Alumni
Are you curious where your former next-door-neighbor disappeared to after graduation? Are you a current CCSer in search of your roots in the greatest Residential College ever? Or are you just plain interested in CCS?
Check out our CCS Alumni Page! We're still in the process of developing and expanding it, but hopefully over the years this page will become your source for contact information to keep in touch and find out just what your illustrious forbears have accomplished since their golden years in CCS.
But before we get to the real deal, you might wonder who exactly gets their name into this Hall of Fame. These folks have proven themselves to be dedicated contributors to the CCS community through several years of active membership and participation. A pat on the back and best wishes to you all! :)
J. Thomas Alford
Email: Thomas.Alford at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Fall 2003-Spring 2006, graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Fun involving a fuse box
What did you major in? Materials Science
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Master's program at Northwestern
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Hrithik Bansal
Email: swaminess at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Freshman and Sophomore year, 2002-2004; graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Jason Stein's most humorous minutes after forum. There wasn't a forum where I wasn't dissed in his minutes. I loved every bit of it. You guys should get a hold of the minutes and archive them. It should be preserved for the generations of CCSers to come.
What did you major in? Economics and International Studies
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I'm on my way to becoming the UN Secretary General
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Andrew Bodart
Email: andrew.bodart at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? 4 years, class of 2001
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Late night piano/cello jam sessions
What did you major in? Computer Information Systems
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? New York
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Evan Crutcher
Email: evancrutcher at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? I lived in CCS all 4 of my undergrad years at Northwestern, 1996 through my graduation in 2000.
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? What I remember most is the "nightlife" -- just hanging out and talking with people in the lounge. I miss that a lot.
What did you major in? Environmental science -- I also spent about 2 and a half years in the Integrated Science Program (CCS was chock full of ISPs in those years), and did a minor in religion.
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I'm looking for work in the Chicago nonprofit arena. After Northwestern I spent a year on a Fulbright fellowship in environmental education in Australia and 3 years in DC doing conference management and satellite/web broadcasting for the Head Start Bureau through a government contractor. I also spent about a year back home in Kansas City caring for my mother, who had brain cancer and passed away last September.
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Samantha (Sam) Cruz
Email: sccruz at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Freshman & Sophomore Years (2002-2004), non-res Junior & Senior Years (2004-2006); graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Living my freshman fall quarter in a room not my own. Literally. I had a bed and desk in someone else's dingle :-) Playing Warcraft 3 with the boys on the 5th floor, doors wide open everyone yelling directions to everyone else :-)
What did you major in? Materials Science & Engineering
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Graduate studies at University of California at Santa Barbara in Materials for a PhD
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Caitlin Fausey
Email: cmfausey at psych.stanford dot edu
When/how long did you live in CCS? Lived in CCS for four years, 2000-2004; graduated 2004
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Fabulous people. Especially the crew I met my freshmen year (and a handful of the rest of y'all ;). I have never been surrounded by more awesome people in my life. See Ananth's answer for a more heartfelt expression of CCS memories - the voice, the co-ops, the haunted house, everyone's stories...I loved it all.
What did you major in? Psychology and Spanish
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Phd student in Cognitive Psychology at Stanford. They pay me the big bucks to figure out how language influences attention, memory and causal reasoning.
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Sumitha Ganji
Email: jadoo420 at aol dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? I lived in CCS my freshman and sophomore year (except spring quarter) from 2000-2002. I graduated from NU in 2004.
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? I loved all of my freshman roomies from CCS. I still keep in touch with a handful and one of my best friends is someone I met my first day in the dorm. My twinkie :). It was definitely a defining experience in my life and the best first introduction into college life.
What did you major in? History, French minor, Pre-Med.
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I am living in New Orleans. I am currently pursuing my MPH at Tulane and I will be starting medical school at Tulane in August. I'm in Taiwan right now for a public health field study course. It is amazing over here. All of you must come visit me in New Orleans sometime!!!
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Yuwei (Wendy) Gu
When/how long did you live in CCS? Freshmen and Sophomore year (2003-2005), non-res Junior year; graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? I had a wonderful time being on the exec board as VP of Faculty. It was a great bonding experience and I got lots of leadership and organizational experiences out of it.
What did you major in? Biology (Physiology concentration)
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I am going to work as a lab tech for Holmgren Lab at NU for one year before (hopefully) heading off to medical school, preferably around the Chicagoland area.
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Andres Huertas
Email: yoz at healthytiger dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Fall 2000 - Winter 2002, class of 2004
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Independent nation of the fifth floor stuff mostly. Can't discuss. Also being one of two people blamed for anything remotely involving destruction, crassness, or loud noises. We were always completely innocent.
What did you major in? Mechanical Engineering
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Living in Chicago, working in Niles as a Corporate Quality Engineer for Shure Inc. Can usually be found riding my bike around or skating at the Wilson/Lakeshore park.
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Jeremy Hunsucker
Email: jhunsucker at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? / What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? I lived in CCS my first two years at NU (00-01 & 01-02). Fifth floor both years. Roomed with one Mr. Andres Huertas both years. Some memories: Founding the United Nation of the Fifth Floor with said Mr. Andres Huertas & Mr. Kyjah Keys. Activities included a lot of bumper pool, smash brothers (the videogame), smashing promotional AOL CDs on the radiator, getting free cable routed from the lobby up the side of the building (pre-NUTV of course), taking phone calls while walking on the balcony ledge, and razzing on the monkeys (freshmen). Other quality memories: taking 13 people in an NU van and driving north until we found a good place for night-time dodgeball, the all-male camping trip of '02 (good memories, bad smells), attending forum meetings in suits and bare feet, and the great prank war of '02 that ended very unfortunately with a large stack of half-full soda cans collapsing from a wall built in front of Miss Sumitha Ganji's door when she was way too nerve-racked from studying for finals to really appreciate the humor (you have forgiven us, right)?
Oh, and CCS did have one other lasting effect on me - an effect bound by law. I married Arwa Fanaswalla, fellow-CCSer from 01-02.
What did you major in? / Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I was a Philosophy and Asian Studies major so it should come as no surprise that I am now working for...NU. Lame, huh? I can be found in Accounting Services for Research and Sponsored Programs where I will gladly help you maintain compliance with various sponsor guidelines and then close out your grant. You can ph me if you don't believe me.
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Lars Johnson
Email: lbj1981 at hotmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? 2002-2004, played IMs w/ CCS through till graduation (good man!)
What did you major in? History and minor in Gender Studies
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)?
Since graduating from Northwestern in 2005 I have been traveling the country in a mime troupe. We mainly do Civil War re-enactments but also dabble in comedy, largely about eggs. Because miming does not pay particulary well, I also let young children pay to bite me sometimes. I pretend to cry when they are done. Drop me a line and I'll talk (I mean mime) to you sometime.
In reality, I've been living in Chicago for this last year, working as an educator for people with disabilities. In August I'm moving to New York to go to law school at NYU. I hope to get into public interest law so that despite my advanced degree I will not make money. You really can drop me a line sometime and I will really talk to you if you want. And the biting reference comes from an actual incident in which a 14 year old boy bit me on the chest.
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Anne Lazio
Email: anne_lazio at hotmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? I lived in CCS freshman and sophomore years, and graduated in 2002.
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Meeting great friends, and finding love on the fifth floor. Sweaty parties with very improvised drink menus (vodka and kool-aid w/unidentified 'floaties'...close your eyes, wrinkle your nose and gulp). Finding the answer to any question in the night breeze on the fourth floor balcony (you should try it).
What did you major in? Math Education (SESP)
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Back in Chicago after a 4-year stint in Iowa City. I'm in graduate school (Master's in Applied Statistics) at DePaul, and living in Logan Square.
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Matthew Lazio
Email: matt.lazio at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? 1997 - 1999, graduated 2001
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Meeting my wife Anne Dodds! Ping pong in the basement, Sunday dinners, and throwing cd's at the computer in the master's office when the brand new cutting edge CD burner wouldn't work.
What did you major in? Biological Sciences and Spanish
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Graduated University of Iowa Medical School 2006; currently doing emergency medicine residency at Northwestern
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Diana Leonard
Email: djcurly at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? September 2000 to June 2004 (yup - all four years of undergrad)
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? I think it's really telling that the memories of many alums on this site revolve around one thing - good-natured misbehaving! In keeping with this trend: mudsliding in the quad; tech tag; breaking into the 4th floor from the fire escape to take showers before the dorms opened; surreptitiously taking off a certain uncomfortable undergarment while watching dvds in Morgan's bunk - to the alarm of his special lady-friend who discovered it later (whoops - drama!); stealing food from sargent; pushing the couches together and commandeering the lounge for a procrastination-induced star trek the next generation binge instead of studying for finals; and the infamous night of the rockstar party where the sophomores had to rescue the freshmen from their first experience with binge drinking (how cute!). Somewhere amidst these antics, I made lasting friendships with the many amazing, brilliant, devious and genuine CCSers that I met during my time at NU :)
What did you major in? Psychology (Anthro minor)
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? PhD student in Social Psychology at UC Santa Barbara
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Matthew Louie
Email: m-louie at alumni.northwestern dot edu
When/how long did you live in CCS? 3 years (2002-2005), non-res Senior year; graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)?
I remember the weather extremeties. One night, the heat cut out. It was so cold the next morning that my nipples could cut glass. My roommate and I, being Boy Scouts and thus highly resourceful, took my coffee maker and made it constantly produce hot water and steam. Thus, the fifth floor, being above the other floors (Pun intended, oh SNAP, so good!), were able to huddle around this source of heat while the other residents shivered. But alas, the freezing winter does not last against the plans of Mother Nature, and thus, winter gave way to the flowers and rains of spring, and spring gave way to the sunshine and heat of summer, and, like spring, the hatred, prejudices, and ill will of CCSers towards each other gave way to the life-sucking heat. CCSers from all over the building put aside their differences and congregated in the Lounge to take refuge in the air conditioning. There, they gathered to summon together every last brain cell that they had to make their last stands against the C's and D's that they had been collecting woefully (unless they were in Medill). Enemies sat next to enemies, lovers laid on top of lovers, the poor ate next to the rich, the slackers studied with the overachievers, the people, whom they had never seen before all year, they met. And the laughter, oh the sweet laughter, it was like the first kiss of love except without the eroticism, it was like the first taste of freedom except they were actually forced into a room because of the heat. It made them feel that none of their finals mattered. What was important to them was that they were with each other and because they knew that when they were older, none of those finals that they got F's on would matter or be remembered, except some of those finals that they got F's on would be remembered and some of those F's prevented them from graduating. And thus it was so, and God saw that it was good. I also remember Billy.
What did you major in? Psychology, minor in Chemistry
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? NJ
Chris McCoy
Email: cpmccoy at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Non-res member from 1997-98, Resident from 1998-2001
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Hanging out with everyone in the lounge, playing IM sports, snowball fights in the quad, Assistant Master Eddie Lee's dining hall antics.
What did you major in? Integrated Science, Biology and Chemistry; minor in Political Science
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? After graduating from medical school at Case Western, I spent a year as the Legislative Affairs Director for the American Medical Student Association in Washington, DC. Now I am a resident physician in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
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Kush Patel
Email: kush at jhmi dot edu
When/how long did you live in CCS? I lived in CCS my first three years at Northwestern from fall 2001 to spring 2004.
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Too many to recount, everything from IM sports to late-night conversations in the lounge to Proposition 32 was quite memorable.
What did you major in? ISP, Bio, Math
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I am currently in Baltimore aka "The Greatest City in America" (seriously, that's what it says on the park benches. You'll have to visit me to find out if its actually true). I am a graduate student in the Neuroscience PhD program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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Ananth Raja Ram
Email: ananth at alumni.northwestern dot edu
When/how long did you live in CCS? Fall 1997 - Spring 2001; graduated 2001
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)?
CCS in large part defined my Northwestern experience. From the basket ball games on the 5th floor (which meant I could never take a nap!) to the never-ending discussions in the 2nd floor hallway, from the piano music from the lounge to the smells of great co-op cooking from the basement, the people of CCS and culture of the res-college are parts of my life I can never forget. The Haunted House, Master's Banquet and Co-op dinners, the victorious Master's Mile team, the intramural sports, and the nights of laser tag in Tech (while avoiding the wrath of any professor who might disapprove), the exec-board, the fire-sides and the trips to Chicago for food, fun and (of course) culture - the whole experience is a great memory. If I were to pick my absolute favorite pieces of this memory, they would certainly be the Haunted House every year and the co-op dinners. The skills I learned in those co-op dinners are coming in very handy these days when I need to cook for myself (of course cooking for 40 people and for one has a world of difference J). The CCS Voice would also be another key part of my memories - I still keep all the Voices published during my time there for it was one place where the talents and unity of CCS were captures so well. And of course, how can I forget the diversity of CCS - people from a plethora of different majors, cultural backgrounds and countries.
What did you major in? Integrated Science Program & Computer Science
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I am currently the Managing Director of a share and commodity broking firm in Dubai. We offer customers the opportunity to trade and invest in gold, silver, currencies, and Indian shares. I've been here only for 6 months - before this, I was running an IT training company in Botswana for 3 years and then did my MBA from INSEAD (France and Singapore).
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Akbar Sheriff
Email: akbar.sheriff at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? When/how long did you live in CCS? CCS 1998 - 2001; graduated 2002
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Life on the 5th floor my freshman year with the craziest bunch of folks. Chasing a fruit bat (for real) out of room 501. Pulling a
mattress in corridor for regular wrestling matches. Pouring a
bucketful of water on the staircase to retaliate during a water pistol
fight with our friends form the 2nd floor. Jumping over fences to get
to the north campus beach after midnight... and then being chased by
the police in our swimming trunks. Ordering a "wedgie" pizza for
forum. Spending part of my life with a bunch of absolutely, insanely
amazing folks!
What did you major in? Mechanical Engineering; one of the techies
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Finished an MS from Stanford and now a consultant at McKinsey and Company based out of San Francisco
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Rachana Sikka
Email: rachana_sikka at hotmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? I lived in CCS all four years, from 1997 to 2001. I graduated in 2001, from the School of Speech (now called the School of Communications)
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? In general, I remember feeling like part of a big family. We lived and ate meals together, cooked for one another (at least once a week anyway), went on camping trips and other excursions, entertained each other, squabbled with one another and helped each other out. I am an only child, but for those four years, I felt like I had 30+ brothers and sisters.
What did you major in? Majored in Human Communication Sciences, in the department of Communication Sciences & Disorders. There was so much confusion about my major that I feel compelled to provide an explanation: it is basically the science of hearing, speaking and learning.
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I currently live in Minneapolis, MN and work in St. Paul as a project manager at the American Academy of Neurology. After NU, I worked as a health educator for one year at the American Lung Association in Chicago (as an Americorps member). I spent the next three years in grad school at the University of Minnesota and completed two master's degrees in public health and health journalism.
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Jason Stein
Email: JasonLouisStein at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? 2 glorious years; graduated 2005
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Patrick Tierney came up with the idea of having a Boys of CCS calendar. We spent a day seductively posing for the camera. Among the highlights were Steve Dallas wearing a guitar and nothing else, me peaking out behind a shower curtain, and Lars Johnson doing something I cannot mention here. The pictures were taken, but the calendar unfortunately never came to fruition. I did have the CCS boys calendar on my computer for a long time, but fearing some lady friends might think wrongly of my intentions the pictures were erased. There, friends, is the story of the Boys of CCS calendar. May it live on in our hearts and minds, but not on my computer.
What did you major in? The Integrated Science Program (4 life) and Your Mom.
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I started my own company through a series of fortunate confabs at wine parties with venture capitalists. I was in Los Angeles drinking a fine 1973 pinot noir this past August when an obviously wealthy man came up to me and flaunted his knowledge about some arcane kabbalistic weaving styles which required alignments of several constellations into pentagrams. I feigned interest until the bottle was more than half empty, at which point I became incredibly drawn into his idea. Well, one thing led to another, and now we have monkeys in space making kabbalistic baskets for their earth bound evolutionarily older cousins below. As for me, well, let's just say my toilet is made of solid gold.
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Mariya Tavrovsky
Email: mariya.tavrovsky at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Freshman and Sophomore years (2000-2002); graduated 2004
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Freshman year -- the water balloon incident (no further explanation needed for those who were there)
What did you major in? Economics, Political Science, and Slavic Literature
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Lived in London for a year working for UBS. Since October 2005, living and working in Moscow, Russia for UBS
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Adam Tenderholt
Email: atenderholt at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? All four years of my time at NU (1999-2003)
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? I think the most memorable thing was just how close we were. Dinner in the CCS room at Sargent, hanging out in the Lounge, random trips into the city are the few things that come immediately to mind.
What did you major in? Chemistry and ISP
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I'm at Stanford for grad school in Chemistry.
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Stacy Vogel
Email: strawberryshortcake924 at hotmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Fall 2002-Spring 2005, non-res 2005-2006; graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? I'll always remember the people I met at CCS. I'm proud to say I met most of my best friends in college here. Cheesy as it sounds, it always felt like an extra family to me. Freshman year was great because I had such good friends on my floor. I think my favorite memory, though, is the spring camping trip freshman year. We had a girls car and a boys car. Of course, we girls drove straight to the camp with no problems, and we had to wait about an hour for the boys to figure out where they were supposed to be. The funniest part was when they called us and said, "We're in Sinnisippi! It's like Mississippi, only more sinful!" (Of course, neither we nor they had any idea where Sinnisippi was.) Oh, and being chased by a little camp ATV after we revved the engine of our SUV to splash through a puddle flooding the road. Overall, it was a great bonding experience :)
What did you major in? Journalism, minor in Spanish
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Not quite sure yet, heehee... Hopefully a reporting job somewhere in Wisconsin. I'll let you know!
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Jonathan Wang
Email: jonathan.w.wang at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? Fall 1999 to Spring 2001; graduated in 2003
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Haunted House 99, Age of Empires marathon with pretty much the whole 2nd floor, watched Breakfast at Tiffany's until 6 am, performed my Chinese yo-yo stunts every year at Master's Banquet (and hence the nickname Jon Wang the Yo-Yo Man), endless conversations on 4th/5th floor. Over my 2 years in CCS, I met some of my favorite people in the world, and I still keep in close touch with many of them.
What did you major in? Industrial Engineering and Economics
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I got my Master of Engineering degree from Cornell
and now working for Citigroup in NYC.
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Jeremy Weinberger
Email: greylightning at gmail dot com
When/how long did you live in CCS? I lived in CCS for two years, 1997-1999, and graduated in May 2002
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? The camping trips!
What did you major in? Computing and Information Systems (I dropped ISP after two years)
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? I've just finished an MS and I'm working on a Ph.D. in Computer Science at NYU.
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William (Billy) Welkowitz
Email: wdw969 at gwu dot edu
When/how long did you live in CCS? 3.5 years, 2002-2006 (spent fall of 2004 in Edinburgh studying abroad); graduated 2006
What do you remember most about CCS (or most memorable moment)? Performing at the Master's Banquets
What did you major in? Journalism (Minor in Political Science)
Where are you now (or where are you headed after graduation)? Washington, D.C. (graduate studies at George Washington University)
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*Note: are you a CCS Alum? Email dw@northwestern.edu!
