitalization. They don’t call him ReneGade for nothing.)

PostWes

Ross Gormley:  hey hey

Wesleying:  Hey, Ross! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

RG:  I’m so nervous–I’ve never done one through gchat. Is this better than being a wesceleb?

W:  No, it’s not. But you’ll be fine. Would you like to tell me about this new venture of yours?

RG:  ohh you mean postwes.com.

W:  Right…So what is PostWes?

RG:  It’s a website that I’ve been working on throughout the semester to increase transparency (everyone loves some good transparency) between undergraduate and postgraduate life.

W:  How does it increase transparency?

RG:  …to dodge your question, I’ve been trying to come up with a way of describing how the site works. and this is what i have… 

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FEATURED
BandCampWes: ILLEGALIZE Returns with “Tortoise Style” EP

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Ever wonder what kind of band it would take to win Battle of the Bands when most of your band members are freshmen? A damn good one. Sadly, it was 2001, before the birth of the great Wesleying, so I can’t make a witty phrase and have it link to an article about how awesome they were by someone who saw them first hand. I can, however, point you too their new album, Tortoise Style, a unique blend of soul, hip hop, and funk with a shake of Brazilian influence.

ILLEGALIZE was a fixture in the Wesleyan music scene during its time here (2001-2004), and after being apart for some time, they have reunited to create their first EP since 2002. The line up includes Tavi Fields ’01/’02, Jon “Phes” Souza ’04, Kieran Meadows ’04, Joaquin Cotler ’04/’05, and Sascha Weiss ’04. To add on to the Go Wes-ness I’m feeling, you should know that the band included Bill Sherman ’02, Tony/Grammy-winning music arranger from In The Heights and current Sesame Street music director.

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Career Outlook — Summer in LA

The Career Center’s Rachel Berman wants to help you join the Wesleyan Mafia:

Going to be in LA this summer? Check out these opportunities!

Our Winter Break Career Outlook now has a summer partner! For the first time, the Career Center is offering Career Outlook – Summer in LA. This job shadow program provides undergraduates an opportunity to explore careers by shadowing a Wesleyan alumna/us or parent in a particular field or industry during summer break.

This initial summer program will feature ten shadow opportunities from various industries, such as film, television, law, medicine, fashion and art. For summer 2013, most opportunities are day-long and may include observing a professional, sitting in on meetings, or participating in a specific project within the organization. Visit MyCC to learn more and to submit an application (Career Outlook is the employer).

The application deadline is 11:59pm on Tuesday, 5/7. Resume approval is required.

Questions? Email Jen Healey at jhealey(at)wes.

EVENT
Happening Just About Now: Radical Giving and Alternative Economics

Hope Dana Pellegrino ’12 forgives our tardiness on this one:

RADICAL GIVING AND ALTERNATIVE ECONOMICS: a post-Wes conversation with Brendan Martin ’95, hosted by Wesleyan’s Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

Lunch will be provided, and registration is required. If you would like to register and are unavailable to attend the lunch at noon but you are interested in meeting Brendan while he is on campus, contact mjkingsley@wes.

After graduating from Wesleyan with a degree in economics and a specific interest in issues of poverty and economic opportunity,
Brendan Martin ’95 started his career as a general manager at a Wall Street information firm. A few years later, he decided to change gears, and using his personal savings, he founded the “La Base” Loan Fund and The Working World, a non-profit which supports fledgling cooperatives and underrepresented workers in Argentina, Nicaragua, and ultimately in the United States. The Working World partners with workers’ cooperatives, helps them with their business plans, and offers other services. It has now made more than 600 loans, worth over $3 million, to some 100 cooperatives, ranging from metal-working to honey-gathering groups.

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EVENT
EMG Presents: Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone

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Ben Zucker ’15 wants you to experiment a little:

The third and final concert this semester brought to you by the Experimental Music Group, Jessica Pavone and Wesleyan alumni Mary Halvorson will present their captivating set of ”improvised/composer/strange/melodic songs for guitar and viola.”

Mary Halvorson has been called “the most future-seeking guitarist working right now, thinking out the instrument on a level most couldn’t comprehend” (NPR). Jessica Pavone has been called “Jessica Pavone is a vital force in New York’s music community, capable and competent of playing way out in left field, or keeping things much closer to home” (Dusted). They have been playing together as a duo for years now, with four critically-acclaimed albums released. Together, they make what legendary Downtown composer Elliott Sharp called ”transcendent chamber music outside any genre”; it’s a meeting of minds not to be missed.

Date: Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
Time: 8:30 PM
Place: Russell House
Cost: Your ears and attention

FEATURED
Boychicks Episode Four

Josh Margolin ’11 and Julian Silver ’12 (alias: The Boychicks) are back with their fourth installment.  Julian’s got a new haircut and a new girlfriend, and I wish he’d date me instead couldn’t be happier for him!

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Here’s the Poem by Amanda Palmer ’98 that Everyone on the Internet Is Yelling About

Palmer: “It is always very interesting when people misinterpret art, and then get angry about it.”

Wesleying's own Gabe took this ridiculously excellent shot of Amanda Palmer at last weekend's "Humanity Festival." Click for the full gallery.

Wesleying’s own Gabe took this ridiculously excellent shot of Amanda Palmer at last weekend’s “Humanity Festival.” Click for the full gallery.

Amanda Palmer ’98 (whom we haven’t blogged about in a whole week-and-a-half, it’s true, we swear) is not much of a stranger to controversy, so the Internet probably shouldn’t have been surprised or outraged when she responded to the Boston bombing by writing a poem for suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (titled, fittingly, “A Poem for Dzhokhar“) and posting it on her blog on Sunday.

But that’s not really the way things worked out.

As Palmer herself noted in a follow-up post a few days after posting the poem, “there are 1,947 comments on a poem that took me—no exaggeration—about 9 minutes to write. many of the comments have been confused, many of them understanding, many of them angry.” Indeed, dozens upon dozens of readers have called Palmer out for what they perceive as her self-interest and arrogance in the wake of a tragedy. One particularly popular comment, signed “A fan,” argues that “this isn’t a poem for Dzjokhar, it’s a poem for yourself because you imagine you know how he feels.” The comment currently has 770 up-votes and 12 down-votes, if that gives you an indication of what the reaction has been like.

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FEATURED
Boychicks Episode Three

The astoundingly attractive and titillatingly talented Josh Margolin ’11 and Julian Silver ’12 are back, with plenty of Wesleyan and ‘Cac references for all of us.

If you’re not caught up, peep Episodes One and Two.

The boys (chicks?) promise a new episode every Monday, so if you’re looking for a nice way to spend those awkward four minutes between when dinner ends and The Voice starts, you’ve found it. Subscribe to their page on YouTube here.