Robert Nigro

"Whatever's Write" founder Robert Nigro has been named as one of two runners-up for the 2009 Creative Nonfiction Prize awarded by Hunger Mountain, a publication of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, for his memoir, "Under the Black Flag." Details here: http://www.hungermtn.org/contest-news/

Pete Tidemann

Pete has been working as a live sound engineer and producer for 25 yrs and has been involved with many live productions, festivals and special events. His specialty is working in developing countries with arts, film and music festivals. Recently he was involved with Film Festival Jakmel in Haiti, where they held a 6 day festival of film, culminating in a concert by Wyclef Jean on a beach in which 80,000 people showed up to see the show.

In addition, Pete has been involved with the Sauti za Busara music festival in Zanzibar, Tanzania for the last few years and is presently shipping a container of professional audio and lighting equipment to the festival for 2010. He started the first education and training program in stage arts in East Africa and continues to work with a variety of people and organizations to educate and train technicians and artists in the region. His company, Linear Velocity, works to bring together cultures through technology and the arts as a tool of communication. You may find his website at www.linearvelocity.com or the music festival at www.busaramusic.com

Christopher Cokinos

My new nonfiction book, The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, was published in summer 2009 by Tarcher/Penguin, to reviews and notices in a number of venues including The New Yorker, Nature, Science, Seed, Discover and Natural History. I've done a number of radio and t.v. shows for the book and had a tie-in piece published in The New York Times.
www.christophercokinos.com

Suerah Bomzer Alterman

After a stint at ABC-TV research in NY, I moved to the Washington D.C. area to work in Public Broadcasting. I stayed at PBS for about 10 years and then retired to spend time with my children, start a private kindergarten and have fun. I currently teach English as a Second Language, working with children from around the world who come to live in Maryland.

Douglas Postels

I am a Collins alumnus, having lived there from 1984-1987 while doing an undergraduate major in microbiology.I am currently volunteering with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Lubutu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

I have a blog address (www.dougpostels.blogspot.com) if anyone is interested in reading about the life of an MSF volunteer. In real life, I currently live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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.