ClassNotes

Marcella Reynolds ’08 writes, "For the last year I have worked at Table Mountain Rancheria as the environmental administrative assistant. I have now been promoted to environmental specialist within the Government Affairs and Environmental Department."

Griselda Ramirez '08 was recently hired by The Salinas Californian newspaper to report on news and feature stories from Salinas school districts and Hartnell College, and will also report on districts in north county and south county and California State University, Monterey Bay.

Niamh (Doherty) Radhakrishnan J.D. '08 is now a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor, based in the Los Angeles office.

Stuart Poulter '08 and Kristina Chiapella '09 were married June 30, 2012 at David Walley's Hot Springs Resort in Genoa, Nev. Stuart and Kristina celebrated their wedding with fellow SCU alums Ashley Gardner '09, Katelyn (Schlereth) Wood '08, Michael Wood, Michelle Pesce '09, Chad Dupic '09, Elizabeth Storelli '09, Stephen Smoker '09, Bethany Elias Jenner '08, Catherine Waite '08, Elizabeth Czapla '08, Lindsay Mohundro '10, Samantha Go '08, Lauren Roon '08, Kaitlin Thompson '09, Adam Boriotti '08, Deborah Thurtle '08, Krystal Wu '09 and Sam Baker '08.

Viktor Petersson ’08 is co-founder and CEO of YippieMove, a product from startup WireLoad that makes the email migration process as easy as possible. He was recently featured in an article on Tech Crunch, where he notes that YippieMove was designed to address his own needs as an SCU graduate who needed to move his mail from his student account before everything was deleted. Users of YippieMove enter their account details, and YippeeMove, which supports more than 100 email providers, handles the rest of the process without software installation. 

Stephanie Marquez ’08 writes, "After working in the California Central Valley in the Alumni Relations Office at the University of California, Merced for over four years now where I manage the Student A, I recently accepted a new job opportunity in San Diego, CA. I am so thrilled to relocate and start working in the Alumni Relations Office as the Development and Alumni Relations Coordinator at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in January 2013. Following my experience working in higher education I realized that working with undergraduate students is my true passion and calling. I am in the process of applying to graduate school for next fall, now that my aspiration is to begin studying Higher Education Leadership at the University of San Diego."

Becky Ahrens '07 and Zack Mariscal '08 were married December 21, 2008. They have been happily married for over a year and a half and are looking forward to many more years to come.

Brittany Klein ’08 and Kiki Bosio ’09 are champions on the turf. They're teammates on the Orange County Waves Women's Soccer Team, which won the 2011 Women's Premier Soccer League National Championship on July 31 after defeating the Chicago Red Stars in a dramatic overtime finish. Bosio put the team ahead 1-0 just before halftime, and Klein assisted the game-winning goal 11 minutes into overtime. 

Lisa M. Kinslow ’08 is serving as business manager for TDC Medical, a Vention Medical Company, a product design and development house of implantable and disposable medical devices in Sunnyvale.

Samir Kaji MBA ’08 joined First Republic Bank in Menlo Park, Calif. Kaji, who has 13 years of banking experience, works with venture capital and private equity clients in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining First Republic, Kaji worked for Silicon Valley Bank.

Ashkon Jafari ’08 was recently invited to the White House to meet President Barack Obama and talk to White House officials about the critical issue of college completion and career readiness. “We are thrilled by our recent White House invitation! This step by the Obama Administration clearly reflects the urgency our country faces in improving college completion and making sure our workforce and economy stay competitive,” said Ashkon Jafari, co-founder and executive director of StudentMentor.org.

With nearly 50 percent of students not graduating from college, the national focus has moved from college access to college completion. This has been emphasized by the President over the course of several State of the Union addresses. The president underscored his pledge to make the United States the world leader in college attainment by 2020, promising to increase the percentage of people ages 25 to 34 that hold an associate’s degree or a bachelor degree from 40 percent to 60 percent. President Obama has even stated, “I want us to produce eight million more college graduates by 2020.”

StudentMentor.org seeks to achieve this goal by leveraging innovative technology at the core of its national mentoring program. Through this online platform, college students can conveniently search for, select and work with mentors to achieve their academic and career goals. StudentMentor.org’s mission is to increase college completion and enhance student career readiness thereby enabling a robust 21st century workforce and community.

Mentoring plays a huge role in reversing the trend of poor college completion rates, “According to a U.S. Department of Education study, students who met with advisors regularly during their freshmen year had 170% greater chance of completing their bachelor’s degree than those that did not.”

StudentMentor.org currently has over 2,000 mentors and provides its program to students from more than 600 universities nationwide. "We think this is just the beginning and can’t wait to scale our program to help tens of thousands of students every year complete college and prepare for the workforce,” said Stephanie Bravo, co-founder and president of StudentMentor.org.

About StudentMentor.org

StudentMentor.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase college completion and enhance student career readiness thereby enabling a robust 21st century workforce and community. StudentMentor.org seeks to achieve this goal by leveraging innovative technology at the core of its national mentoring program. Through this online platform, college students can conveniently find and work with mentors to achieve their academic and career goals.

Josh Higgins '08 is a police officer with the City of Santa Clara.

Moira Groh ’08 graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry in May with a Doctorate of Dental Surgery degree. She has accepted a dental residency position at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Steve Grey M.A. '08 is heading to Nairobi, Kenya as a Kiva Fellow to work with Small and Micro Enterprise Programme (SMEP). He spent 20 years as a Silicon Valley high tech before getting his master's in counseling psychology at Santa Clara, and then traveling and volunteering in 26 countries between July 2008 and August 2009. 

Keith Gillette LL.M. 08 is a partner with Archer Norris in Walnut Creek. His practice encompasses trial work in the areas of admiralty, intellectual property, and large-exposure tort litigation.

Christopher Foster '08 and Renee Lucas '08 were married on January 1, 2011 in the Gonzaga University Chapel in Spokane, Washington, by Father Steve Kieta, S.J. '90. Also in attendance were the best man Christoffer Lee '08, grooms man Omid Faghiri '08, Grace Nixon '09, Jessica Inwood '07, Steven Mielsch '08, Lindsey Dunn '09, Roey Rahmil '07 and Ashton Easterday '08. Christopher and Renee currently live in Berkeley, California.

Andrew Engel '08 writes: "After two incredible years in the Peace Corps in Tanzania (2008-2010) where I taught secondary level biology, I settled in Portland, Ore., and found a job as a pre-school teacher for a year. Though I loved the energy of that age, I have come back to secondary education, currently studying for an MA in Science Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University and will be teaching in a New York City public high school come September as a Peace Corps Fellow."

Freshman Dorm: Graham 200

Dean Paul Dominguez '08 was awarded an MA in Philosophy from San Jose State University in 2012. He currently works as a Real Estate Broker for Re/Max Active Realty in Fremont, selling residential and commercial real estate. He is also a volunteer coach for the Collegiate Ethics Bowl Team and a volunteer teacher for the Philosophy for Children Program, both affiliated with San Jose State University.

Dr. Sharvari Dixit M.A. ’08 has been appointed as the director of the Global Research of Indian Diaspora at San Jose State University. She is also a teaching faculty at SJSU.