Back Talk

At a New Year’s Eve party at a random restaurant/bar in Cape Town, South Africa. We sat down at a communal table, and one of the other people there was an L&C alum—and friends with one of our friends.

—Shannon Brady BA ’06

Surfing in Santa Cruz! I was there for work—but also having fun in my off hours. Someone up at the parking area had an L&C swimming shirt on. Fun fact: I was also a swimmer at L&C!

—LeAnne Schrotzberger BA ’86

Kayaking on the Douro River in Portugal!

—Nate Cohen BA ’13

This past summer, I was hired to teach at an international school in Jeju Island, South Korea, and the newly hired swim instructors here are also L&C graduates. Then we ran into them again in Osaka, Japan, and it turns out one of them did her study abroad in Osaka through L&C as well.

—Amanda Isberg MAT ’10

At the Hyatt hotel lobby in Taiwan. We were both there on business trips. Yes, it is a small world!

—John Venator BS ’66

I ran into Mary-Claire Spurgin BA ’21, Juliana Prendergast BA ’20, and Allison Behrens BA ’21 at the Vatican in summer 2022!

—Mikah Bertelmann BA ’21

My wife was with our then 2-year-old daughter at the playground in Essex, Connecticut, and met the dad of another 2-year-old girl, whom she quickly learned has an older daughter who was about to graduate from L&C. When the young L&C grad came to visit Connecticut a few months later, we met for coffee, and she wound up doing some contract work for my PR firm before finding a full-time job.

—Jason Simms BA ’06

In Madrid, Spain, when we went to the same university for our respective master’s degrees. Our classrooms were even adjacent. The alum was Alejandra Peimbert BA ’11.

—Khethiwe Tracy Gumede BA ’14

This class of ’82 alum rolled over in bed and bumped into an alum from the class of ’84, who has slept next to me for 36 years! She’s Concetta Wolff, and we live in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

—Scott Wolff BA ’82

I once encountered an L&C alum while hiking in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia! One of the hikers was wearing a Lewis & Clark T-shirt, which sparked conversation as we crossed on the trail.

—Meaghan Lamarre BA ’02

My daughter is still a student (so a soon-to-be alum), but we were in a rural town in northern Vermont at an old-time music jam with a total of about seven people in a small house-turned-community center, and one of the fiddle players was an L&C alum.

—Betsy Tessler, L&C Parent

Several years ago, I was ordering a breakfast sandwich at a Corner Bakery in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. The young woman behind the counter asked if I wanted coffee; I said I brought my own and took a sip out of my L&C travel cup. Her eyes went wide, and she said, “That’s where I’m going this fall!”

—Todd Beaird BA ’88, JD ’91

I have an L&C license plate frame. Once, when I was parked in a Trader Joe’s lot in Bethesda, Maryland, I came back to my car to find a note on my windshield that said, “Go Pios! Class of ’91.” I’ve also run into alumni at the Fort Reno Summer Concerts in Washington, D.C., and even in Thamel, Kathmandu.

—Adrienne Benson BA ’92

At a dog park in Savannah, Georgia.

—Eric Beene BA ’95

In anesthesiology residency at UCSF [University of California at San Francisco]. One of my co-residents was Nate Miller BA ’13!

—Francie Goodstein BA ’14

On my honeymoon in 1988, I was on the island of Kauai with my husband, and we decided to drive to a beach on the north shore. I had just set out our blanket when I looked to my right and there was Stuart Chuharski BS ’79—a classmate from L&C. We had worked together at SAGA food service. We were both amazed to be on the same island, on the same day, at the same time!

—Julie Schott-Rawls BA ’80

I unexpectedly met some L&C alumni at my ecolodge in Baños, Ecuador. Magic “coincidence.”ecolodge in Baños, Ecuador.

—Oliver Heinke BA ’13