Liz Karr Pola '88 visits Crystal

Liz came to campus today for a visit and enjoyed lunch with Tom Woosnam, Kent Holubar, Deb Hunt, Wells Wadleigh, Bill Kwong and Tim Patterson. Liz and her family are back from some serious travel, and she has lots of great stories. I taught her Spanish back in the day, and she had reason to use it for real in Spain and South America. She, Mike and the three boys are all healthy and happy.

Rod Jacobsen "Jake" celebrates 60th birthday with friends

Jake is surrounded by friends and former colleagues at CSUS who gathered from far and near to celebrate his 60th birthday at Thacher School in Ojai, CA. From left to right: John Draper, Tom Robinson (English), Jake (English), Mike Petty (history) and Alison Anderson Draper (English). We taught together in the late 70's and have been the best of friends ever since.

Dick Loveland sure knew how to hire!!!

Makeda Murray '86 visits Peninsula Bridge students

Makeda with Ned Diamond, CSUS math and Bridge Site Coordinator

Makeda grew up in East Palo Alto, CA and attended CSUS for high school. She related to us how much she loved her Crystal experience and that the long train ride each school day did not bother her a bit. She told of the great importance that formal education meant to her family. Both her parents have college degrees and her grand father was the Mayor of EPA!

While in college at Pitzer, her academic passion was writing screen plays, and she thought her career was certainly to be a famous writer. She took some time away from writing and began teaching 4th grade. She found herself in a room full of wonderful, under-served children with almost suffocating needs; educational and emotional. To begin to satisfy those myriad needs, she founded An Open Door non-profit. http://anopendoor-la.org/home/about-us/ Her sole calling now is to continue working with those under-served youth through her non-profit and to "strenghten the family unit in hopes of improving our society."

She gave the students a handout called E. P. G. B.

Get an Education!

"Knowledge is the foundation that empowers me to make good choices and see positive results."

Live your Purpose.

"What is your passion? What is your dream? Strive to do that which you were born to do. Dream big and never give up."

Give Back

"Everyone can do something to help someone else in need."

Makeda's message and personal experience were inspirational for all of us. Keep up your good work my dear friend.

Gene Gurkoff '94, Tramatic Brain Injury Expert

Gene is currently a post doctoral researcher at UC Davis, and he took time to visit our Peninsula Bridge students this summer and talk to them about the ravages of brain injuries from accidents and sports. Here he is introduced to the students by Ned Diamond, CSUS math teacher and Bridge Site Director.

Gene became interested in the brain while at CSUS in Mr. Paterson's science class and has developed his passion for research, and especially teaching, over the past dozen years at Davis. He hopes to become a full professor and devote his career to teaching about TBI.

With a vivid powerpoint and video presentation, he made several important points that were especially important to his middle school audience. He encouraged the kids to always work hard and take full opportunity of opportunities like Peninsula Bridge. He made a strong pitch for them to go on to college and not to worry about the expense. Only 2 of his 11 current, very diverse doctoral students paid full tuition.

He moved on to some sobering head injury statistics. There are 1.7 million reported brain injuries a year and 50,000 of those patients die. He had some rather graphic pictures and video that caught the students attention, and he finished with, "Always wear your helmet."

Many thanks for Gene's presentation, and believe me, he is a great teacher.