Faith Jordan Srour (Ludders), '00

I have spent the past several years taking globalism to an extreme--I currently live in Beirut, Lebanon, but will soon receive my PhD in Logistics Management from the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University, in the Netherlands.  My doctoral research uses tools from operations research to analyze a variety of routing and scheduling algorithms to use in the intermodal freight (drayage) industry.  I will defend my thesis in a public defense at the RSM on February 12, 2010, at 11:30 a.m.; if you happen to be in the Netherlands you are certainly welcome!

Kellie (Rekonen) Schlegel, '01

I am currently staying home with our first child, a 2-month old daughter, Maria.  I plan on returning to my job as a Civil Engineer in January.

Kelly (Tolle) Strait, '02

The past eight years have been a twisty path for me.  After pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering, I switched fields and became a high school teacher.  For the past few years, I have been teaching math and chemistry in a variety of Twin Cities' high schools, but have taken the 2009-10 year off to stay home with my baby daughter, Rebecca.  This summer, we'll all be moving somewhere yet to be determined and I hope to resume teaching in the fall.

Michael Cohen, '02

Hello math alumni and faculty!  Since graduating, I completed a PhD in American History (yes, history) at Harvard in 2008, then lived in New Jersey for a year before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, in the fall of 2009.  Here I'm a history professor and assistant editor of the Correspondence of James K. Polk at the University of Tennessee.  My work is a lot of fun and Knoxville's a lovely city.  I hope everyone's doing well!

Nina Current, '03

I'm in my last year of an MS degree in Nutrition and Health Promotion in Boston.  Once done, I'll be moving on to a dietetic internship (currently applying) next year, and then getting my license as a Registered Dietitian.  My focus is research, since I spent about 4-5 years as a data analyst before coming back to school.  After my internship, I'll be moving on to a PhD in Nutrition (specific focus as yet to be determined, but likely something in epidemiology or other form of research).  The ultimate goal is to become a professor of Nutrition.

Paul Rowe, '03

When I left Carleton I decided to take some time off to teach English in Chile.  I lived in Santiago for about a year.  While living in the shadows of the cordillera of the Andes I applied for PhD programs in mathematics, and ended up attending the University of Pennsylvania.  I managed to solve my fundamental dilemma about graduate studies in math:  How can I apply mathematics without studying "Applied Mathematics".  I wanted a field that would allow me to work on real-world problems, but I did not take too well to the math "typically" involved in modeling real-world systems.  At Penn, my studies focused on formal languages and computation, which led me into doing research in applying formal methods to computer and network security.  I graduated with my PhD in May of 2009.  I am currently living outside Boston, and working for the MITRE Corporation.  They provide research and technical expertise to the government in a variety of fields.  My current focus is on cryptographic protocol analysis and design.

Now that I am finished with grad school I am trying to remember what I used to do with my life.  I am excited about having time to brush up on my Spanish and French, and to explore what Boston and surrounding areas have to offer.

Alina Badus, '04

After a few years pursuing a PhD in Mathematics, I realized that I should be doing something else with my life.  I am currently teaching high school math at Hopkins School, a private school in Connecticut.  I get to teach fun things like AP Calculus and Honors Geometry; I also coach swimming and lacrosse (a game which I didn't even know existed until a few years ago) and I am pondering several positions in the school administration.  John Parejko '02 and I recently bought a house in town, so it looks like we'll be in the area for awhile.  Send us a note if you are ever in New Haven!

Christine (Collins) Papai '04

After graduating from Carleton, I went straight into a PhD program in mathematics. Realizing this track wasn't for me, I finished with a masters and worked for a food relief organization for a few years.  I am back in school right now, concurrently pursuing a Master of Development Practice in international development and a Master of Public Health in Maternal & Child Health at the University of Minnesota.  My studies took me to Senegal, West Africa, last summer, where I worked on a project with USAID. This January I will be spending three weeks in Niger for another project.  My goal is to work for an international NGO focused on global health issues, and I ultimately want to help improve child nutrition and eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases around the globe.  I finish my studies in December 2013--from there, the world!  No kids here yet, but my husband Sam Papai ('06) of five years and I have a great cat we call "Little Buddy" who can perform such tricks as "sit" and "high five".  I hope you are all doing well!

Herbert Sun, '06

Following one year at UVA, I settled down (well, temporarily) in Hong Kong with a commodity trading firm called Noble Group.  We are doing really well that the Chinese Sovereign Fund CIC just purchased 15% of us, re-affirming our success for the past 20 years.

Hannah Breckbill, '09

After 3 years of working on vegetable farms, I am starting my own next season in Elgin, MN.  So far I've planted some cover crops and a greenhouse is currently half-built, but I'm looking forward to the winter to get planning!

Christina Knudson, '09

I'm in my second year of five at the University of Minnesota, earning a PhD in Statistics.  I passed the qualifier last summer, so that's the first big check off the grad school list.  Now I'm starting some MCMC research with Galin Jones at the U, though I haven't settled down on a specific topic within MCMC.  One benefit is I got to attend MCMSki at a ski resort in Utah this January, where I skied two afternoons!

Last fall, I ran my first marathon in 4 hours and 59 seconds.  Since October, I've probably run 40 miles, so needless to say I've run low on enthusiasm for running.  However, my boyfriend introduced me to some new activities -- like basketball, yoga and cooking -- and I'm enjoying exploring these new adventures!  I've also reached a new peak in climbing, having climbed some 5.11a's at the gym.

Erica Chesley, '10

Last year, I finished a two-year teaching fellowship at the Lawrenceville School, a boarding school in New Jersey where I am teaching Geometry and Algebra II.  This year, I'm back in the Bay Area, exploring the new worlds of middle school and single sex education, as the 7th grade math teacher at The Girls' Middle School (yes, that is what it's called) in Palo Alto.  I also teaching a logic puzzles elective so if you have any favorites, send them my way.  I'll put them on the blog...

Danny Wells, '10

I'm in my first year in the applied mathematics department at Northwestern, doing a Ph.D.  I recently passed my preliminary exams, and also received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.  I'll begin my research with Bill Kath and collaborators this summer studying the epigenetic networks of cancer under the auspice of Northwestern's Physical Science Oncology Center.  I'm really excited about integrating math more fully with biomedical research, and perhaps might even make a career out of it.

Aside from that I swing dance a lot, try to keep up with yoga, play IM Frisbee (the applied math team is the Runge Kutters), and curl, in season.

Elizabeth (Lizbee) Collins-Wildman, '11

I am now in my second year with Teach for America, and I plan to stay at my school beyond the two year requirement of TFA.  My first year was unbelievably difficult (working 16 hours a day and still feeling like a failure), but this year is much better.  I teach 9th grade math in a low income school on the west side of Chicago.  When my students arrive for 9th grade, some of them already started learning algebra while others struggle with 3rd grade math problems.  It is a challenge to teach them all in the same classroom, but I have great collaboration with my colleagues and it is an exciting place to work.