Julie Pitzen

Lived in Collins, Brown Hall, 1982-85
Currently living in Mongolia. Here's some more info:
www.ancientfragments.com
www.culturesnclay.wordpress.com

Nic Hartmann

After graduating from IU in the summer of 2007, I moved to the awesome small city of Bowling Green, Kentucky, where I got a master's in folk studies from Western Kentucky University in the spring of 2009. Recently, however, I packed up and moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, where I received a fellowship to pursue my Ph.D. in folklore at Memorial University. Working in the dining hall in Ed is serving me well here, as my side job is working in the kitchen of a pub for graduate students...

I totally wouldn't be here without the CLLC...it was passing the folklore & ethnomusicology buildings every day that led me to switching career paths, and the support of many friends who were blowing my mind with the projects they were involved in. For any Collinsite who knew me as "the Estonian guy" (I had a certificate in Central Eurasian Studies), I finally hung it up and started taking French this year instead.

Sarah Loos: Woman of the Year

Sarah Loos, Collins alumna from 2009, recently received two awards:


Recipient of a Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship

• Recipient of Woman of the Year award, given each year by IUB's Women in Computing group

Michael Schuessler

I lived at Collins way back in 1985. I am currently a professor at Mexico’s Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana where I arrived in 2007 after teaching at UCLA and Columbia. I am the author of several books on Mexican subjects, particularly biographies.

Christopher Cokinos

My new book The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars has been released from Tarcher, an imprint of Penguin, with positive reviews in such places as Kirkus, Discover, Natural History, Seed and elsewhere. I've had work recently in The New York Times. For more information on the book, you can go to my website: www.christophercokinos.com.

Shari Aronson

My company, Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, has upcoming performances in MA, NY and Indy!

Z Puppets Rosenschnoz NE Tour! Beginning Oct. 3

Z Puppets Rosenschnoz will take North Adams, Amherst, Boston, Albany, Saratoga and Indy with performances that combine puppetry with physical comedy and live music. Please see calendar for all details.

We recently had our first red carpet moment, as our puppet designer won a prestigious Ivey Award— the Tony’s of the Twin Cities.

Deb Getz

I visited MRC the summer of 2008 - brought back a lot of memories. This summer I traveled to San Francisco, Sacramento and Yosemite National Park where I worked during the summers when I attended IU and lived at MRC. Yosemite continues to inspire me.

Becky Edmonds

Immediately after graduation from IU this past spring I packed up a Honda Civic and drove to Olympia, Washington, where I continue to reside. I spent the summer working at the most beautiful camp on the face of the earth. I'm attaching a picture to demonstrate, which, while awesome, still doesn't do it justice.

Thom Kudla

I wrote a collection of short stories last year called "What My Brain Told Me," a book which was recognized as a finalist in the 2009 National Indie Excellence Awards. You can find the book from any major online retailer or via special order through your local bookstore. It is definitely a book that I'm proud of, one which is a lot more personal than my other writing. I have some ideas for other projects, but I'm so busy with freelance work that I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to work on them.

Missing yearbooks from the archives

Alumni, we need your help!

Several yearbooks are missing from the Collins archives. If you have an extra copy from any of these years that you can spare, please send it to us. We'll make not of your donation on the copy you send.

Here are the missing years:

'82-'83
'85-'86
'86-'87
'87-'88
'88-'89
'91-'92
'93-'94
'96-'97
'97-'98
'98-'99
'00-'01
'01-'02

Thanks for helping us out, if you can!

Collins alumni in the news

Owen Sutkowski is running for city council in Charlotte.

First chapter mini-reunion

We're starting small: The first regional Collins mini-reunion will be held here, in Bloomington, in the private room at the Scholar's Inn Cafe and Wine Bar.

The event will be held on June 25 (a Thursday evening), at 8:00 p.m. This will be an informal event, an opportunity for alumni in the area to mingle and network.

Hors d'oeuvres and desserts will be provided, and there will be a cash bar available.

We hope you can make it!

If you're in another region and can't get to Bloomington, don't worry: This is just the beginning. We'll be helping organizers to host events in other cities in the coming year.

Jill Teige: a newly graduated Collinsite

I’ll never forget the first time I came to Collins. It was right after I had been accepted to IU, and I wasn’t sure about the whole dorm-life thing. I did (and still do) like living with my parents, and wasn’t thrilled about having to move in with a bunch crazy, partying college students. When I first saw Collins, I decided it would be okay to live there, because it looked just like Hogwarts (don’t tell me you don’t see Hogwarts when you look into the dining hall… We all do). I knew even if the people were crazy, this was a place I could live.

That fall, when I moved into Cravens, I quickly found out that yes, the people are crazy, but they’re my kind of crazy. I stayed up too late so many times my freshman year chilling out in the Chesh, or just sitting on the floor with some floormates, talking until all hours of the night. We all come to college to learn, and the academics were great, but I think it was somewhere in the halls of Collins that I learned to be an adult. I also learned how to listen, how to tell stories, how to freak out one night and be functional the next day. My Collins family not only helped me learn to be a person, it also helped me learn to be part of a community. Most of the best friends I made in college I met in Collins, and I’ll never forget them or the lessons they taught me about family. Those lessons are just as important as the ones I got in my classes.

I’d be in trouble if the Collinsites hadn’t taught me how to build a family from friends; I’m moving to California in the fall, and will be further from home than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m super excited to be moving there, where I’ll be working towards my doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. I don’t know what specifically I’ll be studying yet; I do know I’ll be working with lasers doing some sort of spectroscopy, but I can’t be more specific than that yet. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be awesome; I chose Berkeley not only because it’s chemistry program is incredible, but because its students reminded me most of Collinsites. It’s hard to argue with a program that has such incredible researchers, and is placed in such a beautiful area.

Tim Gross: a newly graduated Collinsite

What do you think you'll remember most about Collins?

It will definitely be the people. Collins has provided me an awesome community of like-minded people here at IU that I will greatly miss in years to come.

I will also remember the trips to Costa Rica I did through Collins. I was fortunate enough to be able to organize spring break service trips to Costa Rica for the past two years, and both have really had a great impact on the way I have seen the world.

What will you be doing next?

I will be living in Louisville participating in a program called Teach Kentucky. This is an organization that works very closely with Louisville's public school district and the University of Louisville to get highly skilled graduates emergency teaching certification and working in their school. The program lasts about 3 years, and I will be teaching Middle School Math while I take classes for my certification.

I am most looking forward to getting to know Louisville and to meet my fellow program partners, teachers, and students.

How will you take what you learned at college into what you'll be doing?

My time at Collins has taught me the importance of community, which I will definitely work to develop in Louisville. Also, my leadership positions at Collins have given me confidence and taught me the importance of organization, both of which I will need when teaching a class of 30 middle-schoolers.

Call for assistance: Collinsites in Dallas

Shari Aronson says:

I’m doing a project for the Science Museum of MN and my task is to find details of the “real” Dallas— the sites, stories, beloved features that people who know it well would know but tourists might miss. Collins alumni seem like the perfect demographic to poll.

If you live (or have lived) in Dallas, email us {eatons[at]indiana[dot]edu} to pass along the info to Shari.

Peter Holquist

I lived at Collins from 1982-1986, most memorably in a triple with Rich Remsberg and Doug Lathom. Even more memorable was Jim Rose's visit to our room during my 21st birthday celebration (see commemorative picture at Al Chitlick's Collins photo page). I took two semesters "off" from Collins, studying in Russia in Fall 1983 (Moscow) and Spring 1986 (Leningrad). Some may remember as "Mad Dog" in the pick-up soccer games we played. Let's try to forget some of the late night dancing (some pictures of which can be found on Mike Rozenzweig's Collins photo page).

I went on to complete a graduate degree at Columbia University in Russian History (PhD, 1995). I was overjoyed to find that Patty Weitsman, also a Collins alumna, also had gone to Columbia for a PhD in Political Science. When Ron Mader and JP Simon visited me in NYC in Spring 1987, we all watched IU's run to the NCAA championship together.

I met my wife Diana at Columbia University. Rich and JP attended my wedding as groomsmen.

After graduation, I taught for nine years at Cornell University before moving to the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.

I have been back to Bloomington intermittently, but I have never managed to coincide with a Collins Reunion. Yet I always remember my time at Collins with great fondness.

(Picture 1: Peter Holquist and Rich Remsberg; Picture 2: Doug Lathom, Peter Holquist, Rich Remsberg)

Geoff McKim

Geoff McKim (Collins 86/87 & 87/88) was elected to the Monroe County Council in November of 2008. He is a Councilman at Large and was elected for a 4 year term.

Rose (Yersky) Kreidler

I'm Rose Kreidler, aka Rose Yersky, resident of Collins LLC in 83-87, with my Junior year off in Madrid, Spain. I keep quite busy working for the Federal Government, first for the Social Security Administration, and now working on War Hazard cases for the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

I love the blogs and pictures. I can't wait to show my 12 year old daughter where I lived in college. I'm sure she'll laugh to no end!! Better yet, I'll show my entire Girl Scout Troop.

Collins was the BEST place in Bloomington!! Great people, always with challenging ideas and philosophy--even PRACTICAL philosophy. I live up near Cleveland, Ohio, so I don't get back to Bloomington as much as I would like.

Anne Haines

Hi kids! I lived in MRC/Collins from 1979-1982 (and continued to hang around, working in the cafeteria, through 1983). I still live in Bloomington; got my MLS a few years ago and am now working as the Libraries Web Site Editor here at IU.

I was involved with Dancing Star during my Collins years, and I'm still writing; my first chapbook of poetry, "Breach," was published in 2008 by Finishing Line Press. You can read some sample poems and get more info on the chapbook at http://mypage.iu.edu/~ahaines/breach.html.

Gretchen Sneegas: Americorps Adventures

First Day

I got in to Baltimore, and did my "in processing"... a bunch of paperwork, basically. Then I got moved into my house, which I share with 5 other girls. I share a bedroom, we all share a bathroom, but we have a kitchen, dining room, living room, and even our own washer and dryer, which is pretty sweet. Unfortunately, the house SUCKS. A LOT.

It is much, much, much better now that we spent a hefty chunk of the weekend cleaning it top to bottom. The guy who came in and repaired the hole in the dining room ceiling and the holes in the kitchen walls helped a lot in that regard. Soon we should be getting the leaks in our plumbing fixed... which were what caused those holes in the first place... and life will be better than ever.

In fact, our cleaning was so superb, that we won the "best cleaned house" for our unit in today's house inspections. Our prize, so rumor has it, is homemade fudge by Chris, the unit leader. I'm pretty stoked.

Last week was pretty laid back in a lot of ways. We were placed into temporary teams called "pods,” and mainly we did preliminary tedious-but-necessary stuff. A scavenger hunt (which my pod rocked, by the way), history of Americorps, getting our uniforms, doing our physicals, etc.

Wildland Firefighting Unit

There are three units- Wolf, Badger, and Raven in NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps). Each unit is broken down into teams, and each team (with 8-10 people per team) is led by a team leader.

The fire fighting unit, however, is slightly different. There are about 2 fire fighters per regular team, so it's spread out evenly through teams and units. They can be called up at any time to do wildland fire fighting, at which point they leave their teams temporarily, and come back after 10-20 days, depending on the project.

SO being the adventurous and masochistic lady that I am, I did the pack test, which consists of wearing a 45 lb vest and power walking 3 miles (no running or jogging allowed!) in 45 minutes or less. I clocked in at almost exactly 45 minutes, which means I passed! SO HOORAY FOR THAT! I am still super sore, but not NEARLY as sore as I was yesterday. I also have some enormous bruises on my legs, because I managed to get one of the men's vests, which hit me mid-thigh. And 45 minutes of power-walking with a 45 pound vest bouncing on one's thighs is bound to leave bruises.

Even though I passed, I didn't get picked for the fire fighting unit... I'm disappointed, but not overly disappointed. They had more people pass than they had spots open, and they needed to keep it even across the units... so I got shafted. There are some pluses to this, however. For example, I only need to do PT (physical training) three times a week instead of five. Which means I only have to get up at 5 am three times a week instead of five. Yay!

Permanent Teams

Today was really cool in that we found out our PERMANENT teams. There are eight of us, nine if you include Pete, our Team Leader. My roommate is one of my team members... hopefully we won't kill each other. We're both pretty easy going, though, so I'm not too worried. The rest of my team seems pretty cool. I'm in the Wolf unit- we're Wolf 2! Get pumped, y’all.

Now that we have our teams, our training will begin in earnest, and will last for 4 weeks. I'm not entirely sure what that will entail... I've heard some vague mumblings about things like "first aid" and "CPR" and "diversity training" and so forth. You will all be posted, of course.