Hey, y'all. We hope you've enjoyed your summers; we know we have. Here's what the last bunch of Tufflepuffs have been up to First up is the lovely McKenzie Welter. McKenzie has spent the majority of her summer at home with her family in Allendale, New Jersey. She has been working as a hostess at Allendale Bar and Grill. She has also been to three weddings through out the summer. She is also working as the Art & Crafts leader at Vacation Bible School (which is quite fitting due to her transition from Engineering to A&S this fall). McKenzie was also one of the Tufflepuffs who made the trek to New York City and Randall's Island to play in Northeast Fantasy. She and Matthew Cardarelli were both drafted onto Jack thePhan's team, Blues Bludgers. After a rough start to the day, losing to our very own Ethan Sturm, Alan Bartels, and Michael Sanders, McKenzie and Matt's team rallied, making it out of the death pool. They beat the winner of the other pool, Ricky Nelson's Admirals. In the finals, they played Jayke's Biggest Fans and won on a Harry Greenhouse snitch snatch. Congrats to McKenzie on her first fantasy tournament win and first tournament win. Hopefully, you will get one with Tufts this year. Up next is another Tufflepuff who went to Northeast Fantasy: one of our fabulous co-managers, Emily Garber. Emily has been spending the summer working as a lifeguard at home in Connecticut. She has been slowly but surely learning the language of the seagulls while becoming progressively more and more tan. Emily has also been writing stories during the summer. Emily, and her fellow co-managers have also been in constant contact, working on organizing the semester plans for Tufts Quidditch. Our third featured Tufflepuff of this installment is Christopher Blum. Chris has been working with the construction group at a gas and convenience chain. He has done more programming in van for excel than normal engineering related stuff. He has also done some hiking in the Red River Gorge. Chris is also working on numerous personal building projects throughout the summer. He has been spending time at home in Kentucky and spending time with his family. Last and certainly least is the second of two Emily's: Emily Hickmott. Emily spent the beginning of the summer trying not to be driven mad by Organic Chemistry, something we are not sure she was able to do. After her orgo sentence had been fulfilled, Emily started working in the Kaplan Lab at Tufts where she got to spend a lot of time with wires. She also played a lot more quidditch than was good for her health or bank account, going to Canada Day Fantsy, Champagne Cup, THE Fantasy Tournament, and Northeast Region Fantasy Tournament, yet failing to make it farther in the bracket than the semifinals. She also spent the summer perfecting her derp faces, as shown in neighboring picture. Now that summer is almost over, Emily is looking forward to the return of all the wonderful Tufflepuffs. She has also been in charge of this nonsense. Hope you guys have enjoyed learning about what each and every Tufflepuff has been up to this summer. If you want any updates, tell us in the comments.
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Hello again! It has been far too long since we have chronicled the life and times of the Tufflepuffs. Almost a full month has passed since our last installment (fantasy tournaments will do that), and the Tufflepuffs have been up to some shenanigans. First up is the wonderful and talented Alan Bartels. Alan spent the majority of the summer working at a job that he won in a game of poker, where he worked on software development. He also spent part of the summer visiting Spain with his family. In Spain, Alan immersed himself in the culture, especially the wonderful food. His greatest regret was that customs wouldn't let him take the very expensive and delicious ham he purchased in Spain back to the United States. After traveling in Spain, Alan and a group of other Tufflepuffs traveled up to Maine to visit Breandan Haley and his house in Maine. In Maine, Alan demonstrated his impressive grilling skills and his ability to water ski. Alan also traveled to New York last weekend with a slew of other Tufflepuffs to compete in the Northeast Regional Fantasy Tournament, where he, Michael Sanders, and Ethan Sturm were on the same team, which unfortunately failed to repeat Ethan's victory at the first NERF, although they did beat the eventual champions. Next up is another Tufflepuff who went to Northeast Fantasy, Greg Bento. Greg has spent the majority of the summer in Boston. He has been working as an intern at a company that builds synthesizers and digital pianos. Greg worked on odd jobs around the company, including soldering circuits, measuring different aspects of keyboards, updating data base information, and organizing circuit components. Aside from working, Greg has spent the summer playing in various fantasy tournaments in the Northeast. In June, he was a first round draft pick in Canada Day Fantasy. In July, he went to the Hamptons to play in Champagne Cup, where his father, Leo Bento also played. In August, Greg was drafted onto Erin Mallory's team for Northeast, who defeated the eventual runner-up team, Jayke's Biggest Fans. Greg also took a class over the summer and relaxed with friends in Boston and Connecticut. Up next is fellow Magic: The Gathering player, Steve Mullahoo. Steve has spent a significant part of the summer traveling for different Magic Tournaments. One such tournament that Steve attended was the Grand Prix Boston for Magique. Aside from playing Magic and spending time with his family, Steve helped run a kidditch camp in August for the second year in a row. According to Steve, the kids all wanted to play and get invested in the games. Similar to college level quidditch, they get competitive; chasers start yelling at their beaters. We here at Tufts Quidditch would like to thank Steve for continuing to spread quidditch across all ages. Up next is our current Kidditch coordinator, Breandan Haley. Breandan spent the summer working at a country club in Maine. He also took an EMT class and is thus now certified to save people's lives. He also invited a slew of Tufflepuffs up to his beautiful lake house in Maine. At the lake house, Breandan played perfect host, providing endless amounts of fun and food. He took the visiting Tufflepuffs raspberry picking, to a clam festival, and his home town of Kennebunkport. He also demonstrated his more devilish side when flinging his fellow Tufflepuffs around on the the lake while tubing. Breandan has since returned to Tufts, where he, David Stack, and David Bernstein are all undergoing RA training. That's all for this installment. Keep an eye out for our next and final installment. In this installment, we will be focusing on the Tufflepuffs who are more esteemed and knowledgeable, due to the fact that all of them have already graduated from college. First up is the lovely Michael Sanders. In the beginning of the summer, Mike graduated college and entered the real world. As a real person, Mike has been working as a server at Nebo Restaurant and bar, which was recently voted one of the top restaurants in Boston, in order to save up money for his time in the Peace Corps. Mike will be leaving for the Peace Corps between January and March and will most likely be placed somewhere in East Africa. He will most likely be doing health or environmental work. Until he leaves, Mike plans on continuing working at Nebo, hanging with his friends, and playing quidditch. Although he still hasn't decided what team he wants to play for now that his time playing for Tufts Quidditch has come to a close. Next up is one of our lovely graduate students, Samantha Snyder. Sam is one of only three graduated students who have played for Tufts quidditch, and like most graduate students, her time is focused mostly on her studies. Thus far this summer, she has just been working on research and playing softball for the Psychology department team. She is currently home in Orlando and will definitely be visiting Wizarding World of Harry Potter! She may also be going on a Disney cruise at the end of the month. Her only other plan is to attend her cousin's wedding in Wisconsin in August. We hope her time in Florida is magical! Last up is the one and only Ethan Sturm. Our resident old married man, Ethan has been spending his summer doing exactly what he did while he was at Tufts: working in the PR department. He has also continued working on his site, The Eighthman, where he records a podcast with fellow Tufflepuff, Noah Schwartz. He continues to make promises about writing more articles that he never fulfills. Ethan has also spent the summer working on his quidditch skills, as shown in the picture to the left. He has been conditioning all summer and even learned how to do a squat for the first time. He has also been attending fantasy tournaments all over the Northeast. Thus far, he has failed to defend his Canada Fantasy title. He will attempt to garner a championship victory at Champagne this weekend and is gathering his forces to attempt to reclaim the Northeast Fantasy title from Michael "Yada" Parada. Best of luck to you, Ethan. That's all for this installment. Check out our new instagram account, http://instagram.com/tuftsquidditch Hello again! There is a common saying in quidditch: WEST COAST, BEST COAST. Here are some Western-based Tufflepuffs who demonstrate how accurate that saying is (although if you ask us, if the West was all that great, they never would have left). First up, we have our wonderful captain, Hannah DeBaets, hailing from Northern California. Hannah is spending her summer doing research in the Walt lab at Tufts. She's enjoying exclusive keycard access to high-tech parts of the lab - most importantly the kitchen. In addition to her lunch breaks, Hannah is doing the occasional bit of work. Her project for the summer is to investigate how the bacteria and other organisms that live on your body transfer to your personal items, like your phone. Besides spending a lot of her time this summer in a lab coat, Hannah has been hanging out in (and hanging from) a variety of trees. A relatively inexperienced tree climber, Hannah has found that sitting in trees with friends is one of her new favorite ways to relax. If you are looking for a good tree to climb, Hannah suggests you come visit Tufts and try the Possum Tree, which has become Hannah's most frequently visited tree. Hannah has spent the last few weeks exploring different parts of the world, including Montreal and LA. Coming up on July 19th, this Tufflepuff will be joining Team USA to face off against six other international teams in Vancouver. Among all of the new faces at Global Games will be at least one familiar one: that of Arlene Rosenberg, a fellow Tufflepuff and member of Team Canada. Hannah is looking forward to meeting her Team USA teammates and learning as much as she can from them. We here at Tufts Quidditch could not be prouder of our two national team members. Next up is fellow Northern Californian, Andrew Carp. Carp spend the spring semester in Hong Kong, where he went a lot of parties, explored the city and island, and ate at a lot of different restaurants. He also spent a few weekends traveling to China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Taiwan was his favorite because it had the best food and nicest people. In Malaysia, he got to hike a 14,000 foot mountain and almost passing out due to altitude sickness. After school ended, Carp spent most of the summer backpacking through southeast Asia. He got to go to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. In Thailand, he traveled to an island called Koh Phi Phi in the south where Carp spent about four days sitting on the beach and kayaking through the cliffs around the island. He also got to snorkel, ate lots of pad thai, and fought his friend in a Muay Thai boxing match. In Vietnam, Carp also explored some of the biggest caves in the world. He also spent a lot of time riding motorcycles around the national park in Vietnam and traveling through the hills and caves. In Laos, Carp did a rainforest hike with this old Laotian guide called "Capitan". He also cycled through a really surreal area of Myanmar called Bagan. It has 4000 temples and stupas dating back to the 9th century or so. After visiting Myanmar, Carp returned home to Silicon Valley. He will return to Tufts in August, and we are all looking forward to hearing more about his trip. Our final featured Tufflepuff is Lily Buechler, hailing for Boise, Idaho. She has been working at Boise State University's Energy Efficiency Research Institute. She is working with a group of people doing research on microgrid peak electrical demand reduction . When not at work, Lily has been spending as much time as possible up in the mountains enjoying the outdoors. She has gone on a few camping and backpacking trips to some of the more remote parts of Idaho. She has had a blast kayaking, biking and climbing mountains with friends and family. She has also been watching the World Cup and is super excited for the final this weekend! That's all for this week! Hope the summer has been treating you well! Hello again! The summer sure is heating up in Boston so to help us cool down, here are some of the coolest Tufflepuffs around. First up we have the one, the only: Ben “Babycakes” Pfander. Ben, like many other Tufflepuffs is spending this summer like he has spent the last few: working as a camp counselor at a YMCA camp in Michigan called Camp Echo. Babycakes has spent the last thirteen summers at Echo and the last four working as staff. At Camp Echo, Babycakes will be working both in the normal camp program and with the Teen Staff. With the normal camp program, he will be helping with a variety of activities, including baseball, basketball, kayaking, and even LARPing. On Teen Staff, Ben will be working with the older kids at camp on activities such as overnight and river trips that require more autonomy. Babycakes is especially excited for the Pine River trip, which is when the campers and staff take a 3-day, 2-night canoe trip down the Pine River. They cook on a camp stove, sleep in camping tents, and carry all their equipment in their canoes as they make their way down the river. All in all, Ben’s summer abounds with awesome activities. Aside from his amazing summer plans, our dear Babycakes is leaving us this fall. He is studying abroad in Ireland all semester, where he plans on studying Irish history, exploring Ireland, visiting some friends, and maybe playing some intercontinental quidditch. We hope you have a wonderful time! Bring us back some of that Irish Luck. Now we would be able to live with ourselves if we wrote about Ben and didn't mention what his partner-in-crime and fellow Midwesterner, Maxwell Leonhardt. Ben and Max are so attuned to each other’s actions that their summers are very similar. Max is also working at a summer camp this summer. He will be taking a few trips with campers up to northern Wisconsin to hike, canoe, and sea kayak on Lake Superior through the caves of the Apostle Islands. Max has also been working on an album with his band, That’s So Gentlemen, which you can check out here: http://notsogentlemen.bandcamp.com/album/summer-lightning. Much like Ben, Max is also not returning to Tufts in the fall. Unlike Ben, He will be missing for an entire year. We’ve come to terms with it though because we know he will be having a blast. Next year, Max will be working for City Year in Milwaukee. City Year is an AmeriCorp program in which he will be tutoring, teaching, and helping with after school programming. We know Max will do a wonderful job and couldn’t be prouder of him. Up next is the lovely and talented Jordan Anderson. Jordan spent the first part of the summer taking Cell Biology and working at Tufts Medical Center. As the first summer session has passed, Jordan is now working full time, in the Infections Disease Department. She is working on processing data of the impact of injection drug user on infectious endocarditis rate, HIV nutritional conference, and HIV retention in Namibia. Jordan has also been going on adventures, including visits to Rock Port, Old Sturbridge Village, the Fells, and Canada. Visits to Portland, Kennebunkport, and New York are in the works. Jordan, like fellow Tufflepuff David Stack is also going to Uganda this summer. She is going for two weeks in August to help set up a loan program. All in all, Jordan’s summer is incredibly busy and eventful, with many adventures to come. That’s all for this installment. Stay cool, my friends. As usual, any and all requests, concerns, questions, or general musings about the meaning of life can be commented below. Hello again! Summer solstice is officially in the past, and it is now truly summer!! To start the season off right, here's what more Tufflepuffs are up to this summer. The first featured Tufflepuff is our former co-manager and current fundraising coordinator: Matthew Cardarelli. Matt kicked off the summer by coordinating a tournament with teachers at Buckingham, Browne, & Nichols high school in Cambridge. Tufts Quidditch was approached by two high school teachers at the end of the school year to come help teach the rules of quidditch to their students, and to help with their very own World Cup. Matt was instrumental in organizing both the instructional session, shown above, and the World Cup. The World Cup was very successful, with the game coming down to a snitch snatch! Hopefully the event will happen in future years, as everyone involved had a blast! Besides his Tufts Quidditch duties, Matt has been working at athenahealth, Inc in Watertown, MA. He will be working on Software Development through August. One of the highlights of his job thus far has been go-karting with the company a few weeks ago. Matt is also very excited to play Mario Kart 8. He also plans to spend time with his family, since a family reunion with his 150+ extended family and a trip to Niagara Falls is in the works. Next up is Josh Golding, our newest addition to the Tufflepuff family. Josh spent the end of May in London with his family. Josh now has an internship at Giuliani Partners, which is owned by Rudy Giuliani and is a consulting firm that does a lot of work with security and law enforcement. He might also visit Montreal and Italy this summer. Continuing his summer of international endeavors, he is also planning on taking an online Russian course at a local college. Another Tufflepuff with international travel plans in the work is Nicolas Sempere. Nick is planning to visit France in the next couple of weeks. Aside from his visit to Europe, he is working as a life-guard, visiting relatives, and working on a website for a place where he used to go for guitar lessons. He is also cheering on the French national team as they try to improve upon their performance at the last World Cup. Speaking of the World Cup, Nick's fellow Texan, Noah Schwartz, is planning on spending the summer cheering on the USA national team as they attempt to make it out of the Group of Death. Noah is thus very excited for the USA vs Germany game on Thursday and hopes for an American victory. Aside from cheering on the USA team, Noah is interning for Rita Lucido, who is running for the District 17 State Senate seat in Texas. He is also planning on attending numerous weddings, along with Blue Bonnet Cup and THE Fantasy Tournament. Another Tufflepuff who will be watching the USA/Germany game on Thursday is Nora Mueller. However, she will be hoping for a German victory. Aside from watching soccer, Nora is working for the Tufts Adoption and Development Project as a research assistant studying trans-racial adoption of Chinese girls to American families. She is also babysitting and doing a GRE prep class. Nora has also been spending time with her friends at Tufts and playing quidditch. She will be attending Canada Fantasy next weekend, along with six other Tufflepuffs! She will be visiting Germany in August with her family for her grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Last, but certainly not least, is David Bernstein. This summer, David is a camp counselor in Maine. Some of the activities he is working on include teaching guitar, cooking, and kayaking. He also got life-guard certified. He is having a swell time at camp and will spend the rest of the summer there. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer as much as we are! Who do you want to hear about next? Let us know in the comments!! So the plan was to write one of these posts every other week. Yet here we are, five days later, and a new post in the making. The primary reason for this decision is the Tufflepuffs just have so many interesting things happening this summer, any delay writing about them would be criminal. We always say you wish you were a Tufflepuff, and here are some reasons why, this summer, it might be true. First up in this round of Tufflepuffs is Madeleine Lebovic, one of our wonderful rising sophomores. Like our dear Ian, Madeleine started the summer on a high note, as she was one of the three brave Tufflepuffs who went skydiving. However, after skydiving, her summer hit a low point, as Madeleine, like so many before her, struggled to find an internship or job for the summer. In response to her struggles, Madeleine decided to create her own business for the summer. She is running a summer camp this summer. Now many of us when we were growing up went to soccer, basketball, music, or arts camps during the summer time, but I am willing to bet none of us went to a quidditch camp. However, those in the Barrington Area of Chicago now have the chance to play quidditch over the summer, as Madeleine has started the Barrington Area Quidditch Club (BAQC). She will be running weekly camps for all ages this summer, starting June 16. Anyone interested in finding out more about the summer camps or the program in general should check out her beautiful website, http://www.baqc.net/ or email [email protected]. Next up is the lovely Bj Mestnik. Now while he has officially graduated from Tufts, he will never graduate from being a Tufflepuff, and thus he is featured here. Bj, after the craziness of senior week and graduation, hopped on a flight to Dublin, where he spent the day chilling and drinking with old drunk Irishmen. He then traveled to Rome, where he took in the sights of the city. He then traveled around Italy, taking in the sights and sounds of the country and of course, eating delicious food. He visited Venice where he recreated a chase scene in the crowded Venice streets and jumped in a Venice canal. He then traveled to Florence, which is his favorite city he's visited thus far. He planning on traveling to Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, and Geneva. In Geneva, he will be picked up by his first WWOOFing family. For those who don't know, WWOOF stands for world wide opportunities on an organic farm, which is a program that allows people from around the world work on organic farms in different locations around the world. Bj will be woofing in Italy for the majority of his summer and after. Last, but certainly not least, is the fabulous David Stack. This summer, Stack is spending 6 weeks in Uganda as an internship. This internship, established by the New England Global Issues Institute along with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sends teams of 18 or 20 students to Uganda. During this trip, his team will work with the Christian Ugandan University students, learning about issue in global poverty, relief work, the role of the global Church, and the rehabilitation of former girl soldiers. He will be serving in Kamplala and Gulu and will be living with the people he meet. His team will be working with Miles to Smiles and Thread of Life to try to understand and work with the people of Uganda to tackle poverty issues. He will also live and work with former girl soldiers at the ChildVoice site. We here at Tufts Quidditch could not be prouder of David Stack and know he will bring laughter and love to everyone he meets along the way.
That's all for this post. Let us know in the comments who you want to hear about next. 6/2/2014 1 Comment Tufflepuffs in Summer!! Part 1What's up, universe? Hope you've all been enjoying the summer! We sure have! Which brings us to this series of posts. We will be writing about the exploits and adventures of various Tufflepuffs through out the summer. Our wonderful seeker, Ian Luo has the prestige and honor of being the first Tufflepuff featured this summer. Ian's summer thus far has consisted mainly of playing League of Legends, chilling around Boston, and consuming copious amounts of Helen's. Over Memorial Day weekend, Ian flew to Chicago to go skydiving with our very own Madeleine Lebovic and Ben Pfander. According to Ian, it wasn't as scary as he thought it would be. For the rest of the summer, Ian has an internship at Tufts and is planning on continuing to expand his cooking ability. Next up is our lovely past Historian, Mari Fromstein. This summer, Mari is returning to Minneapolis for the beginning of the summer, where she is working for the parks and rec department, like her hero, Lesley Knopes. In the parks and rec department, she plays sports, makes tie dye and crafts with kids, and helps in the city's drama club and traveling puppet show. She is attending Midwest Fantasy in Illinois along with playing summer quidditch in Minnesota. A week after Midwest fantasy, she will be flying to New Zealand to start her semester abroad. Have a wonderful time in New Zealand! Say hi to Frodo for us! Our third featured Tufflepuff is our very own Co-manager, Arlene Rosenberg. The summer started off with an incredible honor, with Arlene being selected to represent Team Canada at the Global Games in July. She'll be rocking that home field advantage against our captain, Hannah DeBaets. Aside from her selection onto Team Canada, Arlene plans to participate in numerous fantasy tournaments this summer, including Canada Fantasy, Northeast Fantasy, and Champagne Cup. This past weekend, Arlene's team was victorious in the Montreal Fantasy Tournament, and she is hoping to keep her winning streak going throughout the summer. Aside from playing quidditch, Arlene is working for Yellow Shoes in the head office in the buying department. She is helping put together the spring/summer 2015 collection for the women's section and is actually getting to design some shoes. She is also coaching a baseball team with her brother and relaxing in Montreal. Finally, a very happy birthday to our lovely BJ "SPRING BREAK" Mestnik and Ben "BABYCAKES" Pfander. Even though we won't see either of you for a while, know that we are wishing you the best. Always. Who do you want to hear about next? Tell us in the comments! |
AuthorTufts University Tufflepuffs, catching snitches and wrecking pitches since 2009. CategoriesAll Diamond In The Tuff Fundraising New Kids On The Block Tufflepuffs In Summer Archives
July 2016
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