WDCSA Newsletter – October 2019

This month’s newsletter is available for download in PDF format.

Events Calendar

  • All Fall – WDCSA Stanford Football Game Watches
  • October 3 – End of Summer & Welcome to DC Happy Hour
  • October 10 – 11th Annual WDCSA Potomac River Cruise
  • October 20 – Hispanic Heritage Celebration Potluck
  • November 10 – Washington, DC Book Club Discussion
  • November 12 – Baltimore Book Club Discussion
  • November 17 – Parents Connection Autumn Social and Care Package Party

Upcoming Events

WDCSA Stanford Football Game Watches

Fall 2019
Stoney’s, 1433 P St. NW, Washington, DC

Come join the Washington DC Stanford Association and fellow alumni to cheer on the Cardinal this season at our official bar, Stoney’s, in the Logan Circle area. Food and drink specials – including California beers! – available. Upon arrival, head up the stairs to the second floor to join the Stanford group.  

See below for upcoming schedule:

  • Stanford vs. Washington: Saturday, Oct 5th TBD
  • Stanford vs. UCLA:  Thursday, Oct 17th, 9 pm
  • Stanford vs. Arizona: Saturday, Oct 26th, TBD
  • Stanford vs. Colorado: Saturday, Nov 9th, TBD
  • Stanford vs. Washington State: Saturday, Nov 16th, TBD
  • Stanford vs. Cal: Saturday, Nov 23, TBD (Note: Special Location for Joint Party with Cal TBD)
  • Stanford vs. Notre Dame: Saturday, Nov 30 TBD

If you have any questions, please contact James Barton at jamesbarton09@gmail.com.

End of Summer & Welcome to DC Happy Hour

Thursday, October 3, 5:30- 7:30pm
Duke’s Grocery, 1513 17th St NW, Washington, DC

Join the Stanford Cardinal Young Alumni & Stanford Alumni  for our annual end-of-summer bash, an extended happy hour at Duke’s Grocery! Celebrate the end of summer with fellow Stanford grads and welcome Stanford alumni to the DC area.

We have reserved the second floor at Duke’s! Food and drinks will be provided. Bring fellow alumni.

Link to register: https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details?event_id=30859

11th Annual WDCSA Potomac River Cruise 

Thursday, October 10, 7:15 -9:30pm
Washington Harbour, Georgetown, Washington, DC (31st and K streets NW) 

Join us for a sunset cruise past the monuments! We’ve rented a beautiful boat for the exclusive use of DC Stanford alumni. Mix and mingle with your fellow alumni, enjoying happy hour food and a premium open bar. WDCSA subsidizes this special event as a “thank you” to our members (to join WDCSA, please visit our chapter at the Stanford Alumni Association website).

  • Regular registration for WDCSA members and guests: $49
  • Regular registration for Non-Members and guests: $79

Reserve your ticket by October 3rd: https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details?event_id=30887

Washington Harbour is located across from the Riverside Grille on the dock. Please arrive no later than 7:15, as the boat will sail shortly thereafter with or without ticket holders. Refunds will not be granted to those who arrive late, no shows or cancelations. In the event of postponement for bad weather, we will notify ticket holders and attempt to reschedule for a later date. If you have any questions, please contact Kevin Coyne, MS ’02 at kevin.coyne@stanfordalumni.org.

Hispanic Heritage Celebration Potluck

Sunday, October 20, 4-6 pm
11136 Korman Dr, Potomac, MD

Join WDCSA for the next installment of the potluck dinner series.  This month our focus will be on Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct 15)  Bring your favorite food or dessert to share. Bring a friend and make a friend! Participation limited to 50 people.

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0b49afab2aa1f58-hispanic.

The hosts for this event are Lucy and Cesar Lopez (P’16). Contact Lucy at lucyabsi@hotmail.com or 240-441-9714 (cell) for more information.

Parents Connection Autumn Social and Care Package Party

Sunday, November 17, 2 -4:30 pm
Fulton, MD

Join the Stanford Parents Connection for our autumn social and care package party. Please bring a snack to share at the social.  

For those making care packages, please bring multiples of one item. You will be told how many the Wednesday before the event.  USPS medium, flat-rate priority boxes will be provided, so come prepared with the mailing address and $15 for the postage. The boxes will not be mailed until Monday, December 2nd.  In the RSVP, please indicate the number of boxes you will be making.

Come to fellowship, ask questions, and share your experiences and insights.

Questions/RSVP: Helene Myers, Ph.D., P’14, at cedarhouse@comcast.net

Get Involved

Stanford OVAL

Shape Stanford’s future! Speak with local undergraduate applicants as part of the OVAL interview program—an easy and rewarding way to support Stanford! OVAL interview training will be at Stanford in Washington (SIW) on Monday October 7th at 6:30 pm. Contact Maggie New at margaret@middleburggroup.com for more information.

CAN Basketball

The CAN coed alumni basketball season is upon us! If you are interested in playing on the WDCSA team and taking on rivals from schools like UC Berkeley, Arizona or UCLA, join our team!  It’s a fun way to build your network. Sign up here:  http://alumni.stanford.edu/goto/wdcsabasketball2020  by November 10th to save $20 off of the regular season price. Contact Greg Billings ’88, at billings.g@gmail.com, for more information.

Stanford In the News

  • This past summer, engineering graduate students Loza Tadesse and Tim Abate returned to their home country of Ethiopia to teach local college students about science research and educational opportunities. Tadesse and Abate convened a team of 13 scientists and graduate students from Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, Pepperdine University, the University of Chicago, the University of Akron and the University of Toronto. Together, they traveled to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, to lead a five-day summer school for some of Ethiopia’s most promising undergraduates in STEM fields.

WDCSA Member Spotlight: Patricia Arty

Patricia Arty ’10 has lived in D.C. since 2011, and currently serves as the President of the Washington D.C. Stanford Association. She grew up in Miami, Florida, and applied to Stanford because the university was known for pushing their students to follow their passions and curiosities. She majored in Human Biology with a concentration in International Health and Public Policy. 

After her time at Stanford, Patricia has dedicated her career thus far to ensuring that youth have the tools to achieve their full potential. She works at the U.S. Soccer Foundation, where she focuses on how to sustainably scale programs to ensure that all children, no matter their circumstances, are able to have access to a mentor and a safe place to play right in their own neighborhoods. 

With the challenge of scaling evidence-based programs, Patricia realized that she needed to build additional skills to help her organization reach its goals. This past fall, she began pursuing her MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business while maintaining her full-time job. Her goal is to support non-profit organizations’ ability to address some of society’s greatest challenges. 

Her advice to fellow Stanford alums is to lean on their Stanford network. Patricia says, “Some of my closest friends ten years out of college are Stanford alums that I met when I first moved to the city!”

If you have suggestions for other alumni in the DMV area to profile in upcoming newsletters, please send them to Jasmaine McClain (jasmaine.mcclain@gmail.com) or Stephanie Tan (stephanie.tan@stanfordalumni.org). 

WDCSA Book Club Corner

Washington DC Book Club Discussion

Sunday, November 10, 5-7:45 pm
Bethesda, MD

The book group will discuss I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong.

This is a groundbreaking, informative, and entertaining examination of a significant revolution in biology — a “microbe’s-eye view” of life on Earth. 

Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, shows us our animal companions in a new light — less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we are. 

The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people. Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us — the microbiome — build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. Ed Yong takes us on a tour through our microbial partners and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery.

For more information, contact Suzanne Harris at szharris56@gmail.com.

Baltimore Book Club Discussion

Tuesday, November 12, 7:30 pm
The Hull Street Blues Cafe, 1122 Hull St, Baltimore, MD

Our November selection is Bad Blood:  Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou.  This is the biography of Elizabeth Holmes of Stanford Class of 2005, who quit school in her junior year to pursue her fortune in biotech.  This book is a detailed account of the rise and fall of Theranos, Holmes’s company, which she founded in 2003, valued at $10 billion in 2014, and dissolved in 2018 under charges of fraud. ABC Radio did a 6-part podcast earlier this year on Holmes:  http://abcradio.com/podcasts/the-dropout/  The January selection is What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon.

Questions/RSVP: Helene Myers, Ph.D., P’14, at cedarhouse@comcast.net.