INSIDE THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Class Notes ILAUNCHU LOVE 2000s 2001 In November 2014, trial lawyer Jane Glynn helped her client, Linda Bruner, obtain the first same-sex dissolution in Indiana history after a legal battle that lasted nearly two years and involved multiple key rulings in federal court. Jane writes that she is “thrilled to have been Bruner’s trial attorney for the past two years and to have helped her move on with her life.” 2003 Rebecca Hartsough Brentin and Steven Brentin of Denver welcomed a baby girl, Eliana Sierra Top: McNaught and Kreniske ‘04; above: Healy ‘05 2004 Sandy McNaught and Philip Kreniske were mar- ried in 2012 and welcomed their newest family member, Solomon Bear Mervyn, in the fall of 2014. Sandy is a nationally certified pediatric speech pathologist. Philip is finishing his PhD in developmental psychology and recently published an article about how indigenous people of southern Africa use digital media, a project completed with the photography of Jesse Kipp. [w] http://jitp.commons.gc.cuny. edu/table-of-contents-issue-6/ t’s already happening. even before the alumni association adopted changes to its leadership structure, alumni, students, and the administration and faculty had begun finding new ways to connect. I’ve been hearing a lot about one of them and am in awe of the program. LaunchU is all about empowering students to develop entrepreneurial skills and ideas. It’s the brainchild of Dean of the Conservatory Andrea Kalyn and is designed to bring together students, faculty, alumni, parents, and administrators—anyone with any idea or a willingness to support students who have an idea about a new business. I attended a kick-off event in Washington, D.C., where I saw a presentation by the developers of a project called LumenEd. Henry Harboe ’15, Saksham Khosla ’15, Thomas Kreek ’15, and Prakash Paudel ’15 came up with an idea to promote interconnec- tivity among classrooms around the world. Here’s their description of the project: Through the LumenEd Video Pen Pal Program, we enable weekly video conversations between classrooms, while providing educational resources to students in the developing world. Our platform centers on the Bright Orange Box, a multimedia device that integrates a projector, PC, and camera. With a large battery and an optional solar panel, the Box plays educational content for an entire classroom, even those without electricity and internet access. By opening the door to global dialogue, LumenEd brings together students from around the world to learn, share and collaborate with each other. n Wendy Cyphers Brentin, on October 16, 2014. Haas and Darin Haas of Akron, Ohio, celebrated the birth of their first child, Ruth Louise “Arlo” Haas, on April 2, 2014. Not just cool—wildly cool. There’s so much that’s wonderful about this project, and it speaks to what’s amazing about LaunchU overall. It encourages students to use their enormous creative energy in a way that encapsulates something of what’s amazing about the Oberlin attitude toward being a citizen of the world. LaunchU encourages all the members of our community (one of the other prime movers behind the growth of LaunchU is Andy Klingenstein P’12) to work together to determine which of the initiatives is most worthy of support, and then finds ways to get them the support they need (such as mentoring, funding, and networking) to help bring their ideas to reality. You can read more about LaunchU on page 24 of this issue and at www.oclaunchu.com. I can see and hear some of you shaking your heads and muttering: “Really? Entrepreneurship at Oberlin? We’re not a business school. We’re a liberal arts school.” Well—no. Here’s why I love this so much. The Oberlin community strives to recognize and encourage all of the great thinking that comes from the students, from the faculty, and from the alumni, especially when it embodies the richness and variety of the education that Oberlin provides. Not all of the students are going to be entrepre- neurs, but clearly some are. We’ve always had students who have come up with big ideas that have benefited the world—do I need to go further than Charles Martin Hall, Class of 1885? I’m sure you can each come up with your own examples. It gives students who may not have had an outlet for, or a way of securing guidance about, their entrepreneurial ideas a means of connecting with and learning from experts in our community about how to bring their ideas to fruition. This program is doing exactly what the Alumni Leadership Council is hoping will happen more often—encouraging communication and support between and among the different constituencies within the Oberlin family. It’s another example of the drive that Dr. David Eisner ’69 is undertaking to form a group of alumni in health-related professions to allow networking and idea-sharing among students, faculty, and alumni for the mutual benefit of all. I love it. I hope you’ll read more about it, and come up with your own ideas about how to foster innovative ways of engaging the many elements of our explosively creative community. Chuck Spitulnik ’73 President, Oberlin Alumni Association 36