Alumni Roundup

This is the first in what I hope will be an occasional series of “roundup” posts giving brief information on what a number of different alumni are up to.

This time I am listing those I’ve received email from in the last few weeks, who gave me permission to pass their information along. I would welcome email from other alumni, for inclusion in my next listing. Also, if you are interested in getting (back) in touch with one of these people, send me email, and I will pass your request along.

See also the later continuation of this listing.

The following list of alumni is sorted first by graduation year, then by last name.

Scott Hess, CS 1991
He is living in the San Francisco Bay Area with a wife and two sons, and is working at Google on Google News. He reports that “there is an appalling amount of interesting stuff happening at Google.”

Scott Davis, Math 1997
He is working as a consultant with Hewitt Associates, a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm, in Minneapolis.

Stacy Bauer, Math Teaching 1998
She is a pricing analyst at United Steel Products in Montgomery, Minnesota.

Keri (Helgeson) Davenport, Math 1998
She is working for Federated Insurance in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Corey Sanborn, CS 1998
After working for Accenture for 3.5 years, he has now spent the last two years at US Bank in Minneapolis. Although hired for his technical skills, he works for a financial manager, so crosses over into the financial realm.

Alicia (Sutphen) Schimke, Math 1998
After working in Information Technology for five years, she has become a full time mother, and is serving on the advisory council of her school district in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Chris Stromberg, CS/Chemistry 1998
After completing his PhD in physical chemistry at Stanford, he has been in a teaching post-doc position at Pomona College. He is now applying for tenure-track positions in chemistry at small liberal arts colleges, like Gustavus.

Tammy (Williams) VanDeGrift, CS/Math 1999
She is planning to finish her computer science PhD dissertation at the University of Washington this spring, and has started looking for a job — preferably a faculty position at a small college in the pacific northwest.

Travis Dahlke, CS 2000
Since 2001, he has been working as a software developer at Unisys in Roseville, Minnesota. When not working on the relational interface of Unisys’s Business Information Server, he still makes time on the weekend to help with the family farm in southern Minnesota.

Matt “Twig” Johnson, CS 2000
He is living with his wife, Jessi, in the Seattle, Washington area. Matt works within the Office group at Microsoft. Jessi, also a Gustavus graduate (2001), gives private music lessons out of their home.

Brian Smith, Math/Physics 2000
He is a grad student in physics at the University of Oregon.

Hans Anderson, CS 2001
He recently returned from a stint in the Peace Corps, teaching math and computer science at a very isolated school in Guyana. Now he is applying to graduate school to study computational mathematics.

Tom Lagerbäck, CS 2001
After two years as a programmer with Minnesota Life, he returned to Stockholm, Sweden. Initially the work he found there was doing marketing and sponsorship for big athletic events, but after a few months he got a position as a systems analyst for the life insurance system at the largest bank in Sweden. Currently, he is working as the manager of that system and a group of 11 programmers and analysts.

Maggie Moss, Math 2001
After three years at Target Corporation as a Business Analyst, she was promoted to the Buyer position.

Shefalika (Agarwal) Naik, CS 2001
She got married and is working for MGA Research (which does crash testing) in Burlington, Wisconsin.

Alison Ninmann, Math 2001
She is working on a Master’s of Education in College Student Affairs at Azusa Pacific University. She also works as a graduate intern in the office of Ministry and Service, and additionally as an adjunct, teaching Elementary Algebra.

Nathan Dahlke, CS 2002
He is working in Minneapolis for Target Corporation’s Technology Services group, keeping busy with a mix of development (when he can) and support (when he needs to). He also helps out on his family’s farm in Southern Minnesota on the weekends.

Erik Karlsson, CS 2002
He is working as an analyst for HP based in Dublin, Ireland.

Cory Quammen, CS 2002
He is a graduate student in computer science at the University of North Carolina. His research assistantship is with the Renaissance Computing Institute, dealing with hardware fault detection and avoidance measures on large cluster systems, in support of the Los Alamos Computer Science Insititute.

Charleston Thomas, CS 2002
He is working in Minneapolis as a contractor for Target Corporation’s Property Development Technology Services group. In spare time, he’s become a combination homeowner and landlord, having bought a duplex. If he had any time left after that, he’d be spending it on his recording studio.

Andrew Bornhorst, CS/Accounting 2003
He is working in Atlanta, Georgia for Deloitte, in the Enterprise Risk Service group.

Chad Custer, Math 2003
He spent a year as an Americorps VISTA, directing an outreach program called CLICK (Creating Literacy in Computer Knowledge) based out of Duke, which focused on giving K-6 students the skills needed to pass the North Carolina 8th Grade Computer Competency Exam. Now he is a grad student in Duke’s mechanical engineering department, working on computational fluid dynamics.

Matt Ewert, CS 2003
After receiving a Masters degree in CS from Creighton University, he has accepted a position as Programmer/Anayst in the data warehousing department of the Marshfield Clinic, in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

Justin Hanson, Math 2003
He is working as an actuarial assistant with Allianz Life in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

Bill Kunze, CS/Classics 2003
He is just finishing up a 10 month period of service in AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps. He has completed work with Habitat for Humanity, Claymont Elementry School, the City of Havre de Grace, Maryland, Interfiath Housing Alliance of Western Maryland, the Nature Conversancy, and American Red Cross Disaster Relief in Florida. He is looking for work in the Twin Cities area, and is engaged to be married to Katherine Pavelek (Math, 2003) in May of 2005.

Katherine Pavelek, Math 2003
She is an account technician at Acordia, a Wells Fargo owned insurance agency, in Bloomingon, Minnesota. In her spare time, she plays in a brass ensemble and sings in the choir for a local Christmas production. She is engaged to be married to Bill Kunze (CS/Classics, 2003) in May of 2005.

Eric Peterson, Math 2003
He is living in Maryland with his wife Mary (born Witzel), a class of 2004 elementary education major. He enjoys his work, and reports finding himself to be as well prepared as his coworkers from schools people have heard of.

Nathan Selander, CS 2003
Recently married to Annie Johnson (Music, 2003), he is working as a software engineer for Thomson-West in Eagan, Minnesota, where he reports enjoying continuing to learn daily.

Josh Whitver, CS 2003
He is Assistant Manager of Information Systems for the Urbandale Community School District, in the neighborhood of Des Moines, Iowa.

Adam Duffy, CS 2004
He is enjoying working with kids as a computer lab paraprofessional at Cornelia Elementary School in Edina, Minnesota.

Josh Hill, CS 2004
On August 28th, he married Danielle, “the woman of [his] dreams,” and is living with her and one cat in Dubuque, Iowa, where he works for McKesson Corporation.

Ryan Kaufman, CS 2004
He is working for LSS Data Systems in the Twin Cities, a producer of software for physician practice management.

Garrett Kolpin, CS/Math 2004
He is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison.

Martha Kvitrud, Math Teaching 2004
She is teaching at Fort Zumwalt South High School, in the St. Louis, Missouri, area, and is engaged to be married in summer of 2005 to Tim Douglas.

Julie Lorentz, Math Teaching 2004
She is teaching Algebra and Advanced Algebra at Blue Earth Area High School in Blue Earth, Minnesota.

Jason Lukis, CS 2004
He is currently working in computer retail in the twin cities, but will soon be taking a position as Youth Director for Glenwood Lutheran Church (ELCA).

Jodi Parks, Math Teaching 2004
She is teaching eighth-grade math at John Glenn Middle School in Maplewood, Minnesota.


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