Notes from the Class of 2009

Dustin Rumsey (Mus’09) is a composer and soundtrack engineer for Boulder-based Square Two Productions while also offering private music lessons. He lives in Longmont, Colo.

Campton, Ohio, resident Brandon Vaccaro (DMus’09) is an assistant music professor at Kent State University. He also spends his days as a freelance composer, audio engineer and producer.

After wrapping up 10 months of community service, Katherine Adams (Ling’09) graduated from the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Pacific Region. The members worked in teams throughout the U.S., and Katherine’s team provided support to Missouri and Montana residents affected by tornados and floods. She lives in Frederick, Calif.

Rakefet Megory (MCDBio’09) and Matthew Orobona (MCDBio’10) plan to get married in July. Rakefet is enrolled in the veterinary program at Colorado State University where Matthew is attending graduate school. The wedding will take place in Boulder.

After graduating from CU’s arts program, Julia Lamberton (Art’09) moved to China to teach English.

Former Alumni Association student worker David Brennan (Int Af, Hist’09) has been living and working in Brussels, Belgium, since graduating from CU-Boulder. In August David was happy to write he saw the CU men’s basketball team during their European tour. David writes he had an overwhelmingly positive experience seeing and meeting the team and wrote a blog about it. It can be read at www.allbuffs.com.

For the third time Paul Kasemir (CompSci, ElEngr, MElEngr’09) competed in NBC’s American Ninja Warrior competition last summer. He lives in Longmont, Colo.

CU couple Lara Murphy (Comm’09) and Andrew Herlihy (PolSci’09) married on Aug. 11 in Boulder. Lara works in human resources at Nordstrom and Andrew is a law student at the University of Wyoming.

On May 13 Lara Wahl (Acct’09) and her boyfriend miraculously survived a horrible car crash and explosion when a truck fell from an overpass onto their car as the couple was driving on Interstate 70 on their way to play tennis. The story appeared in The Denver Post. Lara says, in retrospect, they snapped into fight-or-flight mode to survive. Lara works as an auditor and lives in Avon, Colo.

Because of his clean water reserve system invention, Boulder resident Tom Rachlin (MechEngr’09) was one of five finalists with a shot at the $100,000 prize in a national entrepreneurship competition sponsored by Ketel One Vodka and GQ Magazine. The contest took place at www.agentlemanscall.com.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awarded Ian Soroka (Film, Phil’09) a scholarship to Slovenia in film studies. He is one of more than 1,700 U.S. citizens to travel abroad with a student Fulbright for the 2012-13 academic year. Ian’s research focuses on Slovene/Yugoslav film history and his project is titledCinema and Memory: Cultural Preservation through National Cinema Slovenia.

NBA player Chris Copeland (Psych’09) reached a career-high of 33 points playing for the Knicks against the Atlanta Hawks in April. He then started in his first NBA playoff game against the Boston Celtics in Madison Square Garden. “I think it’s every basketball player’s dream to play here,” Chris told CUBuffs.com. “It’s the Garden; it’s the Mecca of basketball. It is such a blessing to be here.” Chris played for the Buffs from 2002-06 and is No. 34 on the all-time Colorado scoring list.

Zehnder Communications hired Shoni Davidson (Jour’09) as its digital producer. She manages interactive projects for such national clients as Sazerac Co. and Farmers Insurance. Shoni formerly worked as senior interactive producer for the Los Angeles firm 72andSunny. She lives in Playa Vista, Calif. 

Former U.S. pro-cyclist Tyler Hamilton (A&S ex’09) rode for the U.S. Postal Service team and wrote The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France. He runs the Tyler Hamilton Training program where he works with others as their personal cycling coach. He divides his time between Boulder and Missoula, Mont.

Two years ago Jeffrey Land (Hist’09) and a few friends started South Mouth Wings in Boulder on Broadway and Arapahoe. Jeffrey is in his third year of law school at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Fla.

USA Track & Field named Jenny Barringer Simpson (PolSci’09) Athlete of the Week on July 24. That week Jenny won the 1500-meter race in 4:00.48 at the Monaco Herculis Diamond League. In August, Jenny placed second in the women’s 1,500 at the world championships in Moscow.

Four years ago Kirk Williams (Soc’09) flew over the handlebars of his mountain bike at Hall Ranch near Lyons, Colo., and damaged three vertebrae and his spinal cord. Last summer he attended the No Barriers Summit in Telluride. The summit has clinics and workshops for adaptive rock climbing, paddle sports, yoga, hiking cycling and more. Kirk lives in Boulder and plans to launch his business Bird Eye Optics, which uses a flying camera to film and photograph different events. He directs the flying camera from his wheelchair.

Colorado native Natalie Wood (Comm’09) produces and anchors 10/11 Central Nebraska News at 5:30 and 9 p.m. on KSNB. Natalie landed her first anchor job in Williston, N.D., with an NBC affiliate. She enjoys running, biking and spending time with her dog.

Hoping for some extra tanning for the summer in California? In 2010 Courtney Claghorn (Bus’09) and Samuel Offit (Econ ex’09) founded the boutique salon chain BRONZED in Santa Monica, Calif. Colleen Ryan (Fin’78) completes the trio as the franchise’s regional owner for its Orange County locations. BRONZED offers a 10-percent discount to all CU alumni.

The Chicago-based national commercial real estate firm American Street Capital hired Alexander F. Rek (Econ’09) as assistant vice president in January. Alexander came to American Street Capital from his job as director of marketing at the residential mortgage bank Chicago Financial Services. He is a licensed real estate broker in Illinois and lives in Chicago.