In Atlanta, there is an organization called the Young Architects Forum and this year they decided to run a national competition during the annual Modern Atlanta event. The design competition was called 10UP and there were entries from all over the world with a jury made of very high profile architects & designers.

After much deliberation, it was announced that the winner is our very own alum Wes McGee & his team: Matter Design!
Wes rowed on the GT Crew team from 1997-2001 and was an amazing rower, taking his Open 4+ to medal at IRA. Congratulations Wes, we wish you the best and will be sure to come see your BUILT STRUCTURE next week! (Helping Wes build this structure is his wife and GT Crew alum Deniz Ozmen McGee! What a creative couple!)

MA (Modern Atlanta) is an enterprise and a brand that believes that DESIGN is a five-letter word: HUMAN. We’ve even named our annual event “Design Is Human”, in part because MA’s mission is to promote design excellence that comes through the creation of sought-after services and desirable products that inspire and satisfy the needs of humanity, and in turn, encourage sustainable practices in lives, businesses, and the public.

You can see more about the team's design & how to go see it (June 1st-6th at White Provisions on Howell Mill) here: http://modern-atlanta.org/ma/10-up-challenge-1st-for-atlanta/

The GTCA had the pleasure of watching alum Charles Anderson erg himself to 3rd place this past month at the Atlanta Erg Sprints. But what we found more inspiring was his story of how he got there. Read below for the whole story written by Charles.

BEFORE	AFTER

How my weight loss journey brought me back to the erg.

In the fall of 2001 I rowed on the Men's Novice team and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Unfortunately time constraints meant I only rowed the single fall season.  While at Georgia Tech I would occasionally get on an erg to workout, but once I graduated I eventually left the erg behind.

Last summer I reached a new high that I never wanted to meet.  I was 250 pounds.  I was in the worst shape of my life, by far.  I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I was looking at pictures from my vacation to Las Vegas (see Before picture).  It was then that my wife and I decided we had to make a drastic change in our lives.

At the end of August our offices were both hosting "Biggest Loser" style contests and we each entered.  At the beginning I made a lot of diet changes and only added a little more physical activity, but by September, I wanted to do more.  We joined our local gym and I found my saving grace: a pair of Concept2 Model D ergs.  After getting on the erg and realizing how out of shape I still was, I decided to get a LogCard from Concept2 to track my progress and help me set and keep goals.  I also decided then that I was going to compete in the Atlanta Erg Sprints.

In the beginning I could only hold a miserable 2:10 split and only then for short distances.  But I kept working at it.  Along with continuing my diet changes, strength training twice a week with a personal trainer and some swimming and running mixed in, I kept rowing.  I started rowing more and the pounds kept coming off.  At 1000 calories per hour, it was hard to beat the cardio and caloric burn of the erg.  As of now I weigh under 190 pounds (see After picture) with only a few more pounds to go to be in the best shape of my life.

Since starting to record my workouts back in October, I have rowed a little over half a million meters.  The training also paid off with a 3rd place finish in the Men's Novice class at the 2010 Atlanta Erg Sprints rowing a personal best 6:49.8.  I am currently training to participate in the Concept2 Global Marathon Challenge in April, which has me rowing about 75km per week.

Congratulations on your achievements Charles. The GTCA is proud to be a part of your journey and we look forward to racing with you at this year's Pi Mile 5k on campus!

Congratulations to two Georgia Tech Crew Alumni: Josh Simmons ('01) and Erin Tucker Simmons ('02). They were married last weekend, September 12th, in Chico Hot Springs, Montana. We wish you much love in your journey together!

From left to right: Eddie Montalvo, Jeff Lukens, Debbie, Debbie McKenna Permenter, Jeff Kemp, Chris Perras.
(Photo courtesy of Shannon Lukens)

Check out this GT Crew Alumni as the FACE of the 2009 Evening MBA Program at Georgia Tech. Fran Ruskin (located at the bottom of the image below) was a coxswain for GT Crew's men and women from 2001 to 2005 as an INTA major. This image was taken from the PDF on the College of Management's website.

There are a few alumni in the Atlanta area that have put a team together for the Atlantic Station Komen Race for the Cure on May 9. They are Sara Willson-Thacker, Rhiannon Morgan and Kelley Williamson Conway.


The team name is the Ambiturners (somewhat obscure Zoolander reference) so if you or someone you know is interested in running this race and would like to be part of a team with a silly name, they are welcoming all comers. Registration is $25 ($20 of which is tax-deductible) until April 17, and after that I think it goes up to $30 until race day when it's $35. If you're interested, please contact Sara (who is also the Event Planner for the GTCA) and let her know!

And, while the Ambiturners would love to have more runners join the team, they would also welcome any donations on behalf of our team which you can find here.

Thanks for supporting your fellow alumni!

There were a bunch of GT Crew Alumni who ran the ING Half-Marathon this past Sunday, March 29th, 2009. Here's a view of some of them after the finish!
Left to right: Justin Brinkworth, Will Kimbrough, Sarah Kimbrough, Anne-Marie DeBacker, Jim Kowalski

Congratulations! Know any other alumni who ran the race? Let us know.

This Alumni Spotlight will be looking at a younger couple of GT Crew Alumni who met while on the team and have recently gotten married!

Sarah Paglioni Fankhauser (2007 Biology) and Sean Fankhauser (2005 Earth & Atmospheric Sciences)

Sarah and Sean met while rowing on the GT Crew Team around 2003-2004. We could go into the romantic story of their dating history but we've all seen it before as members of the GT Crew Team - so let's just skip to the grand finale! The couple recently got married on June 7, 2008 at St. Andrews Church (that's right, the church where the boathouse is - how's that for full circle)! Sarah is currently at Harvard Medical school working on her Ph.D. in bacterial pathogenesis and is in her 2nd year with about 3 more years to go. She loves living in the city and as we all know Boston is a wonderful place (especially for rowers).  Sean's been at the Weather Channel for 2.5 years now with his job title of "weather producer" which Sarah says "sounds really snazzy, if only he could produce beautiful weather all the time." Sean usually makes a lot of the graphics you see on air and recently had his on-air debut (videos are currently on our group page on Facebook).  For the future, Sean is looking to move up to Boston at the end of the summer to be with Sarah full time and will be looking for work in the weather/ environmental fields if anyone has any connections!

Here's a photo of Sarah at her wedding with fellow teammates from her time on the crew team.

The crew team has been producing extremely successful graduates to the world and beyond since we were established in 1986. But the alumni highlighted below are a group of alumni who have really gone above and beyond to help their friends, their families and millions of other people they will never meet. And they get together to do this each year because of the bond they shared while at Georgia Tech, one that would never have blossomed if it weren't for their shared time on the crew team. Rowing is a very difficult and demanding sport - both for your body and your time. The GTCA Affinity Group believes that the dedication to excellence, the passion for healthy bodies and the strength of a team are things that are instilled in every student that rows with Georgia Tech Crew. And it is something that stays with you, long after you graduate. The following group of alumni prove just that and have inspired us with their story - which is why we are choosing to share it with you.

Who are the alum?
In 2008, the participants were:
Bobby O’Keefe: INTA 2000
Jonathan Snow: ME 2000
Jeremy Mucha: EE 1999
Liz Hildick: IE 2000
David Jimenez: MGT 2002

In 2007, the group also included:
Mark Filer: 2000
Jacob Gelbaum: INTA 2002

Where are they now?
Bobby O’Keefe: US Air Force, C-130 Navigator, Abilene, Texas
Jonathan Snow: US Navy, Arms Trafficker, Arlington, Virginia
Jeremy Mucha: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, CA
Liz Hildick: Percentix, Inc., Senior Consultant, Denver, Colorado
David Jimenez: 9Star Research, Project Manager, Austin, Texas

This is their 2nd year of doing the LiveStrong Charity Ride in Austin, Texas. They were required to raise money individually and then ride 90 miles on their bikes.  Below you will find a few descriptions of the event from the participants.

Thoughts from Jeremy Mucha: The original plan was just to “get the band back together again.” We were out of Tech since 2000 or so, and needed an excuse to reunite. We are all ex-rowers from GT Crew and most of us had gotten in to riding or racing bicycles. So, the idea of all getting together for a fun reunion weekend focused around a charity bike ride sounded truly appointed. We ate *a ton* of BBQ. As time went on, though, we all started thinking more about the way that cancer affects all of us. My personal inspiration is David Reid, the father of one of my best friends from high school. He was a 2nd father to me and he was battling cancer since 2005. In 2007, he was really glad to hear that I was doing the LiveStrong ride. They had this great little editorial cartoon on their fridge of Lance winning his 7th tour and how it was a great achievement in sport, but an even greater inspiration to those battling cancer. Anyway, Mr. Reid passed away at the end of 2007. He fought so hard for years, but then was finally cut down at only 51 years old. That put the 2008 ride in a bit of a different light. I honestly just wanted to be a part of the “LiveStrong Army” and raise cancer awareness and funding. I hope we can do an even bigger and better job next year.

Thoughts from Bobby O’Keefe: Honestly, this ride started as an excuse for several GT Crew Alumni to get together after several years of being out of school and out of touch. I hadn't ridden a bike since jutting around campus to & from class until we decided to do the 2007 Austin Challenge. After raising the required amount & riding the 45-miler, I was hooked on biking. I also felt this was a worthy cause to fight a disease that affects most people, directly or indirectly, and that I have the means raise money & awareness with the backing of a name recognized worldwide in Lance Armstrong. Now I have my own bike, trained to get in riding shape for about 6 months, and just completed the 2008 90-miler. Between last year & this year, I've raised about $750 given by about 20 people in support or memory of 13 cancer survivors/victims. Personally, my grandpa died in 1991 from prostate cancer and a family friend, Connie Magwood, died a couple years back from breast cancer. I enjoy riding, I look forward to getting together with the fellas at least once a year, and feel we're doing something to benefit more than just ourselves. It doesn't hurt that there's plenty of Texas barbeque involved, either.

Thoughts from Liz Hildick: This is my second time doing the LiveStrong ride to benefit LAF. I'm doing the ride because I love to ride my bike, and because I want to do everything I can to stop the spread of cancer and the pain it inflicts on all the lives it contacts. I raised a little money last year for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and this year I raised more than that. My very good friend Kathy was diagnosed with lung cancer of the type Dana Reeves and many other non-smokers have died from. Well, Kathy (*one lung down*) has beaten the odds for 2 years now! Last year at her insistence, I joined the ride and ~ more importantly ~ the cause. I want to do everything I can to stop the disease, find ways of curing it, ways of lessening what people like Kathy have to go through when they have it. The Lance Armstrong Foundation unites people to fight cancer, believing that unity is strength, knowledge is power, and attitude is everything.

Thoughts from Jonathan Snow: I've had eight family members, friends, and/or co-workers to be diagnosed with cancer in the past 5 years. My original inspiration for the Austin ride was simply just to get together with the fellas for a phat ride and to eat mass quantities of BBQ; after pondering the fundraising requirements a bit, I decided that to do this in honor of my sister, a three-time cancer survivor and mother of two awesome daughters, and everything she's been through. I thought it a fitting tribute to her ordeals that I try to pump up the fundraising as much as possible. I thought of her a lot leading up to the trip and during the ride, both years, and am pleased to have raised a significant amount in honor of her. Moving forward and thinking beyond my personal connection to cancer, it's inspiring to be around the survivors and supporters who clearly don't ride much, but who decide to go hardcore for the 90-miler in memory/honor of loved ones or to put a black-eye on the memories of their own trials. That they are out there pumping it up, and that cancer survivors gain great benefit from Lance's foundation, makes me want to do this again in the future.