Alumni Class Notes
These Alumni Class Notes were published in the 2023-2024 Portrait of a Graduate magazine. If you want to be included in future class notes, you can submit class notes by emailing Lindsay Bartlett.
Kennedy Fuller '20 won the Jonathan E. Slater Visual Arts Award this spring during her Senior Awards Ceremony at Latin. The award is given to the member of the graduating class who demonstrates productive creativity in the visual arts and has displayed consistent growth in their art making skills.
Kingsley Goldman '22 has been quickly running up the ranks in athletics at St. Ignatius. This year she was named MVP for their varsity field hockey team, as well as All-Conference and 2nd Team All-State, a distinction that no other St. Ignatius field hockey player has ever received. Outside of high school, she was named one of the top 50 players in the entire nation for her age group and is playing on the U.S. U-16 Women's National Field Hockey team.
Bennett Kemp '23 is a founding member of "The Afterhours Band" composed of other Jones students, and also plays in a jazz band with his signature green and white guitar named "Catie" in honor of his days at Catherine Cook.
Isabel Kapustka ’17 is Vice President of the Speech and Debate team at the University of Illinois Chicago, and in April her team won the National Championship. Isabel reached the semifinal in both extemporaneous speaking and persuasive speaking, placed 3rd in impromptu speaking, and placed 5th in informative speaking.
After graduating from the University of Maryland in 2020, Damien Lutrin '12 moved to Washington, D.C., and became a Solution Engineer at C3 (a tech company dedicated to creating full stack software development and implementation of AI). His love of tech was rooted in the computer science classes at Cook, and he is always looking to mentor students interested in computer science as a career.
Charlie Leversha '15 has entered the world of film with remarkable success. Due to his extended stay in Australia because of border restrictions during COVID-19, he made some connections and is now working on his first feature directorial debut in Melbourne. The film is currently on set now and will shoot throughout the summer.
University of Iowa photojournalism graduate Avi Lapchick ‘16 has been working as an Arts Editor at the Daily Iowan after starting out as a photojournalist for the newspaper.
Jason Pratt '14 is currently living in New York City and working as a private wealth manager at Goldman Sachs. His financial advising experience includes working for Merrill Lynch right after graduation in 2022 and an internship at Northwestern Mutual after his junior year at Colgate University.
Surya Newa '18, a sophomore at New York University, has launched a consultancy in AI. Part of his work has been reaching out to various schools and organizations to help companies utilize this tool to advance education and business productivity. He credits his skills back to Catherine Cook, where he learned video editing, vector graphics, spreadsheets, and coding.
Maggie McKean '14 moved to Washington, D.C., in 2023 to intern at Federation of American Hospitals. In 2024 she became a health care policy analyst at Thorn-Run Partners, which includes listening to congressional hearings on healthcare, transcribing it, and distributing it to their healthcare clients.
Logan Price '15 graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Chemical Engineering. In 2023, he started work in water reclamation at Veolia, which will take him to South Korea and Japan to help chemical and manufacturing plants with their processes.
Lauren Sands '15 is the recipient of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS) Mark Stehlik Introductory and Service Teaching Award. This award is given to the SCS graduating senior who has made the greatest contribution to teaching at school while in undergraduate. Lauren is also one of only 40 students who received the Andrew Carnegie Scholar Society award. This award is given to undergraduates who embody Carnegie Mellon's high standards of academic excellence, volunteerism, leadership, and involvement at school.
Willa Rose ‘20 and Sasha Hild '20 both traveled to South Africa last summer where they participated in a community project connected with the Nelson Mandela Institute.
Ellie Wolf '20 has a long resume of big acts and performances on stage, and recently added another to her profile. Despite being a lifelong die hard Cubs Fan, she sang the national anthem at the White Sox game in August 2023.
Anastasia (Stacie) Sullivan '20 graduated in the top of her class at British School as an IB diploma holder and earned the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver awards. The award encourages students to challenge themselves through a series of expeditions and projects. On top of this, Stacie was the co-chair of the Environmental and Sustainability Committee and traveled to Tanzania and Japan. All these endeavors were inspired by her interest in the Global Issues Network (GIN) program at Cook.
Christopher Zrazik '17 is a student researcher and author for OPUS-Africa at George Washington University. He has published analytical pieces on security issues on the African continent, including "Ethiopia’s Port Deal with Somaliland: Diplomatic Fallout, International Response, and Regional Implications."