Category: 2001
Class of 2001 Update – October 2025
Hi fellow classmates!
To follow up our April 2025 communication to you, below, we proudly present some updates from many of our classmates with what’s been going on in their lives as of late. We’re thankful to those of you who provided updates (either on your own or in reply to a message that one of us might have sent you), and we’re sharing a few of these updates over the next 6 months. If you have an update to share, please contact us!
But before we get to those updates, we wanted to update you on planning for the 25th reunion, which will be May 28-31, 2026! If you’re on our class Facebook group, you would have seen Ivy Chang’s recent post announcing that reunion planning has begun. We’re thankful that Ivy along with Josh Blue, Kristin Durianski, Matthew Charnetski, Nathaniel Quance, Abby Copeman Petig, Kate Herold, Shannon Hammen Miner, and Jon Pettit have agreed to serve on the reunion committee with us. While the two of us were slackers, the rest of the committee met in Grinnell in August. Please plan to join us and spread the word about the reunion. We’ve had great attendance during our prior reunions and want to keep that record intact!
And now, some updates are below and more will follow later.
Your 2001 Class Agents,
Roshan P. Shrestha
Sherman P. Willis
*****
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John C. Aerni-Flessner John is an associate professor of history at Michigan State University. After Grinnell, he earned a PhD in African and world history and an MA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is married to Lauren Aerni-Flessner ‘04. Come February 2026, John will publish his latest book, White Gold and Thirsty Communities: The Cold War, Apartheid, and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The book is dedicated to the memory of George Drake.
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| Shana F. Barchas
Shana is an elementary school counselor at Achieve Academy in East Oakland. She still uses her improv skills to do puppet shows for kindergartners and loves visiting her Grinnell crew all over the country! Here’s a pic with Solveig Hanson ‘01 in Ithaca, NY, in April.
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Stacey A. Beauregard Stacey is on faculty in the English Program at California State University – Channel Islands.
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| Lillian D. Benjamin
Lillian just concluded a 16-year career with USAID, and she was most recently on assignment in Botswana. She has recently returned to the DC area. She is the proud parent of a tenacious 4th grader.
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| Joshua A. Blue
Josh is the Head of Education – Curriculum, Learning and Assessment for the English Schools Foundation (ESF) in Hong Kong, serving 22 schools (kindergartens, primary, and secondary) and 18,500 students. He has been in Hong Kong for over 20 years where he lives with his partner, Taka, and their nearly 8-year-old son, Isaac. Josh still enjoys performing and will be in the British Panto of Beauty and the Beast as Dame Cherry Tart this holiday season.
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