Brandeis Magazine

Allyson Goldsmith founded and serves as executive director of Eleveate, a nonprofit organization working to improve the well-being of girls by providing them with greater access to education. The group’s current emphasis is on teenage girls residing in the Kaolack region of the Republic of Senegal. Allyson was inspired to establish Eleveate after working with the Women’s Health and Education Prevention Strategies Alliance in Senegal in summer 2007. In August, Arun Narayanan moved to Los Angeles to pursue a master’s degree in film and television production at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He had been working as a customer development manager for PepsiCo in Connecticut 
and New York. Noam Kagedan and Lisa 
Rapschutz ’09 plan to get married in February 2012. Noam just started a new job with Jefferies & Co., and Lisa is in her second year in Brandeis’ new M.S. program in biotechnology. Anna Goodbaum is a campaign and development associate with Every Child Matters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to make children, youth and families a national political priority. Former Brandeis baseball star Drew Brzozowski pitched this summer for the Lexington (Mass.) Blue Sox, a traditional powerhouse in the Intercity League. He won his first five decisions, compiling a league-best 0.97 earned run average with 41 strikeouts and just four walks. Derek Strykowski is heading back to Brandeis to enter the Ph.D. program in musicology. Michael Pitt and Caitlin Kay Smith were married on June 4 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka in Wayzata, Minn. The reception was held on the deck of NorthCoast restaurant. They both started grad school at the University of Michigan in the fall. In June, Mariel Gruszko graduated from the University of Chicago, where she earned a master’s degree in the social sciences with a concentration in anthropology. She now works in New York as a facilitator for StoryCorps, an oral history project.