APIA Alums Out In the World By Zoe Marquez ‘21 | APIA & Psychology Major
Marie Metzger ‘81, she/her About a month after graduation in 1981, I joined BASF Corporation, a German multinational chemical company and have been there for more than 39 years. More recently, this summer, I invited W&M Business Professor Dr. Inga Carboni to be a guest speaker at BASF’s Women in Business (employee resource group) program. In terms of my personal life, I am now a lola (grandmother in Tagalog), with 3 grandchildren, my newest grandchild being born in September 2020. I have recently started trying to learn new languages: I studied German and French in college and high school and just recently started learning Spanish. In my free time I like to practice Tai Chi. If I had any advice to share with the APIA community now, it would be this: Fresh out of college, you tend to join a company because it’s a job. But you tend to stay because it becomes a career; you start to feel at home. I have been working with the same company for more than 39 years and have loved every second of it.
Veronica Salcedo ‘02, she/her
Marie Metzger (she/her) as she continues her work with BASF Corporation. Veronica Salcedo (she/her), receiving an MA degree in Sociology in 2018 with her family.
After graduating in 2002, I started my high school teaching career at Bayside High School in VA Beach where I helped found the Filipino American Cultural Association, which later became the Asian American Association, and the Gay Straight Alliance. In 2004, I proposed to my wife and we crossed the Crim Dell Bridge together. We got married in 2008 during San Francisco Pride. My passion for Filipino American and LGBTQ+ histories motivated me to learn more and do research about the experiences of queer Filipina Americans. In 2015, I left for grad school in Atlanta and earned my MA in sociology at Georgia State University in 2018. Now, I’m currently building on my thesis findings for my dissertation, “Sexually Nonconforming Pinays Negotiate Relationships with Parents, Partners, and Community.
Arya Espahbodi ‘15, he/him Arya Espahbodi (he/ him) ready to teach at Bard High School Early College.
For the last 4 years, I have been a math teacher at Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) in Baltimore, Maryland. This high school is different from most where we allow students to take a two-year college study program after 9th and 10th grade. So, students here are able to graduate with 2 years of college, as if they went to community college. At BHSEC, I teach honors algebra 1, honors geometry, and I am a special educator for the math team. However, my long term goal is to open up my own school, so I have started applying for programs to receive my Doctorate for Education and superintendent certification. I am also in a mentoring program called Dorms and Dreams where we help high school seniors get college items like refrigerators and TVs for free. For less work related updates, I just got my second dog!
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