posted Mar 21, 2021, 4:15 PM by Janet Hurwitz
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posted Mar 21, 2021, 7:33 AM by Janet Hurwitz
Thank you to Karin Tsai (PGSS 2006) who was the March speaker for our PGSS 2020 Speaker Series. Karin spoke about "Learning About Learning at Duolingo: From 0 to Director: Lessons in Navigating a Career in Tech. From her change from medicine to tech and her trajectory in programming to the use of A/B testing in facts of Duolingo's product development, Karin held the interest of our younger alumni. The Q&A went longer than we'd imagine, and Karin was incredibly generous with her time. We only wish all PGSS 2013-2020 govies could have heard her. |
posted Mar 17, 2021, 6:38 AM by Janet Hurwitz
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updated Mar 17, 2021, 6:43 AM
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posted Mar 15, 2021, 9:01 AM by Janet Hurwitz
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updated Mar 17, 2021, 6:33 AM
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PGSS Class of 1988 met for a virtual reunion on March 14, 2021. They shared their various paths since PGSS including careers in research, journalism, medicine, law, culinary arts, and religion. Many have taken pivots at points in their lives, all seemed to be doing well. In attendance were Ethan Andelman, Jamie Cannone, Di McMahon Cannone, Alan Chang, Sonya Chmielnicki Dore, Karin Finberg, Peter Garbes, David Halstead, Eric Morton (TA), Nicole Nazzaro, Chien Oh, Bert Robertson, Hadi Sasmita, and Joseph Shieh. Thanks to Alan Chang and Sonya Dore for planning. |
posted Mar 7, 2021, 11:35 AM by Janet Hurwitz
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updated Mar 7, 2021, 11:35 AM
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 Our thanks to Tom Pavel for planning a very successful PGSS 1983 Virtual Reunion. There were 13 alums and 2 TA's who shared a little about what has been happening in their lives since spending five weeks on the Carnegie Mellon campus and heard an update from PGSS Campaign Board member, Al Cangahuala. They've decided to make this an annual event. They have some jeopardy questions ready for next year and look forward to more discussions. |
posted Feb 21, 2021, 6:15 AM by Janet Hurwitz
Our thanks to Natalie Morris (PGSS 2007) for being our February PGSS 2020 Speaker. Natalie shared many of her experiences as a Computer Scientist with SpaceX with govies from PGSS 2013-2020. Thanks to Prateek and Taran from 2020 for making the arrangements. |
posted Jan 17, 2021, 7:00 AM by Janet Hurwitz
Many thanks to Rahmah Abdulaleem (PGSS 1992) for a wonderful talk during our PGSS 2020 Virtual Speaker Series. As with some of our alumni, while she loved the PGSS experience and the people she met there, she found science was not what she was going to do with her life. But then what? She promised our govie attendees that "It's ok if you don't know what you want to do now. You're not locked in. Your life can go in so many different directions." Rahmah found her direction in law but it took her 20 more years to land her dream job at Karamah! |
posted Jan 1, 2021, 12:10 PM by Janet Hurwitz
We are sad to report the death of former Governor Dick Thornburgh at the age of 88. Governor Thornburgh's administration started PGSS back in 1982, and Thornburgh also wrote several letters to support us when we were working to revive PGSS after its untimely demise in 2009. See links to those letters below. |
posted Dec 30, 2020, 1:51 PM by Janet Hurwitz
Members of the original PGSS class (PSS in 1982) held their second Zoom meeting of 2020 to catch up, share their experiences through this unprecedented year, and discuss this year's and next year's PGSS programs. From top to bottom, left to right: Alberto Cangahuala, Karen Van Dusen, Stephen Engel, Steve Sisak, Mark Ettinger, Tom Liu, and Joel Bader. A fun Zoom call with which to end the year! Thanks to PGSS Campaign Board Member Al Cangahuala for hosting the virtual reunion. |
posted Nov 21, 2020, 6:04 PM by Janet Hurwitz
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updated Nov 21, 2020, 6:05 PM
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Thanks to Jen Lloyd (PGSS 1984) for hosting a Virtual Reunion. PGSS Class of 1984 met for an impromptu reunion on Saturday Nov 21st. Class agents Jen Lloyd and Heidi Wald were joined by Tim Chinowsky, Matt Goda, Trevor Feldman and Elizabeth Hofmeister, along with Andrew McGuier from the Class of 2004. (Andrew Denker, our 3rd class agent, was not able to make it and Lisa Valentovich also sent apologies). Andrew gave us an update on the 2020 program, fundraising and other ways that we can all participate in PGSS going forward. We had fun talking about our careers (we have 2 MDs, and several PhDs just in this crew alone!) and where we live (none of the above are still living in PA!). We did some photo sharing (yes by holding old 3x5 photos up to the web cams!) and we now have a plan to scan and share from a Google folder. Trevor Feldman seems to have a wealth of mementos including our very own "face book". We also plan to share a document for all classmates to provide an update. And finally, we did some reminiscing about PGSS - classes we had (largely similar to the current program), projects, where we ate, what we ate, where we worked and played, and so on. We all remembered the fun and games in the common area (of what we believe was Hamerschlag Hall ....). Overall we had fun reconnecting and hope more will join us next year! |
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