Alumni Association Councilors, 2002-03
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Recipients of 2002-03 awards from the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund are (bottom row, l-r) Aurotaranti Maiolini, Marylee Franks, Sandra Salcedo, Katrina Traylor, Jacqueline Vickers, Audra Walton; (top row, l-r) Clint Thorne, Julia Randall, Rebecca Hartman, and Sonia Villa. Not shown are Raziel Davison, Arwen Edsall, Quressa Robinson, Mark Sayre, and Shawna Tokars. Photo: UCSC Photo Services |
When Sandra Salcedo takes a seat in her 8 a.m. class, the slight, brown-eyed 22-year-old is ready for the lecture.
Latecomers straggle into class, regretting another late night hanging out with friends.
Salcedo doesn't straggle, and if she's tired, this senior sociology major has a different reason for it.
Her typical morning routine involves waking up before dawn; feeding and dressing her two-year-old daughter; dropping her at the babysitter's; commuting to UCSC from Watsonville; finding parking in a distant lot; and making it to class with time to spare.
And that's the least of her accomplishments.
Salcedo's attendance at UCSC defies expectations. Her parents immigrated from Mexico with dreams of a better future, but their lack of education and limited English kept them working in fields and canneries. Salcedo's childhood was marked by poverty. She married and became pregnant before she was 20.
But these factors, which might have held her back, have instead become motivations for success.
"My parents always encouraged education because they didn't want us kids to have the kind of life they were living. They'd come home aching from work and tell us, 'Study, so [later in life] you won't have to be so tired like we are.' I am determined to finish school to make my parents, husband, and daughter proud of me," Salcedo says. Her goal is to become a social worker and work with children who've experienced domestic abuse.
Salcedo's commitment to education was recognized this year when she was among 15 students to win a $2,500 Alumni Association Scholarship Fund (AASF) award. Thirteen additional undergraduates are receiving $1,500 this year while in their second or subsequent year as Alumni Association Scholars. Donations to the AASF are welcome. For more information, call Jennifer Wood, UCSC's director of development for the annual fund and colleges, toll free at (800) 933-SLUG.
Online Community reunites old friends
John Laird (Stevenson '72) won election to the California Assembly from the 27th District this past November. Laird will represent Santa Cruz, the coastal Monterey Peninsula, Big Sur, and Morgan Hill. Laird had served as mayor and city council member in the city of Santa Cruz and most recently was on the Board of Trustees of Cabrillo College. Photo: Bill Lovejoy |
The strangest thing is how our memories are so vivid of our days at UC, but when we consider getting in touch with old friends, we are afraid they won't remember us," writes Kristine Amodeo (Oakes '94).
We shouldn't worry.
Amodeo, owner of Sierra Art Studio near Sonora, California, knows from experience. She's one of countless alumni who have reconnected with old friends since the Alumni Association launched its Online Community. "It was a wonderful surprise getting her e-mail out of the blue," she says about hearing from a Family Student Housing pal. "Since then, we've been trading photos of our teenage boys. After eight years, they've all grown so tall!"
Chicago-based marketing and communications executive Rob Moore (Stevenson '70) had lost track of his old friend Buzz, who'd moved to Thailand in the mid-'80s. "He'd completely disappeared," Moore says.
After reading about the Online Community, Moore went to the site's alumni directory feature, "typed in his name, and bam! There he was, with an address in the San Francisco Bay Area. No e-mail, no phone, but I wrote to him immediately." Buzz quickly responded. Finding his old friend "was a pure emotional hit," he says.
Freelance illustrator Michael Wertz (Porter '90) used the Online Community and "found lots of current information and--lo and behold--e-mail addresses. I hooked up with Cheryl. We hadn't seen each other in about five or six years. She's linked with some of my fondest UCSC memories. We go-go danced on the huge tree stump in the Porter quad and made interesting 'food' concoctions out of the all-you-can-eat at Saga. It was great to see her again."
The Online Community offers password-protected contact information for 50,000 UCSC graduates, more than 5,500 of whom have directly personalized and updated their records. Grads can customize home, business, and/or e-mail contact information they'd like to share. They can even post a photo of themselves.
The multifaceted Online Community web site offers an alumni directory, resume posting and business-card exchanges, class notes, an Alumni Association events calendar, web pages for regional and affinity groups, mentorship opportunities, and much more--all free to UCSC alumni.
Log on to the Alumni Online Community (alumni.ucsc.edu) today and look for old friends. As Wertz puts it, "We're both a bit older now (obviously) and our hair is no longer dyed black, but the connection's still there."
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