Alumni Profiles
![Ben Binversie ’17 talking into the microphone](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20190111.podcast.124%20WEB_0.jpg?itok=BDHM5SoB)
Ben Binversie ’17 is the producer of the new All Things Grinnell podcast.
![Arrel Gray ’00 with son](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/IMG_3128%20WEB.jpg?itok=H-7kWNID)
To hear Arrel Gray ’00 talk about the need for identifying and supporting quality child care, it’s no wonder that his business has been so successful.
![Alumni award winners](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20190601.reunion.awards.050%20WEB.jpg?itok=XXfCxk7G)
The Grinnell College Alumni Council has selected 14 exceptional graduates to receive the 2019 Alumni Awards.
![ken Krimstein self portrait](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Krimstein%20WEB.jpg?itok=_RycsnR1)
![Two women sword fighting](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/25637181383_223d273bbd_z%20WEB.jpg?itok=HPZ93FtX)
Next time you’re challenged to a sword fight, call Ricki G. Ravitts ’70, a fight director who has taught stage actors around the world how to parry, thrust, and stab for almost 25 years.
![Brian Cavanagh-Strong selfie](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Brian%20Cavanagh-Strong%202%20WEB.jpg?itok=elP-xanD)
When Brian Cavanagh-Strong ’09 landed himself in the New York University Tisch School of the Arts graduate program for musical theatre writing, it was, he says, “like a dream.”
![Kaydi-Ann works with a colleague on the computer](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Kaydi-Ann3%20WEB.jpg?itok=OBGBYu2O)
“My whole life I said to myself, ‘I will not teach,’” says Kaydi-Ann Newsome ’14, an economics major from Jamaica. “I remember my chemistry teacher in year nine saying to me, ‘You know, one day you’re going to be a teacher.’ I was just like, ‘No, sir. It’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen.’”
![Anneke Walker Nagao ’87 selfie](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/P1000779%20WEB.jpg?itok=VXo1woHy)
“From the minute I was first introduced to Japanese in elementary school, my life changed,” says Anneke Walker Nagao ’87. “My whole life revolves around that moment.”
![Iowa landscape at CERA](https://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20160418.cera_.artclass213%20WEB.jpg?itok=4ol1lRFq)
If you drive to Grinnell on Interstate 80, you might be inclined to think Iowa’s economy is heavily agriculture-based. Your eyes might deceive you, says Jack Mutti, professor emeritus of economics.