Class Notes

Alexandra Fenton, SW23, won the national competition “Realest Person on Earth” sponsored by the BeReal photo sharing app — just one week before earning a master’s degree from the Brown School. The contest called for users to post a photo of themselves during their “wildest, rawest, most embarassing, unhinged” moments. Among more than two million submissions worldwide, Fenton made it to the top 50 as a finalist and was ultimately voted winner. Her moment: a visit to a gynecologist. Following graduation, she relocated to her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, to be closer to family and friends.

Benjamin Adam Bookstaver, LA23, is working as a freelancer with HOF Sports LLC, a name image and likeness sports agency. Additionally, Bookstaver, who previously worked in health care and telehealth at GoodRx, was investigating the effects of psychedelics and ketamine on abstract cognitive architecture and presented his findings to the New Center for Psychoanalysis on cognitive transdimensionality in October 2023.

Kasey Nelson, EN22, is building an app and looking to adopt a pet after he finishes traveling to Europe and New York.

Yuhan Li, GB22, completed her first year of work as a website analyst.

Libby Jubas, LA19, married Nathan Katz in September 2022. She graduated from Case Western School of Medicine with a master’s degree in anesthesiology and currently works as an anesthetist assistant at Ahuja Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.

Anirudh Gururaj, LA19, was traveling in Seoul, South Korea, and happened to stay at a unique Buddhist temple/hostel called JustBe Temple that was founded by two WashU alums and Buddhist monks. JustBe Temple’s CEO is also a WashU alum, Ji-Woong Yoon, FA07.

Amanda Palucki, LA17, was chosen by the Knowles Teacher Initiative as a member of its 2023 Cohort of Teaching Fellows. The Knowles Teaching Fellows Program is an intensive five-year program for early career high school mathematics and science teachers who are collaborative, innovative leaders working toward improving education. Palucki, who is in her second year at Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, teaches biology, chemistry and physics.

Tansel Baran Yasar, LA16, defended his doctoral thesis in October 2023 at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. The thesis was on the topic of ultra-flexible brain implants for the stable and minimally invasive recording of brain activity from single cells in multiple brain areas.

Jill Teitelbaum, LA16, and Jason Lese, LA17, were married in 2023, with a large contingent of WashU alums in attendance. The newlyweds gathered the more than 40 WashU alumni for a group photo to celebrate the occasion.

Chris Taurasi, GA15, is a co-founder of Level Studio Architecture. The firm began recording its meetings a few weeks into the startup of the practice and has since used the audio to produce the inaugural season of the podcast “Emerging.” The goal is to provide an educational resource to young professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction industries who are interested in starting their own practice. The first 10 episodes are available at https://www.lvl.studio/podcast.