Tag Archives: wes alum

FEATURED
Jesse Galganov ’17 Reported Missing in Peru

A recent Wes grad, Jesse Galganov ’17, has disappeared on a backpacking trip in Peru. Galganov left his home in Montreal on September 24 for an eight-month backpacking trip through South America and Southeast Asia. His family last heard from him on September 28, when he texted his mother to inform her that he would be hiking a 31-mile trail through the Cordillera Blanca Mountains and would be not be reachable until early October. (Sources differ on whether Galganov specified October 2 or October 4.)

Three weeks later, no one has heard from Galganov. According to close friends, all communication with him – including frequent texts and Snapchat updates on his trip – suddenly ceased after September 29. His mother has filed a missing persons report with the U.S. State Department, and his whereabouts are under investigation by the Peruvian National Police. The District Attorney that overseas Huaraz, Peru, is also now conducting a criminal investigation, as there are conflicting narratives surrounding his stay in Huaraz’s Kame House Backpacker Hostel, where he was last sighted.

Galganov’s family has set up a GoFundMe campaign, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and an Instagram account. Any information regarding his whereabouts can be sent to helpusfindjesse[at]gmail[dot com].

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post incorrectly spelled Huaraz as Huarez.

EVENT
Beyond Wesleyan: Data in my Professional Life: A chat with Mansoor Alam ‘15 & Summer 2016 Apprenticeship Info Session

BeautifulDataLogo2Joli Holmes ’17 writes in:

Hi Wes friends, and DATA fanatics!

If you’re interested in doing research with a professor this SUMMER and want to get FUNDED…

The Quantitative Analysis Center (QAC) offers funding to students interested in working with professors in their quantitative research over the summer. The summer apprenticeship is targeted at students who have some experience in statistics, coding, software, and an interest in academic research. The apprenticeship is open to all majors and all years!

Mansoor Salam, Wesleyan alum ’15 will also be giving a talk about how he uses data in his professional life and the experiences he gained from being a part of the QAC at Wesleyan. Mansoor now works as a Data Engineer at Athena Health in Boston.

Please invite your friends!

Date: Friday, February 12
Time: 12:00 -1:00 PM
Place: Usdan 110

MUSIC
Dar Williams ’89 to Teach CSPL Course in the Fall

If you’ve browsed through WesMaps recently, perhaps you noticed an exciting new addition to our illustrious faculty—folk singer and Wes alum Dar Williams ’89! She’s teaching a course for the Center for the Study of Public Life (CSPL) called “Music Movements in a Capital Democracy.” The course, currently open to junior and senior non-majors (Wednesdays 1:10-4), is described as follows:  

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Amy Bloom’s “Little Sweet Potato”

 “It’s not all mulch and sunshine out there.”

“A perfect little book,” is what Amy Bloom ’75, Wesleyan’s writer-in-residence, calls her NYTimes-featured first children’s book, Little Sweet Potato:

“I realize you’re not supposed to say that about your own book. But I love it sort of unabashedly,” Ms. Bloom said of the 29-page tale, which follows the trials of a “lumpy, dumpy, bumpy” young tuber who is accidentally expelled from his garden patch and must find a new home. On his journey, he is castigated first by a bunch of xenophobic carrots, then by a menacing gang of vain eggplants (Little Sweet Potato “didn’t know the world had such scary vegetation in it,” writes Ms. Bloom). By book’s end, the intrepid, tenderhearted potato is accepted into the “Hodge-Podge Patch,” where inhabitants welcome vegetables and flowers of all kinds. 

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Wes Alums Celebrate Beef(steaks) in NYC

Wes-Vegetarians and cow-sympathizers, it would serve you well to just skip this post altogether.

An anonymous tipster ‘?? brought to our attention the exploits of alums Andrew Dermont ’09 and Derek Silverman ’09, organizers of a recently revived Brooklyn tradition known as the “Beefstreak Banquet” in which large quantities of human beings (often Brooklyn-folk) gather in a relatively small and confining space, consume large amounts of beefsteak (and beer and bread, presumably), and engage in various acts of revelry and mayhem.

Chronicled in the New York Times a couple of days ago, Dermont also made a seemingly unprovoked reference to hipsters – possibly in response to the general milieu of Brooklyn:

Mr. Dermont, as he rushed about the Bell House [the location of the Banquet], instructing his staff to set out bowls of peanuts and to cut more slices of baguette, said there was “an undercurrent of simplicity” to the beefsteak. “Every hipster foodie in New York eats Pat LaFrieda beef,” he said, “but this isn’t an artisanal thing — it’s not a hip thing. It’s meant to be a good, straightforward time.”

You can check out the article here.

In other unrelated news, the weather outside is so foggy you’d swear Nature itself started early with the whole 4/20 business. Have a good day, folks!