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CLASS NOTES
Jim Bownas, class of 1965,
was
married to Liz Tilton on July 6, 2012, in
a Wedding Mass at St. Peter Catholic
Church. The couple also celebrated
the birth of Liz’s first grandchild (Jim’s
sixth), Benjamin David Hardesty, on
June 2, 2012.
Jim has been a partner in the Columbus
law firm Lane, Alton & Horst, LLC, since
October, 2011, where he practices in
the areas of business counseling and
estate planning.
Honorary alumna Deb Landig
retired
in June 2012 after 31 years of service
to St. Francis DeSales High School.
Tommy Hampton
’92
, pictured
left with Deb,
joined the crowd
who came out
to celebrate her
retirement at the
Buckeye Hall of
Fame Grille.
Laura (Hollern) Thorne ’95
, had a baby
girl, Emily Josephine, on June 9, 2012.
Making a name for himself,
Rob
Zangardi, class of 1995
, is a freelance
stylist based in Los Angeles. Rob works
as a duo with Mariel Haenn. Their clients
include Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, Gwen
Stefani, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith,
Jay Z, Rachel McAdams and Lilly Collins.
Erika (Brosz) Robbe ’99
and her
husband Matt welcomed their daughter,
Anna Lee, into the world on December
2, 2011. The Robbe family resides in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Brett (Canty) Way, class of 2003,
and husband
Nick enjoyed
a beautiful
wedding day in
October 2012
(pictured left).
Our
Bright
Fulbright Scholar
Stephanie Wolfe ’05 will begin yet another
adventure in January 2013, accepting a
Fulbright grant to be an English Teaching
Assistant (ETA) in Malaysia. With the
completion of her Master’s degree in Social
Work from Boston College this past May,
Stephanie is ready for this new challenge.
After graduation from SFD, Stephanie
attended Eckerd College in St. Petersburg,
Florida, where she received a B.A. in Women and Gender
Studies with minors in International Relations and Global
Affairs and Political Science. As an incoming student, she
received a Freshman ResearchAssociateAward to conduct an
independent study on the U.S. and the Rwandan Genocide.
Stephanie explains, “I was passionate to learn more, inspired
by Mr. Ulry’s inaugural senior spring break trip to Europe,
and our class visit to Auschwitz.” As a sophomore, she later
became a Ford Scholar, a program for students interested
in exploring careers in higher education. While at Eckerd,
she also had the opportunity to study abroad for a month
in Cape Town, South Africa, a semester in Kolkata, India,
with the International Partnership for Service-Learning and
Leadership, and two weeks in Geneva, Switzerland, in order
to learn about the role of the United Nations. At Eckerd’s
commencement, Stephanie received the Miller Award, which
is presented to a senior student whose life activities best
exemplify the ideal of unselfish and public-spirited service to
the community, off campus as well as on campus.
The summer after graduation from Eckerd, she spent time as an au pair in Madrid, Spain, and
in September, she served nine months with the LorettoVolunteer Program in NewYork City.
With a stipend and housing in the Bronx provided, Stephanie was able to access meetings in
the United Nations, draft an NGO intervention statement, and spearhead the coordination of
volunteer interpreters to work in the translation booths at a Civil Society Forum.
Following her experience in NYC, she moved to Boston to pursue a Master’s degree in Social
Work with a focus on Global Practice (or International SocialWork) and Macro Intervention,
which focuses on the advocacy, policy, community organizing, and non-profit management
aspect of social work. During her time at BC, she traveled to Romania and Hungary, learning
about child welfare and issues faced by the Roma populations in these countries, and also spent
three months living in Brussels, Belgium, working as an Advocacy Assistant for Jesuit Refugee
Service-Europe.
“My experience at DeSales really influenced my passion for combining faith, political advocacy,
and social justice. I had great teachers, and my government and history classes especially pushed
me to dig deeper into these fields. My first time out of the country was on a summer trip to
Italy with DeSales, and since that trip, I have made it a mission to go abroad at least once a year.”
She continues, “Recently, I was looking back at my‘journey book’ that I made for theology class
senior year, and one of the predictions that I made for myself was that in ten years (from 2005),
I would hopefully be working for an international humanitarian organization abroad. I am not
quite there yet, but it has been nice to see how my goals have evolved since high school.”
(Top photo) A Habitat for
Humanity visit in Romania;
(Above) Experiencing the culture in
Kolkata, India