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Courtney Fligeltaub, ’99 - has been traveling in England. Among her visits are some historical sites. She writes: “even though places like the Battle of Hastings are a bit touristy, it is still pretty incredible to walk around the battlefield and think of all that happened on that spot almost 1000 years ago.”

Jessica Dvorak, ’99 - is enjoying her classes at the University of Michigan Law School. She writes, “Life for me at Michigan is going well. Grinnell prepared me extremely well. I did not and have not seemed to struggle with the workload as much as many of my peers. In fact, I am actually sleeping more than I ever did while at Grinnell! My British history background has also served me well in understanding the common law and the roots of many of our laws. “

Dan Stevenson, ’99 - is getting along well in rural Japan. He is now in his fourth week of teaching. His experience is more fun now that the kids are getting used to him, and he is getting more comfortable on the other side of the desk. Recently, the town has hosted 17 Australian high school students visiting for a one-week exchange. It is fun having them—except that one of them gave him his first experience at being called “sir.”

Eric Hartmann, ’93 - read about alumni Scholar Ronda Huber Frevert,’92, on the web version of the newsletter and wished to inform other Grinnellians about the fulfilling opportunities of librarianship and its close cousin archival work. When he was in Library school at Michigan’s school of Information there were four other Grinnell history majors, a non-history Grinnell Alum and his advisor (Margaret Hedstrom ’74). In other matters, his job in San Antonio ended in August, and he accepted a position with the Victoria Public Library. Victoria is a town of about 60,000 on the coast about 2 hours from Houston, a nice bonus for a Houston Astros fan like him. The job is not as archival as he would have liked. However, he feels drawn to Public Libraries as institutions, so he is happy. He plans to work in an archive again but he is gaining some experience here at VPL in the meantime.

Merrill Velez, ’99 - has enrolled in the Army. He writes that “I will be leaving for Oklahoma next week to start my training, then I will be sent to Texas for more advanced training in the occupation I chose. Next, I will be off to Europe where I will be stationed for the next four years- most likely Germany. I will be working as medical specialist. I’m still hoping to become an aid worker so I’m certain that this work experience will serve me well.”

Will Lee-Ashley, ’99 - lives in Colorado Springs with a friend. After about a week of negotiation, he found some wonderful stuff to do. He is very excited, and has volunteered part time at a local theater doing graphic design stuff and some writing. He thinks the job is definitely pushing his design skills. Also, he has landed a paying job. He is getting paid by a foundation to work for a coalition/effort/organization with Depaul University in Chicago. The organization has recently established a program to look at rural poverty, community structure, and economy in several rural towns in eastern Colorado. Since the initial phases of the program are vague; they do not know exactly what the problems are, what the solutions will be, or who community leaders are in certain places. The organization wants him to start with the welfare reform bill and examine the new distribution of funds to specified areas—or lack thereof and what the implications are for the Welfare to Work programs that have been so highly touted by the Clinton regime. Basically, they have turned him loose to establish the groundwork for all future endeavors. In conclusion, Will-Lee Ashley states that he thinks the reason that the program is so neat to him is because he is using - Grinnell skills and more specifically skills he worked on in history. Furthermore, it is proof that those skills can be used to achieve real, tangible ends. It gives him hope for the use of a liberal education. Obviously, he expects to hit a few brick walls; but he is just elated at the opportunity he has been given, he didn’t know such things existed.

Allison Wickens, ’94 - was just offered (and accepted) a six month job at the National Postal Museum. Her current job at the Navy Museum is scheduled to end December 17 so the timing works out perfectly for her. She will be finishing up her contract at the Postal Museum just as she heads off to Graduate School. She has worked there before and just loves the museum and her co-workers.

Mark Hudson, ’97 - is heading a project in historical preservation and renovation in downtown Faribault, Minnesota. The project seeks to coordinate economic development with maintenance and improvement of an historically rich downtown district. Mark completed an advanced degree in urban planning at Iowa State.

Denise Hirsch, ’99 - was offered a job at the Close-up Foundation in Washington D.C. The point of the foundation is to bring high school students to D.C. from around the country to make them more aware of and interested in American Politics and history. So, she is going to get to take the students around D.C., run discussion groups, and generally be responsible for those students.

Gary Thurston, ’62 - (Professor of History, University of Rhode Island) is the author of The Popular Theatre Movement in Russia, 1862-1919 (Northwestern University Press, 1998).

Ben Tromly, a December ’99 graduate - is off to Russia where during the spring semester he will continue his studies of modern Russian history at St. Petersburg State University. Ben hopes to enter a graduate program in Russian history next fall. A copy of the paper that Ben completed fall semester in connection with his independent/capstone project (“The Fall of N. A. Voznesenskii”) is available on the bookshelf on Carnegie 4th.

Lizz Welch, ’98 - has been accepted by the Peace Corps along with her husband, but they do not yet have a destination.

Erin Jordan, ’93 - has completed her dissertation on the countesses of Flanders Jeanne and Marguerite: “For the Safety of My Soul.” Ruling successively, these two sisters controlled Flanders for much of the thirteenth century. Erin’s dissertation explores how and why the countesses patronized particular religious houses—especially new religious orders like the Cistercian nuns, the Beguines, and the Dominicans. Erin will receive the PhD from the University of Iowa this spring.