Nicole Suydam ’95 was recently appointed as CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. Previously, Nicole was the vice president of development for Goodwill of Orange County. In 2011, Nicole was featured in OC METRO’s 40 Under 40 list of outstanding young professionals in Orange County. Sheri Treadwell ’95 received her PhD in Sport Pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado. She just finished her first year as assistant professor at The College of Brockport SUNY in western New York. Debora (King ’94) Wondercheck received a MS in Education and is currently executive director of the Arts & Learning Conservatory, music director of the Waldorf School of OC, and Orchestral conductor of Bellagio Strings of Dana Point. She also directs pit orchestras for plays and creates music programs in schools throughout OC and Riverside.
2000’s Melissa (Vasquez ’02) and Clement AuYeung ’06, MA ’08 live in Tustin. Clement has been an associate pastor at Safe Harbor Church in Irvine since 2009. He also just finished publishing a book about discipleship in 2001 called 30 Day Challenge: A Journey of Self-Discovery (thirtydayjourney.com). Melissa and Clement have a daughter named Katelyn, 1. Rachel Boldwyn ’01 recently moved with her children Greta, 5, and Oliver, 2, to Fresno where she is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Rhetoric at
Passion with a Purpose In 1999, Jeff Motske ’88 took
day. “Professor Shultz mentored me toward
the biggest leap of his life. While
a career in finance and money management,
his wife was pregnant with their
really pointing me in the right direction,”
first child, he left a comfortable
says Motske.
management role with a retirement
Professors Newton and Shultz instilled a belief in
firm to launch his own business. “I’m glad I did it,” says Motske, principal owner and CEO of Trilogy Financial Services, “but at the time it was a big challenge.” Motske arrived at Vanguard University in 1985 on a baseball scholarship. Majoring in business administration, Motske recalls college days being spent learning about finances and financial planning. “I caught Professor David Newton at lunch one day and wondered what he was reading. He was looking over
Fresno Pacific University.
portfolios. I remember him telling me that it was
Jennie Bryant ’04 officially launched her business Jennie of All Trades (jennieofalltrades. com), based in Coronado Island, San Diego. She continues to do strategic planning with churches, leads worship, and teaches dance workshops.
something I should look into because the mutual
Michelle (Lotzer ’09) and Jamey Cassell ’07 live in Long Beach. Jamey is an associate pastor for the Garden Church. He received an MA in theology from Fuller Seminary in 2010.
and analytics.”
fund world was growing,” says Motske. “In the mid-1980s, most Americans weren’t using mutual funds in the same way they are using them now. Newton told me that it was going to be a booming industry and he thought I’d be good at it because I had a good sense of math
Similarly, Professor Richard Shultz, who was head of the business department at that time, wrote Motske an important letter of
Motske that his talent for numbers and finances deserved attention. Trusting his mentors, Motske’s course had been altered. Hired on by a mutual fund company after graduation in 1988, within a few years he had moved his way up to a management role with Sun America. In 1999 he started Triology Financial Services. “I had this idea of essentially creating a company where financial planners, CPAs and estate planners all worked together for financial planning,” says Motske. “I started an office in Irvine with a minority partner. We quickly had a concept that we could leverage. We grew at a very rapid rate early on and we kept expanding.” Motske has a passion for learning and an equal passion for taking those lessons into the real world. “You have to have that ambition and that strong desire to really see something through. I look at what I do, and I know I’m helping my clients. You have to wake up every morning with passion, and you have to have purpose.”
recommendation that Motske still keeps to this
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