class notes 5

An a cappella group called Voices of Harmony, coached by Katey (Smith) Archer, won the 2006 National Champion of High School A Capella trophy in Washington, D.C. Archer is the vocal coach for grades five through 12 at Portville (NY) Central School. She has worked with the members of Voices of Harmony for two years. Her husband, Jesse, is the instrumental instructor for grades seven through 12 at Portville Central School.

Scott and Eunice (Thompson) Bussom are living in Connecticut. Eunice has worked as a veterinarian technician since graduating. She has also completed several marathons and hopes to do her first triathlon this summer. Scott is doing post-doctoral work at Yale Medical School, testing and developing botanical medicines for treating cancer, including one combination that is currently in an FDA phase II trial. He is also seeing patients one day a week in a private practice in Southbury, CT. He plans on competing in his second triathlon this June. They can be reached at scbussom@sbcglobal.net.

Thomas G. Scriven is an associate in the Morgan Lewis Antitrust Practice. With more than 80 attorneys, Morgan Lewis handles the most complex issues that affect clients in all industries and throughout the global economy. Attorneys in the practice advise clients regarding mergers and other filings and obtain clearance from national and international competition authorities. Scriven earned his J.D. in 2005 from the University of Virginia, where he served on the editorial board of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law. While in law school, Scriven worked as a summer law intern with the Department of Justice.

Joel and Sonya (Marthai ’03) Dunham are living in Medford, OR. Sonya graduated from Oregon State University with a master’s degree in forest and wood science. Joel graduated from the University of Oregon with a master’s degree in business administration. He is working as a financial analyst at Harry & David in Medford. Sonya is looking for work in tree nursery management.

Amy (McKinnell) Napoli is returning to college at East Stroudsburg University to finish her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. She can be contacted at amyckey78@yahoo.com.

John Novak earned his master’s of music degree in organ performance in May 2006 from Binghamton University. Novak serves as organist and music director at University Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, NY, and vocal music teacher at Letchworth (NY) Central School.

Thomas Forsberg, Lynne (Learned) Orozco and Matthew Mack graduated from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Buffalo in May. They were named as members of the Richard Sarkin/Emeritus Faculty Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. The society “stands as a visible expression of the school’s commitment to the promotion of humanism in medicine and medical education” and “recognizes rising fourth year medical students who have demonstrated exemplary attitudes and behaviors in clinical and campus life, leadership, compassion and dedication to service.” Forsberg, a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society, was awarded an “Excellence in Emergency Medicine” from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine. He received dean’s letters of commendation for his studies. Orozco received the Excellence in Family Practice from the American Academy of Family Physicians President’s Award. Her study of Monkey Pox disease has been published in a tropical disease medical journal. Mack was awarded for “Demonstration of outstanding clinical competence in Family Medicine” and was given the “G. Norris Miner Memorial Award.”

Maryalice (Bolton) Hunt and her husband, Daniel, became the permanent guardians to their nephew, Ayron Vandermark, when her sister, Elizabeth Vandermark, died in a snow-related car accident, along with her husband and their three-year-old daughter. Ayron was rushed from the scene with multiple injuries and spent three months in the hospital. Through extensive rehabilitation—including physical, occupational and speech therapy—he is recovering his abilities. Hunt has left her job to care for Vandermark and plans to homeschool him throughout his education, starting with a pre-kindergarten program this fall. Hunt’s brother, Melvin Foster ’97, and sister-in-law, Amanda (Chase ’98) Foster, have assisted in taking care of Ayron as well. Hunt writes, “Throughout this whole ordeal we have found God to be faithful as always. Just when we used up the last of our gas money for hospital trips another gas card or check would come in the mail. When we get frustrated about a certain thing that Ayron can’t do, he has a breakthrough or we find a way to get around it. We have appreciated the prayer support of many. I would love the prayer support of our college community as well as the few college friends I have kept in contact with. If people want to keep up on Ayron’s progress so they know how to pray, we have a Web site that we try to update daily. It is found at www.caringbridge.org/visit/ayronvandermark.”

Stephanie Pocock recently had two scholarly articles accepted for publication. The first, in Modern Drama, concerns the work of the British feminist playwright Caryl Churchill. The second is a study of William Butler Yeats and Paul Muldoon, forthcoming in Notes on Contemporary Literature. Pocock began her study of Churchill with Associate Professor of English James Wardwell while a student at Houghton College. The article is a portion of her master’s thesis in English at Baylor University. She has been accepted to the University of Notre Dame’s doctoral program in English, where she plans to focus on modern and contemporary Irish drama.

Heather (Mann) Rigby has postponed her medical school graduation until next year so that she and her husband can graduate together. Rigby has been recognized as the top female student at Dalhousie Medical School. In the meantime, she is pursuing a master's degree in medical education.

Thaddeus Sherman is married (see “Down the Aisle”), and has a newborn son (see “Future Alumni”). He is pursuing his master’s degree in school administration at North Carolina State University. He can be reached at tsherman@wcpss.net.

Robert White married Alicia Atwater (’03/’05) in December 2005 (see “Down the Aisle”). Houghton College alumni in the bridal party included Sharon Neff ’03, maid of honor Mindy Albrecht ’03, (Robyn Ceroky ’02) Eubanks and Don Nagy ’91. Bob works as a technician at D&W Diesel in Cheektowaga, NY and Alicia teaches secondary vocal music at her alma mater, Barker (NY) Central School.

Nicole Barnett participated in a concert called “An Evening of Classical & Flamenco Music” in June 2006. The concert featured four musicians, including Barnett as the pianist, two classical guitarists and a vocalist, and included works by Ravel, Barrios and others.

Cynthia Bell has been working in the Cuba-Rushford (NY) school district as a high school foreign language teacher. She is moving to a suburb of New York City to pursue a career as a Salvation Army officer at the School for Officer Training in Suffern, NY. She can be reached at cbell@crcs.wnyric.org.

Rebekah LaMaster has moved to Semarang, Indonesia to teach English to preschoolers through her church and a Christian church in Semarang. She writes, “I graduated Houghton with a biology degree but took a preschool teaching job as a temporary thing until I got a ‘real’ job. God ended up showing me that this was my real job—I fell in love with teaching preschool and I am absolutely thrilled to be moving to Indonesia to teach. When I went to Houghton I was running from a missions call on my life, but Houghton greatly helped me overcome my fear and say to God that I would go anywhere for Him.”

Elisabeth Tieleman is a physical therapist working with spinal cord injuries in Utrecht, The Netherlands, where she lives. Friends may contact her at eliannetiel@hotmail.com.

Jeremy Zaborowski is married (see “Down the Aisle”) and living in Ithaca, NY. Zaborowski is the Atkinson-Tetreault Fellow at Cornell University, where he is finishing his master’s degree in city and regional planning. He was recently awarded the Clarence S. Stein Fellowship for thesis research. The Zaborowskis can be contacted at pearthief@gmail.com.

Charles and Cherith (Reynolds) Meeks will be spending the next two years in Coffs Harbour, Australia, where Charles is pastoring the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Cherith plans to work with music, worship and youth ministries. Charles spent his last semester at Kingsley College in Melbourne and did his pastoral internship in Australia through Houghton’s Down Under program. The Meeks can be reached at meeksinaustralia@gmail.com.

Derek DeBoer has been commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer and was accepted into the military medical school at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD.

P.A.C.E. Cohort J5 (2006)

Shelly VanOrd has been promoted to benefits manager for Blair Corporation, which employs over 2,000 people. VanOrd will lead a team that administers and communicates benefits to associates.

Milieu welcomes readers' comments.—Ed.